Mitt Sabo April 9, 2025, 3:43 p.m.

Getting terrible packet loss in Valorant matches - will using the best vpn for valorant actually fix this or just waste money?

Grinding comp for 3 seasons until last month when my connection suddenly went to complete trash. Was stable 35ms ping, now constantly spiking to 200-500ms, rubber-banding, and getting those annoying connection warning icons non-stop.

All other games running fine, just Valorant having issues. Checked everything - ports forwarded, firewall exceptions, QoS settings, even ran network tests during matches showing packet loss hitting 25-40% randomly.

ISP claims "everything normal on our end" but I'm 99% convinced they're throttling Valorant traffic specifically. Buddy suggested trying a VPN to route around whatever my ISP is doing, but seen mixed opinions online about whether this actually helps or just adds more latency.

Don't wanna drop cash on something that makes it worse. Anyone actually fixed similar issues with a VPN? Which ones don't add their own lag problems? Currently Diamond 2 but about to derank hard if this continues - literally impossible to win gunfights when your character teleports mid-spray.

cygonij April 9, 2025, 10:57 p.m.

Lemme save u $$$... VPN ain't fixing ur problem bro. Had identical issue last szn - turned out my ISP (Cox) was secretly throttling gaming traffic during peak hours. Called 6x, kept getting "we don't throttle" BS until finally threatening to switch providers. Magically fixed same day. They KNOW what they're doing. Document everything before calling

ExisTenZ April 10, 2025, 12:18 a.m.

My teammate had EXACT same symptoms (Spectrum ISP). We literally tracked his ping spikes by the minute - 7PM-11PM every night, perfect connection all other times. VPN completely solved it. Don't listen to the anti-VPN crowd.. they work when ISP traffic shaping is the root cause. Still adds 5-10ms overhead but WAY better than random 300ms spikes

dnal7s April 10, 2025, 2:22 p.m.

VPNs sometimes help because: 1) they encrypt traffic preventing ISP inspection/throttling and 2) can find less congested routes. HOWEVER - they introduce their own stability issues. Try running traceroute during packet loss, identify where hops are failing, THEN decide if VPN likely helps your specific bottleneck

PLEizY April 11, 2025, 7:02 p.m.

everyone suggesting complicated fixes but nobody asking the obvious - u tried different ethernet cable yet? fixed my "impossible lagging" that had me ready to quit. $8 cable > $100+ in subscriptions. start simple THEN escalate

Davidjonser April 12, 2025, 10:12 p.m.

Riot support actually told me they're seeing massive increase in these exact complaints since last patch. Something changed server-side that's affecting specific ISPs/routes. They denied it was their problem for weeks until enough tickets piled up. Check the dev tracker - they're "investigating" now. VPN might be temp solution but wait for proper fix

owuu April 13, 2025, 8:31 p.m.

bruh i stg u described my EXACT situation from last month!!! was about to yeet my pc out the window after getting one-tapped by iron players because my agent kept freezing. tried everything under the sun until my buddy let me test his SurfShark account which fixed it instantly. not saying it'll work for everyone but saved my mental + rank

Female_wolf April 14, 2025, 11:49 a.m.

Forget VPNs, your problem is almost definitely buffer bloat. Google a buffer bloat test - bet you'll score F grade during gaming sessions. Your router's buffer filling up during gameplay = massive ping spikes. Enable SQM QoS if router supports it or get router that does

Nokiatoo1s April 14, 2025, 9:44 p.m.

holy SHIT dude you're a legend!!! ran that test - got "F" rating exactly when valorant stutters!!! followed the guide to setup QoS and like magic 100% fixed. never heard anyone mention this before despite posting on 3 different discords. owe you my rank fr 🙏

kliker777 April 16, 2025, 1:17 a.m.

Saw ur post history - u mentioned having Xfinity gigabit right? Their new "advanced security features" royally mess with Valorant specifically. Disable that garbage in ur account settings. They push it as "protection" but it's just DPI that breaks games. Source: happened to our entire 5-stack last month

stepdim April 20, 2025, 7:35 p.m.

Most ISPs implement network neutrality violations that specifically targets UDP gaming traffic during network congestion periods. This is why a VPN can sometimes help—it encapsulates your gaming packets inside encrypted TCP tunnels that bypass the traffic shaping algorithms

riopectende April 25, 2025, 11:27 p.m.

I work @ major ISP (won't say which). We absolutely throttle gaming traffic. It's not called "throttling" internally - it's "network optimization" or "traffic prioritization" but same result. VPNs work if they successfully disguise traffic type. We can't target what we can't identify. Sorry for truth but that's reality