When I used to need to farm, they improved it because you only need to find 1 and follow it for 5 minutes to see an effective loop. Where there's 1, there's 10 so that leads on and on, and eventually I found some amazing loops that were much better than Hew's Bane ore loop that I was running prior - Which was amazing in itself and still is.

You can beat them to the nodes anyway.. on console at least. But yeah, would be ideal if they weren't there I guess.

I didn't see any bots in the game so far, maybe because I don't farm much

Pictures are very creepy though

I farm whatever zone I'm focusing on at the time. Auridon is always a favorite of mine to farm, or Summerset.

Prices for botted materials seem way down (which some people do like), so I rather go for loot than raw mats now.

People who "farm" have impacted the way I quest, though...

Yes, in that I don't farm as often anymore. Bots have depressed prices on materials so much that it's hardly worth the effort anymore.

The only way to make gold anymore in this game is to flip. In fact, buying materials from botters to flip is one of the best ways to make gold. They're usually willing to sell at deep discounts since they want to sell asap and they have tons of stock/quickly replenish it.

Mats are dirt cheap thanks to bots so I don't ever need to farm. Xie xie

I don't farm in the sense of sticking in one place and focusing on one circuit of mobs or harvest nodes, but I do run (not ride) around a lot especially with new characters in the tutorial zones and wherever I am with whichever character I always harvest most of the nodes I come across. I can't recall the last time I saw a bot let alone had my harvesting or questing impacted by them. This is mainly on PC EU and also PC NA.

About 6 months ago in Khenarthi's Roost there was a player (an afk'er rather than a bot) who was standing over the same node for several days. I reported him and a day or two later he was gone, whether by his own initiative or by being kicked I don't know.

I only use such materials etc as I find, I have no interest in buying them in any game I play, and I'm not a seller in ESO so any impact of bots on prices doesn't affect me - but if they keep prices down to sensible levels then that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't always farm but when I do it is usually in Craglorn or during an event with double loot.

Tandor wrote: »

I don't farm in the sense of sticking in one place and focusing on one circuit of mobs or harvest nodes, but I do run (not ride) around a lot especially with new characters in the tutorial zones and wherever I am with whichever character I always harvest most of the nodes I come across. I can't recall the last time I saw a bot let alone had my harvesting or questing impacted by them. This is mainly on PC EU and also PC NA.

About 6 months ago in Khenarthi's Roost there was a player (an afk'er rather than a bot) who was standing over the same node for several days. I reported him and a day or two later he was gone, whether by his own initiative or by being kicked I don't know.

I only use such materials etc as I find, I have no interest in buying them in any game I play, and I'm not a seller in ESO so any impact of bots on prices doesn't affect me - but if they keep prices down to sensible levels then that's not necessarily a bad thing.

@Tandor I get moments of nostalgia where I want to farm in the beginning of my ESO journey so AD starting points which has been a sad experience watching my favorite places to farm be populated with bots.

Regarding the Khenarthi's Roost story, was it the spot where the nodes overlapped? On PS4 NA, there was a spot where there was 2 ore/seams that spawned in the same place and they spawned frequently. I honestly haven't gone back to see if it's still a thing.

And I was in 3 guild traders but I started to run out of materials because I haven't found as good of a route as I had in Khenarthi's Roost. I wouldn't mind bots so much if I didn't know they were making real money off of doing this so not only are they taking away my farming locations, decreasing my supplies and decreasing the value but they are making real money off of it.

I’m on PC NA and honestly up to this day i’ve never seen a farming bot, unless i have but really haven’t paid any attention.

Xerikten wrote: »

on pc na also and I can count on one hand how many I have come across. they are always in the middle of no where in a group running around killing for leather. not a problem for me.

Ysbriel wrote: »

I’m on PC NA and honestly up to this day i’ve never seen a farming bot, unless i have but really haven’t paid any attention.

I wonder if ZOS can manage PC bots better than they can on console. Which if that is the case, this poll is skewed some more.

I already know I'm an odd one here because of where I farm but I generally head out to either Gold Coast or Orsinium for farming as those tend to have the least saturated playerbases. Orsinium is just not very well liked and Gold Coast doesn't have many quests taking place in the world so less people walking about for resource nodes.

But I do know when I go to base game areas or chapters there are a lot more people resource farming than I see in my other two places of choice.

I hardly farm anymore. When I did, I would avoid the starter areas due to the bots/farmers and stick mainly to Craglorn for nirn. Once, I reported bots in Rivenspire. I did come across the occasional craglorn chinese gold farmer trying to trade their wares for gold or racing me to nodes.

Farming Wrothgar during the event while waiting for the Cyrodiil que was probably the last time I farmed.

Kuramas9tails wrote: »

Khenarthis Roost was my favorite place to farm for resources. It was where I first started playing ESO so it has sentimental value to me as a long time player. I haven't been able to farm that area for over a year now because there are constant bots. I keep reporting them one after another to no avail.

To some players, yes, this may seem silly to be upset over (my boyfriend thinks so too) but this bothers me a lot.

It's not silly. Botting is ruining this game. They are everywhere, they make 1 percent of players control the entire trading game on my platform allegedly, and prices for items are absolutely decimated because of the constant bots. For instance, we have botters who have accrued so many gold mats and other rare mats that they sell them in stores all over for 4k or less. And the undersellers push it further down.

Because of this, farming is no longer worth it AT ALL if you want to do it legitimately. I don't farm a large amount of things anymore because it's not worth my time. I'm a major trader, so it's cut deeply into my motivation to play this game. I don't touch khenarthi's, I don't farm tempers or dreugh wax anymore. And so on and so on.

It's a huge problem. It all stems from 2 to 3 main sources.

I enjoy farming. I deal with PTSD, and farming is a way for me to relax and get reward for my work as well. It's not fun or relaxing anymore since good routes are inundated by bots and I get almost nothing for my work now. Doesn't help that the RNG in this game is horrific. I only get 1 gold mat from every 400 raws most of the time. While others have said they usually get 1 every 100, and the standard is supposed to be 1 in 200. This game is unfair and no one does anything about that or the bots that crush it underfoot.

This all is part of a much worse set of issues involving cheating and monopolies and underhanded tactics and threats and toxicity. I'm not writing a 50 page post though. I'm PS4 NA. Things are garbage here.


TL;DR

Bots are ruining this game. They are constant and everywhere and nothing is done about them. Not enough by far, anyway.
The market is destroyed by them and other parts of the game that I have not gone into detail about are wrecked in certain ways, as well.