Originally Posted by
Sklug
Just thought I'd point out that the huge banwave didn't just hit Soapbox... it hit Honorbuddy, Rebot, and a couple other smaller ones. Some people that reported being hit in the banwave from the other bots didn't even use rotations, just used like the fishing bot in their garrison.
As a user of Rebot myself, I have 3 accounts I bought with (and a 4th account I never bot with), 1 was banned that I had been using for about 5 months (and I haven't used it in over a week), and the other 2 that went untouched were about 1 month old and the other 3 months). So, something is going on, but I hate to place the blame on Soapbox.
Imo, the more-likely situation is some people get software analyzed, and this detection software is so good nowadays it's almost impossible to beat it. I mean, I am a programmer myself and I can see how easily they could develop counter-measures to detect botting behavior. With that being said, it would be such a waste of resources to analyze all players 24/7, so they probably reserve the CPU cycles for analysis only when deemed necessary, like say, on a player getting reported, or maybe, a player who has a history of botting tied to his IP/Mac Address or even just using the same credit card as a known botter might flag for insta-review on account creation. I bet if you use a VPN you can be auto-flagged for software review. I bet if you create 3 or more accounts at the exact same time it might flag you for review. They also could have a system of Randomized software analysis of players as well, where it randomly picks groups of players to go under the microscope, which I am sure picks up a lot of people.
Now, I've read some theories on how Blizz might be detecting bot behavior with rotations, as some have observed situations of overloading, where for a split second the player's health drops to 0.1% then goes back to normal (of course unkillable), but it feeds the bot false readings to which a human wouldn't notice, but a software program might quickly engage in a defensive spell cast at that exact moment. Do that enough times and software analysis could fairly easily determine it wasn't a human chance coincidence. And I am sure there anti-cheat team is always dreaming up other ways to detect. I mean, I once heard someone say that a lot of botters are so lazy that they won't even place all the spells they use on their action bars, and it's possible Blizz software analysis could determine the player is doing spell casts of things that are still in their spell log only which could be suspicious. I don't know if it's true, it's just theory.
At the end of the day, there is always just one thing to remember, you are never safe botting and if it's an account that is too valuable for you to lose, don't do it. What I do is I have my main account that I refuse to bot on as I don't want to lose it. I am religious in my focus to not even hook a bot into it. Just nothing. And, while I have had other accounts that have been banned, this has stayed safe for all these years. Furthermore, what I will do is power-level toons in the bot accounts, and then after they sit at like say, lvl 100 for maybe a month on that account, I'll account transfer them. Pricey, but imo, the cost of taking the safer route of not botting on my main, veteran account.
Also, remember, whenever a Blizz sale is happening, a banwave is usually right around the corner. Seriously, the last banwave in June that hit Honorbuddy with those 6 month suspensions was coupled with a Blizz store sale on WoD lol. Blizz wants botters to keep paying for new accounts. It's a lot of money in their pocket. Anyone that thinks Blizz wants to perma ban and never see these people come back are only kidding themselves. They are probably making tens of millions per year just on newly activated accounts from banned botters. I remember a while back someone had pointed out that they usually wait to to a big banwave until after a quarterly report, so as to show higher subscriber numbers. Just be vigilant in your awareness, and hopefully you can go unnoticed, but don't think it will last forever.
At the end of the day, I am just here to have fun though. I don't care about farming achievements or maintaining every reputation at exalted or something, I just like having fun, and every patch resets the gear table anyway, so that's why I bot. The amount of time saved to get me back to having fun again is astronomical, and for an expansion that's somewhat horrendous in quality and quantity, even more so. Thus, I don't really mind.