Guild Wars 2

Map and Location: Frostgorge Sound, Ice Floe Waypoint
World: Yak’s Bend

Around 6 of them teleporting around in a circle killing the Icebrood Colossus

Whiteside Ridge
Frostgorge Sound
Firesnake’s Tail PoI (they move back and forth in the narrow canyon killing grawl).

Today and several times before when I came to map complete.

1) Map and Location: Malchor’s Leap, spot between Skill Point and King’s Passage(POI).
2) World: Blacktide.
3) Server Time: 13:00.

Area: Mount Malestrom, northwest corner (south of Govoran Waypoint)
Server: Henge of Denravi
24/7

15-20 bots, all in the same guild, teleporting like mad whenever a new foe appears. All up and down that path.

I found quite alot of bots in Cursed Shore on underworld server at 06:46 gmt
I took a screen of the are with the UI turned off so you can’t see their names but I could not even get them all into the frame.

Fields of Ruin

Yak’s Bend

Thunderbeak Waypoint

I have a couple of screens and can get more. Farming any mob or node near that waypoint and north of it. Some kind of warp to mob/node then disappear

Reported in game also

Suspected but not confirmed. The people I found showed some of the bot awkward movement patterns, but I was unable to ascertain whether they were genuine people or not (they all logged out as soon as I approached, could be a coincidence).

1.MAP AND LOCATION: Blackwing Excavation at the Fields of Ruin
2.WORLD: Borlis Pass
3.DATE, TIME AND TIMEZONE: around 1:50 a.m. GMT -6 on January 15, 2013

Map and Location: Harathi Hinterlands, Ourobore Caves
World (aka server): Drakkar Lake [DE]
Date and time of day, plus timezone: 4:10 PM GMT -1 [Berlin/Paris/Zurich] on January 15th, 2013

There are many many bots, farming all the Skritt off plus the chest that is in this cave. I am watching them since half an hour now and can definitely tell there are more than 10 bots. If needed, I can provide screenshots as well.

Mystogan.4157:

Map: queensdale
Area: south west area where cave troll event spawns right near the bandit cave and kon the farm south of those two caves.
Server: devonas rest
Time: jan 14 12:00 EST

Could jst be event farmers but i was there lvling my ele weapons up tryin to talk to ppl but no one was talking. When events were down they would run back to the farm and wait for one to come back up

1. Southsun Cove – North of Pearl Islet
2. Henge of Denravi
3. Jan 15, 2013 4:50pm Eastern

Map and Location: Elysium Beach , Straits of Devastation
World (aka server) : Sea of Sorrows
January 16,2013 (3:46 AM) UTC+4:00 Abu Dhabi Muscat

Bunch of Archers running around with different pets

1.) Frostgorge Sound – Frostwalk Tundra
2.) Sea of Sorrows
3.) Start from 15/1/2013 , Almost any time i was there , It’s the same bots running

1. Bloodtide coast, in the water just north of Merchantman’s Strait
2. Gandara
3. Today, now!

I’ve seen lots and lots of the teleporting/hacking bots/players, not sure which it is. Can’t this be blocked somehow? The tools are out there for anyone to download, if they search for them. When will this exploit be fixed? I can’t even understand how the game code allows for this in the first place.

server: Northern shiver peaks

southsun cove eastern shore from “pearl islet” WP north to “pride point” WP

time 12:42am GMT+12

as previously described these botters are blinking in and out to different spawn points.
Hope this helps with the “Purge”

Map and Location: Frostgorge Sound -Firesnake’s Tail PoI
Map and Location :Malchor’s Leap – area near Pagga’s Waypoint farming earth elementals and anything moving there
Map and Location : Cursed Shore area between Jofast’s Waypoint and Meddler’s Waypoint
Server – Gandara
Time – practically 24h/day
All the above areas have same bots usually 4-5 in a group killing everything in sight from weeks.The ones from Malchors Leap were recently moved from the beach at Southsun Cove.Despite being reported from hundreds of individual players already they are still in game.
And what about all those teleporting around and harvesting nodes botters?They are in every area of the game very hard to report.For last couple of days ive reported 4 just doing their bussiness in Frostgorge Sound/Malchor Leap/Cursed Shore.Today mere minutes after zoning in Lornars Pass saw another one at grape farm there and could not even managed to right click at his name to report-popped up and teleported away very fast.

There’s been quite a lot of knee-jerk reaction in-game with people hyper-sensitive to bots. It’s understandable, but at the same time it’s annoying when players don’t know the difference between a bot and a player doing their own farming routine.

Some of these areas people are referring to are prime farming locations for 400 level mats and high-level rare/exotic drops. That’s the reason the reported locations line up with possible botting activity as well.

Running around in a pattern to farm an area does not mean that character is being run by a bot. And worse, the AI some of these botters/gold farmers have honed over the years and years of MMO games are pretty sophisticated. The only possible signs people have are nonsense names and highly systematic/accurate/robotic movement. Even then that’s not a sure thing since accounts are hijacked to be used for botting and players running a farming routine can appear systematic.

Report the individuals you think are bots, but please stop the shame/blame game of accusing everyone else of botting. I’m glad Arenanet doesn’t allow screen caps and naming of characters here. I have been accused of botting several times by people who are either jealous or clueless, take your pick, of me quickly clearing an area of mobs while farming. Funny how they quickly shut it when I reply back in proper English with a firm “please stop it” message, though worded a little less directly than that.

cipher.7438:

The only possible signs people have are nonsense names and highly systematic/accurate/robotic movement. Even then that’s not a sure thing since accounts are hijacked to be used for botting and players running a farming routine can appear systematic.

i encountered bots with “normal” names and dungeon master titles yesterday. that was in the middle of the night, so i’m assuming those were either hacked accounts or actual players using botting scripts while not at their pc or something.

the only thing i personally look for is robotic/linear/repeating movement. if they always move in 100% precise beelines and fight in a very.. static way, they’re bots most of the time.

Nemui.6753:

or actual players using botting scripts while not at their pc or something.

Another possibility is botting while at the PC/game. And some of the gold farmers do this as well (ie: multiple PCs in front of them, KVM switching of them, or virtualized). I’ve encountered genuine gold farmers in LOTRO before with fairly primitive scripts, since they sweared to me a few minutes later in broken English when I messed up their script’s automation and it got their characters killed by aggroing multiples in one area.

So yeah, there’s certainly that component. I merely speak of the people I’ve seen in game who blindly label every sort of farming activity as botting. I’m not sure what Arenanet’s stance is on attended botting (running scripts while being in front of that PC), but I don’t do that. I’d rather play the game.

Gaile Gray.6028:

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.

If I may ask (and I apologize if this had been answered before in some other thread), why do you guys not “scrub and clean” as soon as a bot is identified, rather than “amass and smoosh in one fell swoop”. It’s not that I don’t appreciate your efforts at getting rid of bots in game, I do wholeheartedly.

Just for reference, when I decided to go for the Master Crafter title, I found it disheartening that when I returned to a specific area every day (at the time it was Timberline Falls area), where I identified as the best place to gather a material I was looking for, that bots I reported were still there and I still had to fight them for mob kills. So it seems, at least from my POV, that the “amass and smoosh” strategy from a game play experience standpoint it seems to be a worse strategy.

I haven’t encountered a group of bots in a while, so kudos to your “smoosh” efforts. It was just a bad experience that stuck out in my mind, and I am just looking for some insight into your chosen bot smooshing strategies Thanks!

Just wanted to add, after going though the botting sticky in the GD again, that if I asked something too specific that you can’t easily answer, I totally understand

1. Southsun Cove – Pearl Islet
2. Aurora Glade
3. 2013. 01. 17. 10:00- AM (GMT+1)

Several bots (at least 5) are farming skelks north and west of the islet.

1.) Frostgorge Sound – Frostwalk Tundra (The Grawl spot)
2.) Sea of Sorrows
3.) NOW and got 2 bots run together this time !

It’s was quick come a new botting…..

1. Malchor’s Leap – between King’s Passage POI and skill point to the west
2. Desolation
3. Server time – 7:02, also saw them at about 1:00 server time

OK Bots are getting bugged on most servers.
It’s in Queensdale.
My server is Maguuma, and most other server should have these stuck bots.
Waypoint is “Claypool waypoint”
Location is next to the repair girl named Anne
How do I know? The people stacked there. Humans don’t stack at the repair in 6+ and afk. They all all stuck there, must be a bug or something. And another thing, there are people “poping in” like teleporting tot he exact spot that the bots are bugged in. They didn’t run there, they teleported. Wish I had fraps to record.

darkbluefirefly.9650:

OK Bots are getting bugged on most servers.
It’s in Queensdale.
My server is Maguuma, and most other server should have these stuck bots.
Waypoint is “Claypool waypoint”
Location is next to the repair girl named Anne
How do I know? The people stacked there. Humans don’t stack at the repair in 6+ and afk. They all all stuck there, must be a bug or something. And another thing, there are people “poping in” like teleporting tot he exact spot that the bots are bugged in. They didn’t run there, they teleported. Wish I had fraps to record.

The stack of players standing at a merchant or anyone they are able to sell items at (merchant, repair, etc.) are Trading Post bots. So bots can continue to loot stuff out in the world without getting full bags they mail their items to these stationary bots. The stationary TP botters receive items in their mail from the field bots and they post them directly to the Trading Post. You’ll know this is the case if you see this Stationary TP Bot standing at a merchant constantly mailing items off to the TP and every 20-30seconds they talk to the merchant so they are not booted for inactivity. They also sell their junk and stuff to the merchant that is sent to them from Fields bots. This person also NEVER moves, NEVER logs out and NEVER responds to PM’s. I just tag them for botting once a day after a watching them for a few days with them never moving, etc. In fact there is one on Eredon Terrace right now standing at the Merchant near the bank in Divinity’s Reach (won’t name names on here)…low level like level 3 or 6, mailing away items for several days now without moving or logging. Take a peak and see exactly what I described.

Now I attribute this scenario to the TP bots, but it might just be a**holes screwing around with the TP so they can get stuff for dirt cheap. (another reason I really hate how the TP and item valuation is configured). Have you ever noticed how, say you list a single item for 10s and the current highest buy order is 5s and it is an order for like 500 by 1 person. That’s usually the TP bot. Now after your item is listed at 10s suddenly there is a stack of 100 of this item listed by a single person for like 9s…so you re-list yours at 8s99c, they re-list at 8s, and this will continue for about 10 minutes until the value is destroyed and you’re forced to list it for 1c higher than this buy order stack of 500 by a single buyer. Then the next day their buy order is 1s and the cycle repeats until the item that is being sold is down to vendor value…

Timberline Falls, all gathering spots
Maguuma
Anytime, likely, but seen between 2AM and 8AM EST, Jan 23-25 2013

I wish I could give more specifics, but it’s sporadic at best that I actually catch these gatherbots in the act. I can’t report them because I don’t register what’s going on until they’ve teleported away to another gather spot. Basically, I turn around and catch someone gathering, think “oh hey a person!” and then they’re gone the second they’ve finished gathering that spot. I can’t confirm that they’re bots until they’re gone.

AstralDusk.1670:

Timberline Falls, all gathering spots
Maguuma
Anytime, likely, but seen between 2AM and 8AM EST, Jan 23-25 2013

I wish I could give more specifics, but it’s sporadic at best that I actually catch these gatherbots in the act. I can’t report them because I don’t register what’s going on until they’ve teleported away to another gather spot. Basically, I turn around and catch someone gathering, think “oh hey a person!” and then they’re gone the second they’ve finished gathering that spot. I can’t confirm that they’re bots until they’re gone.

This is exactly what I just came on too report too, Gandara has started seeing people on various maps node hopping. They appear (usually naked) gather, then vanish (which I though eh, could be someone logging into an alt) but then they suddenly appear at another nearby node and start grabbing that and rinse and repeat across the map. Forgotten most of the maps I have noticed them on, only place I can recall is the caves beneath the Durmand Priory.

I understand that it may be very difficult to implement, but moving merchants and resource nodes will really throw a wrench into the bots programming. Were NPCs and nodes to have alternate spawning locations or an algorithm to where the NPC were to walk to an alternate location every 30 minutes, then it would really disrupt their activities. If nodes were to all shift a little from where they are once or twice a day then the bots won’t be able to gather. I can see how it would be difficult and time consuming but it instead of combating the never ending bot problem simply remove their ability to function by adding the element of randomness to the environment so they cannot be easily programmed to function without limitations.

On Jade Quarry(world), Snowden Drifts, Skradden(waypoint, (grawl cave) 3:50am pst…..

1. Server: Augury Rock [FR] (Europe)
2. Map: Harathi Hinterlands
2. Ourobore Caves
3. 02/02/2013 16:40 UTC+1

Jade Quarry/ JQ Borderlands…race/Asuran, Guild tag DEGU Red Tower guild……I was at Redlake, up in the guild tower, and that asuran “appeared” right beside me, then blinked away….oh thats fair, reports of teleport hacks in the jumping puzzle here as well, also by Sor defenders….please look into this. Redlake was owned by JQ(no walls down etc.)

Tell me, does using the ‘report cheating’ really work?

Thing is, as a relative noob I saw several time characters appear at a node, farm it then log off. I asked on here if these were bots and was told ‘yes’, report them.

The only way I have found to do this is to ‘friend’ them, then use Report. However, there is nowhere for me to describe the activity at all. Thus, my ‘report’ consists of me simply naming them as a ‘bot’: there’s no evidence collection, no information is asked for at all.

Are these ‘reports’ REALLY taken notice of? I took a screenshot, simply to be able to remember the character’s name, but that wouldn’t be evidence since obviously faking screenshots is easy, so I’m left wondering just how useful this reporting scheme is.

Also, if this is considered useful by Anet, why isn’t this ‘report’ option available simply by targetting the bot, instead of having to try to remember a name that is often deliberately designed to make remembering something seen for only a few seconds difficult?

1. Server: Jade Quarry (North America)
2. Map: Timberline Falls
2. Gentle River Waypoint: Jotuns near the SE entrance to the caves
3. Feb 5th, 2013 – they’ve been there since 7:30pm server time, and are still there.

@Kraggy: What you saw was a bot teleporting to the node you were near, using it, then teleporting off the next node in their circuit. This teleporting stuff is actually a sort of hacked trick, not something the character is actually doing legitimately.

As you’ve found out, friending them in order to report them is the easiest method to deal with them. If I see someone appear out of nowhere at a node, I immediately screenshot it, refer to it to get the exact spelling so there’s no mistaken identity issue, friend them, then report them for botting. I leave them friended until I haven’t seen them for quite a while. Because bots will tend to remain functioning until they’re forcibly removed, I assume not seeing them for several days means they’ve been dealt with. This sometimes takes upwards of a week, though. I’ve reported perhaps 50 bots of various types, and most of them have disappeared (only the most recent ones I have in my friends list are still hopping around).

I’d say that these reports are working. Those that handle them don’t really need too many details from you, as I believe they just review whatever metrics they keep on how the character’s been being “played” either in general or around the time of the report datestamp.

To the last question, you can report them by targeting them and right-clicking on their portrait (top center of your screen). There’s an option to report them from there, though as noted with regard to mining bots, you’re unlikely to be able to do all that while they’re still in front of you. The method I noted above removes the issue since a screenshot takes less than a second and the info’s there until you have some time to deal with it.

My advice is to report them every time you see them, even if you’ve already reported them (assuming some reasonable time has passed since the last report). The more distinct reports, the more likely they’ll be noticed. I expect ANet uses a weighted priority system to determine what order to address each suspected bot; more reports, higher priority.

Bottom left corner of Malchor’s Leap in the water under the Vista with the chest. Reported two coöperating teleport rangers there this afternoon on Underworld server.

Good luck

Aurora Glade [EU]: Arundon Vale, in the Frostgorge Sound area – specifically, the grawl encampments at the “Offering Stone” waypoint. I’ve observed bots there on several occasions, specifically one Guardian, farming the grawl over and over and over.

It moves in perfect lines, using the same path, straight towards the mob’s spawning point – even if the mobs are absent (killed by other players). I managed to overwhelm this bot by pulling more grawl towards it. The moment it dies, it disappears in an instant (as in, zero delay – the death animation & audio doesn’t even finish), spawns at the nearest waypoint, paths it’s way to this area, and starts the cycle over again.

As I’m typing this (17 Feb 2013 at 23:47 GMT), the bot is still active there.

1. Map and Location: Timeberline Falls – Jotun Camp southeast of Gentle River
Waypoint.

2. World: Multiple worlds (I was guesting on different worlds to get away from the botters, but the other worlds had them in the same area too.

3. Date and Time: I’ve seen bots here a month ago, and decided to go back to this area last night (February 17, 2013 7:00PM Pacific Time) and there are still bots here this morning.

I have question. Are you guys aware that botters are botting the Gathering Nodes? I mean there leaving all there toons on individual nodes and logging in and out on each toon every so often to gather them. Now i know some people do this normally but i also Know theres a great many botters doing it also. I don’t like farming the same events over and over so i travel through all the maps doing events i come across only once, Doing the Jps, grabbing chest and any gathering node along the way. I see so many toons appearing and disappearing on the nodes i come across in all the maps not just one. But i will say the most notable map i see them doing this in is Dredgehaunt Cliffs. I Always see at least 5-10 toons appear and dissapear before im done with that map. I was just in that map a couple days ago and noticed the botters bot program was glitching out. The same toon kept logging in and out over and over and over. The problem I had it was so fast I couldn’t left click the toon right click the target display and then select the tiny report text before he logged back out and the target display is lost. I still have this same problem with the rest of them. There only logged in for 2-4 secs, long enough to gather the node then there gone. I rarely fast enough to get the report screen to come up before they log off.
Now before you blame the culling on what I’m seeing, I was seeing this long before culling was being adjusted/fix.
I guess you guys have 2 new problems to tackle. Same node farming and how hard it is to report a toon that is only logged on for 4 secs.

There’s 2 active mail spambots RIGHT NOW. Please, shoot them with an asura megalaser or something.

1.MAP AND LOCATION: Divinity’s Reach, at the royal palace entrance, next to Seraph Tinkerer [Repairs].
2.WORLD: Borlis Pass
3.DATE, TIME AND TIMEZONE: Right now. 12:00 a.m. GMT -6, February 25

Jade Quarry, Cursed Shore, in the water between Mausallus Sea and The Shipyard…..teleporting and killing. 8:37 am PST Feb,25

Charr Guardian.1497:

There’s 2 active mail spambots RIGHT NOW. Please, shoot them with an asura megalaser or something.

1.MAP AND LOCATION: Divinity’s Reach, at the royal palace entrance, next to Seraph Tinkerer [Repairs].
2.WORLD: Borlis Pass
3.DATE, TIME AND TIMEZONE: Right now. 12:00 a.m. GMT -6, February 25

The two accounts responsible for botting are still active within the city. I can provide character names, but I know that’s not the purpose of this thread.

You literally can see a mail pigeon flying by every 2 seconds, and they both exhibit these bot lag/warping issues. They don’t reply even if they seem active, and the mails they send/receive do not stop.

1. Map Location: Sea of Sorrows, Southsun Shoals. Killing Young Karkas.
2. World (Server): Ring of Fire
3. 3pm GMT, 28th February. GMT Afternoons/Evenings in general, sometimes in the Mornings too.

As a side note, there are usually two people doing it together and usually a part of the same guild.
I’ve seen multiple duos of different guilds bot in this area. At first they seemed like people, but all the duos had similar moving patterns and followed the same route. (Even though the route doesn’t make sense. Eg. Karka spawns near you, but you run all the way to the other side to kill Karkas, instead of killing the ones around you currently.)

1. Ice Shelf NE of Watchful Waypoint in Frostgorge Sound.
2. Tarnished Coast.
3. 2/28/12 3:40PM EST to 4:00PM EST, but still ongoing.

Not only bots, but teleport hacking bots that move across the terrain in little hops, faster than any character can normal travel the distances involved.