exploits are bad okay

Discussing When An Exploit Is Or Isn’t

I call it powerleveling.  Some people call it character boosting.  I even read a wiki article that calls it character towing (which I’ve never, ever heard before, and think is a terrible choice for the wiki article).  Whatever you call it, it’s using a higher level character to speed up the leveling of a lower level character.  Without exploiting.  To set this story up, I have a friend I want to help level in World of Warcraft.  I have no characters in her level range, but I do have higher level characters to help her with at my disposal.  I’m also obsessed with leveling as quickly as possible in general.

Documenting For Science

Recently I was reading Reddit, and came across a powerleveling video.  It shows you how to powerlevel someone using a level 80 raid. (Ruby Sanctum, 25 man)  You can take someone at level 1 with this method and farm XP until you hit the raid reset cap.  The more I thought about it though, the more I wondered if it was considered an exploit.

I consider myself a very straight arrow kind of person.  I do not want to exploit.  I have never intentionally exploited, and don’t know of a time I did.  If somehow I have exploited at some point, I sure don’t know about it.  I plan to keep it that way, and hope you do too.  Given the recent press for exploits in SWTOR, I think now is a particularly good time to explore precisely what exploiting is.  So I talked about it with my friends, and we ran an experiment. We tried getting into other same level raid, but were not able to.  We then went into the raid to see what the XP gain was.  We pulled three groups of trash, and each pull yielded 4% of a level at level 46.  Everything worked as reported in the video.  We stopped there, and left the raid.

My friend Eohnavi’s* lowbie died during one of the pulls.  Please thank him for his sacrifice to science.

Discussing The Results Scientific Like

Next we had a conversation about why it might be an exploit.  Using a higher level character to help a lower level character through higher level areas is certainly not an exploit.  You can take a lowbie friend on a two-seater mount and zoom around higher level areas.  The exploration XP would surely start to rack up.  So what would it matter whether you were leveling a friend through a high level raid, or chauffeuring them across high level content?  You’re actually taking the time to do it, not using some code glitch to boost levels.  Finally Eohnavi brought up the argument that because you cannot do it in other same-level raids, that it was also not intended to be done in this one.  The argument made sense to me.

What To Take Away From It All

In the end, I have decided not to use this particular method of powerleveling.  Aside from the danger of getting an account ban, I always try to do the right thing.  Right now, heirlooms and dungeon farming are the orders of the day for powerleveling my friend.  It’s more of a priority for me than her anyway.  She’s a dirty Horde player by and large, though she did level a space goat to hang out with us.  If I had $60 to give her to boost, I would.  I’m enjoying World of Warcraft right now, and the more friends I have around, the better.

Ethics in gaming is a very important topic to me.  I get super nerd excited.  Really, ethics in general interest me.  When I can merge it with my gaming, it’s win-win-win.  So no matter when you find this article, please contribute your personal beliefs to the comments.  I had my opinion up front, but Eohnavi changed my mind.  That’s why it’s more important to talk about things, than to ‘be right’ about everything.  Let me sum it up for you like this.

“It’s not about being right, it’s about doing right.”

                                                             -Me

*I use the term friend loosely in regards to Eohnavi.

5 thoughts on “Powerleveling Or Exploiting?”
  1. I don’t really see an issue with using Ruby Sanctum for power-leveling. I really don’t see Blizz just “forgetting” to lock out that one particular raid. I found the video ( link would’ve been nice). Seems like they are just pulling a bit of trash mobs. And even if you did a few of the mini-bosses there’s no real loot that drops, just the tokens. Personally (and it’s sure just my opinion), I think it has to do with the number of bosses. Ulduar has a ton of bosses, which means you may level a lowbie straight through, in one sitting maybe. ICC same thing. Grand Crusader, same thing. Question: Did you try level 60 raids? Or even level 70? Why so stuck on 80? (other than the fact that it may be the highest level one you could enter?) I don’t see an issue with using ANY content for power-leveling. Obviously, since you found the video, others have beat you to it. Blizzard has never had any issue with stomping the fun out of things if they feel that it’s affecting game balance or anything like that. Also, you need to be level 30 to enter that raid. Why would they have the minimum level that low and then call using it an exploit?

    TL;DR: If Blizzard didn’t want you to use it to powerlevel or farm, I don’t think you would be able to.

    1. There’s generally a period where an exploit goes unpatched. The whole discovery process, then the word of mouth spreading, then Blizzard has to take notice, and finally they implement a fix. I’m not sure what stage this one is in. It really is weird that there’s just one particular raid where this works. That being the only raid that a level 30 can go into seems like a glitch to me. Taking a high level character into a low level dungeon has always been ok. Taking a low level character into a high level dungeon hasn’t generally been doable. I guess what i’m getting at is that this seems more of an exception, than a rule. Which is why I lean more towards exploit. Now if Blizzard were to mention something like ‘Now only level 30s and above can enter Ruby Sanctum’ into patch notes, or something similar, it would clearly not be an exploit. Still weird, but not an exploit.

      Something I failed to mention also is that the level 80+ character had to enter the raid first. When the low level tries to enter the raid, it denies them access.

      P.S. Glad you’re still alive!

      1. Yup, I understand what you’re saying. I kept the link to the video, maybe it’s not the same one you found! In the bottom corner, this fellow says that as of 2/13/15 the minimum level was raised to 30. RAISED TO 30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu4ddjI05P8
        This means that Blizz is definitely aware, and they have even took steps to do something about it (by raising the min level to 30!). I can’t find a patch note that states this. I’m going by this guys word alone (Yeah yeah I know it’s the internet. Not everything on the internet is the truth). Also, the highest level character has always had to enter first.
        Ultimately it comes down to how you feel about doing this. If you don’t want to, then don’t. Or even better, send in a ticket to Blizz and ask them, since they are the ultimate authority! This way if its ok you get the answer from someone you know is right. And if not, you’ve done your lawful good paladin thing and reported it. Everyone wins!!

        In all seriousness, I’ve just seen Blizz stomp on things like this too much for me to think it’s an exploit. Especially in like Diablo 3. (Yeah I know, different teams, but Blizz is still Blizz).

        =D

        1. Sending a ticket is a good idea. I wonder if they’d actually respond, or if they’d send you a canned response? I’ll have to look into that. Thanks for the idea!

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