Powerleveling... : Guild Wars 2 Discussions

Question: I'm going to be out of the country for work for a bit and was thinking about having some Karma-powerleveling done while I was gone. I wanted to get some feedback on how likely it is to get caught? A friend has used these types of services quite a bit without incident...but I know most of these are out of the country and thought they checked the ISP addresses for such things? Any input/experience is much appreciated.

A good company will use a VPN to mask their IP to something in your country, however as long as the country isn't China, you're usually safe anyways. For example, we (my company) sometimes use US IPs for EU accounts and vice-versa, there is no problem here.

Every newer game has some type of IP Protection built into it, in this case, GW2 sends you an email when someone tries to login to your account, from a different IP. You verify it's ok, and then they level for you. As long as they don't change to a different IP, you should be good to go - in other words, they need a static IP.

One thing that most powerleveling companies don't do, is to use static IPs, so you might have a problem there. If they use something like HideMyAss VPN, everything will be on a dynamic IP, and this can actually be a problem for you, since gold farmers also use it. This in turn can cause a ban or suspension to your account for suspicious activity.

Unfortunately, most companies won't tell you if they use static or dynamic, nor which VPN company they use. As such you might find that after you pay that the IP changes everyday. To avoid something like this, order 24 hours of leveling, and see how it goes.

One other thing you should watch out for, is super cheap prices. You should be paying around $1.75-$2 per hour for leveling, which signifies hand-leveling. Prices which are less then this, usually signifies botting. Additionally, find a company which levels in 12 hour blocks. If they are on your account for 16-24 hours a day, again this is likely a bot, and much easier to detect (suspension/ban), party because they aren't usually watched. To find out if a company is botting, ask them how many hours a day they will work on your account. If you ask them if they are hand leveling, they will always reply yes, even when they bot, so tricking them with an indirect question will likely fool them.

excellent feedback and info Spitt. I've been reluctant to use these services in the past (mainly because most services seem to be out of Asia)--but facing a prolonged amount of time out of the country I don't want to fall behind in my karma-grinding (I can almost taste the legendary!) Prices for Karma-grinding are still pretty steep for the amount I still need. I may sit tight and see where prices go but appreciate the tips and what to look out for.

As for being out of Asia... my levelers are too. You really have a choice when it comes to this type of thing, but the choices get uglier or more expensive as you go down the list.

You can have someone bot - high chance of ban, but cheaper. May or may not be out of Asia.
You can have someone hand level - less of a chance of a ban, slightly higher prices if out of Asia.
You can have a neighbor's kid level for you - Unlikely chance to be banned.. unless (s)he's immature and curses/threatens in-game or decides to bot... price will probably be 2x-3x the cost of Asia.
Have a company out of the US/EU ensure that you are getting someone to do it by hand, and makes guarantees of no bots/Asians... cost would probably be $8-$10 an hour.