LatencyGuard

A lightweight, set-and-forget tuner for your Spell Queue Window — it adapts to your ping so your combat always feels snappy.

Overview

The Spell Queue Window is a hidden game setting (SpellQueueWindow) that controls the "buffer time" the game gives you to queue your next ability before the current one finishes. Set it too low and your rotation feels clunky and drops casts; set it too high and you lose precise control. The catch is that the ideal value depends entirely on your world latency — which changes from zone to zone, fight to fight, and day to day.

LatencyGuard solves that for you. It monitors your world ping and continuously recalculates the optimal queue window — your ping plus a safety margin, with optional jitter-aware widening when your connection is unstable.

Set-and-forget — no math, no /console commands, no guessing. It just keeps the right value applied.
Adaptive — recalculates from live world latency via GetNetStats(), aligned with how Blizzard routes combat input.
Combat-safe — never touches a protected CVar mid-fight; pending changes are deferred until combat ends.
Performance-first — event-driven with a low-frequency maintenance tick, local caches, and a change threshold so it only writes when it actually matters.
Native settings — a clean options panel built on Blizzard's own Settings API.

Installation

Via an addon manager (recommended)

CurseForge — search for LatencyGuard and install.

Manual

Download the latest release from the Releases page.
Extract the LatencyGuard folder into World of Warcraft\_retail_\Interface\AddOns.
Restart the game (or /reload if already in-game).

There's nothing to configure to get the benefit — LatencyGuard starts managing your Spell Queue Window the moment you log in. Tweak the behavior anytime with /latencyguard or /latguard.

Getting Started

Command	Description
`/latencyguard`	Open the options panel
`/latguard`	Open the options panel (short alias)
`/latencyguard status`	Print diagnostic ping/SQW state (for bug reports)

It runs silently in the background. Enable SQW Update Messages in settings if you want chat lines when the window changes.

Features

Automatic Tuning

Adaptive Spell Queue Window — sets SpellQueueWindow to worldPing + margin, clamped 100–400ms (Blizzard default is 400).
Jitter-aware margin — when enabled, adds 2 × σ to your safety margin based on the last 25 world-latency samples; widens the queue when ping is unstable, tightens when stable.
Change threshold (hysteresis) — only rewrites the CVar when the target moved meaningfully, avoiding churn from tiny fluctuations.
Latency discovery — briefly polls after login until GetNetStats returns a valid world reading, then settles into a 30s cadence.

Combat Safety

Deferred writes — SpellQueueWindow can't be changed while you're in combat. If an update is due mid-fight, LatencyGuard flags it and applies it the instant combat ends (PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED).
Midnight-ready — built for the current client, with a defensive guard against the 12.0 Secret Values model so a future API change can never break the addon.

Options

Automate Spell Queue Window — the master switch. When off, LatencyGuard stops all adjustments immediately and leaves your CVar alone.
Safety Margin — base headroom added to world ping (default 100ms).
Adaptive Jitter Margin — on by default; adds 2 × σ when latency variance is detected (needs 3+ samples).
Chat Feedback — optionally print a line when the queue window changes, with base + jitter breakdown.

Localization

Ships with translations for enUS, deDE, esES, esMX, frFR, itIT, koKR, ptBR, ruRU, trTR, zhCN, and zhTW, with a graceful English fallback for any missing strings.

Configuration

Open the panel with /latencyguard or /latguard (or through the Blizzard AddOns settings). The main page explains what the Spell Queue Window is and why the addon exists; the Options subcategory holds the live toggles:

Setting	Default	What it does
Automate Spell Queue Window	On	Enables/disables all automatic adjustments
Adaptive Jitter Margin	On	Widen margin when connection latency is unstable
Safety Margin	100ms	Base headroom added to world ping
Enable Chat Feedback	Off	Print a line each time the spell queue window is updated

All settings apply live — there's nothing to reload.

How It Works

Measure — GetNetStats() world latency (combat path; home is shown in status only). Refreshes ~every 30s.
Calculate — target = worldPing + safetyMargin + (2×jitterσ when adaptive), clamped to 100–400ms.
Compare — apply when target moved 40ms+ since last write, or the game value drifted 40ms+ from target.
Apply — SetCVar only out of combat; deferred to PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED.

Jitter σ is measured from the last 25 world-latency samples (~12 min at steady ping). Needs 3+ samples before adaptive margin applies.

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports and ideas are welcome! Open an issue or a pull request. When filing a bug, including your client version, your typical world latency, and a /reload-able repro helps a ton.

Support

Appreciate the work that goes into LatencyGuard? Consider showing your support:

PayPal — paypal.me/KkthnxTV
Patreon — patreon.com/Kkthnx
Battle.net / Balance — Kkthnx#1105 or JRussell20@gmail.com
In-game gold — Kkthnx on Area 52 (US)

License

Released under the MIT License.

Developed and maintained by **Josh "Kkthnx" Russell**. Built with love for a snappier combat feel.