Bind on Account Items guide

What are Bind on Account Items?
For those of you who don't know bind on account items have existed for awhile but they have been mainly from events and redemptions for attending things like Blizzcon.

In Wrath of the Lich King they took a new approach to bind on account (Heirloom) items. They created an array of weapons, shoulders, and trinkets that are bind on account. You've probably seen them before throughout the game, they work from level 1 to 80 and the stats adjust according to your character level.

The stats scale is based off what stats a blue (rare) item would have for that level. So if you are level 19 and you have a bind on account weapon you can expect it to be very similar to the best rare weapon that exists for a level 19.

It also has built in expansion scaling. Every expansion they have dramatically increased the stats of all items so that people were forced into buying the new expansion because gear in the old one would become basically worthless.

Here's an example. Some of the best 1H (one-handed) weapons in the game were around 50-60 DPS in the original World of Warcraft. Once the Burning Crusade was released, rare items in the expansion for the new level cap were as high as 71 DPS. Epics and PvP 1H weapons went as high as 100 and some DPS. Almost a double increase in DPS from the best 1H weapons in game from the original to the best 1H weapons in game to the expansion.

When you can replace your legendary and epic items from a previous expansion with greens in a new expansion, I'd say that's a bit overdoing it. But back to my point.

When you hit levels for the expansion you will notice a substantial increase in your items stats, especially weapons. The key levels are 58 and 68. At 58 your bind on account items will automatically scale to the Burning Crusade scaling and at 68 they will again scale to the Wrath of the Lich King scaling. Now let me explain a bit more about each of the items.

How Do I Get Bind on Account Items (Heirloom)?
Unfortunately, the only way to get a bind on account item is through a higher level character. They come from two different places, Lake Wintergrasp Vendors and Emblem of Heroism Vendors in Dalaran. They are purchased with Stone Keeper's Shards in Lake Wintergrasp and Emblems of Heroism in Dalaran.

Emblems of Heroism
Emblems of Heroism are a new currency that was added in Wrath of the Lich King. They are like the Badge of Justice from the Burning Crusade in the sense that you only get them off of bosses in heroics or 10 man raids in Wrath of the Lich King.

In order to obtain Emblems of Heroism you must be level 80 and be in a heroic instance group or be in a 10 man raid. There is a daily quest you can get these from too but they all go to a heroic dungeon and have you do an extra task of some sort in there, like kill a certain boss perhaps, but the daily is a good way to get extra Emblems.

Here is a list of approximately how many Emblems of Heroism the bind on account items cost.

• Any Shoulders - 40 Emblems of Heroism
• Any 1 Handed Melee Weapon - 40 Emblems of Heroism
• Ranged Weapon or 2 Handed Weapons - 65 Emblems of Heroism
• Any Trinket and the 1 Handed Caster Weapon - 50 Emblems of Heroism

Stone Keeper's Shards
Stone Keeper's Shards are easier to obtain but you will still need a higher level character (68+). It also takes a decent amount of Stone Keeper's Shards to buy items. These are used to buy the PvP stat (resilience) gear in Lake Wintergrasp. They can be obtained in a few different ways. In Lake Wintergrasp are PvP dailies that you can do and the reward will contain some of these (usually about 3 per quest).

The other way to get these is to do any Wrath of the Lich King 5 man instance when your faction controls Lake Wintergrasp. If you are Alliance on your server, then the Alliance must control Lake Wintergrasp in order for you to get the buff Essence of Wintergrasp.

When you have this buff, every boss in normal and heroic Wrath of the Lich King 5 man instances will drop Stone Keeper's Shards for you. You get about 4x as many per boss on Heroic Mode as Regular Mode but you can get them from both so you don't have to be level 80 to obtain these like the Emblems of Heroism.

Here is a list of approximately how many Stone Keeper's Shards the bind on account items cost.

Any Shoulders or 1 Handed Melee Weapon - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards
Any Ranged or 2 Handed Weapon - 325 Stone Keeper's Shards
1 Handed Caster Weapon or Trinket - 250 Stone Keeper's Shards

How Do I give My Bind on Account Items to Another Character?
Once you have your bind on account items they can be mailed to any character that is on the same account and realm as the character you purchased them with.

As of the writing of this guide bind on account items are not transferable to other servers, accounts, or factions. This means if you are Alliance on a server and you buy these with your higher level character, you can only send them to Alliance characters on that same account and server.

To get your bind on account items to another character, simply use the mailbox system in World of Warcraft. Open the Mailbox, send a new letter, put the name of the character on your account you wish to send it to, place the item in the item slot of that mail, and click send.

It will be instantly transferred to your other character on your same account, just log in to them and check their mail.

How to get the Bind on Account Items to Another Server (costs money)?
Currently Blizzard doesn't allow bind on account items to be transferred cross faction, cross server, and/or cross accounts but I can tell you how I've gotten around this before but please note you still will not be able to transfer cross faction.

What you do is purchase the bind on account item with your high level character, then you give the item to another character above level 10 on that account that you don't really care about. Once that character has received the item and it's in their inventory you can then transfer that character to any server / account that you want.

So use any character on your account above level 10 to transfer him to a different account, a different server, or different account and server. Once he is there, he will have taken any bind on account items with him. Then all you have to do is mail the bind on account items to the new character you were bringing them to.

Bind on Account Shoulders
The bind on account shoulders are the most popular and a must have for anyone that is still leveling or even for those who are twinking a lower level they can be quite good. At the very least they look pretty cool. All of the shoulders come with a 10% experience bonus which works for experience you get while killing mobs and for experience you get from quests. The 10% boost is nice to speed up leveling. There are PvP stat and PvE stat shoulders for every class and talent combination. The PvP stat shoulders come with resilience on them instead of another stat like critical strike rating for example, it varies by shoulders you choose.

Here are links to the different bind on account shoulders that you can get, take note of the source, it will say Wintergrasp or Dalaran in the table.

• Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle
• Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
• Exceptional Stormshroud Shoulders
• Lasting Feralheart Spaulders
• Preened Ironfeather Shoulders
• Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders
• Aged Pauldrons of The Five Thunders
• Champion Herod's Shoulder
• Mystical Pauldrons of Elements
• Prized Beastmaster's Mantle
• Polished Spaulders of Valor
• Pristine Lightforge Spaulders
• Strengthened Stockade Pauldrons

Bind on Account Weapons
The next most popular thing you will see is the bind on account weapons. These things are heavily desired because they scale as you level and since most classes do most of their damage based off of their weapon setup, this prevents players who are leveling from continuously upgrading their weapons. These things will work from level 1-80 and you won't have to change out your weapons at all.

• Charmed Ancient Bone Bow
• Balanced Heartseeker
• Sharpened Scarlet Kris
• Upgraded Dwarven Hand Cannon
• Devout Aurastone Hammer
• The Blessed Hammer of Grace
• Battleworn Thrash Blade
• Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge
• Dignified Headmaster's Charge
• Grand Staff of Jordan
• Bloodied Arcanite Reaper
• Reforged Truesilver Champion

Bind on Account Trinkets
This is one of the least common things you will see on players leveling because there are too many other important things to get if you are going to be leveling. I'm not saying you won't see this at all or these aren't good to have, quite the contrary. The PvE trinkets in this list are very very good for continual grinding because they restore health or mana per kill depending on which one you get.

The PvP trinkets you will see very commonly because they are loaded with resilience. You just won't see them out in the PvE field often.

• Discerning Eye of the Beast
• Swift Hand of Justice 1
• Inherited Insignia of the Alliance
• Inherited Insignia of the Horde

Conclusion
Bind on account items are very useful, I always use them for every character. I have a set of shoulders on all 4 of my accounts that I rotate between my characters. The weapons remove a lot of hassle and allow you to keep DPS'ing at full capacity while leveling which is a bonus.