For Those Who Were Banned

For all those that were banned, here's some very important things you need to remember.

1. The very same thing happened to a lot of people (myself included) a few years back with PQR. I believe that was the largest banwave in WoW history, but I don't want to say it with 100% certainty. Just as well, many of us were hit during the May banwave, which was a fairly large event on its own. All things considered, this particular event looks large enough to light a fire beneath the typical PvE vs PvP argument again, so I'm waiting for the inevitable there. Remember to keep in mind that these events are always, always, always due to a healthy mix of both. Reports come in from all directions, even within your own raids or via the DPS logs you submit to brag.

2. These 6 and 18 month/permanent bans you received are likely to remain so, especially considering the nature of the bans in this instance. Of key note, they are entirely different than the average bans seen on these forums daily. They're tagged differently with much stricter (i.e. impossible) means of appeal, and the only ones able to repeal the decision are the very ones who hit the ban button. In short, it's hopeless, and you're better off focusing your attention on whatever other accounts/characters you still retain. That being said, I know how it feels to lose an account with specific characters that go way back, but remember your mounts, achievements, etc are tied to your BattleNet, NOT just the license. Yes you'll have to farm gear/transmogs/gold again, but like everyone else, even HB users, you still have your "stuff" in a sense.

3. Do not, under any circumstances, contact or be convinced to use one of the many "Unban Services" advertised on certain websites. They are completely and utterly roulette, with no verified guarantee of success, and are the equivalent of flushing $40-60 (or more) down the toilet. The temptation will be there, but do your research. They aren't worth the hassle, and that money is better spent on another account if you decide to come back.

4. No bot is 100% safe, as has been proven yet again here. If you do decide to return, remember that you should never, ever bot on an account you're afraid to lose. If you're bored with WoW rotations/leveling/garrisons/BGs/Ashran enough to bot them, remember that you can always have backup licenses ready with other toons if worse comes to worse, spreading out the time you use software on them accordingly.

5. Flagged accounts are NOT an instantaneous ban, and they never have been, You were absolutely flagged days if not weeks ago for this wave, which is the reason some of you are banned while others aren't. Yes, it's not fair. Yes, it sucks, but people play/bot at different times and sometimes you're botting at the wrong place, at the wrong time. It's never 100% certain how these things happen, and the coming days will bring lots and lots of speculation, accusations, and general idiocy from tinfoil enthusiasts.

6. You can usually (not always) avoid the most obvious blunders by turning off any and all Click To Move (flagged pathing), Chat Output (flagged/logged "Bot" talk), and LUA output (Single Target/AOE) notifications inside most bot software. I don't know how some of your CRs/botbases function in these regards, but those are the Holy Trinity of "NO!" when it comes to safe botting. The irony of the term "safe botting" is strong, but again, researching these things and seeing what developers and users have said about them over the years in regards to bans/detection will be valuable if and when some of you decide to return.

 

It's weird though. My wife resubscribed to WoW last week and only started using the TuanHa Paladin profile this weekend before she got served a 6-month ban today. Exclusively using the rotation+Enyo in Dungeons with no chat output.

 

More then likely being detected. There isn't any action to "Stay safe well botting"

 

Different CR developers use different code within their profiles, and many sometimes contain higher risk LUA output (think AOE/Single Target notifications on screen) that can and have been the cause of other detections (usually for other bots as well) in the past. Since you obviously can't load it up right now and look, see if you can locate any of those kinds of notifications in Tuanha's files, or ask him directly. Those might have been something that contributed to hers.

Just as well, I'd check to make sure she never, ever, not even once used any kind of chat output in any instance. Ask her to make sure she really thinks back on it, especially if she ever used the routine to level and might have adjusted settings along the way.

 

Exactly.

She logged on around 8 this morning to do dailies but logged after loading up HB because I needed help and she haven't got a chance to play since then. 10 hours later HB loaded the tripwire and a bit over 12 hours later she got her first ban notification per email. (6-month) Make of that what you will really.

I made sure to have her disable every single notification when she first set-up HP though last week. Both been using HB forever.

I find this all quite interesting. I tried telling her "shit happens" -- but don't feel like spending a cold night in the garage.

 

I guess I'm a bit confused on your timeline for her activity then, because this banwave (and maybe the tripwire event) seems to have happened around 3:30 PM Eastern today.

Are you two currently in the U.S.? Because 8 AM-3:30ish PM doesn't = 10 or 12 hours of her being logged into HB, let alone with the HB window being open but not attached.

 

We live in Europe. CEST (GMT+2) so that would be around 2-3am Eastern. But I think you misunderstood though, she attached HB to WoW successfully, but never started it as she needed to log.

 

That's what I figured. I'd take another look at Tuanha's CRs (I used them in the past myself, then migrated to the PvP centered ones once those became available) and see if there's anything you guys might have missed in regards to notifications or LUA it prints/sends out to the WoW client. Definitely ask Tuanha if he's made any recent changes to his CRs as well, as those can sometimes cause issues for strictly CR users. Soapbox had this exact issue in his software which attributed to his users getting hit as well, despite the extra attention from Blizzard.

 

Yeah, I know for sure that there were no output from the CR itself in chat. Looking at the change log from Tuanha, it only looks like bug and logic fixes and code improvements (for internal DR tracking and internal lag causing FPS drops)

Ah well, at least she got her statuette hah.

"Shit happens"

 

yes sir you're correct and they know it as well i got 18 months ban on my account and i used the bot for 10 mins and i was not even logged in for the trip wire event.

 

You weren't detected within 10 minutes. You were flagged for botting days if not weeks ago, and were caught along with the rest of those banned when someone hit the button today. You need to take another look at how these bans work, because from this post alone, it seems as if you believe that someone at Blizzard spotted you, flagged you, and banned you within a 10 minute time frame. That's not how these things happen in the slightest.

 

Indeed. They probably started flagging accounts earlier last week or last weekend at the earliest.

 

Yeah i don't really agree regarding methods of detection, There is detection 100% (the bot software itself, injection or scanning processes) they just collect all the account data that they flag and ban all at once after a period based off severity (especially after a nice profit of pre-ordered Legion). The 6month bans are just blizz's way of keeping subs because players with perma bans are the only ones that would request a Legion refund, that being said they could ban again after Legion launch and a lot have been banned that only use Singular with raidbot which is the most minimal form of botting there is.

 

lol no. If you have an 18th month ban you will miss half of Legion. Anyone who preordered it would request a refund.

 

We'll agree to disagree for now on a detection, as I attributed my own 6 month (back in May) to player reports given I had been doing a lot of 2s and RBGs on high profile classes (Locks, Rogues, etc.). I could be wrong, but I naturally assumed that I had plenty of reports against me from pissed off, legit players who guessed correctly that I had used CRs. Just as well, playing at the top of the RBG brackets, I naturally assumed some of the teams we defeated (while I was on my lock) guessed that I was scripting and reported me justifiably having no idea if I actually was.

There's just so many ways I could have gotten flagged that my first thought was to assume those as opposed to "detection," which naturally would have hit every single other botter. Hint, they weren't all as banned as I was.

 

no sir since i got unbanned its the first time i used the bot only for 10 mins no previous botting i wont waste time trying to prove to you hb isn't detected i know otherwise. They need to see where they went wrong i have invested alot of money in the profiles i have been botting for years so i know how the ban works this is totally different.

 

You do realize that HB questing (especially Kicks) is one of the easiest ways to get flagged for these, right? Supervision or not, player reports aren't always going to come in the form of whispers to you while you're supervising. Furthermore, if you loaded up any of your accounts with Click To Move and expected it not to accumulate enough reports to be on Blizzard's radar for something, anything like what happened today, you were incredibly naive. Multiple CRs (even the PvP ones) where you handle 100% of the movement are amazing for leveling and actually speed the process up despite the grind, so I'm surprised you took the much, much added risk of automating something so monitored.

And just to break it down for you in case you want to reply something like "Nope, detected," you had 10 full levels of CTM pathing logs for Blizzard to track. 10 full levels of the exact same pathing (coordinates) as every other banned HB botter who's ever used Kicks in the past and/or been banned for it. I just can't imagine why anyone would ever take that risk.

 

No the 5/13 was the largest in history. 100k accounts. Not sure oc even has that many members on their board lol.

 

It's easier than this. He was using the x86 client on an x64 machine. As extra certainty with ctm on

 

Yeah, I wasn't sure how big the wave was for PQR, but I do remember reports that a lot of those affected were raiders/friends who had no need for OC accounts because they'd been given the program by fellow raiders or PvP friends (Scripting was brand new to PvP then) and got hit alongside them. I mainly remember the articles written about it later and the speculation on the numbers.