I actually jumped into PvP immediately after playing the tutorial + two custom games (one with all bots and one with bots and the friend who first got me into League). After that, I only played bots sporadically, if I played them at all, and actually found I had more difficulty against them than I did against other low-level players.

Playing some bot games lately and reading a lot of posts saying that bots teach you bad habits, I got to thinking: what habits, specifically? Are there any particular tips I could pass on to bot players who are jumping into PvP for the first time?

A few differences I've gathered (based on Beginner bots since I've only played two or three Intermediates):

1) Bots harass almost non-stop and don't seem to CS much in lane (admittedly, this isn't all that different from certain human opponents, haha).

2) Bot skillshots are easy to dodge since they don't use predictive targeting, but if they do land a stun or a snare, they tend to be pretty good at combos.

3) Bots will only chase a low HP target so far before letting them go. (LuxBot is only too happy to laser you to death under your turret, though.)

4) Bots never take jungle camps, dragon, or baron, and they don't respond to players' attempts to take them either.

5) Bots only enter the brush if they're chasing a player. That means no ambushes, and especially no hiding in top/bot brush in an attempt to get early first blood. It also means that face-checking and failing to ward go unpunished.

6) Bots almost always respond to a pushed lane or lost tower by ganking, which makes it relatively simple to predict their movements and to herd them. It also makes split pushing your best shot at winning in every game.

7) Bots automatically retreat and b once their health falls below a certain level (25% or so?).

8) Bots never really commit to a tower dive. Once they take a turret hit or two, they back off immediately. They also dive when you're at or near full health, but I've had humans do that too.

9) Bots always pick from the same, tiny pool of champs (though I hear DariusBot was added in the most recent patch).

10) Bots don't counter-build, and I haven't really noticed them building defensive items either.

11) Bots don't require you to communicate or coordinate with your teammates to win.

The most obvious difference, of course, is that bots can't strategize, but that's kind of an abstract concept. Are there any other concrete examples? Probably someone who started off by playing bots exclusively and made the switch at a higher summoner level would be able to point out things that tripped them up when attempting PvP for the first time.

That sums it up pretty well. In short - bots are extremely predictable. You can easily beat them because you always know what they'll do.

Have you played intermediate bots? There combos are crazy(stun-slow-ult-ult-ur dead) and they will dive hard for a kill.

I also think Co-op games have a matching system. I remember the first time I moved from Beginner to Intermediate (I didn't play bots until around level 20, though) it was incredibly difficult. But gradually it became easier and easier.

There is definitely something to be learned from bots. It's good training at last hitting because they're so aggressive. There are limits to the amount that can be gained, though.