TL;DR: go to 3.
Hello,
in my adventures to catch/report potential bots (mainly AH bots because - being a goblin - I see them the most often), I’ve conquered the first challange: names with characters like ‘äåöŇäê’ and other tricky letters so they are a bit harder to add to your friends list. (To see where they are because reporting cheating is only available if you are close to said character and can right-click their nameplate.)
This way I can report most of them, but some are really tricky: they are phased out so you still cant click on them. And it got me wondering how they exactly do it…
- Undercity: I can see all the characters I suspect to be bots, except DKs. There are at least 2 lvl 10 DKs who were online the last 3 days anytime I log in, spamming the AH with leatherworking stuff.
- Shrine of two moons / seven stars / booty bay: the chars I cant see are mostly lvl 5 mages and some warriors from both faction spamming the AH with inscription missives.
How do they ‘phase out’? Join a group with a higher lvl char and party sync? I noticed that these chars are usually in a guild with multiple 1-10lvl chars and there’s always one lvl61-65 char in the guild. But always only one. Do they use that character for this? The only other thing I can think of is turning on pvp (not warmode, just right clicking your portrait), but that did not change anything - I see the same players with pvp on or off.
- Does your class/race matter (thinking about the DKs in Undercity)? Does it matter if you are in a raid or group with higher lvl characers? Does it matter if you are in Q for dungeons,BGs,etc? Does it matter which timeline you select at Chromie in your capital? Or any other idea you have how these bots possibly “phase themselves out”?
Sincerely,
your idealist fair-play lover buddy 