Lag since 1.8. Can't play

Ok so, I've made a few posts in forums and Discord support over the past months since 1.8 came out, no solutions yet. Lag is unplayable in TSW since 1.8 release. I've done everything client-side possible to help even though most of them don't make sense, so problems on my end can be safely ruled out. Additionally, I have no issues (and never have) with any other online thing of any sort including battlenet D2 and other mods like Path of Diablo, MMOs, other ARPGs (Path of Exile, Wolcen etc), streaming (Youtube and such)... anything. This is everything I've done:

Picked best ping game server using tool on the forums, output as follows:

Top 5 average pings:
GS51 Dallas, United States [us] .......... 14
GS10 Texas, United States [us] ........... 15
GS24 Dallas, United States [us] .......... 16
GS11 Georgia, United States [us] ......... 33
GS22 Atlanta, United States [us] ......... 33

Crazy low pings. I've tried all of these and every other GS in the US. I'm located in East Texas.

Continuing:

Complete fresh reinstall of D2 and median (even cleaned the registry of everything median after uninstall)
Used TCPoptimizer to optimize my network adapter
Disabled game sound
Set up game with cnc as instructed in 2.0 patch notes
Opened the ports D2 uses on my router
Disabled unused network protocols on my network adapter
Restarted modem and router
Restarted PC
Some more stuff I can't think of.

ISP routing issues can be safely ruled out as well. If something was wrong there, I would have problems with normal Blizzard battlenet and Path of Diablo, and really any other sort of online service. The hops to the ISP are clearly working perfectly fine, which is the "ISP routing issue" end of that argument. As the Median server ping tool indicates, my connection to the servers is superb. Sub 20ms connection? That's insane, any other game I play is 60+.

Again, this has been happening since 1.8, so it's not isolated to the 2.0 problems that seem to be plaguing the game right now. I would just play SP like I've always done, but I'm not risking a character lockout from inventory issues.

Something is clearly wrong on the server end of Median and all of the support I've gotten so far deflects that, referring me to the same steps I've already done (most of which have nothing to do with network connectivity).

I understand that this is free, so I expect nothing and sincerely appreciate the Median team for the entertainment I've enjoyed since the mod was conceived (I've been playing since the beginning).

I just want to know once and for all, is there any hope that I'll be able to play this mod again? Or should I just give up and move on for good?

Forgot to add, I'd like to try a trace route to the servers and would be willing to call the ISP to investigate routing issues anyway, but that's impossible without the GS IP that I'm trying to connect to. And those are understandably protected secrets, so that solution can't be pursued.

Ok then, I derped a bit. netstat -n populates the IP address of the server, so I did a trace route to the server. TONS of lag AFTER leaving my ISP. Like a lot. Whatever twelve99 is, I'm assuming the network that Median uses? They're all .net addresses, so I'd assume it's private. I've omitted IP addresses below, but you can clearly see that there's some serious network problems post-ISP. This basically confirms that the problem is Median-end. Hopefully someone that can do something with this information sees this.

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms router.asus.com
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 28 ms 9 ms 16 ms xxx-xxx-xxx-x.suddenlink.net
4 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.suddenlink.net
5 15 ms 13 ms 13 ms dls-b23-link.ip.twelve99.net
6 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms atl-b24-link.ip.twelve99.net
7 45 ms 45 ms * ash-bb2-link.ip.twelve99.net
8 * * 137 ms prs-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net
9 135 ms 135 ms 135 ms ffm-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net
10 140 ms 136 ms 134 ms ffm-b5-link.ip.twelve99.net
11 134 ms 249 ms 230 ms anexia-ic327209-ffm-b5.ip.twelve99-cust.net
12 136 ms 137 ms 139 ms ae0-0.bbr02.anx25.fra.de.anexia-it.net
13 185 ms 136 ms 141 ms ae1-0.bbr01.anx84.nue.de.anexia-it.net
14 247 ms 160 ms 136 ms netcup-gw.bbr01.anx84.nue.de.anexia-it.net
15 * 340 ms 324 ms tsw.vn.cz

Just curious, but have you tried using a VPN? From what I understand btw, the ping to the actual realm isn't really that important/shouldn't affect gameplay, due to the way gameservers and the realm work.

yep, can't play either. can't hit anything, bugs, character goes invisible. want to kill ubers but it's impossible like this. didn't have issues in 1.8 however