High pings when grouping

Whenever I join a public group, my ping shoots up to 180-200 consistently. Normally, it is around 50 when I run around solo. The only time my ping is in the 50 range while grouped is when I am in town.

Has anybody else had or heard of issues similar to this? Any help or feedback is appreciated.


Edit: So from what I've been told, I can join public groups that are hosted on the other realms (Europe/Singapore) and that's what has been causing my ping to shoot up. Is there any way to turn off that feature? It's dangerous playing hardcore with lag so bad that the game literally stops for ~5 seconds at a time and then catches up with people running all over the place and mobs dying all around me.