Why is VMA lag a thing?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

There have been a few posts recently regarding the recent patch that totally messed up VMA, and more threads than I can count over the last 6 months about various problems with frame rates, freezing, crashes, etc. Here is what I want to know (as so eloquently stated in my title). Why is VMA lag a thing? Why can't this be run 99% on the client side? I understand the inherent difficulty of managing ping and FPS issues in a huge multiplayer environment, but that is not the case in VMA. It is just me and a bunch of pre-programmed NPCs. This should be no different than the 100s of other lag free solo experiences I have had in countless other games. Other than a timer and basic anti cheat program, I just dont understand what is needed on the server side that is causing so many issues. I feel like we should be able to run this even if the servers are down.

My last 2 runs of VMA have bordered on unplayable. The first was a week ago, and I actually put up a pretty decent score (about 490K). My 2 deaths happened when my staff simply decided to stop working (and I survived a few more). I could still cast skills, but was no longer able to weave. This was followed shortly by a gradual drop of FPS until I was dead.

I went to run it again yesterday, and gave up after Stage 3. On stage 2 boss, I had the same issue where my staff stoped working. I managed to beat the boss without dying somehow, but it took twice as long. My first death came AFTER the miniboss of Stage 3 round 2. I was having the staff issues again, so I switched to my overload bar and killed the boss. I then got the alert that I had cleared the stage. I then proceeded to get hit by the dead boss about 3 seconds later. It knocked me into electric water, I was unable to CC break, and I died between rounds from boss that was already dead. I was upset because there went my no-death on a trivial fight but I kept going. I got to the Stage 3 boss, and you guessed it, same thing happened again. Staff stopped working and game began to slow. I then got a one shot with full health and full shield. I can only assume that there was some lag in play where it appeared I had shields, but I actually didnt.

Anyway, I would love some feedback from anyone. @ZOS_GinaBruno Why is VMA lag an issue? I have my inferno staff. A second one would be nice, but I am not putting myself through this anymore. All I really care about is a flawless title at this point, and I am not good enough to do when my primary weapon wont attack or with the current state of lag in here it seems...

gamerguy757

Ugh I know right? I can't even run it anymore because of lag and frame rate.
But on the flip side, my 443K score stayed on the Leaderboard because of the lag and I got a nice Precise Greatsword out of it!