Guild Wars 2

Ever since the update which took place on April 18, I’ve been experiencing several problems while trying to play Guild Wars 2. The first of these issues begins after I log in and arrive at the character selection screen. Instead of the usual images appearing (ex: character icons, achievement points, PvP/WvW rank and etcetera), the entire area is black – with the only exception being the cursor that is shown. The theme song doesn’t play either. For several minutes, I’m looking at a blank space without any sound, while waiting for the screen to finish loading. It’s only until the theme song starts playing (moments later), when all of the images begin to show.

After selecting a character, I’m taken to the following screen which displays the character’s present location. The information that is usually posted such as vistas, waypoints, points of interest and so forth fail to show up. Once again, I’m faced with the same issue regarding slow loading times. Now I managed to keep note of how long the loading process takes, which turned out to be about five minutes. And that is rather unusual, considering most of the time it only takes a minute or two. When I’m finally able to enter the area, there is nothing but a blue screen with a few images. But I must continue waiting until the environment becomes completely visible before doing anything else.

Yet, the problems don’t end there. Whenever the character moves or uses any skills, I experience a severe case of lagging. The character’s actions feel sluggish, as if they’re moving in slow motion. When it comes to using waypoints for traveling across a map, that’s another difficulty – since I must endure extended loading times before reaching my destination.

I can run different programs and play other games just fine. The drivers are up-to-date; I’ve scanned the computer and made sure of all necessary updates. To my knowledge, things are working properly with the exception of this game. Due to the issues which seem to occur with Guild Wars 2, it’s pretty much unplayable right now. At this point, I’m out of ideas on how this can be fixed. Maybe, I’m overlooking something. But the only options I have are to wait and see if these problems are solved. In the meantime, any suggestions or advice on the matter is welcomed.

You could try -repairing the client (instructions found in the Knowledge Base accessed via the ‘Support’ link above/below and ‘Search – Repair’).

Make sure to try removing any 3rd party programs used with GW2.

You could contact the Tech CS Team via the ‘Support’ link and ‘Submit a Ticket’ for assistance.

Good luck.

I opened a ticket with Anet about a similar issue, ever since the 18th with mine being constant lag spikes and disconnects. It turned out Norton Antivirus was competing with gw2 and they advised to remove it which i did. Connection is better now but not perfect. May be worth checking that too if you have Norton or something similar.

i also get very high ping spikes… on PVP and PvE game is lagging very hard… I was doing a quest and got dc on last mission boss, of course, it cancels my progress… it’s so annoying

This afternoon I decided to perform a test run and see if anything possibly changed. Well, the character selection screen is still dark. But the icons and background images seemed to load a bit faster. The loading times for other screens were at its previous pace of a minute or two, which is good news. I was able to run around the realm without any problems. The character’s actions (in addition to using their skills) were smooth and thankfully there wasn’t lagging to report. Although I must admit, the game appeared to operate much better than before.

However, it remains to be seen if these changes are permanent or just a temporary fix. Either way, I will continue looking into each of your suggestions to be on the safe side.

Alias Wraithblade.2643:

I opened a ticket with Anet about a similar issue, ever since the 18th with mine being constant lag spikes and disconnects. It turned out Norton Antivirus was competing with gw2 and they advised to remove it which i did. Connection is better now but not perfect. May be worth checking that too if you have Norton or something similar.

After reading your post, it prompted me to make some modifications to my anti-virus system. I’m also a Norton user and the first thing I did was set the firewall to “Allow,” which seemed to do the trick.

Well, my connection was stable yesterday, now today it’s back to square one. Now anet is saying there’s package loss on my end. ran winmtr to check, next to no package loss that i could see. Surely it’s something anet did in the patch on the 18th that screwed the servers over, because it’s only gw2 i have the problems on and i’ve seen hundreds of people reporting the same issue ever since then. Meh, might just play something else until it gets fixed.

Alias Wraithblade.2643:

Well, my connection was stable yesterday, now today it’s back to square one. Now anet is saying there’s package loss on my end. ran winmtr to check, next to no package loss that i could see. Surely it’s something anet did in the patch on the 18th that screwed the servers over, because it’s only gw2 i have the problems on and i’ve seen hundreds of people reporting the same issue ever since then. Meh, might just play something else until it gets fixed.

Note: I have zero problems with packet loss since the patch. (or before it.)

So… anecdotally, we can say that we are at a draw about who is at fault here.

(If you can’t read between the lines, that’s a suggestion you take the advice from anet seriously here.)

Alias Wraithblade.2643:

Well, my connection was stable yesterday, now today it’s back to square one. Now anet is saying there’s package loss on my end. ran winmtr to check, next to no package loss that i could see. Surely it’s something anet did in the patch on the 18th that screwed the servers over, because it’s only gw2 i have the problems on and i’ve seen hundreds of people reporting the same issue ever since then. Meh, might just play something else until it gets fixed.

Earlier, I tested the waters again hoping things would be the same. But no, it was back to the same routine, an abundance of lagging, invisible enemies/NPCs and parts of the map slowly loading in certain areas.

I agree with you, the problems must come from Anet’s end. Ever since the character selection screen (Heart of Thorns version) was replaced during that patch, this game hasn’t been working properly at all. If these issues exist only with Guild Wars 2 and nowhere else, then it couldn’t be on me. And based on what I’ve read from other players, their experiences are similar.

Honestly, I’m considering sitting this game out until these problems are solved.

Aeslarin.6830:

Alias Wraithblade.2643:

Well, my connection was stable yesterday, now today it’s back to square one. Now anet is saying there’s package loss on my end. ran winmtr to check, next to no package loss that i could see. Surely it’s something anet did in the patch on the 18th that screwed the servers over, because it’s only gw2 i have the problems on and i’ve seen hundreds of people reporting the same issue ever since then. Meh, might just play something else until it gets fixed.

Earlier, I tested the waters again hoping things would be the same. But no, it was back to the same routine, an abundance of lagging, invisible enemies/NPCs and parts of the map slowly loading in certain areas.

I agree with you, the problems must come from Anet’s end. Ever since the character selection screen (Heart of Thorns version) was replaced during that patch, this game hasn’t been working properly at all. If these issues exist only with Guild Wars 2 and nowhere else, then it couldn’t be on me. And based on what I’ve read from other players, their experiences are similar.

Honestly, I’m considering sitting this game out until these problems are solved.

Well, that means it comes from somewhere between you and the anet servers, or the local software, that is different to the other things you are using as a basis for comparison.

https://www.pingplotter.com/fix-your-network is a good guide to tracking down where, exactly, the problem is occurring — and will show if it is actually the anet servers, or something else. If it is, a support ticket with the proof is the best way to get anet to take action.