When I purchased this game when it came out I would never go above 18 ms, now I sit around 32 and if i play with my friend from Chicago i go up to 75-80 (im in California). I have higher internet speed then most, running a speed test on my desktops LAN connection i get 260 mbps download and 12 mbps upload. Any ideas how to lower in game ping more?
Hi, I’m a volunteer/fellow player, and I don’t work at Blizzard.
Your connection speed at home via speedtest has little to do with what your latency will be when connect to the servers, unless it’s grossly under-performing at dial-up speeds.
The first increase in latency from 18ms to 32ms is likely due to a couple of factors:
- Overwatch combined two of the connection stats into one metric a while ago; so instead of RTT and Ping, we now have LAT. As a result, this value is inflated by 10-15ms.
- Your ISP may have changed a portion of the route you use to reach the server, sold part of their route, outsourced part of the route, or has more customers using them, any of which can add to your overall latency.
Your current LAT value of 75-80ms sounds right for connections going from LA to ORD1 (Chicago), because you’re probably playing on the Chicago server when you group with your friend. And just because I’m trying to anticipate your next question, there’s no way to pick the server you’ll both play on. Instead, it’s determined by factors like:
- where both players will get acceptable ping
- the ranks of other players online in both areas
- availability of players choosing the same modes as you, etc.
I hope that clears things up, but if not, I’m tracking this thread and will try to answer any other questions, or you can always open a ticket with the staff. 
Thanks for the reply, the 75-80 ms is what really sucks because i mainly play hitscan and it’s noticeable. I was just hoping for some kind of tweak that could give me 10-20 ms back.
While Blizz doesn’t endorse or support VPNs (meaning they won’t recommend any, and they won’t troubleshoot your connection if you use one), you are still allowed to use them. I just don’t think you’re going to get much better ping than that. I am in Florida and my ping to LAX is 76-80ms, so it just stands to reason you won’t be able to shave much off from what you’re getting now.