Recently, there has been this incredibly annoying lag/freeze issue every time I go to Firestorm Citadel: Blackstone Bridge.
Every single time I go, it freezes at least once during the very beginning of the level, and it kills me or seriously impedes my progress. This most recent time, I basically started the level, then as soon as I hit the party button, the game froze, and when it came back nearly 20 seconds later, my character is lying dead in a pile of Shadow Fire.
This freezing lag thingy issue I don't even know what to call it is so annoying, and I've rage-quit at least six times because of it already.
Every single time I go down to FSC, I should end up fine, but this stupid lag thing gets me killed. My computer usually doesn't lag on anything like this, but only in this specific level has this occurred over and over and over and over again and I am incredibly angry at it.
Freezing issues and lag combined have turned my Firestorm Citadel experience into the Firestorm Shitadel experience.
Maybe the friends you join are hosting the run on a different server than you are on?