Known Lag Problems
These problems are reported by real players. If your region or ISP is listed, a network optimizer is likely to help.
Southeast Asia
60-180ms- Players often experience 80-150ms to Singapore gateway due to regional ISP peering gaps
- Some ISPs route SEA traffic through additional hops before reaching GGG Singapore servers
South America
80-250ms- Players outside Brazil often connect to São Paulo server with 100-200ms
- Some South American ISPs route traffic through Miami before reaching São Paulo GGG servers
Middle East / North Africa
80-150ms- No dedicated MENA gateway — players must choose between EU (Amsterdam/Frankfurt) and Asia (Singapore)
- Typical ping to nearest server: 80-130ms to EU
What players commonly report
- Desync deaths in high-tier maps and pinnacle boss fights
- Lag spikes during large monster packs (many entities, many TCP packets)
- Unexpected disconnections during league mechanics (losing progress)
- Auto-select gateway picking suboptimal server
- High ping making lockstep mode feel unresponsive
How to Fix It
Try these first — they're free and solve the problem for most people.
01 Check your actual in-game ping using the F1 overlay
1. Launch Path of Exile 2 and enter a map or town 2. Press F1 to cycle through the performance overlay panels 3. The overlay shows your current latency in milliseconds along with FPS and frame time 4. Watch the latency graph during combat — a flat line is ideal; sharp spikes confirm network issues 5. Note the peak spike value, not just the average — that peak is what kills you in boss fights
This tells you whether your problem is network latency, packet loss, or FPS. If ping is stable but you still feel sluggish in lockstep mode, your base ping to the gateway is the issue — not jitter.
02 Manually select the gateway with the smallest measured ping
1. Open Path of Exile 2 and reach the login screen (do not log in yet) 2. Click the gateway dropdown in the bottom-left or lower area of the login screen 3. Hover over or click each gateway — the current ping to each server is displayed 4. Select the gateway showing the smallest measured ping 5. If two gateways show similar ping (within 10ms), prefer the one geographically closest to you as it will have more stable routing
Many players default to a suboptimal gateway. Auto-select sometimes chooses a server that is geographically close but has poor ISP peering. Manually selecting a closer-measuring gateway can shave 20-60ms off RTT and notably improve lockstep mode responsiveness.
03 Use Lockstep mode if your ping to the gateway is under 80ms
1. In-game, open Settings (Esc menu) 2. Navigate to UI tab 3. Find the 'Networking Mode' option 4. Set to 'Lockstep' (not 'Predictive' or 'Auto') 5. Confirm and re-enter a map to test — combat should feel more predictable with no desync
Lockstep eliminates desync deaths entirely. At 50ms, the added input delay is ~25ms — barely noticeable. At 80ms, it is ~40ms — still manageable for most content. Above 100ms, the felt delay becomes significant and Predictive or Auto is usually better.
General network tips (not Path of Exile 2-specific)
04 Open the required TCP ports in your router/firewall
1. Access your router's admin panel (typically 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1) 2. Find the 'Port Forwarding' section 3. Add TCP port forwarding rules for ports: 6112, 8095, 12995, and 20481 4. Point all four rules to your PC's local IP address 5. Save and restart your router 6. On Windows Defender Firewall, also add outbound allow rules for these ports
Path of Exile 2 uses TCP, not UDP — firewalls and routers often throttle or inspect TCP game traffic more aggressively than UDP. Opening these ports reduces retransmission delays and unexpected disconnections.
Regions with good connectivity
Players in these regions likely won't benefit much from a network optimizer.
- Western Europe — 5 EU gateway options (Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris) — well-covered, most players get sub-30ms
- Eastern United States — Texas gateway provides good coverage; Canada gateway for northeast US and Canada players
Still lagging? The problem is likely your ISP's routing to the game servers.
PingAim detects Path of Exile 2 automatically
No manual config. PingAim identifies Path of Exile 2 by process name and routes it through your fastest connection using a kernel-level WFP driver.