While in-game bot reports are the best way for us to address the issue of botting, several players have asked how to report areas that appear to host a lot of botters. This thread is intended to furnish a place for you to share that information.
If you would like to submit a report, please understand this is an possible bot area report system (not an individual botter report) and provide us with the following:
Map and Location: Map name and general spot on the map
World (aka server)
Date and time of day, plus timezone: 1:00 PM Pacific Time on January 8, 2013
Please do not provide:
Screenshots (which are a form of “name and shame” because they contain character names and could include innocent players)
Names of presumed botters
Please continue to report individual suspected bots via the in-game system.
We will scan through this thread and check out the areas that you are concerned about, but keep in mind that:
The process of bot reviews can take a while—sometimes we amass information over many days—and the process can involve a certain level of stealth.
Sometimes an area that is popular with botters is also popular with players, so we must use care in the actions we take.
This means you may not see the area you report completely scrubbed of bots in the short-term, as we review and assess the situation.
1.) Cursed Shore – Harrowed Sea (+5 water bots)
2.) Yaksbend (and probably other servers too)
3.) Evening, EST, so +7. I don’t camp there the whole day but I always see them there when I pass by.
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Magic find works. http://sinasdf.imgur.com/
I’ve sent a private message to one of Anet guys yesterday and he didn’t reply so i don’t know if they have been removed. There are 3 of them basically all the time killing karkas at the south of the map.
*MAP: Southsun Cove, east of “Pearl islet waypoint” underwater, starting NEXT to the shipwreck that has a veteran skelk and chest
*WORLD (aka Server): Sorrow’s Furnace
*TIME & DATE: I first spotted them at 11:55pm (based on UTC +08:00) January 12, 2013
*QUANTITY: not exaggerating, MORE than 20 BOTS in one spot covering a huge area underwater
I already submitted the ticket with MANY screenshots (around 30 screenshots with 100% evidence). they are all underwater and they use some kind of fast log in log off botting program that also gives them some sort of boost making them able to pratically dissapear and appear far away, many times till they reach the new aim (skelks). I also reported in game each one of them and that’s why I took 2 hours cuz it was almost impossible, they dissapear in less than one second, some of them you even whisper and it says “The player you are trying to whisper is not online”. Some others were so fast I couldn’t even finish to press the report button so I had to screenshot them then go back in-game whisper to them ask them to answer, I would ask something like “do you know where is the brood mother?” and then “if you don’t answer anything I will report you”, so its 100% evidence, check my screenshots I sent to this ticket with a reference number:
130111-002459
Please Gaile… give me an answer to feel relieved a lil bit… I was in a Shock to see soooo many botters and no one says anything about them… I might have been the first one to discover them since I love to do those 2 chests in Pearl Islet waypoint. Thanks a lot
Just wanted to say Kudos to you Gaile on this reporting idea. This is a great idea to help to identity the problem areas and help the team focus on the areas that have the worst problem. Good work. I may berate when it’s due but I also praise when it’s deserved.
In frostgorge sound there’s usually a group of 3 or 4 teleporting bots farming the icebrood just above watchful waypoint on the map.
In malchor’s leap the area just west of king’s passage with the exploding risen mobs is extremely popular, seen groups of bots there a lot and when they all vanish, presumably banned a new group shows up again soon after.
Cursed shore has a trio of bots in the area just north of caer shadowfain and the harrowed sea seems to be absolutely swarming with farmbots recently.
Beach and underwater in the eastern end of the map is usually overrun with 20+ bots (chiefly in the sandy-cove like area just north of Pearl Islet), some of them “travel” up around to the northern side of the map through the water.
Map and Location: Frostgorge Sound / Watchful Fjord over the Watchfull Waypoint
World (aka server): Elona Reach
Date and time of day, plus timezone: exactly now (current time of this post) on January 12, 2013
If I provide a video of bots circling the same path in Southsun Cove 24/7 that use obvious speed hacking, moving 4-6 times faster than any normal player, can I post it here?
I’ve sent a private message to one of Anet guys yesterday and he didn’t reply so i don’t know if they have been removed. There are 3 of them basically all the time killing karkas at the south of the map.
PMing a staff member isn’t going to help. If they’re in the game, they’re either working on something, in which can they don’t have time to deal with the message, or they’re playing, in which case they would like to do that without dealing with work issues.
So please use the in-game report function and this thread, and we’ll get this taken care of! Thanks for understanding.
If I provide a video of bots circling the same path in Southsun Cove 24/7 that use obvious speed hacking, moving 4-6 times faster than any normal player, can I post it here?
No. It would probably include names. That would be not allowed here.
If I provide a video of bots circling the same path in Southsun Cove 24/7 that use obvious speed hacking, moving 4-6 times faster than any normal player, can I post it here?
No. It would probably include names. That would be not allowed here.
But we would welcome that in a Support Ticket which you can file through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page.
South sun cove, north and west of Pearl Islet waypoint, in the trench under the bridge.
Sanctum of Rall.
Essentially all day. I added some of them so I could track them (and report them despite the logout teleport), and they are on every time I check my friends list.
They run or teleport back and forth along that little canal, farming skelks. I’ll continue to report them, as well.
1.Map and Location: Snowden Drifts – Glisterice Caves
2.World: Borlis Pass
3.Date and time of day, plus timezone: Sometime between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. GMT -6 on January 11, 2013 (I don’t recall the precise time, but I do know it happened within such interval.)
There must have been at least 5-15 bots in there some were doing circles others were just chilling out casting spells, they were all stolen accounts.
See that’s the thing, they steal accounts so that there is no loss on their part. A part of fighting bots is for players to ensure the security of their account as best as possible. Sorry for any off-topic.
1.) Frostgorge Sound – Shattered Ice Floe
2.) Gandara
3.) Almost any time I pass by there, UTC +1
They’re usually killing the Icebrood Colossus mobs, and they’re teleporting around like madmen But once I stumbled upon a group of rangers there, south of the Ice Floe Waypoint by the Skelks. Their levels ranged from ~8 to ~30, they were all naked, had funny names, and were running in a straight line up and down, and there were like 15 of them. I could only report 9 because they were so tight together + they all had pet bears out, and I couldn’t click on all of them.
Like others have posted, north and north-east Southsun Cove. Tons in the water. A few on land.
I report them every night (around 12am-2am PST). Between 5 and 10 of them over the course of my farming session there.
So if I’m reporting them, and yet you’re asking for me to re-report them here, what are the reports I’m generating actually sending you guys? Wouldn’t it be reasonable that any report send the team x,y,z coords and time in addition to account information? Isn’t there a cool visualization tool showing “hot spots”? With nice click drill-down to show who is in that location at the particular time?
Also, I do development for a living, so can understand some things appear easy but are in actuality very hard. But the fact that bots can teleport pretty much ad-hoc and on a whim as fast as they’d like tells me that there is a gaping hole someplace in the code that could be patched and kill off a whole slew of these underwater bots.
Map: Frostgorge sound, around the shattered ice floe
Server: Piken Square
Time: 11.10 UTC+1, but every time i’ve run by, they’re there farming the lodestones.
Map: Southsun Cove – underwater area by Pearl Islet up and down the shore where all the skelks are
Server: Sanctum of Rall
Time: 2:43am PST
Some are very hard to catch due to teleporting so fast. Basically just swim up and down the shore and you’ll find them underwater. Been reporting some for over a month now.
Malchors Leap, to the left of the Kings Passage PoI, is popular on Gandara at least
same on seafarer’s rest.
in one narrow spot between outside wall of king’s passage and a small hill/rock face
i reported a large group of rangers, 11 Jan, around 8pm GMT
they do not need to move from the spot they stand on. there are risen plaguebearers that constantly spawn around every 6 seconds and run towards that spot.
I’ve sent a private message to one of Anet guys yesterday and he didn’t reply so i don’t know if they have been removed. There are 3 of them basically all the time killing karkas at the south of the map.
PMing a staff member isn’t going to help. If they’re in the game, they’re either working on something, in which can they don’t have time to deal with the message, or they’re playing, in which case they would like to do that without dealing with work issues.
So please use the in-game report function and this thread, and we’ll get this taken care of! Thanks for understanding.
I PMed him thru forum and i’ve reported them thru game but nothing happened so i did that.
Cursed Shore, right by the Pursuit Pass Waypoint
Stormbluff Isle
11:49 pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time
Looks like they’re botting/using hacks, where they’re continuously teleporting from one spot to another. Also looks like they’re constantly coming in and out of stealth.
1. Frostgorge Sound – Shattered Ice Flow
2. GANDARA
3. 24/7 (between 10 AM and 11 PM CET everytime I go there it’s the same bots running around so I assume the bots are there 24/7)
Cursed Shore, right by the Pursuit Pass Waypoint
Stormbluff Isle
11:49 pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time
Looks like they’re botting/using hacks, where they’re continuously teleporting from one spot to another. Also looks like they’re constantly coming in and out of stealth.
Second this, three of us saw them, about 3-4 different bots right at portal to Malchor’s.
One was downed on waypoint when we came in, yet no mob close by. We rezzed this ele, it dropped a #4 trail and disappeared only to reappear again a short distance away, downed again, rezzed, same again.
Then we noticed another 3. Logging in and out too quickly to report through in game system.
I’ve noticed this type of hacking behavior through Malchor’s, Southsun, Cursed. Seeing a solo player fighting champions, or rounding up multiple mobs (e.g an ele), then as soon as it notices another player in range, they disappear.
If I provide a video of bots circling the same path in Southsun Cove 24/7 that use obvious speed hacking, moving 4-6 times faster than any normal player, can I post it here?
No. It would probably include names. That would be not allowed here.
But we would welcome that in a Support Ticket which you can file through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page.
Last time i did that support member asked me to write bots’ names and/or account names(if possible) from video in report even if video is in high quality.
War doesn’t determine who is right, only who is left.
1. Frostgorge Sound, the grawl valley between Despond Precipice and Frostwalk Tundra.
2. Henge of Denravi
3. All hours. There are 1-4 bots that are there every time I visit. I’ve seen them in the morning, afternoon, evening and late night on various days of the week. EST timezone.
Initially I only saw one, then more would appear from time to time. I first thought that the others were actual players, but the haphazard way they defended the first one as “its magic, he not bot, he my friend” was a total giveaway. They follow the exact same path between two points in the valley, and deviate only to fight mobs that aggro.
Much like the pathing that event NPCs have to follow to a T- if they move forward to kill an enemy outside of the constraints of their path, they have to return to the last point on the path that they reached in order to continue.
Co-Leader of the Charter Vanguard Guild on Henge of Denravi.
Recruitment Status: Closed.
1, Cursed Shore, behind Caer Shadowfain Waypoint, going to the Bitter Mountain POI
2, Desolation Server
3, 3 Bots, (Ranger’s) farming sparks, I’ve been there in cursed shore doing the events once or twice through their rotation roughly taking an hour or so and the Bots would still be there.
1, Cursed Shore, behind Caer Shadowfain Waypoint, going to the Bitter Mountain POI
2, Desolation Server
3, 3 Bots, (Ranger’s) farming sparks, I’ve been there in cursed shore doing the events once or twice through their rotation roughly taking an hour or so and the Bots would still be there.
Same on Gandara, there are constantly 3-4 bots farming sparks on the top right of the Cursed Shore map on Gandara. Same as the ones by Kings Passage, everytime a set gets banned you go back and theres a new set. Also getting the glitchy bots farming Icebrood (mentioned a few posts up) on Gandara.
You guys rock! Many of these areas are under our beady eye right now, but it’s super helpful of you to give us the details that you notice.
Now remember, you may not see a “scrub and clean” in a matter of hours. We may amass a number of bots and smoosh ‘em all in one fell swoop. But you can be sure we’re serious about this situation and your help is greatly appreciated.
And I have to remind: The very best way to report bots is to submit an individual report via the in-game system. This is because those reports give us ever so much info and they help us nail… err… attend to them very quickly. * ahem *
Thanks again and keep the location reports coming!
1. Mount Maelstrom, moving in a big circle in the Govoran Terraces area.
2. Kaineng
3. 9am Pacific time, January 9th
Just a note, these bots are a mix of different classes and all in the same guild so I didn’t realize they were bots at first. It was only after watching them for a few minutes that I noticed they were teleporting from enemy to enemy and all standing in the exact same location while fighting.
Leader of The Quiddity [Quid]
Everything is a Nemesis plot.
Allright, some locations where I regulary encounter(ed) bots. Note that there might not be bot activity at the moment but maybe this information is of use to you nontheless.
Server: Gunnar’s Hold
Zone: Malchor’s Leap
Location: West of King’s Passage PoI (undead sucide bombers mostly abused to level up bots);
Location: Beacon Torch PoI, northeast near the skillpoint, note: I don’t get there often, it might as well have been an unusual place rather than a hot spot.
Zone:Frostgorge Sound
Location: Snow Climb area;
Location: Firesnake’s Tail, the whole valley;
Location: Shattered Ice Flow waypoint east & northeast, the Icebrood Colossus’ are highly endangered;
Map — Southsun Cove
Location — South from Pearl Islet Waypoint
Server — Vabbi
Time/Date — 9:20pm GMT+0, 13/1/13
there is 12+ characters running around the circle and farming all they can see. no replies about joining party, no replies about bots. they just move so simultaneously as they stay exactly in one point. wipe them
Map and Location: Frostforge Sound north of the Watchful Way point
World (aka server)Gates of Madness
Date and time of day, plus timezone: January 12, 2013, unfortunately I don’t recall the time but it was a little before Jormag came up later in the evening. A lot of the main chat was about football if that helps form a timeline.
It would make me a very very happy person if the bots could all be smooshed where we can see it. With a ginourmous cow finisher maybe. Or a huge Pythonesque foot.
Map and Location: Frostgorge Sound, Firesnake’s Tail
World: Dzagonur (DE)
Date and time of day: 7:24 PM Pacific Time on January 13, 2013
around 7 or 8 bots, just reported all of them individually in game.
may i ask what the point of “Date and time of day” is? isn’t it fair to assume that bots operate around the clock, 24/7?
edit:
Map and Location: Frostgorge Sound, Ice Floe Waypoint (in the ravine east of there)
World: Dzagonur (DE)
Date and time of day: 7:34 PM Pacific Time on January 13, 2013
Stormbluff Isle
Southsun Cove about
11pm my time, umm central canada
They go back and forth on the right water side of southsun cove
saw 3 of them and reported, I wanted to make sure I was actually reporting a bot so i looked at how they played, and yea i think the constant porting is botting, and I know its not my lag.
You guys rock! Many of these areas are under our beady eye right now, but it’s super helpful of you to give us the details that you notice.
Now remember, you may not see a “scrub and clean” in a matter of hours. We may amass a number of bots and smoosh ‘em all in one fell swoop. But you can be sure we’re serious about this situation and your help is greatly appreciated.
And I have to remind: The very best way to report bots is to submit an individual report via the in-game system. This is because those reports give us ever so much info and they help us nail… err… attend to them very quickly. * ahem *
Thanks again and keep the location reports coming!
Stormbluff Isle:
Gaile, at least one of the bots Enju and l reported in this thread days ago is still active in Cursed/Malchors everyday as he was downed it was possible to add to friends list. Whenever l’ve been ingame since, he is logged in. We are not supposed to post names and fair enough if there’s a mistake however l did shoot fraps of the others that were blinking in and out and guess l will have to edit and upload to YT and send names and private video link to Anet as nothing seems to be done through here yet.
But once I stumbled upon a group of rangers there, south of the Ice Floe Waypoint by the Skelks. Their levels ranged from ~8 to ~30, they were all naked, had funny names, and were running in a straight line up and down, and there were like 15 of them. I could only report 9 because they were so tight together + they all had pet bears out, and I couldn’t click on all of them.
