Serious Performance Issues (latency/server response time)

[Synovius]

That still doesn't address the idea that WoW's gameplay is extremely crisp and responsive even when going across a continent while FFXIV's responsiveness is very, very poor. Just a few examples from my latest DF run in Fractal Continuum:

- On the jump pads in the last room, without sprint popped, I am able to run completely over the glowing arrow by 3-4 steps before I actually get launched to the next platform.
- I had a Firestarter proc that I saved until there was a full 1s left on the buff. When I went to use it, it "consumed" the Firestarter proc and the Fire III animation went off but no damage was done and I did not receive my 3 AF stacks for it.
- Twice during the second boss (the minotaur), I was able to complete a Fire IV cast while only a bit beyond halfway through it despite the cast of "Deafening Groan" going off which knocks everyone back and should have interrupted casting.

The above are things I went ahead and allowed to happen for the purposes of demonstration and ALL are things I have to personally plan ahead for when playing this game but NEVER would have to plan ahead for while playing WoW. In raids, I know that I need to use Firestarter with 2s or more left on it or I won't get credit for it. I know that, if there's any kind of reactive AoE or "collision" that needs to take place, I should run to the correct spot and stand there for a solid 1-2s to ensure the server registers that I was there. In raids, I use the poor performance to my advantage to complete casts that realistically should have been interrupted or not gone off due to a phase transition.

What's more is that I'm not the only one doing this. Our entire raid does this every raid night. Do you know how many times we wiped to AS3 simply because the server didn't pick up that our off-tank and healer were standing on top of each other for a full second yet the damage-increased debuff didn't trade from the off-tank to the healer? We went as far as having a waymark as a designated spot and I watched for pull after pull after pull where the appropriate healer and off-tank would run to the A marker and literally stand on top of each other for a full second or two only to sometimes see the buff not be transfered and thus cause an immediate wipe.

This is not a client-side issue that I or anyone individually can resolve. At worst, this is a server-side issue that Square Enix needs to address or, at best, this is an ISP issue that Square Enix needs to address directly with the ISPs.

Like you, I've been at this for over a decade. I'm 33 and have worked as a web developer since 20 years of age. I love this game but if the poor performance of the servers doesn't get addressed, the best days for this game are behind it.

FYI: I just ran a tracert just like yours and my route is even faster than yours...

Tracing route to 199.108.62.157 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  CISCO52642 [192.168.1.1]
  2    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  home.Home [192.168.200.1]
  3    17 ms    17 ms    21 ms  RO1-DSL-208-102-248-1.fuse.net [208.102.248.1]
  4    17 ms    17 ms    17 ms  172.17.74.18
  5    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  EV-ZT-1.EVE2.core.fuse.net [216.68.14.58]
  6    17 ms    17 ms    17 ms  EVE2.EVE1.core.fuse.net [216.68.14.44]
  7    18 ms    17 ms    17 ms  te0-0-2-2.nr11.b016343-1.cvg02.atlas.cogentco.co
m [38.122.234.101]
  8    18 ms    18 ms    18 ms  te0-0-1-1.rcr11.cvg02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.24
.0.125]
  9    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms  te0-2-0-0.rcr21.ind01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54
.84.166]
 10    23 ms    24 ms    23 ms  te4-3.ccr01.sbn01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.27.
82]
 11    28 ms    27 ms    27 ms  te0-10-1-0.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.5
4.80.149]
 12    27 ms    27 ms    27 ms  be2216.ccr41.ord03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.24
.202]
 13    27 ms    31 ms    27 ms  att.ord03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.12.86]
 14    30 ms    27 ms    27 ms  cr1.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.133.34]
 15    33 ms    32 ms    32 ms  12.123.251.17
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20  ^C