Home/World latency in Patch 4.0.6

Originally Posted by BrianI (Source)
We have been seeing a lot of confusion regarding some of our recent changes to the User Interface, specifically in regard to the new in-game latency meters. With 4.0.6, we have split the two separate connections the client forms to our game servers into two different ratings, labeled 'Home' and 'World'.

The speculation regarding what these ratings mean has been very interesting and some of the guesses as to what the numbers actually refer to have been pretty imaginative. Some have speculated that 'Home' referred to your personal latency and 'World' was Blizzard's latency. This is incorrect.

In essence, 'Home' refers to your connection to your realm server. This connection sends chat data, auction house stuff, guild chat and info, some addon data, and various other data. It is a pretty slim connection in terms of bandwidth requirements.

'World' is a reference to the connection to our servers that transmits all the other data... combat, data from the people around you (specs, gear, enchants, etc.), NPCs, mobs, casting, professions, etc. Going into a highly populated zone (like a capital city) will drastically increase the amount of data being sent over this connection and will raise the reported latency.

Prior to 4.0.6, the in-game latency monitor only showed 'World' latency, which caused a lot of confusion for people who had no lag while chatting, but couldn't cast or interact with NPCs and ended up getting kicked offline. We hoped that including the latency meters for both connections would assist in clarifying this for everyone.

As is probably obvious based upon this information, the two connections are not used equally. There is a much larger amount of data being sent over the World connection, which is a good reason you may see disparities between the two times. If there is a large chunk of data 'queued' up on the server and waiting to be sent to your client, that 'ping' to the server is going to have to wait its turn in line, and the actual number returned will be much higher than the 'Home' connection.

"Well, great," you may say, "but what does that mean to me?!"

Not much, maybe, but I wanted to focus on how local (or network) factors can (and will!) affect these numbers.

Here are the most common causes of high pings/latency (on both Home and World):

1. Wireless
2. Packet loss
3. Almost-but-not-quite-broadband*
4. Addons (yes, those wonderful UI modifications)
5. Firewalls (some firewalls do interesting things to latency... try playing without it to see if it helps!)
6. Mis-configured or defective home routers (please temporarily bypass before anything else)
7. Quality of Service and Traffic Management Systems performing packet queuing of some sort.
8. Net link saturation (not necessarily your ISP, but somewhere between you and Blizzard)

*As of July 2010, the 'official' definition of Broadband Internet (per the FCC) is '4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream'. Anything lower than this is not 'officially' broadband.

Lowering video settings (especially view distance) has the added benefit of lowering the amount of data your connection is asked to convey, as well, so even that can be a valid troubleshooting step.

If your 'Home' connection latency is low and your 'World' connection latency is high, that frequently indicates that there is some sort of QoS congestion controls being applied to your internet connection, at either the micro (LAN) or macro (WAN) level. A common symptom would be that you would be able to chat, but not to cast.

If both connections report high latency, that means your connection to our servers, in general, is almost completely saturated, or 'overflowing'. Without making any claims where that saturation lies, that seems to have been the most common case to date.

Please refer to our support pages (such as Is your in-game latency meter showing up red? (PC)) or contact a technical support representative directly for further information and troubleshooting.

---

The same Blue poster also covered some Patch 4.0.6 Latency Changes

Cataclysm Transmutation

Typically, when you use Transmute: Living Elements, you will receive 14-16 random Volatile elements (Volatile Air, Volatile Earth, Volatile Water, or Volatile Fire) in exchange for 15 Volatile Life. If you use this transmute while in one of the new Cataclysm zones associated with the Elemental Planes, however, the element into which your Volatile Life will transform will be predetermined. For example, if you use Transmute: Living Elements while in Uldum, you will always receive Volatile Air for your efforts.

• Mount Hyjal: Volatile Fire
• Vashj'ir: Volatile Water
• Deepholm: Volatile Earth
• Uldum: Volatile Air

Additionally, alchemists with Transmutation specialization will always receive bonus Volatile elements when completing this transmute. The bonus will be random, though, regardless of which zone you are in.

Source

It is Upon Us

Cata goes live in a few moments and everyone is ready to be a dick. Currently the Flight Trainer in SW is completely mobbed. MMO-Champion had the following advice: "Also, an useful reminder. Binding your "interact with target" key and using it after doing /target "NPC Name" is your only chance to quest." I didn't understand it at first. Now I do.

Decided to Tabard up to Northrend and hide. Figure should get a few dailies to turn in initially.

Shinies

New Loading Screen!

How To Find Cataclysm Instance Entrances

Been meaning to make my own copy of this Wowhead blog entry for a while. Just in case something bad happens…

Blackrock Caverns


Grim Batol


Halls of Origination


The Stonecore


Lost City of the Tol'vir


The Vortex Pinnacle


Throne of the Tides

This Was Completely Unexpected

NO WAY! The patch is taking longer than initially expected? WHAT? *smirk*

Shattered

OH NOES! Sindragosa is gone! There's a big flaming birdie sitting on a castle. We prolly should kill it…

Fill In Appropriate Boxes

Found this anger on the WoW Mage Forums:

You win blizzard I give up on mage... 11/16/2010 11:07:14 PM PST
Moncheche

Okay....so this patch we are nerfed again....yet in a BG a pallies shield is crit hitting me for 6k when he is lvl 75. A rogue is dominating BG from lvl 10 on.....and now I blink is so bugged I cannot blink out of any of the 1000 stuns you give other classes....so I quit....3 lvls from 80 and I am so sick of this. Whenever mages get a boost up to the damage that we should be doing you listen to ever other class and nerf us. Don't worry about 29 rogues ambushing in BGs for 3k...no that is not a problem, the problem is a mage at 77 has a spell that at 2.5 sec cast time might crit for 5k. Don't worry about pallies one shotting people with the shield at 29....nope....mages can possibly get the time to get 4 AB stored up. You wanna make things fair?? Okay how about this....

1. Any stun....don't care if it is a pally hammer or sap or cheap shot or kidney shot or charge or (seeing the point here?) gets immediately dropped when you damage the stunned victim.
2. Drop the saving grace from vanish and make it a 50's spell....heck you made Blizzard that high!
3. FIX BLINK!! It has been bugged since day 1....
4. If you are going to reduce our damage then reduce our casting time
5. Let spellsteal steal any buff...not limited to (OMG you cannot steal a pally bubble)....

I could go on....but why? Seriously....you ain't going to fix it...so I just going to lvl a pally, lock or rogue since those classes are apparantly all you care about

Naturally he gets a few "WTF are you talking about?!" to which he replies:

I wish...I really wish it was something that I am not seeing or doing....

It might even be the fact that I am not lvl 80.....but when you get so fed up with not being able to do anything until lvl 80...it gets depressing.

Life in this game starts at lvl 1, not 80. Pre-80 you aren't going to BG....period. Oh sure you can, but don't expect to do anything. Either your dead before you can get the spell off...or whatever you are casting at is dead before the spell goes off. This even applies to dungeons as well. Sure on Bosses we get some decent DPS, but trash mobs you aren't going to touch with anything but instant cast.

There isn't a class that I can duel pre-80 that won't stomp a mudhole in me, unless that person is either afk or braindead.

Warriors.....we cannot get away from, might gain a few secs if your frost spec'd....but thats it.

Rogues....forget it....ambush, vanish, ambush....your dead

Pally...don't try, your either fighting a stun/shield, or a holy one that just uses his seals to heal himself up without being able to counterspell it.

Priest...dot you up, fear, heal, repeat

Druid...Cat form....then see rogues entry

Locks.....you aren't getting a non-instant spell off....forget it

DK....about the same as warriors, just a lil faster to grave

Shaman....well our aoes hit everything.....oh wait....totems don't take aoes since they aren't...wait....why again wouldn't a totem get hit with an aoe....oh right....totems are apparently in a magical world where aoe hit everything but them.

hunters.....ya i got poly off on pet....but now I'm dead.....oh I got the hunter poly'd.....but now I'm dead from the pet....


So again....without bringing UI's or any outside programs into the game....how does a mage survive??

The following response could definitely come in handy!

Aeriya

Dear:
[ x ] Moron
[ x ] Loser
[ ] Ganker
[ ] 12 Year Old
[ ] Twink
[ ] Troll
[ ] Level 2 Alt
[ ] l337 d00d
[ x ] Whiner
[ x] Fruit of the Stupid Tree
[ ] Other

You are being flamed because:
[ ] YOU DIDN'T READ THE STICKIES.
[ ] You forgot to search.
[ ] You posted a "Class is Overpowered" thread.
[ x ] You need to learn to play your class.
[ x ] You need to learn to play the game.
[ x ] You have no concept of class balance.
[ x ] You're just an idiot.
[ x ] You posted a Omg-i-got-killed thread.
[ x ] Your model brain is defective, leave until you have one that works.
[ ] You have an unhealthy fixation on horses.
[ ] You lost a fight to my class and came here to cry about it.
[ ] Someone told you my class was easy to beat, you found out otherwise, and now you're complaining.
[ x ] You posted a total lack of understanding about my class.
[ x] You posted a total lack of understanding about your class.
[ ] You don't know which forum to post in.
[ x] You made a ridiculous claim.
[ x ] I don't like your tone of voice.
[ ] You fell from "the tree."
[ ] You posted false information.
[ x ] You just plain suck.
[x ] Your balls are only of random weight.
[ ] YOU POSTED A MESSAGE ALL WRITTEN IN CAPS.
[ ] You are not civilized enough to post in these forums.
[ ] You mispeled evry sengle wurd.
[x ] Youhavenotlearnedthe?pointofpuncuationsuch?asspacingcommasandper?iods.
[ ] You are too stupid to argue with.
[ ] You are extraordinarily bad at [detecting ()/posting ()] sarcasm.

In punishment, you must:
[ ] Play a paladin to level 80.
[ ] /delete yourself
[ ] Suffer at least three nerfs.
[ ] Play a FULL prot spec Warrior to 80.
[ ] Drink out of a spitoon.
[ x] Fetch me a shrubbery.
[ ] Go aggro the murloc.
[ ] Spend an entire day in Barrens general chat.
[ ] Apologize to everybody on this forum.
[ xxxxxxxxxxxx ] Get to 80. Then QQ
[ ] All of the above.

In closing, I'd like to say:
[ x ] Learn to play
[ x ] Never post again.
[ ] I've found more intelligent things floating in the toilet.
[x ] STFU.
[ ] Learn to post.
[ ] Learn to read.
[ x ] No one cares.
[ ]Post this nonsense with your main.
[ ] Tranny scum!
[ ] The Paladin forums are that way ------>
[ ] All of the above.

Thank you, have a nice day.

Out in It

Aenara decided to finish up Dinner Impossible. Needed Strand, Eye, and AV. Lost them all, of course, but it wasn't too bad. Was actually top damage in Strand, tied for second on kills. Sort of surprising yet maybe not. Moonkin are incredibly versatile and rather annoying to face.


Look at that. Horde had the rest of the damage. *sigh* Rated BGs are going to be wonderful. So tired of the slack-ass Alliance fools in our battlegroup. At least we still own Wintergrasp. *snicker*

They Can Do That??

Whoa! Found a Rogue who has the 80 inscription on his BoA shoulders!! The Armory doesn't indicate if it's active or not. Hrm. The Horde Rogue isn't on Martini's account, but the Horde Druid is…

Ready for Phase 2!

Took care of Tripping the Rifts on Aenara and Favor at the following spots in Northrend:

• Earth: Grizzly Hills, Zeb'Halak (15.7, 36.1) [lvl74]
• Fire: Zul Drak, Reliquary of Pain (32.3, 45.7)
• Water: Icecrown, Deathspeaker's Watch (60.4, 21.9)
• Wind: Sholozar Basin, Savage Thicket (48.1, 25.4)

Rifts and Chords

Using Wowhead's Pre-Launch Events guide to try to get the rifts Feat of Strength out of the way.

Definitely a Day of the Dead

Was up a little bit late last night making use of the final few moments of Call to Arms: Arathi Basin on the Horde Rogue. I haven't laughed and ganked that hard in ages.

It began on the Exodar server when Pro finally hit level 36. Decided to try some Warsong Gulch. Her gear is quite horrible yet I hoped the level might be enough to not get insta-gibbed. Boy was I wrong. Rogues were eating my cookies left and right.

I had heard in Aenara's guild that Rogues were the scourge of the lower brackets and that's sure not an understatement. They mentioned mutilate so I spec'd that on Unpleasant yet it didn't seem that OP. Dragonsblitz and Gorestep showed me the error of my ways... it was Subtlety that was insanity. I thought the problem was not having Flare yet it would be useless against Shadowstep. While they could see my traps at 32 they couldn't disarm them. Yet it didn't help me much.

There is incredible synergy at very low levels in the Subtley tree:

• Shadowstep (25 yd range, Instant) Causes you to step through the shadows and appear behind an enemy target. Your next Ambush or Garrote delivered within 10 sec will deal 30% additional damage, and your movement speed is increased by 70% for 3 sec.
• Master of Subtlety (Passive) Attacks made while stealthed and for 6 seconds after breaking stealth cause an additional 10% damage.
• Sinister Calling (Passive) Increases your total Agility by 25% and increases the percentage damage bonus of Backstab and Hemorrhage by an additional 25%.
• Improved Ambush (Rank 3) Increases the critical strike chance of your Ambush ability by 60% and its damage by 15%.
• Waylay (Rank 2) Your Ambush and Backstab hits have a 100% chance to unbalance a target, increasing the time between their melee and ranged attacks by 20%, and reducing movement speed by 50% for 8 sec.
• Opportunity (Rank 3) Increases the damage dealt with your Backstab, Mutilate, Garrote and Ambush abilities by 30%.
• Hemorrhage (35 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon) An instant strike that deals 110% weapon damage (159.5% if a dagger is equipped) and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 1 min. Awards 1 combo point.
• Ambush (60 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon, Requires Stealth) Ambush the target, causing 190% weapon damage plus (330 * 1.9) to the target (274.93% plus (330 * 2.75) if a dagger is equipped). Must be stealthed and behind the target. Awards 2 combo points.

It's a lot to take in yet it plays incredibly well. And it's all available to a Rogue at 29. In fact most of it is available through the 20s, with Hemorrhage and Waylay or Opportunity coming at the end. In the 30s it's ridiculous.

Core talents and abilities aside, one Prime, one Major, and one Minor glyph slot become available at level 25. And there are some really sweet ones available to compliment the devastation:

• Glyph of Hemorrhage (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 29) Your Hemorrhage ability also causes the target to bleed, dealing 40% of the direct strike's damage over 24 sec.
• Glyph of Backstab (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 25) Your Backstab critical strikes grant you 5 energy.
• Glyph of Eviscerate (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the critical strike chance of Eviscerate by 10%.
• Glyph of Ambush (Major Glyph, Item Level 25) Increases the range on Ambush by 5 yards.
• Glyph of Gouge (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Your Gouge ability no longer requires that the target be facing you.
• Glyph of Vanish (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the duration of your Vanish effect by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Sprint (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the movement speed of your Sprint ability by an additional 30%.
• Glyph of Blurred Speed (Minor Glyph, Requires Level 25) Enables you to walk on water while your Sprint ability is active.

So many great choices! Hemorrhage would be useful against other rogues and druids, keeping them out of stealth. Ambush and Backstab are expensive moves so Backstab, when landing, would get you a little extra for another. Eviscerate would help ensure a big finisher (if needed, heh). Ambush would make Ambushing a mounted target is even easier. Since Blind isn't available until 34, Gouge could fill the gap. Vanish would give you more breathing room to escape with. Sprint would help you escape while Blurred Speed would make escape in Arathi Basin easier. Wow! Naturally I logged out and went back to Azjol-Nerub. After respecing for 53s, I threw Unpleasant out there to see what was what.

It went as well as all the whining indicated. It was astonishing the damage that was unleashed. Unfortunately I was half-way through 29, so after a win and a loss, I leveled into the 30 bracket. It is always rough to be at the bottom of the bracket plus other players often jeer at the flotsam dragging the team down, but I was on a rush and had to see what could be done. I managed to deal out more death than I expected. Unfortunately it's easy for the higher-level enemies to see through stealth so I had to be at the top of my game. The kills I got were a real testament to skill and timing. The best one I got was at level 31 where I one shot a 39 Warlock that was mounting up. She had over 1600 health which didn't seem to even be there. For a kill like that to be possible with an eight level disparity definitely says there something out of wack. Yet I understand it must be rough on Blizzard to balance a class through their level progression. Glad I got all this down for posterity as I'm sure something will get hot fixed.

While the rogue is fierce, it's not all a cake walk. All the usual requirements are there… catch someone unaware with as few friends around as possible while your cooldowns are all ready and theirs are down. And as at all the lower brackets the BoA gear can make an incredible difference. Currently the worst targets are the DoT casters and the mail-wearers. If you don't one-shot them things get dicey. While Shadow Priests are painful, 4.x Warlocks are devastating. Bane of Doom can now be cast on players. It lasts FOREVER (one minute, heh) and does a TON of damage. A quick reacting paladin that survives will usually Lay on Hands then try to slam a Hammer of Justice on you. Those two have been the most troublesome survivors of a failed one-shot for me.

As realization has dawned on everyone the play-style has suffered. Rogues summarily ignore flag groups and swim out mid-field looking for targets. So there were a few games that ended 0-0 because no one could survive the onslaught since no one would support the flag carrier. Lot of people leaving games in a huff but whatever. I am there to gank not help the team. *snicker* I am just one of the sharks looking for chum.

Went out to Hammerfall to grab Defiler's Leather Boots. Since the Inherited Insignia of the Alliance doesn't translate from Alliance to Horde I had to grab an Insignia of the Horde for 55 honor points. Still need to decide on glyphs then it's time to see what the fields of battle are like today.

Aenara the Seeker

Despite completing Tricks and Treats of Azeroth last year Aenara was getting credit towards 3000 Quests Completed when pocketing treats from the various Candy Buckets. For the final quest she returned to her initial questing area of Dolanaar where Innkeeper Keldamyr bore witness to that final quest.

Now for The Loremaster. Currently have 613/700 in Loremaster of Kalimdor and 526/700 in Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms so it's not too far away!

Almost Done Before Restarting

Still a little rough downing Heroic Sindragosa 25 but we got her on the third attempt. Picked up the Heroic Phylactery of the Nameless Lich. (Yay!) Excepting three Heroic Vanquisher's Marks of Sanctification and the ultra-elusive Professor's Bloodied Smock, Aenara now has all of the gear she's been eying. For now.

Soldiers Arise, Stand and Fight!

Finally! Faerune's Loot-Filled Pumpkin contained The Horseman's Horrific Helm! She now has all the horseman accessories to annoy friends and randoms with.

Oh Come On

Got done with the Headless Horseman on all the toons when Aenara saw some spam in Trade Chat for Black Temple. They were on council so it would be getting the achievement done pretty quick. Trying to zone in kept erroring out with a message: “You have entered too many instances recently.” Searching the forums there was a blue post that stated: “Five instances per hour is the current limit. Please note that this is per account.” *sigh* I understand they want to limit instance farming but there's obviously a bug. I'd done HH easily six times in 30min so whatever. Maybe the LFG system gets around it but if Blizzard is going to deny access, the least they could do is provide a “XX more min until you can enter an instance” message.

Thankfully they wiped on their first attempt due to lack of healing. *snicker* Might be able to get in while they try to fine more.

Out on the West Coast

Been fun watching the 3v3 tournaments at BlizCcon 2010. Some really amazing matches. It makes me understand the allure of televised sports… watching others do what I cannot from the comfort of my home. *snicker*

Wonder if Blizzard notices/cares about the caster dominance and Druids being the preferred healer. There was one PMR team that made it to the third round yet the pressure matches were all ranged casters. Personally I favor LSD since I love the burst and utility of 3.x Elemental Shaman. Yet DML has also been amazing. Watching the second match of the Top Bracker (*aAa*/LSD) versus Lower Bracket (Complexity.Red/DML). Co.Red actually lost to *aAa* in the upper bracket, 0-3. See if they come back for the $75k.

On a completely shallow note I love how all the competitors are pasty white boys and Asians. Hate to be the creepy old guy, but there are a few really cute ones. Have to say my top three are:

1. Jenõ "Lopaay" Tanos (LightZ CaMerA ActioN/Fra?)
2. Fabio "Jamesbond" Nardelli (*aAa*/Ita)
3. Romain "Hrk" Neveu (*aAa*/Fra)

It's Over 7000!

Aenara got stuck at 98/100 on The Summit of Storm Peaks. EveryQuest's incomplete list showed a missing drop-quest started from a Dark Armor Sample. Didn't stick around to finish The Iron Colossus chain once the zone was done since there were still Tournament dailies waiting. Just have to finish up 87/140 Icecrown: The Final Goal for Loremaster of Northrend.

Aenara is now up to 7050 achievement points, with 661/1056 completed. Currently #8 in the guild.

Long, Strange #4

Finally! Picked up the only item Aenara needed for more than a year from the Inn Keeper in Westguard Keep… the damn Hallowed Helm for Sinister Calling. Picked up Hallowed Be Thy Name and What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

Was down in Howling Fjord to finish up I've Toured the Fjord. Working on The Summit of Storm Peaks while watching 3v3 PvP at BlizzCon. Got Into the Basin done late last night so only Icecrown: The Final Goal remains for Loremaster of Northrend.