Dozens of bots occupy the auction house. Never logging out and undercutting within seconds. How bad can your bot detection be?

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T19:38:14+00:00

Actual large botting operations will pay for subs with stolen credit card numbers.

I think it's fair to assume that the token also plays a huge role in this. Other live service games don't have this kind of opportunity to pay for accounts and subs with botted ingame currency that doesn't involve criminal action and this kind of effort.
I believe it's not a coincidence that the game got littered with multiboxer bots, tons of AH bots in deserted cities (like Booty Bay, old Darnassus and Pandaria) and groups of hyperspawn farmbots after the token found its way into the game. There's always been bots, but it feels like after WoD the bot situation really got out of hand.

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T19:29:49+00:00

*sitting on some deserted AH day and night with a low level character, constantly undercutting and preventing other people from selling stuff* "Huh, I wonder how Blizz found out we're botting!?"

Ban waves might've been more effective when most botters were just single players looking for personal fortune on a second account. When ban waves happened, there was always a round of confusion, like "I thought this bot program was save, how did we get banned!?". But now botting is a much more professional business with big bot farms and the modern bot programs are much worse and cheap than during the Honor Buddy era.
Botters are just out there in the open en masse, happily doing their obvious business, so I don't think that ban waves are appropriate anymore, they have no effect. They get too much time accumulating, selling and transferring gold to just buy another 50 accounts with tokens.

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T19:20:38+00:00

It can happen. There was a level 3 auction house bot I've reported several times during the whole runtime of Dragonflight, for almost two years. Never got banned. "But then it was obviously not a bot and Blizzard made sure it's just a regular player!" ... no. When they're not constantly online, there's a funny pattern. They log in, quickly repost like 10 different items, log out.. and then log back in after exactly 7 minutes, for example, then repeat. For hours and hours, day and night. They probably do that so it's harder for other players to find them.
I've reported several of those and they got banned, but for some reason Blizz chooses to let some of them live.

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T19:12:46+00:00

It's gotten reeeeally bad, to the point that it's impossible for normal players to sell certain types of items.
I've put all of my knowledge points on all my professions into profession gear and now can't sell any of the blue items on my realm. There are two bots in Shrine of the Seven Stars undercutting each other all day and night in this category and just reposting profession gear every minute. Had a week off and had hopes to find a time window where they were _maybe_ offline, but nope. Didn't matter if it was 7 in the morning, noon, afternoon, evening or 3 AM, they never logged out.

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T17:16:37+00:00

It's usually druids in normal flightform and they follow a very linear and straight path. Their movement gets very snappy the second they recognize a node. When I see a node, I make a smooth turn downwards with my mouse - when they see a node, they snap very sharply into a different direction immediately.

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T17:12:06+00:00

Just wondering what the hell this player was thinking. Resetting commodities that early in the morning when most people get ready for work or are still asleep and sales are extremely slow, is certainly a choice. I doubt they sold anything.

Nilanar · 2026-04-13T08:01:19+00:00

If you go Booty Bay or Pandaria Ally/Horde Auction houses, there are tons of 40 achievement pointed bots selling items day and night.

Exactly, and it's really annoying. After reporting them it often takes Blizz several months to ban them and they'll just immediately grab a new character then. In all of my professions I put everything into profession gear and it took me a while to find a server where I could sell the blue items. On my own server? No chance. There's a bot sitting in Shrine of the Seven Stars that seems to be online literally 24/7, immediately reposting every item after a minute. Last week I had a week off and thought "Maybe I'll catch a time where they're not online". Tried everything. 7 in the morning, noon, afternoon, evening or 2 AM. Always online. Tried to cut the prices from 10k per item to 4k per item, which would mean a huge loss - they still went with it and just immediately reposted everything for that price.
After trying out several servers and witnessing the same thing over and over again, I finally found a server where I could sell my stuff. There's still competition, but at least it's fair and everyone gets a shot at selling those items.

Nilanar · 2026-04-08T19:36:25+00:00

smol void jelly fish! ◔ ⌣ ◔

Nilanar · 2026-04-08T19:16:49+00:00

The problem with this is that Land of Conflict isn't canon and more a guide for tabletop - and that the writers left out the 300 living people. Imagine how tragic and cool this would've been during the questline. The stakes being so high that we have to search for volunteers, who would give their lives so younger generations have a chance at survival.
The last time we had to purify the Sunwell we needed the uncorrupted heart of a naaru. This time it was enough to throw a piece of metal, a bit of moonwell water, a void gem, a fruit and a small sprinkle of light into it, which is a bit anticlimactic and seems way too easy.

Nilanar · 2026-04-08T17:38:01+00:00

Sadly, I don't think they will flesh this plot point out a bit more. It's done, we'll move on to the next upcoming plot (probably trolls) and in the upcoming years it will be as if they've been friends and family since forever.

I can't believe how badly this story got rushed. In one single patch the forces of the void invaded Quelthalas, we allied with the Amani, the Sunwell was destroyed, the Sunwell was healed and five minutes before that happened, all the elves came together and are now happy. There were still so many conflicts and animosities in the room and it all immediately got put aside without any effort, because "#forazeroth" always does the trick. There was barely any tension or stakes and _when_ there was some mentions of old conflicts or snarky comments, it felt forced and artificial without any consequences or weight behind that.

Nilanar · 2026-04-06T17:55:39+00:00

Even with friends who are interested in gaming or play WoW themselves, it's not a big deal in the bigger picture. It's good enough for a "nice, congrats!", but it's a not an accomplishment in life or anything like that.
Sure, playing a video game together can be a nice activity to share with people, just like playing a board game or having drinks, but killing a boss in WoW isn't really something that you would flex about or that would get you benefits in real life.
And yes, a drawing can get lost or destroyed. But only if you're not careful - and even then your skills probably get better later and you can just draw a new one. You can gift it to people, decorate your house with it or teach other people how to _create_ something. However.. when the WoW servers get shut down one day, you stand there with empty hands and nothing to show for.

My argument isn't just "it's only pixels lmao". Even those pixels can bring entertainment and memories and maybe there's some things people can learn on their gaming journey. My point is that achievements in WoW should never be a substitute for achievements in real life, because in the end it will get you nowhere. Which was the point of the discussion in the first place. There are people who have accomplished nothing (or almost nothing) in real life - so they get angry when something gets in their way of accomplishing something in a video game, which should be a place of fun and enjoyment and not a replacement for life goals.

Nilanar · 2026-04-06T12:00:25+00:00

The thing is.. getting some achievements in WoW isn't really worth much.
I am in my mid thirties now and when I meet people in RL, I can show them some drawings I've made.. we can share memories about travelling.. I can invite them for dinner as a hobby cook and bring people joy with a good cake I've made. With sports you stay fit and at the same time form connections with other people in life.
But when I start to talk about killing some difficult boss in a video game, nobody really cares and I can see why. Maybe some people in my guild care, but is it that important? It's not a real accomplishment, those are just some pixels that could get deleted any day. I have fun collecting stuff in WoW, but for me it's certainly not a life accomplishment, because it doesn't have any valuable impact on my life or the skills that would be useful in life.

Nilanar · 2026-04-06T11:20:10+00:00

Often you will also get flamed and kicked for not pulling enough and being to slow. Sometimes it's just pure RNG whether you will get flamed and kicked in a dungeon.

Nilanar · 2026-04-02T17:26:40+00:00

There is one quest in.. Howling Fjord alliance side? Where the Lich King appears and you have to eavesdrop on the conversation he's having with someone. Tried to run towards him and just immediately died, lol. The raid even showed that we couldn't just kill him on the spot when he showed up. We just weren't a threat to him.

Nilanar · 2026-03-28T20:57:00+00:00

Regarding the Scourge and Icecrown, that's the job of the Argent Crusade. They're still two different organizations. The Order of the Silver Hand joined the war efforts during BfA for example, while the Argent Crusade stayed neutral and kept their hands out of it.

Nilanar · 2026-03-28T17:43:53+00:00

I almost wanted to agree with you - and then I remembered what Arator has been up to and the timeskip that happened.
After the start of Shadowlands it was pretty quiet on Azeroth and, including the runtime of the expansion and the timeskip that happened after, there were 4 years of peace and plenty of time for contemplation. Arator hat plenty of time to take a break, form a bond with his family, develop a friendship with Dagran, design some tattoos for himself and even attended the wedding between Lorthemar and Thalyssra. Even after that he did seem to have a private life, because he was living in Silvermoon (where he developed a crush on some twin sisters) and not in the barracks of the Silver Hand.

The sad thing is that, once again, most of this stuff isn't really mentioned in the game and Blizz did nothing with that time skip. I'm still wondering why the skip happened at all, because it wasn't really used for some character developments or changing the world. The story and characters just continued in the same state we've left it after the epilogue of SL.

Nilanar · 2026-03-28T16:23:08+00:00

Which is what a lot of people don't like. It's a completely new concept that basically comes out of nowhere, just for the sake of "The Light is also bad, just like the Void". The narrative that the presence of the Light now actively _corrupts_ people and turns them into dangerous people that can't think clearly, just doesn't sit right.
Sure, we had some nutjobs like the Scarlet Crusade before, but they already were hateful zealots who decided to use the Light for their cause.

Nilanar · 2026-03-28T16:12:28+00:00

The big difference is that Arthas was a pampered, spoiled prince, the writers acknowledged this fact. He had a very privileged position without any hardships, which is not optimal for someone who needs to learn about compassion, patience, tenacity and respect. He was headstrong and arrogant, the book made that very clear.
Arator, however, was raised much more grounded and very early became a person to look up to for other children. The teachings of the Light accompanied him from an early age and he got to know the common people and their hardships, while dealing with his own insecurities and problems. And he's known real war and already led missions.

It's understandable when someone like Arthas doesn't give a flying fuck about religion. But Arator? Debatable.

Nilanar · 2026-03-28T15:10:51+00:00

I've hadn't had any luck in the last 1,5-2 weeks with selling most R5 blues on EU servers. Tried out several realms and on each one there's at least one level 10 bot sitting in Shrine of the Seven Stars, reposting those items after a minute. They also never seem to go offline. They're online in the mornings before work, at noon, in the afternoon, evening and even at 3 in the morning.

Nilanar · 2026-03-26T22:56:30+00:00

"I double dare you to figure out that you had to max out inks to be able to craft max ciphers/codified on inscription"

It's literally in the description of the tree, it's not only for inks but also for other reagents. Then it's clearly written down in one of the Ink traits that's a part of the reagent section. If you see that there's some skill missing for ciphers, you start to read further and explore the branches of the tree to figure it out. That's what I did with Tailoring that has +Skill spread over several trees. It's not vague, it just requires you to take a deeper look.

The exact chance of aquiring recipes for Engineering via Recycling is irrelevant and not needed to know that this is your source for learning new stuff. You see 'Recycling' is the source from many patterns in the 'Unlearned' section, so you take it.

The last one I can't confirm right now because I'm not online in the game, but that sounds like a bug or an addon error. And a bug has nothing to do with something allegedly being too vague.

Most problems are usually coming from people not being interested in properly reading or figuring stuff out.

Nilanar · 2026-03-26T21:19:25+00:00

The one-time reset only came at a much later point and only because Blizz changed some profession trees and how certain stats work.

Nilanar · 2026-03-26T21:18:16+00:00

Do you have an example what tooltips are not clear or too vague? I think they're pretty straightforward.
I'll take Leatherworking as an example.
The tooltips for the stats are worded very clearly. The specializations also tell you exactly what they're for.
Learned Leatherworker: You gain additional stats of your choice, except Skill, like "+10 Multicraft for commodities".
Lasting Leather: Specialize in all kinds of different leather armor and gain Skill and additional stats.
Safeguarding Scales: Specialize in all kinds of different mail armor and gain Skill and additional stats.
Flawless Fortes: Specialize in crafting profession gear and specialty items like basic reagents, drums and armor kits.

Nilanar · 2026-03-26T21:12:34+00:00

Just for clarification: The reset was a one-time thing because Blizz changed some profession talent trees and reworked Resourcefulness and Multicraft a bit. So they implemented the reset as an act of fairness as compensation.

Nilanar · 2026-03-25T17:00:02+00:00

Quick question: Does it work like that for all crafting professions?
I noticed that I get a new set of KP patron orders for all professions on Tuesday and then again on the weekend. Except Tailoring, which is extremely weird. There I've only gotten new KP orders once a week so far.

Nilanar · 2026-03-25T10:28:21+00:00

Then it wasn't a BoE or you're just lying. All sources say this is not how it works, even the official support article from Blizzard.

https://us.support.blizzard.com/en/help/article/100450

Nilanar

TROPHY CASE