wow Another Evolution: Bots Stealth When Targeted?

[Starym 3,779]

 

It's getting harder and harder to actually fight bots, as they're constantly evolving to avoid getting reported and spotted. This (relatively) new development is particularly interesting, as it seems to be a direct response to actual players spotting and reporting them.

Recently, going back a month or perhaps even more, there have been reports of bots (Druids, obviously) stealthing when targeted by a player. Running around in packs in travel form as they usually do, it seems they reactively stealth when a player targets them, so as to avoid getting reported. While we've seen them use stealth after herbing for months now, this might be somewhat new, as the bot programs keep improving to avoid bans.

You can see both options in the clip below, as they might be stealthing by default after the herbing is complete, or in response to the first/lead bot getting targeted by the player:

However, this wasn't the only report of the target > stealth phenomenon, but this second one doesn't have a clip attached so we don't know the context, although it does sound like there was no herbing happening and that the other bots stealthed immediately:

Based on that report and a few others, it seems pretty likely that it is in fact a reactive stealth when targeted, which will make them a LOT harder to report. Some players suggest just taking a screenshot and then submitting that to Blizzard, but that seems like a lot of extra work most players will not be willing to do. As bots become more and more prevalent, the lack of reports due to advancements in them hiding from players might become a bigger and bigger problem, so hopefully Blizzard can respond somehow.

[Vaporware 0]

Sounds more like players

[Sykoh23 8]

*Logs on to alchemist and crafts Potion of Shaded Sight*
Profit.

[FireLordJohn 91]

Figure out the account info Blizzard, and ban the bots.  

[Sabejnos 10]

Its there for quite long time now. Most of people are not using it tho cos it's buggy. 

[belhaven28 7]

2 hours ago, Vaporware said:

Sounds more like players

The video clips make it pretty clear its bots but even if it was players they'd be using programming to multibox which is very much against the ToS. 

[plukkie070 1]

i haven't tried this myself (since i didn't encounter this yet), can't you look up which players are in that area? I thought it brings up a list of players in that area, maybe you can still report them if you can't catch their names quick enough because they stealth to quickly?

 

[Chud 8]

You could actually use this to stop them gathering, seeing as you cannot herb and stealth at the same time. Wait for them to approach a herb and then target them, it'll probably glitch them out. Plus stealth itself has a cooldown, so when they come out to gather, you should be able to target them then and report (I think Prowl has a 5 second cooldown?).

[Lithari 194]

15 hours ago, FireLordJohn said:

Figure out the account info Blizzard, and ban the bots.  

They probably already have the info, they are likely getting a kick out of players doing their jobs for them.

[silenceTheory 0]

Ever since Blizzard migrated to the pay-2-win model via cash for gold (tokens) I find it curious how Blizzard and the community are seemingly okay with botting. Like what kind of moron would pay $20 for a token. In-fact if $15 isn't a neglible expense for someone and they are set on continuing to play it would make sense to buy a copy of the game and a bot license for a month or two and farm up enough gold to cover your sub for a year+. I think players overestimate the difficulty, you can have a farm bot up and running in about 15 minutes once you know where to acquire it.

[Selorin 0]

As a Multiboxer who is still mutiboxing completely legally without the use of Input Broadcast Software, the harassment I get from the damn witch hunters in this game who can't mind their own business makes me wish I had thought of this months ago.