Action against Accounts

[arkanon]

We’ve recently become aware of a bug that could be exploited to allow instanced encounters to be completed repeatedly. We have developed a fix for the issue, and we are in the process of deploying it worldwide.

Realm restarts are scheduled for 3:00 a.m. PDT (6:00 a.m. EDT) in order to apply this fix.

As soon as possible, we will identify those who knowingly abused this bug in exploitative manner. We will then take appropriate punitive measures.

As a reminder, Blizzard’s End User License Agreement defines cheats as “methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard, influencing and/or facilitating the gameplay, including exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods.”

As always, thank you for your feedback on this matter.

Just interested in thoughts on this - Action being taken against accounts who "exploited" this "bug", however, to the best of my knowledge, no action was taken against the accounts that spammed 10man dungeons, despite blizzard using the exact same language (exploiting a bug).

Thoughts? What is the difference? Why take action in this scenario, but not the other? Could it have something to do with bassically every single "popular" streamer taking advantage of the 10man dungeon exploit?

[agentsi]

All of those folks should have those characters banned. Maybe not their account, but that toon for sure and any other toon they used to do said "bug".

[Poe]

I've had the layer exploit happen to my groups a few times by complete accident. I have no idea exactly how it was triggered but we killed a couple bosses multiple times because why not ? Figured it was a random bug that worked in our favor.

I hope they are able to tell who intentionally abused it from those who may have encountered it accidentally. Like if you killed the last boss in a dungeon 20 times within 5 minutes then obviously you are abusing it.

[Coldfire989]

They should all be perma banned if they used this. But of course the big streamers who used it will get a slap on the wrist of that.

[arkanon]

All of those folks should have those characters banned. Maybe not their account, but that toon for sure and any other toon they used to do said "bug".

I think action is generally taken against ACCOUNTS, but characters can certainly be rolled back. I just found it very strange when the panicked and made the changes to 10man dungeons, called it a bug, said people were exploiting the bug, but took no action against those accounts.

[Relapses]

To Blizzard, the raid experience bug was far less detrimental than literally exploiting instance IDs. We can have opinions about whether one was more or less detrimental than the other but ultimately Blizzard sets the rules in their own game and they get to choose how they handle individual situations.

As of yet, I haven't heard anything about high profile streamers being punished but the wording of that post seems to indicate some heads will roll.

[arkanon]

I've had the layer exploit happen to my groups a few times by complete accident. I have no idea exactly how it was triggered but we killed a couple bosses multiple times because why not ?

I hope they are able to tell who intentionally abused it from those who may have encountered it accidentally. Like if you killed the last boss in a dungeon 20 times within 5 minutes then obviously you are abusing it.

Thats what they would look for im sure - continued abuse over a period of time, rather than just a few incidents.

[Eapoe]

We’ve recently become aware of a bug that could be exploited to allow instanced encounters to be completed repeatedly. We have developed a fix for the issue, and we are in the process of deploying it worldwide.

Realm restarts are scheduled for 3:00 a.m. PDT (6:00 a.m. EDT) in order to apply this fix.

As soon as possible, we will identify those who knowingly abused this bug in exploitative manner. We will then take appropriate punitive measures.

As a reminder, Blizzard’s End User License Agreement defines cheats as “methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard, influencing and/or facilitating the gameplay, including exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods.”

As always, thank you for your feedback on this matter.

Just interested in thoughts on this - Action being taken against accounts who "exploited" this "bug", however, to the best of my knowledge, no action was taken against the accounts that spammed 10man dungeons, despite blizzard using the exact same language (exploiting a bug).

Thoughts? What is the difference? Why take action in this scenario, but not the other? Could it have something to do with bassically every single "popular" streamer taking advantage of the 10man dungeon exploit?

Possibly because the 10 man dungeon exploit didn’t give any kind of clear advantage. Maybe gear wise, but seeing as how the world first was a person who power leveled a Mage and only used layering for approx 2 levels, the dungeon for XP issue did not give anyone a clear advantage over those not using the bug. Gearing could be argued, but if they came out only slightly better than a person grinding mobs, then it again does not give a clear advantage.
In this new scenario, it is giving a huge advantage by 1) chance at a free mount over and over, (2) if the raid part is believed then it’s a huge advantage of epics and raid gear, and (3) many chances of dungeon blues and purples at max level (which is close but not the same as using the bug to power level only).

[Devilyaki]

Revert their exp that was gained.

[arkanon]

Possibly because the 10 man dungeon exploit didn’t give any kind of clear advantage. Maybe gear wise, but seeing as how the world first was a person who power leveled a Mage and only used layering for approx 2 levels, the dungeon for XP issue did not give anyone a clear advantage over those not using the bug.

This is just idiotic and absolutely false in every possible way. It gave a HUGE advantage to those exploiting the bug Vs those not exploiting it. The world first mage does not factor into this discussion at all, in any way. How do i know this to be true? Blizzard immediately hotfixed the bug out of the game to stop people exploiting it.

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Revert their exp that was gained.

I expect gear and gold would be the main concerns.

[Jehct]

So is the bug when groups do SM Cath farms? Like go outside the dungeon and reset the dungeon and do it like 8 times or? What is the bug exactly?

[Belloc]

This is just idiotic and absolutely false in every possible way. It gave a HUGE advantage to those exploiting the bug Vs those not exploiting it. The world first mage does not factor into this discussion at all, in any way. How do i know this to be true? Blizzard immediately hotfixed the bug out of the game to stop people exploiting it.

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I expect gear and gold would be the main concerns.

There's a large difference between someone saying, "oh, 10-man groups are good xp, let's do those!" and "We can farm this boss repeatedly without leaving the instance if we mess with layers."

One is power-leveling and not obviously exploiting. The other one is obviously exploiting.

[FelPlague]

So is the bug when groups do SM Cath farms? Like go outside the dungeon and reset the dungeon and do it like 8 times or? What is the bug exactly?

no, bassicly you would go to last boss, then everyone leaves group and joins another person groiup, which if they were on another layer, would hop you to their layer, which for some reason reset some dungeons.

meaning you could do the boss again, and aparently this could be repeated, allowing you to do the boss infinitly, but i doubt that, no evidance+ it doesent make sense why going back to your original layer would respawn the boss, or even how this would work as lyaers are not world.

[Jehct]

no, bassicly you would go to last boss, then everyone leaves group and joins another person groiup, which if they were on another layer, would hop you to their layer, which for some reason reset some dungeons.

meaning you could do the boss again, and aparently this could be repeated, allowing you to do the boss infinitly, but i doubt that, no evidance+ it doesent make sense why going back to your original layer would respawn the boss, or even how this would work as lyaers are not world.

ah ok cool. Thank you for explaining that to me lol. I was grinding out a bunch of levels last night doing Cath farms. Glad it follows the rules

[Alvito]

I think action is generally taken against ACCOUNTS, but characters can certainly be rolled back. I just found it very strange when the panicked and made the changes to 10man dungeons, called it a bug, said people were exploiting the bug, but took no action against those accounts.

They almost never roll back characters, they will locked accounts for 3 days to a few months. Look at the xp potion exploits in BfA the last spring. People were leveling from 110 to 120 in an hour doing that. It was clearly an exploit some were caught on streams advertising it as an exploit and all they did was lock accounts for a bit of time.

[bmjclark]

I spammed 10 man dungeons, had no idea it was a bug. A lot of people did the same. This was blatantly obvious that it was a bug.

[Eapoe]

This is just idiotic and absolutely false in every possible way. It gave a HUGE advantage to those exploiting the bug Vs those not exploiting it. The world first mage does not factor into this discussion at all, in any way. How do i know this to be true? Blizzard immediately hotfixed the bug out of the game to stop people exploiting it.

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I expect gear and gold would be the main concerns.

It absolutely is true, as the player leveling as a Mage did not use the dungeon exploit and grinded mobs. JokerD not only didn’t use the dungeon bug, but he in fact beat players using it to max level. Therefore, the dungeon but did not give them a clear advantage as any and all players could have leveled just as fast, if not faster, without it.
That stated, Blizzard probably felt that it wasn’t enough of an issue to punish players that used it.
As I stated, this new bug clearly has advantages over those not using it and, per the wording, will hopefully have some punishment for those using it.

[Sesshomaru]

@arkanon, edit out your blue text and copy/paste what is in the column down below. You'll get the Blizzard quote by doing so.

Spoiler: 

[blizzquote="Blizzard;https://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/1108314-fix-for-repeat-instance-bug-exploit/;https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/300823/1"]We’ve recently become aware of a bug that could be exploited to allow instanced encounters to be completed repeatedly. We have developed a fix for the issue, and we are in the process of deploying it worldwide.

Realm restarts are scheduled for 3:00 a.m. PDT (6:00 a.m. EDT) in order to apply this fix.

As soon as possible, we will identify those who knowingly abused this bug in exploitative manner. We will then take appropriate punitive measures.

As a reminder, [URL="https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/fba4d00f-c7e4-4883-b8b9-1b4500a402ea/blizzard-end-user-license-agreement"]Blizzard’s End User License Agreement[/URL] defines cheats as “methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard, influencing and/or facilitating the gameplay, including exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods.”

As always, thank you for your feedback on this matter.[/blizzquote]

[tmamass]

I've had the layer exploit happen to my groups a few times by complete accident.

no you didnt havd it happen by "accident"
enjoy your ban which will also ban your retail account. MUAHAHA

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They almost never roll back characters, they will locked accounts for 3 days to a few months. Look at the xp potion exploits in BfA the last spring. People were leveling from 110 to 120 in an hour doing that. It was clearly an exploit some were caught on streams advertising it as an exploit and all they did was lock accounts for a bit of time.

BUT the beauty this time will be it will lock you out of RETAIL AND CLASSIC

[Frolk]

Leveling up bit faster is not the same as getting more gold/gear/materials

Get of your high horse.