Yea, there used to be some strategy involved with competing with the bots. I used to do a lot of early morning farming to wind down from work and I would come across these bots all the time. As you said, you could figure out their path and try to stay ahead of them. I even found that if you hit the node at the same time, just before them, they would kinda glitch out for a bit before starting back on their path. Not perfect by any means, but it worked.
Now there is no point to that. The amount of herbs flooding the market from multi-boxers and bots just leaves the solo farmer at a loss. That’s what drove a lot of these players to raw gold farming in the first place. With that avenue being nerfed, the value of traditional farming methods will be important. As of now though, that aspect of the game is totally cornered by the multi-boxxers. In the end, the solo player is the one that will be on the losing end… which sucks. The game should be about the solo experience in the world, not some mega multi-box farming despawning every node in their wake.