The AP Exploit

[serenka]

So you don't think they should be banned and you think they should have the AP they gained removed. So no punishment at all. Your last statement now makes no sense.

the punishment would be having the AP removed. punishment isn't really the correct word but whatever.

[alucardtnuoc]

To anyone to abuse this for an extended amount of time, I would wipe all their weapon progress and remove all AP items in their bags/banks.

A simple 1 day ban makes people thing that it's a risk worth taking.

[Jewsco]

A few day vacation and have my weapon maxed out I wish I would of done/known about it. Why they left the AP is a joke.
What kinda punishment is that? Things like this really make me think blizz just doesn't get it.

[SoLoR1]

Ok AP exploiting is NOT the same damn thing as getting extra legendaries because Blizz messed up their code on bad luck prevention. The point is you KNEW what the fuck you were doing and you SHOULD be punished for it AND lose the AP. I don't care if you would earn it in 2-3 days, you didn't do it legit.

Actually extra legendarys are worse, since they more effect players power then farming half of trait of a weapon. I generally have VERY bad luck with RNG, i currently have 1 worst MM legendary (bracers) and sephuz's secret (that most of time dont use) in COUNTLESS mythic/mythic+ and all crap you can think off and RNG and bugs like legendary drop chance bug makes me more inclined to use bugs like this AP, because i see it as a "lucky break", something i actually have some control over. Need to compensate luck in legendary rng department with lvl35+ trait. If i would have at least 1 BIS legendary by now i wouldnt probably give a flying f about this bug, i would repeat quest 2-3 times noticed its buged and stop, however this way... i will take any opportunity i get.

[Kyanion]

Actually extra legendarys are worse, since they more effect players power then farming half of trait of a weapon. I generally have VERY bad luck with RNG, i currently have 1 worst MM legendary (bracers) and sephuz's secret (that most of time dont use) in COUNTLESS mythic/mythic+ and all crap you can think off and RNG and bugs like legendary drop chance bug makes me more inclined to use bugs like this AP, because i see it as a "lucky break", something i actually have some control over. Need to compensate luck in legendary rng department with lvl35+ trait. If i would have at least 1 BIS legendary by now i wouldnt probably give a flying f about this bug, i would repeat quest 2-3 times noticed its buged and stop, however this way... i will take any opportunity i get.

Your definition of 'worse' is not the same as mine. You decided to exploit and you knew what you were doing. They should have punished people that did it severely, letting people keep the AP is absolute crap. And yeah sorry, someone getting multiple Artifact weapon traits at once can be far more impactful than a random legendary.

[Jewsco]

Since lots of you advocate to remove AP gianed from this bug, while they are at it, they should also remove all extra legendarys that where gained from legendary bug, oh yeh dont forget falcosaurs quest line bug and felslate farm bug... this is just what comes to mind in last 2 months.

I got ~900k AP from this in about 2.5h and got 48h suspension, without it i would earn this AP in 2-3 days anyway however i would need to put in more "work". Also noone earned 6mil or any of that silly amount from it. For 6mil earned you would need to do about 1 quest / minute from 8am (when WQ resets) to ~17:30 when it was fixed, NON STOP, 1min includes loging off (20sec) and loading screen. At the end of the day what i actually lost was AP gained from 1 day of WQs and whatever number of mythic+ dungons i would do in this 48h so basickly blizzard saved me from "chores" for 2 days.... well actually 1 day, since once my account get unbaned today around 23, i "need" to do todays WQs.

With only 48 hour ban you didn't even miss out on any emissary quests. So even if we take you at your word and you only earned enough AP for 2 to 3 days and got suspended for 2 what punishment did you get? You kept the AP and earned enough to cover for your ban and didn't miss any emissary quests. So you are still ahead and got a few day vacation

[SoLoR1]

Your definition of 'worse' is not the same as mine. You decided to exploit and you knew what you were doing. They should have punished people that did it severely, letting people keep the AP is absolute crap. And yeah sorry, someone getting multiple Artifact weapon traits at once can be far more impactful than a random legendary.

i got a bit more then half of trait (~900k gained 1.65mil needed to lvl35)... stop thinking i scoped of artifact lvl20 or something. Chars with lvl20 weapon usually dont have artifact knowledge lvl15? and would also not earn as much of AP.

With only 48 hour ban you didn't even miss out on any emissary quests. So even if we take you at your word and you only earned enough AP for 2 to 3 days and got suspended for 2 what punishment did you get? You kept the AP and earned enough to cover for your ban and didn't miss any emissary quests. So you are still ahead and got a few day vacation

I do fully agree on this. I did took it as a payed vacation and at worst even with removal of AP i would at worst lose that ~2.5h i was farming this... also dont forget today is a day for a new artifact knowledge, so yeh it was totally worth it and even with a removal of AP i would feel neutral about it (you win some you lose some).

[Kyanion]

i got a bit more then half of trait (~900k gained 1.65mil needed to lvl35)... stop thinking i scoped of artifact lvl20 or something. Chars with lvl20 weapon usually dont have artifact knowledge lvl15? and would also not earn as much of AP.

First of all there are more people than just YOU that were doing this, some of them got MULTIPLE traits at once. Also alts can have pretty decent AK on their own at this point, don't forget the increase rate of getting AK ranks to let you get closer to your main. But whatever, justify it however you want. You think exploiting is okay and you got lucky to get away with it. Maybe next time they actually do something more severe and you can regret what you did. Doubt it, but there is always hope it happens.

[ShiyoKozuki]

As someone who sat through 250-300 +7-9 Maw and DHT runs to have my 35th trait in time for progress, it's pretty insulting that the cheaters didn't get the AP removed. They started logging in today and were sniggering at how they'd gotten away with it.

Blizzard is the worst company when it comes to punishing cheaters, so yeah this is expected.
Completely unprofessional dev team that needs to be replaced. Every single person.

[Raelbo]

Nope it certainly does.

No it doesn't. If you want to refute something, at least give a reason or source.

It shouldn't be up to me to go and find the source to prove my original assertion but here it is anyway

The history on the account does not decay as it were, but we do take into consideration how long it has been

Well would have been entirely worth it for me was incredibly convenient to get ap that way since you don't have to carry one shitter after another through the same instance and who gives a fuck about those three bosses especially when being not high enough ranked to presume to clear the instance within the first three days.

Sure, if you think of it as one isolated event on a record that otherwise will be completely clean. But that wasn't really my point. My point was that when you consider the broader context of the game, it's a pretty stupid thing to do because you have no idea if/when/how this will come back to haunt you in the future. And let's be honest, the sort of person whose values make him/her think this sort of thing is a good idea, is probably going to try similar things in the future, almost guaranteeing that you will move up the 'penalty volcano'

[Morgaith]

crime does pay off, gj blizzard...

this, i will make damn sure to exploit when possible in the future.

[Deleted]

Bit of a leap here mate rofl.

I agree AP should have been removed but who are you to dictate what punishment is fitting for exploiting a bug.

Because Blizzard clearly can't handle doing it? Overwatch, permanent bans.
People botting in WoW? Oh, take a 6 month ban for botting for over 3 years, seems reasonable. Breaking the economy? 24 hour ban. Ruining pvp battlegrounds for years? 7 day suspension.
It's fucking mindboggling how they can keep making retarded decisions in WoW when people cheat or exploit.

[Sorshen]

Since lots of you advocate to remove AP gianed from this bug, while they are at it, they should also remove all extra legendarys that where gained from legendary bug, oh yeh dont forget falcosaurs quest line bug and felslate farm bug... this is just what comes to mind in last 2 months.

Wow. I've yet to see a more are out of touch post in recent times.
Just... astounding.

[D3athsting]

just reset all artifact power and artifact knowledge and gtfo exploiters

[Deleted]

it's a joke.

they either ban them for a longer period of time or revert the AP they got. (they could probably check how many times they obtained the AP-Item on that day and figure out how many AP player X earned on a single day (and on what specc). WoWprogress can count how many AP a player has farmed so I guess shouldn't be that hard for blizzard)

[Dastreus]

What WAS the exploit anyway? I only heard of it the day it got fixed.

[SoLoR1]

Wow. I've yet to see a more are out of touch post in recent times.
Just... astounding.

Really? I was so pissed that after ~15+ days/played i had 0 legendarys to show while others had 2-3-4 because of a BUG (and even now at almost 30 days played i have 2 crappy ones) with playing much less. Maybe that was more unintentional but still, it was advantage gained because of a bug in the game and some got lucky x10.

Or farming fel slate to infinity, earning milions of gold while doing it, suspended at start but later lots of those suspensions where lifted and they keept gold/felslate gained this way.


I really dont know who is out of touch with reality, someone like me that understand rules and learn how to play around them or someone like you that clearly lives somewhere in clouds.

When i noticed this bug and told my brother and guildie about it, i also told them at worst if they (blizzard) will be bothered you will get couple of days suspension maybe AP removed, decide for your self if it worth the risk or not, both said its worth the risk.

I lough when i see some suggestions of punishment to reset AP to 0 and crap like that... do you understand that 3/4 of people would just quit the game if this would happen? And there where LOTS of people suspended because if it, while most of you might prefer that "cheaters" dont play this game blizzard is still a company and wants our money in long run and sooner as you accept that, better it will be for you.

Im clearly not out of touch, certain other people are.

[Jewsco]

i got a bit more then half of trait (~900k gained 1.65mil needed to lvl35)... stop thinking i scoped of artifact lvl20 or something. Chars with lvl20 weapon usually dont have artifact knowledge lvl15? and would also not earn as much of AP.




I do fully agree on this. I did took it as a payed vacation and at worst even with removal of AP i would at worst lose that ~2.5h i was farming this... also dont forget today is a day for a new artifact knowledge, so yeh it was totally worth it and even with a removal of AP i would feel neutral about it (you win some you lose some).

If it was enough for blizz to even send out a few day suspension( won't call 48 hours a ban) it clearly was an exploit. To be able to get enough AP for 2 to 3 days of heavy grinding(won't get that much easily in that time) is indeed an advantage. Who knows if someone has the time to grind that much for 2 to 3 days, can find groups to do so (as one needs to farm dungeons and usually mythic + to get that much), and finally the interest to grind that much for 2 to 3 days is at the end of the day a huge advantage. To keep the ill gotten AP and a 48 hour suspension is a joke. It is telling the rest of us to do it and to do it even more than you did to get an even bigger advantage and that is a bad sign to send out.

[SirCowdog]

Might I direct you a few posts up, where Raelbo posted a sketch of a "bann-volcano".
Yes, the 1st assumption might be that the punishment is not severe enough; but most of the time what is on the surface doesn't tell the whole story.

I would also prefer the extra-AP being taken away; but it would probably take resources they are better off using on other things.
And if you are able to think around the 1st corner (Which IMO anyone should be able to, if they want to be taken seriously), you will see how insignificant the advantage they gained by exploiting really is.

You're talking about potential violations that may or at not happen I'm the future, based on the assumption that Blizzard uses the "ban-volcano" with exacting precision.

I'm talking about immediate and tangible effects on the community, both as players get angry at not seeing exploiters being punished, and by promoting the attitude that will cause more players to turn to exploiting because of it.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Buhu casuals and plebs finally got a way to gain some extra AP, meanwhile streamers and top guilds have had a steady stream of keys to farm AP.

Like really? People mad about getting some extra AP? It is stupid that they did not remove AP from people that got banned. Thats not good for future bugs.