How do i reduce my latency on NA servers?

Technical Support
1

Hiya, so im playing on the EU server, but it’s very toxic and I’ve played on the NA server a few times and everyone is so nice and positive (which is funny cuz the stereotypes are quite the opposite, americans as rude and europeans as polite), but my latency is quite high (120 MS), is there a way to reduce this to make it more playable?

1 Like
2

I’m pretty sure there is not much we could do. Although if anyone has a solution, I had the same experience and I’d never look back to EU servers.

3

Nope, it is what it is. I have lots of EU friends in the same situation as you. 120 latency isn’t the end of the world, you just get used to it after long enough

4

With the conversion from Ping to Latency recently, the reported value is increased but it’s actually the same value it always was.

I used to get a steady 101ms to the US servers and I found that quite playable. After the latency change, the reported value is now more like 120ms, but actually the value is the same that it always was.

I do agree, my experience on the US servers has been significantly more positive than on EU. Not to say there is no toxicity but it is significantly reduced.

5

to be honest with you this has never been a problem for me with other online games, i dont understand why im lagging on overwatch? i used to play tons of mmos and i’d always play on US servers and lag was never a problem for me

6

Latency is determined by the distance to the server.
That means even if you have a 1000 gigabyte connection your latency is still going to be 120ms. Why?

1000gb/s is the volume of data, but the distance it needs to travel is the same. The only thing that is changed is now you have access to a larger pipe to get a larger volume.

So as of right now the only possible way to shave off 10 - 20ms at best is if you subscribe to a gaming VPN that finds the shortest route between you and OW servers. Sometimes ISPs will choose the route through their own DNS servers causes an increased ping.

Long story short don’t expect a 10 - 40ms from Europe.

7

upsetting :confused: but inevitable i guess. thanks m8

8

Routing (VPN), reducing packet loss (wired connection versus wifi at home) is really all it is, as you are fighting the raw distance.

But if it’s any consolation, you get a better latency to the US than what people in Australia do. Whenever the Sydney server is full/broken, I go from a 20ms PING (30 under the new LATENCY) to 180-210ms to the west coast.

I think the distance is shorter, too?

9

Hey, in season 4 I got to Grandmaster with Rein on NA servers with 130 ping average.
You get used to it after a while. You learn to predict things. The best thing about the higher ping is that it’s actually trained me very well- my gamesense improved substantially because I had to react to things before they even happened- anticipating an enemy Earthshatter, shattering a Genji that’s diving in, etc.

10

Faster internet will reduce it a little bit, but the only real way is to move closer to the server.