Hello, I’m Donkey I posted this over at the EU forums but just realised there’s a NA forum that seems to but abit more active so posting here aswell. This is my suggestion I think would help improve the way loot is bound to players in Diablo 4.

We all know that Diablo is a dark, Bloody, Hellish Place to play well my idea is based upon this concept, I present

Blood Oaths & Blood Bonding

So we found out they aim to have 3 types of item bindings in Diablo IV

Tradable (No limits) Trade limited (1 trade) Non-tradable

I hate the Term soulbound it’s annoying & too limiting, Blood Bonding, on the other hand, is a system that could change the way bound items work.

Blood Bonding binds…Yup, your blood to the item limiting the effects to you but this item is still tradable just the useful stuff ( affixes) won’t travel with it. Unless you decide to go through a quest/scenario depending & changing on the item to “Blood Transfuse” to the other player in a defense type objective where whilst one person is starting the ritual the other player must defend the weakened player while they are interacting with a alter, this would prove to the “gods” that the player defending is worthy to wield such a powerful item (preventing Boosting players by handing out powerful items). That challenge would depend on the level & rarity of this item (sort of how the new dungeon keys have said to work). After you have completed this ritual both players would receive a debuff for X amount of days/hours (this could depend on the power of the item). This process can only be done twice per item as after that the original blood becomes tainted. For the item to be given more “trade tokens” the original player who looted this item must be present in the ritual and would be an even more challenging task for the player wanting the item as they defend these two weakened players. Failing this process would result in the item randomly lowering one of the affixes buffs (100% damage boost becomes 75% etc…).

Blood Oaths are sort of the same but bind the group of players to one another causing a debuff upon the group giving you; increased damage taken, Damage sharing (not good, if your lucky the damage would share between the whole group but with the blood oath you might just give all the damage to your weakest player), along with other possible effects. Blood oaths would mean that instead of one player’s blood binding to the item they all are. this can be traded between party members more times than normal (2 being normal with doing the ritual)

But offering tradable loot within the party on the most powerful items you can get your hands on.

To start a blood oath the parties must go to the altar and bind blood ( like how the door worked in the cinematic “By Three They Come”).

so these become

Tradable (No limits) — No Change. Trade limited (1 trade) – Blood bound, you must complete a ritual to be able to trade this item however you have a chance to extend the number of trade chances (easier between friends) Non-tradable - Blood Bound, more of a challenge to complete the ritual only the strongest of players can complete.

I look forward to the feedback you think on my suggestion to help improve the limiting aspects of “soulbound” items and hopefully the devs reach this post

Edit:

I’d like to add to this abit more, having blood bound items could could add certain affixes from your class to items,

Example, Frost mage

frozen blood ~ works abit like a frozen shield but stacks with the amount items with that affix on. If its on a weapon it could freeze the blood of your enemies increasing chance to apply frost stacks on them.

Druid could have a affix so that you gain the ability to no fully transform so in werewolf form you can use or have a chance to trigger the bears slam,

Barbarian could gain affixes such as life on hit & faster rage generating or a chance for somthing like a passive like blood boil where you gain max rage for x amount of time.

I feel a system like this could be very customisable and add some depth to things like crafting adding a affix based around your play style by consuming blood bound items In the process. Mabye a item acquired whilst under the effects of a blood oath has a chance to share a affix party wide for a short amount of time