What campagin should a first time player embark on?

I do not have the game however I hope to get the trilogy for christmas!!!! Anyway, which campagin should I embark on? I want to start with the easiest one and it should have a good tutorial/learning area or several easy first quests to get me going. After looking at the three for a brief period of time it seems that the first one may be the easiest. Is this true? Also if I were to play the first one or Factions I would most likely play as a ranger. If I were to play Nightfall I would be a Dervish/Warrior. Please help me out!!!!

Thanks!!!

I'd say start with Prophecies. It doesn't put you into high-level areas as quickly (i.e, slow learning curve) and the quests give you free skills.

Thanks for the tip! What do you do with your character after you complete the campagin?

Prophecies is best as it has a slow learning curve. After beating the campaign, you can farm to get gold to buy sexy armour or weapons, there are also titles to go for.

Prophecies=Slow learning curve, longest overall campaign, also most boring (imo)

Factions=Faster learning curve, tutorial is based on an island and is somewhat short, shortest overall campaign, better the prophecies imo

Nightfall="just right" speed and learning curve, fairly lengthy, most interesting quest and missions imo

Based on your information, I would go with prophecies. Honestly though, none of the games are too hard. I would personally suggest nightfall so you have heroes to play through the other campaigns with.

Do the other ones.

I would go with Prophecies first, as it has a great learning curve. You actually learn how the skills work and are give the chance to understand the tactics envolved in using them. Something Nightfall and Factions don't offer. Take your time, enjoy the game and welcome!

I would recommend starting in prophecies. And when you do prophecies, dont try to rush through it all, read all the quests, watch the movies, etc. It has the best storyline out of all the games so make sure you actually appreciate it.

My advice, for whichever campaign you end up choosing, is to take your time and smell the roses. As Bobulation suggested, read the quests, watch the cinematics, do some side quests, take some time to enjoy things like the landscape, artwork, and animations. Don't try to rush the campaign because (from my own experience) you get the most enjoyment out of a campaign if you take it slow the first time around. Also, by going slowly, paying attention, and taking the time to experiment gives you the opportunity to learn many more things than you would if you tried to rush. So good luck and have fun

Oh, and my personal opinion on the campaign order is Prophecies -> Nightfall -> Factions. This is the order I took and I enjoyed it very much

I say Prophecies because of skill quests, meaning you get the most amount of skills from this campaign that don't require spending skill points on.
I would say Nightfall next because it comes with heroes. Depending on your characters' professions, Nightfall has very useful skills for them.

factions ftw. dont listen to the others

As you'll have the trilogy edition, why not start a character in each one? That is what I did.

Also helps around the upcoming holiday as you'll quickly have a character in Kamadan (Nightfall) for some of the festivities, while enjoying the different atmosphere of both Prophecies and Factions at the same time!

I also would have to say prophecies. I played them in order.

However, if in fact you were to get the trilogy... I would make a character in each one as well as someone said above.

But still, I could focus more on prophecies before going to the next.

I'd go for doing them in order. What the people above have to remember is that they have played all campaigns so understandably may find Prophecies boring as they want to get to max level ASAP. Starting from fresh these will be things you shouldn't worry about. As noted above, prophecies does give you lots of free skills which is good for you as you wont have loads of cash just to buy them. It also means you get to experience the beauty of Pre-Searing (i wont give any details of this as it will spoil the story line) which is imo the nicest area in the whole of the game and should be experienced at least once.

I'd go with prophecies first, slowest learning curve and not too hard on new players.

Create a Nightfall character first, or you'll miss Wintersday.

I would recommend prophecies for a first time player....it has the best tutorial and storyline. I have completed all the games and prophs is still my favorite. But, so you won't miss out on Wintersday, you should do as previously suggested and make a character in each campaign. Wintersday will be celebrated in Kamadan in Nightfall...the only place you will be able to get to for the festivities this year.

More than which campaign to start in, I'd say which characters to start first. Ranger is a good one; you'll find later on that they're versatile, plus you're more likely to stay alive when you're new due to the fact that you're not on the front lines. I would suggest starting a Paragon in Nightfall and a Ranger in Factions or Prophecies for this reason.

Install all three, play through Prophecies - the first one.

Do not get runs through the games. Do not fall into pressure to skip cinematics - or you will be confused on the storyline and why you are doing something, making the game boring.

Find what you like about the game - farming *if so, wrong game tbh* PuGing (Pickup Groups, i.e., human players you grab in an outpost to do whatever it is you are doing), H/H soloing, titles, lore *if so, check out the Druid's Overlook, etc.. etc.

Remember that there is a lot more to prophecies than pre-searing (first area you go into) and that Prophecies is the slowest paced game with leveling.

I recommend doing all quests - not only do they usually give lore background (if you couldn't tell, I'm a lore fanatic ), but they give experience (quests is the best way to get experience as a beginner) and for Prophecies, they give skills.

If you get stuck on something, press F10 and type in what you are stuck on, this will open the official wiki to whatever you typed in.

As for your profession to start with, warrior is a good start for understanding the game, it's simple to play. Ranger is also good, Necromancer and Monks are also good to try out. I suggest not sticking to just one profession at first. Make a character of them all - you will have 8 character slots so you will have to delete two to try all 10 out.

I also suggest having as few characters as possible, although this is personal preference, I tend to find people like getting titles and multiple characters makes some people want to get titles on more than just one character, which then leads to the game feeling like grind.

I think I covered nearly everything, if you have more questions, once you get the game, feel free to whisper me in game (state who you are and why you're whispering me, or I just may not respond - I get lots of random PMs saying "nice thread on Guru/GWO, etc. etc."). If you have questions prior to getting the game, PM me on here. I will be glad to help out.

Edit: Oh, almost forgot. Make a quick Nightfall character so you don't miss wintersday! You'll regret it if you do, trust me. I missed the Dragon Festival of '06 because I made a Prophecies character and stayed out of Factions until I was half-way done with Prophecies. I regret not getting the mask! Q.Q

You'll have about 6 days after getting it to get to the half-way point in Prohecies, possibly but annoying and you'll miss too much.

Another oh, there are now "books" that you can fill out upon doing missions, you should get them before doing the mission that go in the books - extra cash ^^ (You get them at: Prophecies - Lion's Arch, Cantha - Kaineng Center, Nightfall - Sunspear Great Hall). Prior to being able to go to those areas, you will not need the books.

Hi! I'm a beginner myself (having played a couple of months).

It also depends on what kind of player you are. Generally, folks are either gamers or explorers (or some combination thereof).

The gamer will want to compete, level quickly, go through the campaigns, etc..

The explorer will want to visit every nook of the landscape, try all monsters from several angles, experiment with builds, etc....

Personally I'm an explorer. For this, Prophecies is perfect, although I thank other posters for the hint about Nightfall; I will open my Nightfall and creat a character there.

The landscape in Pre-searing is gorgeous, and there are loads of things to explore. I'm still working on builds, but I found one that is nice for the early stages, and also works nice as a henchman (I have two accounts, so can be my own party ): W/E wielding a hammer . All attributes on hammer mastery and fire magic.

Some say a hammer is a stupid weapon, being slow and two handed, but rightly used it does loads of damage, and the character works in "fire and forget" mode: Just press 'c' and 'space' and some poor monster gets the works .

Hans

Everyone is saying make a nightfall character or you will miss wintersday. Well Wintersday is in both prophecies and nightfall, so he can enjoy Prophecies, or Nightfall and still partake in wintersday. Oh and also imo, Prophecies is the best campaign if you want a very indepth and entertaining story, Nightfall is the best for those who dont make friends quickly, because of the heroes.

Prophecies is the original campaign and as such it is obvious that the designers were focused on creating an interesting storyline in which to learn the game play.
In the following games, the designers did not want to dedicate too much content to the learning part,- as many players had already advanced beyond this point.

Just my 10 cents

Yes, but Wintersday in Prophecies is primarily celebrated in Lion's Arch. In Nightfall Wintersday is in Kamadan. Starting a new character in Prophecies and getting to Lion's Arch for Wintersday will most likely involve rushing through the campaign. In Nightfall, Kamadan is the second outpost you get to and takes less than a half hour from character creation to arrival.

this

i wouldnt listen to ppl sayin proph is the best without explainin why
they all have advantages and disadvantages

personally i dislike proph because it is too slow
yes it is easy...but theres no direction
i kno ppl who stay in pre for months and not realize theres so much more u can do
its good if u like to take ur time and explore

me myself i prefer factions
its faster and maybe slightly harder yes
but the tutorials r more detailed and u'll be guided nearly every step of the way
i would only recommend this if u like to get to lvl20 fast or like challenge

nf is kind of in-between
its fairly objective-based like factions
but on a slower pace like proph
but it does have a ton of content and customizability (insignias/inscriptions/heroes/etc)
which can be a lot of information to take in at first

but imo, if u want to play a derv
then i'd go wit nf and play a derv

however, if ur still wondering bout the classes
i think nf does the best job at giving an introduction to them
so if anything, at least try the "tutorial" area of nf even if u dun decide to go with that campaign