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WoW Packet Loss: What Is It and How to Fix It?
5 min. read
Updated onFebruary 23, 2024
updated onFebruary 23, 2024
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World of Warcraft, or just WoW for friends, is a game that needs no introduction. Or shouldn’t. It goes way back to its launch in 2004 and has grown a lot since then. Well, technically. Most players are not exactly impressed by the latest expansions.
But the reason why we’re talking about WoW is not its awesomeness. Not by far. It’s because sometimes, like any other massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), WoW faces a series of challenges.
We’re talking about the usual suspects: high ping,jitter, connection timeouts, and even packet loss if you’re unlucky. However, most of these issues arise due tonetwork congestion.
If that’s the case, there’s little you can do to improve your situation other than waiting. As such, playing when the networks are the least loaded seems to give the best results.
On the other hand, sometimes network congestion isn’t the culprit. So who’s to blame in that situation? That’s exactly what you’re going to find out in the following few sections.
What does packet loss in WoW look like?
In WoW, packet loss looks almost the same as in any other game or program.
Therefore, your character moves slower, if at all, and interacting with the menus is delayed, you might even rubberband now and then, and if you’re truly unlucky, you can get kicked out of the server.
If any of the above has ever happened to you, you might’ve experienced packet loss. The good news is that most of the time, this situation fixes itself. The bad news is that most of the time, this situation fixes itself. Get it?
However, waiting shouldn’t be your default course of action, even though it has a high success rate.
What is a normal packet loss for WoW?
If you’re tech-savvy, you might understand that losing packets is perfectly natural. However, losing too many regularly is when things start getting out of hand.
So what is a normal packet loss forWorld of Warcraft? Ideally, it should be none. But realistically speaking, any value less than1%can be deemed as good.
If this percentage goes up, you’ll start noticing anomalies in the game, such as slowdowns, sluggish movement, and such.
How to check packet loss in WoW?
Hit the Win key on your keyboard
Check the hops for high ping values. If any hops yield high ping values, you might have a packet loss issue. You can check our comprehensive guide to learn more aboutpacket lossand how to detect it effortlessly.
How to fix WoW packet loss?
1. Use a VPN
ExpressVPn is a great VPN tool that can help you secure your connection, keep it private, bypass geo-restrictions, and curb issues such as ISP throttling or packet loss.
Express VPN
But in order for this fix to work the packet loss must be triggered by the ISP. Thus, using aVPNwon’t fix packet loss if it occurs on your side or if it’s the WoW game server’s fault.
2. Troubleshoot the connection and isolate the problem
There are four different locations where packet leaks might occur. Namely:
Therefore, depending on the packet loss location you discover, you can take different actions. For instance:
That’s about it. Yes, we know that it’s somewhat complicated and that it’s not the double-click fix you’ve been expecting. However, if you’re not okay with just waiting for the packet loss storm to pass, these are great potential ways to fix it.
WoW might lose packets, but it’s not the end of the world
Long story short, it’s perfectly fine for you to lose packets while playing WoW every now and then. It happens all the time, and if it doesn’t last long or happens frequently, waiting for the issue to fix itself can be the best course of action.
However, sometimes there might be underlying issues that trigger the problem, and that’s when you should step in. Other errors likewow51900328are server-side related so check the server status.
Ranging from changing your Ethernet cable, using aVPN, and switching to a wired connection to calling your ISP and contacting Blizzard, there are plenty of fixes you could try out before calling it a day.
More about the topics:gaming,packet loss,VPN,World of Warcraft errors
Vlad Constantinescu
Vlad might have a degree in Animal Husbandry and Livestock Management, but he’s currently rocking anything software related, ranging from testing programs to writing in-depth reviews about them.
He spent 3-4 years as a software editor at Softpedia and another year as a VPN specialist before he landed his current job as an author at Windows Report.
In his free time, Vlad enjoys playing guitar, doing jigsaw puzzles, researching cybersecurity, and even having a good read on rainy days.
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