Slightly confused on expansions..

I will be a returning player after having completed the original game with my Ranger three years ago, then quit. Until now.

I have read the main site for GuildWars and the new classes/areas look awesome to me and I can't wait to play them. But here is my problem:

It has really been a long time since I played the game and want to start over from pre-searing on to relearn how to play, remember the story, ect.. . BUT I read about the new classes and would really like to play an Assassin. I cannot tell if there is a way to just make an assassin and get her right over to pre-searing so I can play the game from ground up with her. Or if I cannot do that, I hear people say that you really need to get Hero classes as soon as you can and then go back and do everything. I'm guessing there's a way to take a brand new pre-searing char to where they are and then bring them back with you?

Sorry if these seem like odd questions, I have not started the game again yet (I will be this weekend) and I could not find out from just reading others posts if it was possible.

Thanks!
Njara

If you make an Assassin, you'll have to do it in Factions campaign. Prophecies and Nightfall don't have sins as a prof. You will start out on a starter island in Factions that serves the same purpose as Pre though. However, once you get to mainland of Factions (Cantha) you can do a quest to get to Prophecies and NF. You just won't be able to go into Pre-Sear with your sin.

Pre-Searing is only available for the Prophecies-created characters. Those do not include the new classes (Ritualist, Assassin, Dervish & Paragon). You cannot access heroes in pre-searing.

Presearing will cover anywhere from level 1 to level 20, depending on how long you choose to stay in there and farm the easy monsters. For people who just do most of the quests and move on, though, you can expect to leave pre at around lvl 5-7.

If you really want to, you could make a character in pre, level up a bit there, then go through the searing to Ascalon City. Get a run from there to Lion's Arch and jump across to Kamadan where you can pick up some heroes, then map back to Ascalon City and carry on with the Prophecies storyline.

To be honest, though, you might as well just make the class you want - assassin - in Factions and play through the Factions equivalent of presearing as Kawil said above.

If you really want to specifically experience Prophecies presearing to refresh yourself on gameplay in the easiest environment there is in game, why not make a temporary character in Prophecies then delete them once you feel comfortable with the game again, and go make your sin in Factions.

Or, if you have enough character slots, just use it as a mule for storage.

Not exactly. You don't really need heroes in Prophecies at all, and you certainly don't need them in pre or early post. Once you reach LA, then you can go to NF and/or EotN and grab some heroes, then come back and finish Prophecies. Heroes do make the last half of Prophecies somewhat easier. If you then take your Prophecies character to Factions, the heroes will be very useful when you arrive in Kaineng City (where foreign characters join the story).

If you make a sin in Factions, you will again have the opportunity to go grab some heroes once you get off the starter island and reach Kaineng City.

My first character played all the campaigns in order, since I'm a story freak, except that I did go to EotN long enough to get the first three heroes. With those I was able to complete the rest of Prophecies and all of Factions before going to Nightfall and getting the Elonian heroes. I completed Nightfall with those before going back to EotN and getting the rest of the heroes from that expansion.

If you aren't concerned about avoiding potential spoilers and doing things in sequence, then you can mix and match campaigns as you please, getting whichever heroes suit you.

Remember that pre is a time rather than a place, and once you leave, there is no coming back, and therefore can just prophecies characters reach it (and that is just for a short period until you move on).

If you want to play the storyline, then make a proph char and play prophecies, and then create a sin and do factions. Or create your sin and play through the starter area just to move back to proph, and once finished, move to back to factions and complete it.

If I where in your position, I'd create the profession that I wanted to play (an assassin, and therefore start in factions), and as fast as I could go to NF to get the first easy heroes, and EotN too (to get easy-to-get heroes) and then continue with the campaign I'd like to play (for my part was it EotN as I wanted to do some raptor farming).

And Welcome back!

Thanks so much for the help!

I think I will make a temp/mule and run through Pre-Searing as a refresher then make my assassin and either run her through Factions storyline or go back to Prophesies (haven't decided yet).

Take care!