Guild Wars 2

Certain professions and build comps have the ability to stand afk in the middle of a mob zone and kill things without actually do anything.
Example, Mesmers can use Mental Defence and desparate decoy to summon illusions based on blocks and hp %. also using metaphysical rejuvination , signet of ether, & signet of inspiration to apply regeneration. Inspiration signet also applies other boons such as aegis & retaliation which help a lot.
So basically, you park the toon and go afk while all the passive traits & skills kill stuff and auto loot picks the loot up.

The question is, does this violate any kind of Terms Of Service, or is this a banable offence?

I would argue no, but you know anet….

To be fair, you don’t really gain anything by it. You get trash drops at best.
And for leveling it’s still way too slow.

I was doing this afk leveling in other games, it’s fun, but in the end I didn’t really gain anything.

This is why DR exists. It is better to play actively for 30 minutes than killing while being afk for a whole day.

Answer these questions (it helps to decide):

Does it seem too good to be true?
Would your friends consider this to be an exploit?
Does it provide you with an unfair advantage over other players?
Could this be the result of a bug introduced with a recent update or new feature?
Does this seem like something that could be reasonably considered to be intended by ArenaNet?

Probably no ToS violation, but there is DR for this. So after some minutes you won’t get any more loot. Last time that happend on a large scale was sw/dt AFK farming and anet just changed very fast some events/loottables and made DR hit faster. Problem was solved.

Yes, it’s a ToS violation and you can report people for it, if anything actually happens or not will probably depend on who views the report.

I recall some kind of dev/gm response about this when rangers were afking in out of the way sections of fort defense events in SW and having their pets tag enough for event credit.

it is a ToS violation

remember that engineer’s first turret nerf happened because of this exact thing engineers leaving turrets near event zones afk farming events and kills

I’m starting to see a lot of necromancers AFKing in one of the Silverwastes camp with their minions, leeching off experience from the events. Today I ran into a guild with about 6-7 people doing that, and I was wondering, is that against the ToS?

It’s frustrating enough having to basically solo these events, but giving these people free experience and loot (given their mastery level, they probably had auto-loot) for doing nothing is irritating.

Here’s a screenshot of the necromancer guild I ran into today. I censored the names for privacy (not sure if it’s allowed to show names in screenshots).

They’re not botting, nor are they really breaking any rules directly (and they’ll get kicked out automatically after 45m), but it certainly is against the spirit of the game. I’m sure if a GM saw them they’d get kicked back to character select, but no further action would be taken. That’s my take on it.

Novamatrix.2569:

Certain professions and build comps have the ability to stand afk in the middle of a mob zone and kill things without actually do anything.
…and auto loot picks the loot up.

The question is, does this violate any kind of Terms Of Service, or is this a banable offence?

Of course it violates the TOS — you are gaining loot without expending effort. And, in case it wasn’t clear, ANet has posted numerous times that you have to be at the keyboard; playing AFK is not ok.

And actually, in this game, getting loot from trash mobs is lucrative over time: the more ‘trash mob’ loot you get, the better the chance that you get a high-value item and, depending on the level, the actual ‘trash’ loot can be valuable, too.

The game does have a number of mechanics designed to reduce the impact, but none of them mean it’s not a violation, any more than cussing in /map is allowed even though the chat filter could prevent folks from seeing it. So, sure, DR kicks in, reducing the loot to slim or none until the person moves the character. But that just means they can’t go AFK 24/7; they have to move every 20-25 minutes.

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons that ANet gated true auto-looting behind the end of Pact Mastery, so that RMTs can’t just use smurf accounts to autoloot. (Although, it’s a little short sighted IMO: if you have a bot, it’s easy to program it to spam the autoloot hotkey, too).

In short, it’s “botting” without using a “bot”.

Is ANet going to suspend or ban people who do this? Probably not, unless they are doing it 5-10 hrs/day for weeks. One person doing this “a little” doesn’t have much impact on the global economy. It’s a better use of their resources to go after major violators, not the penny-ante stuff.

Rising Dusk.2408:

They’re not botting, nor are they really breaking any rules directly (and they’ll get kicked out automatically after 45m), but it certainly is against the spirit of the game. I’m sure if a GM saw them they’d get kicked back to character select, but no further action would be taken. That’s my take on it.

That’s really unfortunate, but I see what you’re saying. It’s a shame a handful of people are making it harder for everyone else for their own benefit.

It isn’t just necro’s, but we get the point. if players are truly fed up with leechers, then it’s simple : change maps and let that one go fail instantly. In the past, the moment i noticed more then a couple of afk’s in SW, i’d leave the map so they wouldn’t get anything from my efforts at all.

Rising Dusk.2408:

They’re not botting, nor are they really breaking any rules directly (and they’ll get kicked out automatically after 45m), but it certainly is against the spirit of the game. I’m sure if a GM saw them they’d get kicked back to character select, but no further action would be taken. That’s my take on it.

Not true. Anet doesn’t like players getting rewarded for 0 effort. They solved the problem before of engineers using turrets to gain EXP when the game came out. AFK’ing for loot, exp, karma, etc is a no-no.

Blackarps.1974:

Not true. Anet doesn’t like players getting rewarded for 0 effort. They solved the problem before of engineers using turrets to gain EXP when the game came out. AFK’ing for loot, exp, karma, etc is a no-no.

Exactly my point; they don’t like it and GMs seeing it will kick them to character select. They’re not going to ban the players or something unless the person keeps doing it even after being told by a GM to stop. @ OP: Feel free to report these people as “Botting” (even though that’s not what it is necessarily). That should alert ANet GMs to the issue to address it.

Before you get too stressed by other players, reflect upon the fact that their rewards for AFK’ing are almost worthless. Don’t sweat it and just get on with your own game.

Who cares what others do? PVE is not competitive….

Man, what’s with all these snivelly snitchin’ posts recently? There’s always a bunch of people AFK on any given map. In SW there’s usually enough active people to get the events done, if not it is easy enough to taxi more in or change maps. People are always up for some SW action.

‘…you only look into your neighbour’s bowl to see if he has enough.’ – Louie.

Novamatrix.2569:

Certain professions and build comps have the ability to stand afk in the middle of a mob zone and kill things without actually do anything.
Example, Mesmers can use Mental Defence and desparate decoy to summon illusions based on blocks and hp %. also using metaphysical rejuvination , signet of ether, & signet of inspiration to apply regeneration. Inspiration signet also applies other boons such as aegis & retaliation which help a lot.
So basically, you park the toon and go afk while all the passive traits & skills kill stuff and auto loot picks the loot up.

The question is, does this violate any kind of Terms Of Service, or is this a banable offence?

I would argue no, but you know anet….

You realize clones don’t actually do any damage right? They crit for 5.

Well that’s worrying. I main a ranger and have a bad habit of going afk and relying on my pet to protect me (which usually works). On more than 1 occasion an event has started up where I was standing while I was afk.

I probably don’t do it for long enough to be considered a botter or whatever this would come under, it’s an hour at absolute most (and I don’t actually have the auto-loot mastery yet), but if people are thinking about this I can imagine I would at least get reported.

as long as your not botting using 3rd party stuff your ok.

Non-Issue. AFK gives piddly rewards, and the AFK timers will kick them out eventually. If 6 people AFKing on a map makes you lose the Silverwaste meta, you weren’t going to finish it anyway.

I report afk rangers in Dry Top (close to Town of Prosperity and Haze event chains) via standart report tool, but it didnt work, soo I gather enough evidence and send ticket about it. And its actually works. They gone.

Note: They were not just casual people, It was farming with pets and traps 20/24 hours every day by many months.

I hadn’t even thought of doing this because I am not evil. I will now begin to do this because it is profitable and “evil is relative” or however it works with the young these days.

This question comes up from time to time.

I will link an old thread about this topic, which also includes a link to an official post by game security lead Chris Cleary himself in which he stated to have removed such afk-farmers from the game personally. Mainly this applied to rangers using their pets to farm event-xp while being afk for longer periods of time, often auto-casting their heals, but it may have shifted towards necros in more recent times. The term arenanet uses for it is “extended unattended gameplay” (not botting).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/AFK-Farmers-in-Silverwastes/page/2#post4649758

The PVE DC timer should be brought down to match wvw. That way you don’t inadvertently get reported for going to the bathroom or for standing around timing another players breaks.

DoctorDing.5890:

Before you get too stressed by other players, reflect upon the fact that their rewards for AFK’ing are almost worthless. Don’t sweat it and just get on with your own game.

Who cares what others do? PVE is not competitive….

Aren’t they scaling the events up by doing that? It’s not about being competitive or not, they are making it harder for everyone else by being selfish.

And sure, you can still complete the events more often than not, but it’s unfortunate there is no way to deal with it other than turning a blind eye to it and just let it happen.

Rising Dusk.2408:

They’re not botting, nor are they really breaking any rules directly (and they’ll get kicked out automatically after 45m), but it certainly is against the spirit of the game. I’m sure if a GM saw them they’d get kicked back to character select, but no further action would be taken. That’s my take on it.

It’s an action that anet’s stated to be a direct ToS violation due to being unattended gameplay. While initially referring to rangers and their pets, it can be applied to the necros and their minions. So the player who posted that picture, feel free to send the unmodified one to Anet in a ticket as those players can be actioned. If you or anyone else sees something like that, feel free to report them.

Rask.8439:

Aren’t they scaling the events up by doing that? It’s not about being competitive or not, they are making it harder for everyone else by being selfish.

And sure, you can still complete the events more often than not, but it’s unfortunate there is no way to deal with it other than turning a blind eye to it and just let it happen.

But the higher the scale the better the loot even if the event is harder. So really unless the ratio is very high for AFKers isn’t that a win for everyone?

It’s as dumb as buying raids and fractals. So my answer is no. Let them do it.

It’s just a game, you’re meant to play it, rofl.

Thread to read where someone was banned. Banned- circumventing idle time restrictions

A comment about using turrets and going afk
CC Dalmarus Source
Community Coordinator
Anything that enables a person to play the game without actually playing the game is a problem, such as using third party programs to automate game play.
Going AFK with turrets running isn’t technically an exploit, but players should be playing the game in good faith.

Post where someone was afk farming and got a 3 day suspension.

And this comment by Gaile Gray
Gaile Gray: Source
ArenaNet Forum Communications Team Lead
We do not consider “not answering a whisper” as an indictment. Please do not worry about this; as long as you legitimately are playing, or are not gaining undeserved rewards when not playing, you’re just fine.

A handful of AFKers really don’t make any significant difference to any fight. I think some folk get more enjoyment from policing the game than they do from playing it. Just chill a little.

DGraves.3720:

Rask.8439:

Aren’t they scaling the events up by doing that? It’s not about being competitive or not, they are making it harder for everyone else by being selfish.

And sure, you can still complete the events more often than not, but it’s unfortunate there is no way to deal with it other than turning a blind eye to it and just let it happen.

But the higher the scale the better the loot even if the event is harder. So really unless the ratio is very high for AFKers isn’t that a win for everyone?

Depends on the event. Vinewrath scales up the mobs, but they don’t drop loot, so it’s just a big middle finger to people who actually do the event.

This i have seen occasionally (mostly SW) but the players soon disappear with the Idle timer kicking in/or map closure.

From my understanding AFKing is more of breaking the good faith of the game intentionally.

Intentionally is standing in mobs you as a player know will die a large percentage of the time.

Unintentionally is standing clear or on the fringes of xyz goings on while you scurry to the toilet or get liquid within a small timeframe.

Questionable is the ones that involve waypoints. Many jump to a waypoint (myself included) to get out of mobs/events range, naturally so you don’t come back to a corpse right? Well as many know events contest a lot of waypoints & you aswell as others at the waypoint are certainly not safe most of the time. Some times you can come back to loot.

I’m curious whether the old school LDoA method could be implemented only in reverse instead of needing mobs to level off of you so you can gain your days worth of getting your body hack and slashed to death nth times have mobs level the longer you are there in place or per kill after a period.

This could be persistent for a period where ALL mobs no-matter where you go are scaled higher than usual. Killing them would be of no benefit to killing them as usual.

Maybe after a certain period Gaile’s Frog could spawn and eat the character like it would a fly to either kill the player(s) or kick them to character select.

In any case eventually the character(s) pets/minions and whatever else one has will just die a horrible death & you will end up with free xp to players ressing them without the need to nerf skills/traits/gear that really shouldn’t be.

just my 2 cents.