Freeze Middle of Bossfights - Game crashing on certain maps

Hello,

I am having some issues with lag and crashes.

Issue 1: Game freezing, ONLY on major bosses

In the middle of almost all major boss fights, the game freezes for a good 15-20 seconds. My friend typically revives me after. The game never freezes otherwise, only during boss fights.

Issue 2: Game crashing on certain maps

The game starts to lag and then crashes after a few seconds on the following maps (ironically, all starting with the letter A):

- Aggorat (Act 3)
- Abandoned Prison (Act 4)
- Arastas (Act 4)

In the case of Aggorat and Abandoned Prison, I was able to log in and quickly teleport to town. My friend then took care of the first map, and I teleported to him when he reached the next map.

In Arastas however, it literally just crash at the loading screen now, and the "login to town" button on the character does not appear, so he's basically just unplayable.

My PC specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-14700K (3.40 GHz)
Asus Prime Z790-P
RTX 4070 Super
32gb ram at 6000 MT/s
Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB
Windows 11 PRO

NOTES:
- I've tried disabling multi threading.
- My PC is not overheating.
- I've tried removing AppData and shader settings as some posts suggest.
- I've tried every possible suggestion I can find online

same or similar issue on 5080 9800x3d fps capped at 100 on default settings. all frames are runnining smooth, temps low