Over the past two months, I’ve consistently experienced 4-7 second freezes during arena (mostly I playing pvp). There were only 2-3 days during this entire period when freezes were absent or minimal. Otherwise, they occurred regularly—at least 1-2 times per arena.
I tried everything imaginable:
Disabling addons; Lowering graphics settings to the minimum; Reinstalling the game; Removing Game Bar; Rolling back graphics drivers via DDU; Switching between windowed and fullscreen modes; Disable game sound; Following all forum advice.
Nothing helped.
People on US forums noted that during freezes, the character continues moving and casting on the server, but the player experiences a delay. After 5-6 seconds, all “missed” actions happen instantly. It became clear the issue might be related to the connection—not the internet itself, but specifically how the WoW client exchanges data with the server. The client sends data without delay (your actions go through), but it stops immediately processing incoming packets—they get stuck or accumulate somewhere within the client.
A Game Master advised someone who identified this issue to:
-
Disable “Optimize Network for Speed” in-game.
-
Run the following commands sequentially in cmd:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset -
Set WoW’s priority to High in Task Manager.
Additionally, based on ChatGPT advice:
4. Run the command:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled
The user who originally tried these reported that the steps (Except for the fourth one, it is written by me here) resolved the freezes for two days before they returned.
In my personal case, I performed all the above steps, plus an additional action - further information in this paragraph is useless for most - due to my specific connection method (using my phone as a mobile Wi-Fi modem). Previously, I played this way during the last two DF seasons without issues, but since returning, I have a new phone (same operator). Suspecting the phone could be part of the issue, I switched from Wi-Fi hotspot to USB tethering.
Immediately after completing these actions and restarting my PC, the freezes disappeared entirely that same evening. It remains to be seen if this will only last two days, as happened with the other user—I will update accordingly.
Unfortunately, I performed all the above steps simultaneously, so I cannot determine precisely which step resolved the issue for me. However, the direction of the problem is clear: it lies within network connection handling, at least for some users.
Additionally, some users recommend trying to connect via VPN.