Disclaimer: This is my first and probably last post here. Just wanted to give back to the community that has given me a viable way of making some money on the side for the time being. This thread is a bit of a guide and a bit of a "success story" thread; it is not meant to brag, because I am not even close to being on the same level as some full-time botters; I will also not reveal which profiles I use or where I bot, this is just for informational and motivational purposes.
I started botting on WoW about 3 months ago, but didn't really get into it seriously until recently. When I first started I just used the bot to make some gold here and there and mainly used the bot to gather resources so I didn't have to farm for hours to level a profession. But recently I decided to make a profit off of the game. I don't enjoy "playing" the game anymore. It got boring quick for me, especially since I'm on a medium population server and don't have a steady schedule to raid, pvp with a guild, etc.
I started off with one account and was making around 20-25K a day with the potential for more, depending on the drops. This was a guaranteed 20-25K a day, not the hypothetical stuff that a lot of users on here claim to make if their items sell on the AH or if they can find a buyer at the right price. After testing out and tweaking the profile slightly, I decided to level a second account and start using a similar profile. With the second account I was making slightly more because I used the same skeleton from the original profile with modifications of my own that were fine-tuned to prevent the bot from getting stuck. At this point I was making 60K a day, but with further tweaks to the profile, I could reach an average of 70-80k in one day of botting. Roughly 60% of this is PURE gold and the rest came from AH items that sold almost instantly.
Below will be a quick and dirty getting started guide with some tips on how you can reach your gold targets quicker and safer.
The Basics
The most important thing you need to do is find the right server for your profile. Personally, I prefer medium population PvE servers that are alive and dead according to my timezone. Because I live in the east coast, it would be problematic for me to bot in a server that is predominantly populated with west coast players as that would mean that there are more people to report me when the bot is running. I turn on my bot at around 11PM-midnight, which is 8-9PM on the west coast - prime time for people, especially during the summer. A simple "/who" search will show how many people are in the zone or chat. Use that query several times a day to find out the peak days and the peak hours. Long story short, do your due diligence and find out this information before you start botting!
After you found out which timezone your server is populated with, the next thing you need to figure out is if the AH or player base fits your profile. PvE servers tend to have more people questing, which means more people with more gold. It is almost impossible for me to find a 2s partner on my server, yet I can find a group that is running heroic dungeons or raids at almost any time, and that to you means people with deeper pockets. There are a couple of good websites out there that will analyze your server's AH market and show you the daily volume of gold and items being posted and sold. This is key if your method involves selling something on the AH. Generally, a high population server will underprice valuable items and a low population server will overprice them and this will greatly affect your GPH.
After you found the server you want to bot in, the next most important thing is to have a profile that is truly 100% afk and will not look like a "botty" profile. I have tried several profiles that yield a decent profit per hour, but the amount of bugs that arise over the course of 10 hours makes it almost impossible for your account to survive any measurable amount of time without getting spotted. Invest some time into learning the basics of profile making. Just by simply opening up the profile in Notepad should teach you a few things about how the profile you have selected works.
Also, a bit of a side-note, make your toon to seem as normal as possible. Personally, I run a few dailies, dungeons, instances, and talk in trade chat to advertise that I'm selling some stuff. This takes 30 minutes a day per account, but might result in putting your account in good standing with the people who are about to report you. BUT don't get too friendly with people, as they will sometimes "/wave" at you when they fly by you or even stop by to try to chat. Furthermore, stay friendly, but don't add anyone on your friend's list unless they are potential buyers of your items or your gold. My excuse is simply that I don't have enough space to add someone.
Fine Tuning
So, you selected the server and found/created the ideal profile that works for you. Now what? Add-ons. I use a few add-ons that cut down the amount of screen time that I need to reach my goal from 3 hours a day to just under 90 minutes. I also used an autoclicker when I first started out, which freed up a lot of time, but I eventually cut this out as my profile evolved. If your method involves selling items in the AH, a good add-on to scan the AH for median prices and a mailbox add-on that will withdraw all your items with 1 click can make all the difference. Search for other tools that can cut down screen time even further because what good is an afk profile if it takes you several hours a day to sort through the materials?
If you are using 2 different profiles with 2 different classes or same classes with different gear, it would be smart to switch the profiles around to see which toon matches better with the profile. For about a week I kept the same profile with the same toon, but when I decided to switch them around, I saw roughly a 10% increase in profit.
Things I have learned over the month about my server that helped with the fine-tuning:
- Botting after midnight EST has a lower chance of a whisper. I actually have not gotten a single whisper in the past 3 weeks ever since I switched my botting hours.
- Tuesday and Wednesday are peak days because people are rushing to finish something before lockout is reset.
- Switching toons around also raises less suspicion from players who regularly pass by the spot.
- Certain materials sell well, while others need to be shuffled and vendored; some profit is lost in the process.
- My particular method will not yield the same 30-50K a day if I have more than 2 accounts using the same spot, so no point in investing in 3 or more accounts.
I will reveal my method once I am banned because I don't plan on restarting over, changing my IP, etc. As far as I'm concerned, my accounts were gone the moment I started botting; I just wanted to make the most of them as long as I still have access to them.
TL;DR
For the people who didn't want to read a wall of text, here's the short version:
- Use a profile that has sustainable cash flow, not something that heavily relies on you listing the item in the AH hoping for people with deep pockets to come and buy the item(s) every single day.
- PvE server > PvP server when it comes to gathering because they tend to have more gold
- Medium population is best because there is less competition than a higher populated server with an AH that is better than a low populated server
- A simple "/who" search to find out peak times and days for your server.
- Tweak or try to make your own profile and watch it to make sure it's 100% AFKable. Don't just watch it for 30 minutes and leave it overnight!
- Fine-tune your money making method by looking into an item shuffle, using add-ons or other programs like autoclickers (at your own risk), etc.
Feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer them as best I can without giving away my method.