AV: What to do when getting spammed afk?

[Xyl41]

I'm not overly geared (8k hp, 640 spell damage) and still doing AV for gear. I've ran into a few games where a group of people will just spam report me afk on all 5 toons. This causes an automatic 30 minute match due to me having to turtle defense to get rid of the debuff. This has happened in a few games so far, but I"m unsure what to do. How do you all deal with this? What do you do in the event this happens?

[Naysayer]

Why do you have to turtle defense to remove the buff?

[KSboxers]

i would guess because attacking removes afk debuff.

[Naysayer]

i would guess because attacking removes afk debuff.So you have to go on turtle defense to be able to attack? wtf?

[Xyl41]

Yes, I have to do defense to attack something. The only thing I can remove the debuff with is Drek or a player after a few minutes into the match. Drek means my shamans die and get ported back to DB, where I have to defend to keep the debuff off.

[Naysayer]

Um, wtf is wrong with your AV's? There are enemies almost always at the regular nodes. It's actually really hard to go through a full countdown to become inactive if you're just playing normally. Go cap a flag... No flags to cap for some odd reason, open your map and look for a contested node that needs defending.

[zanthor]

Um, wtf is wrong with your AV's? There are enemies almost always at the regular nodes. It's actually really hard to go through a full countdown to become inactive if you're just playing normally. Go cap a flag... No flags to cap for some odd reason, open your map and look for a contested node that needs defending.I may be grossly mistaken, but capping a flag doesn't remove the debuff... and if it does, they can re-report you right after it goes gray such that if you sit at an unattacked node (I've sat at many for 2 minutes it takes to cap and never see a player) you get flagged as AFK and don't get the honor for the cap YOU just augmented.

Vyndree has related a huge story about this if I recall correctly, people grief reporting and blizzard doing nothing about it.

[Kayley]

I have never been spam reported before, although a person with 5 single players joined (I play with 4) - He moved all my girls away from each other so I couldn't 'participate properly' then sent in a petition :P

[Naysayer]

Um, wtf is wrong with your AV's? There are enemies almost always at the regular nodes. It's actually really hard to go through a full countdown to become inactive if you're just playing normally. Go cap a flag... No flags to cap for some odd reason, open your map and look for a contested node that needs defending.I may be grossly mistaken, but capping a flag doesn't remove the debuff... and if it does, they can re-report you right after it goes gray such that if you sit at an unattacked node (I've sat at many for 2 minutes it takes to cap and never see a player) you get flagged as AFK and don't get the honor for the cap YOU just augmented.

Vyndree has related a huge story about this if I recall correctly, people grief reporting and blizzard doing nothing about it.yep, you're grossly mistaken.

If they flag you again, go cap another node... Play AV.

[Crayonbox]

I haven't had the problem of anyone reporting me afk in a bg. And I am usually a hot target for the horde that they will usually rush me, which would solve the afk report problem.

[Naysayer]

Um, wtf is wrong with your AV's? There are enemies almost always at the regular nodes. It's actually really hard to go through a full countdown to become inactive if you're just playing normally. Go cap a flag... No flags to cap for some odd reason, open your map and look for a contested node that needs defending.I may be grossly mistaken, but capping a flag doesn't remove the debuff... and if it does, they can re-report you right after it goes gray such that if you sit at an unattacked node (I've sat at many for 2 minutes it takes to cap and never see a player) you get flagged as AFK and don't get the honor for the cap YOU just augmented.

Vyndree has related a huge story about this if I recall correctly, people grief reporting and blizzard doing nothing about it.yep, you're grossly mistaken.

If they flag you again, go cap another node... Play AV.Vyndree and Suvega had this problem.. they'd play D and back-cap towers... and get reported AFK the entire time.Capping flags removes the debuff.

If you're getting harassed and spam reported constantly, just head to the nearest enemy group, enter combat, and sit back in the bush/hills/whatever nearby and only bother to fight when you're reflagged. Let your team know why you're not engaging/healing/ect and just chill till it's over. Either they'll get pissed at the flaggers, or they won't, no big deal just don't re-queue right away when you leave the AV so that you're less likely to get grouped with the flaggers again. Why bother to help the group win when they are purposely harassing you? Try asking in BG chat if there are any others who'd like to forge on to kill Drak/Van with you and make a little group. It only takes about 10 people to smash Van/Drek, and you're already half there. I doubt all 35 people are there trying to flag you and lose the BG. It's probably just a couple guys with a "report everyone" addon.

[Naysayer]

Sorry, I didn't finish that thought ( in the middle of a Heroic Shattered Halls run... lol)

Even IF you cap a flag and undo the AFK report, they'll just AFK report you again. Blizzard make it very clear to Vyndree that they DO NOT GIVE A FLYING F*CK about this type of harassment. if someone is there doing it to you, you're screwed. Just leave and try another one.You're best off just letting everyone know why you're not going to help with towers/gy's/ect anymore that match and just go leech honor kills from 30 yards away from the big fights. Change up your queue and try to avoid requeuing with those morons, or just completely push on offense if you end up with them again. I've been flagged more than I can count on defense, but I don't think I've even been marked inactive. There's just too many nodes and enemies around in AV to go a full minute before you enter combat if you want to avoid the mark.

[zanthor]

So grossly mistaken I wasn't...

AFK reporting harassment in AV ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=4253&pageNo=1')

Unfortunately the link Vyndree references isn't there anymore but I think the general gist of it is all confirmed with her GM Conversation...

The AFK reporting system IS abusable, if I start capping a tower it takes 2 minutes, someone can AFK report me after I report it and I will get no honor when it caps, even though it would have been MY work that got the honor... There is nothing you can do about this if you don't happen to have alliance in range, except leave the tower you are capping... which has a decent chance of letting someone walk back in and uncap it... so you come back, kill them, recap the tower, get reported again, etc etc... yes,

Its all about grief not about being afk.

[Vyndree]

Vyndree has related a huge story about this if I recall correctly, people grief reporting and blizzard doing nothing about it.

Indeedy, and I posted on the Customer Service Forums some time back about it.

The response was that spamming AFK at you could NOT be considered harassment. I opened a thread on the suggestions forum about it -- Suvega and I were both in that AV match and he was playing D (recapping all of our captured nodes) and would get teh full AFK debuff, while I was taking/defending/fully capping towers on offense. The duration of the full flag capture is longer than the duration of the AFK debuff, which means if nobody comes to your tower you will get the full AFK debuff and get 0 honor for anything that happens -- including the tower YOU CAPPED.

It's completely retarded, but I usually only run into this when I'm in an org or partial-org. Most orgs are friendly to me, but you get that one bad apple org group...

[pinotnoir]

Are you sure its not the afk macro premades spam to get retarded pugs to type /afk and remove their toons from av? If thats the case just ignore that because its a macro. The only time you are really being reported is when the cow icon appears on your screen.

[Vyndree]

Are you sure its not the afk macro premades spam to get retarded pugs to type /afk and remove their toons from av? If thats the case just ignore that because its a macro. The only time you are really being reported is when the cow icon appears on your screen.

No, an org group who "wants you out" will spam the ACTUAL "report afk" feature such that you are constantly plagued with the cow debuff.

So long as they're not organized and you're in combat often, you're fine. However, if you're trying to cap a tower when it happens, or if they get it to hit just as you release to the GY and have 30 seconds of sitting around in spirit form waiting to rez, that little cow timer is ticking away...

Usually it's not a problem with pugs. They can't get enough "fake afk reports" to actually give you the cow debuff consistently. But with orgs on vent, I actually had an issue where they would purposely wait until I would cap a tower and/or release spirit to the GY to mass report me afk. IMO it's harassment and abuse of the afk system, but the current Blizz policy is that spamming the "report afk" feature on someone who is knowingly NOT afk is not an offense.

[blast3r]

So technically can't you SPAM AFK X 5 against the idiots yourself? Also, can you go into the mine in av and just kill mobs to get the debuff off? Is so, screw them.. Just go waste time in the mines and maybe they will stop.

[Naysayer]

So grossly mistaken I wasn't...

Tapping a flag will remove the debuff. Sorry, but you were mistaken.

[Naysayer]

So technically can't you SPAM AFK X 5 against the idiots yourself? Also, can you go into the mine in av and just kill mobs to get the debuff off? Is so, screw them.. Just go waste time in the mines and maybe they will stop.No, you can't remove the debuff by killing npc's in the mine. Yes, it sucks that there are morons who spammed them for being boxers. Is the occasional (what was it, once? Twice?) abuse of the system worth ridding the caves of 20-30 afkers? IMO, hell yes. Open your maps, look for the nearest contested area, go there and eneter some combat, when the AV is over wait 10 minutes before you queue to avoid the moronic few who spammed you.

[Catamer]

It usually happens while defending a tower that hasn't been taken. you have to sit there for 3 min and they can AFK you even though you are in the furthest enemy tower. I think going out and porting back to the top of the map and going defense is really the best way to get rid of the buff. I have found that in the end it's always the multiboxers fault for any loss when there is a mboxing hater in the A/V and silence when we win it.

[Drizzit]

I have found that in the end it's always the multiboxers fault for any loss when there is a mboxing hater in the A/V and silence when we win it.

I found that out too, but here is where the funny part is. When i play AV i always go O (i cannot 1 shot guy, usually 2 shots, by the time i am about to fire the second shot they already ran past me. when i get better gear i will play d all the time), people in O love me cause i kill things really quick and usually have no runners go by me. The people in D yell and say we lost to the STUPID BOT, then everyone was on O yells back at him, no he is doing his job you just suck at d. I get pissed when i hear that we lost cause of me, but then hearing 5-10 people saying that it wasn't my fault, makes me feel better.

[Xar]

This seems to be happening now on Shadowburn. Went to get the flag in the cave for my Insignia and got cow debuffs. The next day I'm capping our home mine after back capping SHB and recalling. While in the mine I got the first afk debuff and it had not been 15 seconds from taking the cave. From that point on I turtled the match on purpose, I usually leave SHGY and take care of the Horde after they come up towards Dun Baldar but screw that, my team wants to debuff me I'll keep taking the gy moving away from the gy and coming back when there were horde there, no more debuff and the jerks can enjoy the turtle.

[Vyndree]

As for "what to do" when you get the debuff -- go play the way the GM's tell you you're supposed to when you get the debuff -- brainlessly farm kill honor.

Announce to /bg chat "Hey, if you're going to harass me with afk reports, I'm just going to consider this a FFA deathmatch instead of a strategy. You can all blame yourselves for the loss -- you're the ones forcing me to stay in combat rather than cap towers/get the mine/etc."

DO NOT harass them. Speak your piece and be done with it.
DO NOT fall for their tricks and start swearing.
LET THEM make fools of themselves.
LET THEM scream at you.
LET THEM swear at you.


Then open a mass GM ticket while you're farming kill honor and report them all for language and harassment. ;) While /afk spamming you is not "reportable", verbal harassment and pottymouthing is. They'll learn to play nice one way or another.