Quote Originally Posted by Ironthorne View Post
If I have to go out of my way to look for bots then maybe, the situation is not that bad? I have done a lot of gathering before EW (haven't done much recently), and I never saw anything out of the ordinary. My friend who has been gathering and crafting a lot recently also hasn't noticed anything unusual. He still gathers, crafts stuff, and sells on the market every day without a hitch. Maybe our experiences are just different?

Again, I'm not saying bots don't exist, or they're not a problem. But considering that neither I nor people I know could perceive this "destroyed" economy in any significant way, I just don't think bots are THAT big of a problem. Could SE do a better job handling bots? Sure. But if the majority of players remain unaffected, the issue will remain low on the priority list.
Like the poster said above you, most bots are prevalent at gathering nodes/Gridania/maps. Heck I've seen people literally use bots to hold bard concerts at the golden saucer from time to time, so not as uncommon as you might think. If you want a good population of bots, Eureka and the bunny fates. There's always just a large group of bots constantly doing bunnies over and over, it's easy to see after a while. They absolutely do tank items prices though, I'd say anything in Diadem/ARR crafted items are most susceptible to that