BlackEmrald

You dont have to be AFK to be botting, and you dont have to be Botting to be AFK. Both are at best bad party etiquette and at worst blatant cheating. They tend to go hand in hand.

Yes, players join parties, and immediately set up with repetitive AOE/Passive skills and AFK. They do the same run of skills over and over, don't move or respond to chat. Even when they die they don't respawn until they come back and see they are dead. Soldiers and Clerics are the worst offenders in my experience, but any class with an AOE does it. Its SUPER common in Sikuku Ruins right now especially, but also in most common power leveling spots.

You are right, AFK doesn't bother me as much as botting. As long as people let us know whats going on its all good! "Hey i have to go for a few minutes, brb" is all it takes. The recent problems have been more than that though. People wait around at popular level spots for parties to form, beg their way in then almost immediately set up their bots and AFK. They come back when they check in every 15-30+ minutes to see if there is an issue, but its apparent to every active member of the party that they are AFK the entire time. The AFK botter crowd simply has no fear and is very bold, because they know its very unlikely anything will happen to them and "everyone" does it. I can and will start reporting them, but i wish there was an easier way. I don't love the idea that I have to be the lawyer and build a case to submit against every botter I run into. It's just all very frustrating.

I really feel like the botting and AFK parties are really starting to explode. I just spent all weekend in Sikuku Ruins trying to successfully party through what is pretty much the hardest leveling bracket (150-180) and was CONSTANTLY fighting AFK botters in my party. It eventually devolved into us having to be the AFK police, instead of actually playing and enjoying the game. It's awful. We would kick the AFKers, then they would come back an hour later with excuses or whatever, and it was just totally exhausting. Its crazy that in a 10 person party, only having 3-4 actual players is the norm. Is there nothing we can do to combat the AFK aoe and Cleric botting spam?