Honorbuddy Review

[~OddBall~]

Honorbuddy Review

*THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN DURING WoW PATCH 3.3.5a AND I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH HONORBUDDY OR THE DEV TEAM IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM*

This review was written by me for KuRIoS' site HasItBeenReviewed which is an awesome site for bot reviews...check it out

INTRODUCTION

Honorbuddy is a World of Warcraft bot owned by Bossland and Hawker and is developed by many experienced developers well-known in the WoW programming scene. Honorbuddy is one of the most popular bots at the moment largely due to its extensive amount of features the bot also has two different versions, with the main difference being the navigation system. The first version has an older style of navigation that requires users to load mesh files in order for the bot to travel to the given location but some of the features of Honorbuddy such as RAF mode are more stable in this version of the bot, the second version (HB2) has a new navigation system that does not require the user to load any form of mesh, rather when Honorbuddy is given the location it downloads the mesh it needs and creates its own path to the hotspot. This version of Honorbuddy also allows for QUESTING and various other creative plug-ins.

FEATURES

Honorbuddy is most famous for its navigation system which requires no mapping out on the users end. As previously mentioned there are currently two versions of Honorbuddy, that is V1 and V2. Both systems use a navigation mesh system to move around but are implemented differently.
HB1 Requires the user to download and load a mesh file (a map) off the website and then load a profile which tells the bot where to go on the mesh file. So pretty much the profile tells Honorbuddy where to go and Honorbuddy reads the mesh file to figure out how to get there.
In HB2 the user no longer needs to download and load the mesh file before running the bot each time, instead the user must provide a profile which tells the bot where to go and then Honorbuddy downloads the mesh file on a “need-to-know” basis so to speak. That is, if your profile points to a spot in Westfall, Honorbuddy will automatically download the part of the mesh that it needs to get to your destination and next time it needs to travel there it won’t need to download a mesh again unless there is an updated version of what was previously downloaded. You won’t be downloading parts of the mesh that are located in neighbouring zones which are irrelevant to your botting location, rather just the parts that are needed, ensuring for faster and convenient botting.

QUESTING is another feature that is currently in beta and can only be used in HB2. A quest order can be specified ensuring only certain quests are performed, or all quests can be picked up except those that are on a blacklist, each method has their own advantage and disadvantage.

GRINDING is also available for when questing just isn’t cutting it. What is really great about the navigation and profile system is that it allows the bot to change location depending on your characters level, this means you no longer have to manually move your character and load a new profile when your botting area isn’t granting too much experience, rather Honorbuddy, with the right profile loaded, will change botting location depending on your character’s level allowing for a higher XP/Hour rate and technically allows your character to level from 1-60, 70-80 with one click.

PVP is supported in both HB1 and HB2 with most battlegrounds working.

RAF supported on HB1

Custom-Classes and Plug-ins provide for some of the best features of Honorbuddy. The website is full of different custom-classes developed by users and developers alike that provide combat AI for Honorbuddy. I found that most classes had multiple custom-classes developed for different specs, with a lot of them covering all specs, there are also default custom-classes provided with each new release of Honorbuddy. The plug-in system is even more incredible with a huge amount of plug-ins available on the Buddy forums. One plug-in that really caught my eye was Instancebuddy a dungeon finder plug-in developed by raphus which even had the ability to roll on loot that was better than equipped on the current character, and go back to grinding/questing while waiting for a new dungeon to pop. Other plug-ins allow for you to do such things as monitor your bots progress from work, buy/sell food or other items for your character etc.

Full background mode is also supported, so feel free to minimize WoW while you do other activities on your PC.

GATHERING and SKINNING are yet more features that Honorbuddy is able to do so you can level these skills while you level your character. There is full-support of mounts to make this process faster as well if you are looking to just max out these skills on an already levelled character. Vendoring and mailing also make an appearance, so hopefully you won’t wake up to find your bot has stopped because your bags were full!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Now we get down to business, I have to say with a feature list like that of the above and the reputation that Honorbuddy has managed to attain I am more than looking forward to putting this bot to the test, so let’s get down to business (It should be noted that I will be using HB2 during unless otherwise stated and this was written during patch 3.3.5a of WoW ).

SETTING UP Honorbuddy was a real breeze, I downloaded the latest version from the buddyforum website, extracted the archive and ran Honorbuddy.exe whereupon I logged in and was greeted with a simple looking user interface:

I really liked the use of tabs which allowed for detailed information to be simple laid out on the main window and for simple settings to still be made easily available.
One of the great things about Honorbuddy is that it really can run like a charm with minimum set-up, if you’re looking to get started as soon as possible all that needs to be set really is a location where you want your mesh files stored and download a profile from the official buddy site that is relevant to where you want to level. Once that is done you can press Start and it will be on its merry way.

THE TEST

So I created myself a new Orc Warlock and downloaded a 1-80 Horde QUESTING Profile from the buddy forums, loaded it up and ran the bot. Within no time Honorbuddy had gone and picked up my first quest and just as quickly handed it in and was ready to move onto killing six boars. I have to give props to the Honorbuddy developers for how smooth this bot is, although questing is only in beta stage I was soon level seven and hadn’t run into a single bugged quest yet. What was just as impressive was the fact that all I had done was load a profile and hit start and yet my bot was training new skills as it levelled, using the new skills, emptying my bags and changing location all by itself.
The NAVIGATION is simply amazing, although the bot had to pause a few times to download parts of a mesh that it needed, it started right back up again when it was done, all with no user-interaction. Not to mention it only had to download meshes because it was my first time running it and I found mesh downloads were rarer and rarer as my toon soldiered on. Honorbuddy had no trouble running into the caves to seek out the Burning Blade Medallion, nor did it fault running up the ramps to quest-givers that preferred the higher altitude, this is what most impressed me as usually when a cave or winding stairs/ramps are involved bots fail to climb them correctly but Honorbuddy handled it all as if it were second nature.
COMBAT again was practically flawless. One of the greatest things about Honorbuddy is the large and awesome community it has. There are masses of profiles and custom classes and some of them are just as amazing as the bot itself. For example Ski’s warlock custom class, I loaded it and then took a look at the mass amount options available to the user and they weren’t placed in some shoddy hard to read XML file or anything, but rather in a nice GUI that popped up when the “CC Settings” button was clicked. The custom class will perform differently depending on your talent spec etc. And the logic can be customized to suit anyone’s needs. In action the custom class performed nicely, using pretty much all of my spells including life tap to save using water etc. I did find a few times when my character bit off more than it could chew and pulled too many mobs, thus resulting in a glorious, glorious death. Of course this was no worries for Honorbuddy as it’s amazing navigation kicked into play and found my corpse with no troubles whatsoever, it was even cautious enough to resurrect in a safe place again, a feature I’ve noticed a lot of bots don’t have. I should also mention that as my character was such a low level obviously there were less spells that could have been used to save me, no pet and my gear was horrid. Fortunately for you not so nooblet users plug-ins are here to save the day!
PLUG-INS so while my character was busy owning it up I decided I’d browse the buddy forums and check out some of the plug-ins available. Plug-ins are basically user-written extensions to help Honorbuddy perform functions that aren’t coded into the core bot, allowing Honorbuddy developers to deal with the coding of bigger things, such as navigation etc. Whilst users can take care of the extra tid bits. For example a plug-in that comes with Honorbuddy is “AutoEquip” which is a plug-in designed to equip items that you loot along your epic botting journey, that are better than what you are currently wearing. This is a big help as you’ll find that you don’t have to visit the auction house as frequently to update your gear, but rather the bot updates it for you on the fly. Of course, in keeping with the trend of Honorbuddy’s awesomeness, there are a million ways to configure this plug-in as certain stat weights can be customized, so say you’re wanting gear that’s more strength dependant than say hit dependant then you could set strength to have a bigger weight when determining what gear is better, there are a bunch of pre-configured presets that come with the plug-in already that support different specs so really there shouldn’t be too much fiddling required! There are many other plug-ins as well, many will allow you to monitor your WoW character while you’re away from the PC, some are even as simple as jumping occasionally to make your character look more realistic. But one plug-in that can’t be looked past is “Instancebuddy” which, you guessed it, queues your character for dungeons, follows the tank around and rolls on loot if it’s better than currently equipped gear. Plug-ins really are a massive advantage to Honorbuddy as they really do help create a more customizable botting experience.

CONCLUSION

I was very impressed with Honorbuddy, my overall experience with it was a very satisfying one. Nothing is better than spending very little time setting something up and yet it still performing amazingly. It’s navigation is definitely one of the most impressive navigation systems I’ve seen in a bot to date, when I saw Honorbuddy navigate the windmill ramp my jaw hit the floor and the many plug-ins, custom classes and profiles that users keep producing are really awesome! Honorbuddy looks to have a really bright future with such an active development team and community and I would definitely recommend it, there are so many features many of which I didn’t get to cover in this review but hopefully will be able to revisit some day. Until then, ciao ciao.

Price

The price for a single HonorBuddy session is 24.99 Euro which will give you 1 year usage of the bot. The price for the RAF (5 sessions at same time) is 59.99 euro for 1 year usage of the bot.
The price for Paid plugins is to be announced as it is still in testing.

To Buy

Click here to buy

[Faulen]

Isn't this KuRs review from another site?

http://hasitbeenreviewed.com/honorbuddy/

I remember him posting it in the Shoutbox

[Barrt73Rus]

http://www.mmowned.com/forums/world-...onorbuddy.html

[~OddBall~]

oh, never knew he ended up putting it on his site...I wrote it for him, i'll add the link to it at the start of the post, thanks xD

http://www.mmowned.com/forums/world-...onorbuddy.html

Read the review man it's completely different, he was using HB1 except he's linking my HB review in it xD

[Faulen]

Oh haha. Well its well written then. xD

[Succubuzz]

honestly....

"*THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN DURING WoW PATCH 3.3.5a AND I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH HONORBUDDY OR THE DEV TEAM IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM*"

well we are on patch 4.0.1 now so how usefull is this? hmmm

[~OddBall~]

honestly....

"*THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN DURING WoW PATCH 3.3.5a AND I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH HONORBUDDY OR THE DEV TEAM IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM*"

well we are on patch 4.0.1 now so how usefull is this? hmmm

pro-tip, HB still has the same features as it did in patch 3.3.5a. If I was reviewing WoW then ye maybe this would be pointless, but I'm reviewing HB which is still the same after the patch...

[xcureanddisease]

Hello folks. I am currently using Honorbuddy 4.01 patch. I've leveld my Shammy from 55-78 using honorbuddy and I did the last 2 levels myself doing randoms. And I started a mage a day and a half ago and im level 41 on that mage. when it gets to the 50's it kinda slows down leveling. but its still good because for example yesterday I went to go watch SKYLINE(it sucked dont go) and i left him questing.. Keep in mind that the questing feature in Honorbuddy IS still in BETA. So you may or may not run into problems.

Bottom line is if you're looking for a good bot, id choose honorbuddy 100%. Thats my 2 coppers. Enjoy!

[Succubuzz]

pro-tip, HB still has the same features as it did in patch 3.3.5a. If I was reviewing WoW then ye maybe this would be pointless, but I'm reviewing HB which is still the same after the patch...

as far as im conerned WoW Patches sometimes makes things not work anymore. a bot made for 3.3.5a dosnt necessarily work with 4.0.1 therefore a review of anything pre-4.0.1 is useless. Its not about the bot having the same features or not. its bout wether or not the bot got broken by the latest patch so they had to make a fix. If they had to do tht then a review from patch 3.3.5a is obsolete and useless.

[~OddBall~]

as far as im conerned WoW Patches sometimes makes things not work anymore. a bot made for 3.3.5a dosnt necessarily work with 4.0.1 therefore a review of anything pre-4.0.1 is useless. Its not about the bot having the same features or not. its bout wether or not the bot got broken by the latest patch so they had to make a fix. If they had to do tht then a review from patch 3.3.5a is obsolete and useless.

Ok so if a bot has to update all it's features for a new patch, even if they're all working again then this review which reviews the exact same features that are currently working is useless?

It's cool to have an opinion, but logic is even cooler

[KuRIoS]

the review is still 100% authentic, patch or not, HB still have same features and works same way. If you dont know what you are talking about then dont please.