Account restoration and character rollbacks

#1 - Sept. 25, 2012, 2:12 a.m.
Blizzard Post

Hello. It was said that the possibility to have an account fully restored (after a hacker’s attack for example) and thus character rollbacks will become possible. I have two questions regarding this:

1. When are we to expect this to happen? Any approximate date?
2. Will this be retroactive? As in, if it becomes possible in say a month from now, will people who have been already hacked and lost rather valuable items be able to have their characters rolled back?

Thanks a lot in advance.

#2 - Sept. 25, 2012, 11:19 a.m.
Blizzard Post

Hello. It was said that the possibility to have an account fully restored (after a hacker’s attack for example) and thus character rollbacks will become possible. I have two questions regarding this:

1. When are we to expect this to happen? Any approximate date?
2. Will this be retroactive? As in, if it becomes possible in say a month from now, will people who have been already hacked and lost rather valuable items be able to have their characters rolled back?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Answers:

  1. We do not have an approximate date for the rollout of the ARS (Account Restoration Service), but “pretty soon” is accurate.
  2. If you did not play between the time that your account was returned to you and the date that restorations became available, that might make sense. But because we don’t have a solid date for the initiation of this service, that’s a lot of lost gaming and most people simply move along. Most likely, the ARS will roll out with a foreward-looking timeframe, so “From this date and forward, we will be able to assist with full-account restorations.” This is instead of “We can go back to a month before the service was initiated and restore an account based on that date.”