Thanks for the reply! Yes, I would assume he's doing that. That's the basic way to burst as far as I know and it's what I do to him, but it doesn't seem to do to him what he does to me, which is to reduce my HP more than half. As noted, my stats are very similar to his, too. Sometimes he is using blackout and that would explain a reduction, but not always. I have managed to figure out that - I think - he's using a primeval fatestealer relic, based on the rate of his affliction ticks, and that likely explains part of it. Ultimately, I think the biggest question I have is according to what rotation or conditions he is using lightning bolt. It doesn't seem to have any place in the rotation as explained in that other thread where I don't have Thundering Blast, Chain lightning, lightning flash, or an opportunity to use volt rush to proc chain lightning, but he does use it during his burst. There's another very strong player I've noticed doing the same thing, unless it's just an alt.

I have been trying to figure out the best way to play Elemental Convection in PvP . Whether it's technically the best or not, it's a playstyle I enjoy. I have found this old thread (https://www.swtor.com/de/community/showthread.php?t=979879) and tried the information suggested there, which has helped, but there are some sorcs on my server who are using Elemental Convection to very strong effect and don't seem to be doing what is suggested there. For example, one of them is doing 12,000 DPS in almost every match. We have almost exactly the same stats, so it isn't that. I've tried looking at parses of games he's in and I can't figure out any kind of rotation or priority system he is using and he doesn't seem to be matching either the suggestions from the link above or the regular PvE rotation priority system. In particular, he's using lightning bolt a lot more than I'd expect from any advice I've found anywhere or what makes sense from my own playing, where there almost never seems to be a time when lightning bolt is the best thing I can use. I'd be willing to just chalk it up to his being more skilled than I, though in years past I was pretty good at putting up top numbers consistently, but what really confuses me is when we are attacking one another. It's like he does 3 or 4 gcds and I am almost dead, whereas I can do twice that and his HP barely drops at all. He just hits extraordinarily hard and I am seeming to hit him very weak and I am not sure why given that our gear is very nearly identical. I've even gone for as many damage reducing skill points as I can and used all the appropriate cooldowns and it doesn't change the dynamic. Any thoughts on the most effective way to play with this tactical?

It's been fine the past two days, looking like this most of the time: https://imgur.com/2pTSdNr Two hops showing 100% packet loss, but not latency spikes or connectivity cut-outs. Not sure what that means, but it is what it looks like when things are working fine. We'll see if it sticks this time.

Well although last night was iffy for a bit, overall the DC VPN has been the one I've gotten the most consistent playability with. It's in fact the ONLY route I can find that doesn't cut out constantly.

That's not actually what was happening. As it turns out the Washington12 node is, as far as I can tell, actually in NJ. Also, only pingplotter seemed to show it more than once. Other similar programs and a standard tracert had it only show up once. Altogether, I'm still not really sure what was/is going on, as it does still show that at time (but not always). I've been having success using a Washington DC based VPN, but tonight that doesn't seem to be working, either, at least not as consistently. I'm not quite sure what the problem is, but it doesn't seem to be particular to a node that is particular to my route to the server. The issue appears, from what I can see and what is being reported by others, to be a node that is very close to the server so that regardless of what route a person is taking many people are passing through there near the very end of the route - and FWIW, the same IP keeps showing up as the first one with significant latency and it's owned by Electronic Arts.

I have had no problem with lag spikes for the entire life of the game from year one until the past month. This past month every night I get horrible lag spikes which make the game entirely unplayable. It goes to tens of thousands of ms latency multiple times every minute. Routing maps are showing that my hops to the servers are all fine until the EA-operated node 159.153.92.98. It's been doing this every single day for a month with one short stretch of a few days where it worked correctly. Connecting through a VPN does not yield anything different.

Is this happening "permanently," as in you cannot get it to work correctly even after exiting and restarting, or is it just happening once?

Yep, that's what it is, but it wasn't just one night. It's been almost every night for a month now, always between around 8:00 or 8:30 and 10:30 or so. From all the discussions online, it seems like this is a problem which is only affecting some people, though the number seems to be increasing if forum reports are any indication.

It's been happening to me for about a month always between about 8:30 and 10:30 PM, whereas the rest of the day it's fine. I've been tracking it with tracert/ping plotter/etc., and it's always fine up until the hop at IP 159.153.92.98, an address registered to EA. If I try to ping the EU server that's in Ireland, the same thing - fine up until one of the last hops at an EA registered IP. It was doing this for a few weeks and then for a week, actually, it was fine and never acted up so I thought it may have been fixed, but for the past week or so it's been worse than ever. It's now literally unplayable.

As noted in the other thread, I have been testing my connection to the server via the use of a VPN to log in "from" various cities across the country. More or less no matter what city the VPN is in, I get the same problem: all of my hops are fine until the IP 159.153.92.98, which is an IP operated by Electronic Arts. Even if I try to log into the EU servers, which are located in Ireland, I *still* have the same thing: all my hops are fine until a node operated by Electronic Arts that is a hop or two from the server. Also, this only happens during primetime each night. The rest of the day it's fine. The only VPN location I can choose which seems to give a stable connection is Washington DC, which on one level makes sense (at least for the US server) because it's very close to the game's servers in Virginia, but on another level seems to support my hypothesis: whatever is going on is something extremely close to the game's servers. I also notice that when I first had this problem a month ago there were very few of us complaining, but this week - when it's been many, many times worse than a month ago - there are many more people complaining about the same thing.

It's been happening to me for a month and always between 8:30 and 10:30 PM. The rest of the day it's fine. I've been tracking it with tracert/ping plotter/etc., and it's always fine up until the hop at IP 159.153.92.98, an address registered to EA. Using VPNs to log in "from" different cities doesn't work, either, so it's not like there's just some broken hardware at an internet backbone site somewhere along the way. Also, if I try to ping the EU server that's in Ireland - which is obviously going over an entirely different route than to go to the EA servers in Virginia, I get the same thing - fine up until one of the last hops at an EA registered IP. It was doing this for a few weeks and then for a week, actually, it was fine and never acted up so I thought it may have been fixed, but for the past week or so it's been worse than ever. It's now quite literally unplayable.

It's been happening to me for about a month always between about 8:30 and 10:30 PM, whereas the rest of the day it's fine. I've been tracking it with tracert/ping plotter/etc., and it's always fine up until the hop at IP 159.153.92.98, an address registered to EA. If I try to ping the EU server that's in Ireland, the same thing - fine up until one of the last hops at an EA registered IP. It was doing this for a few weeks and then for a week, actually, it was fine and never acted up so I thought it may have been fixed, but for the past week or so it's been worse than ever. It's now literally unplayable. I've tried a VPN server in various locations in the US and the only one I've tried that's given a stable connection is Washington DC. Everything else is doing the same thing.

Believe me, I understand, but at the same time we have just tonight a report of someone in LA, in Wisconsin, and the NY based VPN I used all with the same problem, not to mention that when I try to connect to Ireland I get the same thing: every hop is fine until an EA registered IP near the end. The geographic diversity (covering literally the furthest west, smack dab in the middle, and about the furthest east you can get) makes it more difficult for me to imagine the problem is some random node node somewhere - especially when the hop where the latency first spikes is - at least in my case - always registered to EA.

I keep pingplotter up on my second monitor while playing the game, and when my latency spikes to several thousand ms or I get the red X in game, I also see the red bar on pingplotter, BUT I can still load any other website, keep watching or start a new video on youtube without any problem, etc. However, the swtor.com website does take extra time to load in these moments.

No, I am not on a wireless connection. There is not interference between my PC and the internet, either, as it works fine for every other IP I might try to connect to - it is only the SWTOR servers which see that happening, and only at certain times of day. It happens whether there is other internet usage or not, and I see no reason to think bandwidth is a problem: I can stream video on two or three different devices AND play another game without there being any problems with any of it - only SWTOR's servers do this. Those red bars show up when the current latency for the hop where the problems are spikes up. All hops prior - from my PC to my router to my ISP's first node and so on - are still fine even when those red bars are there. It's only the problematic hop which is spiking and causing the red bars.

I am in Wisconsin. I am skeptical of the idea of my ISP helping with something like this - to get into the weeds of routing to one specific IP for one customer out of millions. I am not even sure by what avenue I would approach them about it. I'm also wondering at this point if that's really the issue - although certainly the trace does suggest something like that, on the other hand we're seeing reports of the same problem from people in different parts of the country, and I even tried a VPN tonight going through a different geographical location and had a very similar problem. I also had the same problem when trying to connect to the EU servers, going through a very different route. These things do make me thing it's something that has to do with EA more than some kind of backbone problem.

Now three times: https://imgur.com/a/ulDv4tI

Here it is, though this morning the latency is back to normal. This doesn't mean it won't act up again later. When I was having the problems last week, it was usually okay during the day. https://imgur.com/a/Bz1hb7i By the way, those four 100% PL hops are there all the time, even if everything is working perfectly.

The routing is really strange a this point. The 9th hop is a Level3 node 4.69.220.150. Hop 10 is another Level3 node 4.68.127.133. Then there are two unidentified hops. Then it goes BACK to the exact same Level3 node as the 9th hop, but this time with a large latency and packet losses.

The problem has returned tonight.

My game has actually been back to normal for the past two or three days. I just noticed that I am now being routed through Level3 in Washington rather than Chicago, but I don't think that was the case yesterday.

Everything was great tonight until the past 10 minutes - starting around 10:40 pm EST. This has been the time things stopped having a problem for the past week.

I feel where you are coming from and I agree that at times devs running a game get too much slack from players or don't get the blame they deserve for things. At the same time, sometimes it really isn't anything in the developers' control, in particular when there is an internet backbone issue, and this kind of problem can impact players from certain regions or ISPs but not others. WoW has had this kind of problem before. I have played other high profile MMOs which wouldn't even connect for several weeks at a time all while SWTOR worked fine and even other players in those games had no problem, because the issue was some internet backbone node somewhere run by some company which is not under the devs' control. I don't know if this is such a case or not, but it does happen.

Doing some searching, I am finding a lot of posts (over the past few years) reporting that EA support personnel are telling people that these hops are problems with people's ISPs or that their ISPs need to open up certain ports - in spite of the fact that the problematic nodes are registered to EA. Update: and now it all looks good again, right around 10:45 - 10:50 EST, which is when it seems to start working each night.

At this point I'm confused as to how I can be having a problem with one of the EA nodes while others are not.