Character freezes, then the game catches up and runs really fast.

Hello,

One thing I could recommend looking into on your end is running a winMTR trace and getting back to me with the results. For more info on that, please checkout the following link: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/361292

The IP to run that against for Xbox is whichever location is closest to you if you decide this is something you'd like to investigate further on your end as it sounds like this may be an ISP issue.

"

Jeff, I'm an idiot. How the heck do I run that? I've downloaded the winMTR to my laptop and used the ip you entered but the list is empty. I believe it's the most recent version.

Try right-clicking it and selecting "Run as Administrator".

If you're experiencing server connection issues I would recommend trying a wired connection if you aren't already on one. If you still experience connection issues and are using a wired connection I would look into running a winMTR to see if you are experiencing packet loss.