Just a bit of background, I’m from SEA, internet connection is 50 mbps so I guess not too third-world. However, there have been countless of evenings when ping shot up to more than 200ms, which seriously affected gameplay.
Then there is also the issue of Asia server, like it’s practically a Korean server. Everyone speaks Korean, names characters in Korean and so on. Why should I be forced to play with people who can’t speak a word of English? So Blizz, would you mind creating a few more servers, and in my case, SEA server. For the sake of proximity, Australia can join SEA too if America server is no better. SEA + Australia together is almost the same size as Europe and maybe we deserve a separate server for the sake of ping and English too?
My personal issue with EU servers is more in regards to Overwatch. The way I understand it, the game has like two or maybe three servers, but I would have to install a wireshark in order to properly see what’s going on.
The thing is, on one of the servers things are really food, on the other… not so much.
I used to have stable 30-40ms on both Diablo and Overwatch.
However, for some reason nowadays I have stable 62. Not sure as to why.
My point exactly. For WoW and Diablo 62 is fine.
On something like Overwatch, it’s kinda weird. For some reason on what I believe to be one of the servers, things are damn fine. On another, my projectiles don’t seem to land or get registered, I receive more delayed dmg (go behind line of sight, in half a second I die).
What is weird is, that I have played on the US servers (you can swap at will, the game is global release, keeps progress and unlocks, unlike Diablo3) with like 190ms and for some reason it doesn’t feel bad… like, I don’t get as much delayed dmg compared to one of the EU servers…
Back in the WC3 days when the Internet wasn’t as good as now I had around 400-700ms at home. And what I noticed was that battles I should win with simply applying “A” for attack while not doing any micro, I lose. Multiplayer with high ping wasn’t the same as LAN. A lot of stuff didn’t register at all, because of the lag, even it HAS to since it should be auto-attacking and doing damage. The workaround was to simply put myself in battle with 30 limit advantage lol. Or don’t play from home. Sweet times.
Living in Eastern Eurrope, I remember those times very well. There was no point to having internet at home, as it was both expensive and crappy.
I used to go to so called PC clubs or internet caffes where I had discount, so it was cheap, and I played from there.
You are not forced to do so. Select the Americas Region and you will be able to play the game in English by default. The reason the Asia Region is in Korean is because that is what the majority of Asia region players speak. The websites for the Asia Region are also in Korean and Chinese.
SEA is already part of the Americas Region by default. There are three datacenters for the Americas. Sydney Australia, Brazil, and Los Angeles CA USA. You are connected to the one closest to you within your region.
If you wish to force a connection to a different datacenter within that region it can be done with command line arguments.
Selecting a Server in Diablo 3
Original Author: Narull
Updated with intro and SA information by: MissCheetah
By default the game will place you on the server closest to you geographically. Sometimes you may want to force the game to play on the server of your choice instead, either for matchmaking or performance. Narull provided great instructions and screen captures.
Close Diablo III and open the launcher, click the little arrow up the top left and select ‘Settings’:
In the new window select ‘Game Settings’:
Tick the box for ‘Additional command line arguments’ and in the new command line put the following:
If you want to always connect to the US Server in Los Angeles: OnlineService.Matchmaking.ServerPool=Default
If you want to always connect to the ANZ Server: OnlineService.Matchmaking.ServerPool=AU1
If you want to always connect to the South America Server: OnlineService.Matchmaking.ServerPool=SA1
So it should look like this:
Click ‘Done’ and run Diablo III, BAM done! It’s that simple.
Hi Cheetah. A quick question for you (or anyone else in this situation):
EU player, moved to the States. Now in NYC. I checked my D3 connection and it is around 100ms to the EU from my office. Just with the automatic settings.
Is there anything we should do client side to optimize latency or simply leave it in the good hands of the launcher?
If you play EU from the US you are going to be subject to the crazy traffic jams and equipment failures that are endemic in the internet infrastructure. The only way to impact that is to use third party products like VPNs. Those are not supported by Blizzard, but not prohibited either. You use them at your own risk. 100ms is really not that bad.
I’m in Toronto, great internet connection on my end, but having occasional connect issues the last few days and just now massive lag (killed my character twice in an easy GRift, good thing I don’t play hardcore).
I checked and 32 bit is still enabled (which was the problem last time) so not sure what it is. Not promising on a week day when there’s not even an active season.
Thanks for the disclaimer and heads up. I don’t want to leave the clan, and one of the players lives in Alberta, Canada. He has never had a lag issue playing with us.
Here’s hoping - I took Friday off to get crazy with the EU start time while here in EST and it better not be a lagfest
Other Blizz games like Overwatch or Hearthstone do have a physical server in Singapore, which belongs to Americas server. Only for Diablo 3, Americas here really means America, as in America continent, where physical server is located. In fact, I started playing Diablo 3 after Hearthstone and I thought Americas was the one to go, but I was proven wrong fairly quick. Pings were around 300-400ms. Then I went online to check and found out they never set Diablo 3 server in Singapore (they should, just like Overwatch, Hearthstone). Then I was forced to play in Asia server simply because SEA-Korea is ways shorter distance than SEA-America. Pings drop to 100ms when network is good. But quite a lot of times it isn’t.
As I said, there are three datacenters for the Americas for Diablo 3. One of those is in Los Angeles CA, the others are in Sidney Australia and Brazil.
I’ll try with Sydney server next season, but I doubt it’s gonna be any better than server in Korea. Please note that Seoul Korea is only 3000km away from SEA but Sydney is almost 7000km, double the distance. The ones in LA or Brazil are definitely no go for me, too far, crazy ping for a SEA player.
And there is actually a data center for newer games like Overwatch and Hearthstone in Singapore. I was there a few years to know this.
I know there is one for those games. At this time though, they don’t run D3 on it
The reason has to do with grouping. The way grouping works on D3 the group finder pulls people from your physical datacenter. That is why some people like to force the game to go to the LA servers vs the Australia servers. More people to group with. When it comes to player made groups, I think the location of the group leader determines where the group is hosted.
I hope since D4 is a newer game, its data center will be there in Singapore too, and I can enjoy dungeons with people who can communicate in English. But who knows, things can change a lot in the next 2 years, and tech like 5G will be widely implemented with very low ping.
