Last year the aging hardware on the PC NA megaserver was replaced with newer components. At the time, Zenimax told players that they didn't expect a noticeable performance improvement as a result of the upgrade, however players soon noticed performance improvements after the process was completed.
This was most apparent in Cyrodiil, ESO's oldest PvP zone which has long been plagued with performance problems when at high population levels, leading ZOS to reduce the population cap of PvP campaigns to compensate.
Players who had been suffering with action delays and other problems caused by server performance suddenly found that the game was responding much better to their input while in PvP.
This naturally led other players to wonder when their megaservers would be getting the same treatment, and it's been keenly awaited on EU megaservers ever since.
When is the Server Hardware Refresh coming to EU?
In previous statements on the matter, Matt Firor from Zenimax said that there had been problems with the global supply chain with hardware which meant they were unable to perform the hardware improvements on other megaservers as soon as they had wanted to.
Earlier in the week, Firor posted another statement on the ESO Forums, providing us with an update on the situation.
There has been another two week delay due to shipping problems, however the required components for the upgrade are now expected to arrive at around the same time as the launch of Update 37, with the Scribes of Fate DLC. Zenimax do not want to complete both of these large maintenance tasks at the same time, therefore the server upgrade will be taking place in early April instead for PC EU, with PlayStation EU expected to follow shortly after.
This timeframe clashes with the Whitestrake's Mayhem Event, and as a result this event will be moved to a date later in the year (we don't know exactly when yet).
There will also be a 14-hour maintenance period for all EU realms on February 7th to prepare for the work.
Based on what was seen on PC NA, it seems unlikely that these upgrades will completely fix performance issues in PvP, however we can probably expect a noticeable improvement which should at least make the experience more enjoyable for a lot of players.
We hope you enjoyed this article about ESO PvP. The Elder Scrolls Online is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) developed by Zenimax Online Studios.
