TESTER RANT!
FIX IT!
TESTER RANT!
This article that Blizzard keeps referring everyone to is CRAP!!! https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/32613
After turning everything on and off, fiddling around with everything, and doing almost everything it told me to do, it still does not work. Changing network security and proxy settings is one of the stupidest things any company has ever suggested. WOW is one of the most hacked games, and hackers love to find users. No matter how much I love it, there is no way I’m turning my security down for this game. I have set up my Windows Protocols correctly so they know to trust the WOW servers.
On one of the Tuesday updates in late February, I was severely hacked on my home computer. Somehow on that day, hackers put a virus on my router. First time I’ve been hacked in over 16 years. A new computer and a new router later, I could finally get back up and running. The virus on my laptop resulted in hackers getting the last six digits of my computer’s Universal ID Code, resulting in the new super duper computer.
I have always used Netgear routers. Working with their team, we did a lot of verifying what happened and how the virus got set. We know the day, just not when. The one thing I did to ensure the other hackers would not get in again, downloaded the Netgear Nighthawk app on my phone so I could see the traffic coming in and out of my computer. I also signed up for Netgear’s monitoring program.
This has been a positive thing because I would continue to see the DOS attacks on my home network for about two weeks after I reset my home network with a new router. I would get pings on my phone. They didn’t get through, and the attacks fizzled out within two weeks. No problems there.
I have Xfinity (Comcast). I pay for the highest speed and unlimited data package. So I have no limit, slowing down traffic, or anything else someone may get if they pay for one of the lower level services. I get an average download speed of 448.52Mbps, 23.85Mbps Upload, and the ping is 9ms. That is on my phone, right next to the Wi-Fi router. My computer is connected by ethernet cable. I don’t use Wifi on my home computer. I get a 905.41Mbps download and a 23.66Mbps upload. No problem there.
Nighthawk has shown no attempted attacks on my system in over seven days. Perfect. No problem there.
This disconnecting from the WOW system started this past weekend after downloading the big prelaunch patch. I would have the random disconnects after that download, but I assumed it would be fixed on Tuesday morning. I was wrong; they were not better; they got much worse.
With that said, the last two days have been awful. I will get going, and the second I hit Dragonflight content, my game crashes immediately. Not just “10.0.7” content. All of my characters are now in flight over the Dragon Isles! I just started my level 67 warrior in Dragonflight a few days ago. After frustration with my other three characters, I figured since she had no reason to be in the Forbidden Reach content, she’s also not level 70; I would work with her. Using portals, I brought her over from Bastion because she is still finishing SL content. I had enough time to pick up the weekly quests, and then I headed for the Dragonscale Basecamp using the FLIGHT MASTER, not my dragon. Then the game crashed with the same error.
I have done everything suggested in the above post for two days. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software, including the Battle.net launcher. I have launched the Launcher in administrator mode. I turned off all my add-ons. I renamed folders. EVERYTHING that has been mentioned, suggestions, and blamed for these crashes. Scan and repair multiple times.
The one thing I had not done was check my network traffic. I have two separate routers in my home. About an hour ago, I made all my kids turn off their phones and moved all the TV connections to the other router. I made the kids take their internet traffic (Youtube, Final Fantasy, and Halo) and move those to the other router. This is the typical setup in my house, TVs going, Discord, my husband and I playing WOW, and the kids playing their entertainment. (Two of the three are over 18, so they don’t need me to monitor them!)
Then with all the new changes, including resetting WOW for the third time today - YES, everything uninstalling and reinstalling, deleted folders, and everything else you can imagine. All add-ons are turned off. I went to Task List Manager and turned off every other application and background service running on my computer to ensure no complications. I even made sure Curseforge and Overwolf were off. I noticed on the Nighthawk traffic meter it had been up and down all day yesterday and today during the hours I was trying to get the game to work.
Please remember, my computer is connected by Ethernet directly to my router. I reset the router traffic meter on my phone and launched WOW on my new I9 with an Nvidia 3070 card and 64GB Ram. There is also over 4TB of disk space. It’s not the computer. I even have all the updates to Windows 11 I should have. The UEFI is just fine! The laptop is not the issue either.
I was allowed to finish the flight to the Dragonscale Basecamp. I wanted to test the system but didn’t want to risk dying over the Obsidian area, so I took off toward the Plains. The building of download data was showing. The computer screen shows the little green ball at the top saying Blizzard is trying to download something.
I started my flight and crashed—more spikes in the downloads but then the hard Blizzard crash screen. I rebooted after I saw the traffic meter stop climbing. I turned off WOW and ensured no processes were happening in the background. I brought the Blizzard launcher back on as an administrator. Relaunched. I made sure there was no update needing to be downloaded. I launched the game and logged into my character. I stayed low, just enough to reach the Centaur camp. But just as I was about to land it crashed me out again! I look at my Traffic Meter. Each time it shows the data download, it shows additional spikes. I can continue to see it every time I get on.
I went and made sure all of the add-ons I had were turned off. They were, but there were some stray files. Okay, I deleted every one of them. A hard deleted. Not a Curseforge delete, a hard delete where nothing was there. Launched the game again! I stayed connected long enough to run the flight course. I disconnected with no movement after I stopped to add these notes to this post. I was gone for less than 30 seconds.
Side note: The crashing because of inactivity has become tedious also. I can’t even get a cup of coffee in my kitchen upstairs and return to my character standing out of the way without the system disconnecting me. IS AFK not a thing anymore?
One last try, I logged in and saw the spike in traffic, but I was on long enough to zone back to Bastion. I decided to fly off to get one of the daily quests for anima. I had barely left the stronghold before I crashed again. I’m now getting an error 325, which seems to be related to Player files being corrupted, and I logged back in to try to get my character out of flight and back to the mission table. But all of my interface “Edit” changes are now messed up. They are nowhere near where I had them before, which was pretty much in Classic mode—crashed again!
I’ve had it for the night and quit the game. The 325 crash tells me I must scan and repair it AGAIN! I did look at my Traffic Meter. The data download continued spiking until I completely logged out of the Blizzard launcher. YES, I did check, and no updates are waiting. The scan and repair process was completed with no errors or repairs needed.
We all know through the Blue Post you were going after ADDONS aggressively. That is understandable, considering how some are used for botting, but the ones I use are for informational reasons.
Blizzard has NOT created and will never make an interface that appeals to everyone. Especially not for those of us who want more data. I want to know if I can run from dungeon to dungeon without repairs. I want to see my location, village, etc… that I’m in. Mini-map is not enough. I want to know how much of one specific currency I have. A user has to stop and the most direct hit “U” for reputation and then click on the currency tab to find the answer. That is tedious when you are trying to calculate how much you need and how many more NPCs you have to kill to get what you want! When you add things like Bear Spines as currency, which BLIZZARD doesn’t track or offer the ability to track, it makes the information-driven players not enjoy the game. But there are a few add-ons that you can use that do add that information to your HUD, but they are not BOTS! They are pure Informational UI addons.
Blizzard makes a poor interface. Most of the add-ons out there are add-ons directly related to the interface and information on the game. There is no way you can meet everyone’s needs. The new UI is a positive step but will not work for everyone.
You have for YEARS seriously encouraged, fostered, and cultivated a strong relationship with the Add-on community. We understand the need to combat those culprits who use Add-ons that go against the TOS. Still, you are killing your player base when the results are players, who normally play 10+ hours a day, have played less than three hours in two days because I’ve spent the entire time troubleshooting this issue. (I’m retired - no comments from the peanut gallery, please!)
For the record, I have 30+ years of experience as a computer expert. I have black-and-white box testing, programmed and been a program manager, and been a UI designer and consultant on what makes a UI easier to navigate for the end users. Above all else, I’ve played this game since BETA of 2004! I am not just making claims about testing. I have spent over 16 hours of my time TESTING because, unlike alot of your other players, I know what to look for, and I KNOW this game. They don’t have the time! You shouldn’t have to wait until someone writes a stupidly long post to get your attention!
With whatever secure data packets you are forcing on your users and, from what I can tell, continuous monitoring of your users to make sure they don’t turn on Add-ons, you are going to kill what is now considered one of the best expansions since Legion. You are spiking data downloads. For those that can’t afford the benefits I have, they are going to run out of data on their internet plan before another week goes by.
FIX IT!
Edited - 3/30/2023 for poor use of grammar during writing due to anger!
FOLLOW UP: 3/30/2023
As of the update on 3/28/2023 – this issue seems to have been fixed.*
They may have fixed it or just rolled back some programming.
I have noticed one thing with all posts related to the issue - a majority mention they are taking off on their dragons or in the middle of flying somewhere. My question to Blizzard is, are you trying to finish the programming to allow us to ride our dragons in the old world?
I remember similar issues during Burning Crusades when we first got our mounts and later when you tried to work it so we could fly in the old world.
This is fantastic because everyone agrees that riding their mounts in old content areas seems slow. If you can’t give us our dragons to ride in the previous content, can you atleast match the speed of Dragonflight? I will happily use my Tazavesh Gearglider at the new speeds.
I have another question, and I am posting this to those reading this message.
Is anyone using Windows 11 and/or an I9 chip computer? It’s the newest on the market. A few friends in a fast-paced 1st person shooter game mentioned they were having disconnection issues, and they all had just bought their computers - I9 and Windows 11.
…plus, can’t send a 0 bytes attachment so… sorry!