Guild Wars 2

How exactly are we meant to “compete” in the sanctum sprint when the latency on the skills is ridiculous. Using Sun dash teleports you backwards, the jump takes 3 or 4 tries to actually work and lightning pull is an exercise in futility.

In 3 attempts today I finished the race only once and that was with 7 seconds on the clock.

I’ve reported time and again the buggyness of these skills and I’ve yet to see an anet dev address it – at this rate, the event will be over before any fix is rolled out I’m not alone either, I’ve seen many other players with the same problems – especially players outside of the US. Before you say “it’s your connection duh”, I should point out that no, it’s not – Asides from PvE I also PvP regularly and routinely top the scoreboard, never has latency been an issue for me in GW2’s gameplay nor does it continue to be an issue.

The rubber banding is unique to the aspect powers and nothing else. Please fix this before the opportunity to participate is gone! – i love the concept of the sprint but it’s absolutely unplayable and a week into the living story it’s still not been addressed

I’m still waiting for some kind of reply from ANet.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/bazaar/Broken-Mechanics-We-Need-A-Solution/first#post2391168

Well, if you made it all the way to the Sanctum Sprint NPC in the kite ship, your lag can’t be that bad! [sarcasm off]

So, in my own words, this is what happened:

• Jump pads were introduced with the SAB. Some of us had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.
• Jump pads were re-used in Dragonball. “Dash pads” were added. Some of us had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.
• Jump pads were re-used in both the Aetherblade dungeon and the jumping puzzle. Some of us had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.

ANet’s reaction to all this:

“So the jump pad mechanics screw over our users with the slightest lag? Let’s make an entire update based on them! Not just the mini-game/dungeon/jumping puzzle – let’s go all out and make them mandatory for PvE!”

Some of use had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.

So now almost the entire Eastern hemisphere is missing out on content, and… we have severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.

ANet’s reaction? None.

…

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Well, if you made it all the way to the Sanctum Sprint NPC in the kite ship, your lag can’t be that bad! [sarcasm off]

So, in my own words, this is what happened:

• Jump pads were introduced with the SAB. Some of us had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.
• Jump pads were re-used in Dragonball. “Dash pads” were added. Some of us had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.
• Jump pads were re-used in both the Aetherblade dungeon and the jumping puzzle. Some of us had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.

ANet’s reaction to all this:

“So the jump pad mechanics screw over our users with the slightest lag? Let’s make an entire update based on them! Not just the mini-game/dungeon/jumping puzzle – let’s go all out and make them mandatory for PvE!”

Some of use had severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.

So now almost the entire Eastern hemisphere is missing out on content, and… we have severe problems with glitchy/laggy jumps and reported it.

ANet’s reaction? None.

…

It certainly would suck to have this kind of consistant lag, but you seem to be blaming A net for it… or at least for not designing their content to compensate for it.

I’m not sure this is as easy as you make it sound. Your online expirience in any game is largely dependant on your latency. If you are using satalite internet or wireless internet you may just have to avoid certain types of content.

If you played a first person shooter online you certainly wouldn’t be able to compete with someone with a great ping. An FPS can not design their game to compensate for that.

The good thing with GW2 is that there is some content that doesn’t not rely heavily on timing or mechanics that require a good ping.

CryxTryx.9208:

It certainly would suck to have this kind of consistant lag, but you seem to be blaming A net for it… or at least for not designing their content to compensate for it.

I’m not sure this is as easy as you make it sound. Your online expirience in any game is largely dependant on your latency. If you are using satalite internet or wireless internet you may just have to avoid certain types of content.

(emphasis mine)

See, but I’m not on satellite or wireless, and I don’t have consistent lag at all. My ping is usually between 50 and 100 during normal play. That includes jumping and everything else.

It is only when using the new “super jump” mechanics (jump pads and aspect skills) that I get massive lag spikes.

So, any more ideas, Sherlock?

My video above is me tethering off my iPhone on the Edge network. You’re saying that’s not good enough?

Seriously, I get a little cranky when everybody just assumes (instead of asking…?) that I am on a rubbish internet connection and the fault must be mine.

But: Apologies for coming off as a complete kitten, I shouldn’t post here on an empty stomach.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

CryxTryx.9208:

It certainly would suck to have this kind of consistant lag, but you seem to be blaming A net for it… or at least for not designing their content to compensate for it.

I’m not sure this is as easy as you make it sound. Your online expirience in any game is largely dependant on your latency. If you are using satalite internet or wireless internet you may just have to avoid certain types of content.

(emphasis mine)

See, but I’m not on satellite or wireless, and I don’t have consistent lag at all. My ping is usually between 50 and 100 during normal play. That includes jumping and everything else.

It is only when using the new “super jump” mechanics (jump pads and aspect skills) that I get massive lag spikes.

So, any more ideas, Sherlock?

I’m not sure why you feel the need to be agressively sarcastic towards me, I certainly did not treat you that way and I don’t think I deserved it.

That aside, I’m glad to hear that you normally do not have latency issues and it is only a small part of the game as a whole you are having this issue with.

I don’t have any ideas, no. It is puzzling that you could have a decent ping/latency in the rest of the game and yet still be having this issue with the artificial jump mechanics.

Do you monitor your ping? Does it spike when trying to send/recieve this data? Do you monitor your frame rate? Do you notice any changes on that end?

Myself, I probably have an above average ping and I do expirience some difficulty with the #3 jump as displayed in that video, sometimes it over shoots or falls short of its target. This is rare however.

I also had some rubber banding going on, but again it was rare. I would estimate that I’ve run about 50+ races now and have rubberbanded in 4 of them.

I’m starting to think that the ‘lag’ in the skills especially skill 3 might be more of a coding issue and less of a lag issue. I’m not a programmer but it just seems that the targeting and the physics involved in some of the jumps is a little bit off sometimes.

It can be frustrating, but certainly has not been game breaking for me.

The video above doesn’t really show much as it is just the same spot and the same skill used.

I think it would be useful to help diagnose the issue, and maybe even useful to A Net to see a video of the entire race, if you are expiriencing frequent and consistant lag in the Sanctum and no where else.

CryxTryx.9208:

I’m not sure why you feel the need to be agressively sarcastic towards me, I certainly did not treat you that way and I don’t think I deserved it.

I’m sorry. Nothing personal, like I said one post up. I have since had risotto, pizza bread and cranberry cheese, so my apology to you is genuine.

CryxTryx.9208:

I’m starting to think that the ‘lag’ in the skills especially skill 3 might be more of a coding issue and less of a lag issue. I’m not a programmer but it just seems that the targeting and the physics involved in some of the jumps is a little bit off sometimes.

Yes, there is some sort of issue, and it certainly gets multiplied with lag, but the lag isn’t the only factor.

CryxTryx.9208:

The video above doesn’t really show much as it is just the same spot and the same skill used.

I assure you, it wasn’t just this spot, or this skill. It happens all over the map (I’m assuming since I wasn’t able to progress much higher), and with every skill.

It also happens about 95%+ of the time on those flippin’ jump pads from the SAB.

No hard feelings Pixel. Your frustration is also genuine and I can appreciate that.

As for the video crazylegs, I am not trying to down play what your video showed. I just think it would be more useful to showt he actual race in progress.

I am also not sure you and Pixel are even having the same issue. Also because your video is cut, it is hard to determine the frequency at which you are reproduce the error.

I’m not asking you to prove that you are actually having an issue, else why would you be here. I am just saying that if you truly want a chance to change or at least some attempt at a design that takes your issues into account you want to present A Net with useable data.

CryxTryx.9208:

As for the video crazylegs, I am not trying to down play what your video showed. I just think it would be more useful to showt he actual race in progress.

This isn’t video of the race. This is of the world outside of the race. I wasn’t able to even get to the race because the skills fail too often to make it up that far.

CryxTryx.9208:

I am also not sure you and Pixel are even having the same issue. Also because your video is cut, it is hard to determine the frequency at which you are reproduce the error.

We are. Trust me.

The jumps in the video are all taken more or less chronologically. I started recording, and failed the jump that many times. This of course wasn’t the only instance of this. I started recording this after about 40+ failed jumps, sprints, etc.

This is not an infrequent occurrence is what I’m saying.

CryxTryx.9208:

I’m not asking you to prove that you are actually having an issue, else why would you be here. I am just saying that if you truly want a chance to change or at least some attempt at a design that takes your issues into account you want to present A Net with useable data.

As Pixelpumkin stated, a support request has been submitted, and as of yet nothing has been said there, or here. What I do know is that her and I have been able to play a total of 1600+ hours of GW2 with only minor latency issues. The only time this has become a problem is when ANet decided to implement these mechanics (SAB, Dragon Ball, Bazaar, AR Dungeon, etc).

Sounds to me like the new mechanics are not efficiant with resources and can be inconsistant. I just can’t imagine what would cause some users to expirience these issues with such frequency and not others.

Here is the challenge from A Net’s perspective. Many players are telling A Net to abandon this kind of content because it doesn’t work for them, and then players like myself are not having your issues and so are praising the content.

I really enjoyed SAB and actually had no issues at all in there. Same with the Antherblade JP.

I am absolutely addicted to the Sanctum Sprint, I run it for hours on end. Come to think of it, it is the first content in GW2 that I do 100% for the run of it. I can confidently say that if there were no chest at the end I would still be running this thing for hours. The new jumping mechanics are tons of fun, in and outside the sanctum.

I can pretty accurately predict how to combine skill 2 then 1 and fly through the air to land on a single platform.

It really sucks that you are having the opposite experience. I really do hope that A Net can nail this error. Maybe it is even with a certain brand of video card or some type of hardware incompatability, who knows, its boggling, but I wish you could run sanctum like I can.

Edit: Can I ask what your hardware specs are?

It probably won’t really help the lag issues, but if you’re really having issues doing the sprint, it may help turning your settings to best performance.

I feel your pain. The skills are glitchy even without lags. In all my runs I had only a single one without any bugs. I can only imagine what it must be like to add lag-glitches on top of that brrr
I enjoyed SAB very much, but this minigame runs under ‘meh’ at the best of times.
Bonus points for Beedog in the vid

I guess I’m lucky. I’ve probably done 30 or so races and have never noticed this and i’m on a clunky wifi. Maybe it has to do with my graphics settings or something.

Works fine for me as well. Finished first after a couple of races.

I can finish it in time, but I also experience lags and rubberbanding each time I do that sprint. That way I am not able to get some achievements. ^^
However, turning down the graphics does not make any difference for me.

And I only experience that issues on this particular map when too many people are there (so most of the time ^^) and all the time at the sprint. Everything else in gw2 works quite fine for me (except some lags at really big bosses that are over-crowded).

Guys, is it possible, that a few glitches (not lag) are account specific? Because I have friends that say they never experience certain bugs that I see at every run, while i watch people being affected by the same issues during races. For example rubberbanding or the lightning breaking of halfway through. Does anyone have insight? It doesn`t seem logical…

Just to throw my own 2c into this. While I did finish first yesterday it was after 2hrs of incredibly frustrating problems caused by the afore-mentioned rubberbanding and problems with the mechanics. My latency is pretty high (in excess of 200ms) because of being in New Zealand but that is the case for anybody in Oceania playing GW2 and it definitely exacerbates the rubberbanding and skill-related issues the sprint has.

Given that both problems seem to be the result of a server-side location check, i’m assuming to prevent teleport and speed hacks, could it be thakittens just a little overly aggressive about positioning when ‘weird movement’ skills like the ones in the sanctum are being used? If so, can’t it just be toned down for the sprint as there is nothing in the race that would break even if people did exploit it at that point with the more relaxed verification?

I also think its only really a problem in the Sanctum because you need to be quick and precise as its a competition, out in the Cliffs themselves you have time to wait before a jump to be sure the server is caught up.

Things I experienced:
– use a skill (#3 mainly) and being rubberbanded back to my starting point which often (as i’m trying to move forward at that point) means I run off a cliff

- use a skill (#2 and #3) and have them not ‘end’ when they are supposed to, #3 being particularly bad as you can’t stop it and on one occasion the skill carried me clear past the platform and a good 50ft before ending which of course led to a reset

Not sure if these can help but I’ll put them here anyway just incase.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/bazaar/Sanctum-Sprint-from-Australia-tips/first#post2410383

any help regarding what i can use for monitoring my ping? iirc, we can check FPS in-game.

i’m from HK and had no problems with SAB, play WvW without any problems (unless if it’s 80v80v80 then i get skill lag) and Sanctum Sprint was more or less unplayable for me. though i entered the first day and it was pretty bad. even getting up there was jerky and laggy, but now chilling in the cliffs for events or mining, moving around has been a little better. thing in the past is that after every big update, i get worse lag. but usually doesn’t last for an entire week. but i’m hopefuly and will try again later in the week : ))

o rmaybe guest to a lower pop server during off-hours and see if it makes a diff.

Ryuujin.8236:

How exactly are we meant to “compete” in the sanctum sprint when the latency on the skills is ridiculous. Using Sun dash teleports you backwards, the jump takes 3 or 4 tries to actually work and lightning pull is an exercise in futility.

Yep same on my normal server, and then I guested to a low pop server and won a race and didn’t get credited with the achievement or title (and yes a bug report has been submitted).

idk…but it has does technically have to be on your end….there are plenty of people out there on different internet connections/computers that have zero lag spikes at all through this content…

i know this is usually a rude thing to say on the interwebz…but it might be time to look into upgrading your computer or switching internet providers…something on your end either inside your connection or computer can’t handle the animations

don’t mean to come off rude or anything

from the sounds of it, i think it may be your processor…because the game has location checks to prevent hacking/cheating in the game…everytime you use one of those skills…meaning your processor may be going into overload

also, you can go ahead and get that upgraded because when culling is ended in PvE…your really going to be glad you did

Jordo.5913:

idk…but it has does technically have to be on your end….there are plenty of people out there on different internet connections/computers that have zero lag spikes at all through this content…

i know this is usually a rude thing to say on the interwebz…but it might be time to look into upgrading your computer or switching internet providers…something on your end either inside your connection or computer can’t handle the animations

I’m not meaning to be rude, but your assumptions are very naive.

ArenaNet are selling the game in Australia/Singapore/New Zealand/etc.

They have not provided servers any closer than the US for people in this region.

Based on Australia (because that’s where I am): It takes on average 160-180ms for ANY communications to travel the distance from the Australian East coast to US West coast. Doesn’t matter what ISP we use – that’s a physical limitation dictated by how long it takes the packets to be transmitted through the cable across that distance. Nothing we can do can reduce that yet – it’s simply a function of distance+physics of light/electricity.

Then we have the 40ms+ to get to the “jump off” point (usually Sydney), and the 40ms+ to get from the US “landing point” (usually California or San Diego) to the ArenaNet servers. ISP can make a bit of a difference here, but a lot of problems exist on the US end where our ISPs have 0 control over routing issues. If the US ISPs are having issues, we often have NO ability to work around them. Our best chance is finding an ISP with different agreements in the US so that they use slightly different routes…and even that’s dicey since we don’t have that many physical connections across the Pacific so there’s a very limited number of routes that are actually possible. Or we can wait 5 weeks while our ISP lodges complaints with the US ISPs (who often don’t seem to really care since it isn’t their traffic)…

End result is that a very good connection from Australia’s East Coast has around 250ms ping, with 280-300ms being a more “average” connection. As you start moving west across Australia, it increases more as it takes time for the packets to propagate across the physical cables in Australia too. (We have about the same landmass as the US, so think East Coast US to West Coast US type links).

There is nothing we can do to improve that. Changing computer/ISP won’t make any appreciable difference to what is physically possible with current internet technology (and the current cables in use – some fibre optics, but a lot of copper still too).

If ArenaNet consider that connection adequate to be playing on (which given that they’re selling us the game with that as the only possible server connection they must have considered it adequate), I don’t believe it is unfair to expect that they design their skills/mechanics to be able to be used on that connection.

We do learn to compensate for a lot – we pre-dodge, we learn to predict moves, etc.

That’s not possible with lightning pull. We target it…and land no-where near our target. We jump to an automatic pull spire…and land past the platform, or roll underneath it instead.

The way that lightning pull interacts with that connection is not ok. The problems are not restricted to one player or one computer, and it’s not something that the player can do anything about. It does change from one day to another – the first night it was unplayable (30+ jumps in a row failing to hit the actual target reticule…every one jumping either 1.5 target diametres too long, or 1 target diametre short). It is exacerbated by the number of people in the zone (so getting a quieter zone allows the inaccuracy range to reduce to the point where it’s only a 1/2 a target reticule long – which we can sometimes compensate for with how we place the target). But for us, the base connection is unalterable – and the skill has NOT been designed to gracefully handle the known, expected communications limitations.

If ArenaNet are going to make skills like these, then ArenaNet NEED to make sure that they work when accessed on known, expected connection access times. The aspect ones do not work reliably on these connections.

I do think there is some issue at both ends. I have a good gaming rig (not stellar, but very reliable), really fast internet connection and very low ping (usually around 7-10), and even I get these issues. Not as much and definitely not to the level of the OP, but it causes me frustration at times. So if a person has slower internet, higher ping, whatever – which is ABSOLUTELY NOT A FAULT (I do wish that people would not confuse fault with this – yes, the problem might be their setup, but it’s not their fault, it’s more just an issue they have) I can see hours of frustration.

I do think that if this sort of thing is affecting even my kind of set up, then there could well be certain issues at ANet’s end. But I’m not an expert, so this is just my 2c.

Yeah..kinda just wanna say, it sucks if you have these problems and hopefully Anet will find a way to accomodate everyone in the future so less stuff like this happens..But I don’t think the problems you guys are experiencing are on Anet’s side. I mean I have like, 30 fps normally and I can run around in this map and do the sprint just fine. Occasionally I get a little lag (Or quite a bit of lag at crowded events going on), but it’s not unplayable and I don’t really get any of these issues with the skills you guys are describing.

well…you could always switch countries

I don’t live is Aus (Actually UK), so I can make no useful comment on the inbuilt lag you suffer from. I agree that Anet should probably invest in an Asia/pacific server. Can’t be that hard to set up these days and its not a like there aren’t more than a few people in that part of the world!!

But, I too suffer periodically with problems especially in Sanctum Sprint and can only reiterate some occasionally helpful tips posted here and in other threads:

- looking in the direction you want to jump seems to help with skill #3. It might be just that this gives the server more time to catchup with your location, but whatever it does seem helpful to take time to orientate correctly before jumping

- pressing a direction key while using #3 also seems to increase unreliability. Others have reported it in other threads. I had a habit of almost continually pressing W while running through the map and I found #3 to work much better if I just took my finger off W to jump. I’m tempted to say this is a simple bug in the way #3 works, rather than a lag issue.

None of this, of course, will fix problems caused by serious lag

Glad I’m not the only one who noticed the skills sometimes act wonky. Not that I really care about coming in first but it would be nice if the skills functioned properly all the time so I had a fair chance.

Jong.5937:

I don’t live is Aus (Actually UK), so I can make no useful comment on the inbuilt lag you suffer from. I agree that Anet should probably invest in an Asia/pacific server.

They don’t need that they just need to to make sure they account for it in their programming.

Melana.8345:

End result is that a very good connection from Australia’s East Coast has around 250ms ping, with 280-300ms being a more “average” connection. As you start moving west across Australia, it increases more as it takes time for the packets to propagate across the physical cables in Australia too. (We have about the same landmass as the US, so think East Coast US to West Coast US type links).

Aussie player here also. And I’m on the western side of Australia. I can confirm that my latency is constantly 400ms+.

denden.1734:

Melana.8345:

End result is that a very good connection from Australia’s East Coast has around 250ms ping, with 280-300ms being a more “average” connection. As you start moving west across Australia, it increases more as it takes time for the packets to propagate across the physical cables in Australia too. (We have about the same landmass as the US, so think East Coast US to West Coast US type links).

Aussie player here also. And I’m on the western side of Australia. I can confirm that my latency is constantly 400ms+.

how do you check it? Anet suspiciously don’t allow players to check it (to my knowledge), unlike nearly every other competitive game out there.

I’ve started a few threads about these issues but haven’t received any dev response. I tried for hours to get the crystals and ended up just asking an American friend of mine who happened to play a Mesmer to portal me to everything. However, the only achievements I am literally incapable of getting on a competitive level are the Sanctum Sprint ones. While in the open world you could have someone portal you everywhere to avoid the rubber banding + ridiculous mechanic involved with aspect leap/jump, you can’t do that in the race. I actually had no issues with SAB or Dragon Ball, nor do I ever have any latency issues in the PvE world or in Tournament pvp, but in this sanctum sprint race, i just can’t do anything. I can’t use a skill because I get banded back. I can jump to any of the platforms because the server thinks I’m falling and i jump back to a checkpoint.

This is ridiculous.
I really think it’s time a Dev looks into this. I know they are aware, there is a Dev in my guild who I have spoken to about this very issue. They know it’s happening.

wolfie.7296:

denden.1734:

Melana.8345:

End result is that a very good connection from Australia’s East Coast has around 250ms ping, with 280-300ms being a more “average” connection. As you start moving west across Australia, it increases more as it takes time for the packets to propagate across the physical cables in Australia too. (We have about the same landmass as the US, so think East Coast US to West Coast US type links).

Aussie player here also. And I’m on the western side of Australia. I can confirm that my latency is constantly 400ms+.

how do you check it? Anet suspiciously don’t allow players to check it (to my knowledge), unlike nearly every other competitive game out there.

If on Windows, start > search “resource monitor” > open resource monitor > network tab > check “Gw2.exe” > see active connections with GW2, including ping.

neon.4863:

wolfie.7296:

denden.1734:

Melana.8345:

End result is that a very good connection from Australia’s East Coast has around 250ms ping, with 280-300ms being a more “average” connection. As you start moving west across Australia, it increases more as it takes time for the packets to propagate across the physical cables in Australia too. (We have about the same landmass as the US, so think East Coast US to West Coast US type links).

Aussie player here also. And I’m on the western side of Australia. I can confirm that my latency is constantly 400ms+.

how do you check it? Anet suspiciously don’t allow players to check it (to my knowledge), unlike nearly every other competitive game out there.

If on Windows, start > search “resource monitor” > open resource monitor > network tab > check “Gw2.exe” > see active connections with GW2, including ping.

I used Resource Monitor to check my latency. You can also ‘windowskey+R’ to bring up ‘Run’ then type in ‘resmon’

You finished 3 races and cry you did not finish first? It took my 20 races to finish first. You need practice to understand shortcuts, skills and avoid most of the glitchs.

I now finish first 75% of the time (though I never cross the line before 4th position).

Yes, jumpings were always a bit glitchy, but it shouldn’t prevent you from finishing first.

The amount of bugs in this “race” is pretty staggering. I hope Anet learns from this and their next release is at least tested first. Screen shot of just one of them. This one is annoying because the lighting pull will pull you there sometimes. Frustrating to say the heals because falling is the only way out. Oh, and doing so invokes the “10 second fall respawn frozen” bug.

edit uploaded wrong screen shot