I recently was leveling a priest and mage by running two clients. No third party software. I’ve leveled a couple times questing and I wanted to try aoe grinding.
Priest heals mage does giant pulls. Lots of guides out there on places with fast respawns.
The account with my mage on it was kicked mid BFD and banned. I realize a mage AOE grinding for like 16 hours out of 24 hours with a priest on auto follow probably looks pretty bad and I probably shouldve realized people might of been reporting me. I did swap gold around on low level characters a bunch for spells and greens etc so that may have been a factor. It’s just all very frustrating.
I’ve had this account for near 20 years and have only ever really played classic. I don’t believe I’ve ever been banned or suspended before that I can honestly recall.
I guess there aren’t GMs anymore? Any help would be much appreciated. I submitted an appeal ticket on the advice of some guild mates but they said everything is automated now?
I just don’t get how I’d receive a justified permanent ban on such an old account.
We see this a lot, and it’s rather confusing to me. If Blizzard thinks an account is botting, then they are held to the same rules as everyone else. Do you really want Blizzard to say “Well, we see they are botting, but their account was created in 2005, so we’ll let them continue?”
Anyway, onto the main point:
Third party software is not the only reason this could happen. It’s also how you are interacting with each client. If there is ANY outside help to facilitate between the two windows, it’s not allowed. Even native Windows commands where moving your mouse to the other window activates it are not allowed.
That’s not to say your ban is warranted. Perhaps you’re doing things correctly, and an appeal will overturn it. You should always wait on your appeal to see what they say.
This is irrelevant. A million players and their mothers can report you, but if Blizzard sees you are doing nothing wrong, you will never know.
Of course there are GM’s. In fact, a GM reviewed a report made, and took action based on their logs in this very situation. A different GM will review your appeal and come to a second conclusion.
Yes, that seems to be the prevailing opinion. It’s 100% wrong, but you know how rumors spread like wildfire. Frustrating for sure, but nothing we can do about it except give you the correct information.
One thing I want to mention, is ANY software that automates game play outside of the standard UI can cause Warden to pick up an account as botting. This can include macros created by your Keyboard or Mouse software even though they’re standard and come with the hardware. If you use it to create macros or an easy way to switch between clients, it’s a no no.
Also, if you have any software on your computer that can facilitate multiboxing, like ISBoxer, Autohotkey, etc., even if it isn’t being used, it has been reported that it can be picked up by Warden.
I don’t have anything running. I do know of auto hotkey and at one point I used it for maybe a flask macro in POE I think but that years ago and I stopped using it when GGG said it was against TOS.
I just alt tab between the two clients and click on healbot. It’s pretty easy to do. Just auto follow and shield and penance to reduce downtime and increase safety.
I did this very often in 2019 for classic. A healer following another character for support and an additional profession.
Eh, that’s an oversimplification. We have reporting processes in place that collect data and can deal with some things (i.e. such as squelching a gold spammer, etc…), and “automated” troubleshooting is primarily just the first response you receive when you put in a ticket that has a few recommendations.
Yes. Our staff usually uses a template in those appeal replies though, which can sometimes feel automated. Those templates are mostly to maintain consistency.
There are a few things where talking to a GM may be available. It mostly has to do with account recovery or billing issues and some complex technical issues. It is not available for appeals.
Again, that is a bit of an oversimplification. Spam reports generally function by volume, the more folks that report the faster the account may be penalized for spam advertisement which is usually a squelch. Repeat squelches may escalate, but they tend to be conditional.
Someone receiving multiple reports for cheating, exploitation, botting, etc… does not result in an automated anything.
Greyshirtt, the others are correct, there is little that we can do through the forums. You have an appeal in, and that will be reviewed as soon as it can be. Good luck to you.