Canthan-born skill collector :confused:

Hi all! I've just arrived in Lion's Arch with my Canthan Monk/Mesmer and immediately started running towards Ascalon for all the nice and useful skills that can be quested there (Balthazar's Spirit, for example) but, after arriving at Beaon's Perch, Master Saberlin refuses to give me the Deserters quest!
Just because i'm Canthan? Racist!
Seriously, can you confrm/deny that all of Tyrian Pre-Lion's Arch skill quests (all the way back to Ascalon) are disabled for Canthans? If it's so... WHY??
I dont want to waste tons of platinium and skill points in purchasing questable skills from trainers!!

They are all disabled, yes. In return you get the two missions on the Shing Jea (worth up to 6 skill points) some skill point awarding quests (not available to Tyrians), a ton of easy quests on Shing Jea worth big XP (which translates into skill points and saved time), access to fairly complete lists of skills from the start and so on. Yeah, it sucks that you don't get the freebies, but you get more choice - if you want to play an earth ele, or a trapper ranger from the start you can get the skills you want.

If you already have a decent amount of unlock Canthan toons are fine - if you are trying for a full class unlock for Prophecies classes I'd make a Tyrian character though, and simply rush to Kaineng for high level armour.

Also, if you actualyl go back and do the pre LA missions, you'll note that they are treated almost like museum exhibits, you're not actually doing the mission persay, but watching how the mission was done from the perspective of someone in the mission. Because of this when you got your Canthan character to Beacon's, the devourer had already been fed, the deserters dealt with, etc

mmm, yeah, it sucks, mainly because I'm quite unfamiliar with the monk profession (just wanted to follow the Fac storyline from the beginning) and I'm not sure of the skills needed for the "perfect" build, but, even more, because the sweetest part of this game is (imho) about experimenting with new skills and trying weird builds with skills you don't give a damn at first glance.... only to discover (later) that underestimated skill is the keystone of a kick ass build!
I fear that this approach is impossible if I have to purchase every single skill just to toy a bit with it

well the good thing is you CAN do the quests after lions arch for the skills (except the last hog, arrgh)....so you can still get a boat load of skills from later quests ----my rit is getting her ele skills that way, will save her about 18 plat...enough for me to do them over with a new character.
good luck to ya!