The complete playerbots handbook

Looking for every command in one place? See Playerbots: how they work and every command.

This handbook is the long version of Playing with playerbots. Every command listed here exists in the bot system that runs on HoneyWoW, and every limit comes from the realm's own configuration. Keep it open in a tab the first few times you lead a party of bots.

How bots listen to you

Bots take orders from chat. There are three ways to talk to them:

• Party or raid chat (/p, /ra): every bot in the group hears the order. Use it for movement and combat.
• Whisper (/w Name): only that bot hears it. Use it for gear, talents and anything personal.
• Dot commands (.playerbots bot …): typed in any chat window; they log bots in and out.

Most commands can be written with the bot targeted or not. When an order needs an item, quest or spell, shift-click it into the chat line to insert its link.

Recruiting a companion

Option 1: invite a random bot

The world is full of random bots, around a hundred of them, from level 1 to 80. Invite one like any player. A random bot refuses if it is more than 5 levels above you, unless you share a guild. You can also whisper lfg to a bot of your level (up to 4 levels away): if your group still needs its role, it joins you.

Random bots are independent: they keep their own gear and go back to their lives when they leave. They are perfect for a quick quest or a dungeon run.

Option 2: summon a bot of the class you need

Type .playerbots bot addclass priest (or warrior, paladin, hunter, rogue, shaman, mage, warlock, druid, dk). The server picks a free character of that class from a reserved pool and logs it in for you. Optionally add a gender: .playerbots bot addclass mage female.

• When it logs in, if its level is more than 3 away from yours, it is rebuilt at your level with gear matched to your gear score.
• A Death Knight can only be called this way if you are at least level 55.
• These "addclass" bots also accept .playerbots bot init=auto Name to regear them to your gear score again.

Two ways to build a party

Add by class

The fastest way: addclass as many times as you need, then invite each bot. You don't own their characters, but while they are with you they follow your orders completely. Ideal when you need a healer right now.

Bring your own alts

Your other characters can play alongside your main: .playerbots bot add Name logs one in, and several names can be separated by commas. You can add characters:

• from your own account;
• from your guild, if the owner is not playing them;
• from an account linked to yours.

Linking is done on the website: go to My account, open the alts section and send a request with the other person's account name (the one they type to log in, not a character name). They accept it from their own account, and either of you can undo it at any time. You can have up to 3 linked accounts. After that, both of you can bring each other's characters as bots.

Alts keep everything they earn: experience, gear, gold and quests. It is a great way to level a second character while playing your main.

To send a bot away, .playerbots bot remove Name. To see your characters and which ones are online, .playerbots bot list.

What companions can do

• Follow and fight: they follow you, attack your targets, use their class abilities, heal, tank, interrupt and dodge many dangerous ground effects.
• Loot: they pick up loot according to the rules you give them, and alt bots automatically equip items that are clear upgrades.
• Quest: they share your quests. With the realm's settings, a bot completes a quest the moment you hand it in, and picks the most useful reward by itself.
• Trade: they can trade with you, sell to vendors, buy, repair and use the bank.
• Gear and talents: they can gear themselves, spend their talent points following a build, and change spec on request.
• Gather: bots with gathering professions can pick herbs, mine and skin along the way.
• Raid: they know the mechanics of many raid encounters, and several are scripted for this realm.

On this realm bots eat and drink without spending food from their bags, and they can use any flight path.

Command reference

Movement

Command	What it does
follow	Follow you.
stay	Stay where they are.
flee	Follow you without fighting, to escape a bad pull.
runaway	Keep their distance from enemies that come too close.
move from group	Step away from the rest of the group.
summon	Teleport to you. Repairs their gear, and revives dead bots if you are out of combat.
formation melee	Formation while following. Also queue, near, far, line, circle, arrow, shield, chaos.
stance behind	Where to stand in combat: behind, near, tank or turnback.
disperse set 5	Keep this many yards apart from each other (0-100). Also disperse enable, disable, increase, decrease.
position name set	Save the bot's current spot under a name; position name reset clears it.
enter vehicle / leave vehicle	Get in or out of a vehicle.

Combat

Command	What it does
attack	Attack your target.
tank attack	Only the tanks engage your target, so they build threat first.
pull	The tank pulls your target to the group.
pull rti	Pull the target marked with the raid icon.
max dps	Go all-out on damage.
grind	Attack anything hostile nearby.
wait for attack time 5	Seconds damage dealers wait before joining a fight (0-99). Works with the wait for attack strategy on.
focus heal Name	Healers prioritise these players (comma-separated). focus heal clear resets it.
rebuff	Recast their buffs now.
cast spell	Cast a specific spell (name or link) on your target.
attackers / target	Tell you who is attacking them / what they are targeting.
dps	Tell you their estimated damage per second.

Raid icons

Command	What it does
rti skull	Icon bots attack first (skull by default). Any icon name works: star, circle, diamond, triangle, moon, square, cross, skull.
rti cc moon	Icon for crowd control (moon by default): sheep, sap, shackle…
rti ?	Show the current icons.

Strategies: co and nc

Bots decide what to do using strategies. co edits combat strategies and nc non-combat ones. Use + to add, - to remove, ~ to toggle and ? to list; combine several with commas, for example co +aoe,-cc.

Command	What it does
co ? / nc ?	List active strategies.
co +aoe / co -aoe	Allow or forbid area damage (class-dependent).
co +cc	Use crowd control on the moon-marked target.
co +boost / co -boost	Use or save big cooldowns.
co +avoid aoe	Step out of harmful ground effects.
co +behind	Melee stay behind the target.
co +threat	Damage dealers watch their threat.
co +wait for attack	Wait before attacking (see wait for attack time).
co +potions	Use potions when needed.
nc +gather	Gather herbs and ore along the way.
nc +grind	Kill nearby monsters when idle.
nc +attack tagged	Help on monsters you have already tagged.
nc +quest	Work on quests when idle.

Role strategies (tank, heal, dps and the spec ones) are set automatically from the bot's spec. Change the spec with talents spec rather than editing them by hand.

Loot

Command	What it does
ll normal	Loot rule: useful items only. Others: gray (also junk), disenchant, all.
ll +[item] / ll -[item]	Always loot / stop always looting this item.
ll ?	Show the loot rule and the always-loot list.
loot all	Pick up everything lootable around now.

Gear and upkeep

Command	What it does
maintenance	Learn available spells, spend talents, refresh consumables, repair, enchant and socket gear.
autogear	Equip level-appropriate gear (up to rare quality on this realm).
equip upgrade	Equip any upgrades in the bags.
e [item] / ue [item]	Equip / unequip an item.
u [item]	Use an item.
items or c	List what they carry.
t [item]	Open a trade with you offering that item.
s gray	Sell junk to a nearby vendor. Also s vendor or s [item].
b [item]	Buy from the vendor you are targeting.
repair	Repair at a nearby vendor.
bank / gb	Use the bank / guild bank.
glyphs	Show their glyphs.

Talents and spells

Command	What it does
talents	Show the current spec.
talents spec list	List the ready-made builds for its class.
talents spec holy pve	Switch to a ready-made build (name exactly as listed).
talents switch 2	Activate the second talent group (dual spec).
talents apply code	Apply a build code: one digit per talent in tree order, the three trees separated by dashes.
talents autopick	Spend points automatically.
spells	List the spells the bot knows.
trainer	List what it could learn from the trainer you target; trainer learn learns it.

Quests

Command	What it does
quests	List their quests.
accept [quest]	Accept a quest; accept * takes everything from the nearby quest giver.
drop [quest]	Abandon a quest.
share [quest]	Share a quest with the group.
talk	Talk to your targeted quest giver.

Death, information and group

Command	What it does
release	Release the spirit.
revive	Resurrect at the spirit healer.
stats	Bag space, gold, durability and experience.
who	Class, spec and level.
rep	Reputations.
emblems	Emblems collected.
ready	Answer a ready check.
give leader	Pass party leadership to you.
leave	Leave the group.
reset botAI	Reset its state if it behaves strangely.
pet aggressive	Pet mode for hunters and warlocks: aggressive, defensive, passive; pet attack sends it in.

Choosing roles

A bot's role comes from its talent spec. Whisper talents spec list to see the builds for its class, then talents spec name to apply one. Its combat strategies change automatically.

Class	Tank	Healer	Damage
Warrior	prot pve	-	arms pve, fury pve
Paladin	prot pve	holy pve	ret pve
Death Knight	blood pve	-	frost pve, unholy pve
Druid	bear pve	resto pve	balance pve, cat pve
Priest	-	disc pve, holy pve	shadow pve
Shaman	-	resto pve	ele pve, enh pve
Hunter	-	-	bm pve, mm pve, surv pve
Rogue	-	-	as pve, combat pve, subtlety pve
Mage	-	-	arcane pve, fire pve, frost pve
Warlock	-	-	affli pve, demo pve, destro pve

Every class also has pvp versions of its builds (for example arms pvp). Plan your own talents with the talent calculator.

Good to know

• You can control up to 40 bots at once.
• About 100 random bots live in the world, from level 1 to 80. They queue for the dungeon finder, battlegrounds and rated arenas.
• summon works in combat and when you are dead; it revives dead bots only when you are out of combat.
• autogear gives rare (blue) items at most; for epics, bring them to raids or give them gear yourself.
• Gear, money and experience earned by your alts are theirs to keep.
• Your alts are characters like any other, so individual progression applies to them too: an alt that has not completed Vanilla still stops gaining experience at level 60.

Quick troubleshooting

• The bot doesn't answer: is it in your group, and are you its master? Bots only obey their master. Check the spelling of the command; they are in English. Try reset botAI.
• "You are not allowed to control bot": the character is not yours, not in your guild and not on a linked account. Link the account on the website first.
• "Player already logged in": the owner is playing that character right now.
• It is stuck: summon brings it back. If it stays frozen, .playerbots bot remove Name and add it again.
• It won't go into a dungeon: an alt may not have reached the progression stage that dungeon needs. Otherwise, summon it once you are inside.
• Dungeon finder doesn't find a group: queue as group leader with your bots already in the party; for missing roles, random bots join the queue too.
• Its gear is bad: whisper maintenance, then autogear. For addclass bots, .playerbots bot init=auto Name matches your gear score.
• The healer doesn't heal: check its spec with who; if it is not a healing spec, use talents spec.
• They pull everything: co -aoe near groups you don't want, mark the kill target with a skull, and use tank attack to open.

Build your party

5-player dungeon

Slot	Suggestion	Why
Tank	Protection warrior or paladin	Sturdy and easy; paladins hold groups of enemies very well.
Healer	Holy or discipline priest	Strong single-target healing, plus Fortitude.
Damage	You	Whatever you enjoy playing.
Damage	Mage	Area damage, crowd control and Intellect buff.
Damage	Hunter or warlock	Steady ranged damage; a warlock adds healthstones.

If you are a tank or a healer yourself, swap that slot for another damage dealer.

10-player raid

Role	Suggestion
2 tanks	Protection paladin and protection warrior (or a bear druid or blood death knight)
3 healers	Holy paladin, discipline or holy priest, restoration shaman (or restoration druid)
5 damage	You plus a mix: mage, warlock, hunter, a melee (rogue or retribution paladin) and a shaman or balance druid for raid buffs

Try to cover the main buffs: Fortitude (priest), Mark of the Wild (druid), Arcane Intellect (mage), blessings (paladin), totems and Heroism or Bloodlust (shaman). A raid with one of each class family is stronger than a raid of the same class repeated.

Before a raid, whisper maintenance to everyone, check specs with who, mark the first target with a skull and open with tank attack. The MultiBot and BotGrid addons turn all of this into buttons.