In one embodiment, a multicast listener device floods a path lookup request to search for a multicast tree, and may then receive path lookup responses from candidate nodes on the multicast tree, where each of the path lookup responses indicates a unicast routing cost from a respective candidate node to the multicast listener device, and where each of the candidate nodes is configured to suppress a path lookup response if a total path latency from a source of the multicast tree to the multicast listener device via that respective candidate node is greater than a maximum allowable path latency. The multicast listener device may then select a particular candidate node as a join point for the multicast tree based on the particular node having a lowest associated unicast routing cost to the multicast listener device from among the candidate nodes, and joins the multicast tree at the selected join point.