Buy Prophecies or Factions?

My friend is going to be buying Guild Wars, but should he get Prophecies or Factions?

Shouldn't he just get Prophecies and play through it till he can get to Factions missions?

Or, should he get Factions?

Please give me reasons.

Prophecies > Factions
i play my Factions chars almost all the time in Prophecies

I think you mean you play your Prophecies chars all the time in Factions.

no i have all my factions chars in prophecies you can travel between the two places if u have 2 keys

Definately Prophecies, in my opinion. Factions doesn't have much of a PvE element to it, if that is what you are looking for.

Gotta catch em all! Oops, I mean buy em all hehehe, I have both and glad I did, and also, Nightfall is being released soon, which might be another option for your friend, but 3 weeks away..

I bought Factions and Prophesies at the same time, and started playing both simultaniously. Prophesies has a better storyline and more PvE content. Factions is nice for beginners though, because the starter island gives a very good tutorial (beter then pre searing) and a lot more skills so you have a better idea of what each class can do. (I believe for example that in Pre you don't get any earth magic skills...)
If you are willing to help out your friend in the beginning, run through pre with him and show him the ropes, then I would advise Prophesies though, since it has the more content in the long run...

At this point, I'd wait it out and buy Nightfall..

but I'd get Proph over Factions simply because you learn to play the game better with Proph.