Fpsware's Grinding vs Questing Experiment - The result.

A little over a week ago I was having a conversation with a couple of people on the forum and about the benefits of HB Questing vs HB Grinding. How, in my opinion, questing was safer and would result in less bans. After a long debate I decided to put my accounts where my mouth was and have an experiment.

I purchased 2 new vanilla accounts (different information for each) - you don't really think I'm going to risk my main accounts do you? At home I have 2 internet connections with 2 different ISPs and I have multiple dedicated botting computers.



Account 1 - Grinding ONLY

• Hunter
• Used on botting computer #1
• Used with ISP #1
• CCs by me
• Profiles by me
• 8-10 hours per day

Account 2 - Questing ONLY

• Hunter
• Used on botting computer #2
• Used with ISP #2
• CCs by me
• Profiles by me
• 8-10 hours per day

Both accounts were started and stopped at exactly the same time each day/night. The entire time these accounts were running I was sitting at my desk supervising them, with the exception of coffee, toilet breaks etc, but you get the idea. Each account recieved only minor interaction with other players and I was there to respond / reply each and every time. This was a 100% supervised experiment.

Both accounts have been running for 4 days now. Approximately 15 minutes ago I got this on Account 1:

View attachment 7610

Account 2 (the questing account) is still running - touch wood.

Before you go making assumptions let me answer with this - no, that is incorrect you are wrong!

Both computers have previously been used for botting and legitimate play. Both ISPs have had IP addresses changed (damn ISPs made me jump through hoops). No, the computers / IPs were not flagged. No it was not player reports, well, extremely unlikely as I said, I was watching and interacting 100% of the time.

I will be undertaking the same experiment next week, new accounts, new profiles etc. But I will be using NEW computers and again, different IPs from my ISP.

 

Interesting

 

Hmmm i bot 24/7 (leveling) and i've not been banned yet. maybe im just lucky, or the fact I dont care. I couldn't imagine getting anywhere - with 10 hours a day only. I play about 7000 minutes (according to blizz's parental control playtime report) every week. Inhuman, prolly, do I think they care, nope.

 

What was the level difference when the grinding account got banned? Also did you have to intervene manually in the questing account (stuck in questgiver and other mixups) or were your profiles running flawlessly?

 

Which one was levelling the fastest?

 

The questing account (Account 2) had minor hickups along the way, the profile is still a work in process and I had to interact a few times. Its currently level 41, the grinding account (Account 1) was level 33. I also had to assist the grinding account from time-to-time.

Questing is by far the fastest means of leveling. That is without a doubt.

 

I dont care what people say, but I think account "age" has a lot to do with it if not EVERYTHING to do with it. I've been grinding bots for the last few months on old accounts (3 years old) and I've been stuck in places, not responded to people, and run for days/nights on end. I have not heard a PEEP from anyone or a GM so far.

I think something is in place to track new accounts that get abused (grinding/gathering)... but its just pure speculation.

 

I have recently lost MANY accounts that were 2-3 years old.

 

Do you use an authenticator on those accounts?

 

Yes on some, no on others. But this thread is not a discussion about banning due to account age. This is about a grinding vs questing ban.

 

How come you never talk to me anymore?

 

You never reply to me in MSN. I poke you all the time. Don't you love me anymore, what about our children? Who will look after the dog?

 

yeah but I'm curious on whether authenticator matters on questing/grinding. Was there an authenticator used on both accounts?

 

its pretty obvious the what the outcome of this project would have been. the bad thing is they where both supervised. For me questing fucks up 80% of the time. Grinding doesnt, but it stands out to a GM that looks at your guy and hes just killing thousands of mobs for just xp.

 

No, an authenticator was not used on any of these accounts. But I have had accounts banned that were using authenticators.

 

I agree with Adamrl. Also, there is no set rule that says, "You must do X amount of quests" or "You must kill X amount of creatures". If you want to level by grinding, how can they legitimately BAN your account for it if you are not bothering people?

I've used the default grind (alliance and horde) as Bossland said to do and I've yet to have any issues while grinding. Also, I'm not going to do a questing bot when it stops working constantly. Also, you are more likely to be around more people who are also questing and will want to talk/invite/group/whisper/ginvite (you name it).

The further away from people and grinding seems to be working for me.

 

however I use a lot of "human like" add-ons to help me with the human interaction. Right now im trying to use questing on 2 of my character. I have Jumpy, Callerse, and Chatlog. Even though Callerse doesn't make sense a lot of the time a lot of players just figure i "don't speak English well" and shrug it off. its way better than not answering at all.

 

player report imo, just because someone didnt speak to you doesnt mean they werent watching from afar. a bot is very obvious if u watch long enough. were they on the same realm, botting side by side until the level gap took over?What was the population of the server you were testing on? to many variables not enough info.

 

Not enough sample data ;o, but interesting thoughts.

 

And that is why I'm running the same experiment next week.

Then why is Account 2 not banned, they were both around the same area, they were both using the same CC, they look exactly the same. The same people would have reported both characters.

I never ceases to amuse me when the first word out of someones mouth is "player report". It is highly doubtful it is the result of player reports.