pinging 170 does hurt a bit, but changing up your play-style might help. I don't do very well when I'm playing the classic aggressive twitch fps style. I start rocking when I play aggressive and smart(ish).
I do pretty well on the all-Rush, limited recon servers, but if it starts getting into squad deathmatch I just get wrecked, wookies sniping me from all over hell and I can barely hit anything when I try recon. Seems like the early sniper rifles are terrible, or my ping is hurting me trying to do long distance stuff.