VoxShatterfall.5470

Removing public instance would force people to group up. It would also stop people from going afk until final boss due to the inability to skip and the lack of rewards for completing the DRM fast.

ok. but there still is the weekly time gate too if you aren't up to date right? so anyone after November 10th will be just limited to weekly time gate?

maybe you have to do the meta.... I'm stuck at 6/8 right now, and I stopped doing the meta around 1 month ago.

It appears that the 2020.8.3 drivers fixed the issue with TW2 and GW2.

I'm holding out hope that big navi is going to have good price to perf ratio, and I will pickup a 6800xt or whatever the cheaper version will be called.

> @"Zok.4956" said:

> > @"VoxShatterfall.5470" said:

> > On another note, its not just one map, its all of them. Its really the server loading and secondary server buffering that is causing the issue. We simply do not know for sure what causes an account to get into the secondary server buffer, where most of the server lag occurs, but there are a few things we know:

> > 1) It happens in any map mode including Strikes, Raids, Fractals, WvW, PvP, and PvE open world.

> > 2) It is somewhat dependent and established on your connection to the map. One map you may be completely fine, and the next map you go to you get massive server lag.

>

> could you please explain, what you mean with "secondary server buffering"? Thanks.

>

Sorry for not being clear, secondary server buffering is what happens when the primary game server doesn't have the resources to send out data to clients, so another server is assigned to send the data out.

> @"shugawuga.3215" said:

> I send a lot of trace route and they tell me its the provider... with a lot of screenshot with a lot of people writting chat with lag.

Note that chat lag is not the same as game server lag. the log-in server issues have been happening more recently but otherwise do not impact skill use and other in game events. Also note that the log-in server lag doesn't cause your chat to lag on the way to the server, just on the way back to you. So EVERYONE else can see what you are saying, your text displaying back on your screen and those people's reply are delayed to you.

On another note, its not just one map, its all of them. Its really the server loading and secondary server buffering that is causing the issue. We simply do not know for sure what causes an account to get into the secondary server buffer, where most of the server lag occurs, but there are a few things we know:

1) It happens in any map mode including Strikes, Raids, Fractals, WvW, PvP, and PvE open world.

2) It is somewhat dependent and established on your connection to the map. One map you may be completely fine, and the next map you go to you get massive server lag.

3) When you start lagging, skills start blinking, and other players appear to do the last thing they were supposed to do, then stand still or move in the same direction you last saw them, and when the server lag resolves, everything speeds up at light speed, all your damage packets come in, and everyone repositions.

4) To outside observers, aka those who are not server lagging, they see all of your skills actually go off, and they can see you move.

Hey is anyone else getting massive server lag on PvP, with infinite loading screens, 2k+ ping on map load, and otherwise unable to deprioritize?

Another drawback of the reduced PvP player base, bad queues at late nights. I can only queue after 10pm server time, and the last 2 matches I got placed against the same Plat 2 team twice. Also mind you I'm Gold 1 right now. How the MMR system pairs a full rating bracket difference, and then expects people to think its a balanced match, isn't fun at all. But, whatever. I'm sure if Anet changes the MMR system to prevent a full rating bracket difference, we'd have queues in the 10 minutes long. That's the issue though, we don't want long queues, but we want a fairly balanced chance to win.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> I'm sorry to hear you have those issues. Could be due to more traffic on the internet since so many now stay at/work from home.

> I hope you experience some relief.

> Perhaps, the new player-limit in WvW will help you.

The issue isn't the player limit, its the load balancing, and potentially a load balancing server that is mis-configured.

Also, it seems that the reconnect option I talked about is causing me to get hard disconnected from the name server. Guess when I have server lag in pvp i just have to take the spurts of 10 second long lost return packets.

> @"ReActif.9251" said:

> Your reactions without log or traceroute to know the factual elements and server in question or if it is really related to the server or to the transport or your ISP comes back to contact a hotel chain and howl while crying that the bed is null, without saying of which hotel it is nor the room number. Or cry that the gas station has pumps that do not work without saying which one it is and found that the tanker is making fun of you for not reacting, seriously ... you do not understand or is the concern in your complaints?

>

> So instead of spending hours complaining, read the posts on how to report a problem and make the kitten traceroute and provide it and maybe you will even discover that the lag comes from a bridle of your ISP during this period of Covid and that the game has nothing to do with it and we will see if you can complain to it or come and say that finally you were wrong, I doubt it, most will continue to complain because complain it's easy, but complain, those who know how to report a problem play them, and somewhere it will sort.

>

> Against anyone who provides factual material that is useful, we can discuss the reasons and attempted mediation with either ArenaNet or the ISP.

>

> And Google and the specific posts are there to say how to do all this, if after searching and reading you boredom bnen undergo the lag and savor ... Who seeks a solution finds it! Who just wants to complain well he complains.

I did provide how to fix this situation:

3) Use a VPN specifically designed for gaming. In certain cases this VPN can put you lower in the bucket so to speak, but its not 100% certain why this is the case. This has reportedly worked very well for some OCX players.

4) Do the in game ping test / character select screen or restart client trick. This trick has been around for several years. On map load, have your game options open, and observe the ping for the game server to you in the lower right hand part of the window. If it's not your normal ping (if your normal ping is 100 and it is 300+) on map load then you are likely de-prioritized and will have server lag. Then use your options menu and go to character select screen, and then log back in on the same character. You may need to do this up to 3 times before confirming that you have to fully restart the client. If you restart the client twice, then the map appears to not have remaining space left for you not to be de-prioritized.

Most of the lag people are talking about has to deal with how Anet does server load balancing. For some reason the game servers are being told to de-prioritize certain clients upon either entry of a map or when an overload condition exists, but by doing so the server that would normally handle the packets and deliver to the client doesnt and lets them just pile up.

This lag exhibits not on a physical basis, but based on a server farm you connect to, and isn't consistent across multiple clients on the same network.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/108621/lag-lag-lag-anet-please-stop-ignoring-the-community-on-this#latest

See that thread, hopefully the link works. I posted my current and up to date findings to help folks troubleshoot and work around the server lag issue, the server lag issue impacts more than LWS4 maps.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/108621/lag-lag-lag-anet-please-stop-ignoring-the-community-on-this#latest

See that thread, hopefully the link works. I posted my current and up to date findings to help folks troubleshoot and work around the server lag issue, the server lag issue also eventually causes a disconnect in WvW.

Ok, so, I did a lot more research after my last post about the lag issue, here is what I found.

**First Definitions:**

_Game serve _ - the server you actually connect to in order to play the game, different maps can have different game servers, but certain game servers are shared between instanced content due to low player count per instance. When you “lose” connection to the game server you are not able to send or receive data (packets) to the game server to move your character and use skills and the like.

_Log-in server_ - also commonly called the friends list server, this server handles the transactions between game servers, including the friends list, squad and team invites, chat functionality. You can lose connection to the log-in server without losing connection to the game server or the name server. (note that for GW1 Log-in server also doubled as the name server, and when you disconnected from it you would lose connection to the game, in GW2 the Log-in server is separate)

_Name server _- the server that acts as the authenticator allowing you in the game and coordinates how the game server delivers information in packets back to the clients. Losing connection to the Name server causes your client to disconnect from the game.

**What is hapening:**

1) The Name server that Arenanet uses also conducts load balancing, not based purely on location or distance from the server, but instead based upon load for each map you join determined when you join it. The load balancing list is akin to different buckets for each and every game server, and as of late is rusting and pitting at the rim. In normal conditions, any overflow will cause the game server’s balancing list to “de-prioritize” packets from the game server to be “queued”. In today’s condition, it appears that the load balancing list buckets are much too small to handle each game server’s load, allowing overflows to occur regularly, and the jagged edges occasionally causing some players to seep into the same “queued” state without an overflow actually occurring.

2) I heard from a personal contact who is knowledgeable in cloud and network technology, who stumbled on a reddit post that claims another (3rd) person is able to “trace” a multi-layer packet path through to the game server in Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) the cloud provider that Arenanet switched to several years ago. This 3rd person found that between the Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking for the game server to the Name server that the game server’s packets were being “dropped” and thereby “queued”.

This represents a perfect storm, one where incoming data overwhelms the game servers on intake, forcing the game servers then to ask the name server to load balance and ask which connections to de-prioritize, and for data packets to be queued for those connections. Essentially, all of the incoming data consumes the bandwidth / compute cycles that the game servers have, and do not allow the game servers to send out data packets to certain de-prioritized clients.

You can see this on the impacted client via the blinking skills, other character models walking in the direction they were last walking in, and mobs doing nothing. When the game server finally catches up, you have a fast forward action going on, at 10x speed of what has happened, and what should show on your screen. If you talk to your teammates when it happens they will say you moved around and used skills, but didn’t dodge red/orange. So long as your skills were off-CD when you got de-prioritized you can use your skills including weapon skills, utility skills, elite, heal, and f-skills. You can sometimes swap weapons / legends as well, and then use those skills on the “offhand”. This is all despite having nothing happen on your impacted account's screen to indicate that you have moved or that you used a skill, the packets telling your what is happening in the game, and by extension what you are doing, is queuing up, but your action packets are being accepted by the game server. Unfortunately, unless Arenanet better coordinates with AWS to configure the game server limit and the name server list limit, less players play on a particular node / server to prevent the overflow condition, there isn't much that can be done about this issue on a permanent basis.

Arenanet could adjust downward the data collection, so as to allow more bandwidth to send out data packets to clients, but still doesn't change the fact that the game servers are overwhelmed. Also, doing so may allow some parties to take advantage of not having so much data sent back to the mother-ship, so to speak, to devise ways to circumvent safeguards. The game may also stop working without the collected data, or work terribly.

**Things you can do:**

1) Avoid playing on certain maps that are very active to avoid de-prioritization (this is not a viable solution, which is why we are complaining to ANET).

2) Avoid playing certain game modes or sub-game modes that have a lot of concurrent players during prime time such as WvW, PvP, Raids, Fractals, Strikes (again, not a viable solution, which is why we are complaining to ANET).

3) Use a VPN specifically designed for gaming. In certain cases this VPN can put you lower in the bucket so to speak, but its not 100% certain why this is the case. This has reportedly worked very well for some OCX players.

4) Do the in game ping test / character select screen or restart client trick. This trick has been around for several years. On map load, have your game options open, and observe the ping for the game server to you in the lower right hand part of the window. If it's not your normal ping (if your normal ping is 100 and it is 300+) on map load then you are likely de-prioritized and will have server lag. Then use your options menu and go to character select screen, and then log back in on the same character. You may need to do this up to 3 times before confirming that you have to fully restart the client. If you restart the client twice, then the map appears to not have remaining space left for you not to be de-prioritized.

Sorry I forgot about VPNs, since they can in effect allow you to avoid de-prioritization.

And the servers are somewhere in Texas / South west.

Sure, lets revise things you can do:

0) Utilize a VPN to potentially avoid de-prioritization

1) Avoid ~~game modes with~~ massive amounts of people doing things together **at the same time**, including world bosses or WvW.

1a) The exception is if you load in early, there is a chance that you will not get de-prioritized if you are part of the zerg or group BEFORE any action happens, this is not guaranteed to help, but has helped me WvW raid at times.

2) Avoid playing c~~ertain game modes or sub-game modes that have alot of concurrent players~~ during prime time **with alot of concurrent players in the same game mode**~~, such as PvP, Raids, Fractals, Strikes~~.

3) When you realize you are being de-prioritized in a particular game mode or sub-game mode, log off and come back when its not prime time.

4) ~~Try to live closer to the servers, which amid the current situation moving is not an essential activity. But by being closer to the server, you just might not be de-prioritized if there is some type of first come first served communication verification on priority.~~ Someone didn't like this suggestion. I wasn't being serious, but thats ok.

Full disclosure, I can no longer roam in WvW, I cannot play strikes on reset until 4 hours after reset, and I can't do world boss trains without the said priority.

While I could invest in a VPN, I choose not to, as I am not comfortable having my traffic being routed in a certain way (though I know that our normal traffic is routed in a certain way anyways).

So Yeah. going to strike out things that people don't agree with.

Thanks.

Ok, so there is a few things going on, based upon my observations and speculation, take it with a grain of salt:

1) Arenanet has a name server that handles load balancing, not based on location or distance from the server, but based on either when you login, or undetermined intervals.

(note that for GW1 friends list server also doubled as the name server, and when you disconnected from it you would lose connection to the game, in GW2 the friends list server is seperate)

2) Amazon Web Services are overloaded due to the consumption of digital data. Arenanet hosts many of their servers on AWS.

3) A lot of players are returning to a buy to play game out of boredom, putting additional load on Arenanet's name server and game servers/

4) Guild Wars 2 collects A LOT of data about how you are playing and sends all of that information back between a data and game servers.

This represents a perfect storm, one where incoming data overwhelms the game servers on intake, forcing the game servers then to ask the name server to load balance and ask which connections to de-prioritize, and for data packets to be queued for those connections. Essentially, all of the incoming data consumes the bandwidth / compute cycles that the game servers have, and do not allow the game servers to send out data packets to certain de-prioritized clients.

You can see this on the impacted client via the blinking skills, other character models walking in the direction they were last walking in, and mobs doing nothing. When the game server finally catches up, you have a fast forward action going on, at 10x speed of what has happened, and what should show on your screen. If you talk to your team mates, like say in a strike when it happens, they will comment that you only auto-attacked or simply moved around. If you were to have two accounts logged in on two separate computers, and one of the accounts experiences the de-prioritization with data packets being held up at the game server end, you could actually still move around using your computer that is impacted, and auto-attack with skill 1 so long as you queued it before the de-prioritization had occurred, but you cannot do anything else, despite having nothing happen on your impacted account's screen to indicate that you have moved or that you used an auto-attack. On your computer that is not impacted, you would see your impacted account move around and auto-attack with any queued skills.

Unfortunately, unless Arenanet gets more servers (which isn't a permanent fix), less players play, or AWS gets more servers, there isn't much that can be done about this issue.

Arenanet could adjust downward the data collection, so as to allow more bandwidth to send out data packets to clients, but still doesn't change the fact that the servers are overwhelmed. Also, doing so may allow some parties to take advantage of not having so much data sent back to the mothership, so to speak, to devise ways to circumvent safeguards. The game may also stop working without the collected data, or work terribly.

Things you can do:

1) Avoid game modes with massive amounts of people doing things together, including world bosses or WvW.

1a) The exception is if you load in early, there is a chance that you will not get de-prioritized if you are part of the zerg or group BEFORE any action happens, this is not guaranteed to help, but has helped me WvW raid at times.

2) Avoid playing certain game modes or sub-game modes that have alot of concurrent players during prime time, such as PvP, Raids, Fractals, Strikes.

3) When you realize you are being de-prioritized in a particular game mode or sub-game mode, log off and come back when its not prime time.

4) Try to live closer to the servers, which amid the current situation moving is not an essential activity. But by being closer to the server, you just might not be de-prioritized if there is some type of first come first served communication verification on priority.

nevermind, after you get out of combat you can exit by entering wvw and then using the portal from there.

is it intended that you get stuck in lair of snowmen if part of your group rage quits?

how do you get out?

Hey everyone, must have seen the post on ArenaNet's news page by now.

Game day is November 2nd with Anet hosting streaming from the 1st through the 2nd.

Please consider donating to any of the team members, or if you have a vast network of friends sign up.

Here is the news post:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/team-arenanet-for-extra-life-2019/

Here is the team page:

https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=44858

While I could send emails, lets not bug Anet staff more than we already do.

One thing I was wondering is how people can join subteams.

Anyways, this is the most I post each year, baring my bug reports.

Thanks everyone.

> @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> Okay, well despite saying I wasn't going to, I bought some keys to give it a shot. Needless to say, 40+ keys and I got a bunch of junk soaring weapon skins, used statuettes to get a golden key and got the mount. So, great, I got the mount. But still no outfit.

>

Whelp I saw the drop table and thought to myself same category means relatively same level of drop rate. 97 keys later no outfit.

At least i used keys I stocked up on.

Seems that the drop rate is really low compared to that of the uncommon, heck I even got 3-4 rare drops.

Edit:

And after I traded in extra statues for gold keys I finally got the outfit.

as the name suggests, zadd appears to hammer the ground, and no enemies are seen.

Also, Zadd appears to be aggroed to all enemies while alive. letting zadd die does not change this behavior.

As the title says, I can't demote bloodstone bricks doesnt work in Armistice Bastion, is this a bug?

in any PVE map it seems fine.

as the title says, when you accept a map closing to join a new map while you are going for the dwarven treasure rooms with the plates, the plates will reset and not give you the green plate.

I suspect that the plates are server generated, so if you are doing the dwarven treasure rooms DO NOT accept a map closing offer.

when you fight karl, and you get too close to him after using the resonance crystal you can get stuck in the rocks and rubble when he slams down.

So if anyone is having trouble using the mount utility skills, double check that you didn't assign the hotkeys to mount skill 1 or 2.

Ok, so, quickly posting details of this bug, so that if anyone else experiences this they understand why they cant use their mount utility skills with hotkeys with certain settings.

Anet allows you to set mount skill 1 and mount skill 2 with any hotkey binds, which means you can use any hotkey including the hotkeys you would have otherwise used to bind to your utility or weapon skills.

This said, the "hotkey is already bound" warning will not occur when a new mount utility skill is added, which coincides with your utility skill hotkey bind and a mount skill bind.

In my case, I have utility slot 2 bound as "C". I bound mount skill 1 also to "C" because the game at the time let me and didnt give me a warning.

When I learned mount utility slot 2 "bonds of faith" it defaulted to use hotkey "C". Since I previously bound "C" to mount skill 1, use of C was limited to mount skill 1 and did not execute mount utility slot 2.