So I was thinking of investing into 5 machines for WoW botting but I was just wondering what the minimal requirements would be. I only plan on running dungeon bots on them to hit the level cap on about 5 toons. Also would this lower the chances of being banned? Because the bot would have its own IP and it would never be around humans.
Why would you use 5 machines? Any decent PC or laptop can easily run multiple bots. I mean if u got it then do it but I would buy more keys and accounts imho.
Why would you get 5 separate machines for 5 bots? That seems needlessly expensive, just run all 5 off pretty much anything build in the past few years. 5 instances isn't much. If you're dead set on running 1 per machine you don't need rig advice. If it meets the minimum requirements for WoW, or even a bit under, you're fine. Yes, using 5 machines/proxies would lower your chances but that's pretty paranoid.
To answer OP's question: I have had luck running 1 bot on 2.4 ghz cpu with 4 GB ram, win 7 x64, regular hdd, pretty well a clean install. I have desktop set to 1366x800 and game to 1024x768, low quality gfx. I think it may also be acceptable to run a higher end "netbook" but dont know as with those you get 2 gb ram and no video card worth mentioning. If you go this route, my feeling is the benefits may be worth the extra effort. Don't mix accounts across machines as that will defeat the purpose. If one is banned, do a fresh OS install and change Mac address etc before using a fresh account to replace it. Its like smoking: some live past 100 healthily, others die young. Life isnt fair and neither is Blizzard. True?
You only need 1 decent machine to run all 5 instances of WoW. There is no need for 5 different machines, it will no way affect the safety of the botting whatsoever.
Blizzard could monitor the amount of connects you get from one PC. I've seen tales of people getting banned for multibotting on one machine more than anything else around here so I'd rather not risk it.
But wouldn't multiple connections from one pc either mean multiboxing or you have kids that also play wow from the same ip address? neither of which are illegal. I run 3 bots on my comp and have been for quite some time. but maybe I am lucky. to answer your question go HERE! Have you looked into a Virtual Private Network or just renewing your ip address every day or so?
you could just run vmware, 1 decent pc will come out cheaper then 5 crappy ones. Just get amd fx 6350 and run 4 or 5 vmware.
If I'm wanting 5 bots running at one time and they look into it and do some form of manual ban then saying that I had a child playing wouldn't work. I'm not looking at getting a *** or renewing my IP daily, I just want 5 separate IP's for WoW so the risk of being banned is minimal. VMWare will use the same IP as the host.
Pretty sure they can still see that you run 5 x wow and 5 x honorbuddy on 1 computer - The whole 'Uhh change to 500 different ip's and blizzard will never catch u, uhhuhuhu' I've never understood that, and it just doesn't make sense. And I don't think it affects jack shit - As long as you don't run into any player reports, you're fine.
Well you asked about hardware, and I gave you a reply to your question. 5 different computers would still have the same IP if you use them on the same internet. Also there are many other factors Bliz bans by then ip. I have 2 bots running on the same IP with no vmware for about a month now no bans. If you're that worried about getting a ban then boting is not for you, Bliz gms aren't idiots if one of your bots triggers a flag then they will most likely ban all the other bots it came in contact with which is 5 for you since you're going to run dungeons so in this case different IPs wont help. These type of questions get asked all the time you should search the forum before asking. google ftw
Valid points about Blizzard not being idiots and the possibility of 'correlated accounts' also being banned. However... FACT: Blizzard can not see that you're running multiple copies of WoW or HB if they are running in separate VMWare machines that have different virtual drives, with different assigned MAC addresses on the NAT mapping, as long as you route each machine through a different V-P-N for a unique IP address. All this can easily be done, it causes hardly any performance drop if you're willing to run with minimal graphics and low resolution and have enough RAM to assign 3 GB per virtual machine and still keep 5 to 7 GB for the main OS. By doing this you will absolutely lower your risk of bans, its just a given because you've removed all these associative factors which are logged server-side. You will still have a high risk of being banned as we all do all the time, luck plays a big part as always, and player reports will still be your worst enemy. If one account is flagged for some reason, however, they will have to dig a little deeper to find links between accounts. You're smart to think it through, but in the end its about risk tolerance and what your end goal is. If you dont bother keeping payment info separate for each account, if you log into the accounts from other common computers (even once), if you run around as a large group and attract blanket player reports, if you send all mats to the same AH toon, if you have the same friends list, etc etc... these are all loggable and observable behaviours which can help Blizz put the puzzle pieces together. It's hard to control them all and sometimes there's no point controlling some if you don't also control others. I've been perma banned once on 3 accounts simultaneously. That was in the Glider times. My main was banned without ever being botted on because I dual-box-botted my way to 70 on 2 other accounts and did not bot smart and did not put in many of the safeguards discussed above. I tried harder than I care to admit to get my toons back, no luck after months of appeals. I no longer have any emotional investment in the game whatsoever, on a single account basis. As a whole, I love botting and playing by hand and do both, and I have yet to bot on my new "main" and never will probably, but I am now aware of the risks due to prior experience and I'm ok with them. All my bots run in VMWare, period. I don't care if it may or may not be considered overkill, for me it adds peace of mind, and it just plain makes sense. I don't keep all my investments in one asset class, I don't wash all my clothes in hot water, I don't feed my fish the same food I feed my dogs, and I don't give Blizzard more ammunition than I have to within reasonable limits of my time and finances. Great topic tho, I would be really interested in hearing how other similarly "paranoid botters* have their stuff set up and isolated, if at all. mrfoot EDIT: Dont bother with any safeguards if you plan to post screenshots including your name and level on this forum... The fact that natural selection has not already weeded you out is proof enough that nobody is taking you down, least of all Blizz.