The XP potion drama is a byproduct of Blizzard's inability to communicate properly

[WintersLegion]

Given that +300% experience potions used to exist, yes, a lot of people assumed this wasn't an exploit. For Blizzard to royally fuck up on something to this degree (weeks after 8.1 was released), and with players bombarding blizzard with tweets asking if it is an exploit or not, it's totally reasonable to assume they are stackable by intention.

I didn't use this as I didn't want to spend my tokens on them, but I would have if I felt otherwise. And I am extremely cautious to avoid things that might feel like an exploit. This is hardly the first time there has been a buff that is stackable; it's not unreasonable to think this would be the same in the least.

It's a royal fuck up on Blizzard's behalf, and I am amazed they had the gall to actually suspend players over it. This is Blizzard's fault, not the players, and this is rarely something I'll say in cases like these.

The problem with trying to say that it wasn't obviously an exploit is that you had to use them in a special way to get them to stack and that way was you have to put them into individual stacks in your bags otherwise the buff wouldn't stack. If the buff was supposed to stack than you just using it normally would cause the buff to stack.

[Tech614]

Except they haven't.

Except they have, and sorry you can't get out of our larceny charge by pointing to a completely unrelated case of assault.

[La]

I guess it's good if people's scummy behavior has a scapegoat like that.
Wow. I didn't realize if I unstack these potions into 1's and can clearly level so quickly was something I shouldn't do! It's Blizzard's fault I had to ask and be told the answer to my question I already knew on Twitter to justify what I was doing.

[Frolk]

You look at his work calendar? How do you know what he does? I'm not any fan of Lore but you're talking out of your hat here because I would warrant you haven't the faintest idea what his real responsibilities are or what his hour-to-hour workday looks like.

It took him 2 days to answer all the people tweeting him?
No, ur right, i dont know his day to day/hour to hour responsibilities, but i know its his job to communicate with the community as his title is "Community Manager"
Something they have said multiple times they WANT to improve, something we have yet to really see.

Im fairly sure it does not take much time/work to tweet out hours after they were told with an "Guys, there is an bug with exp pots can be stacked, this is not intended and will result in a ban if abused"

Or am i being unreasonable with my expectations with a multi billion dollar company?

[YoFro]

I guess it's good if people's scummy behavior has a scapegoat like that.
Wow. I didn't realize if I unstack these potions into 1's and can clearly level so quickly was something I shouldn't do! It's Blizzard's fault I had to ask and be told the answer to my question I already knew on Twitter to justify what I was doing.

What if it had meant to be stackable and was bugged to only work when the potions weren't stacked in your bag. The bug could have gone either way. I don't see why blizzard cares so much that people blazed through old unrewarding content that Ian even said in a recent Q&A was not fun or rewarding. To be honest if the payed level boost didn't exist I honestly doubt they would have suspended anyone's account.

[Xath]

Except they have, and sorry you can't get out of our larceny charge by pointing to a completely unrelated case of assault.

They literally haven't and I'm not banned because I'm not even subbed right now blizzard has been extremely inconsistent in what they enforce and what they don't.

[SinR]

that was legion if i remember right, if your talking about the "do world quest over and over and over to get infinite artifact power"

There was another one in BfA where you could do the WQs over and over for rep/AP/Gold/whatever that was quickly fixed AND bans/rollbacks happened.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

the item was bugged to have the oppsoite cooldown/duration
its a simple fix switching the two, compared to a bug, also we just had allied races and many other things release so they were abit distracted with other things. but they do not comment, and dont need to comment on literally every bug ever.

if they spoke about the exploit, if anything it would just get more people doing it, cause people knew what they were doing, more people just needed to know

Blizzard twitter is also not VERY active, it really isnt, also you seem to forget the fact that "hey this allows me to get 1000000% exp.. yeah this is totally intended!"

This isn't just "literally every bug ever" though. Blizzard has taken a stance in regards to how players level (albeit a weird one) and are quick to squish methods which have encouraged any kind of power leveling in the past and is a hot topic issue when brought up through discussion so I think it stands to reason that it's something they keep their eye on especially after they released the Zandalari. Doubly if they have internal metrics which are measured in order to process real time data.

There are those grey areas where "clever use of game mechanics" exist though which is likely why the Demon Hunter Freehold XP Bonanza is still alive and well since it's, well, using a clever use of several game mechanics but even these have been squished in the past too.

I also believe that had they spoke about the exploit and called it as such right from the start (where ever that may be) it would have set the tone in regards to the expectation much like any other warning without a divided opinion on the outcome. A grocery store manager shouldn't wait until half the customers slip to put down a wet floor sign then mop it up much like Blizzard shouldn't wait until the exploit spreads to big streaming channels and forums before they began issuing statements while banning accounts.

The last part is not lost on me either but the topic of this thread (from my understanding) is in regards to whether or not Blizzard dropped the ball on communication and whether or not this could have been far less significant had they intervened much sooner when all signs pointed to an obvious exploit from several different sources. If it legitimately took them two days to realize that this was a problem then I wouldn't even know what to say.

It simply got too far before they brought out Lucille. That's my boiled down, TL;DR on this whole issue.

Until the next one!

[Tumile]

Sorry, but I can't find common ground here. You're insinuating that people actually thought they could stack potions and get absurd bonus to XP, getting levels in mere minutes, and that this was normal and okay?

On that same note, I have a island to sell you in the pacific.

Seriously, no one thought it was right. Everyone was aware it was a bug, and would get fixed. THEREFORE, how about you just don't do it? Problem solved.

yeah what an outrageous idea, almost like IT DID HAPPEN AND WASNT AN EXPLOIT BEFORE? WHAAAAT??? oh yeah 300% RAF, 300% Pot 300% Pot 60% Heirloom stacking multiplicatively allowing u to level to 60 in 20 minutes.

Idd that people knew it was an exploit, but still not the main point of OP, reading comprehension please.

[Tech614]

blizzard has been extremely inconsistent

lol, no they haven't. They suspended people for the WQ rep glitch, they suspended people for the ivus glitch and this is just recent things. If you are doing something that is obviously broken chances are action will be taken against your account. This ain't rocket science.

[darklogrus]

lol, no they haven't. They suspended people for the WQ rep glitch, they suspended people for the ivus glitch and this is just recent things. If you are doing something that is obviously broken chances are action will be taken against your account. This ain't rocket science.

My buddy who tanked the AH with flasks from the Cauldron EXPLOIT begs to differ. He's on right now runnin keys...

[Coffeh]

Banning people for their mistake is ridiculous. Blizzard is to blame for this. Other companies accept responsibility and don't punish players for the devs' failings.

And no, I didn't exploit this bug. I don't even play the game.

[Tumile]

The bans could have been avoided if people weren't idiots.

It's so sad to see comments like this, cuz this comment shows that you are the idiot and dont understand the nature of exploits, do u also think the ppl having used the cauldron exploit are idiots? some ppl have made gold cap on that exploit, and no bans so far, there are hundreds of other exploits where the same has happened, and they have gotten a one week ban with no rollbacks or no ban at all. are they idiots? they're the ones with insane amounts of free shit, meanwhile ur casual normal raider ass is stuck with nothing calling the actually smart people idiots? you think you're better and smarter than the tons Method raiders who used the exploit, and not just Joshomegalulpriest? get over yourself u fucking no body.

[Sorrowseer]

They should just grow a pair and not punish exploits, people exploit to max level? So the fuck what, it just means more max level people doing max level content, derp.

[Azerate]

They should just grow a pair and not punish exploits, people exploit to max level? So the fuck what, it just means more max level people doing max level content, derp.

That's the opposite of growing balls.

Balls were shown. Bug abusers were banned. Ideally, the people who capped multiple characters with this method should have been perma banned but this wouldn't fly in this day and age, where people believe the game rules should be bent because they are paying.

[Tumile]

lol, no they haven't. They suspended people for the WQ rep glitch, they suspended people for the ivus glitch and this is just recent things. If you are doing something that is obviously broken chances are action will be taken against your account. This ain't rocket science.

Now, I'm By no means one of the big shots in any exploit community, i merely know of their existence and get linked some shit once in a blue moon, but ima list some shit for you, since u're obviously talking about something you have no knowledge about what so ever, but just imagine what some of the big bois could list you, cuz i know less than 1% of what they do.

Heirloom sword exploit in MoP - Infinite DPS, could crash everyone within 200 yards game and bring down the server, basically bladeflurry could procc the extra hit on the heirloom pvp one handed sword, creating infinite swings, personally one shot Shamans Heroic with the exploit for shits and giggles. literally had a 2 second kill timer. no bans
Xp rework in MoP - could summon lvl 1's to MoP and just kill mobs for them, we boosted 4 ppl at a time and got them from 1-90 in about 30-45 minutes. no bans.
Timeless isle XP exploit - No Bans
Timewalking dungeon Currency exploit - No bans
Timewalking Dungeon XP exploit - No Bans
Bugged Trinkets in PVP (too many to list) Cata, MoP, and even now in BFA - No Bans.
Disconnect macro glitch Wotlk (DK's) - No Bans
Insta kill by sending the player through the floor macro Wotlk (DK's) - No Bans
Duping exploit in Vanilla involving trading an item as u use a mailbox with a vendor within range - No bans.
Windwalker Earth wind and Fire Damage exploit increasing their dmg to 100% instead of 33% for the entire of BFA up untill last patch - No Bans
Rogue Exploit on Mythic jaina that was recently fixed, which made them take 0 Damage from the stacking debuffs for the entirety of Phase 3 - No Bans (even exorsus used it)
I could personally make the list a lot longer, but i think i got my point across at this point. just because u don't know any of the exploits cuz u are a random no body and no one wants to share them with you, does not mean they don't exist, and it doesn't mean that blizzard ban the people using them, they are inconsistent as all hell. and while i did not expect a ban from the xp pot exploit what so ever, u always run the risk whenever u use exploits, and ill take my ban a happy man, heres hoping they wont rollback my characters, but even if they do, i only missed out on doing a few hours of M+ key boosting, ill be unbanned before my mythic raid, i lost nothing of value. this is a major fuck up on blizzards behalf, they handled it poorly, left the exploit up for 3 days after it was posted on Public forums, and they are taking a huge monitary hit from all the bans, overall blizzard once again shows the world just how incompetent they have become. gg

[Holdodlig]

Just stop with the so called drama. Nobody destack their item before using them. Everybody know potions and flasks don't stack in WoW. It has been like this since Vanilla. People who used the exploit knew it was one. Hell, if you knew about this it was probably in the exploit subforum of a certain site, or on the forum where someone was reporting the bug.

And yeah, it was Blizzard's mistake to get this bug in the game. But it was the banned people's mistake to exploit it obviously.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Or you can stop being a fucking lyin retard and not exploit the game ?

Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I second this sentiment.

Stop trying to shift the blame and own up. Nobody seriously believed that stacking potions to such levels was intended. On a certain website (probably the ones that found it in the first place) there's literally post after post telling people to hurry up and use the exploit, even predicting that the punishment won't be bad enough to offset the upside of leveling so fast.

- - - Updated - - -

They should just grow a pair and not punish exploits, people exploit to max level? So the fuck what, it just means more max level people doing max level content, derp.

They showed balls by punishing cheaters.

Not showing balls would've been allowing cheaters to get away with it, in contrast to the rules of the game. I'd suggest you read them.

[Tumile]

That's the opposite of growing balls.

Balls were shown. Bug abusers were banned. Ideally, the people who capped multiple characters with this method should have been perma banned but this wouldn't fly in this day and age, where people believe the game rules should be bent because they are paying.

While i agree with you on the balls part, I sadly have neither the time, nor the crayons to explain why the second half was the dumbest thing i have read in a long time. May god have mercy on your sould, and may u have the best of luck in life from here on, cuz holy fuck you're gonna need it.

[Queen of Hamsters]

While i agree with you on the balls part, I sadly have neither the time, nor the crayons to explain why the second half was the dumbest thing i have read in a long time. May god have mercy on your sould, and may u have the best of luck in life from here on, cuz holy fuck you're gonna need it.

He's gonna need mercy and blessings because he's pro fair play?

I think you're a poster child for projection.

- - - Updated - - -

That's the opposite of growing balls.

Balls were shown. Bug abusers were banned. Ideally, the people who capped multiple characters with this method should have been perma banned but this wouldn't fly in this day and age, where people believe the game rules should be bent because they are paying.

Indeed.

THAT wouldn't be just showing balls, but also having the proverbial dick out and swinging, slapping the cheaters in their mugs.