Botting Questions Answered

[Maccer]

Hi everyone, I've decided to make a thread which will contain, and will in fact be a compilation of frequently asked questions in our little botting community. You can read the whole thread or choose partially the bits and parts you're mostly interested in. I incourage everyone to help me out, and contribute by asking or/and adding more questions and answers to this thread.
Let's start.

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Order of questions/answers:

1. What are some good bots out there?
2. Which one of these is the best bot?
3. How to choose the right bot for me?
4. How safe is botting?
5. What are some precautions I should take before botting?
6. How much hours per day can I bot?
7. I got banned, now what?
8. How does Blizzard detect botting?
9. Are all bots equally safe?
10. What's the difference between bots which only read memory, and those which write to memory too?
11. Wtf is Warden?
12. Wtf is the Governor?
13. How much do botting bans last?

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What are some good bots out there?

Well, there are few good bots I've heard of and used most of them. There is the famous Honorbuddy developed by Bossland and his crew, which is a few years long project and was/is the most famous bot out there. There are also few new bots which work out pretty well for quite a few friends of mine.
There is the new bot called TheNoobBot (fun little word game eh?) which I really liked, it is developed by Vesper and his guys, and is a pretty cool little bot. Also includes several translations to foreign languages if you're into that shit.
ShadowBot is also a cool bot I personally have never used, but heard it's pretty decent. The biggest plus this bot offers is maximum security, and that's their slogan actually. It is a passive bot, meaning it uses no memory writing. Please note that its questing, unlike the two others already mentioned, is currently in alpha state meaning it's mostly bugged.
Fullbot, the newest bot out there, and guess what? It's free. Never tried it, but you can't go wrong by trying it. Developed by Ryuk here on OwnedCore.
Mimicchineseshitbots - And no, I'm not being racist here or anything, it has loads of unprofessional typos and it's really not safe. Also known as the main subject of Cypher's flaming. Try it if you want, but I don't recommend it.

Which one of these is the best bot?

This is not a commercial thread so I don't want to promote anyone. I really can't help you with this, but there's a solution to this. Check out other reviews, and if you man up enough, buy that 1$ trial and try out the bot(s) and decide for yourself.

How to choose the right bot for me?

Same answer I'm afraid. Check out reviews, and most importantly, experiment. Experimentation is the key to success. Remember that son.

How safe is botting?

Safe can really mean a lot of things so let's start.
You being safe while botting is really all up to you, it is based on your personal preferences, habits and goals you make for yourself. You can't really be safe while botting 24/7 with multiple characters, and not expect a ban. Once it arrives on your doorstep (or email), you blame the bot developer.
So, long story short: Be smart and bot smart.
Check out this ([Honorbuddy] Professional Ex-Botter AMA (ask me anything)) thread, there are some answers like this already there.

What are some precautions I should take before botting?

Here we go.

1. Make sure your bot is up to date.
2. Make sure your bot is not currently affected by a banwave.
3. Make sure you haven't been banned in last month or so.
4. Make sure you have as less possible friend online so you won't look suspicious.
5. Monitor as much as possible.

This is pretty much it in a nutshell.

How much hours per day can I bot?

This varies so hard. I've heard stories of people firing up their bots for the first time and going to make a coffe, then coming back and finding their account banned. There are also people who bot 22/7 and have never been caught.
The best advice I can give on this is go easy at first, the increase the time spent botting slowly to a point you're satisfied.

I got banned, now what?

File a complaint to Blizzard. Try to look as noobish and innocent as you possibly can. If that doesn't work you can always use the "I got hacked wtf!!!!???!?!??!" excuse which has always worked for me. If this doesn't work either, try one of these unban services people are offering in the trade section. Once you get unbanned, pause botting for some time, since you've been flagged and you will get checked every now and then (probably manually by a GM).

How does Blizzard detect botting?

There are two methods which are the most common. Detection by the Warden (very rarely) and most commonly player report.
Warden is a security program developed by Blizzard to keep people away from hacking and messing with the Wow.exe memory.
Most adresses, if not all, which are scanned by the Warden are well known to our memory editing. However, Warden could send a new adress for scan, which would activate the programs TripWire (anti-anti-hacking program) which will probably keep you safe. As I said, this is very rare.
And there is player report. Long story short: ******* reports you and you're contacted by GM, if not responding you'll get banned.

Are all bots equally safe?

Hell no, boy! The main difference between a bot being safe and not being safe it the approach to the game. It can take the no messing with memory at all method, which uses pixel detection and is pretty shitty. Also, these bots do not exist today (as far as I'm aware).
There is also the only reading memory method, which only reads memory from the game and emulates mouse and keyboard. Pretty safe if you ask me.
And there is also the infamous memory writing. It uses memory writing to the game for the best and fastest performance, but it's messing with the game memory so go figure it out. But don't be scared, yeah, some bots have swallowed whole banwaves because of detection of memory writing (Pirox and Glider), but some have worked for few years without any problems (Honorbuddy).

What's the difference between bots which only read memory, and those which write to memory too?

As I explained it already, memory reading only reads memory from the game process, while memory writing writes memory too. Some claim memory writing is unsafe, and some not. I myself consider that it's safe as long as there are developers which use it smartly.

Wtf is Warden?

Warden (also known as Warden Client) is an anti-cheating tool integrated in Blizzard Entertainment games such as Diablo II (since patch 1.11), StarCraft (patch 1.15), Warcraft III and most notably World of Warcraft. While the game is running, Warden uses API function calls to collect data on open programs on the user's computer and sends it back to Blizzard servers as hash values to be compared to those of known cheating programs. Privacy advocates consider the program to be spyware.

In a nutshell: Anticheat program.

Wtf is the Governor?

Apparently, a tool which was used to check how Warden works.
Here, Cypher's explanation:

'The Governor' (before following this link, repeat after me.. "I understand that this application is currently 100% useless and is a piece of shit. I promise not to post about it anywhere except in this thread"):

Oops, we posted about it.

How much do botting bans last?

Botting and cheating bans are known to be long or permanent. I've never heard of anyone getting an under 72 hours ban for botting. Once you're banned, you better get super paranoid, stop botting or you're ****ed.

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Now yes, 13 questions isn't much, but I encourage everyone to post their questions (and answers). All contributions to the thread will be awarded (by me personally).
Found typos/mistakes? Post em, I'll be sure to correct these.
Thanks for your time.

[Epicrisis]

Been considering getting into serious botting and will return back to this and the AMA thread. Appreciate the time you spent making this, thanks again.

+rep

edit: must spread >_<

[MyNewName]

Running with Snick's work. Well written