Players "phasing out" during fights when close to loosing in Wpvp

[Imbajuíce-dentarg (Imbajuíce)]

Hello fellow pvp’ers.

I would like to know if i am the only one who has experienced other people “phasing out” when they are about to loose a battle.

Today i was roaming Stormsong vally looking for some world pvp action, as i had the “kill 10 alliance” quest. I quickly found out that a MASSIVE group of alliance was raiding some of the key areas for us horde, which was perfect in my opinion, as that would guarantee some action.

However, i encountered something rather exasperating. Three times, i experienced that my opponent kind of “phased out” just before i killed them…and disappeared before i could deliver “the final blow”.

This was particularly aggravating when a Gnome fury warrior jumped me in an attempt to catch me off guard, he was better geared then me (checked armory ) but i played my cooldowns right, and had some lucky crits, and was JUST about to execute him, when BAM…phase out…

How?..i do not know…but it sure got me annoyed as i felt i had been robbed of an otherwise glorious battle and a victory to be proud of.

Is there anything i can do to make it not happen, or is it an exploit that i should report?

[Morganlys-earthen-ring]

They might be joining group quests in the area (think for assaults etc), which means that they will probably be joining another shard?

If they ‘time it right’ they can switch before they die.

[Imbajuíce-dentarg (Imbajuíce)]

They must be damn good at multitasking then…because i sure would have been unable to do so while raging down upon an enemy.

But with that said, and with full respect of the feat it is to be able to multitask, I find it rather dishonorable, and also very annoying…cheap trick to “save face” in my opinion.

[Menellost-argent-dawn]

I normally run around waiting for my bg queue to pop, so when it finally does, it becomes a get out of jail free card in world PVP. Perhaps this is what you’ve experienced.

[Coolgroove-defias-brotherhood (Coolgroove)]

Many players join queues for Arena/BG/Dungs, and accept when they about to lose. There is and UI addons that allow you to move frames around, so frame is never in the center blocking view. Very common “tactic” for many expansions, nothing new.

Many join LFG groups from different shards. Or leave current group if they are from another not connected server. It doesn’t work all the time, but if there is a lot of players from their faction around, or their new group is in the same area, they can get moved to another shard very fast. Happens a lot since Legion.

Many just Alt+F4 their game, trying to simulate DC. Also not guaranteed, as they show up as dead, and die on login. It gives you honor btw, if you wait

Also common practice - join group with Warlock and get summoned.

I despise those who do this - they are basically exploiting in-game systems, and it’s no better than cheating. But scam will be scam, what can you do…

@Imbajuíce-dentarg

They must be damn good at multitasking then…because i sure would have been unable to do so while raging down upon an enemy.

It’s not hard and no multitasking involved:

• Someone from their group (even if they are not there with you) can queue them up, or summon.
• It takes only to right-click your portrait and then left-click leave group to phase out this way.

@Imbajuíce-dentarg

cheap trick to “save face” in my opinion.

That’s the thing - in the end, by doing so, they don’t “save their face”. They put in mud of pathetic weakness.

[Imbajuíce-dentarg (Imbajuíce)]

@Coolgroove-defias-brotherhood

That’s the thing - in the end, by doing so, they don’t “save their face”. They put in mud of pathetic weakness.

I agree with you. Weak and fragile. And exasperating indeed. It gets my blood boiling.

[Scotchka-twisting-nether (Scotchka)]

You can count those fights as won. Just like when a Rogue vanishes and doesn’t return, or when a pally bubble-hearts to escape dying in a 1v1. Yes, he lived, but he will live in shame.

[Coolgroove-defias-brotherhood (Coolgroove)]

This whole problem can be so easily fixed. Game already can detect if you’re in a combat with another player.

So just instant decline queue that pops up (no need even to show it) if player is in combat with enemy player or was in combat in the last minute (in case they drop combat with vanish/invis/etc). If player has bounty on them - it’s 5 minutes.

Similar for changing a phase.

Just make any queue/phasing work like that, at least for War Mode.

I wonder if anything about it would ever happen, because these exploiters are getting out of hand - I see this happening more and more.

[Holybeef-hellfire]

yeah saw one mage in Orgrimmar killing people every time he was about to die he just vanished only to appear fully healed few moments later. He did it severeal times so i dont think its BG/Arenas popping up there must be something else.

[Elogis-anachronos (Elogis)]

I don’t know if its just me or if other people get it happen to them but if I list myself in the LFG to find a group to quest/kill with and i’m attacked by another player before I accept the invite I don’t get phased to my new groups sever until I either die or get out of PvP combat. Even when I join a raid group for the elite killing world quests it takes 15 seconds for me to phase in so I can see/interact with the raid.

[Vaëyn-ravencrest (Vaëyn)]

I know when leaving a group there’s a slight delay, don’t think I’ve done that during combat though, or in combat when joining. Might try it to see

[Coolgroove-defias-brotherhood (Coolgroove)]

This whole phasing and q to escape thing are getting abused more and more. For me, on average, in 5 out of 10 fights I win lossing opponent vanishes.

There is even new method to make it easier to do for Horde - new toy “Rhan’ka’s Escape Plan”, they just pop it and wait for q or to phase out. You can’t dispel it or get them out of it with AoE or bomb-drop or any other way, or target them at all.

@Elogis-anachronos

I don’t know if its just me or if other people get it happen to them but if I list myself in the LFG to find a group to quest/kill with and i’m attacked by another player before I accept the invite I don’t get phased to my new groups sever until I either die or get out of PvP combat. Even when I join a raid group for the elite killing world quests it takes 15 seconds for me to phase in so I can see/interact with the raid.

@Vaëyn-ravencrest

I know when leaving a group there’s a slight delay, don’t think I’ve done that during combat though, or in combat when joining. Might try it to see

I’ve tested it, wanted to know how it works.

• So far, combat has very little to do with phasing, at least in my tests time to phase out/back in wasn’t affected by it.
• Location and invisible trigger borders are what triggers phasing all the time.
• If I stay in place and join/leave then phasing works fast only if it’s a place with big population (Elite/World boss WQ for example).
• When I leave WQ group, I see other players for some time, or until I or them move away (small distance) from WQ area.
• Target/track WQ with auto join (even on the other side of the map), get in combat on another WQ or near some WQ area, join tracked WQ and move in or out of WQ area that is near. Always phase out/in. Works all the time, with or without combat.
• City/Village/etc borders works the same way.
• That’s how majority of players escape repeated ganking on assaults - just join and move - you’ll be phased once you’ve crossed any trigger.

Anyway, with no official info on any of those matters - I’ve made a support ticket to ask if it is legal to abuse queue and phasing systems to escape in WPvP.

This is the response I’ve got:

As for your question regarding the tactic itself, any abuse of in-game mechanics is not allowed.

I want to issue a word of caution however, it might be easy to assume that anyone that phases out might be using this, and although it is easy to see a pattern when you are looking for it, it’s possible that players simply had a queue pop-up while engaged in world pvp, I know it happens to me.

That being said, you can report players if they wrote something, or if you can right click their portrait, but if there’s no way to do so, you can send an e-mail to Hacks@blizzard.com detailing your observations.

The more specific you can be in terms of names, realm, time, details etc the easier it is for them to investigate further.

I think that means that using phasing to escape gank raid is OK, or switching from group to group on Assault, etc. But using stuff like constant queuing during WPvP and escaping/joining during PvP combat, or joining groups on a distant auto-join WQ while you’re in PvP combat - are not.

Basically players who do that regularly are exploiters - actions recorded and their pattern of abusing the system can be seen, and it’s not allowed. Big Brother is watching you…

to Moderators - I hope I didn’t break any rules by posting this, since it’s not a private information or something that relevant only to me. It is something that any player should know.

[Vaëyn-ravencrest (Vaëyn)]

Thanks for doing all that testing and posting your findings! Now I don’t have to.

Yep, hard to know if a player is abusing the system, or is simply oblivious, or they had a queue pop and legitimately didn’t want to wait x mins to requeue.

For sure it’s annoying tho. Ideally, we should be unaware of any behind the scenes stuff going on that makes everything work. The phasing feels clunky, but what to do.