Guild Wars 2

Ok ANet tonight was the last straw for me. WvW as it currently is is UNPLAYABLE. Do you hear me? It is not playable in any reasonable form or level. The skill lag is happening ALL THE TIME during prime time. It doesn’t matter which matchup, it doesn’t matter if I try to avoid the blobs myself. The whole kittening server just lags down to a pace where nothing matters anymore. This is not PvP. This is not even a working game.

I’ve spent probably 200€ total on this game counting gems and the box. But no more. I will not put down a single cent before the skill lag issue is resolved. And I sincerely hope nobody that does WvW (or anyone else, really for that matter) doesn’t either. I don’t care how you do it, I DON’T CARE if it’s difficult to do. Just do it! Hire better programmers, buy new servers, lower the population caps. Just FIX THE SKILL LAG.

And do it now. Not next year, not next month, NOW. You are starting “leagues”. LEAGUES? Do you even realize how absurd that is when your WvW is totally messed up and broken?

Yeah I have never known it to be this bad.. 1-2 min skill lag is just unacceptable.. WvW is simply unenjoyable at the moment.
Suggest a total reboot of WvW and some serious thought put into getting something sorted server side.. forget about SAB tosh and get something done about the issues that are plaguing the game .. or just keep ignoring them and until another MMO hits the market and steals your lootbags ANET!

10-30s skill lag in t6 EU last night.. not blob fights either.. I’m talking 2v2.
Funny that contacting support about this just ends up with them saying it’s client side..

Client side my kitten .

Tom Gore.4035:

Client side my kitten .

Client side for everyone? This issue is server side, and GW2 isn’t the first game to have this problem.

Guess everybody must be using the same ISP, have the same terrible connection, same crappy CPU bottlenecking .. all at the same time… ANET support anwser right there tells me they either don’t know what to do or don’t want to do anything and hope we will all forget about it and go play like good children should.

We get pretty bad skill lag in NA, but only in queue v queue fights. Maybe Anet has bad EU server infrastructure.

Sounds like EU servers are having issues then, I never get skill lag except in giant three-way fights

Can’t agree more with the op, Anet get your act together. your WvWvW IS Broken. fix it or prepare to lose customers.

Yeah, playing on a NA server I never get skill lag except in large zerg battles (30+ players on screen), and even in those extreme cases it is rarely more than a few seconds lag.

it’s the zergs fault..kittenty boring zergfiest every night in wvw.. sucks balls

yes! The game is very much unplayable! And Anet sucks! I cant wait for a new MMO!

There is this strange problem that occurs on some maps where the map starts disconnecting and lagging out players even when they are out manned. Usually it is just one map though. Hopefully it is a reboot sort of fix and they get to it quickly.

I rage quit yesterday after being in a que for 45 + minutes to see that I could not use my skills and sometimes a delay up to a few minutes. Terrible.

Guys, I know you have the pitchforks and torches out and frustration is causing you to want to “uninstall”, and yes there are some server side problems, but please do some testing before you rage quit – we need you in WvW!
I had the exact same problem – huge skill lag times, random disconnects after everything stopping etc etc. I was raging too at the servers. Then I submitted a ticket and they helped me track down the problem.
Please be aware that latency and “internet speed” of your connection is not the be-all and end-all of where your problem may lie. The problem that emerged for me was massive packet loss on the data being transferred between my PC and the Anet servers – Packet loss was resulting in the symptoms you all describe and I was experiencing.
Please submit a support ticket, do the tests they give you to run – then check the results for yourself too when you send them back. I can guarantee that some of you will be able to resolve your problems when you track down exactly where the issue lies.

Interesting, how did that occur?

Between your PC and the Anet servers lies a multitude of hardware that the data has to travel through. Most times it will be a problem (for whatever reason) somewhere along that route.
Packet loss won’t impact your normal day to day net experience very much unless your vital data transfer rate is high… it won’t even affect your normal playing in most games – where it will have a huge effect is in the kind of huge data transfer situation in a blob vs blob fight where thousands of instructions and bits of info are needed and every little bit of data is needed for your game to function right.
Mine turned out to be a hardware issue at the first ADSL exchange that my DSL line routed through. The tests showed between 70% and 88% packet loss at that specific point on the route. It took some convincing to get my telkoms provider to even look at the problem, because THEIR kneejerk reaction is automatically “it’s not us” – but they could not refute the results of the multiple tests – which I had to send them a few times for them to even take me seriously. Eventually, after days of insisting that they sort it out, it was fixed.
If the problem lies further down the line (i.e. after you connect to your ISP – then you need to contact your ISP support and get them to sort it out – also a thankless task, but with perseverance you can get them to fix stuff like this.
Also note that raging and throwing hissy fits will get you absolutely nowhere with these service providers – you have to politely but doggedly keep at them until you get the response you need BUT if you truly love to play WvW then it is worth the effort!!

I always test in other games how my connection is doing. It’s almost always when its terrible in gw2 it’s fine in other games.

“Testing” in other games is not going to tell you if you have something like a packet loss problem – unless you are going to be playing a similar scenario (like the blob fights in WvW) in the other games where you have a similar number of players executing a similar number of “instructions” thus the sheer number of data packets needed to make the game playable is similar to the WvW scenario.
You need to run the testing program that the Anet support will send you, run it for 30 mins while playing GW2 ( and if you want to check on the other games, then run it for 30 mins while playing the other game too). Then compare and see for yourself.
I put this all here so that hopefully it will help some of you solve your problem as I DO know the frustration and rage at the sheer unplayability of the huge fights. But I also know that to regain the fun of playing, you need to be proactive in solving your specific problem – it’s lazy and the easy way out to blame Anet servers before finding out exactly what is causing this – if your testing shows it definitely IS the Anet servers, then, be my guest and rage as much as you want.

Ok, a tool of their making, so i can’t just test out of curiosity.

I suppose packet loss can be a big problem. From what I gathered bout TCP, connections allow for packets to be transported and received out-of-order and lost packets can be resend. This combination can introduce huge lag spikes, since a missing packet would keep the receiver from putting other the information back in order, effectively stopping the flow of data until server and client have figured out a packet has to be resend.

Frans, it’s not a tool of their making. After doing the Anet built in tests they sent me the link to another tester program… It’s “pingplotter”.

Here is the verbatim copy paste from the mail their support sent me:

>>>>>
You can find the program and information on how to use it at http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html. Please note: this program is not supported by NCSOFT or ArenaNet.

Please download and install the standard version of Ping Plotter from the direct link below:
http://www.pingplotter.com/downloads/pngplt_std.exe
Note: There is a trial period for the Standard version but you will not be obligated to make a purchase.
Run the program, and in the upper left corner, you will see an “Address to Trace” section.
Next, log into Guild Wars 2 and type in /IP in the chat box. Doing so will display the IP address of the server to which you currently are connected. Put that IP address into the “Address to Trace” section in Ping Plotter. Make sure you leave off the “:0” at the end or the test will not be able to be run correctly.
Click “Trace” and allow the tool to run for at least 30 minutes while playing Guild Wars 2 and preferably during the timeframe in which you experience this issue. Also, please keep the trace running for a minimum of 30 minutes even if you get disconnected from the server.
Once you have run the trace for at least 30 minutes, click on “Stop” then “File” -> then “Save Sample Set” and save the file to your computer. Please be sure to save it in a location that will be easy to find, such as your desktop.
Once saved, please open the file and review the results. If you see solid red lines throughout the test, you are suffering from packet loss and will have to contacting your ISP for assistance in resolving this issue.
>>>>

SO go ahead and try it for yourself

Great, thank you

Getting very rare skill lag myself in NA. Maps are rarely queued on my server. In large fights my FPS drops to almost nothing but actual delay on skill use is rare but extremely frustrating when it does happen.

Only time I ever get skill lag anymore is in prolonged (>1hr) 3-ways. It is MUCH better now than it used to be.

I’d not experienced skill lag in a very long time—admittedly I had taken a break—but it suddenly struck horribly starting around the time of reset this week and over the weekend. Others mentioned it in map, so I was not the only one hit.

Servers are dying, seems to be happening all over the place.

lately I’m experiencing very hard skill lags in EU server. my favorite is when Im unable to use particular skill at all.

I got help from ANet but I will be darned if it wasn’t one of the most frustrating processes. It was as if you would get one email with one idea that was extremely simple (most people would do that). Then, it doesn’t work. So you get ticket #2 with the next idea. Try it. Nope. Next.

That goes on for days. Eventually, they do help you find the source but geez, why not give me one email with lots of sequenced steps to take and try!?!

Now this could be profound ignorance on my part of IT, but it certainly appears that each set of suggestions was more or less canned.

Friday.9078:

Between your PC and the Anet servers lies a multitude of hardware that the data has to travel through. Most times it will be a problem (for whatever reason) somewhere along that route.
Packet loss won’t impact your normal day to day net experience very much unless your vital data transfer rate is high… it won’t even affect your normal playing in most games – where it will have a huge effect is in the kind of huge data transfer situation in a blob vs blob fight where thousands of instructions and bits of info are needed and every little bit of data is needed for your game to function right.
Mine turned out to be a hardware issue at the first ADSL exchange that my DSL line routed through. The tests showed between 70% and 88% packet loss at that specific point on the route. It took some convincing to get my telkoms provider to even look at the problem, because THEIR kneejerk reaction is automatically “it’s not us” – but they could not refute the results of the multiple tests – which I had to send them a few times for them to even take me seriously. Eventually, after days of insisting that they sort it out, it was fixed.
If the problem lies further down the line (i.e. after you connect to your ISP – then you need to contact your ISP support and get them to sort it out – also a thankless task, but with perseverance you can get them to fix stuff like this.
Also note that raging and throwing hissy fits will get you absolutely nowhere with these service providers – you have to politely but doggedly keep at them until you get the response you need BUT if you truly love to play WvW then it is worth the effort!!

I’m pretty sure the problem is more than just what you’re describing. I’ve monitored several of these lag threads lately, and almost all of the complaints are coming out of Europe. I know that ANet leases server capacity from Akamai in the U.S. but I’m not certain if they also use Akamai in Europe … it may be a different provider. In any case, I’d bet all my accumulated GW2 gold that the problem is associated somehow with that central leased capacity in Europe than it is with a zillion different ISPs that just happen to be located in Europe.

Huggyos.9584:

lately I’m experiencing very hard skill lags in EU server. my favorite is when Im unable to use particular skill at all.

My favorite is when I’m out in WvW solo roaming on my ranger, with no one around except me and the other person I’m fighting, and I try to use Serpent’s Strike or Stalker’s Strike.
Those attacks are supposed to make me dodge in a half circle around the target and hit with poison. Even if my target is standing perfectly still, be it an NPC or a player, I’m always landing too far away and the attack misses, along with the poison.

I’m playing on EU servers as well and it’s been like this since late in last week. It’s not the first time, though. It’s comes and goes. On friday, I had my first 5 skills flashing for 27 sec before anything happened. It might have been longer, but I started recording with Fraps right after I saw it. Fraps usually have no effect on skill lag for me, just a minor FPS loss.