
Originally Posted by
Valamar
Put another way, the Instant download is aimed at "first time" players who are just creating their first character.
At that point, you simply have to wait until the full 20GB download completes. Quit the client, re-launch, and you should be good to go.
The Steam version is full installer with dedicated FTP servers. It should download a lot faster in this situation than a Happy Cloud incremental download with a quick start for totally new customers.
I have no idea which one is faster to get a totally new customer to start playing. I have a very high speed connection. It does not take me long to download a 10-20 GB installer.
Unless stated otherwise, all content in this post is My Personal Opinion.