NA vs EU servers. Traveling a lot. New Player.

sthoeny1b16_ESO · February 2017

Hello,

I also posted this question here: https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/5wc62t/na_vs_eu_server_traveling_a_lot/

I am new to the game and I really enjoy it so far and have decided to stick with it. Now I'm in a bit of a dilemma when it comes to NA or EU. I travel between NA and EU on a yearly basis. And since it's not possible to transfer characters between NA and EU (sad face), I wanted to ask whoever has experience on both, what the main differences are? Also, is it horrible laggy playing on NA whilst in EU and vis a versa? I just want to avoid having two characters spread across NA and EU. Language wise, I speak English and German, so I'm less concerned about the language. Thanks!

Syrani · February 2017

I am in the US and have been on the PC EU server since the start of the game. Recently, the lag has gotten so bad for me on EU that I am now starting over on the US server. I have only been on the US server for a few days so am no where near ready to try a trial to see if lag is any better. I still get some lag on the US server, but it doesn't seem as bad. But then again, I have just been questing so it's hard to tell.

From my limited experience on PC US, it seems the general population is more immature than on EU. Lots of cat calls and troll responses in zone chat, and it's pretty annoying. I really hope the trial guilds don't end up being the same way.

If lag wasn't such a massive issue on EU for me, there is no way I would consider staying on the US server.

What you CAN do though, is level characters up on both. If you are wanting to do trials however, this will require a large time investment to keep both up, and you will be grinding the same things over and over on each one.

EDIT: The language thing has never really been much of a problem for me on EU, and I only speak English. Most people I have come across speak English very well. There are some that speak limited English or none at all, but on the whole, I haven't had much of an issue. There may be some guilds there that only speak a certain language, but there are plenty of others that speak English. There are German speaking guilds there as well, as you might expect.

Ackwalan · February 2017

I play on both, and there is no difference. You should use the guild finder on the forums, and see if you can find a guild that you like and has a presence on both.

IronCrystal · February 2017

I can't attest to the lag, but I know several people who live in EU but play on US simply because everyone in US speaks english, whereas on EU there's a plethora of languages spoken.

Browiseth · February 2017

just stay on NA dude. i'm EU and i've played NA with a surprising lack of lag since near the game's release

americans have terrible senses of humour compared to across the water here, but you can live with it

MarkusLiberty · February 2017

Language isn't that big of a problem on EU. There are dedicated chats for most of the major languages, and mostly everyone can comprehend English to a good degree.

MakoFore · February 2017

Im in a similar boat- but only want a one time move. I started on the EU to a high level CP, but now can't even log on but for writs and horse feeding as the lag is so bad at my location, 600 at peak, 450 at slow times. and as an end gamer- its not worth it.

I've started levelling on the NA, where the ping is 250 ( I've never til this played on a ping sub 300 and its amazing difference. I'm winning the fights i should and able to cc break within reasonable time)
but its a painful grind from the beginning, though maybe i ll have 2 CP account s to look forward to one day. though if i could move- i most def would.

thing is- i recall asking tech which server i should install - as my location is central to both (asia) , and they said "both will be fine". yeah right.

differences between servers- the NA is more dedicated and faster from most locations other than europe obviously.
in terms of differences?
- Europe server is a more mature and experienced community overall. a LOT more max level players in their ranks and higher experience players in all environs. a lot of newer players on the NA. i think the more experienced NA players have moved on - or have left. the EU players have stuck it out. the trial, weekly maelstrom scores, etc bear that out, higher in all departments on the EU pc servers.
- NA servers are more populous more times of the day- id say 18 hours of the day all pvp zones have at least 2 bars. europe there are some real dead times. mid week you can run thru cyrdoil for hours and not find another player. I think alot of oceania and Asia play NA so it seems always quite live.
- EU has proportionately a lot more organised pvp, guilds on voice, etc. alot on NA too, but alot of new players make up numbers so alot of people running about randomly.
- both have friendly , helpful , lovely people- though EU players can be shall we say- saltier. might be the language difference. if u mess up on the EU- you ll hear it - with a curt "stupid ***". and people leaving the group quick. the NA tend to stay and talk it out. maybe that spicier saltier food .... funny european women give me the same reaction...
- on the NA in zone chat though , a lot of banter- which often escalates to taunting very quickly and arguments. not much banter on EU chat. i dont mind it- i like to see the chat busy.
- NA has ALOT of roleplaying- role-players. dont get much of that on the EU, dont know why. i walked into an argonian house looking for chests to find 4 argonians shall we say - enjoying each others company, 2 doing lie down emotes- while the other 2 did push up emotes = you know what that equals. i walked out....
- another difference- on the EU players charge for bites , but on the NA? players charge for ports, grind partners , etc.
hadnt seen that before.

hard to make generalisations of course the EU is like 100 countries and the NA similarly diversse- just my experiences and a very small sample size- and to be taken with a grain of salt and a bit of humour. please dont take offence to anything I've listed.

Duiwel · February 2017

I started off in NA and then moved over to EU in the second month of the game's release.

While you might find lag if you're doing certain tasks and live X amount away as long as you can ensure you have a fast internet connection things would be bearable.

Regarding the language concern I'd say that is not even an obstacle, I have probably seen roughly 10% of the people in chat who are not at least partially fluent in English & most who are good at the game are fluent enough to hold long conversations. They might have an accent sometimes but hey they are speaking a second sometimes a third language. I have not once met someone on voice chat who I couldn't understand once they spoke.

I think Europe has come a long way in learning English in the past decade. Especially the Balkans, their English is fantastic.

Bartdude · February 2017

You also need to take into account your rig, your ISP and connection speed b4 making a decision.

Palosanto · March 2022

Duiwel wrote: »

I started off in NA and then moved over to EU in the second month of the game's release.

While you might find lag if you're doing certain tasks and live X amount away as long as you can ensure you have a fast internet connection things would be bearable.

Regarding the language concern I'd say that is not even an obstacle, I have probably seen roughly 10% of the people in chat who are not at least partially fluent in English & most who are good at the game are fluent enough to hold long conversations. They might have an accent sometimes but hey they are speaking a second sometimes a third language. I have not once met someone on voice chat who I couldn't understand once they spoke.

I think Europe has come a long way in learning English in the past decade. Especially the Balkans, their English is fantastic.

Balkans and Scandinavians have the most english speakers from Europe, I agree with that, I m balkan myself, been playing on Eu since the begining, I don t lag at all as Romania has one of the fastest internet in the world. My gm from one of my guilds is american, lovely person and so all the other americans I have met douring my play time so I m assuming NA is not bad at all also. I would go for the server that has little lag tho as that s what is the most important thing, for me at least

colossalvoids · March 2022

NA hands down. Eu servers are more laggy not just because possible bigger population but because our prime time is more less the same for all of eu whilst it's pretty spread over on na. A lot of people from eu migrated to na servers just because performance, higher ping plays lesser role than server lag, which is very important if you're playing more demanding content.

The only downside of na is zone chat. It's not just disrespectful a lot of times but outright hostile/racist/misogynistic etc. which isn't the thing on eu to happen on a daily basis, probably might be related to eu having more mature players overall to my experience in social or raiding guilds.

votan73 · March 2022

While your crowns are shared between NA and EU, the things you buy with them aren't.
You either willing to spend them twice or one server will be your primary one.
For me NA has 150ms more delay than EU (Germany). I feel that, but I have no issues playing. And I do not do PvP.

Jaimeh · March 2022

One more thing in addition to everything above you might consider is time of day when you play as well; EU is mostly populated in the evenings and its primetime is a narrower time slot than NA because there's no big difference in time zones, so if you decide to play on EU, when you travel and play from NA (and presuming you will play on NA evenings) there might not be a big population online. NA on the other hand has a bigger prime time slot, and regardless of that it's also usually well populated at most times of the day because people from all over the world play there as well.

Master_Kas · March 2022

At this point I kind of regret not maining the NA server. As I'm an nightowl and like to play late at night which means Pvp (and actually pve too) is quite dead......

But now, 2500cp, alot of crownstuff and characters later... It's to late..

So try think of what times you prefer to play and which server has the highest population on those times.

Edit: Someone beat me to it. Read the reply above mine ^^