Athemystia, the hunter tank columnist here at the WHU, is now also writing for Twisted Nether. His first article over there is on using Leatrix to significantly reduce your latency.
I found this a very exciting thing to read about. I’ve seen places advertising before how they can reduce your latency, and have generally assumed that they were some kind of scam; however, this simple fix to your computer looks to be the real deal.
The short version is that WoW needs an acknowledgement from your computer every time it sends data over; however, your computer bundles acknoledgements into pairs, essentially forcing every other request from WoW to time out.
So the conversation between you and WoW looks like this:
WoW: Okay, that mob just moved and is overe here now. Did you get that?
You: …
WoW: Seriously, did you get that info?
You: …
WoW: Screw it. Now the mob is over there. Did you get that?
You: Yes I did, and I got that first bit of information too.
This fix just changes your computer settings to tell your computer to respond to every acknowledgement request as they come in. I’ve tried it out, and the difference is stunning — I went from an average of 170 latency (on a good day) to around 60.
Awsome, I can’t wait to go home from work and trythis out
had a friend clue me into this a while back, it worked great. i saw a substantial difference to
Lagaran and Lagrimmar are still terribad tho
Ha. I didn’t expect an announcement on the WHU. Thanks Frost!
In any case, the column will be weekly and will discuss resources like this one that might be useful in WoW. It’ll cover mostly websites, but will also include addons such as this one. So feel free to drop by and say hi, or comment on how uncommonly goodlooki…wait, that’s not my schtick, it’s Frost’s (though it’s no less true in this case).
I usually hover around 290 for latency. Making no additional changes and halving my latency in the spreadsheet I saw a 5.1% theoretical DPS increase. 5.1%!
I’m curious about this. I would love to get it for my computer but the Warning after the article stated to download this Addon from a trusted site. Well, I’m sure you can guess my question, What is a site that you would suggest that I download it from?
Another option that I have used, is one of the Killer NICs (has a dedicated CPU on the card to handle all networking requests instead of your CPU). One of these along with a fix similar to the one above gives me some amazing ping times. Even in a large raid with a lot of flashy spells I never get above 60-70ms. In low pop areas I have seen that number as low as 30ms though it averages around 45ms for me. Even an amazing combination like this cannot prevent server side problems in Lagaran or raiding on a busy server night. But if you really are hard core about getting your lag down the combination of the both is pretty damn cool.
Oyless – That warning statement is to go after ANY article I post on addons, so don’t let it worry you too much. That said, a virus scanner is basically a must for any WoW-user, and it’s best to use it after any sort of download, even from trusted sites. But in any case, I got mine from the one I linked in the article, at wowinterface.com. WoWinterface is, along with Curse.com, probably the most reputable source for WoW addons that there is.
After upgrading from a rock-solid Vista installation (+10 Oxymoron, I know), I was inexplicably plagued by latency that was several times higher than I’d ever seen playing Wow. I was grumbling about it and a friend explained the packet acknowledgement mechanics to me and pointed me towards Leatrix. As soon as made the changes, I dropped down from high 200ms/mid-300ms to 60ms and 70ms on average – with lows down as far as the 40ms range on rare and very optimal occasions.
I cannot recommend too highly taking these steps. It is absolutely solid advice and well worth the 10 mins it takes to implement.
as an aussie, id kill to have 160 latency at least lol. but leatrix still helped bring it down to about 300 from what was ~500.
I’m glad Leatrix is helping people out.
My second article is actually up as of tonight, with a ridiculously pro-hunter pic accompanying it…though a 3-day waiting period between future entries is unlikely. It’ll be more like a week most times. But I do a little dance whenever I see comments, so pop over every now and then, and hopefully I keep highlighting useful resources.
I had WoW open in window mode when I read this article, I checked the latency and it was 246. I installed Leatrix restarted the computer and logged on, latency was down to 81. Someone is definitly gonna get a donation for work well done
Wow,this was amazing !.
.
Boyfriend and i both installed this as soon as we’d read the article,
it makes a big difference for both of us.
Thanks soo much for the information and brilliant read.
Good luck for future articles,i look forward to them
Oh man, 170 ms
i average 500-600, oftne have to tough it out up too 1200
Great article, didn’t know those latency programs worked! I do have a macbook pro where I play wow on, can’t seem to find a program that works on macs..
Anyone happened to have stumbled upon a mac compatible program?
I loaded this about a month back (vista, twin core machine).
Seemed to work until that night’s raid when I was plagued by wow continually freezing on me. In the end I had to deinstall it
I am jealous of your latency. When I used this a month ago or so my latency went from around 320ms to 100, and I was happy for that, lol.
@ buurmen
There isn’t a need on a mac, at least not for this specifically. This problem is uniquely Windows,
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 use windows xp SP 2 and it worked fine for me
At first the latency icon went red but after about 30 minutes or so i cried with glee as my latency went down to double figures!!! Arthemystia you are the man!
YES!!!
That is all.
Tinderlock
Wow. . . this was an insane upgrade for me! Leatrix halved my latency! THANK YOU WHU!!!
Heh. Well damn. I may have set the bar too high with my first article. If only I could get this kind of response for my tanking articles.
Worked great for me too, told guild about it, and only 1 person had an issues, they where on DSL so if you get DC’ed a bunch after you install with DSL, just uninstall it.
An aussie on US Dragonmaw server: always approx 390ms for 4 yrs. Installed Leatrix and now 250ms – hughe difference. Now to test during raids…
I read that using voice comm during play with this might not be a good idea, is that true?
Would be terribly unhandy.
Twen – if by voice comm you mean programs like Ventrilo, there shouldn’t be a problem.
I used this and saw a huge drop in my latency on most of the servers that I play on, except Undermine. My latency is insanely high, mostly around 400, but at times it will spike up around 800. The crazy part is that my FPS is around 70 all the time. At first I thought it was because I was playing on a US server from Korea, but that does not seem to be the case since other US servers that I play on don’t have this same issue. If you guys have any ideas (other than transferring servers) that may help out I would appreciate anything you have.
My latency Avg is aroun 140, with the download, it dropped it about 30 pts. I can’t tell really in any raids or instances. Just FYI.
I use Leatrix and one other. Its literally called “Game Booster” off a site called “www.cnet.com”. Its a commercial site but look up the free booster in the search engine. It has two functions, the main is it turns off background programs that hog resources and ping the net constantly (simple button – big shiny “on/off”). Only thing I had to make sure of was my gaming mouse program wasn’t deactivated, lol. The other option it offers is a program specific de-frag. Essentially, if your WoW is in need of tidying, it puts it neatly in one spot on your hard drive. Leatrix halved my latency, Game booster increased my loading and pulled my latency down another 75 ms.
Gratz on the Leatrix find folks,
Dori.
Wonderful! It does exactly what it says on the tin! It got my latency down from 250-300 to 70sh (laptop, wireless, trend-micro protection running). Thanks for the tip.
Woohoo!
89 –> 29 last night!!
You can just manually set it on your computer. The addon is not necessary. Here is a video that takes you through the steps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fjysf-hUw Took me just a few minutes to configure.
I followed the latency tip for Mac on the Leatrix addon page & it took me to a never-reached whoppin’ 1.1k latency.
Wow, I have played with latency hitting 7k before; not terribly effective mind you but played nonetheless. I am GREATLY looking forward to trying this out once I get a chance to hop back onto WoW. Arthe, you are insightful as ever, although this is not as mind blowing as say Pet Tanking raids, but amazing still. Thanks a ton!