Discussion: How Can We Handle Botting Better?

[MrMagic]

I had an encounter with a human player using a botting program in Kugane near the Eureka NPC, when there were dozens and dozens of players next to it. I would change class from DoH to DoM and I would be instantly targeted and cured. I changed classes a few more times, and I even left and came back to check. I was instantaneously cured every single time with zero delay and I concluded that no human could have those reaction times.

I guess the player realised their character was making a lot of noise in a town because after a few moments they started moving around and stopped curing me (I was standing right beside them). The player had all lvl 70 jobs and I reported them to the STF.

Not sure if the player was banned or even punished. It was just interesting to note that this was an actual player, not one of these auto generated, random name bots. I guess if you are going to risk your account being permanently banned and losing everything by using one of these "undetectable" programs that is up to you. They are not undetectable and you are cheating to gain an edge.

[Vnolan]

I had an encounter with a human player using a botting program in Kugane near the Eureka NPC, when there were dozens and dozens of players next to it. I would change class from DoH to DoM and I would be instantly targeted and cured. I changed classes a few more times, and I even left and came back to check. I was instantaneously cured every single time with zero delay and I concluded that no human could have those reaction times.

I guess the player realised their character was making a lot of noise in a town because after a few moments they started moving around and stopped curing me (I was standing right beside them). The player had all lvl 70 jobs and I reported them to the STF.

Not sure if the player was banned or even punished. It was just interesting to note that this was an actual player, not one of these auto generated, random name bots. I guess if you are going to risk your account being permanently banned and losing everything by using one of these "undetectable" programs that is up to you. They are not undetectable and you are cheating to gain an edge.

That would be a Eureka bot. The ones I saw were a healer paired with a tank. They automatically cast heals on any low health players within range and they automatically cast raise on any players at 0% health. The raise really gave it away in Anemos, because when releasing to the aetheryte a player is at 0% health for a second or two while in the raise animation, so you would see the bots at camp immediately target and cast raise on someone as their body entered camp.

Player bots are rather common, and the STF rarely takes action against them. The first-time penalty for botting is a 72 hour temp ban, by the way. To give you an idea of how ineffective the STF is, there has been someone running a gathering bot while advertising RMT sales across the data center. A quick search of the info provided in the ad shows they also sell PVP wins for money. To top it off, this is not recent, and the STF knows about it.

I guess if you are going to risk your account being permanently banned

You would have to do something really bad to get permabanned for a first-time offense. It's a part of why so many players utilize cheats for a personal edge or for money. The STF likely won't catch them, and if they do, they won't receive a permanent ban.