Prophecies. Factions. Nighfall. Which one?

I want to make a mesmer and i've been playing for 19 months. I thought about finally making one and I did and deleted it cause no one wanted me. Now it's time to make a new one. The 3 factors I am now debating on is...

Look
Skills
Fun

What continent should I make my mesmer. I am leaning to a male cause everyone makes females but now what continent?

Prophecies has the best Mesmer looks and its the most fun chapter to start in.

Quote:

how bout skills?????

Hm... Skills. I like this part. Mesmers have a LOT to choose from are are very versatile. A good way to start off it degen. Mesmers have an abundance of degen skills. I'm currently using an IW build but you'll get to that later.

For skills, I'd say Prophecies is best due to the amount of skills you get for free as quest rewards. Once you get to Lion's Arch you have the ability to travel to the other 2 continents and the ability to buy skills from those trainers.

Look at it this way, in Nightfall you simply have to buy skills with Balthazar factions and they appear at any of the Elonan skill trainers. So skill wise getting them in Elona is easy when you get there. Cantha you only get the skills your given from those few starting quests.
In the end Prophecies is often the best starting point for any of the core professions.

Actually you use Gold to buy skills in both NF and Factions. However the experience gained through playing the Proph campaign is the best. Not the exp you get towards lvling your char but the actual experience of playing time with a char as it levels and goes through various stages of game play. It is the best place to start if you intend to continue using a char and wish to learn more about how it is played.

While you are in the 4-member party area, you will find it difficult to join PUGs; they all want the basics - warrior, monk, ranger, ele/necro.

Your main problem with henchmen will be getting them to attack without you having to enter aggro range. Prince Rurik will spend most of his time standing behind you doing "bored" emotes.

When you enter the 6-member party area, finding a PUG gets easier. But, by then you have gotten used to henching everything and usually don't bother.

I haven't seen a Mesmer from Elona, but I would imagine for looks, Prophecies.

Skills, doesn't matter. From Lion's Arch on, everyone gets free skills in Tyria. You get free skills from heros in Elona, but you get no free skills if you don't start in Factions (if you travel to Cantha).

Fun, Prophecies. You've mastered Prophecies before, no doubt, so you can travel alone or with henchies and have fun there. My Tyrian Mesmer henched basically all of ascolon, northern shiverpeaks, kryta, maguuma jungle and crystal desert.

Tons of fun in Prophecies.

prophecies

prophecies

prophecies

dude, you'll get used to the "no one wants you", dont worry, us mesmers play a good part in teams... and some people like mesmers in their parties.

Prophecies, you get the skills through missions,
cooler armor,
cool area to learn to handle them,

I'll break from the mold and say factions. My reasons though are that even though I prefer prophecies armor, I prefer factions facial options and hair. Hence why I start in factions and make my way to prophecies later for the high end armor. And more importantly, I wanted a Legendary Survivor character.

With factions, you blitz your way through to level 16 in under as many hours, head over to the mainland for an easy run upto Kaineng for quick access to 1.5K armor.

Then you can hitch a ride with a full sized party of level 20 henchmen to clear out the quest to get to Nightfall to get your heroes who will be at level 15.

Then back to Kaineng for a nice easy ride back to prophecies where you and your heroes are at a level where you can easily fight your way to Sanctum Cay, then through the Crystal Desert for your first Elite (Mantra of Recovery), then onto Droknar's Forge for the lovely armors. (if you do the quests through the maguuma, you will hit 20 by the time you get to the Crystal Desert, if not, you run straight to Sanctum Cay, you will hit 20 when you ascend).

Biggest point about this though... is that the journey from 1 to 20 is very safe. You will most likely be able to get the first Survivor title that way. I'm on my third at the moment. First died at 690k ish, 2nd died at about 454k ish.

And regardless of what people say that you learn best from Prophecies, I believe that if you can get to level 20 using only the skills gained from quests on Shing Jea, you would have already learn all that there really is to know about maintaining hexes on several opponents and energy management. The third most important skill of covering hexes, i believe can only be learnt in the PvP arena as hardly anything removes hexes in PvE.

Id say Prophecies for all the basic chars, tons of free skils :-)
As for my tyrian mesmer, i was lucky to start with a monk guildie, so the discrimantion part wasnt that much of a problem. Nice way to learn the skills, learn the Mesmer Play and easy finish since peeps gladly take you when they get a monk with it
Factions Big Fun....................appaers Mesmers are more wanted (used Domination)
NightFall, Going nice ................

I don't care about free skills so...yea

Indeed, my belief is, as you've been playing for 19 months, you've got more than enough plat for pay for 1.5k armor and buy all the skill points you need. Not to mention being able to rune up and kit out your heroes too.

Shing Jea is without a doubt the easiest newbie area. You can blitz through the entire area in less than 10 hours. After that, your max level armor is just a short hop away.

And then the trip to Elona is much easier. A full team of level 20 henchies, opposed to the team of 6 with level 12 henchies you would get if you were a Tyrian character.

Once armed with your heroes, fighting directly to Sanctum Cay from Lion's Arch is a piece of cake. Or perhaps hook up with a buddy and do a two man and 6 hero trek down to Droknar's forge and onwards to get whatever other armor you want.

And if you are aiming for survivor, Canthan characters can still get the 50K exp doppelganger fight but Elonian characters can not.

One word: Prophecies.

Though, in reality, isn't Prophecies everybody's favorite campaign to start out in? (Save for those PvP-oriented people)

If you make a female mesmer...

Im gong to be silly and assume that you dont want to go through the slow tediuous hassle of getting to level 20. If so start in Cantha. Hairstyles are fancier, so i would start in Cantha for looks, and there gettting survivor/or getting to level 20 at all is a breeze.

Armor wise, Prophecies, although the only prophecies armor i have seen that is worth getting is 15k rogues (perfect for IW builds), Performers, and maybe 15k Virtuoso if your patient enough to wait
Also from Elona, Ancient armor (minus those icky flat bottom boots) is awesome, for a more laid back and less 'uptight' look that mesmer are known so well for.
And then theres primeval. Oh so wonderful mesmer primeval armor. Its so unconventional it works. It sort of has an uncommon 'i dont give a crap' look, which is good for a mesmer

Skill wise...hmm

I would once again have to say factions, since as soon as you get to Kaineng City, all the skills (or a majority of them) that you have to fight up to droks to get are there, so no more hassle and going to silly outposts just to get those skills, ALTHOUGH if you have unlocked skills on another character you shouldnt have a problem at all there.

all in all i'd have to say Cantha is your best bet, since mesmers are not common, and canthan memsmers even moreso

Cantha if you've been playing for 19 months.
Rocket to 20, oodles of skill points via primary quests, quick access to most non-elites in the game after leaving Shing Jea. Porting to Tyria and completing some skill quests for off skills like [skill]Mantra of Lightning[/skill] saves money and 1k.