'Overwatch' Lag On Consoles? How To Fix High Ping And What Those Orange Symbols Mean

When you’re playing Overwatch on Xbox One or PlayStation 4, the last thing you want is lag. When a Reaper with 10 health manages to get away because your console couldn’t reach Blizzard’s servers in time, you feel defeated (and hopefully don’t break your controller in anger). Here are some potential fixes for laggy consoles and high ping issues and what some of those weird symbols you keep seeing mean:

Lag Symbols- In the upper left corner of your screen, does anything show up when you play? If you see an orange lightning bolt through a circle or three squares stacked on top of each other, that means your game is lagging. Squares means packet loss, or that all the information you are sending the game’s servers isn’t coming back. If you see that bolt, that means the game hasn’t heard from the servers in a bit, which could lead to an unplayable game.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been seeing that little orange lightning bolt whenever I play Overwatch . I use a wireless connection, in a big apartment in the middle of a busy metropolis, so I’m surprised it took this long for the game to screw up. Sometimes I don’t have any problems: my ping is low and the only reason I’m losing is because I’m missing easy headshots. Other times, the game seems to lose it’s mind, teleporting my hero around the screen while I stand there helplessly.

How To Fix Lag On Overwatch- Straight from Blizzard.

• Run A Diagnostics Test- First, you have to make sure your console’s internet isn’t messed up. Here’s how to access your download, upload speed and ping on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 .

• Battle.Net Looking Glass test- Blizzard has their own system that allows you to check if the problem is with your console or their servers. Open this link on your console’s internet browser and a diagnostic should run.

• Wired Or Wireless- An ethernet cord plugged directly into the back of your router and console is guaranteed to make high latency disappear. WiFi is great, but not for fast gaming where every half a millisecond counts. A wired connection is guaranteed to be more stable, so try that if you can.

• Reset Router- Sometimes your router gets clogged up or stops working as well as intended. Reset the device and see if that improves your connection. You can also check your network configuration to see if any firewalls or programs are messing with your internet.

• Check Blizzard Support- Sometimes, Blizzard’s servers go down and there’s nothing we can do about it. Check BlizzardCS on Twitter to see if all of the servers are acting funky or down.

Sadly, my lag problems can’t be fixed so easily. I’ve been playing Torbjorn a lot more just so I don’t have to hear my teammates flame me. Even then, it isn’t always enough. I’ll be hammering the turret on my screen, but the lag is so intense I just end up hitting thin air. It’s aggravating to say the least; I just want to be able to play Overwatch at a semi-competent level without invisible internet problems ruining my day. When I get my next apartment, the router goes in my room so I can plug an ethernet cable directly into my Xbox One.