A message to neutral AH snipers and transferrers

[janikz211]

Just today i tried transferring stuff to alliance side. But i was smart enough to test the waters by selling a blue item for cheap (they seem to only buy blues as the stack of herbs that usually costs 12g in AH didnt sell at 1c for a minute before i cancelled) and boom the quicksnipers are active as they can be. I waited for some minutes to an hour and tested it again but they were still active. Note that i try to transfer stuff to the other faction at the not so populated time.

So i logged my lvl 60 in and killed every single lowlvl standing near the AH that stays for more than 5 minutes. But after like 30 minutes i figured out it was all for naught as even when they are all dead the sniping still went on. So i hearthed and continued farming. I then filed a ticket asking if those snipers are legit (quicksnipers snipe AH in less than a second after posting) and in less than 5 minutes a GM replied saying he will be checking and banning those guys if proven guilty of botlike activities. I gladly gave him the names and in just a moment he went on and banned those botlike AH snipers but the ones who seem to snipe manually were spared. I reported some names and 5 lowlvls got banned. The GM even taught me to use /who winterspring 1-30 and so on (neutral AH are in stranglethorn tanaris, and winterspring) to check if there are possible snipers online and to immediately report them by filing a ticket so they would get banned if confirmed botting the auction sniping.

I just want to share this story to tell those who transfer goods to the opposite faction to check for possible snipers, report them, and test the waters with a blue that will not cost much before transferring your stuff. Let's help each other out by getting these bad guys banned.

This will also serve as a message to those who are freely sniping AH using scripts that your days are counted. I will most likely be reporting lots of names daily and so will those who have already learned their lesson. Thank you Nostalrius staff for being so so so active in the war against these botters.

[Killstick]

Killing low lvls toons wont do you any good; as you cannot acces every neutral AH and you cannot kill the snipers from your own faction

[Dish]

This will also serve as a message to those who are freely sniping AH using scripts that your days are counted. I will most likely be reporting lots of names daily and so will those who have already learned their lesson. Thank you Nostalrius staff for being so so so active in the war against these botters.

This, I'm glad staff is throwing out bans for this.

[janikz211]

Killing low lvls toons wont do you any good; as you cannot acces every neutral AH and you cannot kill the snipers from your own faction

figured that one out... i was pretty mad that they were online for almost 24/7 now freely-stealing items.
I was really mad and had to somewhat vent out but it didn't really last for long as they logged their accounts in and PMed me so i gave them 10 mins to do their transfer thing

This, I'm glad staff is throwing out bans for this.

I was really amazed at how the GM reacted, i always thought they were fine with those quicksnipers as what i have read in the forums. I even reported almost every single lowlvl in the area but the GM said not all snipers are botters. I'm good with snipers as long as theyre not insanely fast. Neutral AH will still come with a risk but that's what we have to take to get those goods to the dark side

[Levinas]

There are so many people with nothing to do, so why not park a couple of Rogues of each faction in Winterspring/STV and kill these wankers 24/7 until they stop?

[janikz211]

There are so many people with nothing to do, so why not park a couple of Rogues of each faction in Winterspring/STV and kill these wankers 24/7 until they stop?

Coz it's hard to know which ones are sniping, which ones are just transferring goods, and which ones are the botters. Even if a rogue keeps on killing them, that rogue will eventually stop then it's business as usual. Getting them banned is much much better imo.

[Levinas]

Coz it's hard to know which ones are sniping, which ones are just transferring goods, and which ones are the botters. Even if a rogue keeps on killing them, that rogue will eventually stop then it's business as usual. Getting them banned is much much better imo.

Identifying them should be easy enough, aka. level 1s.

I realize that getting them banned is better, but I assume the individuals doing this have these "alts" on separate accounts, making it futile to ban them, as we have seen in other cases of people using scripts/bots on alt accounts with no consequences to their mains.

[janikz211]

Identifying them should be easy enough, aka. level 1s.

I realize that getting them banned is better, but I assume the individuals doing this have these "alts" on separate accounts, making it futile to ban them, as we have seen in other cases of people using scripts/bots on alt accounts with no consequences to their mains.

well, first of all we don't even know if it's just account ban or ip ban.
secondly, AH sniping isn't as easy as just getting a lvl 1 character to the neutral AH. It takes time to get it to booty bay/ tanaris / winterspring. And even if they use a warlock portal, they have to risk getting caught as an account connected to the lowbie.
Lastly, AH sniping is an investment. You don't put a sniper out with no money waiting for 1c posts. It requires at least 50,100, or more gold to start with. Losing that in mere minutes would highly discourage those snipers. I've been watching the area for a while and they have been silent for hours now.

As long as we help each other out and report those pesky snipers, they will soon be gone coz it wouldn't be a profitable investment anymore.

[Levinas]

It requires at least 50,100, or more gold to start with.

Where does that number come from?

[janikz211]

It requires at least 50,100, or more gold to start with.

Where does that number come from?

from my mind and from what i have seen in the market, most items that u snipe are gears of value from blue to epic and they would most likely put it up at around 10g or so for epics and maybe at 1g for the blues. You wouldn't want to miss that lionheart helm posted at 20g would you? It would be quite logical to have at least 100g. And besides, you would not want to stop at buying 1 piece of gear and have to logoff your sniper each time u snipe something of value.