Can I get a concise explanation for how and why weapon swapping seems frozen so often?

Saddiq · June 2015

I DON'T want to create yet another Templar issues discussion--the main one is already very informative. And I am aware that 'weapon swapping lag' is discussed in many other topics.

However, while the topic comes up a lot, it's always as a side comment or tangent, and I have never found a clear explanation or description of what's going on.

Here's my issue:

Especially since 2.0, and especially during soloing boss fights that I take 5 mins to get the kill on, I repeatedly am unable to swap weapons. This appears to me to last as long as 2-3 seconds some times. It sometimes involves simply waiting for the weapon to swap--sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Other times I'll get nothing and then a triple weapon swap that ends me back at my first set. My build relies heavily on weapon swapping constantly, and so when I do die, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of saying 'that was not my fault', which as a mature adult I'm rather embarrassed to say even under my breath.

So, is this related to this Templar 'global cool down' that everyone's talking about? Is there something I can do or some specific skills I should perhaps swap out that would remove this problem?

Most specifically, can anyone concisely describe or explain what the causes of unresponsive weapon swapping are?

I have not PVPed in months as I'm waiting for lag to be solved, so this is not a PVP issue for me.

Zanen · June 2015

I think it actually is lag related. ESO has too much stuff handled server-side to try to combat botting and exploiting for an action combat game, they've tried to fix the issues I think and people have said it actually made it worse in some situations.

It definitely isn't a class specific thing though everybody gets it, it's bad enough I run my bars in a less optimal configuration because I have stuff I NEED to work right away.

If they could fix the ability lag the game would really come alive, it's one of the biggest problems it has.

I think it's the same reason we get ping spikes in crowded cities and pvp, even when there's no fps drop or packet loss, whatever does that it's all related.

Saddiq · June 2015

Huh, as simple as lag? Ok, thanks for answer. I thought I had a quite lag-free game for the most part, but maybe I wasn't as immune as I thought. I don't ever seem to get the 'whole character freeze' that I hear others talking about. I thought it was going to be a Templar GCD thing.

I might as well throw in, what are ping spikes? And for that matter, what are pings?

TheSunAlsoRises · June 2015

it's not a templar thing. in fact, my NB gets locked when swapping weapons a lot more than my templar (who has yet to get stuck in some time now).

Zanen · June 2015

Saddiq wrote: »

Huh, as simple as lag? Ok, thanks for answer. I thought I had a quite lag-free game for the most part, but maybe I wasn't as immune as I thought. I don't ever seem to get the 'whole character freeze' that I hear others talking about. I thought it was going to be a Templar GCD thing.

I might as well throw in, what are ping spikes? And for that matter, what are pings?

Ping is your lag, the time it takes for signals to travel to and from the server.

When everything is working properly my ping is about 80ms and the game plays great, but I often get spikes of over 800ms, these spikes aren't always apparent, some stuff still seems responsive because it's happening client side, but other stuff won't work. when zoning into a capital city my ping often goes into four digits, and it's not my connection or PC, it's server side.

You can get addons to display your ping, I use Wykkid.

Johngo0036 · June 2015

I am having the same issue on any of my characters,

Even more so when there is an intense fight happening that you want weaponswap and nothing happens,

so you weapon swap again and it swaps twice, back to the current bar........

Still broken!!

Hexyl · June 2015

To prevent this, you can assign two differents button for your weapon.

For exemple, i personnatly use the 4th button of my mouse for my first weapon set, and the 5th for the second set.

Look your command option.

Sensesfail13 · June 2015

Couldnt tell you, what I can tell you is it has been getting increasingly worse as the game progresses. It was never this bad when the game first game out.

Teargrants · June 2015

It's because ZOS added a GCD to wep swap in 1.6 to make it "more responsive". As what should come as a surprise to no one, that change made wep swap less responsive than ever.

MisterBigglesworth · June 2015

Teargrants wrote: »

It's because ZOS added a GCD to wep swap in 1.6 to make it "more responsive". As what should come as a surprise to no one, that change made wep swap less responsive than ever.

I think they ought to rebalance combat to allow for both action bars to be active at once (including toggles) so that weapon swap can be handled client-side. You would literally have all 12 skills available to you at all times, it's just that you would only SEE 6 of them at a time. You would also therefore also have no GCD on weapon swap, but you could go into options and set a 0.5 or 1 second delay for yourself to prevent you from accidentally pressing swap, swap, 1 and end up casting the wrong skill.

SeptimusDova · June 2015

Working as Intended.