POE 2 is "unplayable" with Wi-Fi - Freeze/Stutter -

I used to play using an ethernet cable, but due to my current situation, that isn’t possible for now.

I decided to try playing over Wi-Fi, as I haven’t had any issues with it in other online games. However, it just doesn’t work for POE2.

Even the slightest fluctuation in MS causes the game to freeze or stutter noticeably. Sometimes the stutter is brief, but other times it can last close to a second. Occasionally, I experience no stuttering at all, but those instances seem to rely on a lucky server and are more of a rarity than anything else.

I have a high-end PC with stable 144 FPS and a typical 31 MS ping. However, the spikes make the game unplayable, and there’s nothing I can do on my end to fix it, aside from using an ethernet cable, which isn’t an option right now. It’s incredibly frustrating to try and play like this.

A game designed in this day and age should work well with a Wi-Fi connection. This should be a high priority, even if the game is still in early access, which some seem to use as an excuse.


P.S. I play from northern EU.

I am experiencing the same thing, except my screen freezes for approximately 10-20 seconds at a time. I can still do actions, those are all arriving at super speed after the screen unfreezes again. works fine with cable, never had any issues like this before with other games. Would be great if we got a solution to this.

Exact same here. Never had any issues playing games via wifi, but POE2 is at times really unplayable like this. Screen freezes or the game will pause/unpause automatically.

It seems to be worse at busy times, like in the evenings. Also playing from EU region.

Same here... With ethernet constant 20ms even on maps. With wifi (laptop literaly standing on the very good internet hotspot ) its a stutter/lag fest.

Yea I've been at home for Christmas playing every day using a Internet cable plugged into the router. Had no problems at all. Now I'm back working away from home I only have WiFi in my accommodation, I've just tried poe2 and it's unplayable. The lag and screen freeze is unbearable. So I can only play poe2 once a month when I go back home for a weekend. That's not good.

Wifi is not a stable connection and the game syncs your frame draw to your latency. If you have a hiccup on wifi like a packet loss or ping going haywire, then the game will also stutter. User a wired connection if possible.

I've had much the same issue and, like you, unfortunately a wired connection is, at least for now, out of reach. There's a few steps I've taken that have helped some (though I'm quite far from having eliminated the problem) so I'll share them here, just in case someone else finds this thread and needs similar assistance. Bear in mind, future reader, that these steps were taken on version 0.4 of the game, and may or may not reflect the current most effective solution.

Firstly, I changed my DNS to a public access 'adblocker' DNS in my network settings. This is fairly straightforward to do, most devices allow you to tell them to tell the network what DNS you would like the device to use. On a PC, digging around in your network settings should reveal the correct steps, and searching 'public DNS alternatives' should provide a bevy of options.

Secondly, I restricted my connection to only routing through IPv4 addresses, which is an odd step I'm not totally sure actually had any effect, but was suggested in an earlier thread for the original Path of Exile. I'll not guarantee that this has had anything but a placebo effect, but again this should be a fairly easily found option in your system's network settings.

Finally, I went into the game's files and found 'poe2_production_Config.ini', opened it in a plaintext editor, scrolled down to the [NETWORKING] section and changed the 'networking_type' from 'auto' to 'predictive'. This has definitely had the most impact. To find this file, you need to go into Documents/My Games/Path of Exile 2 (if you are on Linux through Steam, you can find this folder on the same drive as the game under 'steamapps\compatdata\2694490\pfx\drive_c\users\steamuser'; this is where the Proton/WINE prefix for PoE2 lives, and in fact this is a useful place to know more generally, as you can find all your Steam-managed WINE prefixes in the compatdata folder). This has easily had the most impact on my gameplay; I still experience significant lag loading into a hub area, but on solo maps at least, I generally have a smooth experience.

Hopefully this information helps!