Primal Datacenter, Which GC for Frontlines?

[Lucette]

Just came back to the game and wanting to pvp a bit before expansion. I'm already lvl 19 with maelstrom. Is it worth going Flames in the primal GC for queue times or should I just sit Maelstrom?

All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Sinsain]

Flames que times used to be 5 min or instant but recently im spending 30-45min per que so I'd go mael or adder

[zeopower6]

Not really sure why they've gone up for Flames... I think in general a lack of players across Primal compared to about a month ago. Just stay where you are unless you really care about wins in which case stay away from Flames.

[FallenHero]

Slaughter destroyed the PvP population, not to mention this is FFXIV, where ppl PvP for Glamour and then never PvP again until a new gear set comes out for it.

The least populated GC is still probably going to have a 20 min wait

[Zensho]

I've been getting 12 min ave que times during prime timer lately. Primal - Flames

[Buff_Archer]

If you look at Frontlines rankings on the Lodestone and filter to Primal data center, you can use filter options beneath that level to get some demographic info. Like if you sort by GC you can scan the data to look at how many people have a win rate above whatever threshold you want to check, and number of wins, number of games, etc.

Maelstrom- Long Wait, High Win
For awhile now, my interpretation has been with Maelstrom you are up against a larger number of organized players/teams, and that can be good when you actually get into a match... but also give you the longest wait times of the three GC's. If you prefer Secure mode I can't even imagine how long it would take to get into a match. If you just want to grind out PVP ranks and achievement awards in Slaughter mode (or actually enjoy Slaughter mode) then your first place win ratio per match would be higher, and can prob expect to be in first/second place most of the time.

Immortal Flames- Short Wait, Low Win
Polar opposite of Maelstrom. There are less people PVP'ing from this GC, and who can blame them for not wanting to queue when the odds are stacked against them (unless queueing with a full premade). Flames has some good players on Primal of course, as good as in any other GC, the problem is there isn't as many of them. This is great if you want to get fast queues, and the PVP experience & Wolfmarks could accrue faster here even if you lose the most because at least you get to do it more often. However if that spoils the experience for you, as does the wait for your Warhorse & ADS mount, then Maelstrom or Adders would be a better choice.

Twin Adder- Medium Wait/Medium Win
When I say 'Medium' Wait, that's just relative to the other two GC's and I still feel the wait to be unacceptably long. Seriously, standing in a virtual line for 45min to an hour inside a video game, how stupid is that, screw lore I could come up with better lore that doesn't treat customers like their time, or what they want, doesn't matter. Ok had to throw that rant in there. Used to be we got much faster queues on Adder, about the same as Flames from what I heard, but a week or so after Slaughter came out it got bad and never recovered. Now that Secure mode only gives us 24 man games, Adders and Maelstrom are at the mercy of waiting for 8 people to get matched up in a party on Flames side, and then 8 Mael and 8 Adders can play... the ones above that number who don't get into the match are basically screwed but that's lore and what could be more important than the ego of the decision makers behind that. I have a PVP LS full of Adders on my server and we've all but given up on queueing for Secure mode as a group because that's a long wait for an unknown amount of time for a lot of people... and when one makes you miss a queue pop after an hour wait that's like 7 hours down the drain combined across the other party members. So, for Adders my main options are to queue solo for Secure mode and hope I get a good team (typically get a team that excluding me I'd say has one great player, a couple of good players, and the rest are either still (which is fine) or don't get it or don't care (which I don't like being locked into queueing with). It's rare I get a team that I ragequit from, I try not to because it's easy for a largely bad team to mask the efforts of the ones who are doing the right things, and while depriving 7 undeserving people of their healer by leaving is rewarding in its own way, I don't want to do that to the few who are in the same boat as me. A lot of the best players I remember from Adders stopped playing, but there has been new talent recently as well. I believe it was Wednesday night, someone in my LS told me that Slaughter queues were going fast and there were good Adders on, so I went on and got one queue pop and win after another. I think I did 5 wins/2 second places/1 draw in about a 2 hour timespan (which gave me a 1st place and a 2nd place). I went from 194 first place wins to 199... and then 24 Man Slaughter popped (because I think the losing GC members got demoralized and stopped queueing (another reason GC restriction is a problem as it is the sole reason for this effect, and it is the reason people are left with no opponents and can't start a match). So I told my team- "Win this one and I get my ADS mount... no pressure"- and they got me my ADS mount at long last!!! Screw the tank mounts that only require 200 instances to be completed by people playing in a role they would have done anyway.

I would suggest finding someone in Adder and someone in Flames on your server who do Frontlines, and each solo queue/join in progress for a Secure match at the same time, see who gets in first. Can't rely on time estimates they're averaged across GC's which is stupid. Would need to repeat this experiment a few times to get an idea of relative waits, and not count in progress joins. And I would make sure, whatever your GC, there's an active PVP LS on your server for that GC where you have people to queue with.

If your priority is getting to high PVP rank, you want your decision to be permenant, since getting rank 1-20 is fast, but they take longer after a while and if you get to where you can equip the i100+ gear, you don't want to lose the ability to equip it for a couple of months through a GC swap.

[zeopower6]

Slaughter destroyed the PvP population, not to mention this is FFXIV, where ppl PvP for Glamour and then never PvP again until a new gear set comes out for it.

The least populated GC is still probably going to have a 20 min wait

It's more like "get ADS and stop" lately, lol.

[Akari_Theron]

It's more like "get ADS and stop" lately, lol.

I have just started playing heavily again in pvp, trying to get enough wins for future pvp mounts. Passed 300 wins this week and got my total win% above 40%

[Buff_Archer]

You know, you might have a point there. I regretted like hell not doing FL more prior to Slaughter coming out to get enough wins for my ADS, but I just didn't know. So I hated Slaughter, never got Secure pops, but somehow it seems we got a new batch of Adders that know how to win Slaughter so that's where I got my ADS mount this week. For now I'm going back to Secure and focusing on fun (and winning of course) and where I don't have to worry as much about if my Alliance is going to cost us a win.

[SirTaint]

I'm Maelstrom and Adders has been winning most matches that I have been a part of.

The wait times are ~20min on the weekdays but very short on the weekends. I was getting 1min pops last night. Maelstrom normally is good, maybe I've been in unlucky groups. People have claimed 30+ Mael wins this week.