PoE Players Getting Insane Lag Spikes

Several players have been experiencing sudden ping spikes during their sessions. What is the cause of these connection problems in Path of Exile?  

It's been more than a month now since the release of the Forbidden Sanctum League, and it has not been a smooth journey. Aside from massive nerfs and other issues, several players are now fuming over getting enormous lag spikes while gaming. While it doesn't seem like everyone is affected, many Exiles have complained that they are experiencing severe connectivity issues affecting their PoE currency farming. 

Players are Reporting Massive Lag Spikes 

Many gamers have expressed their frustrations over the unstable connection to the game. Most of these complaints started during the start of the latest League. Unfortunately, the problem persisted for some players a month after the launch of the Sanctum expansion. It should be noted that only some are affected by this issue, as some can farm PoE items without any connection complications.  

Affected players have reported that these lag spikes happen randomly and last for two to five minutes. Some have mentioned that these ping issues occur almost every hour. Though the duration of the connectivity issues is relatively short, the frequency and interval of when they happen have caused massive inconvenience to the players.  

Other gamers have reported that they experience varying ping depending on the zone they are in. Multiple people have stated that they might get over 1000 ping in the town or hideout, which would then go back down to 5 ms when entering other zones. Due to the irregularity of these spikes, many have assumed that there is an issue on the server side. 

Lag Spikes Affect the Gaming Experience 

These server issues have severely impacted many players who enjoy Hardcore mode in the game. The sudden increase in ping or latency issues is severely detrimental to these gamers since their chances of dying due to lag increase. As many can recall, dying once in HC will automatically downgrade characters to Standard League. 

While this issue has been reported in various servers, the EU region has had this trouble the most. Redditors have discussed how they had to play in other servers to avoid these random insane lag spikes. Regardless, the sudden rise in players experiencing this issue might indicate a system problem on GGG's end. 

Server Issue or ISP? 

The community is divided into players who believe that the lag spikes are caused by a problem on the servers' end and those who think it is the players' ISP. This topic has been a source of fan debate that never seems to end. The lack of official announcements from the devs has not helped clarify the start of the problem.  

As hundreds of players comment on lag spikes threads, most have been advised to run WinMTR and send a ticket. Users are dismayed that this ongoing issue has lasted so long without official dev notes discussing the problem. While some lag spikes are probably caused by ISP routing, there is a high chance that recent ping issues are due to some problems on the servers' end. 

How to Resolve the Ping Issue? 

There is no clear way to resolve the issue since we have yet to determine the actual cause. However, some players have found an alternative way to bypass the problem. Unfortunately, you might need a VPN to do so.  

Some gamers have reported that the issue was resolved by itself, which might suggest ISP issues. However, those who have experienced persistent ping spikes have resorted to playing on other servers. Many players have stated that using a VPN to play in other worlds has temporarily solved their connection issues, which would return whenever they return to their original data center.  

Gamers are highly encouraged to contact their ISP services to determine whether their connectivity issues are from their end. If they diagnose that everything is fine on the users' end, they can send a ticket to the game's technical support center. However, this does not guarantee that the problem will be resolved since GGG still needs to address the issue directly. In the meantime, players should try logging in and test whether they can smoothly farm PoE currency.