First off, let me say I really feel for you guys in EU/US facing the bannings that seem at an all time high.
I am an Ex-Pat living and playing/botting WoW in China on China servers. So we face a few differences than you do in EU/US. First, we pay for game time by the minute, not by a flat fee for the month. So in many ways, in China WoW, Bots are actually profitable to the game company who runs the Blizzard WoW here. Keep in mind, it is a different company who admins WoW in China, it is not Blizzard. While this does mean we can get away with running our bots and not face bans currently.
This does mean we can develop and write plugins, profiles etc and test the hell out of them in China without facing a risk to banning even testing. What it does not allow us to do is actually test new undetectable profiles or plugins etc to see if they would work in USA/EU.
I have been writing private profiles and selling them for a while to USA/EU customers but have stopped because it is obvious to me that no matter the fact that the private profile was created on China servers and is truly "private" to whoever I sell it to (meaning that when you get it, it has never even been run one time in EU/US, even while being created/tested), that these private GB2 profiles are getting nailed by Blizzard anyhow.
So I developed a new method that 100% beats the concept of LCP detection. Now the profiles I sell are custom made and expected that the end user uses the new app in order to keep the profile completely off the LCP radar (Takes 5 seconds to mash the profile through the app and have it revised and ready to be used fresh). But this is not my point. My main point I am writing about is HOW are they detecting you guys.
The theories so far:
1) "They can detect HonorBuddy running" - Well I do not buy this theory and most pros on these boards agree with me that Blizz is not detecting HB running. It is illegal from my understanding and would not be the route Blizz would take given that there are better and more permanent ways to catch botters now and in the future.
2) "NPH is too high, they catch us" - Well it could be that, but honestly we would simply react by running our bots differently and less efficiently than any normal player, despite lower NPH, we would not care as its better to have 70% efficiency and not get caught than the run super bots capable of 500+ NPH etc. - I do not believe this is how.
3) "They download public profiles and use those to catch people who do not bot smart!" - Nope, I do not buy this either. Too many of you are reporting getting nailed when running private profiles.
4) "Player reports!" - Ya, players reporting you would do it and certainly it accounts for some of the bannings. CRZ has put more people in the lesser used zones and this creates more opportunity for bots to get reported. But it should not cause such an increase in bannings and certainly not create the bannings where ppl ran in slow zones at odd hours for a few hours and got nailed.
5) "CTM (Click to Move)!" - Could be if they wanted. Afterall, no one CTMs while flying etc. But the workaround would be so easy and what about the low level players who cant even fly and are running Kicks questing profile running on the ground? Some players do use CTM when they first play the game especially if they have never played and flown a mount before. I doubt this would be the method they would use. I believe they would know that we would simply react and get rid of CTM anyhow.
6) "LCP detection" - I believe this is the situation. And not only individual LCP, but they have managed to chart it across players. It would need to be using data from players and mashing it up to catch Questing profiles etc, because no one player will run the same routes over and over while questing enough to really trigger it. Yet it gets caught. Reason why is simple, those questing bots are run using public profiles and therefore over time, those "known LCP paths" are learned by Blizzard's servers and anyone hitting a threshold of even 20+ LCP could easily get nailed even before they hit level 20. And for gathering it is worse. Run a public gathering profile? You are nailed. They already have the comparable LCP for your profile as soon as someone has run it a few times. Private profile or a custom script? Sure. It will be ok for a little bit, but think of it this way, Profile LCP is generated while being created if you fly the route using zaprecorder etc, then you run it once or twice...three times, four times...and within 2 hours of running it, you are now flagged as a bot because you just tripped up using your own private profile. Point is, a "set path" profile will trigger this detection no matter how private it is. LCP detection would account 100% for most of the bannings going on whether you use private or public profiles, it would catch you.
What it really means, is that botters, especially gather bots are going to need to actively use counter-measures to the concept of LCP. In fact, it requires testing on the EU/US servers to be sure that this is what is taking place, but I cannot really think of another method that would account for the bannings other than LCP. The system I developed and others have posted about, while it lowers efficiency, it completely beats any form of LCP detection since LCP relies on repeated strings of hotspots being hit in sequence, something that is impossible for a human to relicate repeatedly over time.
If your botting method does not actively beat LCP detection, I would honestly recommend to not Bot it. You will eventually get caught whether you run 2 hours or 12 hours.
And my recommendations for the devs:
1) Abandon CTM, it seems risky to me
2) Rewrite GB2 to either work "zones" at complete random and have profiles now set to just list blackspots. So a profile would be set to <Zone> and just have Blackspots.
-And/Or
3) Rewrite GB2 to have the option to run "random Hotspots", so it picks a hot spot from your list at random, then another at random and so on, thereby beating LCP as it never paths the same sequences.
A final question I have: Is there currently any way for GB2/HB to run profile one time only and once it has finished going to all the Hotspots in a profile...to stop completely???
Thanks and good luck to all you botters in EU/USA facing these problems.
Azile
I am an Ex-Pat living and playing/botting WoW in China on China servers. So we face a few differences than you do in EU/US. First, we pay for game time by the minute, not by a flat fee for the month. So in many ways, in China WoW, Bots are actually profitable to the game company who runs the Blizzard WoW here. Keep in mind, it is a different company who admins WoW in China, it is not Blizzard. While this does mean we can get away with running our bots and not face bans currently.
This does mean we can develop and write plugins, profiles etc and test the hell out of them in China without facing a risk to banning even testing. What it does not allow us to do is actually test new undetectable profiles or plugins etc to see if they would work in USA/EU.
I have been writing private profiles and selling them for a while to USA/EU customers but have stopped because it is obvious to me that no matter the fact that the private profile was created on China servers and is truly "private" to whoever I sell it to (meaning that when you get it, it has never even been run one time in EU/US, even while being created/tested), that these private GB2 profiles are getting nailed by Blizzard anyhow.
So I developed a new method that 100% beats the concept of LCP detection. Now the profiles I sell are custom made and expected that the end user uses the new app in order to keep the profile completely off the LCP radar (Takes 5 seconds to mash the profile through the app and have it revised and ready to be used fresh). But this is not my point. My main point I am writing about is HOW are they detecting you guys.
The theories so far:
1) "They can detect HonorBuddy running" - Well I do not buy this theory and most pros on these boards agree with me that Blizz is not detecting HB running. It is illegal from my understanding and would not be the route Blizz would take given that there are better and more permanent ways to catch botters now and in the future.
2) "NPH is too high, they catch us" - Well it could be that, but honestly we would simply react by running our bots differently and less efficiently than any normal player, despite lower NPH, we would not care as its better to have 70% efficiency and not get caught than the run super bots capable of 500+ NPH etc. - I do not believe this is how.
3) "They download public profiles and use those to catch people who do not bot smart!" - Nope, I do not buy this either. Too many of you are reporting getting nailed when running private profiles.
4) "Player reports!" - Ya, players reporting you would do it and certainly it accounts for some of the bannings. CRZ has put more people in the lesser used zones and this creates more opportunity for bots to get reported. But it should not cause such an increase in bannings and certainly not create the bannings where ppl ran in slow zones at odd hours for a few hours and got nailed.
5) "CTM (Click to Move)!" - Could be if they wanted. Afterall, no one CTMs while flying etc. But the workaround would be so easy and what about the low level players who cant even fly and are running Kicks questing profile running on the ground? Some players do use CTM when they first play the game especially if they have never played and flown a mount before. I doubt this would be the method they would use. I believe they would know that we would simply react and get rid of CTM anyhow.
6) "LCP detection" - I believe this is the situation. And not only individual LCP, but they have managed to chart it across players. It would need to be using data from players and mashing it up to catch Questing profiles etc, because no one player will run the same routes over and over while questing enough to really trigger it. Yet it gets caught. Reason why is simple, those questing bots are run using public profiles and therefore over time, those "known LCP paths" are learned by Blizzard's servers and anyone hitting a threshold of even 20+ LCP could easily get nailed even before they hit level 20. And for gathering it is worse. Run a public gathering profile? You are nailed. They already have the comparable LCP for your profile as soon as someone has run it a few times. Private profile or a custom script? Sure. It will be ok for a little bit, but think of it this way, Profile LCP is generated while being created if you fly the route using zaprecorder etc, then you run it once or twice...three times, four times...and within 2 hours of running it, you are now flagged as a bot because you just tripped up using your own private profile. Point is, a "set path" profile will trigger this detection no matter how private it is. LCP detection would account 100% for most of the bannings going on whether you use private or public profiles, it would catch you.
What it really means, is that botters, especially gather bots are going to need to actively use counter-measures to the concept of LCP. In fact, it requires testing on the EU/US servers to be sure that this is what is taking place, but I cannot really think of another method that would account for the bannings other than LCP. The system I developed and others have posted about, while it lowers efficiency, it completely beats any form of LCP detection since LCP relies on repeated strings of hotspots being hit in sequence, something that is impossible for a human to relicate repeatedly over time.
If your botting method does not actively beat LCP detection, I would honestly recommend to not Bot it. You will eventually get caught whether you run 2 hours or 12 hours.
And my recommendations for the devs:
1) Abandon CTM, it seems risky to me
2) Rewrite GB2 to either work "zones" at complete random and have profiles now set to just list blackspots. So a profile would be set to <Zone> and just have Blackspots.
-And/Or
3) Rewrite GB2 to have the option to run "random Hotspots", so it picks a hot spot from your list at random, then another at random and so on, thereby beating LCP as it never paths the same sequences.
A final question I have: Is there currently any way for GB2/HB to run profile one time only and once it has finished going to all the Hotspots in a profile...to stop completely???
Thanks and good luck to all you botters in EU/USA facing these problems.
Azile
