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By Starym
The community is split over Rextroy's solo kills, especially the recent ones in Uldir, and the age-old argument over what constitutes an exploit and a bannable offense has returned. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter, but Blizzard has stepped in and given their opinion, with Rextroy receiving a 1 month ban earlier today. We were already in the middle of an in-depth interview with the man himself when the ban hit, so we're going to be splitting in into two, with today's focusing on the ban itself, as well as what he thinks of the exploit vs. creative use of game mechanics issue. We also get to hear about how he could have used the mechanics he found to one-shot Mythic bosses, but instead decided to do it on Normal.
What are your thoughts on the ban in general?
Well it feels quite bad, but I was prepared to someday be banned for the things I do, most of my major solo kills use some kind of "cheese" or unintended interaction between abilities. However, it was never to gain any competitive advantage over other players. I do really wish I knew what the exact reason I was banned was (if it was for Vectis… killing people in Stormsong, stacking traits for one shotting people in Arena or something else)
Do you feel like more of a beta tester for Blizzard? You’ve said in the past that you send the reports in advance of posting your videos.
I don’t send reports on all the videos, I only do it on the major ones that could be exploited for competitive gain (the Vectis one and one earlier back in Legion, when you could turn immune to damage and solo bosses).
One thing I need to clarify about the monkey - guard one shot combo that I saw people talk about is my use of it in Stormsong Valley VS Uldir. I did use the same tactic a few weeks ago to one shot people in Stormsong. I didn’t bother to report about it back because I never thought it were anything major. You could spend 30 minutes to gather up guards, to turn into a slow moving one shot machine that couldn’t chase anyone that didn’t engage. And that had 2 easy counters: killing the monkey and other alliance players. At the time I just thought that it was something silly broken for WPvP (like a lot of other things), I didn’t think about the Uldir strat back then and that it could be used in bigger ways than expected.
When I discovered about the raid warlock summon tactic, I kept trying it until I got the timing right. I had my friends wait probably 8 hours in total until I finally got it down (I have really good friends!) This cheesy strat however, I realized could be used for Mythic progress etc, so I asked WoWhead if they could help me get in contact with someone from Blizzard, which they helped me with!
I reported it to them and they fixed it within a few hours. After that I uploaded the video since it's quite an insane bug and I was sure most people would enjoy seeing it, however wouldn't be able to take advantage of it. (And no I got no ingame advantage from it, I don’t care about the 355 trinket since I got great 365 ones)
Now to get back to the point, I guess I feel a bit like a QA tester, however I don’t fault Blizzard for having these bugs not fixed. They are quite out of the box and most people wouldn’t think of them.
Is 1 month too much for a first infraction?
It's my first infraction, and I would have liked a warning!... Or at least an email saying the exact reason I got banned.
How did the ban make you feel?
Well I did get a bit surprised since I talked to a US customer manager about it, and the team seemed alright with my videos, and since I made sure to have it fixed before uploading the Vectis kill so no one could abuse it…
I am currently appealing the ban, seems like the EU devs suspending me didn’t know that I had contact with them from US. Will see where it leads. However, if the ban stays I feel a bit uncertain what things that are ingame are considered exploits, and which things are considered clever use.
So the big question at the center of everything: what is an exploit and what is creative use of game mechanics? Do you consider what you do exploiting/cheating?
This is one of the questions I am sure a lot of people wonder about and that I can’t give an answer to, don’t think anyone can. I don’t actually consider what I do exploiting. I personally consider exploiting using tactics to gain an unfair advantage in a competitive sense. Nothing (in my opinion) that I have done so far has been with a competitive advantage. My solos back in Legion usually took 6-9 hours to defeat a single boss. Vectis one shot took A LOT of hours to get the timing right (it also took a lot of time from my friends helping me, who didn’t get any loot) and Mother solo also took a long time to bring all the worms. All of this could be done much MUCH faster with a standard group.
If I had used the tactic (with the monkey and a group of friends) to one shot mythic bosses and gain gear and achievements from it that I needed, I would consider it exploiting, since I would be using it to gain an advantage.
Now some people can bring up the point about the Last Surprise one shot. I don’t consider that an exploit either since it really is just stacking up 3 traits… That would be like a talent being OP and people using it would be exploiting. Is using something overpowered an exploit?
At what point do you feel an exploit should be punished with a ban?
This is really hard to tell, there are a lot of exploits which aren’t ban worthy by my own definition. Such as the Spellsteal incident back in Legion in Black Rook Hold (spellstealing a buff to gain a huge damage increase in a competitive sense). According to my own definition it is an exploit... but it is such a simple and obvious exploit (using a class ability) so that it in no way deserves a ban. It is more of an oversight from Blizzards part.
If you found something huge, game-breaking that would take days for Blizzard to fix and would ruin things such as the Arena ladder, World First Mythic Race, crash the server and you intentionally use it simply to maliciously grief the things listed then I would consider it ban-worthy.
However, I wouldn’t say most other things are ban-worthy. I really enjoy the creativity players have when they find things. If I were a game developer and people found unique ways to play through challenges I put in front of them I might fix their method (if it is broken), but I would approve of them thinking outside the box and discovering things, never ban them. It would be my own mistake for letting it slip into players hands. I do wish Blizzard would put a better definition when it comes to clever use and exploits. It feels really vague right now.
Do you have any alts you’d continue your solo attempts on in this month (or in general if you got perma-banned)?
I didn’t have any major solo plan this month (I did think about some m+), but Uldir wise I am temporarily out of ideas. Might discover some of course, but thought about focusing on some guides / PvP. I will most likely wait out the monthly ban if it ain't appealed and then return afterwards. If I someday were perma banned I'm quite positive I would create a new acc (I wouldn’t give up on Rextroy easily tho!)
You don’t actually “profit” from these kills in terms of gear, correct? Your gear is above the one you get from them and you presumably have a raid group that’s on Heroic or higher difficulty?
I currently got 368. So far I haven’t benefited gear wise from any of my solo kills (both in Legion and BfA). Have read a lot of people saying I exploited to get the trinket from Vectis but I could happily delete it since I don’t feel I got any use of it. I got 365 trinkets right now.
Have you ever run across anything as ridiculous as the Vectis trick/bug? What would be your second and third favorites?
Vectis is surely one of my top ones, however there are two back in Legion I felt really happy about finding.
The first one is a bug when you became immune to damage taken inside the Antorus raid. I could if I wanted to solo a lot of Mythic bosses but I reported it and just demonstrated it on normal High Command (it never went viral tho, most likely because BFA was around the corner).
My Khadgar “solo” was also hilarious, both of these videos I linked were such ridiculous bugs but also really fun ones. They were amusing to edit as well!
I kinda want to give an honorable mention to my Kin’garoth solo. I attempted him for quite a long time to try him the normal way (outlive the berserk) and then someday I figured out the strat to bug out the adds and get him down, felt really good finding out about that strat!
Are you/will you be trying Mythic+ solos?
Fun thing is that I was going to attempt +8 Motherlode today but then I noticed I got banned… But yes I plan to attempt quite a few of those, will be fun trying it out! I also look forward to future raids to see the boss mechanics / ways around them.
Will you continue to test out the limits of bosses and try to kill them in the weirdest ways possible in the future?
Definitely! One of the best feelings is finding out these strange tactics and sharing them with the community (after a fix has been applied if it is too major)!
It is like the iconic Kazzak Reckoning bomb and Naxx Mage solo videos, people seem to really enjoy those and I feel like it can strengthen the WoW community / keep people interested in the game. Because if people notice these things they can be inspired to play in other unique ways… If you get my point!
Do you think what you do benefits the game?
I do think so. I doubt World of Warcraft lost many people because of my videos but hopefully a lot of people stayed / started playing again because they were inspired. When it comes to bug finding I'm sure it benefits the game as well, since Blizzard will know about it for the future and be more on their toes when they release things.
What would you say to the many community members that reported you and, well, basically hate you because they think what you’re doing is wrong?
Well I don’t agree with their opinion that what I did was wrong, it is not like I broke anything or gained any major advantage of it. Just simply showed off a cool unique mechanic. I didn’t try to ruin anyone's game!
With that said I was once much more strict and much less “clever”, always used to play the exact way the game was intended but since I started soloing seriously / finding out all the weird ways around things, I do explore the “clever” part of the game a lot more. I still got a strict sense of not using any exploits for competitive advantages, I am sure some of our community members think I do use it for those reasons but it is not my intent.
That's it for part one and we'll be back next week(ish) with the second, focusing more on Rextroy's WoW background, inspirations for starting up soloing and more.
What constitues an exploit and a bannable offence, consequences of the ban and more.
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By Zadina
You read that title correctly: we may be almost two months into Battle for Azeroth, but a guild managed to down the notorious end boss from the penultimate raiding tier of Legion only yesterday.
The Feat of Strength was achieved by <realm first btw> 1 year and 3 months after the release of Mythic Tomb of Sargeras. The guild proceeded to disband afterwards, although - according to a comment on Reddit - it was originally created with the sole purpose of achieving this realm first kill. They even shared their nerd screams for this great achievement on Twitch.
Image source: Reddit
Wyrmrest Accord is one of the most well-known RP servers on the US. Players are obviously not that focused on the competitive aspect of the game, but there's still some raiding presence. Five guilds have cleared Mythic Antorus and four guilds are currently on 2 out of 8 bosses on Mythic Uldir.
Kil'Jaeden was the only boss that had gotten away. The first guild on Tier 20 killed Mythic Fallen Avatar two weeks before the release of Antorus and it seems that afterwards nobody bothered with clearing Tomb of Sargeras.
Wowprogress still hasn't updated with the KJ kill - if it ever does, given that it was done by a disbanded guild
We all remember what a pleasant walkover of a boss Kil'Jaeden was on Mythic difficulty. The big bad guy, thanks to whom the "mathematically impossible" meme was created, remained alive for 19 days when first released. It took Method 3 resets and 654 wipes to achieve the Kil'Jaeden world first, making it one of the hardest bosses in WoW's history.
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By Stan
The second Raid Finder wing is now open and players of item level 320 or higher can queue up for Crimson Descent to defeat Fetid Devourer, Vectis, and Zul.
Halls of Containment (Taloc / Zek'voz, Herald of N'zoth / MOTHER)
Crimson Descent (Vectis / Zul, Reborn / Fetid Devourer)
Heart of Corruption (Mythrax, the Unraveler / G'huun)
The third Raid Finder wing with Mythrax and G'huun will open on October 7th.
Blizzard (Source)
Raid Finder Wing 2: Crimson Descent is now available to players who have reached level 120 and have a minimum ilevel of 320. To queue for this new adventure, simply join with Group Finder (I) as either a healer, tank, or damage dealer. Learn more about each of the bosses in this wing through the Adventure Guide (J) in the Raids tab.
Gallery of Failures: Fetid Devourer
The experiments within Uldir conducted tests upon countless lifeforms, including several loa who inhabited the forests around Zandalar. After the experiments proved lethal, the remains of the loa were disposed of improperly, much to the delight of the dark consciousness imprisoned within Uldir.
Plague Vault: Vectis
The plague of corrupted blood killed countless trolls and began one of the most terrifying periods in Zandalar’s history. The constructs within Uldir studied the disease in search of a cure, but found that only isolation and extermination was effective. Unfortunately, as the facility’s safeguards cracked apart, the plague was accidentally combined with a sample of G’huun’s blood, creating a new entity that hungered for fresh victims.
The Oblivion Door: Zul, Reborn
Once the proud leader of the Zanchuli Council, highest advisors to the kings of Zandalar, Zul was praised as the greatest of prophets. Now, the dark prophet has turned on King Rastakhan and would see a true troll empire rule the world once again, even if it means submitting to the blood god G’huun.
View the complete Uldir raid unlock schedule here.
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By Starym
Well this is a little sad, or great depending on your outlook - Rextroy, the Paladin who recently soloed both MOTHER and Vectis in Uldir (with Vecits taking all of 0.5 seconds) with very, very creative use of game mechanics, got banned for a month. The Vectis kill in particular seemed to be a sore spot, as it got him reported many times, but there's still no word from Blizzard on what specific incident caused the ban.
Check out Rextroy's thoughts on the matter below and check back later in the week when we'll be posting an in-depth interview with the new solo king (or rather, highest profile soloer at the moment), focusing on the exploit/creative use of game mechanics dichotomy.
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By Stan
The latest round of hotfixes includes the aforementioned Azerite trait, Class and PvP tuning. Blizzard also increased the number of Anchor Weed from nodes at rank 2 & 3.
Blizzard (Source)
Achievements
The criteria for Azerite Admiral, Tell Me A Tale, and Helping Hand should now combine progress from multiple characters on the same account. Please log in on every character that has progress toward these achievements to be credited. Characters
You can now whistle at Cap'n Crackers to have him ride on your shoulder. Classes
Druid Balance Starsurge and Starfall damage increased by 15%. Mage Arcane All damage increased by 3%. Shaman Tremor Totem should no longer take an unintended amount of additional damage when players attack it. Warlock Destruction Conflagrate, Incinerate, and Immolate damage all increased by 10%. Warrior Fury All damage increased by 6%. Items
Heart of Azeroth Ephemeral Recovery mana increased by 15%. Savior trigger threshold increased to 50% health (was 35%). Death Knight Bone Spike Graveyard damage increased by 100%. Unholy Festering Doom damage increased by 25%. Demon Hunter Havoc Eyes of Rage damage increased by 20%. Furious Gaze haste increased by 40% and duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds). Revolving Blades damage reduced by 35%. Thirsting Blades damage increased by 70%. Vengeance Revel in Pain absorption increased by 20%. Druid Craggy Bark absorption increased by 15%. Masterful Instincts bonuses increased by 10%. Balance Dawning Sun damage increased by 40%. Streaking Stars damage reduced by 40% Sunblaze damage bonus increased by 35% against non-players. Feral Iron Jaws damage increased by 66% against non-players. Guardian Gory Regeneration healing increase increased by 15%. Hunter Rapid Reload damage increased by 25%, and tooltip corrected to read “more than 2 targets”. Beast Mastery Pack Alpha damage increased by 60% against non-players. Dance of Death agility increased by 20%. Marksmanship Unerring Vision critical strike increased by 100%. Focused Fire damage increased by 30%. Survival Blur of Talons agility increased by 65%. Up Close and Personal damage increased by 40%. Mage Arcane Galvanizing Spark damage reduced by 30% against non-players. Explosive Echo damage reduced by 35%. Frost Frigid Grasp intellect increased by 100%. Packed Ice damage increased by 120%, and increased by 45% if used with Splitting Ice. Damage reduced by 50% against players. Glacial Assault proc chance increased to 20% (was 10%). Monk Mistweaver Burst of Life healing increased by 20%. Windwalker Open Palm Strikes damage increased by 60% against non-players. Paladin Protection Dauntless Divinity block increased by 20%. Judicious Defense absorption increased by 10%. Retribution Divine Right strength increased by 40%, and duration increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds). Expurgation damage increased by 15%. Priest Depth of the Shadows healing increased by 20%. Holy Blessed Sanctuary bonus increased by 10%. Permeating Glow bonus increased by 15%. Shadow Spiteful Apparitions damage bonus is increased by 75% if you don’t have Auspicious Spirits talent. Searing Dialogue damage increased by 150%. Rogue Assassination Poisoned Wire critical strike increased by 50%. Sharpened Bladesbenefit from having multiple copies of this trait active has been reduced. Outlaw Brigand's Blitz haste increased by 50%. Subtlety Blade In The Shadows damage reduced by 25%. Sharpened Blades damage reduced by 30% (unchanged in PvP). The benefit of having multiple copies of this trait active is reduced. The First Dance now grants 2 stacks of the buff, and critical strike bonus reduced by 25%. Shaman Enhancement Strength of Earth damage increased by 60%. Roiling Storm damage increased by 100% against non-players. Restoration Soothing Waters healing increased by 10%. Warrior Arms Executioner's Precision damage increased by 75% against non-players. Test of Might strength reduced by 15%. Fury Bloodcraze critical strike increased by 100%. Reckless Flurry damage reduced by 25%. Protection Reinforced Plating dtrength increased by 10%. Warlock Affliction Dreadful Calling damage increased by 30%. Demonology Forbidden Knowledge damage increased by 66% against non-players, and the benefit of having multiple copies of this trait active is reduced. Umbral Blaze damage increased by 20%. Explosive Potential buff duration increased to 15 seconds (was 6 seconds). Destruction Accelerant duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds). Crashing Chaos damage reduced by 30% against non-players. Rolling Havoc duration increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds). Player versus Player
Razdunk's Big Red Button now deals 25% less damage in PvP combat. Death Knight Unholy Last Surprise (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 35% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Druid The healing of Rejuvenation, Swiftmend, and Wild Growth provided by Restoration Affinity is reduced by 30% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Regrowth healing reduced by 25% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Feral Raking Ferocity (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 50% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Restoration All Restoration Druid healing reduced by 10% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Focused Growth increases the healing of Lifebloom by 15% (was 25%). Focused Growth reduces the mana cost of Lifebloom by 15% (was 40%). Grove Tending (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 25% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Hunter Beast Mastery Damage done by the Hunter’s pet reduced by 18% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Survival Latent Poison (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 30% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Monk Mistweaver Mana regeneration reduced by 20% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 30%). Paladin Holy Mana regeneration reduced by 20% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 30%). Priest Discipline Mana regeneration reduced by 20% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 30%). Focused Will decreases damage taken by 10% per stack when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 20%). Shaman Elemental Lava Shock (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 35% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Restoration Rippling Waters healing reduced by 33%. Riptide healing reduced by 15% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Spirit Link mana increased by 50%. Spirit Link now has a 1.5 second cast time and redistributes 25% damage (was 35%). Surging Tides (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 25% when engaged in combat with enemy players. Warrior Arms Defensive Stance reduces damage dealt by 20% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 10%). Lord of War (Azerite Trait) effectiveness reduced by 55% when engaged in combat with enemy players (was 40% reduced). Professions
Herbalism Herbalists will now receive more Anchor Weed from nodes at rank 2 and 3. Quests
The ability Throw Rock should no longer one-shot targets on "Matchmaker". World Quests
Resolved an issue that could cause the "Set Sail" to not properly display the quest objective.
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