[Futan]

Hola.

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section. I figured that there should be a thread of pros & cons for the starting cities. I'm just going to add some basics and add more as you guys come up with them. >,>

Bastok
Pros:
-Humes or Galkans: Bastokan Ring*
-Guilds: Alchemy, Smithing, Goldsmithing
-HELM: Mining, Excavating
-Start Locations for Extra Jobs: Dark Knight, Puppetmaster, Ninja
-Close to low-level party areas(Valkurm Dunes, Korroloka Tunnel)
-Miners: Zeruhn Mines(accessed from Bastok Mines) is the only mine where it's safe to mine from level 1.
-Tanks: Equipment sold(from NPCs or with CPs) mainly focuses on defense
-Crystals Commonly Dropped: Earth, Fire, Water**, Wind
-Tenshodo Quest: Zinc Ores

Cons:
-A mage or melee damage dealer may have trouble finding resources from NPCs


San d'Oria
Pros:
-Elvaans: San d'Orian Ring*
-Guilds: Woodworking, Smithing, Leatherworking
-HELM: Mining, Logging
-Start Locations for Extra Jobs: Paladin, Dragoon
-Close to popular low-level party area(Valkurm Dunes)
-Fishers: Knightswell, one of the best spots to fish for Moat Carp, is right in Sandy's backyard
-Damage Dealers: Equipment sold(from NPCs or with CPs) mainly focuses on melee attack
-Crystals Commonly Dropped: Dark**, Earth, Fire**, Wind

Cons:
-A mage or tank may have trouble finding resources from NPCs
-City-specific Tenshodo quest is not available at low-levels


Windurst
Pros:
-Tarus or Mithras: Windurstian Ring*
-Guilds: Bonecraft, Clothcraft, Cooking, Fishing
-HELM: Harvesting, Excavating
-Start Locations for Extra Jobs: Summoner, Ranger
-Good farming mobs
-Mages: Equipment sold(from NPCs or with CPs) mainly focuses on magic
-Crystals Commonly Dropped: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind**
-Tenshodo Quest: Yagudo Necklaces

Cons:
-A melee damage dealer or tank may have trouble finding resources from NPCs
-Far from popular low-level party area(Valkurm Dunes)
-The city's size could make it so new players have trouble navigating through it


*You can get any starting ring once Rank 3.
**The only and/or best place you can get the listed crystals at early levels

I know some of it really has minimal to do with your starting city(ie, extra jobs) but I figured I would cover all the bases. Corrections, confirmations and additions are all welcome!

[Ninmin]

Hey, thanks for this, to me its good for us new players!!! <3

[neighbortaru]

your cons for bastok and sandy are not really true. there's plenty of gil making opportunities in bastok if you are clever and only being near valkurm is not really a con.

[eticket109]

You may want to link to the rings or give their stats. Depending on job choices, they can have a great effect on low levels.

[Futan]

Yeah, I wanted to have at least 1 con for each. Couldnt think of one for Bastok. I think not having an alternative leveling spot near you could be a con. But most parties just go to the dunes anyway...

edit: Excellent idea eticket!

[eticket109]

The con for Bastok should be that it's... well... Bastok. >.>

Or... if you start as a taru in Bastok, get a couple ranks as fast as possible so people don't assume you're a gilseller.

[Futan]

lol. Might not be what you meant but just reminded me how my linkshell used to call Bastok "France" because they never got in first in conquest. I think I shall work that in. XD

[FranckKnight]

Con for Windy : Its so freaking big! >_<

I think the biggest reason to start in a city would be long-term crafting. You'll want to be in a city near the resources to craft.

Like Sandoria is near lots of Logging areas, and is the head guild of Woodworking. Bastok has lots of mining points around it, and has the head guild of Smithing and Goldsmithing. Crawlers are abundant near Windy and that's where Clothweaving is. Also Windy is a good spot for fishing and its guild.

The rings are only useful for a part of the game, and you can even buy them later with Conquest Points.

Newbies should know what crafts the cities offer for this reason.

[Akashimo]

don't forget you can get the rings regaurdless of race if you didn't get it from starting there by having Rank 3 and that city is in first for conquest
Hehe, love being a san d'orian with both bastok and sandy rings just to confuse ppl when exping below 36 XD

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by Futan

lol. Might not be what you meant but just reminded me how my linkshell used to call Bastok "France" because they never got in first in conquest. I think I shall work that in. XD

That's odd... I always call San d'Oria France because... well... because they're obviously French.. Come on... Chateau D'Oraguille? French language constructs in the names? Paladins are the subject of early French lituerature (though Roman in origin).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanson_de_Roland

I don't think your con for Bastok is apt. When I started, Bastok was consistently on top of Conquest. Now (on Asura), they have a tendency to do poorly, but it's really not an issue you can tie to a region. I rely on the overturning of the three nations to acquire items, and I'm glad that it flip-flops a lot.

And... if you are getting server specific, there's an Asuran Con for picking Sandy... The prices at the AH tend to be large percentages higher than Bastok, Windurst, and Jeuno on a large selection of popular items.

Also, for starting areas, I would not consider the Yughott Grotto a good place for mining. For low-level miners, Yughot is deadly--it is similar to Palborough. Bastok boasts the only non-aggro (with the exception of the nasty little jelly) mine in the game. It is also the smallest mine in the game and very easy to navigate even without a map and Zeruhn is directly attached to the town for easy access to the AH, Delivery Box, Mog House, Crystal and Pick supplies. Bastok is a great starting city if you want to mine. If you go to Korroloka, you can Excavate as well--if you can avoid the aggressive monsters, of course.

One really nice thing about starting in Sandy is that you have access to the very popular Knightswell for fishing (If you like fishing) and it's where you need to turn your Moat Carps in for Lu Shang's.

Windurstians have the highest travel times of all three nations, that is definitely apt. A boat-ride to Valkurm, 4 large zones (one zone that is actually two zones combined into one even). As for shopping, Windurst shops are abysmal for hard armors. Bastok and Sandy have excellent upper level armors. Of course Windy has the best spell selection outside of Selbina/Jeuno and contains the central offices of both of the easiest starting crafts--Fishing and Cooking.

[eticket109]

I always though San D'Oria was modeled more after Japanese culture (ie: isolationism ect). I can see what you mean about the french tie-ins though.

[FranckKnight]

Conquest Ranking ebbs and flows with the string of low level players, more or less.

Since ToAU areas are open to the lv 50+ players now, there's alot less people working in Conquest. A year ago every area in the game was subject to Conquest, so it wasn't an issue. Now when you reach higher levels, Conquest gets ignored.

So what's left is the lv 1-50 characters. Its not necessarily due to the new players entering the game, but those that return to lower level job. If there's a 'wave' of Windurstian that, coincidentally at the same time, decide to level up lower levels, a region will invariably shift to Windy.

If a majority of Sandorians are already at 50+ and don't go back to Conquest areas, you'll see alot less areas controlled by Sandoria of course.

Conquest for controlling territories isn't as important as it was before because of that. There's also more and more areas that are stuck under beastman control for several weeks on our server (Phoenix).

But still, I'd like to grab a bunch of people and go do some Expeditionnary Forces in some areas to steal them and get my Outpost Warps :D

[eticket109]

Conquest has been shifting from week to week on Valefor. Bastok is actually first this week.

[FranckKnight]

Oh, and about the French of Sandoria, I agree about it wholeheartedly. I'm French Canadian myself, and the names have a definite french structure. But I assure you that bery little of the words used have any significance.

I haven't seen many names even that are 'common' or even existing, but alot of those are 'similar' to real names. For example, the famously Bonarpants in Sandoria Port. Beyond the weird sounding name (for english), its very close to Bonaparte (Napoleon), but still a stonethrow away from being accurate.

What makes it french is in the way the syllables are written and used. While the words have no significance, their structure and form do suggest being french. The names could have been created out of random french syllables from a name generator thought.

Ranperre, Destin (Fate), Pieuje, Trion, Chateau (castle) d'Oraguille, Bostonniaux Oubliettes... Oubliettes is a dungeon more or less in french, a prison at the bottom of a castle. "Oubli" means to forget, so its basically when they would throw evil-doers to be 'forgotten' there to their fate, thus the origin of the word.

One of the few names in the castle's surrounding that isn't very french-like is Halver. The use of H, L and V in this manner isn't very french like.

On the other hand, Oraguille's part of 'gu' is typical french for the sound 'g', plus the double-L use. One example of this use is Aiguille (needle, pin).

That's all for today's class, come back soon for more :D

[Macht]

There is another thing about the pro's and con's you neglected. That is equipment sold by NPCs. The 3 nations break down to three principals of items they sale which is usefull for starting jobs.

Windurst = Magic Spells / Mage equipment (Light)
Bastok = Defensive Equipment
San d'Oria = Offensive Equipment

For starting jobs if you start as a mage in Bastok or San d'Oria the spells you can obtain is limited especially if they are not Rank 1. These two towns are better focused for the Melee and Tanks.

Same thing occurs if you are in Windurst and a Melee. Now instead of being able to get decent equipment from the NPCs you'll have to resort the often overpriced Auction House sale of that item.

Then also should include the conquest items you can obtain, also focused to the theme of that nation.