Table of Contents: Code: I. Introduction II. Account Purchases & Creations III. Bot Organization IV. Account Security V. How & When To Sell VI. Acronyms Used I. Introduction I am making this thread to serve as a guild, or personal account of one mans botting Army. I started botting on one account several years back, which quickly grew to three bots, just to support my main account and his hardcore raiding endeavors. I quit WoW last May to run 6 bots full time on D3. It was great at first, I made a killing, but slowly and slowly the profits were few and far between. I like the idea of botting for gold or currency in a game, not the RNG for BiS items better, so I came back to WoW when MoP was release (September 25, 2012. After getting back into hardcore raiding, I realized I needed more gold! I never like having less than 2 million gold on hand and I was getting close, thus my botting farm started to form. II. Account Purchases & Creations First I created new email addresses for all my bots. I started with 5 (thinking that's all I was going to use). I create my bot emails in a spreadsheet so I can keep track of everything. This is the first step in organization, which is very vital to running a botting farm fluently. Here is an example of what I do: [TABLE="class: grid, width: 1000, align: left"] [TR] [TD="align: center"]Email Username[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Email Password[/TD] [TD="align: center"]B.net Username[/TD] [TD="align: center"]B.net Password[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Name on Account[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Server[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Type[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Guild[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]Mybotter123@gmail.com[/TD] [TD="align: center"]WHATEVER1[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Mybotter123@gmail.com[/TD] [TD="align: center"]WHATEVER1[/TD] [TD="align: center"]MY NAME[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Illidan-Horde[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Farmer[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Guild 1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]Tennessee1978@outlook.com[/TD] [TD="align: center"]CHEESE2[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Tennessee1978@outlook.com[/TD] [TD="align: center"]CHEESE2[/TD] [TD="align: center"]MY WIFES NAME[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Illidan-Horde[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Mule[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Guild 2[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] I always make the email password and battle.net password the same, just for memory sake if I need to log into each for some reason. For name on the account I always use my name or my wifes name, that way I have ID's on hand if ever needed (never needed them so far). I always have the server and faction so I know at quick glance where it's located, as well as what type is it (farmer or mule) and what guild it is in (I run four guilds on each server, more on this in Section IV. Bot Organization). Whether you run 4 bots or 40 bots, I feel that having a spreed sheet like this is a great tool. Something I want to add to this section. As I sold gold and started making profit, I invested back into my bots. I started out with 6 bots running full time. Within a week I doubled to 12 bots, then 24, then 48 (where I stopped). III. Bot Organization I am going to explain this next part, but here is a picture so you can get an idea of how I run 12 bots on one server together. Now, I know this looks confusing and you might be thinking to yourself, "What the f**k is this", but this is the method I came up with to fool the algorithms and beat the man (and it worked for the last 7 months). Lets start at the top left corner: RED GATHERERS sends all Ore/Herbs to ORANGE MULE with COD for everything sent (if your economy is 65g per Ghost Iron Ore on the AH, I COD for 45g. Makes it seem like a long term buyer for my farmer and my mule is just paying myself with my gold.) RED GATHERER checks mail and takes all COD gold and deposits in the RED GUILD BANK except for a RNG between 200-300g (This covers repairs if needed and sending the next batch of items). ORANGE MULE empties mail and deposits everything into ORANGE GUILD BANK ORANGE MULE checks AH for items that are priced low (user defined). ORANGE MULE buys any low priced items (user defined) and re-lists. ORANGE MULE goes to ORANGE GUILD BANK and withdraws herb/ore and lists them on AH. GREEN GATHERERS sends all Ore/Herbs to RED MULE with COD for everything sent (if your economy is 65g per Ghost Iron Ore on the AH, I COD for 45g. Makes it seem like a long term buyer for my farmer and my mule is just paying myself with my gold.) GREEN GATHERERS checks mail and takes all COD gold and deposits in the GREEN GUILD BANK except for a RNG between 200-300g (This covers repairs if needed and sending the next batch of items). RED MULE empties mail and deposits everything into RED GUILD BANK RED MULE checks AH for items that are priced low (user defined). RED MULE buys any low priced items (user defined) and re-lists. RED MULE goes to RED GUILD BANK and withdraws herb/ore and lists them on AH. BLUE GATHERERS sends all Ore/Herbs to GREEN MULE with COD for everything sent (if your economy is 65g per Ghost Iron Ore on the AH, I COD for 45g. Makes it seem like a long term buyer for my farmer and my mule is just paying myself with my gold.) BLUE GATHERERS checks mail and takes all COD gold and deposits in the BLUE GUILD BANK except for a RNG between 200-300g (This covers repairs if needed and sending the next batch of items). GREEN MULE empties mail and deposits everything into GREEN GUILD BANK GREEN MULE checks AH for items that are priced low (user defined). GREEN MULE buys any low priced items (user defined) and re-lists. GREEN MULE goes to GREEN GUILD BANK and withdraws herb/ore and lists them on AH. ORANGE GATHERERS sends all Ore/Herbs to BLUE MULE with COD for everything sent (if your economy is 65g per Ghost Iron Ore on the AH, I COD for 45g. Makes it seem like a long term buyer for my farmer and my mule is just paying myself with my gold.) ORANGE GATHERERS checks mail and takes all COD gold and deposits in the ORANGE GUILD BANK except for a RNG between 200-300g (This covers repairs if needed and sending the next batch of items). BLUE MULE empties mail and deposits everything into BLUE GUILD BANK BLUE MULE checks AH for items that are priced low (user defined). BLUE MULE buys any low priced items (user defined) and re-lists. BLUE MULE goes to BLUE GUILD BANK and withdraws herb/ore and lists them on AH. IV. Account Security This section is mainly here so people do not ask what security precautions I took or what hardware I ran the bots on. I have four computers that I run the bots on. I did not purchase these computers just for botting, but I did upgrade several parts here and there, for better performance. Computers / Botting Setups: Code: Computer 1 // Runs All Gatherers (16 bots) on Two Horde Servers (Illidan / MalGanis) i7-3770k (4.5 GHz) 16 GB RAM 1 TB Green WD HDD 4 GB EVGA 670 FTW SLI Watercooled CPU/GPU with (1) 360mm Radiator Code: Computer 2 // Runs All Gatherers (16 bots) on Two Alliance Servers (Sargeras / Stormrage) i7-3770k (4.3 GHz) 16 GB RAM 1 TB Green WD HDD 4 GB EVGA 670 FTW SLI Watercooled CPU/GPU with (1) 240mm and (1) 120mm Radiator Code: Computer 3 // Runs 8 Mules on Two Horde Servers (Illidan / MalGanis) i5-3570k (4.3 GHz) 16 GB RAM 1 TB Green WD HHD 3 GB Sapphire 7950 Crossfire Corsair H100i on CPU Code: Computer 4 // Runs 8 Mules on Two Alliance Servers (Sargeras / Stormrage) i5-3570k (4.3 GHz) 16 GB RAM 1 TB Green WD HHD 4 GB EVGA 670 FTW SLI Corsair H100i on CPU I already have 3x 4 GB EVGA 670 FTW and I purchased 3 more just for botting. In total, all 6 EVGA cards came with the $150 Coupon for in game currency to Planetside 2/Hawken/World of Tanks. I sold all 6 on eBay for $50 each. Using that $300 I purchased a second 3570k for computer number 4 and another 32 GB of RAM for Computers 3 and 4. All the RAM was Corsair and i received around $60 in total rebates which I used to purchase the two H100i CPU coolers so I could OC Computers 3 and 4. All four 1TB WD HDDs were purchased, very cheap, locally on craigslist from some poor local guys failed attempt at making a home NAS. Guilds: On all my accounts used for gathering or mulling, I purchased all the account keys myself (digitally when they have huge sales), no SoRs for botting accounts ever. Now, for selling gold, that is a different story. I run 8 farmers on each server with 4 mules (1 mule per 2 farmers). If you paid attention in 'Section III. Bot Organization' you would see that on each server I have four guilds. Each guild is level 25 and I have over 500 players in each of the guilds to keep suspensions low on my farmers. I run the auto invite/whisper people addon that nearly half of servers run these days that says a random message like "Hey %n! Join %g (25) and enjoy free perks and a fun atmosphere! We are a laid back semi-casual guild that runs old content, current heroics and the occasional raid together!" Of course there is no raids or heroics together, unless random people talk to each (which they do cause there is always like 30-50 people online during prime time) and set runs up, but saying theirs raids and a friendly environment sounds better than "JOIN MY BOTTING GUILD!" Logon Patterns: I have my bots all setup on different logon patterns (I annotate all this in my spreadsheet. The spreadsheet I used early is a very basic example. I detail everything from what I have that bot farming, in what zone, when he logs on each day, when he logs off each day, his random set times, etc. I feel you can never have enough information, especially if you are running 40+ bots, you want to look at a spreadsheet say, "Ok. Bot #24 is in Dreaded Waste farming Herbs only and does his first log in between 5AM-6AM and his final log out is between 10PM-11PM." Here are some examples: [TABLE="class: grid, width: 500"] [TR] [TD="align: center"]Bot[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Zone[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Farm[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Persona[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Criteria 1[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Criteria 2[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Criteria 3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="align: center"]DW[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Ore[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Student/Teen[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Log on between 0600-0700[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Do NOT log on between 0700 - 1500[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Log off between 1900-2000 and no later than 2300[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]2[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Vo4W[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Ore[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Student/College[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Log on between 0600-0700[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Random log offs for two hours at a time between 0700 - 1500[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Log off by 2300[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]3[/TD] [TD="align: center"]JS[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Herb[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Adult[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Log on between 0500-0600[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Do NOT log on between 0600 - 1600[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Log off by 0100[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: center"]4[/TD] [TD="align: center"]KLS[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Herb[/TD] [TD="align: center"]Random[/TD] [TD="align: center"]?[/TD] [TD="align: center"]?[/TD] [TD="align: center"]?[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] For log on pattern you can see kind of what I did: Bot 1 runs in Dreaded Waste for Ore. He is a Teen Student (High Schooler?) He logs on between 0600-0700 every weekday (before going to school). He does NOT log back on until 1500 (can't log in if he is at school, right?). He logs out between 1900-2000 (damn parents making him go to dinner) and logs off by 2300 every day for school the next day. This bot follows these rules on weekdays and weekends all hell breaks lose. Have him wake up and run two sections of LFR, or w/e. He farms Ore in DW while in queue. Runs some LFR, farms some more. Makes it human like. Bot 2 is a College student, same schedule as Bot 1 (High Schooler) but he has more time during the day to play cause his classes are spread out. Again weekends, he goes crazy and plays a ton. Bot 3 is an adult. He wakes up earlier than Bot 1 but doesn't get back on until a little later when he gets home, but he has the luxury of getting fast food on the way home and no parents to make him get off by 2300. Bot 4 is that all so random guy who lives in his parents basement and plays randomly for 12-16 hours a day. IP Addresses: The only thing I did special with my IP address is I have three of them, well three ISP's to be precise.. The only reason I have two is I want to completely dis-associate my main account (over 20,000 achievements) with all the botting accounts. I have Verizon FiOS for my main account, Timewarner Cable for Computer 1 and Computer 3 and CenturyLink ADSL for Computer 2 and Computer 4. For the Timewarner and CenturyLink, I pay a total of $50 for both of them. Only reason I do that is in case of a ban, I don't lose all my bots, only half (although it did not help me in the long run, but more on that later). I don't use a V-P-N or any special programs to spoof my IPs in any way, shape, or form. V. How & When To Sell How I sold my gold: Coming Soon When I sold my gold: Coming Soon V. Acronyms Used AH: Auction House BiS: Best in Slot COD: Cash on Delivery CPU: Central Processing Unit D3: Diablo 3 DW: Dreaded Waste GB: Gigabyte(s) GHz: Gigahertz CPU: Graphics Processing Unit FiOS: Fiber Optic Service HDD: Harddrive HWID: Hardware Identification IP: Internet Protocol ISP: Internet Service Provider JS: The Jade Forest KLI: Kun-Lai Summit MoP: Mists of Pandaria NAS: Network-Attached Storage OC: Overclock RAM: Random Access Memory RNG: Random Number Generator SoR: Scroll of Ressurection TB: Terabyte(s) Vo4W: Valley of the Four Winds V-P-N: Virtual Private Network WD: Western Digital WoW - World of Warcraft
Very informative post, looking forward to reading more about it. Sorry about the ban, quite a tragedy. Around how much gold have you earned and how much have you sold?
Interesting, very well organised, I like the 'persona' idea. I was a bit fascinated by the fact that you have large 'active' guilds on each server, even though they're botting accounts. I've seen people say the best way to level a guild is to use a plugin like that to invite people, but was always sceptical that it would work without an active 'real' GL.
Thanks for the very well laid out report, I also found your logon patterns and personas to be a very interesting and great idea. Looking forward to reading more!
48 bots 3 ips.. blizz should send you a thank you card.. man i think you might be able to get a guiness book of world records for most effort put in to fail.. thanks for keeping gms busy bro keep up the good work!
So what you are saying is, after all this complicated method you implemented, you eventually got banned. So what exactly is this guide about? Your method didn't protected you from a ban. Just like my method which have been running since December, (10 bots making 400-500 euro per week, had 34 running) didn't protect me fro the ban hammer. This type of information should stay secret not been put on display on forums.
Anyone's more than welcome to post here. I'm still working on the first post, but 7 months of botting before receiving any bans, I guess you could say its a fail? Slow month would put be around $2,000 and the best month being just under $3,800, I would love to fail for 7 months again.
Reason I made this post is I've always seen people on the forums ask how people run multiple bots, so I can giving my accounts of what I did. It's more of a guide on how to bot smartly and think outside the box with organizing your botting network and the way they bot. What should stay secret about this? There's nothing in here that can't be found anywhere else or thought of/implemented by anyone else who took the time to sit down and build a bot network. Ii have some theories as to what my downfall was and will be posting that as well. I haven't decided I'd I'm going to give it another go yet. I'm in the US Army (getting ready to get out) and love in government provides housing, meaning all my electricity is free. I'll have to sit down and weigh out my options for paying the electric in the future.
7 months is definitely a good run, haven't had the time to get myself back up and running again since my peak a couple years ago with 10 running, which only lasted a few months. Kudos and don't give up.
Great information - Mind adding a bit to the guide how you level your characters up? RAF profiles ? BG questing? Would be much appreciated thanks!
Yea, not finishes yet, still have a lot to fix and add to it, just busy with real life at the moment. Filing all my VA claims for disability in the Army.
Great post! And I love how you give each of your bots a back story (high schooler, college, parent's basement).
Nice post, nothing I'd do though. The whole "mule-accounting" seems pretty useless to me, I'm using another method so I don't need any mule accounts.
This is brilliant. Extremely well written and full of gems. I wish people didn't flame you in this thread so we could see updates. Best of luck to you wherever you are.
