Latency fixes coming for Northrend, Naxx
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 8th 2009 at 6:00PM
Although I haven't experienced it so much myself recently (fingers crossed), many players have been complaining about high latency both in Northrend and in the various Northrend raids (especially the Heroic versions). I have had Grizzly Hills especially (for some reason) get so bad with the lag spikes that I just logged off for an hour, but that was back in the first few weeks of Wrath.
Apparently, the outdoor Northrend lag has been caused by Wintergrasp battles. There is a "server-side fix" (which I read as hot fix) in testing on internal realms at Blizzard, and Eyonix tells us that they hope to be able to patch up the live realms "in the near future" (which I hope is sooner than "Soon™").
As for Naxxramas, we are informed that there are optimizations in the pipe for it, and that those will be coming in 3.0.8 (which I personally predict for next Tuesday). These optimizations will, allegedly, help both latency and disconnects. Are disconnects a big problem in Naxx? I'm not sure I've seen any.
Filed under: Realm News, Bugs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Chilblain Jan 8th 2009 6:06PM
I hope it fixes things. The lag in Naxx-25 makes a lot of the boss fights unplayable.
TheKarmaPolice Jan 9th 2009 8:18AM
no kidding, lag screwed us big time on Thaddius and Horsemen last night...
Aigarius Jan 9th 2009 11:30AM
Same here. When your actual latency (as in the time it takes from pressing a button to seeing an instacast spell go off, not the number the interface gives you) becomes larger then the time between polarity shifts, Thadeus becomes kinda impossible. And that happens every time about 20-30 seconds after we engage him. Disabling all addons does not help.
Salacia Jan 9th 2009 11:50AM
Same. Guild tried to run 25man naxx and without fail during most boss fights we had at least 4-6 DCs. Had at least a couple wipes due largely in part to lag.
Shade Jan 8th 2009 6:06PM
Yeah - we started up raiding this week after taking the holidays off, and were warmly greeted by lag spikes out the wazoo. Generally happened when we'd pull a boss - soon as the fight started, huge lag spike, then 3-6 people would drop.
If we were lucky, they weren't the main tank or the healers.
Kvothe Jan 8th 2009 6:47PM
While I haven't seen HUGE lag, I know some players who just can't do the Heigan dance because their connection is bad. Here's hoping these changes will help them with that!
Arken Jan 8th 2009 6:09PM
My guild has chronic lag and disconnects since we started 25-naxx about a month ago, but it has only become worse and worse as time went. Last night we were supposed to be taking down the Four Horsemen in preparation for our first attempt at Saph and Kelly, but the lag was so terrible our mages were casting about 5 spells a minute. Eventually we gave up and put in tickets to Blizzard. Glad to hear they acknowledge the problem and plan on fixing it.
Amaxe Jan 8th 2009 6:10PM
Yeah and the world lag is bad too, especially on Storm peaks where there is already a problem with people farming the Hodir rep, so hopefully this will be fixed. I enjoy Wintergrasp (the first time PvP did not feel like a chore) and enjoy Icecrown/Storm Peak, but when it gets bad... it makes me want to stay off
Now, can we segregate Dalaran for Horde/Alliance and eliminate the lag there?
The Artist formally known as Jesus Jan 8th 2009 6:23PM
I believe that has been done, see Silver Enclave and Sunreaver Sanctuary.
Amaxe Jan 8th 2009 7:01PM
Not really, as there are common places that lag badly. I'd rather have separate places so as not to be overburdened
Jerematic Jan 8th 2009 6:22PM
The lag on Shattered Hand-US is unplayable, mostly on Tuesday nights in Naxx.
The big problem that I've seen with disconnects happens when they log back in and "aren't in the group's raid instance." Typically they have to run out and back in, have a warlock summon them back, or in the worst case scenarios they're ported out and have to fly back on their own. (In situations where we're deep in a wing with no warlock, and a gauntlet between us and the stone)
We actually had to end a raid once because enough people were stuck outside of the instance while warlocks had no shards. It was too late in the night to wait around, and too many people had to leave.
Saiforune Jan 8th 2009 6:23PM
My server Azgalor-US saw a 25 minute server disconnect from the naxx isntance. We were still in game and could move and type in general chat, but it was a huger server side lagg spike. It was only fixed when, I assume, a GM manually restarted the instance server. It was horrible and wasted precious time for arachniphobia and caused deaths for our "The Undying" achievements my guild was shooting for.
Mj Jan 8th 2009 6:24PM
We have experienced several problems in Naxx where some people lag out. We had one person who left the raid completely so we could bring someone else back in - then he found that several WoW players with his same IP vendor had the same problem.
One thing we have started doing before Naxx to help is to have the guildies switch their vid settings down to the lowest values - to help with the lag. We are also NOT going to do heroic Naxx on Tuesdays anymore after the last time we ran it.
As a healer, I just have had to know my fights and keep up constant heals ahead of the game - just in case a lag hits and I don't see the tank going down.
James Jan 8th 2009 6:28PM
US-Skullcrusher
Chicago, IL
Stoped our raid in its tracks last night. Lost a few on gautlet to Loatheb and when we went back for them they were disconnecting apon rentry to the raid. Then all who were lost were thrown into a 1200 person que, which is a common wait on skullcrusher between 6-10pm eastern during the week. So it was wait the 1 hr + for them to get thru que or call it.....we called it =(
Long story short.... the article definatly has truth to it.
Janis Jan 8th 2009 6:31PM
All I have to say is...
WOOOT! WOOT! WOOT! WOOOOOTTTTT!
*dancing in my chair
anonymoose Jan 8th 2009 6:49PM
To answer your question--yes disconnects *are* a problem in 25 man Naxx. This may vary in severity from server to server.
spinel Jan 8th 2009 6:54PM
I'll believe it when we see it. These fights were notoriously laggy to begin with back in the old 40 man days when only a small % of the populous was running them. With everyone raiding now being in the same instance for the most part the lag is expected.
I hope they do find a solution but im not holding my breath.
Squiddles Jan 8th 2009 6:50PM
I will enjoy the Heigan dance that much more when it's fixed. It's one thing getting killed by an eruption that you can see and you know you shouldn't have been standing in, but getting killed because you've just run to a place that an explosion WAS a second ago (but which now is safe and clear on your screen) is annoying.
I know that the art of being a good healer involves the ability to see 3 seconds into the future but this is just ridiculous.
It was even worse for those members of the raid group that added to the fun by DCing at random intervals.
I don't know what they can do with the Naxx lobby but I can't see it going on as it is now. The space is just not well designed for what it's used for. I hate to think of how it will be when even more people have worked their way into 25 man content and earned their dragon mounts and travelling tundra mammoths and are sitting around mounted, or duelling, or hanging out with woolley rhino pets. Lag issues aside, it's getting almost impossible to use the summon stone.
Lorini Jan 8th 2009 7:26PM
Don't think we'll see 3.08 on Tuesday. Everyone seems to forget that normally there is a pre-load for patches and there hasn't been one yet. A couple of patches back there were more than one pre-load in fact. With server lag and queues being a big issue, it would be crazy for them to issue the patch without a pre-load, so until you see it, don't worry about the patch coming the next Tuesday.
I use the WoW launcher, so I don't know what happens if you don't, btw. Normally if there is patch to be loaded, the launcher will inform you that it is downloading a patch, and then you can have it download the patch while playing or after you are done. This hasn't happened yet, so I'm 99.99% sure there will not be a live patch until it does happen.
G Jan 8th 2009 7:40PM
Kilrogg has been mostly ok outdoors, though I'll often see things just stop in the middle of a fight for a second or two. That's never pleasant. But no extended outages so far.