NF vs Factions vs Proph, 4 months later

When NF first came out, I loved it--thought the story was better than Factions by far, and it was faster than Prophecies, so it seemed like the perfect chapter. But after having played through it with 2 characters, I am finding myself with very little interest in playing through with additional characters, even if it means missing good elites. I guess that what I'm saying that NF was a better story to play through the first time than Factions, but I'm finding that if I'm going to play through a story for the N>1th time, Factions I'd rather replacy Factions. Over time, my opinion on Factions in general has improved. Anyone else noticing this?

I think that maybe the Factions team had the right idea with the emphasis on PvP aspects as the way to make a game continue to be enjoyable after playing through the first time (c.f. all the posts about GW "dying"). Unfortunately, I think that the incentives the developers put in to encourage players to try PvP were not as effective as expected. Maybe it wasn't clear enough how much faction could be had PvPing' I sure wish I had known how much faster I could gain my 10,000 faction playing AB instead of grinding in all those side quests in the Echovald! Thus, to my surprise, although I am very much primarily a PVE player, I am hoping that Chapter 4 builds on the PVP elements rather than just adding another storyline to the universe...

The first week I played I loved NF. After I realized I had to grind to progress, an even greater grind than Factions, I was turned off.
Prophecies, i feel is the best. Althought you grind to level 20, you do so as you progress through the story.
In factions, you hit a point and have to get the faction to continue.
Although, collecting the faction via AB is fun, it's still forcing me to do something I may not have done otherwise.
In Nightfall, there are two or three points, in which grind is required.
The game is less enjoyable if you are forced to grind.
I am not big on sidequests, unless there is a reward, skill or hero.
Items or gold, not interested.
So forcing me to do sidequests and clear areas (bounty hunts) to move forward in the game is annoying, especially with your 2nd or 3rd character through the game.
I like the progression, speed and story, of Prophecies. Slow grind while leveling up and building the story, instead of the forced farming/grinding in NF and Factions.

i love all three chapters, i like them all the same. for some reason though, prophecies has very little replay value. if i do play prophecies with a factions/nightfall characters i just get a run to iron mines of malodune and play from there. i find that factions has extremley good replay value and ive taken all 5 or my pve characters through it. i guess i like it because i can power level my low levels on kaineng center quests (2000-3000 exp each) and they are all very very easy. ive taken 4 of 5 characters through nightfall and im currently working on my newly made nerco, who will be through in a week or two.

I still make characters in Prophecies. GG

The only reason I make characters outside of Tyria is because that class isn't available.

Yes, my opinion on factions has improved, too. Upon nightfall release it was nightfall > factions > prophecies, but now clearly factions > nightfall > prophecies.

Factions brought many new ideas to the game. Some good, some so and so. Only the competetive missions are weird. They feel like there was something else planned with them, an idea that somehow got dropped.
On the other hand, nightfall brought as only real addition the herosystem. It's great, I love it, it even improves the experience when going back to prophecies or factions, but it's the only real feature that's worth noting.

i agree w/ the OP. i took 5 chars thru prophecies and factions. towards the end, i just passed tyria by running. i got really sick of the repetition. factions was tolerable b/c even tho it wasn't especially fun, it was short.

nf will be impossible for me to go thru w/ 5-6 chars. i don't have that kinda dedication. and plus there's so little reason to go thru that kinda grind anymore w/ the (almost) complete equality of pvp and pve chars. the only reason for pveing at all anymore is for weapon and armor skins and titles. i'm satisfied w/ gaining titles on one char only. and if i want a certain nf armor, i'll just push that character thru for armor and ignore the rest for the chapter. that means if i limit myself to 1 vanity armor per chapter i'll push 3 chars max thru. even that seems like it's going to be a herculean effort b/c of chapter length.

1 title char
1 new profession char
1 vanity armor char

From my point of view: Nightfall > Prophecies > Factions

Of course prophecies was the first, prophecies is the essence of the game, but i really don't enjoy playing in tyria as i enjoy playing in elona or cantha. As is logicall, factions made improvements over prophecies, it was a very good stand alone game, not so good in comparison with prophecies, but with some changes, some things could be better, some becomed better with nightfall. The game is always in evolution, and each new campaign will have better improvements than the olders one, but besides of improvements, we must consider the "fun factor", which one do you enjoy more?

Pre-searing is finally the best start area in the 3 campaigns, i think there's no doubt about that, is a great place. But the problem is that what in factions and nightfall is a short walk of 2-3 missions to reach max level, in prophecies is more than half of the map... the dessert can be equivalent to kaineng or kourna, south shiverpeaks to desolation or echovald/jade sea, and ring of fire can be equivalent to raisu/torment (torment is harder than raisu & ring of fire although). So for me there's no fun leveling up, the true fun for me is playing in lvl20 through any kind of high-end mission, in that sense... nightfall has much more to offer than prophecies or factions... the whole torment, domain of anguish...

Another point we can only study in the comparison between factions and nightfall are the challenge missions... nightfall missions are better from my point of view, the one with the corsairs is more fun than dragon's throat, anyway dragon's is a very good one. Pac-man shalahja is "the challenge"... is the best one, if you are bored you can really have a good time inside there. The shadow nexus is a real challenge, 4-man team in a high-end area, is just a new concept and a way to improve your skill bar even in pve. Compared to altrum, zo shivros, amatz basin or aurios mines i still think the 3 nightfall challenge mission win.

summing up:
prophecies:
- slow level evolution
- Open map
- no requeriments to do missions
factions:
- fast level evolution
- closed map
- need to do quests even to get in towns. those 10.000 factions to continue are silly.
nightfall:
- mid level evolution
- partially open map
- need to do quests to do missions.

I have to admit that I've been playing factions a lot lately and it's pretty ok.
I have 2 characters throught NF and all my characters have been through tyria but the last two weeks have been playing factions with my ele.... yeah it's not bad at all...

well when i go to ngihtfall most of the main towns have atleast two districts all but kamadan with about 7. i think nf maybe more interesting due to the free chests things because u can gain alot just by going through with them.

PvP is the endgame. It was originally designed that way.

Beware the trolls.....

<pats Grimm on the head> .... of course it was. Whatever you say....

I still like proph. the best out of all of them. Factions was the worst, farming faction and everything else got old pretty fast. I'm still happy with NF, even though the sunspear points are useless.

PvP was designed as the endgame. At launch, there were only 2 PvE endgame areas, and they were conditional on your region's PvP prowess in the old tombs. ANet have realised this hasn't worked so well, and so added in Sorrow's Furnace, new Tombs PvE. The factions elite missions ended up being restricted by a PvE farming competition, and NF is open to anyone that has ground through the PvE campaign. So there are PvE endgame options now, but there weren't always.

I find myself playing Prophecies/Factions with my only made Elona character.
I have 9 characters and 2 accounts, all 8 have completed the game in Prophecies and Factions, but none of them has gone further than Sunspear Sanctuary.
I like all 3 chapters but don't feel like to take them all to the end of NF! If I could endure the factions farming in Factions I couldn't do that again with sunspears/lightbringers points!

Well at the end of the day in my humble opinion Prophecies is the best of all 3! No closed gates, no compulsory grinding, better variety of scenary, skills rewards and better drops! I have had enough of Elona daggers and 7 gold coins drops from level 24 foes!

I really, really, really...... did I say really? Hope chapter 4 will be similar to Prophecies, no close gates/doors, skills rewards for quests and most of all no grinding. If not, well that will be my last game, I'll be buying from Anet.




PS. I must add, for clarity that I'm mostly a PvE player.

I'm a new player, I started at Nightfall release. IMO Factions > Nightfall > Prophecies, although I wish Nightfall had a Sorrow's Furnace type area

Since the beginning I loved Factions and Prophecies so no my feelings haven't changed.

Factions = Prophecies > Nightfall

What was good about Nightfall was the new features like heroes.

No, I don't feel the same way as the OP. I've taken 5 Characters through Prophecies, and am working on a sixth. I've also taken 1 through Nightfall and am working on 3 others. I took 1 character through factions and I will never put myself through that again. For me it goes like this:

Nightfall > Prophecies (but not by much) >>>> factions.

Prophecies > Factions > Nightfall


I'm taking a monk thru prophecies at the moment and do you know what , there is more community there (even with less players) than Nightfall could dare to dream.

Hopefully heroes will not be in chapter 4, Let's get back to working together people.

I "grew up" in factions. I make all my chars there and play the campaign many times. Nightfall. Played through it once. But id rather import a char from factions: the startup is kinda slower. Prophecies. Even though i got it seccond, i finally got to playing it. Its great, but after getting one char through everything, its better to get a run and go to factions to level.

I posted my entire critique here, to check it out. It's not on GWguru, but it loads faster than this forum so it's cooler :P

Anyway, in a nutshell:
Prophecies: Utter CRAP.
Factions: Decent at first, but if you keep re-creating PvE characters on it, it'll get very old very fast. (I suggest making one rit or asn, stick with one, and maybe one other core class and STAY WITH THAT.)
Nightfall: I love it by an insane amount. Has a better replayability value and lovely designed armor.

for more elaboration, check my link.
edit: Damn, i think you have to be a member to view. Nevermind.

Full post:
On Prophecies:
I know this is the favorite of most people, but I must say it is aweful. I am usually good with keeping up with storylines, but the Proph one makes no sense.
First, you're in Pre-searing ascalon. You do quests for kids, actors, and princes. A hostile army comes alone and bombs the place. So far, so good. A generic "fall of the empire" template storyline. Unoriginal, but decent and popular.
So now you're in post-searing Ascalon, apparently your mission as a band of heros is to stop the invasion (or at least postpone is some more?) Kill as many charr as you can, and perhaps even save ascalon.

So far, so good.

Then this is where the game loses me. After the discovery of stormbringer, you make your way into the shiverpeaks and end up getting all in the dwarves business. I fail to realize why. You muddle through their little civil war to gain passage to kryta (even those there's plenty of water underneath it all. It would have been as simple as getting a boat ride from ascalon to kryta.) rorik dies, and you make your way to Kryta. Suddenly you're taking orders from a fanatical religious group called the White mantle, for some reason that escapes me. Suddenly, they turn evil (yay for killing innocents?) you escape, and BAM suddenly the undead want to kill you as well, for a reason that escaped me as well.

WHAT THE HELL?

Somehow I did make it to the desert, again I have no idea what I'm doing there, only to ascend for some reason. And that's as far as I've gone in prophecies. I never want to make a prophecies character again due to the nonsense and complete boredom the campaign gives me.

On Factions
I was extremely excited when I got this. The storyline is most definately a lot more original, but the entire thing is obviously PvP based, as one could get to level 11-15 in a day of gameplay. I honestly don't think Factions is good for new players, even during the tutorial, I bet most of them chat with party members rather than paying attention. As the game pins you against level 8's and 11's in almost no time. (The leveling speed in prophecies to me is a tad slow, but I think it was too speedy in factions. Call me picky.) Which I don't think is healthy for new players, it may even discourage them, "omg level 11's already! I'm only level 7!"

all in all, the storyline is decent and it flowed throughout the whole game. In prophecies the main enemy shifted way too much for me to keep up. Charr? no wait, the stone summit! damnit no, it's the mantle! CRAP NOW THE UNDEAD? At least in Factions you knew who the enemy was the entire time. Shiro. although the lack in enemy diversity wasn't that great.

On Nightfall
I do believe, they finally know what they're doing.
The storyline flows, a central enemy is established while still giving you plenty of side-enemies to worry about. The storyline is a political war-time debate that everyone of all ages can relate to. Are you, as a sunspear, working for the greater good? Or have you just taken orders from a mad leader who wants a war? It's hard to tell, which I think is brilliant.
Although the question shifts quickly when you discover the famous Warmarshal Varesh want's to, uh, for lack of a better way of saying it, end the world in this event called "Nightfall" And thus revealing the source of the expansion title.
Short, simple, to the point. Awesome storyline.

Nightfall also introduced heros, which are henchmen on crack. Which is good, mind you. Each player/party member can equip 3 heros each of their choice, which are generally unlocked as you progress through the storyline. you can equip weapons of your choice, customize their skill bar, edit their attributes, and install runes into their armor. You cannot change their actual armor, but it does improve as the heros level. You can order them around making them attack, guard, or avoid combat altogether. You can order them and the heros to stop and stay in a certain area, too, untill you cancel the order. BRILLIANCE?

Let me take a second to comment on the armor that nightfall gives. In prophecies, the armor was relatively bland, and only the best looking armor went to the high levels who are deep into the island of fire and farm a hundred ectos a day or something. And in factions, you had a couple more creative types, but you were stuck with one style or another throughout most of the same (That much I didn't like.) In nightfall, you almost WANT to end the game with starter-styled armor. The armor is just beautifully crafted. Sadly, there is only two types again but that doesn't matter much as the armor is wonderfully created.

The nightfall storyline is so innovative and fast paced, that I've progressed farther in the NF campaign in a week or two than I have in any others over the course of 6 months.

I hope they take the best of all worlds and put it into Chapter4. Prophecies with their slow and easy pace for learning, nightfall with the leveling speed (Heros would be nice but I'm not worried about them too much) and nightfall again for their perfect storyline.

Well this is interesting...Originally when Nightfall had come out, I was like "IT OWNS ALL!" But the music got repetitive and annoying, the noob island had started to bore me, I didn't find the desert all too pleasing to look at...It's why I'm stuck with my characters there. I just...Ergh! Not to mention, getting Grand Master Cartographer with it really made me sick o' it all.
But the music in Factions rules, I have fond memories of it, it is freaking beautiful, and while it has a few bad quirks it's awesome. Can't beat the nostalgia of Prophecies, though.

^Wow that guy completely didn't understand the phrophecies plot line.

And umm... ascalon is landlocked, how the heck are they supposed to take a boat to Kryta?

IMHO
Factions>Nightfall>Prophecies

Factions introduces power leveling which is good if you want to make a new character and got bored with the story and also the PVP feature of the game.
Also for me Factions is the most challenging of all 3 (Factions>Prophecies>Nightfall)

I knew enough of it to realize that it was way too dynamic, dumb, and senseless. I liked Rurik, actually. Working with him in pre-searing was a blast, working alongside Rurik in a quest or two. His attitude was fit for a true hero and his death was noble but tragic. But does your in-game character care? No! LET's go work for the white mantle!

That's about when Prophecies lost me.

Agree completely.

And I feel like we've discussed about this before in some other threads?

Anyway, I still remember that the most dramatic thing your character did in Prophecies is screaming "Rurik! No!" before the prince died.

....and that's it. "Let's go to LA people! It's the sand, sea, beaches and palm trees all over!"

So much for a storyline.

Factions was way, way too small and too quick. "Power leveling" is one thing, 6hrs of solo play to hit level 20 is just plainly too fast, in my opinon.

The factions storyline was kind of cool, but I'll never play through it again. I am still severly disappointed with Factions, and prefer Nightfall heavily, hence why I am still playing in Elona. ABs are a great addition don't get me wrong, but nothing is pulling me back to Cantha itself. The 10,000 faction grind in Factions seems much longer than the Sunspear grind in Elona, maybe because more of the Cantha thing seemed like sidequesting bs, while you get alot of Sunspear points just doing quests that are in the primary set, and of course you can just bounty for them, something that I'd liked to have had for Factions. (my guild didn't have ABs when I originally went through Factions) and of course that stupid Gate system.

On the flip side I have taken 4 Characters through Elona vs 1 in Cantha, and find that it progesses a bit steadier without becoming boring (to me) one factor that defitnaly has to do with it, finding a group, i mostly play with human groups and right now Elona and Tyria are both easier to find groups in than Cantha, though I will agree that Heroes have hurt the PuGs in all three. I tend to use them simply to fill in a spot or two. Elona's map is not as open as Tyria but is way more open than Cantha. The actual areas seem to be much, much more open than both though (running room, viewing distance, etc) maybe that is just me but alot of the City areas of Cantha made me feel closed in. The non-city areas were nice, but still just don't have me going back for me.

Okay so I have ranted about Factions vs Nightfall, what about Prophecies.

Well Prophecies is a bit of a mixed bag for me, on one hand I have played it since the E3 event and it has the most varied areas of the three games, it has an actual feel of earning your characters level and it is the original. On the other hand I feel that when making your 2nd, 3rd, etc Character that some of its magic wears off and the road to 20 is just boring. Then comes getting to the desert, and doing all that. I don't miss asking for runs, I much prefer going to the docks really quick to nab my armor, then doing the quick questing in NF, although not as quick as Factions. I feel like alot of people may be looking through Prophecies with rose-colored lenses.

Prophecies started the guild wars franchise but I truly feel that both Factions and Nightfall have not only expanded it but improved it greatly with some of the following things. Some people may disagree.

Decrease of difference between gold/purple items (now purple items are completly worthless)

Inscriptions.

Heroes (this one I'll admit has as many benefits as faults)

Material Storage

Alliance Battles (pvp that effects the world, and involves more people, yeah I know that HA does but anyone can go in and AB)

Challenge Missions, overlooked and can be quite fun, though repetitive.

Wurms fun and useful for farming.

My mouth moves when I talk!

of course we also get the expanding world and such, now that April is getting closer hearing SOMETHING about chapter 4 would be great...if ANet really does plan on releasing every six months, it is getting awfully close to be so tight-lipped.

I think it's all due to the fact that certain things carry over better with certain campaigns then others. This brought some problems to the table because people love certain aspects of the GW campaigns, while others despise them. It’s like a big borderline that was brought down on all the campaigns, which stated “If you like this, please move on or else stay put.”

The unfortunate thing is that none of these aspects will never be fixed. This is due to the fact once the campaign is finished; A-net can’t really change prerogatives to the overall gameplay of each campaign. So in saying that people get rather bored of one thing and move on to the next or sometimes stop playing all together. Until the next expansion comes out, we will have to wait for the next big thing. However this could change if A-net finds a more productive way in rakeing in the cash and be more publicity (sounds cold but true); so that way the development team can become even more productive.

Technically all this is owed, to the fact that players and the press over GW have little or no regard to know what they want. Which everyone is shouting for different things, but all agrees that it should keep it coming.

Proph:The 2nd Best game
Pros:No Forced leveling
Easy to play
Rurik Dies!!!(lol)
Plenty of skills
Very enjoyable
Lions Arch= the Epi center of all three games in trade/accountsellers/Events

Cons:BILLIONS of "Run me to Lions Arch Please!!!!!!!!"

Thats it...

Factions:The 3rd Best game(i Wouldnt say its the worst it just doesnt have the quality game play)

Pros: Added Assassin and Ritualist Two Pvp Pwners
Added Alliance and Alliance battle
Quick Easy Gameplay

Cons: No runs
Forced to Level up to twenty of the island
Game Too easy



Nightfall the best 1st (Trumpet sound)

Pros:Heroes add a new element
Dervish and Paragon Two Deadly Proffessions
The New Combat system

Cons:Forced Leveling
Sunspear Points

For me, it goes: Factions > Prophecies > Nightfall

To me, Nightfall is just boring. So far I've only beaten it with one character; I've had 2 more characters at the Gate of Torment for a month now, and also 1 character at Gate of Madness, with no urge to play them any further. Nevermind taking my other characters through the game. Maybe in a few weeks I'll feel compelled to do so, but after three months I'm pretty bored with Nightfall.

I actually did go back to Factions to finish my Protector of Cantha title on several characters. With heroes, Factions is a lot more fun, even during annoying missions like Gyala Hatchery or Eternal Grove. My ritualist from Factions has become my favorite character to play, and I now play my Factions monk more than my Prophecies monk, even though the skillset is limited.

Prophecies was a lot of fun to play, even after playing it exclusively for almost a year. When I have the time, I plan on taking a few of my foreign born characters into Tyria.

For me it's Prophecies>Nighfall>>>>>>Factions

I like Prophecies for the character progression, openness, less amount of grind and the varity in locations, Nightfall gains by the hero system and inscribable weapons/armour, Factions gains by....erm, umm, errr I'll have to get back to you on that

Prophecies > Nightfall > Factions

Prophecies just had the best story (the most plot twists)

Nightfall storyline was rather good as well, it wasn't as predictable as factions

Factions storyline just sucked. From the second mission, I knew how the story would end (by killing shiro)

Also, any storyline is easy to understand if you just pay attention... Well factions storyline was a bit... the same all the time, so I didn't really pay attention, and it had alot of plot holes.

Prophecies also has the best farming spots, and most fun missions (Since factions missions were timed, and Nightfall missions were too short.)

Bah... They're like children. I love them all, even though they are all fairly different from one another.

Prophecies is Epic
Factions is Quick and different with it's PvP integrated gameplay
Nightfall is solid, challenging and always provides something to do

It really just comes down to what you're in the mood for. The differences between the games are very subtle. Essentially, in all of them, you are simply attacking mob after mob in order to get somewhere or do something, and that doesn't change much. It's hard for me to think "one is utter crap" or "another is the best thing that ever happened". It's easy to say "you level to quick in Factions" but as someone pointed out earlier, that allows you to bring more character through quicker. You have to ask yourself, "Is that really bad? or just different?" Each game has it's own quirks, but they're all fun and enjoyable. I've played the heck out of all three.

well i almost made it through nightfall....factions is the one i still play. best part of NF was preordering the CE. then after a week of playing it was boring. factions still kicks ass though. i could do Naphuli Quarter all day long.

I like them all for different reasons. I still enjoy going back to Tyria and Cantha but no more or less than Elona.

I only wish I had more time to take all my characters through all campaigns. I took 4 chars through prophecies. Only one of them (Monk) made it all the way through NF and fully explored everything. Now that my Monk has his Protector, Cartographer and Skills titles I can start working on onother character. I look forward to the nostalgia of revisiting everything again.

QFTW.

NF took all the mmorpg down the sink.

More beating of the dead horse?

The sooner you stop blaming heroes for your problems, the sooner you can move on.

I posted something similar to this in another thread (but I can't find that thread)...

For replayability:

1. Prophecies - by far the best. You can run to wherever you want, limiting the number of missions you need to replay. Ascension almost guarantees you level 20, so it's simply henching your way through Sanctum Cay and the Desert missions to get there.

2. Factions - the very quick power leveling to 20 makes this game very appealing for replayability. You are somewhat limited by the gates in the storyline, but accessing those missions is very quick and you don't need to do hardly any side quests to get there. The big roadblock is the Luxon/Kurzick 10,000 faction, but that can be quickly gotten by your other characters (since it is by account).

3. Nightfall - probably the worst for replayability, unless you really enjoy (like me) character development. Sunspear points almost require you to complete a majority of the side quests to continue in the story line. Yes, you can run to many more places, but in the end you are roadblocked in several places from continuing in the story until you accumulate those points.

To summarize, it doesn't surprise me that the OP has found going through Nightfall a 3rd or 4th time to be very tedious, if you're simply trying to get through it to get to certain elite skills. I'm into character development, so I really enjoy Nightfall (almost as much as Prophecies).

tbh i didn't find sunspear grinding that hard if you take all the bounties when you go into areas from the start i only had to do a few quests in kourna and kill a pile of hecket on the way to barberous shore to get sunspear general but compared to getting 10k luxon faction while in a kurzic guild it was easy so for me nightfall ftw followed jointly by proph and factions

I hated Nightfall from the beginning, I think it was because I had to do those stupid sunspear quests for hours to get that stupid sunspear title leetsauce that made me sick of it, Factions continues to be my number favorite, followed by prophecies. Nightfall has too much quests and crap, unlike prophecies where you just do missions and a quest or two, but prophecies quests actually have a story and some action behind it, Nightfall quests are, Talk to A, travel to town B, talk to C and get reward, really, what's the point in that?

factions had a story line?

i havent finished nf yet due to some annoying missions so i cant comment on the high end content..matter of fact whenever i go to try one of them i always seem to end up in ha id1 lol. maybe its ai that isnt very appealing... at any rate

proph>nightfall>factions


on a side note i remember when droks had 8 districts all the time...tyria feels abandoned. QQ