Botting (WoW)  

Using a Bot or Botting is using a third program that plays the game for you and with no involvement requires from the user aside from starting it up. Bots are often used to level up, farm items or even participate in battlegrounds while the user is away.

Botting is strictly forbidden by the World of Warcraft Term of Service and the penalty for botting are quite harsh, quite often involving a permanent ban with no grace period.

How can I tell if a character is a bot?

You can't really, not for certain. But bots tend to act in repeated patterns like always circling a zone along the exact same route, targeting only specific animals. These patterns will go on for hours. However you may have noticed that that same behavior could apply to a non-botting player who's just farming leather.

If you suspect someone is a bot, whisper them with an innocuous question like "Hey are you going to be here long, I need X mobs, too". Not all players will answer you, some don't speak your language, some just want to be left alone. But a bot will never answer you. Another thing you can do is tag the mobs that the player is killing. This will mean that you will get credit for the kill and they won't be able to loot (or skin until you loot).

A player will probably stop attacking the mob. A bot will help you kill it and then run over and try to loot your kill anyway. If you do this a player will likely get rather upset with you, especially if you do it repeatedly, so you want to be relatively certain that it's a bot.

I found a Botter, what do I do?

The best option is to simply open a ticket to a Game Master, usually as a Behavior complaint. Include any information about the botter, including his name, the Zone (WoW)\zone you spotted him in, and a brief description of the suspicious behavior. A GM will get in touch with you and ask some questions before starting the investigation.

You may still see the bot around for quite a while you've spoken to a GM. Part of the reason for this is, because of the harsh penalty for botting, Blizzard needs to be certain that a player is botting before taking action. Also, Blizzard tends to make an example out of botters. They do this by mass-banning botters discovered over a time period. Not all botters are necessarily banned this way, but every so often Blizzard will spring clean and get rid of a ton of bad elements.

Why Is Botting Bad?

Will Botters may not be hurting you directly, they do create an unfair advantage with those with low enough morale to use them.

If the Bot is used for gold farming, they might damage the virtual economy of the game.

Used for leveling, they end up creating a level capped character who's player often has very little actual experience of how to play his class. This may seem fine until you get in a party with him.

Used to gain honor in battleground, it creates a character who is fully decked out in epic pvp gear without having had to earn it.

Regardless of all this, even if you disagree with the reason above, Blizzard has the last call on what is allowed or not in their game.

World of Warcraft Wikibase™