Bot In WoWWiki . A bot is a special type of wiki user . In World of Warcraft . Also known as , a bot is a method of controlling an in - game character by an automated means that does not require direct interaction from a player . Sometimes known as an " autoplaying game client " , this is strictly prohibited by the " World of Warcraft " Terms of Use Agreement . Most often , a bot uses a series of automated macro s to control the character in game . Reporting a botter . Although they may not interrupt you or hamper your current gameplay , botters are considered by some to be a threat to a server due to the excessive farming which can allegedly damage a server ' s virtual economy , however this is often disputed as there are many examples of economy normalization on servers where there is a heavy presence of gold farmer s . PvP botters are also seen by many as a great nuisance in battlegrounds due to the disadvantages it brings your team and the boredom in playing against them . If you suspect a character is being played by a bot , you are as of patch 4 . 3 . 4 encouraged by Blizzard to use the Report Player function . To do this , right click on a player ' s portrait , click " Report Player For : " , choose " Cheating " , fill in detailed information and submit . You should include the time you have seen them , where you have seen them , and your reasons that you believe that the player is a bot . Another way to report any kind of cheating is to send a mail to " hacks @ blizzard . com " . Evidence such as screenshots and videos can be uploaded to respectively e . g . tinypic . com and Youtube . com . Bot uses . Gold and material farming . Bots can be used to farm gold , either directly ( from gold dropped by mobs ) , or by proxy ( materials that sell for gold ) . Certain areas in WoW are explored and mapped by botting communities which yield the best rate of gold per hour . But a lot of botters also farm for rare items which have very low drop rates , such as the Hyacinth Macaw from Stranglethorn Vale . Items like these have phenomenally low drop rates ( roughly 1 in 1500 for the Macaw ) and would be almost impossible to farm without a bot . These methods are also used by gold farmer s , professional Warcraft players who sell in - game gold , loot , or services for real - world money . This violates Blizzard ' s Terms of Use agreement and may get both parties banned , however this is most often not the case as Blizzard has more of an interest in stopping the sellers ( not the buyers ) of gold trading . These farmers automate the process with bots , either to powerlevel characters unattended or to grind mobs continuously for rare drops . Honor farming and Leveling . Bots can also be used for farming honor at the various Battleground s . Bots such as Pirox and Honorbuddy even include profiles for all the battlegrounds by default . One of the most popular uses of bots , however , is leveling . This can be done in one of three ways ; Questing , PvPing , and pure grinding . Some bots support quest profiles , which automatically perform quests ( including quest pickup and turn in ) . Pure grinding is simply a basic process to kill certain mobs in certain areas till the player levels . For a long time , from 2005 till 2009 , pure grinding was the only method used to level with a bot , since questing profiles hadn ' t been developed yet , and PvP battlegrounds yielded no experience . History . Early bots . A number of bots developed by numerous people started appearing within a year or two of World of Warcraft ' s release , such as Openbot . However , the most notable and famous of which was Glider , which first appeared in 2005 . Developed by Michael Donnelly , Glider was noted for it ' s particular ease of use , numerous features , and robust community . It ' s strong community created many profiles to use with the bot , and distributed them freely . After it ' s initial popularity , Glider was developed into a full featured bot in 2007 and sold for $ 25 . The bot and it ' s community thrived for over 4 years , and over 100 , 000 copies of Glider were sold ( as of 2008 ) . Glider quickly became the de - facto program of choose for most botters . Glider lawsuit . In July of 2008 , Blizzard filed a lawsuit in the U . S . District Court for the District of Arizona against the makers of Glider . The lawsuit alleged that MDY Industries , LLC ( the company selling Glider ) were liable for copyright infringement based , in part , on the premise that users of the World of Warcraft software are actually " licensees " rather than owners of their copy of software . Public Knowledge , a public interest group , publicaly criticized the decision . However , the court found that Glider infringed upon Blizzard ' s intellectual property and ordered the makers of Glider to pay Blizzard six million dollars . In March 2009 , MDY suspended Glider sales and operations , as well as closed their online community . As of September 2009 , they are appealing the court decision . Second Generation . After Glider ceased selling and developing their bot , a number of newer bots started appearing in late 2009 , such as there was high demand among the botting community for a new bot similar to Glider . There were already bots out during Glider , such as WoWMimic set of bots that automate all aspects of the game , another was Farmer John Bot . Some other well - known bots were Pirox , Gatherbuddy ( aka , Honorbuddy ) and MMOLazy . Dubbed the " second generation " of bots , They aren ' t similar to Glider as they are more advanced and offered more features , control and creation of profiles , and ease of use without External plugins . They have thriving online communities , as most of the previous members of Glider migrated over . Other bots such as WRobot and TheNoobBot later emerged , but Honorbuddy became the most popular bot . But after years in court and increasingly frequent banwaves , Honorbuddy ceased it sales after losing as series of legal cases . The last judgement in March 2017 ordered the makers of Honorbuddy to pay Blizzard 8 . 5 million dollars in damages . Spotting a botter . There are several signs that may indicate that one player in action could be a botter . PCinvasion . com World of Warcraft bot company ordered to pay $ 8 . 5 million