Unexpected connection error when changing instances

hi all,

I have played this game for about 100 hours through steam with minimal issues. In the past day or two, preceding the 2.21 update but persisting after it, when i try to join a new instance its hit or miss, with about 75% miss chance, that my game goes to the login screen and it says unexpected connection error. I have no clue what could be causing this, as nothing has changed with my system in this time. I added Path of Exile to my antivirus exception list, verified integrity of the game files, reinstalled, have restarted my system. I saw this issue brought up in an older thread:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/757715/page/2

and i attempted the paging file fix listed there. It worked for about 45 minutes, but the problem has resurfaced. here are my winMTR stats over the occurrence of several of the errors.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| rtr129-93-212.unl.edu - 0 | 551 | 551 | 0 | 7 | 246 | 0 |
| love-c1-te1-5.unl.edu - 0 | 551 | 551 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| brdra-te0-0-0-10.unl.edu - 1 | 543 | 541 | 1 | 57 | 1267 | 457 |
| r-equinix-isp-xe-1-0-0-2909.wiscnet.net - 0 | 550 | 550 | 17 | 62 | 1335 | 336 |
| te1-7.bbr01.eq01.chi01.networklayer.com - 1 | 539 | 536 | 17 | 90 | 1272 | 391 |
| ae20.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com - 1 | 542 | 540 | 36 | 72 | 1507 | 158 |
| ae5.dar01.dal06.networklayer.com - 2 | 527 | 521 | 36 | 56 | 1235 | 152 |
| po1.fcr01.sr02.dal06.networklayer.com - 4 | 491 | 476 | 36 | 131 | 1378 | 341 |
| 7c.c9.f617.ip4.static.sl-reverse.com - 1 | 535 | 531 | 37 | 72 | 1524 | 168 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider


and here is my system information via dxdiag

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 3/11/2016, 10:35:19
Machine name: JT-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.160211-0600)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: Z68A-D3H-B3
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8110MB RAM
Page File: 4331MB used, 11885MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 560
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1201&SUBSYS_14603842&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4051 MB
Dedicated Memory: 979 MB
Shared Memory: 3071 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: SL231DPB
Monitor Id: HSP16C8
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: HD15


again, i have no idea what could be causing this. I've played for 100 hours with no issue and suddenly this comes through and is making the game nigh unplayable. when I'm gonna successfully load into an instance its almost instantaneous, but if there's any delay at the loading screen it's pretty much gg. any help would be appreciated.

edit- forgot to mention, i played about 10 hours of ascendancy without any issue and then it started happening.

You can see here:

| brdra-te0-0-0-10.unl.edu - 1 | 543 | 541 | 1 | 57 | 1267 | 457 |
| r-equinix-isp-xe-1-0-0-2909.wiscnet.net - 0 | 550 | 550 | 17 | 62 | 1335 | 336 |
| te1-7.bbr01.eq01.chi01.networklayer.com - 1 | 539 | 536 | 17 | 90 | 1272 | 391 |

that there is packetloss and ping spiking forming through the centre of your trace. This shouldn't really cause the issues you describe, but it might be contributing.

What I think may be happening is that the server is trying to push you to a realm or instance that is geographically removed from your current gateway, and the delay between packets being confirmed is causing you to disconnect.

This is something that should be solved when the current server issues are sorted at GGGs end, but other than that I don't really have a lot of suggestions or recommendations.

It COULD be related to the memory leak, if the game is having issues loading new instances into memory for you. To test that, can you add -gc 2 to your shortcut and see if it makes any difference?