Queue Prioritization - How Does It Work?

[MoroMurasaki]

I'm leveling an alt, she's a BRD main. This is the first time I've done the MSQ for ARR since I first played the game where I mained a healer and my boyfriend was a tank so I was prepared for some queue difficulties.

Honestly it's been pretty great so far when it comes to leveling dungeons - all the way through Garuda normal I don't think I've waited more than 10 minutes. I did have a friend skip me through Toto-Rak though.

At the time I'm writing this I have been queued for Cape Westwind for a total of 40+ minutes. I refreshed it in the middle when an FC member suggested perhaps I had "gotten lost" since I had never so much as seen another person drop into my party at 25+ mins in. It's going on 5pm EST so while this may not be prime time it's certainly not an incredibly sparse hour either, as I wander aimlessly through Gridania I see plenty of people online.

I got to wondering though (what else can I do at this point?) how the Duty Finder works to prioritize these things.

Cape Westwind is technically the lowest level option possible to get in Trial Roulette. It's level 49 to access it and it's part of the MSQ so literally every player queueing for Trial Roulette could potentially fit into my party, yet I have never seen more than 2 other dps show up in my "Forming Party" section.

This seems to suggest to me that for the past almost-hour there have never been enough people queued for Trial Roulette to fill an 8-man instsnce. That seems impossible to me.

I also understand I didn't start at the front of the list, other people are queueing for other things all the time? But as I watch my second queue timer tick over to 25 minutes for the same duty (lovely, I currently have 2 other dps here as well with me! The fullest my party has ever been) I can't help but wonder how this system works.

Since I am by no means a technical marvel I thought I would ask you all - does anyone have a greater understanding of Duty Finder prioritization? Is there a reason I should be waiting for what is quickly approaching a full hour for a trial that is going to take 45 seconds? This seems like some kind of mistake to me.

As a caveat - yes, I know I am not somehow magically entitled to instant queues. I'm not asking for them. I know I chose a dps and that comes with a certain penalty. What I am saying is that it doesn't make mathematical sense to me how a duty which literally everyone in Trial Roulette can participate in can take an hour (or more!) to pop.

[KisaiTenshi]

This seems to suggest to me that for the past almost-hour there have never been enough people queued for Trial Roulette to fill an 8-man instsnce. That seems impossible to me.

This is only true at like, 2am. Typically roulette trials at least for healers and tanks aren't very long, and Cape Westwind comes up fairly frequently. The trial queue is the fastest queue to do, so it is technically possible that there's some other content players are playing instead (eg HoH) that is resulting in low participation.

[Risvertasashi]

Even with first-timer prioritization, DPS queues can take a long time. 40+m for some queues is par for the course. I am not sure if this is because the prioritization is weak, or perhaps there's just too many first timers for it to have much effect.

If you're not first timing content, or if there's too many first timers saturating the queue... it's a simple line. It takes a long time because there's many others in the DPS queue, queuing many other trials or similar. Tanks, healers, etc are routed by the roulette on a first come first serve basis. Keep in mind across all trials, there could easily be 100 or 200+ DPS players in queue for various contents, waiting for the lesser played roles. This is why it takes so long for anyone to come your way.

[Hasrat]

As I understand it, when you queue for an instance, the "forming party" window will only track other players directly queuing for the same instance. But the queue is itself queued up to wait its turn to be filled by the roulette. So, unless you miraculously get a full party all directly queuing for that instance, you're just stuck waiting until your queue is the oldest one and next in line to be filled from roulette participants.

At least is how I suppose it works.

[Risvertasashi]

So, unless you miraculously get a full party all directly queuing for that instance.

Really, there's a pretty decent chance this will happen in, for example, stormblood leveling dungeons... which can mean shorter queues for DPS. Queues are harsher for things like story trials (no reason to queue them more than once, so you rely on the roulette a lot more), or things like the 50/60 dungeon queue, which... once again, no one queues for individually and even the roulette is slow.

[Alien_Gamer]

According to devs the system matches the party then assigns the duty. If nobody in the combined group has a selected duty then its assigned at random, if someone does then thats selected. If different people have different selections then it shuffles people in the group around with otheres that don't have a selection and forms the group that way.

Its possible there just haven't been any available combinations for westwind in an hour and everyone was queueing for something specific.

[Iscah]

Cape Westwind is going to have a very small "actual queue" because there's absolutely no reason to run it again once you've completed it. There aren't any prizes and you don't need to repeat it for later quests, like some of the primal trials.

the 50/60 dungeon queue, which... once again, no one queues for individually and even the roulette is slow.

I've queued them specifically sometimes. Some have really nice glamours (eg. the 'thief' gears from the Arboretum/Sirius Hard), and also at the moment I need stuff in that item level range for desynthesis.