Are there any tricks to surviving lag spikes?

Question

All day today I've been plagued by terrible lag spikes - the game just won't respond to my input for 10-15 seconds at a time. I imagine the high demand for the game is causing everyone issues.

I think if I continue attacking, that the attack commands are executed once everything returns to normal - everything seems to fast forward as if all of my attacks had been fired at once. It seems like, if so, continuing to attack even though I'm not seeing any effect would be beneficial. It could just be psychological, however. Is this actually helping?

Are there any other tricks to surviving bouts of extreme lag?

Answer 1

What class are you, and also what type of game? Needless to say, don't play hardcore when you're lagging.

Suggestions to deal with a lot of lag in normal (SC) games:

• Play a pet class if you have that alt (ie. WD). Pets shouldn't be affected by lag issues since the server will control them.
• Use auto targeting skills instead of those that need to be manually aimed: Mobs may be somewhere else from where you think they are
• Use AoE skills - same as above, also if you hit anywhere close to your target it should still damage them
• Recruit follower if playing alone: Even if normally you'd avoid one to prevent pulling aggro, in this case you may do that yourself so having an extra tank/distraction is useful
• Team with someone who isn't lagging :p : I think chat is unaffected by game lag, so they can atleast tell you to gtfo if a horde of demons swamps the group and you can't see them on screen.

Answer 2

Just click the Esc button to pause the game (if you are playing single player) and wait for the lag to go away!

Answer 3

Run away!

When I see myself stop launching attacks when clicking and I realize there's a lag spike, I simply hightail it out of there. Since I'm a Demon Hunter I also try to leave some traps behind while running, but I think the key is running away.

I used to stay and launch a couple of attacks first, but that just proved to be too dangerous. I usually just run away until the lag spike passes - and then I TP and leave the game to do something else, hoping that later it will sort itself out. The frustration of playing while lagging is just not worth it.

Answer 4

If you keep attacking it can help, since the actions will be queued and executed when the lag spike resolves. The problem is that you cannot be completely sure of the position of your enemies, so the results can be that you were shooting at thin air, or that you were being surrounded and pounded on, finding yourself dead at the end of the spike.

As others have suggested, running away is your best option, possibly towards a place you have already cleared. If it's an isolated event, wait until it passes; if you're experiencing network problems it's probably better to stop playing.

If you still want to keep playing, do it at a slow pace, just as if you were playing HC, or even slower; jsut aggro one pack at a time, and if you find yourself in a sticky situation run like hell!