Ban Paranoia

[Niq22]

Hi there, I'm new to the modeling scene, which btw this is a fantastic community for it. I have learned lots from the existing threads and managed to give all my characters the full sets of gear that I personally think look best on them via MES.

However, I did not find enough information as I would like on the risk of this modeling business. From what I have read, changing BLPs via MES is next to harmless which is simply swapping the image of what one piece of gear looks like to another.

Now that I've had a taste of modeling, I want to go deeper. I would like to start dealing with .MPQ files and play around with editing the color/glow effects of some armor/weapons, as well as swapping out mounts. From what I understand, in order for .MPQ files to work, I need to use MEF (Model Editing Fix) which I have found on a seprate forum. The only problem I'm having with this is that I am paranoid of getting caught using this program, and even though I'm not using modeling to gain an advantage in the game...I don't want to get banned for something so harmless.

My question is, how safe are MPQ files? How long have other modelers here been using MPQ files safely? How many people do you guys know of that have been banned for using MPQ files? If you were to put it into a percentage of my chances of getting banned....what % chance is there (assuming I dont spam general chat about my 'phat' gear)? And most of all, how do I do this safely with the least risk?

Thanks in advance!