Game stutters when NPCs cast <Center>

Whenever I am in a zone with NPC's that cast <Center> my client will freeze for about a quarter of a second when they cast it. (They have to be close enough that I get the cast message from them.. "So and so begins to cast <Center>")

Most of the guards in Erudin do this, and that's where I started noticing the problem. During launch, I chalked it up to the server being busy but now I've narrowed it down to that spell being cast, within range, by an NPC. During our last Vox raid I was voicing my troubles and a couple other people also started to notice what they thought was just "lag" was actually this issue happening to them as well.

I was debating posting this on the bug forums but I've only been having this issue on Phinny.. I created an Erudite on Drinal and didn't have an issue in Erudin. Is anybody else having this issue? Or has anybody had it, and solved it?

I'm operating on a Skylake 6600k, 32GB of DDR4, a 240GB SSD and a Geforce 970 so I'm doubting it's computer related.

Thanks, in advance, if anyone can help me out.

Long shot but try turning off logs with /log. I noticed years ago that logging certain strings would cause me to take massive FPS hits, but never figured out exactly what the cause of it was.

Assuming both erudites were using the same model? Are spell graphics for NPCs on or off?

I just ran my own test on 2 different guards on Phinigel in Erudin waiting for them to Center, one with spell graphics on one with them off. Neither test resulted in causing my game client to stutter. Recording software at the time also reported no fps loss.

This is also on a GTX 970

I actually have the same problem when I'm in felwithe and the guards buff and I also have a pretty decent system

Not sure if it's center specifically (I'd have to go back and check) but when I was in CT this same thing happened. And the same hitching occurred in Permafrost. There are npcs in both of these zones that definitely cast a center-line buff on themselves. For me, this is a very recent thing, like maybe as of the last patch, possibly.

It's been doing this since Ragefire launch at least.

Sentinel was more fun. Could lag the whole zone out.

I've noticed this issue too. Just in freeport, Sir Edwin Mott cast Center and lagged my game.

Can also lend support to this being an issue. Makes Permafrost a bit of a pain.

I've seen this in Permafrost for the last week or two. It bugs me, but I -u-me-d it was just my system.

can only say this STILL happens... even when players cast CENTER...

I'm 100 % sure its a cleric spell just not exact cleric spell I will watch closer with my own cleric.

Would really like to see this fixed; uber annoying. Also, it has nothing to do with whether Log is on or not, and nothing to do whether you are near a PC / NPC actually casting. I have this happen in NK all the time when I'm NOWHERE NEAR the buffing NPC's...

I'm sure this is way, way down on the "priority list" though...

It may not work for everyone, but what Ducreux suggested worked for me. Soon as I did "/log off" the problem went away. The instant I turned it back on the problem came back.

Also found this to be an issue, despite a high end system and SSD. Have to love archaic code.

I've had logging off forever and this still happens. On the one i5 where this happens all the time logging has never, even been turned on.

I don't see how logging could in any way affect this, as buffs are not logged...are they?

Plus, there is no log cache or cache flush, every single new item results in a write to the log file.

the npc cast yada yada line goes into the log file too just like everything else you see in your chat window

this "bug" has gotten me killed a few times, last time on a naggy raid... huge stutters didn't get out in time while low hp = splat.

Happened to me during my time on Ragefire. ultimately said screw it and saved my chars UI files and uninstalled then reinstalled.

Been fine ever since. Probably a last resort option, but it did work for me.

I'll try that then, I do have logging enabled on my main system as I log for ragefireprices site. But I'm 90% sure it isn't on the other.

But even if it was logging, you would think that you would see it for other times. Frequently the log is written to many dozens of times per minute, especially in CL. The only hang up I've ever seen is the NPC casting. I've always assumed since it pauses (briefly) the game loop it was a poor occlusion culling thing and the NPC animation for all NPC's in zone were being computed / carried out regardless. In zones where there are no NPC's, it's a non issue. In zones where there are tons (like GFay), it's huge..

Plus, like I said, I'll see the pause even when there are no NPC's in range, and their buffing doesn't show in the console, so there's no way in those cases it's being logged. Yet the system still slows down. This is very evident in GFay. You can be in the south west part of zone and it still stutters. There's no way it should be logging anything about the Kelethin NPC's casing Center, yet when they do it slows the system down.

This happens to me in Skyshrine, a raid zone. Bad bad.

Is this what's happening in Erudin, at the bank? My poor Enchanter always stutters/lags on a beast of a machine when I origin back to that area and run to bank.

Always knew Paladins are the source of all my woes.