Glyph "Auto Auction" Bot - What I Now Know...

Here is a HUGE issue as of late that is extremely frustrating to deal with, the AH Glyph bot.

I have just recently started "fighting" with one, and regrettably, I have very little defense. I am working on finding ways to work around them, and as of yet, I have found little that works, other than using....cough....blizzard tickets, which I have seen absolutely nothing in return.

This bot, well, they are undercutting me (every 10 minutes to be exact), are hard to fight....if you are in the same situation, you know what I mean.

I first hoped that I just had a wow addict on my hands. Then I realized there must be some automation involved. I did not see this toon show up anywhere. Really. No where. Gone. Cancel their auctions, repost undercutting me. Jeeezus. Talk about total frustration...... 

So after some "homework" to find out more about how they work (so I can decipher how to beat these things), I got some information, and what I found was disturbing. Here's a few clips from an article on them...

" It provides automatic buying, bidding, selling and undercuting for the World of Warcraft auction house. On top of providing a quick easy way to buy and sell items, it includes a method called "baiting" which will take advantage of undercutters to net you more items at the prices you want!"

"XXXXXX runs without the use of the World of Warcraft client, it is nearly impossible for the program to be detected. The program uses your browser to navigate the Remote Auction House the same way any human would. Since the program started there have been no bans as a result of using this software, and it is unlikely there ever will be."

 Those are fairly huge claims, huh? Now a fellow blogger (remind me if it's you) posted a while back about getting a "AH botter" banned, but in that case, they were using a toon in game, which is another program all together. The part that gets me is.....this is all done by remote. You don't even have to be in the game. So therefore no "watch" by Blizzard.

Now before I toss my laptop across the room, I am going to calm down. I am still getting sales here and there, but..... I am losing. It's extremely hard for me to say this as I feel that no matter what I have seen on the market, I have prevailed in one sense of the word or another. But I am losing. There. I said it again.

I am going to keep diving deeper into how I can beat these, and you can bet that when I find something, I will holler. For right now, I have to say our only defense is offense.....

And one last thing on this.....a quote from the author of one of these hated programs.

"Sorry for the lack of updates the past couple weeks. I have been extremely busy with school and just completed my last final. I am going to start working on adding new features and fixing any bugs you guys have reported. The next update should include the ability to limit the amount of items purchased as well as a few other features. Stay tuned as I will post updates in my progress."

Great.....other features? Blizz, if you somehow read this, please do something, this can and will destroy your game. Not only for me, but others as well. Just read your forums:

Glyph Bot Strikes Again
You Win Auction House Bots

Banwave to Pyrox Bots - How this Affects Us AH'ers

I log in this morning to do my daily ritual, and what do I notice? Very little Elementium Ore. No Obsidium Ore. What's the deal? Is someone stockpiling? Was there a banwave of bots again? Yesterday, I pondered why there was more than just a quick 4 hour server downtime, then maintenance, server restart, and another download. 


Obsidium Ore in AH- Nothing there?!

As per my normal ritual, I had about an hour to play this morning. And due to seeing this new niche market pop, I hopped on my herbie and went to Hyjal. Want to know what I got?

An hour in Hyjal gave me 244 Obsidium Ore, 218 Cinderbloom, 86 Volatile Earth, a few uncommon gems, and 124 Volatile Life: Total farm at current prices? Hold onto your hats..... 3480GPH. Even with the recent Whiptail "goof" from Blizz, I didn't even hit 3K. And now without bots taking MY nodes? Wow. I was surprised when I opened my bags to that one. But I didn't mention the best part, which brings my hour farm to almost 5K? The rare mob Blazewing, found along my farming route in Mt. Hyjal. Blazewings Furious Kilt.

At this time, I am on skype hollering at a few buds, Xander of Xander's Gold Mine, and Adam of Exploit my Server, and we start chatting a bit about it. So I start checking around after Adam mentioned word of a  banwave happening....

The forums for Pyrox pop up on my google search. After checking the website forums, I noticed a few things...

Not just a small ban, but a huge banwave had just occurred (20K accounts and counting- I didn't think there were that many out there....I figured a few, but 20K? Damn....). Now it seems that the folks using this got hit a bit ago with their Archeology program, but now it looks as if there are abosolutely no-one running on my server one bit. Now is this good or bad? It's nice to hop on my farming toon a bit ago and actually see nodes....Everywhere.....

Now to how this will affect us all. With mats drying up, look forward to higher prices on both ore and herbs, with the "snowball" affect happening as well. Anything prospectable or millable you will see prices rise as well. Now it's only a matter of time before they [the bots] are running again, so be weary on investing too much, from what I have seen before there is only a week or two before the "rubberband affect" happens, and the prices snap back to somewhat normal. I know I am holding my mats for a day before posting, and watch the price rise....the only issue now is to play the economy right, and make the most dough we can, right? Keep an eye out, as it might take a few days to show huge differences, but when it happens, hop on the bandwagon while you can....

Do you folks see a insane peak in prices of gathering mats? Or the total amount available drop considerably?