[WoW] AOE Paladin Boosting, when to move on to next instance?

[Heenan]

I do believe this one is somewhat shady. It is definitely manipulating an encounter. Otherwise you'd have to clear the instance, or find a certain combination of mob spawns to grind. I say this because I felt dirty while doing it... similar to ganking someone with 5 Hunters, dirty, but it feels good at the same time :whistling: Like seeing 16 levels in 3 days. That pretty much wins over reason every time.

The worse thing that can happen is Blizzard turns off the XP for the skeletons. I guess you could possibly get a ban? I don't know.

Anyone want to report themselves and talk to a GM about it?

[Tdog]

I do believe this one is somewhat shady. It is definitely manipulating an encounter. Otherwise you'd have to clear the instance, or find a certain combination of mob spawns to grind. I say this because I felt dirty while doing it... similar to ganking someone with 5 Hunters, dirty, but it feels good at the same time :whistling: Like seeing 16 levels in 3 days. That pretty much wins over reason every time.

The worse thing that can happen is Blizzard turns off the XP for the skeletons. I guess you could possibly get a ban? I don't know.

Anyone want to report themselves and talk to a GM about it?

I actually don't see that it's manipulating anything, not the encounter, as the skeletons would die and give you xp irregardless of using a level 70 or not, nor does it manipulate any game mechanics as all you're doing is tagging summoned mobs and letting them die which is what happens in other scenarios with summoned mobs that auto die. This just happens to be the best place to do it.

Nonetheless I have a GM ticket open right now and I'll let you guys know what I find out.


Edit:

... similar to ganking someone with 5 Hunters, dirty, but it feels good at the same time :whistling:

Wanted to point out that while it may feel dirty, it's not against the ToS or an exploit. Sure this is most likely not what Blizzard intended to have happen but that doesn't automatically make it an exploit.

[Tonuss]

Nonetheless I have a GM ticket open right now and I'll let you guys know what I find out.

I think that's a good idea. I see where it can be considered an exploit because you're taking advantage of the boss's mechanic (summoning mobs that die after 45 seconds) to generate experience, where normally prolonging a boss's life would end badly for the group, or at least would not confer any extra benefit. If the GM tells you that it's fine, I have no problem with it. I was more concerned about stuff being discussed here that might cross the line since it's something that the folks who run the site take seriously.

[Tdog]

Update: 2 hours later I'm still waiting for a GM response. Gawd the customer service with GMs sucks :P

[Tdog]

Update: Finally talked to a GM after 3.5 hours...





Basically she/he said they didn't know. The GM referred me to the Blizzard Support Policy Page . If you look up the Exploitation and Client/Server Manipulation Policy section you will find that the only 2 relative portions are ...

Bug Exploitation
We have a top notch Quality Assurance team who tirelessly stamp out bugs and design inconsistencies within World of Warcraft. However, a handful of trained professionals can never isolate and resolve each and every bug in such a deep and complex game accessed simultaneously by thousands of players. You may come across the occasional bug during your adventures. Some bugs are minor and do not affect gameplay, but sometimes these bugs can be used to provide an unfair advantage to certain players or affect the service itself. Factors included in determining the appropriate penalty:

• Whether or not the exploit is performed intentionally, maliciously, and/or repeatedly
• Whether or not the exploit damages another character, their gameplay, the service itself and/or its economy
• Whether or not an attempt has been made to conceal the exploit's use

If a player is found to have abused/distributed an exploit, he/she may:

• Be given a verbal warning if exploitation is unintentional and no attempt has been made to hide its occurrence
• Be temporarily suspended from the game
• In extreme cases the account will be closed outright

Bug exploitation that we consider extreme includes, but is not limited to:

• Any exploit that has a severe negative impact on a realm's economy
• Causing disruption in service or intentionally crashing a realm/server

While these repercussions may seem harsh, we feel very strongly that this type of abuse has no place within Azeroth due to its negative effect on other players or the service itself.

This is clearly not a Bug. The programmers did not mistakenly make the skeletons continuously spawn, die automatically after 45 seconds, and give xp.

Abuse of Game Mechanics
The distinction between exploiting bugs and abusing game mechanics is a fine one. While bug exploitation involves the abuse of what is essentially a programming mistake, the abuse of game mechanics is the act of taking advantage of the limitations of the World of Warcraft game systems. Since the line between the sanctioned use and the abuse of game mechanics is sometimes unclear, we prefer to educate players before taking any action against the account being used. This category includes using/distributing game mechanics in a manner unintended by their design that:

• Damages another character, their gameplay, the service itself and/or its economy

If a player is found to have abused/distributed such game mechanics, he/she may:

• Be given a verbal warning
• Subsequent related offenses will result in temporary suspension from the game

"Damages another character, their gameplay, the service itself and/or its economy" Seems to be Blizzard's definition of Abusing Game Mechanics which this does not do any of the following. It doesn't affect anyone else in the game and you make no monetary profit off this. If fact you rack up a huge repair bill doing this not to mention all the money you have to spend to get regeared up as after 20 levels of no gear/money/drops you are in desperate need of upgrades.


However I told the GM in the convo I was going to be making a post on the Wow Forums to see if I can't get a Blue post.
Link to the thread I made on the Support Forums.



Edit: Accidently included the "Unapproved Third Party Software" section.
Edit 2: Fixed the order of the GM SSs.
Edit 3: Added link to the thread made on the Support Forums.

[Marathon]

WOW impressive Tdog. Thanks for the post and I look forward to seeing an update. :thumbsup:

Oh and learning 15 levels of new spells X 3 was defently a hit in the pocket book. And I have not even bought my mounts yet because I am waiting on the discounted rate to come with the new patch.

[Tdog]

Updated: Added link to the post I made on the WoW - Support Forums.

[Tdog]

WOW impressive Tdog. Thanks for the post and I look forward to seeing an update. :thumbsup: ...

I'm not into cheating the system either but like I said many times before I really don't feel like this is an exploit/abuse. Sure it may not be what Blizzard intended but that doesn't necessarily mean it's abuse either.

However I think being completely certain is always a wise course. So I'll just have to check up on the thread I made and see if we can't get an offical answer either way.

[Marathon]

I might consider this a cheat if my pally was not paying such a high price for what I am doing. I mean the repair bills and the cost of buying new armor has really hit me in the pocket book. And basically this is the same thing I was doing in SM but without any of the rewards. I mean at least in SM you got several blue drops to de and plenty of cloth and other goodies to sell after each run. Here in ST all you get is broken armor and a high repair bill. Yes the exp is awesome for your alts, especially at first but if I was not in ST doing these skeletons I would find another instance to grind exp for my other toons because like I said before I am not questing out these last levels I am just to bored of it. And I mean I leveled a pally to 70 to on a pvp server, where either all I am is a AOE Tank or a healer with no HOTS so I feel like this just one of those rewards for leveling the toon.

[Tdog]

Welp still no Blizzard response. They also moved it to the Bug Report Forums which means that they looked at it and chose not to comment on it so take that however you like. I tried and I have yet to see anything to make me think in the contradictory of what I was formally thinking.