How to detect, evade, and deal with bots
Bots... we've wished unholy death upon them for stealing our nodes while they are under the terrain or for racing node to node while having no mount at all. We've all been there, cursed, and wished there was something we could do to deal with them. And there is!
Bots are programmed by lazy people for lazy people. Many cost money and some are free, but there is one thing that every bot has in common. They will never compare to or beat a real human player. Especially when you're armed with knowledge of how some of them work!
Detection!
How do you know if it is a bot? What are the tell tale signs that some guys computer is taking you for a loop? Here's a few ways to tell if it's a bot.
Can you only see the players nameplate? -- If so, they're likely under the terrain stealing your goods. Not much you can do about these guys unless they're enemies and flagged for PvP. Then you can attack them and they'll most likely stop moving for a predetermined amount of time.
Are they walking through the air with no mount? -- I've found numerous bots lately that don't even mount, they just slowly go from node to node without a mount and under the terrain. I got lucky and death gripped one back through the terrain only to watch him "fly" off. These people are using not only bots, but XYZ hacks, to get them ahead with no effort. These ones you can usually report to a GM and see them disappear a few days later.
Do they mine a node and fly straight upwards after mounting? -- There are a few actual players that do this, but in my experience, they're mostly bots. The bots that do this are being run by a lousy program that requires the player to define a max height to ensure that the player won't get stuck. I've seen a number of reports about these guys getting banned and it makes me tingle!
These are the best ways I've found to detect bots. May not be all the methods or signs, but these are what I notice the most.
Evasion!
If you get nipped in the butt twice by a single bot, just turn around and reverse your route. He's going one way, you're going the other. Pretty much the only way to avoid bots.
Dealing with Bots
Now. I enjoy hunting bots. I find it exciting. I research them, follow them, and ultimately get their asses banned and raise a beer in victory! Yeah. Little over the top, but I really like hunting bots! If you have no ambition to hunt bots, then this section won't do you much good. You can probably skip to the next part of the guide now.
Research! -- Knowing how bots work, their limitations, and their tells makes this a great past time. And I'm not saying to go out there and use them! Don't be stupid! I'm telling you to read forums, reports of who got banned and what bot they were using, where they were botting. You may not know this, but the more ban reports a bot gets, the less trusted it is by botters, and ultimately, reduces the number of people running bots. Less people running bots usually means less people farming, and that's my goal!
Follow! -- If you can map out an entire bots route, you just hit a goldmine of information! See... people are lazy. They just take whatever route is given to them and stuff it in their bot. If you can discover these routes and match numerous players to the same route, you may just have yourself a nice fun time compiling a list of bots to forward to the GMs. My largest report thus far was 4 bots using the same route in Uldum.
Misc -- You know that bot you just reported? How the GM said they can't tell you about any action they take? LIES! Add that bot to your friends list and pretty soon after reporting (sometimes you'll have to report them a second time.) you'll find that the person either doesn't exist on your friends list anymore, or no longer comes online! This is victory! I have a lowbie alt that just has bots on his friends list for the opposing faction.
i remember the lvl 70 time when my warlock owned the battleground and killed everything 
