minecraft doesn't connect properly

Minecraft doesn't connect properly. The launcher takes too long to load and when it does it says play offline even though I am connected to my Wi-Fi.
My browser and other online services still work properly.
When I try to connect to a server, this appears: Server Connector #1/ERROR: Couldn't connect to server
java.lang.NullPointerException: group
at io.netty.bootstrap.AbstractBootstrap.group(AbstractBootstrap.java:80) ~[netty-all-4.0.23.Final.jar:4.0.23.Final]
at gr.a(SourceFile:247) ~[1.8.1.jar:?]
at bwa.run(SourceFile:59) [1.8.1.jar:?]
I tried restarting minecraft, restarting the PC and restarting the router, I even reconfigured my proxy settings but still it doesn't work.