High Ping in LoL? Here's How to Fix it! | RiftFeed
High APM is no use, when your ping is high as well.

High Ping in LoL? Here's How to Fix it!

More 15-02-2023 17:50
Azir Classic
Imagine playing Azir on 200 ms | © Riot Games

Two things are in charge of whether you have a chance of having a good League of Legends game. Of course, we are talking about FPS and ping. Of the two, ping issues are far more prevalent. So if you're struggling with your ping, we're going to show you how to fix high ping in LoL.

Ping is the time it takes your data packets to reach the target server, in this case, a Riot server, and return to you. For that reason, in your upper right-hand corner, while in-game, you will see that ping is labeled as “ms”, which stands for millisecond.

How to See Ping in LoL?

Unless a ping spike is enormous, sometimes players cannot notice whether they are, in fact, spiking before it's too late and that combo move has not gone through as well as it should have. To turn on FPS and MS indicators in League of Legends you need to:

  1. Open Client Settings
  2. Open In-game Options - If you’re doing this in-game, this will already be open
  3. Open the Hotkeys tab
  4. Click on the Display Options
  5. Set a hotkey to Toggle Display FPS.
Ping indicator toggle
It's more prudent to do it immediately in the Client | © Riot Games

This can also be done in the middle of a match, by holding down CTRL + F. This way, in the upper right corner of your screen, just below the K/D/A, you will see your ping and FPS displayed!

What is a Bad Ping in LoL?

No obvious parameters can point out whether you have good or bad ping in any game, and the same goes for League of Legends. However, ping can be categorized in relation to what the average player experiences:

  • 30 ms or lower is considered above average ping for online gaming,
  • From 30 to 50 is widely considered above average,
  • Anything from 50 to 100, and beyond even, will have players experiencing significant lag.

Based on this, you can see whether you are in the average bracket, and likely have no issues with your games, or your ping is influenced by something else, causing it to go sky-high.

What Causes Bad Ping in LoL?

As with any online game, League of Legends included, there are multiple reasons that cause your Ping to be higher than your FPS. Which is not a good thing, ever! Most of these, fortunately, have solutions that take care of the issues:

CausesBad Ping
Outdated PatchIf you find that sweet spot in the middle of a patch being implemented, and start a game of League with the past version, then you will surely find yourself with a high ping!
Router IssuesThis one is a no-brainer. The router is our connection to the world wide web, and yes we feel our age saying that. In any case, router issues can cause you to have ping spikes, to outright disconnecting from the game.
Bandwidth Consuming ApplicationsPlaying League while there are other applications open in the background could be eating away at your bandwidth, which will make you experience high ping.
Proxy and VPN servicesWhile League of Legends can run on proxy servers and VPNs, there is a chance that you can experience high ping when using these.

While these are not the only reasons your ping can be high to the point of unplayability, they are the ones you can directly influence, and get those pentas you dream of!

High Ping in LoL: Solutions to Fix:

Even a single moment of bad luck is enough to ruin a 30-minute game in League of Legends. All you have to do is give that Draven first blood, and your lane, and game, are done for. Here is how to make sure that doesn't happen. or at least, make sure it's your fault completely if it does!

Close the LoL Client During LoL Matches

We know that the Client is the cause of a great deal of broken keyboards all over the world, even more, than annoying champions are. One of the things it can influence is your ping while in-game. You can have the League of Legends Client close by itself at the start of every match easily:

  • Go into the Client Settings,
  • Open the General Options
  • Select one of three options under the “Close Client during game” tag
Client close
Begone, spaghetti code | © Riot Games

Once this is done, after the pick and ban phase of every League of Legends match, when the game starts loading in, the Client closes automatically and reopens once the game has concluded. It's also a useful option for those that have issues with FPS, as well.

Clear Out Your Bandwith

One quick fix that can be implemented as soon as you die in-game, due to high ping, is closing background processes in the Task Manager, that use up a lot of your bandwidth:

  1. Open task Manager
  2. Click on More Details
  3. Open the Processes Tab
  4. Click on the Network Tab to list processes by their network usage
  5. Close all background apps that use too much bandwidth

Usually, players forget that, even when not downloading anything, applications such as Steam, for example, can take their toll on your bandwidth. If your internet connection is overburdened, this should be a fix to your problems. Merely list apps by bandwidth usage, and close the non-essential ones.

Disable Proxy and VPN Services

There is a running theory that VPN can actually help your bad ping, by making your data packet to take a more direct and less congested route to the target server, and back to you. However, that is only in theory, and in practice, it's not that clear cut. Just like climbing LoL ranked.

Usually, the case is that they influence your ping in a bad way instead. That is why it's prudent to turn them off before a game:

  1. Go to your setting and click Network & Internet
  2. Go onto the Proxy tab
  3. Move toggles of "Automatically detect settings" and "use setup script" to off
  4. Disconnect from VPN
  5. Launch LoL

Besides, if you have the money to be spending on a subscription for a VPN, you're better off getting a better internet subscription instead.

Use Hextech Repair Tool

The end-all-be-all solution to all of your League of Legends problems is a small yordle with a wrench in his hands. Of course, we are talking about Heimerdinger and the Hextech Repair Tool that he represents.

Heimerdinger 0
Look, man, you're better off reinstalling the game than having me replace these parts | © Riot Games

The Hextech Repair Tool will help you detect whether the game itself is the cause of your issues, and replace the corrupted files if that is the case. If it's not capable of doing that, then it will send Riot Games a packet containing the information regarding the state of your game, that will help Riot Support to resolve your issues.

Using an Ethernet Connection

Sometimes, the issue is not with your internet provider, your computer, or your game, but your geographical location. The most important thing when playing online games is not to merely have good ping, but for it to be stable, and not spike randomly.

Connecting your PC to the router directly, and using Ethernet is a far better option than using Wi-Fi. Especially if the router is far away from your PC.

Rijad Kamberovic

Graduating from Sarajevo university in 2020, with a Bachelor's Degree in Islamic Theology, I never believed that my fascination with comparative religions and their myths would mesh so well together with the fantasy genre of the video games I play....