[2019] "Exploiting an existing bug in the client involving the Mastery Tree Cat"

@Deylios Darksol:

For those getting banned, I would wager a guess that you did it more than once, figured it out and proceeded to continue to abuse the mechanic in game. I am 100% positive WotC pulled the logs of the people that were banned, saw that they were doing this action on multiple occasions, and offered them a 5 day vacation from the game.


Let's be honest, most people who have the cats have clicked fast a few times and gone about their game, not causing disconnects and not been banned. I know I have done that.

This. We ran the numbers. If you clicked on the cat an insane amount of times in a match multiple times, you got a suspension. It wasn't a matter of just clicking the cat a few times... Or even a few hundred times a match... It was far, far more than that.

As I tell everyone who gets banned/suspended and finds it unfair, you can reply to the original email to contest it.

@Solow#23857:

@WotC_Lexie:

@Deylios Darksol:

For those getting banned, I would wager a guess that you did it more than once, figured it out and proceeded to continue to abuse the mechanic in game. I am 100% positive WotC pulled the logs of the people that were banned, saw that they were doing this action on multiple occasions, and offered them a 5 day vacation from the game.


Let's be honest, most people who have the cats have clicked fast a few times and gone about their game, not causing disconnects and not been banned. I know I have done that.

This. We ran the numbers. If you clicked on the cat an insane amount of times in a match multiple times, you got a suspension. It wasn't a matter of just clicking the cat a few times... Or even a few hundred times a match... It was far, far more than that.


As I tell everyone who gets banned/suspended and finds it unfair, you can reply to the original email to contest it.

It should not matter if you ran the numbers or not.
You sold us a product, didn't warn us it had a flaw and then started banning people for using something they paid for.
If someone pays for your product they should be allowed to use it. If they want to smash the cat again and again it should be their choice being that they paid for it. If there was a known issue you should have either recalled the product or fixed the issue asap.
Many games have bugs when they first get released and the companies who make these games patch them, they do not ban players for using the product that they sold them.

Using an exploit is still against our Code of Conduct, whether you paid for something or not. Those suspended weren't just absentmindedly clicking or simply "using" the cat.

Note that we are implementing a solution in our next patch.

@Solow#23857:

I guess this is a heads up to all who actually pay to play.
Also I have no issue with F2P players but I love how certain F2P players within this post have admitted that they will never pay to play, being that WoTC hasn't given them a reason to buy anything, think that they have the right to decide what the pay to play players get to do with the products that they paid hard earned money for.
I guess they feel that somehow them constantly acting as if they are the protector of WoTC is payment enough for the dev's and will pay to keep this game running.

1. Stop calling out players and trolling. Read our Code of Conduct please.

2. Spending money doesn't give you a pass to be rude (by rude I mean use a known exploit).

3. Whether you put money into a game or not, your opinion on something is still valid.

@Solow#23857:

@WotC_Lexie:

@Solow#23857:

I guess this is a heads up to all who actually pay to play.
Also I have no issue with F2P players but I love how certain F2P players within this post have admitted that they will never pay to play, being that WoTC hasn't given them a reason to buy anything, think that they have the right to decide what the pay to play players get to do with the products that they paid hard earned money for.
I guess they feel that somehow them constantly acting as if they are the protector of WoTC is payment enough for the dev's and will pay to keep this game running.

1. Stop calling out players and trolling. Read our Code of Conduct please.
2. Spending money doesn't give you a pass to be rude (by rude I mean use a known exploit).
3. Whether you put money into a game or not, your opinion on something is still valid.

Once again protecting certain players instead of calling them out for their troll like actions that they have committed on several post, inc this one.
Your vision of a troll and mine must be 2 different things.
And for the record I do not feel that me paying money gives me more rights than F2P players. It was not about that. It was about certain F2P players that constantly like to troll these threads, never get called out for it and admit that they will never invest in the game.
You sure do have a funny way of supporting those who pay your salaries.
Oh, and I never said anyones name so technically I didn't call out anyone. Being that you knew exactly who I was talking about though tells me that you too have seen not said players actions.

"Trolling or baiting the community in general with inflammatory statements, such as ones designed to elicit a negative response from the community" is against our Code of Conduct. You are breaking that rule. I don't know who you're talking about, and it seems your issue with them is that they don't agree with you. Them having a different opinion isn't "trolling".

I was given the okay to give out exact numbers, so here it goes... Only about 50 people were suspended (and only for five days). The people who were suspended were clicking the cat over 150 per minute, and it was constant. There were thousands of clicks per game. It wasn't a one time thing, either. This was over multiple matches.

If you have been just absentmindedly clicking the cat, you won't get in trouble.

@Njordin:

@WotC_Lexie:

I was given the okay to give out exact numbers, so here it goes... Only about 50 people were suspended (and only for five days). The people who were suspended were clicking the cat over 150 per minute, and it was constant. There were thousands of clicks per game. It wasn't a one time thing, either. This was over multiple matches.


If you have been just absentmindedly clicking the cat, you won't get in trouble.

All those are great, but is there a chance to give us an option to hide our opponents' cats in the first place ? Just like we can permanently disable emotes ?

You can. Mute emotes, and it mutes the cat too.

@Gunkslinger:

@WotC_Lexie:

I was given the okay to give out exact numbers, so here it goes... Only about 50 people were suspended (and only for five days). The people who were suspended were clicking the cat over 150 per minute, and it was constant. There were thousands of clicks per game. It wasn't a one time thing, either. This was over multiple matches.


If you have been just absentmindedly clicking the cat, you won't get in trouble.

This is where I go from an Arena whale to a FTP.
"I was given the okay to give out exact numbers, so here it goes... Only about 50 people."

How does 'exact' equal 'only about'?

I can pull the EXACT number of people suspended, but it doesn't matter whether it was 47 people or 52. What matters is the click numbers. :information_desk_person:

@Shard:

@WotC_Lexie:

@Njordin:

@WotC_Lexie:

I was given the okay to give out exact numbers, so here it goes... Only about 50 people were suspended (and only for five days). The people who were suspended were clicking the cat over 150 per minute, and it was constant. There were thousands of clicks per game. It wasn't a one time thing, either. This was over multiple matches.


If you have been just absentmindedly clicking the cat, you won't get in trouble.

All those are great, but is there a chance to give us an option to hide our opponents' cats in the first place ? Just like we can permanently disable emotes ?

You can. Mute emotes, and it mutes the cat too.

I believe what Njordin was requesting was a way to completely hide the opponent's cat. Not just a way to mute it, but a way to make sure it's not visible either.

You can not completely hide your opponents cat, only mute it.

@Big Red Dragon#99005:

@WotC_Lexie

I would really like to know, why not just fix something so trivial to fix? If you really only banned like 50 people, that means there's still thousands of cases where people have their clients crash due to this bug, right? Again, why not just resolve the issue? Why didn't you resolve it last time? Why is it even in the game in the first place?

Unlike all the other animations, the color change has no cooldown, meaning I can easily spawn as many particles as I like depending on how fast I click it. Clearly that's a problem, so why is it not being fixed? As said earlier, anyone - artist or coder - can very, very easily fix this issue and it could have already been deployed with the mastery update a week ago. So why does this problem still exist? It makes no sense to me.
You wouldn't need to discuss this in a 12 pages forum thread if you would have just fixed the bug.

As we’ve said, it’s being fixed in the next patch.

HEY FOLKS, IF YOU CALL OUT OTHER USERS OR MAKE INFLAMMATORY STATEMENTS, THAT BREAKS OUR CODE OF CONDUCT. SEE RULE 3.

I’m closing the thread. Everyone has made their thoughts known already and I suggest EVERYONE here reread the Code of Conduct.

- OP, if you feel the suspension was unfair, please contact our support team to appeal.

- Those that are concerned, totally understood. The cat will be addressed in the next patch.

- Annoyed with your opponents cat? Muting all emotes also mutes your opponents cat.