Tanking with bots

The Dungeon Finder

Queue as a healer or damage dealer and a bot takes the tank spot. Nothing else to set up.

Invite one

/invite a bot near your level that tanks by its talents: a Protection warrior or paladin, a Blood death knight, or a Feral druid. A bot plays the role its talents give it.

Bring your own character

.playerbots bot add <name> brings one of your other characters along under AI control. If it isn't specced as a tank, see your own character as the tank.

Once you're inside the dungeon with a bot tank, type .dc on. The tank takes over: it walks the dungeon boss to boss, clears the trash on the way, opens doors, pulls levers, handles escorts and scripted events, and stops so the group can loot and rest between fights. The other bots follow it, and you play your character alongside them.

.dc on

Starts the run. Type it inside the dungeon.

.dc pause

Holds the run where it is. Type it again to carry on.

.dc skip

Skips what the tank is working on, if it's stuck.

.dc status

Says where the tank is going next. The tank that answers is the one leading.

.dc bosses

Lists the dungeon's bosses and which are dead.

.dc go <boss>

Heads straight for one boss.

.dc pull

Changes how the tank takes trash. Dynamic runs into easy packs and pulls dangerous ones back to the group first; it suits most dungeons. Leeroy runs into every pack: fastest, if you out-gear the place. Advanced pulls every pack back: slowest and safest.

.dc off

Ends the run. The bots follow you again.

Only a real player in the group can type these, and the tank must be a bot: you can't lead the run on your own tank character.

Specced as a tank: nothing to do. A Protection warrior or paladin, a Blood death knight or a Feral druid you bring along with .playerbots bot add tanks on its own, and .dc on finds it.

Specced for damage: the bot plays the role of its talents, so a Frost death knight fights as damage even if you queued it as the tank. Whisper it to tank instead:

/w <name> co +tank,+tank assist

That works for death knights, warriors, paladins and druids. Check it took with /w <name> co ?: the list should show tank assist and the tank style (blood, prot or bear), and no damage style such as frost, arms or ret.

If a death knight still shows frost or dps assist, spell it all out:

/w <name> co -frost,-frost aoe,-dps assist,+tank,+tank assist

(For an Unholy death knight, put -unholy,-unholy aoe in place of the two frost parts.)

It doesn't last. A bot goes back to the role of its talents whenever its group changes: when the Dungeon Finder puts the group together, when the leader changes, or when it leaves a group. It whispers you AI was reset to defaults when that happens. So send the command inside the dungeon, after the group has formed, then type .dc on.

To skip all that, give the character a tank spec. With dual specialization you can keep a tank spec for its bot runs and switch back when you play it yourself.

Everything above works in raids as well. A raid can have several bot tanks, so .dc on goes to the one you've marked as Main Tank (in the Raid tab of the Social window, right-click its name and choose Main Tank). With no Main Tank marked, it picks the best-geared bot tank, which might not be the one you want.

Raid runs are the newest part of this. If something goes wrong, please tell us on Discord or in a ticket.

It says	What to do
No tank bot found in your group.	No bot in the group is tanking right now. A bot specced for damage needs the whisper above, sent again after any group change.
AI was reset to defaults	The bot went back to the role of its talents. Whisper it again if it should tank.
Not in a dungeon.	Type .dc on inside the dungeon, not at the entrance.
The tank says it's dead	Bring it back and type .dc on again.
The tank stands still	.dc status to see what it's doing, then .dc skip if it's stuck.