[Dahc]

Ok so I recently purchased the WoTG expansion and almost immediately I started on the job quest. Now that i got those taken care of Iam intrested in getting into Campaign missions. SO here I am possed with the Q of which army should I join. Do I join my home nation Army or should I go with one that I have alot of ppl that I know in another ARMY. Most of My LS has joined Bastok. I hate to be a pain in the butt but I really want to do Sandy, and on the same note Idon't want to be the only one cause of the fear of not being able to get a pty together for battles. Can I solo some of this stuff??

[Nuriko]

There are some campaign ops that require a PT of 3-6, but you don't have to do them. Other than that, the biggest difference between the nations seems to be the items you can get with AN. It's easy to just use AN for teleporting, and you can participate in battles in any zone.

Besides, if you change your mind you can switch cities by giving up your highest 2 awards ... and if you do a fair bit in the past and keep up on evaluations, you'll get one every 5 days.

[Malacite]

Iron Rams FTW.

[Neomage]

Pick the nation you want to chose. I went Windurst.

[Dahc]

I am sure I gonna go with Sandy. It just seems better to go with nation I started game with.

[GreatMno]

That's the group I am going with whenever I actually make it to the past.

Not that my decision makes much difference to you, but at least you know some other people will be there.

[Ziero]

Originally Posted by Dahc

Ok so I recently purchased the WoTG expansion and almost immediately I started on the job quest. Now that i got those taken care of Iam intrested in getting into Campaign missions. SO here I am possed with the Q of which army should I join. Do I join my home nation Army or should I go with one that I have alot of ppl that I know in another ARMY. Most of My LS has joined Bastok. I hate to be a pain in the butt but I really want to do Sandy, and on the same note Idon't want to be the only one cause of the fear of not being able to get a pty together for battles. Can I solo some of this stuff??

The only thing you need a party of other members of the same nation to do is the Beastmen Stronghold BCNM. But that can only be done when a nation controls every zone. Otherwise there's no restrictions based on nationality. Anyone from any nation can do missions and quests in other nations, so if you want help you just have to find people who are up to the same mission you are.

And of course there's the different AN armor sets. The Sandy set is great is great for Plds, but not so much Rdms. I think the only sets a Rdm would be able to use are the Windy pieces, but even then you can still buy them, they just cost more.

Originally Posted by Nuriko

There are some campaign ops that require a PT of 3-6, but you don't have to do them. Other than that, the biggest difference between the nations seems to be the items you can get with AN. It's easy to just use AN for teleporting, and you can participate in battles in any zone.

Besides, if you change your mind you can switch cities by giving up your highest 2 awards ... and if you do a fair bit in the past and keep up on evaluations, you'll get one every 5 days.

Most of the pt based Campaign ops can be done with people of any nation. Everyone involved will get Exp, but only those of the original nation will get the AN reward.

And there's no penalty for your first nation switch, but each additional change will cost two ranks.

[Clever Ninja]

My starter nation is Bastok, so I chose Bastok in the past just for quick access to the past + familiarity with the zone(I still don't understand Windy's layout). I dunno if it applies with the higher level items, but I was still about to buy some of the Sandy lvl45 gear for my SAM with allied notes, so seeing as they are all in the same currency, can probably buy them all regardless of your nation.

Personally, if you want Sandy, go with Sandy. As mentioned, the only thing that it locks you into is the 3-6 person OP's that you can choose to do, although I've personally never done them. My OP's usually go towards Slaughterhouse for low level jobs, or Aegis Scream/whatever the offensive one is called for my BLU, depending on which zone I'm heading to.

And you can campaign solo. As a RDM, heal people, enfeeb mobs, RAISE PEOPLE(cannot stress this), if your sword skill is anywhere near capped you can go in and melee abit to get more experience. Campaign was designed so that you can do it solo, but if you have a group of friends it makes it alittle easier.

[Lunaryn]

It's true that there are a lot of aspects that really don't make any difference which you go with, so you have some flexibility. However, the fact that certain nations are the only ones that can control certain zones does add some considerations, as does the gear set. So it depends on what your priorities are.

If you want to have the widest number of nation-controlled zones for ops and such, a populous army is useful. If you want beastman-controlled zones for other ops, one that struggles a bit more might be useful.

Some of the zones are easier to complete some ops in than others. Search and Seizure seems to be a bit easier to do in Quadav-controlled zones due to only needing sneak, but this isn't a great example since Search and Seizure can be done in any beastman-controlled zone, not just those your nation has an interest in recapturing. For Supply Transport ops, one of the key considerations is the length of time particular zones take and whether they require sneak/invis.

Sandy is the worst in that regard as there are aggressive mobs between gate sentry and stronghold in every zone, though if you don't care about leveling low jobs, East Ronfaure [s] is pretty safe for a 75 if you don't stray too far from the normal route. I had Nyamohrreh start here, but switched to Windurst due to the difficulty of completing ops.

Bastok is somewhat more moderate on this point. North Gustaberg can be navigated easily and safely without sneak or invis, but you'll want sneak and invis for parts of Rolanberry Fields and all of Pashhow and Grauberg. Additionally, the Pashhow supply run is quite the hassle if you don't have Recall-Pashh.

Windurst is frankly the easiest in this regard. Like North Gustaberg, it's fairly easy to navigate around the few aggressive mobs in West Sarutabaruta, and as a bonus there are only sound mobs to worry about, not sight. An exception is the Yagudo near the ??? for lost supplies, but as long as you go around the southern side of the rock to its direct west, you'll be fine. Fort Karugo-Narugo and Meriphataud Mountains both feature a path between Sentry and stronghold that has absolutely no aggressive mobs along the way, making them ideal for Vanguard-X on a character without s/i, though in both cases you'll have to deal with aggressive mobs on the way to the ??? with Crimson Domino. Sauromugue Champaign has goblin BSTs to worry about; one on the path to the ??? and one on the path to the C.A./teleport-in location; as long as you start from Meriphataud and keep westward and avoid the north side of the mountains in the center of the map, this is pretty straightforward. All in all, I'd say Windy's the best bet for any character you want to put op xp toward low jobs on, who doesn't have sneak/invis on said jobs.

Gear selection may matter to you too; getting AN gear of another nation requires higher rank and higher AN costs. Not that AN costs mean too much...

Also, note that you can actually switch armies without penalty; it's switching back that carries a 2 medal penalty. Also, the 3+ member ops can be done with members of other nations, you just can't sign up for their version of the mission and they can't sign up for yours. I regularly do Cut and Cauterize in West Saruta/Ghoyu's Reverie with people in Bastok's army. In fact, if you have the time on such ops, it's best if only one person signs up for them at a time; more runs means more xp, since you get xp just for participating in someone else's run even if you aren't signed up. Since it's usually 5-star, a group of people all with 7 op credits can do this all night for a return of roughly 2k/hr; not xp party material, but pretty nice xp for something so level-agnostic.

[TheGrandMom]

/em smells something stinky....

/em looks at Ziero's socks....

/em sees the date of the OP....

/em screams "NECROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

/em starts laughing crazily at the people who got sucked in!

/em falls over!

/em yells "I've fallen and I can't get up!" and then pushes her LifeCall button!

[Ziero]

It's not my fault, I saw it on the new posts link thingie!

[Malacite]

Admit it, you like it when TGM teases you :3


Also, while I'm biased towards San d'Oria, Windurst has one huge thing going for it;

They almost always have Titania recruited (at least here on Seraph) due to her close proximity to windurst. She grants a massive reduction in EXP lost when using sigil >.>b