Is it safe enough?

[Pongo]

Hey Guys,

first of all before people give me the standard answers that botting is never 100% safe let me say i do know that there is always a risk

I got hit by the banwave back in May and i heard that there was another one last month, after the banwave in May i didnt plan on coming back to WoW but alot of my friends and Guild mates been calling me lately on skype and on my phone that they want me to come back ( i was maintank in our Guild )

So my question now is simple, is the bot " safe enough " again or are there still issues with that tripwire thing that its not working properly?

 

[Job2k9]

You are concerned enough about your account to write a post looking for validation that it will be safe to bot, so for you it is not to safe to bot because you value your account.

 

[tomcruise]

botting is never safe, there is always a risk

 

[Abyssion]

Reading the different posts on the ban section I would never ever even attach the bot to your main account. Only on accounts that are gold farmers and your main account isn't connected to them in ANY way (not in the same guild for example).

 

[Tony]

botting is never safe, there is always a risk

this

 

[Abyssion]

botting is never safe, there is always a risk

There is a difference between being banned cuz of your botting behavior or being banned cuz of a bot.

 

[kamanori]

You are concerned enough about your account to write a post looking for validation that it will be safe to bot, so for you it is not to safe to bot because you value your account.

What kind of Fing logic is that? By your own logic, you are the type who buys a whole new batch of accounts the day after a banwave.. The fucking hell?

botting is never safe, there is always a risk

Its funny how there are always "those people" who dosent read the post before answering, or even gives an answer to the question...



But yes, it seems that it is back to normal. I for one got banned in the last banwave, and i have made a new account, botted 4 chars all the way from level 1 to level 100, dosent use the bot for anything else then leveling though. But like i said, so far 4 level 100 chars, so i'd say its pretty much back to normal ^^

Edit: also, the ban section also seems to be back to normal, that being an averige of 1-2 people writing every day that they have had X bots banned ^^

 

[Abyssion]

But yes, it seems that it is back to normal. I for one got banned in the last banwave, and i have made a new account, botted 4 chars all the way from level 1 to level 100, dosent use the bot for anything else then leveling though. But like i said, so far 4 level 100 chars, so i'd say its pretty much back to normal ^^

Edit: also, the ban section is also seems to be back to normal, that being an averige of 1-2 people writing every day that they have had X bots banned ^^

Still a waste of "time"/effort since you will be banned around May. Unless they are gold accounts ofc.

 

[kamanori]

Still a waste of "time"/effort since you will be banned around May. Unless they are gold accounts ofc.

lel, why? its a matter of how they are tracking the bots. A theory on the forum was that they were pinpointing the account a few weeks before the ban, and i for one havent seen any evidence of anything else, since some of my friends dident get banned, and they botted alot 6 weeks before the banwave.

Also, The Buddyteam said that it was an error on their part, something about they fucking up some coding or something along those lines.

 

[Abyssion]

lel, why? its a matter of how they are tracking the bots. A theory on the forum was that they were pinpointing the account a few weeks before the ban, and i for one havent seen any evidence of anything else, since some of my friends dident get banned, and they botted alot 6 weeks before the banwave.

Also, The Buddyteam said that it was an error on their part, something about they fucking up some coding or something along those lines.

There have been reports of people being banned in the last banwave while not using the bot for 2 months or more. The BuddyTeam did say there was an error but, honestly I believe there was an error however fixing it won't make the bot undetectable. Also people using ONLY cr's got banned. There will always be people surviving a banwave. Blizz won't ban 100% of the botters at once. They want you to think there is still hope of not getting banned, while in the end there is none. I predict there will be 2 banwaves every year and 95% (5% being extremely lucky) of users using HB will be in at least in 1 of those 2.

 

[kamanori]

There have been reports of people being banned in the last banwave while not using the bot for 2 months or more.

Just like you state below that there are always some people who are lucky, there are also always people who are extremly UNlucky.

The BuddyTeam did say there was an error but, honestly I believe there was an error however fixing it won't make the bot undetectable.

It wont be undetectable, and nobody have ever said that it will? The point of updates and such is to minimize the chance of getting banned, not eliminating the chance of being banned.

Also people using ONLY cr's got banned

Yes? Why wouldent they? when i go to battleground or arenas, i always get a little chuggle when i get dispelled the instant i start healing with specefik spells, or they use their trinket that exact moment i stun them with X secound stuns.

Not only that, Blizzard dosen't see each indicidual profile, but the overall program that is being used. (from what i have read)

Blizz won't ban 100% of the botters at once. They want you to think there is still hope of not getting banned, while in the end there is none.

Thats a dank theory, any proof that's their agenda, and not just the fact that they dont catch everyone?Do they have some kind of calculator at blizz-office that rolls some dice each day to decide who gets the banhammer today? Or do they just have some dude with a mental problem press a random button? Proof that your statement is legit, and not just a theory please. Edit: And why do they then ban on a daily basis? Some people would be more eager to bot if they knew that there was only a risk once or twich a year, rather then a daily risk, plus 2 massive risks a year...

I predict there will be 2 banwaves every year and 95% (5% being extremely lucky) of users using HB will be in at least in 1 of those 2.

Any proof of your prediction? Cause im pretty sure you could sell that proof to the buddyforum for an okay amount of money, if you have proof and not just being a theory based of the fact that there have been 2 banwaves, where one of them was the buddyforums own fault.

 

[Abyssion]

I don't have any proof whatsoever of what I said, just a gut feeling. I think the way they detect bots is either scanning all movement/use of abilities to patterns that are being repeated over and over, making it impossible for a human to do it. OR they know HB is injected into WoW and they can see that (I also remember a few reports saying they only attached it and never clicked start and got banned, IF those are true, then they wouldn't scan for patterns) . Then they make a list of all the botters and choose an X amount randomly to get banned. You don't convince me the bot is safe cuz in my opinion, in it's current state, it's not.

Not to bash on HB or their team, the bot is the best WoW bot on the market by a longshot and some community members really do a great job making profiles for everyone. I've made nearly 3k euros from my own profiles with the help of those community developers. However, despite how great is it, it is not safe (in my opinion, again no proof, just basing it on the events)

EDIT:
A safer bot would be something like Ultimate Fish Bot, but making dungeon profiles with that bot method is impossible (I think)

 

[ryftobuddy]

If you know that there's always a risk, and you don't want the default answers, then only you can decide if it's "safe enough".

My definition of "safe enough" and yours may be completely different.

 

[bilbeau]

I for one won't be botting for at least a year. I'm going to let all this play out and see where it leads. I love Honorbuddy and I love the community surrounding what has been one of the best bots I have ever used, but I have some concerns.

First massive wave HB team said "We have no idea how they got us."

Second massive wave they again say "We have no idea how they got us, but MAYBE it's because we 'broke' tripwire."

I don't mean to put down the HB team, as they have kept me happily AFKing the boring bits for a few years now, but I believe Blizz has them nailed down and can detect the bot easily at this point. Since the HB team has no idea (and likely never will) how Blizzard is detecting them, I think they "took the blame" so-to-speak and pointed the finger at tripwire, hoping that outing themselves as the problem and proposing a 'solution' would divert attention from the possibility that blizzard can detect HB. The goal being to plug the leak and keep the boat floating among the die-hard HB users as long as possible. If/When the third ban-wave hits, I think it should be pretty obvious to everyone that bossland no longer has a handle on things the way they used to, and I'll know for sure that HB is dead to me. I hope it doesn't come to that, but the reality is that it doesn't matter how talented the devs working HB are when they are going up against the gargantuan resources in Blizzard's stable. Blizzard tried to take the legal-way out of the mess, possibly to avoid having to punish their own user-base, but when that failed they had no option but to pull out their trump card, go after the users and kill Honorbuddy's reputation in hopes that people will stop purchasing from them.

Anyway, I have no facts to back any of this up and so I'm making no claims that this is indeed the case, just proposing my theory. As they say, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! I've already been fooled twice, there won't be a third time until I see some proof that the huge ban-waves have subsided. My personal advice would be to steer clear of using the bot on your main account, or sharing gold between botting/main accounts as there are some reports in the ban forums of accounts getting banned which never used HB but withdrew gold from a shared "bot" guildbank. If you are botting side-accounts to make money by selling gold, just be aware that your profitability will be affected by the cost of game licenses should there be another ban-wave.

 

[kamanori]

I don't have any proof whatsoever of what I said, just a gut feeling.

I assume by that you a refering to me, refering to you saying that you have a "prediction". I cant see why someone would make a "prediction" without having anything to base it on. - That might just be me i guess

I think the way they detect bots is either scanning all movement/use of abilities to patterns that are being repeated over and over, making it impossible for a human to do it. OR they know HB is injected into WoW and they can see that (I also remember a few reports saying they only attached it and never clicked start and got banned, IF those are true, then they wouldn't scan for patterns)

I personaly think its the last part that is the most likely, since the first part would be based on statistics, which would be waaaaay more difficult then just scanning each pc every now and then for a bot to be active. And those reports you are talking about may very well be true, but i have also read that those, or atleast some of them, also used the bot every now and then for stuff like cr. And even if that account he dident use HB on, just had it active was banned with actually using HB, he might have bottet on another account on the same pc, and we know from the ban reports that blizzard sometimes also ban accounts that have not been bottet on. So we cant really use that as an exampel, unless we know 100% that they dident do anything wrong.

Also, dont quote me on this, but i seem to remember that a mod at some point talked about 90% of all everyday bans was most likely because of players being reported.

You don't convince me the bot is safe cuz in my opinion, in it's current state, it's not.

You seem to be obsessed with the thought of a bot being 100% safe? And you cant say "because in my opinion", because it is a FACT that no bot is safe. like i already stated, HB, or any other bot for that matter, is, and never will be, 100% safe.

However, despite how great is it, it is not safe (in my opinion, again no proof, just basing it on the events)

M8, dude, seriously, the fact that people are getting banned in it self is proof that the bot is not ban-free XD

 

[kamanori]

If you know that there's always a risk, and you don't want the default answers, then only you can decide if it's "safe enough".

My definition of "safe enough" and yours may be completely different.

Very true, thats why some people (like me maybe) gave him an exampel, like i was in the banwave, i made a new account, and i have now bottet 4 chars from 1 all the way to 100.

With this exampel, he might be able to decide if its worth it, based on others experience.

 

[kamanori]

I for one won't be botting for at least a year. I'm going to let all this play out and see where it leads. I love Honorbuddy and I love the community surrounding what has been one of the best bots I have ever used, but I have some concerns.

First massive wave HB team said "We have no idea how they got us."

Second massive wave they again say "We have no idea how they got us, but MAYBE it's because we 'broke' tripwire."

I don't mean to put down the HB team, as they have kept me happily AFKing the boring bits for a few years now, but I believe Blizz has them nailed down and can detect the bot easily at this point. Since the HB team has no idea (and likely never will) how Blizzard is detecting them, I think they "took the blame" so-to-speak and pointed the finger at tripwire, hoping that outing themselves as the problem and proposing a 'solution' would divert attention from the possibility that blizzard can detect HB. The goal being to plug the leak and keep the boat floating among the die-hard HB users as long as possible. If/When the third ban-wave hits, I think it should be pretty obvious to everyone that bossland no longer has a handle on things the way they used to, and I'll know for sure that HB is dead to me. I hope it doesn't come to that, but the reality is that it doesn't matter how talented the devs working HB are when they are going up against the gargantuan resources in Blizzard's stable. Blizzard tried to take the legal-way out of the mess, possibly to avoid having to punish their own user-base, but when that failed they had no option but to pull out their trump card, go after the users and kill Honorbuddy's reputation in hopes that people will stop purchasing from them.

Anyway, I have no facts to back any of this up and so I'm making no claims that this is indeed the case, just proposing my theory. As they say, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! I've already been fooled twice, there won't be a third time until I see some proof that the huge ban-waves have subsided. My personal advice would be to steer clear of using the bot on your main account, or sharing gold between botting/main accounts as there are some reports in the ban forums of accounts getting banned which never used HB but withdrew gold from a shared "bot" guildbank. If you are botting side-accounts to make money by selling gold, just be aware that your profitability will be affected by the cost of game licenses should there be another ban-wave.

THANK YOU! Not only was this pretty enjoyable to read, but you also made it clear that you dont make any claims, nor have any proof, but that it is your theories and ideas!

But yeah, it is quite possible that the HB team took the blame, although i hope not, cause that would mean that blizzard i getting better and better at catching bots

 

[Frayman]

So strangely enough my story was that back in May when we first got hit, my usually very strong antivirus inadvertantly let a virus in, at least on my machine.

It played real havoc especially with the HB homepage and took quite a bit of fooling around to get rid of it..I definately thought that was fishy and wondered if we were intentially targeted (I know tinfoil hat stuff) so dont blast me for the silly comments but it crossed my mind.

I believe it was right after some court decision in HB's favor if my memory serves me?? (correct me if i'm wrong). But what it did do was hit many here at HB with the first big ban wave since I have been here and I dont think they truly know how we were detected. I firmly believe they still have our "number" and are happy enough to nail us every 6 months or so unless perhaps we are reported for doing obvious things. Forgive me dev's but I have a hard time swallowing the "oops we made a goof up" statement for the last ban wave, I dont buy it. But thats only my oppinion. I currently dont play but still enjoy checking back on the forums here and also at Blizz to see whats shaking from day to day.


Go easy on me guys ..I'm Canadian and I know how to cross check.

 

[bilbeau]

So strangely enough my story was that back in May when we first got hit, my usually very strong antivirus inadvertantly let a virus in, at least on my machine.

It played real havoc especially with the HB homepage and took quite a bit of fooling around to get rid of it..I definately thought that was fishy and wondered if we were intentially targeted (I know tinfoil hat stuff) so dont blast me for the silly comments but it crossed my mind.

I believe it was right after some court decision in HB's favor if my memory serves me?? (correct me if i'm wrong). But what it did do was hit many here at HB with the first big ban wave since I have been here and I dont think they truly know how we were detected. I firmly believe they still have our "number" and are happy enough to nail us every 6 months or so unless perhaps we are reported for doing obvious things. Forgive me dev's but I have a hard time swallowing the "oops we made a goof up" statement for the last ban wave, I dont buy it. But thats only my oppinion. I currently dont play but still enjoy checking back on the forums here and also at Blizz to see whats shaking from day to day.


Go easy on me guys ..I'm Canadian and I know how to cross check.

I don't think it had anything to do with some sort of virus. But aside from that, your thoughts are pretty much in line with my own. They know what they are looking for now and will continue to suspend HB users until they give up using it or the HB team finds the hole.

Speaking of tinfoil hats: I don't believe they are directly using the 32-bit and click-to-move usage AS their detection method, but I have to say it must provide them with a much smaller pool of users to probe through when it comes time to figure out who the botters are.

 

[chinajade]

First massive wave HB team said "We have no idea how they got us."

Second massive wave they again say "We have no idea how they got us, but MAYBE it's because we 'broke' tripwire."

Hi, all,

If you think about it for a minute...
You'll realize Bossland GmbH is never going to publically say what is or is not known about an adversary, or any details of a particular event. To do so gives unnecessary advantage to the adversary. On the other side of the adversarial coin, for similar reasons Bliz never publically states how they detect bots. This is why both sides provide 'non informative' statements when pressed by their respective Communities.

Also, Bossland GmbH refuses to give its Community a false sense of security that botting is a 'no risk' activity.


Although many will probably consider the article 'generic', this article contains observations most don't think about:

BosslandGmbH:HelpDesk:Is Botting Safe?​

Botting is and has always been an activity with risk. Up until 2015, the effectiveness of Tripwire made users forget about the risk involved. Tripwire has legitimately saved user accounts on a number of occasions.

Each Community member needs to determine where his risk tolerance lies. Our words are chosen such you can make this assessment without being colored by a false sense of security.

cheers,
chinajade