I'd like to pre-order Stormblood but...

...but, since the 3.5 patch and almost constantly thereafter I'd been having horrible server lag. I don't know if it's network lag or the server choking on itself but that red circle is my constant friend these last couple of weeks.

During a dungeon I'll see my party members standing still only to suddenly rush forward as a unit at about 3 times the normal movement speed.

I'll have abilities proc, push the button, see the animation go off only to have no damage numbers, no consumption of the proc buff, and suddenly the thing I pushed is acting like it's on cooldown. This is especially amusing on BLM when trying to maintain enochian and have my blizzard iv just not count.

I've been working on leveling every job to 60 before the expansion launches. I'm well on my way but this stalls me out because I'm working on WAR right now and can't, in good conscience, tank anything when I know (I KNOW) my connection to the game could fail at literally any moment. How can I possibly tank a dungeon like that?

I've talked to my ISP and they don't see anything wrong. I've talked to SE and they don't see anything wrong. I hear stories similar to mine from other people all across the country. Some of them blame level3 for being a terrible internet backbone. Some of them think their ISP is throttling their connection (I checked, mine isn't). None of them have a solution to the problem. And that leads me to my problem.

I want to play the game. I'm looking forward to Stormblood. I want to try out red mage and have that hat because that hat is life. But how can I? How can I buy an expansion for a game that doesn't work? How can I justify spending $60 on a game that I can't play without it being a miserable experience?

People may write me off as whining. Ok. Maybe a little. But my problem is real and my dilemma is real.

Are you having this problem too? I'm curious how widespread it is. Is it affecting your decision to pay for Stormblood, or to continue paying for the game in general for that matter?

Nope, no issues here. Havne't ever had issues unless someone in the housing is downloading stuff or level 3 craps out and the route doesn't adjust.

Otherwise, same as usual, ping under 100 with few lag spikes.

Your ISP won't see anything wrong because they only monitor their connection, and not the next level up from them.

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Originally Posted by Callinon

I've talked to my ISP and they don't see anything wrong. I've talked to SE and they don't see anything wrong. I hear stories similar to mine from other people all across the country. Some of them blame level3 for being a terrible internet backbone. Some of them think their ISP is throttling their connection (I checked, mine isn't). None of them have a solution to the problem. And that leads me to my problem.

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Run a path ping and tracert to the servers when it happens and it might show the problem. If the problem is going to be your ISP do you honestly expect them to hold their hands up.

Hi, if you are using wireless. it is best to try LAN connection to make your connection more stable. Do a continuous ping to your server IP and see if there is any packet loss or high latency in between. Then do a traceroute see which path that cause the issue.

The issue isn't your ISP, or Square. The issue is actually the connection between the two. SE uses level3 for it's core provider to the internet. Their servers are physically located in Montreal Canada, and the connection Level3 uses is well to put it plainly shit. So it's nothing either side can do. The real core main source of the problem. Square picking a horrible city to host all of it's NA/JP servers. Instead of like Los Angeles where one of the core internet hubs is and several dozen mega clusters and practically everyone hosts out of. Nobody uses Montreal except for it's Canadian server, like steam for example uses it but also uses LA, Chicago, Philly, Dallas other known mega centers for internet traffic.

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Originally Posted by Zer0

The issue isn't your ISP, or Square. The issue is actually the connection between the two. SE uses level3 for it's core provider to the internet. Their servers are physically located in Montreal Canada, and the connection Level3 uses is well to put it plainly shit. So it's nothing either side can do. The real core main source of the problem. Square picking a horrible city to host all of it's NA/JP servers. Instead of like Los Angeles where one of the core internet hubs is and several dozen mega clusters and practically everyone hosts out of. Nobody uses Montreal except for it's Canadian server, like steam for example uses it but also uses LA, Chicago, Philly, Dallas other known mega centers for internet traffic.

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Yeah that's what I've found as well, but it doesn't change my situation. I live in Chicago, so hardly the boonies. I don't have this problem with any other online service including other MMOs.

Hell I get better connection quality playing FFXI and I have to connect to f'ing Japan for that.

I'm not expecting a solution to magically appear in this thread. I've done all the things you do including running traceroutes and continuous pings to the server while I'm playing to identify trouble spots; none of it does any good. My ISP can't/won't create custom routes for me around problem areas and SE just throws up its hands and disclaims all responsibility for the performance of their game.

What I'd like is for SE to acknowledge that the problem exists and start taking action to do something about it. I realize that's exceedingly unlikely but it really is all I want. Just SOME indication that they're aware that this isn't working and are trying to fix it.

If you are playing on PC, this April there will be a new Windows 10 update that will make your PC run in a Game Mode, where your computer ONLY focuses on your game and nothing else; all other processes grind to a halt. It will be essentially like playing a video game console as you will get a huge performance boost.

And I have had lag, too, so it's not just you. Though I have yet to D/C.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

If you are playing on PC, this April there will be a new Windows 10 update that will make your PC run in a Game Mode, where your computer ONLY focuses on your game and nothing else; all other processes grind to a halt. It will be essentially like playing a video game console as you will get a huge performance boost.

And I have had lag, too, so it's not just you. Though I have yet to D/C.

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actually windows 10 game mode will only work with Windows Store games thus will not work with XIV

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Originally Posted by Callinon

My ISP can't/won't create custom routes for me around problem areas and SE just throws up its hands and disclaims all responsibility for the performance of their game.

What I'd like is for SE to acknowledge that the problem exists and start taking action to do something about it. I realize that's exceedingly unlikely but it really is all I want. Just SOME indication that they're aware that this isn't working and are trying to fix it.

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The issue here is that neither you nor SE is in direct contact with Level3. SE CAN'T do anything other than go to their ISP, and that will probably lead nowhere since Level3 is a huge backbone provider and has outages on almost a weekly basis it seems. They clearly do not have the want to upgrade their service.

Have you tried using tunneling software? it seems to this for me. I use PingZapper.

Only get lesser frames when im in Idyllshire during peakhours. Not lag just alot of people in 1 place

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Originally Posted by matteoxyz

Have you tried using tunneling software? it seems to this for me. I use PingZapper.

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I have not. Mostly because I don't live on the damn moon (sorry Australians), this should work without having to pay for an extra service to make this one function properly.

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Originally Posted by Rinuko

Only get lesser frames when im in Idyllshire during peakhours. Not lag just alot of people in 1 place

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I'm actually not talking about framerate loss here. While the word "lag" is used to describe that phenomenon quite frequently, it isn't actually what "lag" means.

I think tunnelling could help even if you are not particularly far from the server, if the issue is how your ISP routes traffic between you and Montreal. But yeah, the additional cost may make it not worthwhile.

Idk if it a cable internet problem, but I'm on dsl and rarely have any problems.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

Idk if it a cable internet problem, but I'm on dsl and rarely have any problems.

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In general I'm happy to blame Comcast for everything from network lag to hair loss but I don't actually think it's their fault this one singular time.

In general, if VPN tunneling fixes the problem its not on SE's end, but on your ISP for how they route traffic, and on the backbone providers for being awful.

You may remember it as v3.5 but it may be confirmation bias.
In any case, putting the obvious out of the way...
Wireless?
1. Try Wired.
2. Stuck with using wireless? Try the interference diagnostics apps and find a band with the least routers.
3. Reduce the number of IoT and other wireless devices. Routers can be overwhelmed by the number of connected devices.
4. Wireless extenders and network boosters can sometimes confuse devices in between zones.

If already wired...
1. Modems and routers need to be reset (by power cycling) once in a while.
2. Run diagnostics applications like Tracert. Look for packet losses and hops with long latency.
If losses occur before it reaches your cable company...then its your problem.
- Can be a noisy line (unshielded cables? moved your electronic devices?), degrading wires. Again, Tracert should pick these up.
- Living in apartments? Sometimes cable work by your neighbors can screw up your connection if all connections go through a common box. Redundant cable splitters can mess up your day really bad...This usually shows up as dropped packets at the closest hop in Tracert or poor signal strength if you have the appropriate tester.

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If all checks out green except the game, well...right after a major patch, expect connection issues.
- Returning players overwhelm servers.
- Buggy patch
It should improve with time.

I am an Aussie.

Tunnelling software is super cheap. I think it's worth it, even if you live in Montreal.

A number of my American friends use it as well and see a rather large benefit. The issue is less about ping and more about packet loss. A tunnel often helps reduce that.

Just for funsies I've been running a continuous ping to the server all day while I was playing today.

I averaged <1% packet loss and that still gave me one flat out d/c (while I was tanking a dungeon... because of course it did). That's not TOO bad all things considered but so far this has been the best day as far as connection quality in a couple weeks.

Just to address some of the things that have been brought up without having to set up some 17-part multiquote of annihilation:

- I'm on a wired connection
- My ISP is Comcast but I consistently get about ~30Mbps down at any given time of day. Sometimes this flags a little but a quick modem reset usually fixes it.
- I don't have Windows 10 and it wouldn't help me with this as I am 100% certain the computer itself is not at fault here.
- I'm willing to try tunneling software if that's what it takes, though I still object to having an extra cost to play this game when I don't need it for literally anything else.
- If this kind of server issue is being caused by a handful of people returning for the patch, their expansion launch is going to be a disaster. I also tend to discount this possibility as if it really were a server issue, it would affect more people.

Its not server congestion! Server congestion is when there are actual queues on the server when you are logging in, not the 6-28 people ones, but the 300+ ones like after a server crash. Even then, as long as the servers are functional, you don't generally get a loss in performance unless your PC can't handle the number of on screen characters, which is a totally different thing. (this is for everyone)

Your download speed doesn't matter as long as it is higher than 5mbps. If you run netflix while gaming, be warned, it eats as much of your bandwidth as it can, and can bring XIV to a stuttering mess.

Things that matter are your route to the servers through your isp and through the backbones, and ping/packet loss. You have have 900 mbps internet and still have issues if your route is crap.

You dont have this problem with other games because those other games arent located in the same physical datacenter.

You can try WTFast for free, if it helps, then that tells you its your ISP routing. I used it when playing XIV off crappy hotel internet for a month while job hunting. It greatly reduced any network issues I was having.

Shot in the dark, but it worked for me once before...
Reinstall your game and the expansion.
For whatever reason, mine corrupted and did that once.

I've been having a very similar issue as OP. It's pretty annoying, especially when every other game I play isn't giving me issues.