ShadowBot Review

[KuRIoS]

I received this review from a guy that I know. He wrote it for my review site, but I thought that it would fit better here on OwnedCore. I have only tested this bot very briefly, but the review seems to fit my experience with the bot too.
However, I did have two independent, non biased, Shadowbot users reading this review and editing it so it fitted their opinion, so this is infact a joined review spread out between 3 different and independant people.


PRICING AND WHERE TO BUY

One-time fee = $20 USD – however, only $10 USD untill the 31st of July
What do you get? Unlimited number of sessions, upgrades, and support.

Subscriptions
1 month = $8.99 USD
3 months = $20.97 USD ($6.99 /month)
6 months = $35.94 USD ($5.99 /month)
ALL subscriptions auto renew each period.

BUY IT HERE - OR CLICK THE BANNER ON TOP OF THIS REVIEW




When I was first approached to review Shadowbot the first thing came to mind was; 'Didn't MyWoW replace it?'. The short answer is yes. I had a chat with one of the owners of Ceiling Fan Software (makers of Pocket Gnome, the only Mac OSX bot on the market) regarding Shadowbot. His comments are below:


Q – Why move forward with Shadowbot and not rebrand to 'Pocket' something?
A – (Jokur) Great question. We initially wanted to partner with MMOLazy and distribute Shadowbot here in the US but we could never really get the deal closed. Instead, we purchased the Shadowbot code last year from MMOLazy. At the time the development group at MMOLazy was heading to fully injected code. We saw a great value in a fully passive bot and decided to keep the name as is. Shadowbot here in the United States never took off as well as I think they wanted it to but did in fact have a strong following in France.

Q – Is there plans to merge your Pocket Gnome and Shadowbot efforts?
A – (Jokur) Totally! With things like behaviors now integrated into Shadowbot, we see the opportunity of both bots running the same backend so to speak. Our questing feature (to be released very soon) will be readable to both Shadowbot and Pocket Gnome. Pathing, questing, behaviors (combat), PvP routes, gathering etc will be a single click and go.

Q – Seeing how your user interface for Pocket Gnome is well known for being user friendly, how much (if any) did you have to change the code for Shadowbot?
A – (Jokur) LOL. Not laughing at your question but I will sum this up as nicely as I can. Our lead developer and co owner of CFS, Tanaris4, has threatened to slash his wrists over the amount of coding he has had to do to the original code. It has taken almost a year to get it to a stable and releasable state. Combat, navigation and pretty much everything else had to be completely removed and rewritten. Shadowbot is using the latest and greatest .Net 4.0 with all of the bells and whistles.

Q – Your going up against a few other Windows bots. What makes your bot different or better then say Honor Buddy?
A - (Jokur) I would like to think we have a great relationship with the guys at Honor Buddy. They are the only real competitors that we see. We do at times chat with them and I hope nothing but the best for them. What we offer that separates us from every other bot on the planet is our 100% passive approach as well as integrated functionality. To date I think we are not only the first bot on the market that is 100% passive, but we also plan to have EVERYTHING integrated into the software so you can open, click a button and go. A 16 year olds mother could install Shadowbot and be functional within a minute. Nothing against Honor Buddy and the rest of the bots out there but you have to have some computer knowledge to do complex tasks with these other bots.



INTRODUCTION


Shadowbot is the only World of Warcraft bot that is 100% passive out of the box. Passive meaning that it does not write anything whatsoever to WoW's memory. Thus making it the safest botting program available. Not even Click to Move is used in this application.
Shadowbot also requires 0 programming or customization for behaviors. If you’re playing an arcane mage, or a resto druid, it will cast the correct spells appropriately. But if you’d like, you are able to create custom behaviors.

Shadowbot offers predefined routes for gathering that can be downloaded from within the application itself. Also, a very comprehensive 1-85 route system is available for leveling characters.

PvPing in battlegrounds is also supported.

Additional features include auto mailing, auto purchasing of food / drink, auto vendors when needed and auto trains as it levels.



DETAILED REVIEW


For my first step of the review, I created a level 1 warrior Horde toon. I also removed all of the spells off of my bars (I was told do it, its pretty cool??). I had downloaded the 1-60 automated route from the Shadowbot forums and became a little puzzled. I clicked on some of the other tabs (settings to loot and gathering or what not) and felt like I was missing something. Gladly I wasn't. I hit the start button and that was it. Shadowbot moved all of the spells and abilities that my character was to use INTO my bars automatically. As I leveled and learned new spells / abilities, the bot would proceed to my trainer and learn the spells and place them into my action bars. After 3 hours I was already at level 12.

The navmesh pathing / navigation system is quite impressive. It uses hotspots that you define and connects these hotspots with waypoints. There is a strict node method (which means don't try to mesh the waypoints just use a straight line of waypoints) as well as the traditional mesh method.

Here is a screen shot of the route I downloaded as well as some of the options you have:




Very complex route system



Settings tabs that apply to all modules (PvP, Gathering and Leveling)





Next, I hopped on my dusty druid that I use for farming herbs and ore and give the gathering module a spin.
The gathering interface is quite amazing. It has a beautiful overlay of the terrain and can show tons of things that are around your character. I decided to use one of the 'official' gathering routes that are supplied from the creators of Shadowbot. It is a feature that is in my opinion AWESOME. Click and download the route you want rather then fiddling with manual zip downloads etc. Not sure why they did not do this with the grinding routes but I will mention that later. Here are some screen shots of the gathering interface:




Below is Deepholm where I did my first testing using a predefined route.



Shadowbot's official routes that can be loaded within the interface.



You can 'view' the map prior to downloading it.



The review with the druid went very well. Some underground nodes gave the bot some issues, but it auto blacklisted them after a few attempts.

I chose Deepholm to test gathering. In the past I have used Honor Buddy and have found Deepholm to be very difficult for bots due to its terrain and multiple areas with multiple mobs. As expected the bot would get stuck, but seemed like the anti stuck mechanism worked fairly well. I don't really think any bot program will ever have the ability to never get stuck.

I was however disappointed in the fact that none of the dozens of routes that come with the bot have repair or mail routes attached. I had to add a small repair and mail route. Wasn't difficult but would of been nice if they had them already included.

For the next part of the review, I decided to create my own gathering route. I found the Shadowbot Wiki as well as the 'how to videos' that are available extremely helpful. In about 5 minutes I was able to create my own route. Luckily it has a very intuitive interface with not too many options.



PVP REVIEW


As with everything so far with Shadowbot, it comes with routes for Horde and Alliance battlegrounds. For some reason, they seem to have skipped 2. Unsure as to why, but all of the main ones are available on the forums. Again, I have to download to my local machine rather then use the gathering type interface that downloads it automatically. Still not sure why the do not have the ability for all of its modules.

After selecting the 'call of arms' battle ground route and clicking the start button Shadowbot chose the correct BG to join and waiting to queue. After a couple minutes it joined the battleground as expected.

For the review, I used a level 35 hunter that had terrrrrrrible gear and really had no business being near a BG. But a test is a test.

After running around for a bit the bot finally got into combat. It seemed a little slow to get itself into combat but once started it did a proper use of my spells and abilities. I would have liked to see a crisper combat system is the only thing I can say about it. It seemed to work for what my gear level is (DPS wise).

Other then the slow combat start, I like the look and feel of the PvP module. Looks very 'human' in movement and by using its 'random hotspot' route system it never went the same way twice.



FISHING REVIEW


Oddly enough Shadowbot does do fishing in the traditional sense. But it appears that you can only fish at Schools and while on a route. I created a route using the gathering module that traveled around the water until it found a school of fish. It fished until the school was gone and moved on.

Not sure as to why there is not a 'stand' and fish. I suppose if you’re only wanting a certain type of fish then it would work? Unsure.


SUMMARY OF SHADOWBOT


Support - After looking through the forums on both Shadowbot and Pocket Gnome I think the guys that are running / supporting these things are top notch. All of the issues or questions I had were answered immediately. So from a support aspect it is great (while testing the gathering I had a issue with the blacklisting. Posted my issue on the forums and had an admin who I didn't know help me over Skype). Other bots I have tried to get support for were mediocre at best.

Usability – Very easy to use application. Was pretty intuitive to setup and use.

Functionality – Other then the odd slowness to start combat in PvP, I think it functions great. Gathering, leveling and PvP. I would highly suggest that you remove any and all add-ons before using this bot.


PROS & CONS


PROS:

• 100% Passive
• Looks and feels like a person playing rather then a bot (less bottish?)
• Auto mail, auto purchase food / drink, auto repair, auto train at trainer and auto vendors as needed
• Integrated behaviors for all class's and specs
• Predefined Gathering and Leveling routes
• Excellent support
• Tons of documentation
• Intuitive Interface
• Advanced users can write their own behaviors if wanted

CONS:

• PvP start combat is slow
• No archeology module
• Because it scans the screen you cannot have any add-ons that interfere with the screen (bag add-ons etc.)
• Requires regional keyboard settings to be set to ENGLISH US (might be a problem for some folks in other countries?)

[Smygelito]

Thanks for this KuRIoS!
+rep to you.

[Aspirine274]

I'm trying it on my 80 Mage and my 42 Priest, and so far I'm impressed

[QKdefus]

nice review. but your cons are a bit off and harsh m8.

shadowbot have warden monitoring and tripwire system since day one.
i have never met anyone that maintain&update as fast as the developer of this bot. highly dedicated dev
it contains smart options to prevent player reports even further, ie logout on follow, sound on follow, random jumps

another thing worth mentioning is the super easy api for anyone wanting to code awesome plugins using C#

[Ronnyv1]

so far the only downside i've seen is no lifetime option to buy which is a huge turnoff tbh

[KuRIoS]

nice review. but your cons are a bit off and harsh m8.

shadowbot have warden monitoring and tripwire system since day one.
i have never met anyone that maintain&update as fast as the developer of this bot. highly dedicated dev
it contains smart options to prevent player reports even further, ie logout on follow, sound on follow, random jumps

another thing worth mentioning is the super easy api for anyone wanting to code awesome plugins using C#

AS mentioned in the review it could be because the English community is not really existant yet. so we dont notice the updates as much.. The tripwire, I could have sworn that i fixed that, will do later.

[~OddBall~]

Good effort, honestly from a review stand point though it told me nothing...
What pathing system is used?
Is there custom classes? How is the AI for combat done?
Is there PvP mode?
Can it do anything other than grind?
API?

I think from a users experience of the product perspective this is done very well. But in terms of detail all that can really be learnt is that this is a passive bot with a nice interface and somewhat buggy pathing system. That's about as specific as it gets, I think the stuff mentioned above should be mentioned in every review if you're actually going to try give users a thorough understanding of a bot.

Not trying to hate, or sound like a pro, this is just my attempt at constructive criticism, gl with the rest xD

[KuRIoS]

Good effort, honestly from a review stand point though it told me nothing...
What pathing system is used?
Is there custom classes? How is the AI for combat done?
Is there PvP mode?
Can it do anything other than grind?
API?

I think from a users experience of the product perspective this is done very well. But in terms of detail all that can really be learnt is that this is a passive bot with a nice interface and somewhat buggy pathing system. That's about as specific as it gets, I think the stuff mentioned above should be mentioned in every review if you're actually going to try give users a thorough understanding of a bot.

Not trying to hate, or sound like a pro, this is just my attempt at constructive criticism, gl with the rest xD

It will be updated with this, but as Aphel wrote in his review the English forums werent blooming and it was hard to find the correct answers, therefore we left it out untill we can ask the developers ourselves...
"Can it do anything other than grind?" <- is actually mentioned in last part of thread, that there is a FREE gatherbot from same company.

[Nonowmana]

Good effort, honestly from a review stand point though it told me nothing...
What pathing system is used?
Is there custom classes? How is the AI for combat done?
Is there PvP mode?
Can it do anything other than grind?
API?

I think from a users experience of the product perspective this is done very well. But in terms of detail all that can really be learnt is that this is a passive bot with a nice interface and somewhat buggy pathing system. That's about as specific as it gets, I think the stuff mentioned above should be mentioned in every review if you're actually going to try give users a thorough understanding of a bot.

Not trying to hate, or sound like a pro, this is just my attempt at constructive criticism, gl with the rest xD

Hi, I'm the french forum admin, where most of the users are, and where the more cc and plugins comes from (Bot WoW - ShadowBot - Bienvenue sur le site francophone dédié à ShadowBot &#33;), active forum, friendly users/dev
I can answer to your questions :
This bot use Waypoint based system, with profiles, just like Glider in theses days (not directly usable without conversion, which I do not recommend, SB don't manage movement like glider does). If you make your profiles, it runs very smooth.
There is Custom classes for almost all classes, lot of spec (I personally made a Frost Mage class)
PvP mode is on the way, with a plugin called ShadowBattle, from independent dev (a forum member and me), using the bot's API.
You can Grind, and use plugins to : Fly mount Harvest (GatherPlugin), Gather with ground mount (SmartGather), Fish (not really handy handy at this point of development). there is also remote management, compatible with web enabled phones. Plus, there is a telnet server build-in, where you can retrieve a lot of infos from bot, character...

The free Sgather software is not a part of ShadowBot, it's just a present to wow boters community.

And there is also a easter egg hidden in the program well know by Unix/linux Aptitude users...

The API is without limits, really, you can do what could be done with glider, navigate with frames, control the mouse, and it have a very handy Finished State Machine for implementing your own pathing system, or more, build something similar to PPather, or everything else who need override bot functions.

[Come Undone]

sudo apt-get moo?

[JuJuBoSc]

sudo apt-get moo?

What the f ???
Nearly, actually it's "apt-get moo", but grats

[~OddBall~]

What does it do? I don't have a Unix system running atm

[JuJuBoSc]

It's in the telnet server.

[MMOtoaster]

Where does Pirox pvpTool stand in comparison? I'm curious since I've heard that pvpTool only reads memory, no injections etc. Isn't this at the same securitylevel as Shadowbot?

Thanks, and I really enjoyed the review, really useful!

[Nonowmana]

Where does Pirox pvpTool stand in comparison? I'm curious since I've heard that pvpTool only reads memory, no injections etc. Isn't this at the same securitylevel as Shadowbot?

Thanks, and I really enjoyed the review, really useful!

Pirox's bots use Click to move as I remember, so, I assumes it uses memory writes.
No description on any warden live scan (Shadowbot do)

also

Pirox interface :


ShadowBot Interface :



Makes your own opinion