World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery has been affected by bots in a similar way to the other flavors of the game, but new evidence shared by one player suggests the problem could be worsening.
For those who don’t know, bots have been present in WoW from early in the game’s history. They are used to automatically farm valuable materials and mobs in the game, hoping to sell those on the in-game auction house for gold.
This took on a new dynamic in World of Warcraft with the advent of the WoW Token, which could be bought for real-world money on the Blizzard store. Those who did this could sell their Token on the Auction House for WoW gold. Conversely, those who bought Tokens for WoW gold could trade them for 30 days of game time or $15 in Blizzard store balance.
This had the knock-on effect of making the use of bots a genuinely profitable pursuit for those with the tech to farm on a mass scale. Now, one player has shared that bots remain a considerable issue in Season of Discovery, despite the Token not being available in the game.
Dun Morogh has a lot of bots in Season of Discovery
In a post on Reddit, one user shared their search in the social menu section, exposing “hundreds” of bots in the process.
Essentially, vast numbers of bots are farming Linen cloth from the Rockjaw mobs that populate the Gol’Bolar Quarry. The materials are beneficial and carry worthwhile values in a game where raw currency is relatively sparse.
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The bots are easily identifiable thanks to their nonsense names consisting of random strings of letters and the fact that they are all Rogues. Many people quickly chimed in to share their stories of encounters with bots in the game.
One user said: “It’s obviously true that not all of these are bots, but take a trip around one of these lower level areas, and you’ll see tons of rogues with gibberish names just pathing around killing mobs for hours on end. They also move like they’re lagging or glitching across the screen and will invite you to group and then immediately kick you.”
Another added: “Thousand Needles. Check it. TONS of hunter bots….There is literally an army there. All horde on Crusader.”
Blizzard is banning thousands of bots daily in Season of Discovery, but it seems their efforts are providing a small solution to a huge issue. The developer has yet to publicly address these concerns at the time of writing.