Bots ruining public dungeons

TheRedMage

This is absolutely sickening, the bots have already infested public dungeons spamming aoes so that the bosses die so fast that anyone not in their group can't get xp. I've just gone through 8 spawns at the inner sea armature boss only to not get any xp/loot because they spam all aoes/templar knockbacks so that no one else can even get a hit in. How is this supposed to be fun? I loved the idea of public dungeons in beta, but this just ruins them as its in EVERY public dungeon.

How do i know its bots? Because they all have random lowcaps name, same class, using all abililties at the exact same time, all perfectly stacked, the same way you'd spot them in WoW.

As for a productive fix, they could make boss hp scale with the ammount of players present.

What is everyone elses opinions on this? Anyone else fed up and sick of not being able to get public boss kills? Something has to be done as this is killing public dungeons.

I know I'm ranting here, but it really is discouraging to not even be able to get a tag in because people have to cheat.

EDIT: As *certain* people take this as an attack on everything multiboxing, i'm going to add i've got no problem with multiboxing when it doesn't give you an advantage OR theres a way to make it a fair fight.

Paks_ESO

Did you report them with a screen?

TheRedMage

I should have, and will every time i see them but i'm more or less concerned that using a screenshot will fail to show exactly what i'm talking about, as you need to see them in action to really get it.

I know this is botting and/or multiboxing without a doubt as i have dealt with them before in WoW and FFXIV, and this is the exact same kind of behavior.

Farham

It is rampant in all the public dungeons now. Very easy to spot and quite frankly after the first 10 reports I am tired of wasting my time. Public dungeon bosses should simply have diminishing returns. 1st full xp and loot tables, 2nd time 75%, 3rd time etc.

They don't even try and hide it. The names alone (the random lower case Gold Spammer names is a "we don't care" bat signal) It would take an ESO GM/Dev all of 5 minutes to go to the boss area of these places and just nail people all day long.

TheRedMage

Farham wrote: »

It is rampant in all the public dungeons now. Very easy to spot and quite frankly after the first 10 reports I am tired of wasting my time. Public dungeon bosses should simply have diminishing returns. 1st full xp and loot tables, 2nd time 75%, 3rd time etc.

They don't even try and hide it. The names alone (the random lower case Gold Spammer names is a "we don't care" bat signal) It would take an ESO GM/Dev all of 5 minutes to go to the boss area of these places and just nail people all day long.

I think i liked your solution more than mine, makes me think of DDO where after you loot a chest so many times it doesn't give loot for a few days. But yeah something defiantly needs to be done to stop it.

This rampant and blatant botting is ruining public dungeons.

k9mouse

That is why multi-boxing should be ban-able offence. Report them. One work around is to log out and back in again to get to another version of the same dungeon, but that does not fix the problem.

How can ZOS detect multi-boxing and disable it use?

Killum

There have been several threads on this already. The situation has become extremely annoying. Almost every dungeon/Zone Boss is camped at this point. About time they hired some in game GM's to kick these spammers from the game.

I have lost count of the amount of times I have reported these people and the ever increasing number of Gold Sellers. I just really hope something is done soon.

I just wish that the ignore function was account wide. As it stands I have to ignore the same people on each of my characters separately.

Orchish

I had to try multiple times to complete a public dungeon today in Rivenspire because there was literally 10+ bots in a perfect circle around the boss, the second he spawned he pretty much instantly died.

Donarion

Just wanted to chime in on this thread as well, since I've also been seeing this in several public dungeons in Auredon. I've been reporting the player names as I see them, and I hope that Zenimax does something about this soon.

Coggage

TheRedMage wrote: »

This is absolutely sickening, the botters/multiboxers have already infested public dungeons spamming aoes so that the bosses die so fast that anyone not in their group can't get xp.

You hit it you get xp, loot and completion of the dungeon. The players are there grinding the mini-boss for stuff to deconstruct.

Anyhow, in this game you CANNOT kill-steal. In ESO it's a game mechanic that just doesn't exist. The xp has been deliberately nerfed for repeated kills to avoid people living down there and farming xp. Maybe that's what you were noticing?

Sarenia

If they don't nip this and the harvest warp exploit in the bud, the farmers will single-handedly destroy this game's gold economy before it even properly matures.

Killum

Coggage wrote: »

TheRedMage wrote: »

This is absolutely sickening, the botters/multiboxers have already infested public dungeons spamming aoes so that the bosses die so fast that anyone not in their group can't get xp.

You hit it you get xp, loot and completion of the dungeon. The players are there grinding the mini-boss for stuff to deconstruct.

Anyhow, in this game you CANNOT kill-steal. In ESO it's a game mechanic that just doesn't exist. The xp has been deliberately nerfed for repeated kills to avoid people living down there and farming xp. Maybe that's what you were noticing?

The problem is you can't get a hit in unless you are extremely lucky and or patient.

knightblaster

It's not only multiboxers and botters, but also players who are farming the bosses for mats (i.e., deconstructs). It's making the public dungeons more of a chore than anything else, but I doubt that much will be done about this. I think Zenimax doesn't care that much about players choosing to farm public dungeon bosses as long as they are not getting much XP (which they are not). It's very irritating for players who don't want to farm the bosses, but I doubt that it gets changed such that there are diminishing returns or no loot after first time you loot them or something like that because that would be deliberately anti-farming and it doesn't seem like they want to disallow boss farming as a playstyle.

InF13RNo

Too bad this' happening here too.

k9mouse

I do like grinding and farming. Both aspects are my play style, but I do it in the open world not in dungeons. I rather see slower spawn times for the players after certain number of boss kills then ZOS "banning" / nerfing farming out right.

I do agree, I do not like camping and don't do that, but the same time I do like to farm and grind as well. I go after trash mobs when I grind in an area in the open world. I do not use mutli-box, just playing one char a time in a normal way.

If anyone ask me to stop for a minute for them to kill a boss, I will honor that or if the an other player needs help, all they have to do to ask me.

Shimond

What's really hilarious is taking a dragon knight down there and fire chaining the boss away from them as soon as it appears, then moving away and doing it again. You can see how many have 'smarter' bot programs and follow, and how many don't. Course the ones that DO follow end up staying out there and not returning to the home spawn point after the kill.

TheRedMage

knightblaster wrote: »

It's not only multiboxers and botters, but also players who are farming the bosses for mats (i.e., deconstructs). It's making the public dungeons more of a chore than anything else, but I doubt that much will be done about this. I think Zenimax doesn't care that much about players choosing to farm public dungeon bosses as long as they are not getting much XP (which they are not). It's very irritating for players who don't want to farm the bosses, but I doubt that it gets changed such that there are diminishing returns or no loot after first time you loot them or something like that because that would be deliberately anti-farming and it doesn't seem like they want to disallow boss farming as a playstyle.

I'm not talking about the normal players, I'm talking about the people who multibox 5+ characters standing on the spawn while spamming knockback/aoes in EXACT unison. They should care, as stuff like this can kill reputation quickly. I know i left FFXIV because of bots, and to come here and see they have even more freedom just strikes a nerve.

They should:
1) Increase boss health proportionate to # of players present
2) Put DR on their loot and xp as suggested by Farham (could be like DDO where there's a cooldown associated)
or
3) Reduce the amount of damage you need to do to actually get a tag

All of these are viable fixes that have been done in other MMOs.

On the disallowing boss farming thing, increased hp like i suggested easily fixes the problem while allowing boss farming, although i haven't heard of an MMO where farming JUST world/public bosses is a viable leveling route instead of questing/dungeons/pvp.

k9mouse wrote: »

I do like grinding and farming. Both aspects are my play style, but I do it in the open world not in dungeons. I rather see slower spawn times for the players after certain number of boss kills then ZOS "banning" / nerfing farming out right.

I do agree, I do not like camping and don't do that, but the same time I do like to farm and grind as well. I go after trash mobs when I grind in an area in the open world. I do not use mutli-box, just playing one char a time in a normal way.

If anyone ask me to stop for a minute for them to kill a boss, I will honor that or if the an other player needs help, all they have to do to ask me.

Once again, i'm not talking about the average person doing it, i'm talking about the botters who park SO MANY characters there and spam aoe/knockbacks that theres no chance for the others who want to kill the boss to do so. I've got no problem losing a kill to a group of non-botters, its the people using bots/multiboxing (its blatently obvious they are) that are using unfair advantages to automate the killing of bosses that i have a problem with.

dockgirl48

Another fun thing to do... tag and drag mobs to the bots, they kill them just as if they were the boss they were farming. Its not enough exp to level off of or farm with, but its funny to watch.

TheRedMage

Shimond wrote: »

What's really hilarious is taking a dragon knight down there and fire chaining the boss away from them as soon as it appears, then moving away and doing it again. You can see how many have 'smarter' bot programs and follow, and how many don't. Course the ones that DO follow end up staying out there and not returning to the home spawn point after the kill.

Inferno Destro Staves (the first skill is a pretty big knockback) are also a lulzy alternative =3

Zokten

Botting is a problem

Multiboxing is not

TheRedMage

Zokten wrote: »

Botting is a problem

Multiboxing is not

If this were wow, i'd say its not a problem as its predominant in pvp where there's a solution to equalizing the multiboxer advantage (group up and cc), i'd say it wasn't a big thing. But if you can multibox to hold an absolute monopoly on bosses , there's a problem.

Zokten

TheRedMage wrote: »

Zokten wrote: »

Botting is a problem

Multiboxing is not

If this were wow, i'd say its not a problem as its predominant in pvp where there's a solution to equalizing the multiboxer advantage (group up and cc), i'd say it wasn't a big thing. But if you can multibox to hold an absolute monopoly on bosses , there's a problem.

A group could also have a monopoly on it. But it is never absolute

Greydog

Put a timer on the boss ..make them wait an hour before they can target him again.

TheRedMage

Zokten wrote: »

TheRedMage wrote: »

Zokten wrote: »

Botting is a problem

Multiboxing is not

If this were wow, i'd say its not a problem as its predominant in pvp where there's a solution to equalizing the multiboxer advantage (group up and cc), i'd say it wasn't a big thing. But if you can multibox to hold an absolute monopoly on bosses , there's a problem.

A group could also have a monopoly on it. But it is never absolute

Yes it is absolute if you can (every single time) kill it before anyone else can get a hit in/get enough damage done to get a flag.

It'd be harder for a normal group to get such a monopoly due to not everyone hitting everything at the exact same time.

Don't get me wrong, i've got no problem with multiboxing when theres a way to make it fair/get around the number issue, but being able to keep something on lockdown due to 5+ characters aoeing at the EXACT SAME TIME.

knightblaster

TheRedMage wrote: »

On the disallowing boss farming thing, increased hp like i suggested easily fixes the problem while allowing boss farming, although i haven't heard of an MMO where farming JUST world/public bosses is a viable leveling route instead of questing/dungeons/pvp.

It isn't. They don't get much XP at all -- Zenimax nerfed xp from kills in dungeons into the ground because it was being abused by powerlevelers. So they're not in there leveling, they're in there farming loot, for the most part to deconstruct into crafting mats.

I wouldn't be opposed to changing it as you have described, but I don't expect they will do so. I do favor banning botters, of course.

cromica81_ESO

I kill each boss at least 10 times make sure I get the majority of bosses drops, the soul crystals are not bad either

marderforhire

Happens in every mmo dunno why people are shocked..

Zokten

TheRedMage wrote: »

Zokten wrote: »

TheRedMage wrote: »

Zokten wrote: »

Botting is a problem

Multiboxing is not

If this were wow, i'd say its not a problem as its predominant in pvp where there's a solution to equalizing the multiboxer advantage (group up and cc), i'd say it wasn't a big thing. But if you can multibox to hold an absolute monopoly on bosses , there's a problem.

A group could also have a monopoly on it. But it is never absolute

Yes it is absolute if you can (every single time) kill it before anyone else can get a hit in/get enough damage done to get a flag.

It'd be harder for a normal group to get such a monopoly due to not everyone hitting everything at the exact same time.

Don't get me wrong, i've got no problem with multiboxing when theres a way to make it fair/get around the number issue, but being able to keep something on lockdown due to 5+ characters aoeing at the EXACT SAME TIME.

To bad they can't do it every single time I've been in the places they are and get credit 95% of the time. So 5% of the time they push me out.

TheRedMage

marderforhire wrote: »

Happens in every mmo dunno why people are shocked..

Except for the fact that no other mmo lets them hold a monopoly on bosses. If they're farming resources i can go to the other side of the area. Farming bosses though, you can't do anything about it. Can't go to another area for that.

TheRedMage

knightblaster wrote: »

TheRedMage wrote: »

On the disallowing boss farming thing, increased hp like i suggested easily fixes the problem while allowing boss farming, although i haven't heard of an MMO where farming JUST world/public bosses is a viable leveling route instead of questing/dungeons/pvp.

It isn't. They don't get much XP at all -- Zenimax nerfed xp from kills in dungeons into the ground because it was being abused by powerlevelers. So they're not in there leveling, they're in there farming loot, for the most part to deconstruct into crafting mats.

I wouldn't be opposed to changing it as you have described, but I don't expect they will do so. I do favor banning botters, of course.

Glad to hear they nerfed the xp, i recall that being a leveling tactic in the beta, along with farming them for gems (to vendor for gold) before they made them into 0 gold crafting mats.

ZiRM

Botting is a problem they need to address fast. I don't see a problem with multi boxing.