Guild Wars 2

I’m currently shopping for additional computers/internet for my home. My wife and I are using our cell phone unlimited service/hotspot on our phones to power our desktop and laptop to play already 2 instances of Guildwars 2 in our home. We do have a smart TV. However we already often have communication issues with the servers as it is, and we’re thinking of adding another desktop to our home for our daughter to join us in the game as well. So…

My question to people out there who are more knowledgeable than I… is what kind of internet service can I get away with being able to play 3 instances of Guildwars 2 in my home? It doesn’t have to be amazing service but playable… I don’t want to disconnect or lose connection on one or all accounts as we’re trying to load Lions Arch together or anything like that.

The services I know are offered in my location are…

Dial-up for 56kb/s
Internet25- 25mb/s
Satellite – Not desirable, but if someone says it’s functionable and cheaper than other options I may go this route.

At this time, these are my only 3 options. What speeds should I need/bandwidth.

Not dial-up. Anything else will work fine. The game uses relatively little data to play.

The only time you’ll have trouble with bandwidth is downloading patches; you’ll need to be a lot more patient with each new instance (or, you can just copy the new .DAT file from one machine to another).

Latency for a satellite connection will be painful. It used to be in the 600 to 700ms range, which is fine for bulk transfer, and absolutely unplayable for games. I’m not sure it has reduced much since 2012 — the last time I looked — but since most of that comes from physics, I wouldn’t bet on it.

I’d honestly find out if you can get data via mobile LTE, too, but that or “Internet25” should either by completely fine for your needs.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Latency for a satellite connection will be painful. It used to be in the 600 to 700ms range, which is fine for bulk transfer, and absolutely unplayable for games. I’m not sure it has reduced much since 2012 — the last time I looked — but since most of that comes from physics, I wouldn’t bet on it.

I’d honestly find out if you can get data via mobile LTE, too, but that or “Internet25” should either by completely fine for your needs.

My LTE is faster/fatter than my ATT “broadband”, but it’s not as reliable. YMMV

I have maybe 3Mbps on a good day so the 25Mbps is theoretically more than enough but bandwidth, latency and stability are all separate things.

A freight train full of hard drives has massive bandwidth but the latency would be measured in days. Imagine trying to activate a skill and having to wait 10 days for a response. :P