Hi all, my name’s Arthemystia (Arth for short). Euripedes apparently overshot his blogging limits and sent out a call for someone to take over the Utilities blog here at TN. And unfortunately enough for all involved, I answered the call. I got my blogging start (and continue to contribute) over at the Warcraft Hunter’s Union, writing occasional pieces about hunter pet tanking. Yes, pet tanking. But while I’ll no doubt try to gratuitously drop links to my massively obscure niche of the hunter world in the future, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here for a trial run at this TN blog, while Fimlys decides if he can abide two straight facerolling huntards in charge of it. But I love collecting information about WoW and talking about it, as well as hearing the ideas and input of others, so hopefully it’s a natural fit.
I’m going to start my stint here with an add-on that has had a profound impact on my recent gaming. Our game lags for one of two primary reasons. One is graphics: our system can’t handle the load, be it in a populated city, 25M raid, or massive AoE zerg (I’m looking at you, Phase 2 Onyxia). There’s no easy fix for this, provided your in-game graphics settings are suitably low. You’re computer just needs an upgrade, be it RAM, processing speed, graphics card, etc. The second reason for lag is latency, which is either a slow response time from your computer, the server, or both. And this we CAN fix, unless of course you’re just using lag as an excuse:
Enter latency fixing add-ons, the most popular of which is Leatrix:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info13581-LeatrixLatencyFix.html
Basically many computers are like your guild’s DK: functioning well enough to play, but still doing their job wrong. The site itself puts the process sufficiently into layman’s terms, with an amusing dialogue in which your PC is played by what I can only assume is a loyal but stupid clone of the golden retriever from the movie Up. But in a nutshell, it changes the way your PC sends and receives information so that it is more conducive to gaming. This is not a WoW-exclusive addon, affects your entire computer, and does not need to go in your WoW addon folder.
That isn’t to say it changes other aspects of your computing; I have yet to notice any difference with my regular internet connection, but have seen huge strides in WoW. What once used to be an excellent latency rate for me (100-ish, spiking to well into the thousands if I was unlucky) is now just a myth. I have yet to see my latency above 100 in the couple months I’ve had it installed, it’s routinely between 20 and 50, and the infamous "lag spike" is a thing of the past.
So if your latency is regularly colored red, do yourself a favor and try this out. The worst I’ve heard from friends and guildies who use it is that they see no change in gameplay. But for some, myself included, it’s been a godsend.
Be sure to keep tuning in, either to continue standing in awe of my writing prowess, or to cry as someone less hunter-ish takes over full-time.
(Editorial Comment: Please make sure, since this is not a WoW addon, to virus check and only download this application from a well respected source. Keep up with news about this addon in case of any breach, etc. Non-WoW Addons can and have been a source of Viral attack. This said, there has been no information [at publication date] that this addon is harmful in any way)
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The resource site spotlight is a “weekly” column about WoW resource sites/utilities written by Arthemystia who also sometimes writes for the Warcraft Hunter’s Union. Be it a website or a utility addon, you’ll never look at WoW the same.
My thanks to Fimlys for giving me a shot at this blog. I hope to continue with it and update it weekly.
As for the editorial comment on viruses, such practices are always a good idea when it comes to addons (WoW or otherwise). I’ve done comprehensive virus sweeps myself, have heard of no issues from friends and guildies, and wowinterface is clearly a pretty reputable site. But it’s good advice, simply because safety with such matters is always a big concern.
Peace,
-Arth
“Basically many computers are like your guild’s DK: functioning well enough to play, but still doing their job wrong.”
This may be the first time I’ve ever laughed at an add-on column.
Wow, f’ing sweet. I’ve seen ads for latency fixes before, but always just assumed they were scams somehow (very wary of installing random downloads on my machine).
But since this came from you Arth I tried it out and zomg! My latency cut about in half, seeing under 100ms for the first time ever. I can’t wait to see how this affects raid (and certainly pvp!) performance!
Awesome tip Arth. I’m happy with what I’m seeing, about an average increase of 100ms better off than before. Yup for the first time I’m getting into the low 300’s. Damn you Frost and your American proximity ti servers 🙂 Thanks
Wow ! Thanks for the heads up Arth.
This addon is amazing,making a big difference to my play.
Im thrilled you’ve got the job,a fantastic choice :).
Good luck with your future articles,i will definately be reading them.
Hey there, and thanks for the awesome advice! I had such bad lag in the Nexus yesterday (well I’m lvl 75) that I nearly gave up. Can’t wait to get back from work to download this 🙂
-Hulder
Awesome!
My lag is so stupendous that I never raid- having to content myself with reading about Frost and companies exploits. I’m going to download this and get ‘in the game.’
Thanks and many wishes for a great blog to you
I installed this right before raid last night. I think the server was a bit laggy yesterday, but I didn’t see my latency go above 150. I’m used to seeing numbers between 50 and 350 in raid. I didn’t really notice a difference, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled on it. As stated before the worst thing anyone’s noticed is no change, but I’ve got a good feeling about it as I didn’t see any spikes to 350.
Thanks for sharing, Arthemystia. I’d have never installed something of this nature without a glowing review from a trusted source.
I’m really interested in these types of gadgets. I’m glad you can test them before I think about putting them on my compy. Good luck!
(and yes this is pretty much word for word what I put on the hunters union, but I thought I’d give you props over here as well)
Omg, i intalled this little (very little prog) right now 05.34 pm server time. Being in a fairly crowded Dalaran my lat reduced from 170-240ms to 35-40ms.
Thx alot Arthemysta
Gotta check that out, lets hope it will reduce my +1k lantacy =)
this works great i was having 300 ms and not having fun in icc with lag
dl this after hours looking on web for wow latency issues now my ms is 47 ty very much hope to have some fun in wow without lag.
It’s awesome to see this working for so many people. I’m glad you’ve all had success with this.