I think this is a concern for a lot of legitimate farmers.
A lot of players (myself included) actually quite like farming. The requirements for the legendaries mean that many players who have set out to get a legendary will be farming for a lot of their in-game time.
The current 200% magic find buff in Southsun Cove seems like an attempt to encourage farming. People want to farm with this buff, so they will spend a lot of time in this zone. To then accuse players utilising this buff as ‘bots’ seems a little unfair.
I read in another post that there is always a human involved in the decision to ban bots, and that it is never left only to the anti-botting algorithm. The fact that so many people seem to be receiving bans, including the OP, makes me question whether improvements could be made in this process.
Indeed, after spending a few minutes farming in any zone, it is clear that the other farmers in the area are legitimate players. We say hello, we form groups, we link drops etc etc. Indeed, I don’t think I have ever seen a bot while farming.
I am in the same guild as the OP, and we farm together quite often. When I heard he had been banned for botting I was gobsmacked since I had spent time with him the night before farming in Southsun. I was really worried that I too would receive a ban.
Combined with the diminishing returns, I am not really sure what I am supposed to do with regards to farming for my legendary and I feel the developers are sending mixed signals with regard to legitmate farming. They know we have to farm (or indeed grind) to get the mats for the legendary, but seem to discourage players from actually doing so with DR and botting bans. A clear message from the devs would help with this, and maybe a review of the current diminishing returns system. At the very least, give us a visible debuff that lets us know when we have DR, rather than wasting time. It is often very hard to tell if DR has kicked in since the RNG is so random at times that your drops are indistinguishable from DR.
I understand the reasons why you cannot give information about how you detect botting. I am also somewhat reassured that you will listen to players and undo the bans where they are not justified. I do hope though that the devs realise that they added a huge (optional) farming requirement for certain items, and can find some way to acknowledge that farming is a legitimate playstyle in this game, while also providing an anti-botting solution that doesn’t ever impact players going about their legitimate business.
