3+ minutes to load into town from character select screen

Been having this issue since .4 launch. Every time I want to play and load up the game the first time I wait at least 3 minutes (yes I've timed it). It's happened during the free event and also still after the free event.

Before anyone suggests: game is installed to a very fast top of the line SSD. Yes I've uninstalled and reinstalled. Yes I've deleted shaders folder. I have gigabit internet and a top of the line PC. Yes I've set nvidia shaders to 100gb. Yes I've selected optimized hardware. I've done pretty much every suggestion posted for POE2. I still have not had any change.

NOTE that this is a NEW problem specifically since .4. Yes loading screens have always been an issue. But I never had a 3+ minute loading screen ever once with this game.

What's your CPU/SSD doing during this load time? I've only encountered this issue once, but my CPU and SSD usage were low, fans low, etc.

My guess is it's a server response issue and not an actual loading issue.