72 hour ban using Tyrael - nothing else

[rowandensmith]

1)Were you using Honorbuddy, Gatherbuddy or both on the account? HB

2)If so, when was the last time?: 8/2/13

3)What profile were you using?: None

4)What combat class were you using? if None Just put Default then the Classname: Tuanha Paladin Special Edition

5)What plugins are you using?:

6)How many hours per day did you bot for?: 2-6 only using Tyrael

6.5)What honest percentage of time did you supervise your bot? 100%

7)How many auctions per day did you have?: Less than 20

8)Did you Use Any Other Bots, Hacks, or Mods? No

9)Was your account involved in gold selling? Never

10)EU or US realm? US

11)Is the banned account a Scroll of Resurrection or an actual paid account? Paid

I had two wow accounts, one was only a farming account the other was my main which I raided on. Despite the fact that my farming toon botted herbs 2-3 hours a day, every day, they left that one alone and banned my main account.

None of my toons on my main account did any other kind of botting other than Tyrael or LazyRaider. I don't even have farming professions on them.

How do I think they caught me? For the 2 nights previous to my ban I had been spamming old dungeons and instances to grind rep for different factions. In doing so, I became exalted with several different factions and got numerous achievements and 3 titles. I believe my spamming these old instances raised a red flag and Blizz then scanned to see if I was using a bot and found HB running Tyrael.

Something strange: I chatted with a GM on the Blizz website and he told me I had been banned for botting and for "power leveling." I asked him a couple of times what that meant, exactly, as I haven't leveled a toon in a couple of weeks. He said it's leveling a toon faster than is normal. This makes no sense because the toon I was leveling definitely didn't level fast. I had no heirlooms and I didn't play it that often. In fact, it's been sitting at the same level for almost 2 weeks because I got bored with leveling.

I have been botting for 2 years and this is my first ban/warning/anything. Until about a month ago, I was using Lazyraider and not Tyrael to run routines, most of the time healing using Tunaha's Paladin Special Edition in PVE. I never PVP. I don't do crazy, unrealistic interrupts as a healer. I don't out dps and piss off people so they report me. I don't do amazing HPS and even if I did, I've only been in my current guild a few weeks and no one has a reason to suspect me or a reason to hate me enough to report me.

In my opinion, I was banned because I was engaging in behavior that raised a red flag with Blizz and from there they checked and found the bot. I guess they found it hard to believe that someone would stay up until 3:00 a.m. farming BC instances to grind rep, but I was there the whole time. I used Tyrael b/c I'm a healer, not a dps, and I can't dps for shit.

 

[zonpan2lol]

Thats strange and scary at the same time. This makes it the 5th ban report about combat routines I think.

 

[Quadroon]

I dont know if they can see HB or not, I was banned after farming an area with a treasure potion (hand played not botted at all) then they banned me when I was in LFR and using the bot at that point. Maybe someone saw you constantly in the dungeons and thought you were botting em on a stolen account or something? Just doesn't seem like they'd get you for the bot itself and say you were leveling too fast. They probably did it cause of a player report then gave you the scare of powerlevel (that just sounds ridiculous). Personally? I'll not be farming anything where CRZ is prevalent anymore ... people are just report happy no matter what. Almost spiteful at this point.

I hope they dont detect and/or worry about Tyreal/CCs cause thats what I'm still using after waiting 5 days when I got my account back. And I dont do anything for too long ... hell I just go to hand play on certain things. I'd just suggest staying away from heavy instance farming or item farming :-\ Like everyone says if it was detected I think we'd know by now. What I've seen of the 72 hour bans with Tyreal, they were doing something prior like how you were instancing pretty hard, others were farming herbs for a few hours ... nothing that I saw so far is saying they caught them using something, but it was after grinding or farming. Its just my two cents of course I dont really know anything about it, just throwing my opinon after reading em all including mine lol

 

[Giwin]

"it's been sitting at the same level for almost 2 weeks"

That's interesting, mostly because it shows (if you're not lying) that they keep logs past 2 weeks, the 72h ban is mainly report but the power leveling was probably found after you appealed by the GM.

 

[tangledlight]

"Power-leveling"? Seriously?

Considering you can get to 90 in 2-3 days /played, less if you RAF or that exp-boosting potion... just, wow.

I received my 72-hour ban similarly, but I recently started grinding a lot of mounts. I got the TLPD, Mysterious Camel Figurine, and my Sky Shard mount all within a week of each other. The night I got my Sky Shards, I was leveling by hand (but with Lazyraider/Tuanha Hunter) with a Potion of Luck and I got EIGHT shards in four hours. EIGHT. I was suspended later that evening.

It's just so weird. The people getting targeted are all Lazyraider/Tyrael users who are usually grinding something by hand (supposedly).

 

[Quadroon]

"Power-leveling"? Seriously?

Considering you can get to 90 in 2-3 days /played, less if you RAF or that exp-boosting potion... just, wow.

I received my 72-hour ban similarly, but I recently started grinding a lot of mounts. I got the TLPD, Mysterious Camel Figurine, and my Sky Shard mount all within a week of each other. The night I got my Sky Shards, I was leveling by hand (but with Lazyraider/Tuanha Hunter) with a Potion of Luck and I got EIGHT shards in four hours. EIGHT. I was suspended later that evening.

It's just so weird. The people getting targeted are all Lazyraider/Tyrael users who are usually grinding something by hand (supposedly).

Well thats kinda what I meant, that those of us who have gotten the ban to 72 appeal or just 72 when using CCs only, seems like we have all been grinding something or farming for mounts/instances stuff of that sort. So maybe its not the bot but just too much of a good thing can be bad? I know I havent dont any gathering other than using my tillers stuff :-\

 

[rowandensmith]

No, I'm not lying.

I wasn't power leveling, that's kind of the whole point of why it's so weird. Unless maybe I don't understand what that term means? Does it include grinding instances for rep?

As for player report, I spent most of the time inside the instances (2 hours in Karazhan, for example - I wasn't moving the whole time, but talking in guild chat, watching something in another screen, etc.). I didn't notice anyone more than once and it was pretty empty where I was (BC zones, 3 a.m. EST).

"it's been sitting at the same level for almost 2 weeks"

That's interesting, mostly because it shows (if you're not lying) that they keep logs past 2 weeks, the 72h ban is mainly report but the power leveling was probably found after you appealed by the GM.

 

[tangledlight]

Still doesn't make a ton of sense. I'd have been doing the same thing, regardless of using a CC - does that mean I would have been suspended anyways? Or are they looking for a change in activity, then looking for the CC? I'm just trying to figure out what is setting them off.

Also, it seems like it's a lot of Tuanha's profiles are involved. I don't know if that's coincidental because they're popular, or if it's because they're popular that they're easy to detect.

 

[rowandensmith]

I agree that those of us using routines and nothing else have one thing in common: we were all farming something - shards, mounts, rep, whatever - and were subsequently banned. Either 1) Tyrael and Lazyraider are detectable or 2) they are on the look out for any kind of farming and are then scanning for a bot. I'm done botting, that's for damn sure. I have spent real money and a lot of time on my main account and it's not worth the risk. I thought I was safer than if I were using Gatherbuddy because I wasn't farming herbs or use grinding profiles; clearly, I was not. It still burns my ass that they banned my main which was relatively clean and left my botting farmer toon. Not that I'm asking for both to be banned, I'm just baffled as to their detection methods if they catch one but not the other.

 

[rowandensmith]

I read a post from someone on these forums (can't remember where, sorry). He claimed to not have yet purchased Honorbuddy but that he had been farming a lot and Blizz banned him for botting. He appealed and got his account reinstated and was told to not farm so much. I don't know how credible this story is, but if it's true, it says that Blizz is targeting people who farm or play a lot and going from there. I don't know what to think, I just want to know what the hell "power leveling" is according to Blizz since the only toon I've leveled in 3 months definitely wasn't power leveled.

Still doesn't make a ton of sense. I'd have been doing the same thing, regardless of using a CC - does that mean I would have been suspended anyways? Or are they looking for a change in activity, then looking for the CC? I'm just trying to figure out what is setting them off.

Also, it seems like it's a lot of Tuanha's profiles are involved. I don't know if that's coincidental because they're popular, or if it's because they're popular that they're easy to detect.

 

[Quadroon]

I read a post from someone on these forums (can't remember where, sorry). He claimed to not have yet purchased Honorbuddy but that he had been farming a lot and Blizz banned him for botting. He appealed and got his account reinstated and was told to not farm so much. I don't know how credible this story is, but if it's true, it says that Blizz is targeting people who farm or play a lot and going from there. I don't know what to think, I just want to know what the hell "power leveling" is according to Blizz since the only toon I've leveled in 3 months definitely wasn't power leveled.

Well I can believe that actually. My hubby and I were just moving toons from one guild to another and I think we bought a mount from a guild (for raiding since our guild doesnt) and maybe traded moola for pets ... something stupid that we always do cause we sit right next to eachother when we play. We both got 24 hour suspensions for gold selling or something to that effect. They wouldn't go any further and we were adamant all we did was buy mounts and trade money to eachother and they thought we were sharing accounts or something stupid. So I think yeah they are just looking for "odd" behaviors way more than they used to. So just stay away from popular grinding/farming spots I think that will help tremendously. And not grind rep too hard even in instances ... its sad that you can't even play long periods when you're not even botting and you get banned anyway.

 

[Scotty516]

My farm account got a ban a few weeks ago that got kicked down to a 72 hour ban, but what the GM told me was anyone who grinds rep of farms for more than a few hours without a significant break/afk sit there and do nothing period they're being told to watch as a bot. My account was unbanned because I pointed out that you could go back to vanilla on that account and see that farming would often be done in 8-10 hours bursts. His advice to me was to mix up what was being done more. Now I do like 2-3 hours of farming hearth do 1 or 2 lfrs repeat for 12-18 hours per day and I haven't heard anything since the initial ban a few weeks ago. That said I do use my own profiles that I remake every 3-5 days, and I randomize the hotspots. Also in one of my guilds there is a women on bed rest who farms 12-16 hours a day with nothing else being done other than chat. In the past 2 months she has been suspended 3 times and she has never botted, also she is very active in chat, which is why she has been able to get her suspensions lifted each time.

 

[diablofan]

but what the GM told me ....

cool story

 

[Stoyo]

They are not allowed to reveal anything relevant to what got you banned. If a GM told you such thing, either he is the biggest dumbass in the world, risking his work (which he is not), or he is fooling you around, or SS or it didn't happen...
Pressing Print Screen, a bit of name covering and uploading a SS does wonders.

 

[digitalgold]

They are not allowed to reveal anything...

Well you know how it is though man. The people that work there are likely just 20 somethings who do some gaming themselves. You find one who has had a bad day or maybe they are disgruntled or they just identify with you on some level and they step outside the boundaries for a moment... it'd be like a couple of weeks ago, the dude workin the window at McD's tossed me an apple pie because they liked my car (probably not a great metaphor but you see what im saying). The GM could just be a nice guy who wanted to help someone understand and didn't mind bending the rules. It's not like he would expect his conversation to end up on the buddyforums.