Guild Wars 2

What exactly is this “orb hacking” that I keep hearing so much about? (e.g., https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/10-19-Sanctum-of-Rall-vs-Crystal-Desert-vs-Sea-of-Sorrows/page/5#post494506)

Is it an exploit, a dirty trick, or just something folks wish the other side would not do?

I realize I’m speaking out of ignorance, but if folks on my server are such a big time orb hacking cheaters, you’d think we’d do a better job of hanging on to the kitten orbs.

Unless they put flying ability in the game and forgot to tell us, it’s a flat out hack. I’m OK with dirty tricks, but this is beyond that.

Edit: Link Removed by moderator.

orb hacking is utterly; rampant. They should have disabled the orbs ages ago until they could prevent the hacks.

That youtube link is from a few weeks ago. Has this happened this week yet? I haven’t heard any orb hacks this week yet on any server. I am wondering if Anet quietly smashed all the wannabe heroes out there?

Kazak.8459:

That youtube link is from a few weeks ago. Has this happened this week yet? I haven’t heard any orb hacks this week yet on any server. I am wondering if Anet quietly smashed all the wannabe heroes out there?

I didn’t witness it personally, but apparently it happened this weekend in the TC/FA/DB matchup. Lot of people talking about it in BL chat

As OldRodKS said — It happened to us (TC) last night. I didn’t see it either, but I believe the people who did and were talking about it in /team.

I stand corrected then. Hope you guys reported it and whoever did it. It happened to us (Yak’s Bend) a few weeks ago, but we returned the orb to other server for a fair fight.

Do you know if it was the flying hack that was used? I sure hope Anet is blocking that exploit soon.

To clarify — I don’t blame any server for this. I’m sure 99% of the people on that team know nothing about it. It’s a handful of obnoxious individuals doing it without the support of the server / team.

@Kazak — Yeah I saw that story — pretty upstanding of you guys. It was SSed and reported last night — actually it was around 2am ET this morning.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Blackgate-VS-Henge-VS-Eredon/first#post498278

Had it happen multiple times. And the fly hack was used to destroy the altars in bay and hills keeps in one BL.

xytale.2146:

Unless they put flying ability in the game and forgot to tell us, it’s a flat out hack. I’m OK with dirty tricks, but this is beyond that.

Edit: Link removed by moderator

So orb hacking is fly hacking applied in the effort to take an orb?

In any event, it’s a rotten thing to do.

For the record, I haven’t seen any of my teammates flying. I’ll sure as kitten report them if I do.

xytale.2146:

To clarify — I don’t blame any server for this. I’m sure 99% of the people on that team know nothing about it. It’s a handful of obnoxious individuals doing it without the support of the server / team.

Ya sadly takes one idiot to spoil the fun for the whole week for others.

Vorpal.4683:

orb hacking is utterly; rampant. They should have disabled the orbs ages ago until they could prevent the hacks.

Could not agree with you more. Yet, Anet lets the issue continue.

I don’t know, I like the idea of “Capture the Flag”. I think the buffs should be reversed though to help the losing team.

The server(s) without the orb has a buff to health/dmg/siege print drops/etc. The server with the orb has a buff to PVE junk. Siege would help the losing server to get back on their feet and the PVE buff would let the winner farm the karma.

The Orb running is just too fun, or intercepting the Orb runners with your Orb leaving the garrison!

then no one would bother getting the orb.The thing is, no one really tries to win wvw for the pve of the server. It’s merely an added bonus imo. People win/fight in wvw because it’s fun, and a new experience for most people.

penatbater, right, that’s the reason I am there. I don’t care about the orb buff. I think it’s OP right now and totally would help the losing team.

A lot more PVE players come out to WvW when their server dominates for WvW mapping and jump puzzles. They see how cool WvW is and stick around for the real action.

Happened last night in the stormbluff borderlands. Somehow the orb we had in Askalion Hills keep was taken while we had the keep and moved to Garrison which Stormbluff owned. The waypoint at Askalion Hills was contested for awhile before it was taken, but I personally checked all the gates and none were damaged I did not check the lord or alter unfortunately.

So many bugs in WvW right now, that were reported long ago… wish they would make WvW a priority, not a footnote.

Ahmrill, could be a mesmer portal?

We had someone from JQ get in our keep on day one and destroy our alter as well as take our orb.

JQ has not lost that orb since they took it on day 1 through exploits, but unfortunately every server has these problems and I think it’s better off if they remove the orb buff until these exploits can be fixed.

Not only that but the orb adds insult to injury to servers losing badly…how can you fight against more people that also have 3x orb buff?

JQ has lost it this way we reported him, we got Screen shots and got toon names etc.. It just does no good to complain about it here only to report them and a GM or whatever they have here will catch them.

I’m excited for the day we no longer see the name on thees forums.

JQ neither encourages nor condones exploits as a server and we have no more control over “some random idiot” as any other server does theirs. Report them get screen shots and laugh inside that they had to exploit because they just didn’t have enough confidence to go get what they wanted within the EULA.

In honesty much of these events are not hacks, exploits etc and misunderstandings about how Mesmer work (as we get blamed a lot), but for those that are, everyone gets caught eventually, and no pity for them when they do.

Last night, Tarnished Coast got Orb hacked in two of the Borderlands maps (Fort Aspenwood and Dragonbrand). I was present for the orb theft in Fort Aspenwood.

It went a little like this: Suddenly the orb starts moving south of the Hills keep, going for the Lodge (the hacker had no keep to put the orb in after all). I quickly teleport to the southern waypoint and hoof it to the lodge to see the orb sitting atop the tower — an unreachable point by anyone lacking flying hacks. It eventually reset where it was then guarded by players of the opposing faction.

The problem is: ANYONE can hack by simply loading an injector that is publicly available. Because of this, the problem is rampant. Making things even more demoralizing, the player was seen and targeted, and because of this the account name was discovered: It was the same account of a person accused of hacking the orbs in weeks prior on different servers. This hacker has STILL not been banned. Instead, players on the forums are accused of “assassination of character” by the moderators and the threads are quickly closed to sweep the problem under the rug.

I bought this game for WvW. I know lots of people who purchased it for the same reasons. I buy gems form ANet just to support them with the added bonus of getting some fun trinkets. But hacking, not JUST flight hacking (the super obvious kind), all hacking, needs to be defeated. Otherwise, I can tell you players will quit, and if I am to believe the forums, many already have.

There needs to be traps in the code that will detect a suspicious player and allow ANet to monitor their activity. They also need a 24/7 security staff position whose job it is is to CONSTANTLY investigate claims of in-game hacking and exploiting.

That orb sat on top of the Lodge tower for ~14 minutes and no staff was available. Then it happened AGAIN in another borderlands.

Do you know how hard it is to target a hacker during the act, right click the target to get a “report” popup, left click the popup to get the account name, AND take a screenshot of the activity while it happens? Well guess what, THIS is how hacking is dealt with, and if you can’t do all that AND the person doesn’t repeat the act while being “investigated”, nothing happens.

This needs to change. I hope to see more effective ways of dealing with hackers in the future. Thank you.

Erebus Delirium.4892:

Making things even more demoralizing, the player was seen and targeted, and because of this the account name was discovered: It was the same account of a person accused of hacking the orbs in weeks prior on different servers. This hacker has STILL not been banned. Instead, players on the forums are accused of “assassination of character” by the moderators and the threads are quickly closed to sweep the problem under the rug.

Amen.

I’m sorry but you can’t tell me that knowing the time when it occurred and the player’s account they can’t track this down in the data. If that’s true, then that’s even more pathetic. Why does this guy still have an account?