Custom Lag Tolerance and Hunters

[Eironn]

Hey guys i wanted to start a thread on this subject as its a vital part of gameplay in general for all classes and im a little confused with all the different tweaks and options there are out there currently

So first off i will list the 4 things i have come across so far

1. Lowerping (Typical Tunneling Service) seems to yield great results have used it for over 5 years puts my ping to 155ms usually play on 160-180ms

2. Leatrix Latency fix (Registry Hack) changes way packets are bundled or something tried it with the tunneling service added roughly 40-50ms making me play on 190-200ms

3. Custom Lag Tolerance - By far the weirdest option in game i have read every thread i could find about this option with still no definite answer on the subject here are the following suggestions made by people and that i commonly come across

(a) Set it to your current latency or slightly above it if your latency increase a slight amount for example play on 150ms set it to 160ms

(b) Set it slightly under your current latency so if you play on 150ms you would set it on 140ms

(c) Enable Custom lag tolerance and set it to 0 this will remove quing completely and apparently break your dps because there is mini gaps inbetween

(d) Disable it completely which from my knowledge sets it to 400ms could be wrong but thats what i think happens

4. The addon Auto Lag Tolerance - This basically sets your custom lag tolerance setting on the fly without you having to touch it and you can also tweak it for how much u want it to change etc etc for example your playing on 150ms it will set your ctl to 150ms then all of sudden your ping spikes to 220ms it will adjust your ctl to 220ms and compensate

CTL = Custom Lag Tolerance just for reference


I have fiddled with all of these and i still can't work out whats the best option to me using ctl set to 0ms and playing on 155-160ms seems right but then i have done that for years and years so ofcourse its going to feel right

Thanks for Blueice for this post on arena junkies

I'll try to explain it simply:

If you have a lag tolerance setting of 0, no matter what you press while casting the game will not queue any spell until your current cast is completed. If your lag tolerance is disabled, your lag tolerance is your current latency.

A lag tolerance setting of 0 may seem ideal in theory. However, no matter how fast you spam your buttons you're never going to be 100% on the spot when your current cast is completed. This is similar to why snowfallkeypress and similar addons are popular, the time between pressing and releasing a button can be very quick, but not instant. Same theory with queuing your next spell a fraction of a second before your current one is completed.

Too much threshold/lag is also bad because you cannot cancel your queued spell. For example if your latency is 500 ms and you've already queued another spell but you decide to change .4 sec before your current spell is completed, you cannot. One situation you may want to change your queued spell is for instant cast procs.

If your latency is 500 ms and you set your threshold to 510 ms, you now have until .01 sec to change your mind.

Most WoW players have decent latency, and a slow reaction time so they won't give a shit if it's off. They're also too stupid to understand the aforementioned, so that's why it's off by default and labeled an advanced-users-only feature in the patch notes.

Personally my latency is in the 90s, so I set my lag threshold setting to 100 ms.

So basically what i got from that was no matter how hard or fast you can mash your keys your never going to fill the gaps and eventually these gaps will add up in your rotation costing you a few arcane shots or kill commands etc etc over a period of a boss fight

Now i tried using custom lag tolerance but when i do it feels clunky it feels like things aren't going off when im using them when i spam keys things light up and take a split sec to go off where as when its set to 0 it feels more responsive and fluent of course this is my perception but in actual fact if the way blueice explained it even if im thinking it feels this way it is actually increasing my dps

I've tried testing it here and there i still prefer 0ms but im looking for a reason or someone to convert me with facts and proof on why this is such a useful option to understand and use


All discussion is welcome i know this topic has been covered before but not really in depth and im hoping mmo community can fill in the missing pieces !

[mediic]

Custom Lag tolerance very nice with high (australian) latency. I remember back in BC having to have /stopcasting macro'd into my spells and manually cancel every cast ~300ms early so there wouldn't be massive gaps between my abilities, which was quite risky if you mis-timed it slightly or had unstable latency. The drawback to CTL is not being as responsive when something happens like LnL procs but you already have another cobra queued, but it's worth it for me. I think setting it roughly around your average latency is the best idea.

I think the leatrix (TCPAckFrequency reg fix?) thing was implemented on Blizzards end years and years ago.

I used to use a tunnelling service that my ISP provided for free and it was amazing, but I don't need it anymore since switching providers.

Never heard of Auto Lag Tolerance but sounds great if you had an unreliable connection.

[Soisoisoi]

CTL = Custom Lag Tolerance just for reference

Shouldn't that be CLT?

OT: I've always had it slightly above my average MS, as per the (iirc) blue post saying so when it came out.

[Eironn]

bumping for any other opinions or in depth explanations

[Tharkkun]

You should always use the Leatrix fix or do the modifications manually. There's a few exceptions where using it could make performance worse (FPS games, VOIP software).

While Blizzard has added support for the TCPAckfrequency your Operating System isn't using it. The Leatrix set of scripts also allows you to enable/disable this with 1 click and a reboot. So if you feel there's no difference you can go right back.

I have good latency in general but my ping went from 80-150 down to 40-60.

[Azortharion]

This is less of a big deal than people make it unless your connection is bad, ofc..

CLT is more of a preference thing, some people have it way up so they don't have to spam as much, I personally have it set to my usual latency (which is 40) and use nifty keyboard macros to spam my keys for me.. If I set it low I don't see the diff, if I set it high my mind kinda messes it up because it puts everything in a queue so quickly but it's mostly a preference thing, but I suppose it does change at 150+ latencies..

[Eironn]

Im going to just add my input after looking further into all of this

After testing with leatrix i can confirm that it did help latency and smoothness and not actually increase my latency at all as for the the CLT i have been playing with it on and have set it to 160ms my pings on 150-158ms usually and although it feels more sluggish i am getting more shots off and dps is increasing this is definitely not a placebo effect as i have been playing with it on since i originally started this post

As for the auto lag tolerance mod i don't really like it as it feels unreliable i know you can set minimum and maxiums but then you may as well just have it set to a static number and leave it unless your ping fluctuates quite high then it may server a purpose for some my ping only goes from 155 to 180 max unless theres an actual problem with my connection or the server

The only downside to CLT comes for pvp this is my own personal opinion on the matter but i noticed when doing games that occasionally the queuing effect would either bug or delay some of my shots / silences and cc now what you need to do is weigh up the gains vs the downsides for pvp while you will definitely be getting more shots off if it has a chance to ruin your cc or interrupts

TL : DR


Tunneling Service - This is the most important for anyone that plays on 100ms+ services like lowerping smoothping etc etc change the entire game

Leatrix - Install it works

Custom Lag Tolerance - PVE set it 10-20ms above your usual latency / PVP set the same as pve but if you experience bugs on gcd or delays in missing your cc/interupts then set to 0

Auto Lag Tolerance - Useful if your latency jumps up and down alot by a large amount otherwise if you have a fairly stable connection / ping don't use it

Do not leave the Custom Lag Tolerance Box unticked it will default to 400ms and this is bad for everyone unless your playing on 400ms+ or you like extremely long queing of abilities

[mediic]

I tried Leatrix again out of curiosity and it had no effect on my latency. Fresh install of Windows 7, no tunnelling software, 250ms before and after Leatrix fix.

[Tharkkun]

I tried Leatrix again out of curiosity and it had no effect on my latency. Fresh install of Windows 7, no tunnelling software, 250ms before and after Leatrix fix.

Mileage will always vary but it's worth a shot because it's a quick fix. My guildmate's first comment who was on a terrible connection said this. Wow, when I fly into a zone I can see the NPC's before they attack me. He previously would fly in and wait 5+ seconds while NPC's appeared around him. This was happening in WOTLK after he got his 310% riding speed.

[Paulosio]

I tried Leatrix again out of curiosity and it had no effect on my latency. Fresh install of Windows 7, no tunnelling software, 250ms before and after Leatrix fix.

Don't think Leatrix actually does anything for wow anymore. There are in game options that do the same thing. Press escape to bring up options screen > System > network.

[Eironn]

Don't think Leatrix actually does anything for wow anymore. There are in game options that do the same thing. Press escape to bring up options screen > System > network.

Taken from leatrix FAQ's

Blizzard already disabled nagling in World of Warcraft. Isn't this the same thing?
This is a common misconception but the answer is no. Blizzard disabled nagling at the application level (effectively integrating the TCPNoDelay function into the game client) way back in patch 2.3.2 and they added a checkbox to enable/disable it on-demand in patch 4.1.

Leatrix Latency Fix disables delayed acknowledgements at the Windows level (by modifying TcpAckFrequency). They're two different things.