Pretty much the title. (WotLK Classic, haven’t played retail.) Basically, I log in, everything seems fine, but then when I teleport (I play a mage), hearthstone or use a portal (whether self-made or one of the Dalaran ones), or try entering an instance, or really anything that involves a loading screen, the loading screen stops loading right before it’s done – like 95% of the way there. It will then return me to the login screen with typically a WOW51900051 error, but it might take minutes to get to that point so I usually just close the game and start it up again. I log in fine, teleport fine, but then after a few minutes teleporting/loading screens stop working again. Sometimes I just get randomly disconnected in the middle of like, fishing or running somewhere or trying to turn in a quest, with (iirc) the same unhelpful error code, but usually it’s after a loading screen.
It appears to “almost work”, since I lose the runes of teleportation or cause the hearthstone cooldown to start, but after I close the game and log in again I’m back where I started: I pay the price but haven’t moved.
Probably related is an issue where right-clicking on some NPCs to talk to them doesn’t work. I mean by this that I pick up a quest, do it, and come to turn it in, right click on the NPC, and nothing happens, no window. I talk to the NPC right next to him, that works. I talk to the vendor nearby, that works also – except when it doesn’t, but the other vendor works. This is also resolved after a re-log. Whenever it happens I know that “oh, okay, The Issue is happening now, so the next loading screen will hang, so better just relog now”.
And sometimes chatting doesn’t work: today I couldn’t see guild chat or trade chat (resolved after a few relogs, but the problem came back again after yet another relog), a few days ago talking in General didn’t work (I could see messages, but I couldn’t send them – again, fixed after a relog), likewise /say has stopped working a few times (again, I could see messages, but sending them wouldn’t work). Messages would apparently “queue up”, and then suddenly a few that I typed would be sent, but like 5 or 10 minutes later. I think also related is that I can’t join groups sometimes; an invite would come, I’d click “accept”, but nothing would happen, no group.
Needless to say, this has made playing the game very restricted and unenjoyable: I can’t join dungeon groups (both because of the can’t-join-groups thing and the getting-stuck-at-loading-screens thing), I can’t use the features of my class, I have to constantly play around loading screens, and I can’t chat. Recently (yesterday-today) logging in is also getting harder, I have to try a few times before I get to a working character picking screen.
I know the typical steps you will recommend: I’ve done the wiping of the WTF and Cache and Interface directories, I’ve tried reinstalling, my GPU drivers are up-to-date, everything is up-to-date, there’s no spyware running in the background (except for the Agent…), there’s no interference from the antivirus, it is not a firewall issue, it’s not a router issue, and I don’t think it’s an ISP issue either – none of those things have changed, only WoW has. This appears to very much be an issue between WoW and the servers losing track of each other. I’ve had this problem literally for months, I’ve scoured these forums, and reddit, and the tenth page of Google search results. It went away a few weeks ago, and it stayed away for a few weeks, but now it’s back and I’m sad and annoyed. :(
Is anyone having these same issues? I feel like I’m being gaslighted, since there’s nothing remotely recent about this anywhere.
Addendum 2023-08-20: Hmm, it appears to have been something to do with OBS, as the issues have been mostly gone (the “sometimes chatting doesn’t work” issue pops up now and then) when OBS hasn’t been on at all. Having it on but not recording causes problems. When recording, also problems. Starting OBS before WoW, problems. Starting WoW first and OBS later, problems. No OBS, no problems. Guess this is solved then? Not really a satisfying end though – WoW ought to work equally well with OBS on.