Is this really bannable??

[parry10359]

I figure why not track what commonalities people have (for the ones that provide info anyways) across various threads.

Multiple Accounts	Add-Ons	Macros	PUG	XP Debuff Dodge	Boosting	Instance Reset
✓	weakaura	X		✓	✓
✓	X		✓
✓		X
	X	X	X	X	✓
✓	X	X		X		✓
X		X	✓
X			✓
			X	X	✓
			✓	X	✓

Clearly not enough information to figure anything too meaningful, outside that macros in of themselves probably isn't a flag, and that there's not much evidence for add-ons being the cause either (and I doubt anyone is going to admit to using third party software).

Perhaps the most important piece of information that none of us have access to is how many times any given account has been reported or flagged for botting/hacking/cheating. While we know other people can report others, we don't know how Blizzard itself goes about flagging accounts for such behaviors. It's probably automated, so even if you don't interact with other people in the slightest you still might be accumulating dings on your account without your knowledge.

you should expand your criteria, you need two more columns that basically boil down to "acting like a bot in dungeons", maybe even 3 of them. One column for "Said helllo/exchanged pleasantries and speak in instance chat" one for "leave people behind while blazing through" dungeons, and maybe even "had obvious characters on follow for entire dungeon". The wordings I'm giving aren't real suggestions, but the reason why those things matter is that they are what primarily lead to reports. If you're missing them, then you might as well rule out reporting by other players as a factor.

 

[wackytabaccy]

Shoot I've had people straight up write "I'm leaving this toon here don't vote kick him", people weren't even trying to hide it in the least bit.

 

[flux1]

Glad to see the people who "obviously did something wrong" getting unbanned because it was yet another half-assed auto detection by blizzard doing it instead.

Best of luck to those still trying, hope your accounts get help also.

 

[Krater]

I should just chargeback my 12 month sub, I only got 2 months out of it, this situation is utterly ridiculous, they robbed me of my chars, they will not rob me of my money too.

Do they really not give a pro-rated refund when they ban you with so much time remaining? That's crazy, if they don't reverse your ban you should totally do a chargeback if your credit card company will let you.

 

[Rahn]

you should expand your criteria, you need two more columns that basically boil down to "acting like a bot in dungeons", maybe even 3 of them. One column for "Said helllo/exchanged pleasantries and speak in instance chat" one for "leave people behind while blazing through" dungeons, and maybe even "had obvious characters on follow for entire dungeon". The wordings I'm giving aren't real suggestions, but the reason why those things matter is that they are what primarily lead to reports. If you're missing them, then you might as well rule out reporting by other players as a factor.

I did rule out being reported by other players as a factor because there's no way for any one of us to know.

Besides that, who would admit to making other players in a run angry if they're trying to appeal a ban?

 

[Kekeke]

We can't know anything for sure, but it seems, people that did avoid the xp debuff and got caught while doing it, are getting confirmation of their bans. This is in line with what I heard a gm stated in an appeal reply regarding the reason being the xp debuff exploit and getting reported while doing it. Why hacking/cheating? Maybe it's simply the category the bans goes under because it's what they got reported for. I observed that other people that did legacy loot or 5 client solo dungeons are getting generally unbanned, but we still don't know if there are multiple ban reasons, and it's likely to be so. Another common thing, is that the majority of people that doesn't do public queues, seems to be untouched, most likely because they didn't get reported.

I still think a perma ban for this kind of exploit is a big punishment, and the whole communication regarding this issue, or rather the absence of communication, is pretty embarassing. My opinion on this, but it's pure speculation, is that they have absolutely no way of distinguishing a player that met a xp locked twink randomly, and queued with them again, from a player that obviously exploited the thing on purpose, so the ban net was pretty wide, and only now, after checking each situation, are they deciding the extend of the exploit and if the ban has to be confirmed or revoked. I don't know how much the behavior during these runs affects the result, I can imagine glory pulling, absolutely speeding the hell out of the dungeon, one button spamming or being rude towards others are not elements that help your case during review phase, but honestly that's fair, if you want to solo content, go solo it and leave randoms out of it. I'm sorry if you lost an old account doing this, maybe try to appeal again, or wait for official communication if we ever get some.

 

[cletus]

We can't know anything for sure, but it seems, people that did avoid the xp debuff and got caught while doing it, are getting confirmation of their bans. This is in line with what I heard a gm stated in an appeal reply regarding the reason being the xp debuff exploit and getting reported while doing it. Why hacking/cheating? Maybe it's simply the category the bans goes under because it's what they got reported for. I observed that other people that did legacy loot or 5 client solo dungeons are getting generally unbanned, but we still don't know if there are multiple ban reasons, and it's likely to be so. Another common thing, is that the majority of people that doesn't do public queues, seems to be untouched, most likely because they didn't get reported.

I still think a perma ban for this kind of exploit is a big punishment, and the whole communication regarding this issue, or rather the absence of communication, is pretty embarassing. My opinion on this, but it's pure speculation, is that they have absolutely no way of distinguishing a player that met a xp locked twink randomly, and queued with them again, from a player that obviously exploited the thing on purpose, so the ban net was pretty wide, and only now, after checking each situation, are they deciding the extend of the exploit and if the ban has to be confirmed or revoked. I don't know how much the behavior during these runs affects the result, I can imagine glory pulling, absolutely speeding the hell out of the dungeon, one button spamming or being rude towards others are not elements that help your case during review phase, but honestly that's fair, if you want to solo content, go solo it and leave randoms out of it. I'm sorry if you lost an old account doing this, maybe try to appeal again, or wait for official communication if we ever get some.

Summarizing some points from the Blizzard forums, this is how ludicrous the situation is:
- It's OK to queue and get grouped with a random twink and get no XP penalty
- It's NOT OK to coordinate queues or otherwise get into a group with a twink in a way to avoid the XP debuff
- It is OK if the twink is a level 20 on an F2P/Vet account or a level 70 on an account without TWW because there' s no debuff
- It is OK for a highly geared 80 to group wtih friends and clear TW dungeons fast

There's a thread on the Community Council forums that quoted a Reddit post and further examined the absurdity, namely that this only seems to apply if you're boosting your own toons. If you boost a friend's toons and they boost yours, you seem to be OK.

So Blizzrad have, with no communication, instituted a policy where you can't boost your own toons but people who sell boosts are compoletely fine and it's also fine if it's a level 20 or 70 with no XP lock. And for that you can get a permaban, even as the first action taken against your account.

This policy has the usual serf-brain simpleton bootlickers defending it on the forums.. For me, it's like giving a permaban to the people who escaped Pandaria during MoP Remix, something clearly known to be unintentional and requiring intentional and clever use of game mechanics to gain an advantage. Did people get permabans for that? Not AFAIK.

All of this to level slightly faster when TW isn't even the best way to level and when Blizzard (through the TWW prepatch event and MoP Remix) has made levelling absolutely trivial, like speed levelers got 10-70 in under 30 minutes in Remix and 4 hours of flying between objectives with no combat whatsoever (other than tagging the big boss) in the prepatch event would take you from 10-70.

Yes, the whole thing is absurd.

 

[Waiwhat]

i have at least 4 wow screens on at the same time on each monitor .. while watching movies, listening to music, or scrolling dating sites at the same time for the past 20 years .. nothing happens to me

Still no GF is what your saying ?

 

[bigpappa]

I'm just wondering how many tickets I can keep opening until they file a law suit on me for harassment

 

[Spazzrella]

So Blizzrad have, with no communication, instituted a policy where you can't boost your own toons but people who sell boosts are compoletely fine and it's also fine if it's a level 20 or 70 with no XP lock. And for that you can get a permaban, even as the first action taken against your account.

TBF, I was boosting my own toons (5 wow accounts under 1 bnet account) and I didn't get banned. 11 twink full screen on one monitor, other 4 on second monitor. I used WowOpenBox to place / control the windows. The toons on follow use a macro to follow me that I stick on a button bound to a mouse button, so I just hover over that window and click it. And I used the macro to get past the XP eliminated debuff. I also had an addon (not a weakaura) that would auto accept both the invite and the role check. But I clicked enter dungeon manually.

As for my twinks, they are semi BiS (I had the neck with 3 gems, I had the waist, shoulders, and chest with sockets/gems). I ran the two SL gems for speed and HP regen. I run at 149% (though since I took my toons with me (for loot reasons) and didn't leave them at the beginning, isn't gaining me a lot, I have to constantly stop for them to catch up).

I never did any of the other things you can do while farming gear on your twink to increase my drop rates or to reset the instance. I just ran in, killed, ran out, reset. I did this mostly while at work, so there were forced breaks already which worked out well, I never once hit the 10 per hour limit.

Also for clarity, my toons were on follow, and I made sure they didn't go AFK, and that they looted each boss (click on window, loot boss, click follow macro). I leveled 100+ toons from 70+ to 80 this way. The biggest pain was the amount of time it takes for a queue to pop when you queue with an XP off character.

For me, going forward I will be using a level 70 on another bnet account (I have multiple bnet accounts, all have same info (name, address, billing, etc.) for RAF reasons over the years), as even while I was safe in this pass, the risk isn't worth it anymore, and the level 70 I have is geared enough that the time per run is near the same (especially since I bring my toons with me and don't leave them at the entrance, it's not geared out for speed, it was just a toon that got KSM in DF S4 and has the leggo). And the best thing, the queues pop instantly with the 70 (as XP isn't off, the toon is max level). And my 70 toon also isn't a Demon hunter, and I won't be doing any of the fly through walls to last boss and kill it in 20 seconds like I have read in other threads is possible.

 

[cletus]

TBF, I was boosting my own toons (5 wow accounts under 1 bnet account) and I didn't get banned. 11 twink full screen on one monitor, other 4 on second monitor. I used WowOpenBox to place / control the windows. The toons on follow use a macro to follow me (/cleartarget, /target twink11, /follow) that I stick on a button bound to a mouse button, so I just hover over that window and click it. And I used the macro to get past the XP eliminated debuff. I also had an addon (not a weakaura) that would auto accept both the invite and the role check. But I clicked enter dungeon manually.

Side note: You can just type type /follow <charname>. There's no need for clearing and setting targets.

 

[bigpappa]

TBF, I was boosting my own toons (5 wow accounts under 1 bnet account) and I didn't get banned. 11 twink full screen on one monitor, other 4 on second monitor. I used WowOpenBox to place / control the windows. The toons on follow use a macro to follow me that I stick on a button bound to a mouse button, so I just hover over that window and click it. And I used the macro to get past the XP eliminated debuff. I also had an addon (not a weakaura) that would auto accept both the invite and the role check. But I clicked enter dungeon manually.

As for my twinks, they are semi BiS (I had the neck with 3 gems, I had the waist, shoulders, and chest with sockets/gems). I ran the two SL gems for speed and HP regen. I run at 149% (though since I took my toons with me (for loot reasons) and didn't leave them at the beginning, isn't gaining me a lot, I have to constantly stop for them to catch up).

I never did any of the other things you can do while farming gear on your twink to increase my drop rates or to reset the instance. I just ran in, killed, ran out, reset. I did this mostly while at work, so there were forced breaks already which worked out well, I never once hit the 10 per hour limit.

Also for clarity, my toons were on follow, and I made sure they didn't go AFK, and that they looted each boss (click on window, loot boss, click follow macro). I leveled 100+ toons from 70+ to 80 this way. The biggest pain was the amount of time it takes for a queue to pop when you queue with an XP off character.

For me, going forward I will be using a level 70 on another bnet account (I have multiple bnet accounts, all have same info (name, address, billing, etc.) for RAF reasons over the years), as even while I was safe in this pass, the risk isn't worth it anymore, and the level 70 I have is geared enough that the time per run is near the same (especially since I bring my toons with me and don't leave them at the entrance, it's not geared out for speed, it was just a toon that got KSM in DF S4 and has the leggo). And the best thing, the queues pop instantly with the 70 (as XP isn't off, the toon is max level). And my 70 toon also isn't a Demon hunter, and I won't be doing any of the fly through walls to last boss and kill it in 20 seconds like I have read in other threads is possible.

I think you may have just got lucky to avoid this wave, cuz you did a whole lot more things than I did lol

 

[setsunahq]

If you get banned just wear it as your badge of honor and leave, some of us are trying to get banned but don’t have the privilege

 

[bigpappa]

If you get banned just wear it as your badge of honor and leave, some of us are trying to get banned but don’t have the privilege

I can play your accounts for you if you wish, I'm sure it'll come

 

[Spazzrella]

Side note: You can just type type /follow <charname>. There's no need for clearing and setting targets.

I've had bad issues with that in the past, clearing the target, and then targeting separately ensures I get the right person.

 

[Spazzrella]

I think you may have just got lucky to avoid this wave, cuz you did a whole lot more things than I did lol

Short of the macro to bypass the experience eliminated debuff (which is silly in the first place, look at that list cletus posted), I did nothing that's even remotely a grey area imo, there's people who would say auto accepting an invite or auto accepting the role check is "automation." Either way, for now I've just moved forward with my level 70 and I removed the auto accept invite / role check addon. ZERO GREY AREAS, and I'm still pumping my toons to 80.

Personally, I think the one thing I did that made me safe, I NEVER QUEUED INTO A RANDOM, I only queued with myself. There was never a chance for a single report against me.

 

[cletus]

I've had bad issues with that in the past, clearing the target, and then targeting separately ensures I get the right person.

Not sure if you understand my point but you can just do:

/follow twink1​

instead of:

/target twink1​

/follow​

Or is there another reason why you want your twink targeted? Assisting? Healing?

 

[parry10359]

I did rule out being reported by other players as a factor because there's no way for any one of us to know.

Besides that, who would admit to making other players in a run angry if they're trying to appeal a ban?

Sorry I might have been able to state it better.

I agree that there was no way for any one of us to know report counts, I was more saying that since mass reporting is almost certainly a big part of what happened, then ruling it out basically makes the whole endeavor futile, I'd think. That being said I never turn down a good data table.

And I wasn't saying anyone would admit it to Blizzard as I agree that wouldn't help an appeal, but you never know they might admit it here or in a dm for the purposes of the data. It's no more or less reliable than any other information you would get, right?

Either way if people are getting unbanned I guess it's somewhat sorted out, though it gives even more credence to the idea that it was an organized reporting blast from disgruntled players.
The only other possibility that comes close to the hodgepodge data we have and the quick and numerous reversals, even accounting for like 50%+ e-fibbing, is that blizz did overtune some detection and it was triggering hacks for people with multiple windows that was like picking up a window or mouse scroll setting, but then a lot of people who weren't banned, like me, should have been, and importantly, it also should have hit more general wow users who multi-box but not with twinks. The venn diagram of multi-boxers and twinkers is not a perfect overlap, and I'm hearing nothing from non-twink multi-boxers about bans, unless I missed it. Everyone who was hit in the ban seemed to think it was because of their twink in the blizzard forumns. So I'd say the "new agressive detection theory" takes a plausible 2nd place and the "guild/community/discord pissed about twinks theory" takes 1st. It would probably take 50 people or less to throw out the kind of reporting in a day that would lead to the number of people posting their bans. This was not a huge number of people posting about bans.

 

[wackytabaccy]

Lot of people blitz them publicly and still are here **puts on tin foil hat** (intense murder mystery music) I wonder why, why I say, why?!

 

[bigpappa]

Sorry I might have been able to state it better.

I agree that there was no way for any one of us to know report counts, I was more saying that since mass reporting is almost certainly a big part of what happened, then ruling it out basically makes the whole endeavor futile, I'd think. That being said I never turn down a good data table.

And I wasn't saying anyone would admit it to Blizzard as I agree that wouldn't help an appeal, but you never know they might admit it here or in a dm for the purposes of the data. It's no more or less reliable than any other information you would get, right?

Either way if people are getting unbanned I guess it's somewhat sorted out, though it gives even more credence to the idea that it was an organized reporting blast from disgruntled players.
The only other possibility that comes close to the hodgepodge data we have and the quick and numerous reversals, even accounting for like 50%+ e-fibbing, is that blizz did overtune some detection and it was triggering hacks for people with multiple windows that was like picking up a window or mouse scroll setting, but then a lot of people who weren't banned, like me, should have been, and importantly, it also should have hit more general wow users who multi-box but not with twinks. The venn diagram of multi-boxers and twinkers is not a perfect overlap, and I'm hearing nothing from non-twink multi-boxers about bans, unless I missed it. Everyone who was hit in the ban seemed to think it was because of their twink in the blizzard forumns. So I'd say the "new agressive detection theory" takes a plausible 2nd place and the "guild/community/discord pissed about twinks theory" takes 1st. It would probably take 50 people or less to throw out the kind of reporting in a day that would lead to the number of people posting their bans. This was not a huge number of people posting about bans.

Not unbanned