New player here; State of cheating in 2025?

Hey guys,

I’m a new player on the server with about 9 days played so far.
I have mixed feelings, and since I’m not 100% sure if I’ll stay, I figured I’d try some PvP before deciding.
Playing against BIS donators is tough, but that’s not why I’m here.

Today I ran into something I’ve never seen before.
I’m playing DK, and a warrior in one of my battlegrounds was able to reflect around 90% of my Icy Chains, which is an instant spell.
No matter how I tried to bait it out with Icy Touch, he never fell for it. Even while fighting other people, the moment I used Icy Chains, he reflected it back.

No other warrior I’ve faced could do that — fighting multiple people and still reflecting my instant like that, 8 or 9 times in one BG.

So I’m wondering: before I invest more time into Warmane PvP — is this normal?
Is this common? Will I see this more often especially in arena?
I fine playing against Donators and Shadowmourne/Wraithfull, even if I get stomped, but playing
against cheaters is too lame for my taste.

Im happy to read replys to my question.
Greetings.

You just faced a pro player.

There is no practical way for a "cheat" to automatically react to a spell being cast in time to reflect it. The reaction would need to happen before the server processes your cast.

Here is how it works:

1. When you press Icy Chains, the client sends a request to the server: “Cast spell X on target Y.”
2. The server validates that cast, applies cooldowns, range checks, LoS, etc.
3. Only then it processes whether Spell Reflect or Grounding Totem, etc., is active.
4. The server resolves this before you or the warrior’s client even know the outcome.

Cheats can’t "instantly reflect" instant casts after they're cast, unless the server itself was compromised which is very not likely.

The thing is, reflecting my icy chain while he was fighting wasnt even doing anything for him, since the guy he was attacking was also attacking him.
If he is such a pro, why would he pay attention to me standing 30 yrds away from him, and casting icy chains on him?

Hm... So a pro with instant reaction time who does things that make no sense... Hm...

I gave your answer to ChatGPT and it said:

Short answer: he’s mostly right — but not the whole picture.

The server resolves casts and effects server-side (the spell has to be “processed” while Spell Reflection is active to be reflected). Wowpedia +1
That means a cheat can’t retroactively reflect after the server already processed your cast. forum.warmane.com
HOWEVER, bots/scripts exist that detect casts (or read client memory/combat events) and automatically activate Spell Reflect / kick / totems with sub-human speed — which looks like “perfect” reflects. That is plausible and reported. ownedcore.com +1
Also: good players + latency/spell-batching can produce many legit reflects in a row (e.g., pre-buffing reflect and catching several instant casts). So perfect-looking reflects aren’t proof by themselves. forum.warmane.com +1

So appearantly there are scripts and cheats....

I just talked to a couple guys that play arena and they said that high elo is all about scripts.
I got that confirmed by two random people.
Thats sad.