Should I play on the US servers instead?

mfcostacampos

I'm an EU player, but I keep hearing so much crap about the EU servers (and have recently experienced the tragic ping) that I'm wondering if I should be playing on the NA servers?
Obviously my ping might be a bit higher, but is it at least stable?

Anotherone773

IVe played on the US server 4ish years and i dont have a problem most of the time. I will occasionally get a small lag spike for a few minutes early night US time and that is usually it. The big problem with EU servers is everyone is crammed in two time zones, so if you play during peak hours for these two zones your going to experience a lot of the issues you see. Off peak its still a crap shoot but your much less likely to experience major issues.

The US server on the other hand is spread across 4 time zone with the most populated zones 3 hours apart. If it is 8 pm on the east coast it is 5 pm on the west cost. So as people on the east coast start to log off, people on the west coast start to log on. This provides a bigger and far more steady player base in the evening US time. The server is far more stable and in general much less laggy. I am in the midwest and ping for 75-120 with an average around 85-100. If my ping goes above 150 ms more than 5-10 seconds, something is wrong somewhere.

Sylvermynx

It depends on what you want to do in game. I play on EU some as well as NA (home server), and I never have worse issues on EU - but then, I solo, don't do group content, certainly don't pvp.... YMMV.

starlizard70ub17_ESO

The Japanese and Aussies play on the US server. And while they do have higher ping, (sometimes really bad ping), it's still nowhere as bad as the horror show the EU servers have become.

Raisin

Until recently, I 100% would have said go to it. You may have high ping, but it's steady. I haven't had lag issues or anything else.
Recently I've seen a lot on the forums about NA having the same issues as EU, but I just don't play NA enough to confirm how constant this is. So overall, I'd still say it's worth a shot.

vamp_emily

You can always tiptoe on the NA server, then see if you like it.

I play on the US sever but created an account on the EU server and it was kind of fun starting the game over again. I never seen any real difference lag wise when I played on both servers.

amapola76

My personal recommendation to everyone, all the time, is to have at least 1-2 characters each on both servers. (Unless, of course, you are someone who is absolutely hardcore insistent on having one and only one character with no alts, ever.)

I didn't even realize I could have alts on both until I'd been playing for about a year after I started playing, and I wish I'd done it from the beginning. (Luckily daily rewards had not started yet at that point.) Look, the EU server is the one that has the most issues, but in my experience, there have also been a handful of times when the NA server is the only one that's down. Or sometimes, rarely, I want to do group content, and it's an off-time for one server or the other. It's always good to have options, and if you create and do some early leveling of those alts now, when you aren't specifically having problems yet, they will be sitting there waiting for you if (when) you do have problems with the other server.

It's much less frustrating when you can say, "oh well, can't log in just now, I'll just flip to the other server and play another character I enjoy!"

Edited to add: I can't advise you on the technical ramifications. Everyone's experience seems to vary so wildly. I will just reiterate, it's worth a try, and the more options you have, the better.

jircris11

mfcostacampos wrote: »

I'm an EU player, but I keep hearing so much crap about the EU servers (and have recently experienced the tragic ping) that I'm wondering if I should be playing on the NA servers?
Obviously my ping might be a bit higher, but is it at least stable?

It oddly functions better then EU server, furthering my claims that the issue us not zos but what ever idiot company us hosting the eu server.

baratron

I live in London, UK, and have my primary account on PC-NA. My ping is generally 160-190 ms, with occasional spikes to 215 ms or so. I find this entirely playable.

In contrast, my ping to PC-EU is 60-90 ms, but I have many episodes where my button presses simply don't get through to the game despite this apparently low ping. I intensely dislike dying because neither block nor roll-dodge nor heal have made it through.

mfcostacampos

baratron wrote: »

I live in London, UK, and have my primary account on PC-NA. My ping is generally 160-190 ms, with occasional spikes to 215 ms or so. I find this entirely playable.

In contrast, my ping to PC-EU is 60-90 ms, but I have many episodes where my button presses simply don't get through to the game despite this apparently low ping. I intensely dislike dying because neither block nor roll-dodge nor heal have made it through.

Yeah, I'm also based in London so this is great advice.
So would you say I should create my character on PC-NA instead? Do you ever experience any delays in actions registering or is the 160-190 sm ping delivering pretty much the same experience as the 60-90 ms (which is what I usually get too, btw) anyway?

Curious_Death

mfcostacampos wrote: »

I'm an EU player, but I keep hearing so much crap about the EU servers (and have recently experienced the tragic ping) that I'm wondering if I should be playing on the NA servers?
Obviously my ping might be a bit higher, but is it at least stable?

I have better solution... change game it's better for ur nerves and wallet
visit forum like me, and strengthen conviction u did well
ps. tommorow it will be very laggy day better to equip um(lag)brella

FierceSam

You can play on both, obviously with different characters.

It’s certainly worth giving it a try. I have found it is way better than PC EU in terms of ping and frame rate.

It does show up the frankly lamentable state of PC EU though.

All ZOS employees should be forced to play on PC EU so they can share the joy.

markulrich1966

on PC it may be different, but on xbox my experience is:

On NA, people have a more agressive attitude in public. I often get attacked (without consequence) in public, summerset chat often insults in contrast to EU (on EU you have it in Auridon though).

Nevertheless also friendly players, joining a guild might be even more recommended than on EU to meet people to have fun with.
I don't think that people on NA are less polite, there simply are MORE people so there is also more bad behaviour.

Trade system is pretty different. On EU, you pay no dues to use a guildshop, on NA it is required in the major trading locations. This has influence on prices, cheap ingredients are more expensive, on the other hand gold mats are slightly cheaper.

I have more sales (focus on food/drinks/furniture) on EU than on NA.

Concerning lag I see no big difference, but I play no vet content. Daily delves and worldbosses. Loading screens slightly longer on NA but as I use an external SSD acceptable.
The worldbosses are MUCH easier on NA, as there are many more players around.

I skip Summerset worldbosses on EU completely meanwhile, as I had to solo them, on NA I can do 7 quickly each day as I never have to wait very long for other players to join.
In Elsweyr I skip Kee'va on EU, too difficult to solo for me, on NA quickly done with others.

As a sideeffect, people on EU often use cheer and celebration emotes after defeating a worldboss, on NA they just ride away. But the lack of players on EU also leads sometimes to form spontaneous worldboss hunting teams, where they share their quests and finish them together. With less players, teamplay becomes more important.

So in general, it depends a bit on your preferences.
I would recommend, to try both, before you start to invest crowns in addons like outfits/mounts etc., as you had to buy them twice for both servers. So try and find out which one you prefer, focus on that one, and keep the other as backup in case of problems (lag, login problems).

---

I forgot: on EU, Cyrodiil non-faction locked campaigns are deserted, on NA enough people so that you can gain AP. I prefer it to the faction locked campaign, as keeps are more frequently lost and won, so quicker AP gain.

JPS

If you can stand the lack of a sense of humor people have there NA is very playable.

rumple9

I have one character on us server which I play most days. It's very different to EU.

1. It's noticeable that US is much less populated
2. The US economy is bad if you're a trader - prices are way out of whack with EU, much more expensive and stuff can take ages to sell
3. Ping is very high which isn't too good if you PvP or do trials
4. US community is friendlier than EU
5. US PvP is much more organised and hence more fun than EU
6. It's easier to get into groups on US

Idinuse

I do.
Done it since beta. I play from Stockholm, Sweden, and yesterday I had a 180 ping on the NA server and a 160 ping on the EU Frankfurt server (other games on EU servers have ~30-60 ping). The geographic distance between me and the Frankfurt server is approx the same as to the furthest north part of Sweden... (I know physical distance has nothing to do with routing and server hops but anyway)

I find this quite disturbing. I do use ExitLag with ESO, found I don't need it with other games. Usually ExitLag gives me 80 ping EU and ~190 ping NA.