crash on desktop upon entering "The High Gardens"

I am currently unable to enter the high gardens. The game crashes to desktop every time. I have tried maybe two dozen times now.

What I have tried:
-tried to enter a "new" instance via ctrl-clicking.
-checked client.txt, no useful information that I can see
-several characters, for example from standard league. every one crashed straight to desktop
-removing all cosmetics
-without mercenary member
-verifying integrity via steam
-deleting contents from cachefolder appdata/roaming/pathofexile
-clearing clients config files

Please help, thank you.