Guild Wars 2

UPDATE – another hint for developers: I have the bug only when the graphics preset “Best Appearance” is used. Changing this to “Autodetect” causes the problem to disappear entirely, so it probably has something to do with the settings for Environment, Textures, Shaders, or Hi-Res Character Textures. Will experiment with these to see if I can narrow it down.

At least half of my guild experiences the bug in every WvW raid, so I will ask them all to submit bug reports.

This observation may help: when the loading screen bug occurs, wait the 2-3 minutes until respawn occurs, then turn graphics settings down to “Best performance” and leave it there. Loading times will now be normal, but weapons and NPCs are still invisible. One of the symptoms I have not yet seen mentioned is that after NPCs have been invisible for a while, their actual position (as revealed by damage numbers) differs by several metres from the position where their tag appears – a very odd effect which makes targeting especially difficult.

For what it’s worth from an IT professional: I live in Germany about 150km from the ANet datacentre in Frankfurt and frequently have massive lag/disconnect issues over my normal internet connection (Deutsche Telekom). When I switch to a VPN (exit nodes in Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, or even Frankfurt) the problem completely disappears because of the changed routing. These issues are NEVER due to ANet, but are ALWAYS the result of bottlenecks between internet providers. This being said, the intrinsic design of GW2 may very well be particularly sensitive to such issues, so that is something that ANet could possibly address, though it might require a complete redesign of the GW2 engine (unlikely to happen!). In the meantime, find a reliable VPN provider and use it when rubberbanding and disconnects raise their ugly faces. None of this helps with skill lag due to insufficient server resources (often experienced in Stonemist battles, for example), which is something only ANet can fix…

Since the latest update my GW2 client (64-bit; SSD) often gets stuck on borderland loading screens in WvW, usually for about 3-4 minutes until the game finally loads. Mostly this occurs after the game has been running for at least 30 minutes or more. Restarting the client solves the problem, but with the new world-linking this generally means waiting in a queue for even longer. It never happened before the update and nothing else has been changed on my computer. Any ideas?

What is the appropriate way to report AFKers in Ranked PvP, who simply give up and stand around in the spawn? The only thing which seems even close is “LFG system abuse”, but that doesn’t quite say it.

Logitech G13 gamepad works perfectly in WvW. Good in combination with Logitech G600 mouse. No need to use the keyboard for anything except chat.

I agree that some difficulty should be involved, but not a ridiculously long wait. And unless you are doing the mission in the middle of the night, when there is a chance nobody will take the camp during the hour you are elsewhere on the map, guarding it against attack is the only alternative. Besides, this is the “easy” mission. They simply need to come up with a decent alternative.

Since it now takes 20 successful dolyak deliveries for a camp to upgrade, this mission is no longer viable. The time limit has been extended to 60 minutes, but who in the world will stand around a camp that long?

Just lost a ranked match due to 2 players AFKing and insulting each other the entire time. ANet, is it possible to detect AFKing technically (not moving, remaining at spawn, etc.) and at the very least not reduce the ranking of other team players victimised by such childish behaviour?

Tspatula.9086:

I like pretty much all of the proposed changes, however I don’t think anyone can really know how the no res in combat and only one rally off of a kill will play out. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do an event week with the rally and res changes BEFORE anything else right away. That would be very helpful to evaluate things and allow for a little tweaking of the mechanic as needed. Hell, do a week with all the changes and then collect feedback, that would awesome.

Agree completely with this – “try before you buy” is always better than the “pig in a poke”. One thing to consider though: rezzing of fully dead players in the midst of combat has always been the exception rather than the rule, undertaken at the risk of life and limb when the situation warrants (e.g. commander dead). Eliminating this strategic possibility might not be a good idea. Reducing the number of rallies is another matter and will probably prove a good change. But please do try it first!

At the Mystic Forge in the Rampart keep, the forge-keeper merchant sells only siege blueprints, as does the nearby outfitter. The only “normal” merchant is at spawn, and there is no place to buy siege manuals or other MF supplies.

Since the release of HoT, I have been experiencing extreme stuttering and low FPS in story mode and PvP. Everything starts fine, but the problem usually begins several minutes into the round or the story. This happens with both 64- and 32-bit clients and seems not related to graphics settings (which are currently set to medium). Normal PvE and WvW appear unaffected. I have tried several older graphics drivers and every possible variant of graphics settings, but nothing seems to help. When this problem occurs, the game is unplayable. Any ideas what might be causing it?

P.S. More experiments revealed the following: after restarting GW2 client, the problem remains. Disappears after restarting the computer, but returns again during gameplay exactly as before. Selecting lowest graphics settings DOES help, but only after the computer has been restarted.

i7 with 12 GB RAM
nVidia 660ti
Windows 10 64-bit

4 disconnects in one match. Time: 19:30 to 19:40 CEST.
To be more specific: game crashes out to report crash box.

Thanks for your great explanation. Many times we as players forget that the amazing world of Guild Wars is actually a very complex software system. It’s easy to complain when something doesn’t work perfectly, but as an IT professional myself I am constantly in awe of ANet’s programmers. Keep up the excellent work!

Same thing was happening to me: random shutdowns whilst playing GW2 – apparently not connected to load. Replaced the 850w power supply (5 yrs old) with a new one, problem disappeared completely.

Your location: Germany (Deutsche Telekom)
Time and date of incident: 23 February, 21:40 CET
Game World: Aurora Glade
Description: Again massive skill lag (30-60 seconds), but without disconnect. Using VPN to circumvent Telekom routing again worked perfectly and solved the problem.

Your location: Germany (Deutsche Telekom)
Time and date of incident: 18-20 February, 20:00-23:00 CET
Game World: Aurora Glade
Description: Rubberbanding and extreme skill lag (sometimes more than 60 seconds), often followed by disconnect. USING A VPN to circumvent Telekom routing COMPLETELY SOLVED THIS PROBLEM!

It shouldn’t be hard for Anet so show Level bar in WwW and Mastery bar in PvE, just as they now show Progression bar in PvP.

I’ve been playing WvW on Aurora Glade since 2012 and have seen many ups and downs, with some guilds leaving the server (occasionally returning a few months later with tails between their legs) and new ones joining. Despite these fluctuations, the WvW community on AG remains strong and varied. We have hard-core guilds with daily raids and good fights, as well as very strong puggies. Of course, all of us hope for improvements from Anet, but nobody is waiting for them – on AG we have fun in WvW because of a great community. Yes, “winning” WvW matchups is about coverage, but there is also a deep satisfaction when our guild (III Legio) wipes much larger groups from blobby servers, something which happens nearly every evening. And yes, sometimes the enemies do run when they see us coming, but then we have a good laugh. On AG, WvW is far from dead.

237 – Andronica Farwyn.7684

The prevalence of lag among customers of Deutsche Telekom (including myself) suggests that the problem is a routing/bandwidth issue with the provider, at least in part.

I confirmed this experimentally last Thursday, when I was experiencing horrible lag in dungeons, but the guildies in my party had no lag at all – playing the same dungeon at the same time. Since most of them live in Scandinavia, I fired up my VPN (otherwise used to circumvent geoblocking, etc.) and pointed it to the Stockholm node. Voilà – no more lag. Routing all the GW2 traffic through a region where others were experiencing good performance solved the problem completely.

Any good VPN provider will have nodes in various countries (mine has about 20 for $3.75/month), so this could be a solution for people with chronic lag issues. As most providers have free trial periods, it might be worth investigating.