Picking a company based on items, or location?

Here's a situation I'm sure everyone has had to face now that you'll only be able to go past recruit with a company. Will you stick with one because of its location, or because of the exclusive items they offer. I picked Gridania as my home and would love to "fight" for it, but as a MRD/GLD they have litterally no armor or weapons I could use. Maybe for leveling subjobs but even then you'd only get the rank 30 gear. What do you guys think? Will you replace the gear they offer fairly quickly? It seems to be slightly better than equal level crafted gear.

The general rumor (i have no source) is that items for all classes will be available in each company. So you choose whatever you want. However, you can't do caravan security with people who don't belong to your company. Looks like segregation will be involved but not sure how much.

That would be beneficial so that a LS can join a single Company. Otherwise linkshell members could possibly be split up for company events. With the developments in the future I could see Companies having competitions between one another and I would like to see Linkshells be able to participate as a team.

I see a bit of stress coming from the ideas that people will have to pick based on what is good for their main class vs. their home nation vs. their friends.

More information on what we can see in the future regarding companies would be beneficial.

I think it would be nice if you could pick a company, participate with your friends in other Company events / quests but not get anything beneficial from it but at least be able to assist others in their goals. Not being able to participate in other Company quests / events leads me to believe that we will see competitions between companies as we did with the Nations in XI. So it is a give and take I guess. Just wanted to throw that out there.

You will be able to do company quests and guildleves with people from different companies and you even get a bonus from it. The only company-restricted thing so far is the Caravan Escort.

The devs have said that future Company gear would be tradeable so I wouldn't put too much stock in it being a determining factor. Just pick which company you like best, so in your case Gridania. If it bothers you enough, you can just see what becomes buyable with seals once the patch hits, they will probably add more stuff in all the companies.

Thanks for the information Estellios!