I have been playing M:AA with hacks for over 3 years, on multiple accounts, in high profile pvp groups with skilled pvp enthusiasts, and have won Adamantium numerous times without using hacks. I am no amature to the game and its mechanics.
I am writing this as a general informative guide on how to use hacks in pvp, including the risks and rewards involved. It should be of interest to both newcomers and veterans, and to anyone who may be worried about the risk of getting banned.
It is presented in a FAQ manner where I will go over each major pvp hack and list general tips and insights on how to use each of them most effectively. I will attempt to cover as many issues as I can, and to the best of my knowledge and experience.
Very long post incoming.
- General Concerns
Q: Will I be banned for using the hacks here?
A:Short answer; No.
Long answer; No, but...
Nothing is 100%. None of us can say with certainty that you will never get banned. What I personally can say, through my thousands of hours of cheating in M:AA, across numerous accounts, is that the chances of getting banned is virtually non-existant as long as you use common sense.
Playdom has very little to no control of what goes on client-side, and I believe they have no combat logs or monitoring tools that tell them what the players do during a battle. The only thing they can monitor is how many battles you've won and how many you have lost, so as long as these numbers are not obviously ridiculous you'll be fine. If you have 200 attacking wins and 0 attacking losses, then any moron who wasn't born yesterday can figure out that you have been cheating. And trust me, many high rank veteran players will check your combat history after you've beaten them on defense, and if they see something suspicious, they will report you. Losing a few battles is not only acceptable, it is highly recommended.
Look, Playdom may be incompetent, but they are not stupid. They are fully aware of M:AA hacks and cheats, and the hacking community behind them. Exactly how much they know, and how many hacks they are aware of, is hard to say. They are a small team that neither has the time nor funding to hunt for cheaters unless it is a really extreme case.
Q: I think I've been reported by other players for cheating, will I get banned now?
A: Here's the thing. Other players reporting is not proof of your cheating. They are reporting you on a hunch, and Playdom then has to set aside time to investigate your account for win/loss logs, which really doesn't prove anything either. To them it's a waste of money and time, so unless you get mass reported by hundreds of players, then they likely won't bother even looking at your account.
They are already dealing with tons of support tickets from people who have technical issues that need to be solved. A few butthurt players sending report tickets about suspected cheating is going to get completely ignored.
Q: Can I cheat and still avoid drawing attention from report-happy players?
A: Yes you can.
Most pvp veterans will check every lost defense battle, and will check your profile if they feel the battle report looks odd. They know what makes sense and what doesn't. If they have a super powerful defense team and got beaten by a level 114 player with 20 heroes, then they will report your ass instantly.
So a general rule of thumb is to not boost your pvp rank beyond what makes sense in regards to your account. If you only have a small amount of heroes and a low armory bonus, then you should keep your rating in the lower leagues, silver/gold/vibranium, until the very last few days of the tournament. Then push for a low adamantium placement around 1600 on the last day to avoid exposing yourself to too many players early on.
During the early days of a pvp season, many of the veteran players with itchy report fingers will be across all leagues and ranks, so you want to be careful and stick to only doing your 5 daily battles. Once the season nears the last week, the veterans will all be in the 2000+ range, making it safer for you to move up the ranks without notice.
If you have most or all heroes and a high armory bonus, you shouldn't worry about your rating. You can go 3000 and play around in the top 10 if you want, but it is super important that you start losing battles on purpose! If the veterans check your profile and see you have all heroes and good armory, they won't think much of it. But if they check win/loss history and notice that you have almost no attacking losses, then they will know that something is up and probably report you.
How you choose to lose is up to you. Just do it once in a while. Personally I like cheating my way through the 5 dailies, and then do a few legit non-hacked battles throughout the day. Once I hit the higher ratings I will start losing fights naturally once in a while, maybe 1 or 2 per day, sometimes more. This adds up in the long run and by the end of the tournament I will have a fairly believable win/loss ratio that won't piss anyone off.
- Area of Effect Hack
Also known as AoE hack, this cheat causes all of your heroes' single target attacks to hit all enemies. It also causes all single target buffs to be granted to all heroes on your team.
Q: How safe do you rate the AoE hack, can PD detect me using it?
A: Very safe. I'd rate chances of a ban is 0.01% or less. This hack is virtually undetectable in any way and is one of the singular hacks that has never stopped working as long as the game has existed. When all other hacks temporarily fail or get patched, the AoE hack continues to work because it is impossible to prevent or detect.
Q: How powerful is this hack, will I win all games with it?
A: The AoE hack does not affect the enemy team in any way, it only applies to your own team's attacks and buffs. This means that the enemy AI will play normally and attack you in full force, possibly killing you before you can kill them. It does not prevent the enemy heroes from tacking actions. The AoE hack is not an "I win" button. It gives you a significant advantage, but that's it. You should absolutely expect to lose many battles in the higher ranks, especially once your opponent's armory exceeds yours.
Q: Why would I use a hack that doesn't win the game for me?
A: Numerous reasons. First of all; it can be fun. Actually playing the game is fun. Sometimes. The AoE hack gives you a big advantage, but you still have to actually plan your team, make tactical decisions in battle and pay attention to what is going on.
Second; As stated above, when all other hacks fail (which they sometimes do), the AoE hack will always be there for you. It never fails.
Third; Winning every battle and never losing a single fight is going to look suspicious. Even the best of the best legit players lose on attack. Frequently. Remember, neither Playdom nor other players can see a log of how you won the battle, but they can see a statistic of how many battles you've won and lost.
Q: Ok got it, losing a few battles is a good thing. So how do I use the AoE hack most effectively?
A: Generally you'll want to do your best not to lose. Put up the best team you can and play your hardest. Sooner or later you will reach a rank where no matter how well you play, you will lose. You don't have to lose on purpose, just let it happen naturally.
The beauty of the AoE hack is that is makes every hero in the game far more powerful than they were originally designed to be. Heroes with heavy-hitting attacks, like Thor, Havok, Hercules, etc. can wipe out an entire team with a single hit.
Alternatively, heroes that have very powerful single target debuff attacks, such as Gamora's Doom or Enchantress' free action chaos shot, will affect the whole team. Loading all 3 enemy heroes up with debilitating debuffs and dots with a single attack can be extremely powerful.
Likewise, turning powerful single target team buffs such as Daimon's heal or Cable's L9 into a team buff really puts you in a favorable position. Think outside the box. Many heroes are not considered viable in pvp because some of their most powerful moves are single target. But converted to an AoE attack, nearly every hero can become a powerhouse if set up correctly.
All of these rules also apply to agent gear. The only exception is that buff abilities listed as "Self" will never become AoE and always only affect the hero/agent casting them.
- Disorient Hack
This hack causes the enemy AI to operate in a similar fashion as the Disoriented debuff, albeit a much more potent version of it. The chance of attacking an ally is 100%, all the time, including AoE attacks, and cannot be dispelled. Heroes normally immune to Disoriented is not immune to the hack.
Q: How safe do you rate the Disorient hack, can PD detect me using it?
A: Also very safe. I have used it for more than a year on multiple accounts and never gotten banned. Unlike the AoE hack, however, the Disorient hack does sometimes stop working. Whether this is incidental or an actual block from PD's end is unknown.
Q: How powerful is this hack, will I win all games with it?
A: While far more powerful than the AoE hack, it does not guarantee a win every time. Even though the enemy heroes will attack each other instead of you, they are not prevented from performing counter attacks, pre-emptive attacks, follow-up or join-in attacks. If for example your Tactician agent attacks an Infiltrator opponent, then that hero will counter-attack and deal damage to you. If your opponent has a huge armory bonus compared to you, such a counter can potentially kill your attacking character. In the case of Rocket Raccoon/Union Jack/Spider-man Noir teams, who constantly join-in and follow-up, a disoriented opponent can easily wipe out your entire team if you attack them just once.
A good way to guard yourself from getting wiped out by such teams is to just recharge your way through the fight and let the enemy heroes kill each other. Alternatively you can bring along heroes with stealthy/subtle attacks, or bring heroes who can avoid being hit, such as phased/astral heroes (Kitty pryde, baron mordo, dr. strange, moonstone and others)
- Auto Win Hack
Exclusive to the wonderful Konghack Ultra Trainer, the auto win does exactly what it says it does. It automatically wins the battle for you. No fighting needed, you just click "fight" and receive an instant win.
Q: How safe do you rate the Auto Win hack, can PD detect me using it?
A: Overall safe, but it's a hack I would use with a little caution. I don't fully understand how the hack works, but completely bypassing the battle seems like something that might be more detectable server-side. That said I do use it, and have done for many months with no issues. Keep in mind that you can blaze through battles very quickly with this thing since it's a 1-click victory, so I'd advise slowing it down a bit and not spam 20 victories in 1 minute (because that is possible with this cheat).
Q: How powerful is this hack, will I win all games with it?
A: If you are just looking for a sure win, then there is nothing more powerful than this. It is fucking Superman high on crystal meth. There is literally no risk of losing. Ever. The hack completely bypasses the fight and doesn't even load up the heroes. It just loads the battle, and the immediately ports you to the victory screen before you can even do anything. You can go 100% win-rate with this if you want (which you don't, I think I've already made that perfectly clear)
It's perfect for doing your 5 daily wins, but otherwise I would not recommend using it until the very last day of pvp where you need to do a fast climb during the last hours.
- XML Hacks
I won't cover this much because each XML hack is individual. Some of the popular ones are damage boosters and recharge overkill, both of which works by causing a certain attack or skill to do ridiculous amounts of damage, allowing you to 1-hit-kill any hero.
Q: How safe do you rate XML hacks, can PD detect me using them?
A: It's hard to say because it again depends on what exactly your XML hack does. Client side things such as damage boosts should be perfectly safe and undetectable. Some XML hacks cause CVE (Combat Validation Errors), which forces you to reload your game. This usually means that the game server has detected anomalous data being sent to it, which could possibly draw attention to your account (highly unlikely). Personally I've used the recharge kill XML hack many, many times in pvp with no issues.
Q: How powerful is this hack, will I win all games with it?
A: Damage boosters can be effective because they insta-kill anything they hit. But like with the Disorient hack, they can backfire horribly and get your own team killed. If your XML boosted attack hits an angry Quicksilver with 1 million damage and he dodges the attack, then he's probably going tear your face off with a brutal counter-attack. Unless your XML damage boosted attacks have 100% chance to hit and cannot be avoided, then they may fail and invoke counters.
Also keep in mind that whichever attack or skill you damage boost also applies to the enemy team. So if you give your good old Quicksilver a phat damage boost, then the ENEMY Quicksilver also gets that same boost. If he then takes the first turn, then it doesn't take much explaining what will happen to your team unless you also have Disorient hack running. The same thing goes for the recharge overkill hack; if for some reason the opponent has to recharge (or is forced to), then they will kill your whole team.
If you have further questions, concerns or suggestions feel free to ask.
Comments and tips I haven't already listed are also welcome, contribute all you want.
* Addendum, June 12th 2016
This guide has now been online for 6 months and hopefully been of value to many of you out there. I am just adding this note to further soothe people's minds on the subject of pvp bans. During the 6 months since this guide was started, I have been using all of the above hacks on a daily basis across 5 different M:AA accounts, and I have still not received a ban or even a warning of any kind.
For the past 3 pvp seasons in a row I have even had one of those hack accounts place in the top 10 with 3000 points, and all the others in the high 2000-range. Still no bans or warnings. As long as you stick to the above guidelines of not making your hacking blatantly obvious to other players, the risk of a ban is basically non-existent.
