Suddenly, about a week after the Classic Beta started, I ran into an intermittent problem. Often, when channeling is involved … such as spell-casting, fishing, selling, stuns ending, etc. … the game freezes. Result? Dead character (in extreme cases), no fish, horrible DPS, frustrated player (me). I’ve been able to still play by hitting the A or D movement keys that start things up again. Timing this so I can still get a fish is a challenge. 
Any ideas of why? Is it my new iMac Pro or AT&T throttling? Since it wasn’t a problem until recently, I don’t think that would be it. May be AT&T. I would believe that. hehe Has the game code or MacOS code changed/become incompatible in some way? Will it be addressed soon? Thanks for any suggestions or answers!
Hey Morgane,
Do you notice any changes in latency or FPS when the lag happens?
Nope. No change in either of those. Latency was between 50-52 for home and world. FR 60. Bandwidth 0Mps. I tested it out on Make Loh Go and the numbers stayed steady while Loh would twirl around a couple times at a turn intersection, or pause before going straight. Anything else I should check? BTW, I also have a lot of the sky graphic tearing mentioned in another post. If you tell me to mess with /console code, I’ll do it. hehe
BTW, I have an iMac Pro, Processor 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon W, Memory 64GB 2666 MHz DDR4, Graphics Radeon Pro Vega 64 16GB.
Morgane,
Are you only seeing this out in new zones? If you go fish in, say, the fountain in old dalaran, do you have the same problem?
If so, try resetting your UI. If not, it may be server lag. Let us know the result either way - it’ll help us identify the problem.
OMG… I found a forum post with my exact problem!!! =D
The problem manifested itself in the new zones (BFA zones) since that is where I spend most of my time…
But since the Blue Post asked, I checked in an older zone… Suramar, Legion zone… and the problem followed…
Same problem, just like Morgane described…channeling lag… only happens with a channeling action …
I am running on a Mac Pro (Trashcan Edition…)
At the time, the trouble even crossed over to the Classic Beta version, too. However, resetting seemed to work for the moment. 
I only use the following addons: Titan Panel, Altoholic, and Details! But, the first thing I did was turn all addons off and it still lagged. BTW, I also tried the /console cursorSizePreferred 0 code and the screen tearing of the sky stopped … and my iMac’s internal fan doesn’t run at top speed anymore once I lowered the window size under System/Graphics and checked UI Scale under System/Advanced to about 0.75.
So, happy, happy, atm. Thanks so much! (I’ll letcha know if that changes.)
Well… I reset my UI and the problem persisted…
So in my testing I figured out the following… it appears that if I stay in constant motion it does not appear to lag… moving left or right … moving forward and backwards… I did not notice any lag…
I stopped moving and lag appeared… noticeable by having player characters run in place around me then reappear seconds later away from character…
So the lag does not just manifest it self with a channeling action… though it becomes apparent with a channeling action… since you have to be NOT in motion for a channeling action to happen…
So I continue to be stuck with this problem … which since the Blue Poster is trying to determine whether it is a Blizzard side problem or a Player Side problem… I am leaning to Blizzard side… since I did not do anything to my machine prior to the lag issues beginning…
FYI… Latency did not spike… 10/17 ms the whole time… Framerate, 60fps…
One difference I did notice was that the InterfaceOld/Addons folder had all the Blizzard interface stuff in it. After I reset the Interface, the Addons folder ONLY has the addons I put into it. (I assume you put the Blizzard stuff somewhere else or hid them?) I also put in a fresh set of my addons and redid them, too. sigh Redoing Altoholic for 24 characters is a pain. LOL!
Sad to report that the channeling lag has returned. Everything was fine this morning. Then, I decided to level my mage alt a bit, fire spec. There was some lag, but not bad. Switched to frost and it was back in full force for some reason. I recall some discussion about spell batching? Is that in the game now? Can I turn it off?
Could it be a resolution issue? I had changed it to Window Size 2560 x 1440, 100% scale just before the issues came back.
I just restarted the game and changed it back to 2880 x 1620, 100% and it had gone away … no lag on Frostbolt. Fingers and toes crossed I won’t have to edit this post again and all’s good.
I’m seeing massive video lag since about the same time as you @morgrane. I now have my graphic settings set to 1 in wow graphic interface and still the lag persists.
The lag is back for me. 
I don’t think resetting my UI just to play the game is a real fix, apparently. Any other ideas?
Lag continues for me…Hoping Blue Poster will provide some insight/help…
On my hunter, Aimed Shot hangs … until I hit another hotkey, such as Arcane Shot or Rapid Fire. Same with my mage. Frost Bolt would hang until I hit Ice Lance. So, previous poster is right. Movement isn’t the only way to “wake up” the game. But, hitting another key binding does – either the A or D key for left or right or another hotkey.
Did the code for spell / ability casting change a few weeks after the Classic beta opened for invited subs?
And, why isn’t it consistent? Resetting the UI helps for a while … until something gets added back? taken out? Turning off the addons makes no difference.
It gets frustrating, but I’m sure you can help. You always do. Thanks!
Most of the reports I’m seeing mention that the problem goes away for a time and comes back.
- What changes are made inbetween these events, if any?
- Is it happening in any specific zones?
- Does it happen on all characters, or just specific ones?
It happens on all my characters over three servers. It happened on the Classic Beta server and on the WoW Classic test that just closed down before the character name reservation period.
It happens in all zones.
After my OP, I did notice a DL to the WoW retail client that was longer than usual … but then resetting the UI seemed to fix it, so I assumed it was just a hotfix or something.
After I took your advice and reset my UI, everything was grand! I reinstalled a fresh Titan Panel, reconfigured it and played for a while … everything worked well. I reinstalled a fresh Altoholic and reset it for all my characters … playing for a while with no problems.
The next morning, I logged onto a character in her garrison in WoD and it showed back up. I checked other characters and there was lag on all of them. (Fishing garnered no fish. Channeled spells and abilities would pause everything. Make Loh Go would have Loh spinning a couple times before I could get him to move on. The Collector Tortollan quest … the turtle shells would spin around several times before I could move on.)
The spells/abilities that required channeling could be “awakened” by hitting the A or D (left or right for me) movement key or hitting another hotkey.
The very first time I noticed it was during the Classic Beta, a week or so after I got invited. I was having a grand time slowly leveling my hunter, Calbard, and went fishing. The channeling bar went to the end and no fish. Okay … it was Classic … no fish happened. Then, he lagged during a fight. I reported it as a bug, IIRC. One of my guildies mentioned that you were going to insert spell batching prior to the lag starting. I wondered if that had happened since it directly affected channeling.
Then, I got on retail and experienced it there. It’s the plague!
I played with graphic settings, to no avail. Went back to “recommended”, still lagging. Finally, trying to catch Ionized Minnows … or rather not catching them, I decided to see if you guys had any ideas.
Thanks for anything you can come up with!
This is occurring to me as-well on wow classic and retail. when no input is made on the keyboard or mouse for a second. The game world doesn’t “refresh” and characters run in place and spells do not animate fully. so it looks as the game is lagging.
I tried on an old HP laptop and this does not happen. So i don’t think its a network issue.
I uninstalled and reinstalled and nothing happened.
It’s become constant now for me. If I stop moving, characters will run in place around me, too. I can’t channel or even fish without having to hit the left or right movement keys to break the freeze. It’s a dance that is becoming very frustrating.
So, I tried the game on a Windows OS … same thing. Other games I play? Not an issue. In fact, this issue is also mentioned on the overall WoW Technical Support forum.
Someone there mentioned the “Reduce Input Lag” option while deselecting Vertical Sync and Triple Buffering, I did that … no difference.
I wonder if a week or so after the start of Classic Beta “something” was introduced that affects some of us unfavorably. Something that was once able to be removed by resetting the UI, only to return after the game had been started up again?
Could this “improvement” or “feature” that had been “reenvisioned” be made optional like the “Reduce Input Lag” option in the settings … for those of us who don’t like that dance?
Thanks for any attention you can give this issue!
Everything Morgane is describing is happening to me as well to the “T”
On every character… in any zone… in Classic…
There have been moments where the lag is not present… but then it comes back the next time I lag in…
There is no rhyme or reason to why this is happens…
The only thing that is certain… if I make no inputs into the game… lag will happen…
The game is getting to the point of it being unplayable…actually it is definitely unplayable for any casting class…
Morgane,
Thanks for following up. If this happens on a windows OS as well, that suggests we’re likely looking at a network issue or hardware issue with the PC. Do you happen to have another supported PC lying around that you can test on? If not, does your phone do mobile tethering? What we want to do is test on a different network and a different PC. That’ll help narrow things down.
I wasn’t using BootCamp with Windows on my Mac. I was already using a different PC.
We only have Windows on hubby’s laptop: HP ENVY Notebook, Intel® Core™ i7-5500U CPU @2.40GHz 2.40GHz, 16 GB RAM, 64-bit OS, x64-based processor; Windows 10 Pro, 1809 version, OS build 17763.529; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M.
Does everyone above and in the other forum use AT&T? We also use AT&T on our phones so tethering wouldn’t make a difference, would it?
I’m continuing to play, currently on Classic. Last night, my mage finally had enough spells to make spell batching work and it was beautiful! A series of spells, hit the next spell at the right spot at the end of the casting bar … until she needed to just cast one spell and then lag. Still had the lag issue with everything else.
My point is that spell batching was nice, but not nice enough since the lag spills out into everything else where you don’t have a series or a “batch” of spells/actions/keys to hit.