a few newbie questions...

I Bought Guild Wars the first day it came out and played it for a few months before quitting (I had to devote more time to my counter strike main team). I kinda forgot about it over the years until GW2 videos started coming out and I go the itch to play again. I just have a few questions about Guild Wars if someone could kindly answer them

1. I read the sticky about which guild wars to buy (I lost my original CD) and I'm still confused a little bit about the story lines of the games. I just want to be caught up on the story so when I get GW2 I will know what's going on. If Nightfall and Factions are separate stories that have nothing to do with Prophecies or connecting to GW2 then I wouldn't be interested in getting them. So If I'm going for the MAIN story line do I need to get Factions and/or Nightfall?

2. Is Eye of the North worth getting? If so should I wait until after I have beaten Prophecies to get it? Does it add any to the story line or is it just added dungeons?

3. Is there any transferable content that can be earned/collect from GW1 and used in GW2?

4. I'm assuming this game's player base is quite small as of late so I guess I will be soloing the game. Which class would be the easiest to solo with (In Prophecies)? I would like to make a warrior (not sure what 2nd class, monk?) but I don't want to get frustrated with bosses because I know I'll just have henchman with me.

Based off the info I've been able to find myself, I think I'll be getting Prophecies and Eye of the North digitally off the guild wars web site but I just want to find out a little more info so I know exactly what to do. Thanks in advance

Factions and Nightfall are separate campaigns, but they're not completely different games. In Prophecies there are references to Cantha and Elona and the other campaigns allow you to know more about these places. Also, some events that occur in those campaigns may influence GW2.

Lore aside, there's heaps of reasons to get the other games. There are a ton of good skills in Factions/Nightfall, heroes (customisable henchmen), new armor skins, etc. It's pretty cheap to buy the set now so you're not losing much if you find yourself not playing them as much.

If you care about GW2, you'll definitely want to get EotN. Rather than be a campaign in itself, it leads on from the 3 campaigns and introduces some of the things that will happen in GW2. There is also a bunch of missions and stuff to do, as well as dungeons, more armor sets, more heroes, etc.

In EotN there is a place called the Hall of Monuments. Your characters can put stuff in there like armor sets, weapons, minipets, titles, etc. There will be some cosmetic benefit for these in GW2. We do not know what this is yet.

First off, when people say 'solo', they mean just them. A team of one person and heroes and henchmen is referred to as H/H.

Secondly, W/Mo is fail, don't do it.

Thirdly, H/H doesn't mean you're significantly weaker or that you won't be able to complete all the content. Provided you have a brain and are able to use it, you can get through perfectly well. You can always ask your guildies for help when you get really stuck though.

Fourthly, people you know > guildies > H/H > random people. Most people are idiots. Even when I have the choice of doing something with real people, I'll go with heroes and henchmen unless I know that the person I group with isn't a complete idiot.

As Marty said, there are many good reasons to get the entire trilogy plus EotN aside from the story. From a story perspective, however, the games connect as follows.

The story of GW2 is going to be primarily connected to Prophecies and Eye of the North (EotN) when it comes out. Prophecies introduces you to one of the races (charr) that will be playable in GW2. EotN introduces you to two more races (asura and norn), introduces the source of the sylvari, gives you more information on the charr, and involves fighting minions of one of the Elder Dragons that will appear in GW2.

However, it is also a good idea to have some familiarity with the Factions and Nightfall chapters. GW2 will let you play humans who are descended from refugees from Cantha (Factions) and Elona (Nightfall). Most of us expect that there will eventually be GW2 expansions or chapters that take us to those nations again.

Factions is not directly connected to Prophecies, as it takes place at about the same time as Prophecies. However, Nightfall happens later in time and is loosely connected to the events of both earlier chapters.

The henchmen have been greatly improved since the game's beginnings. But Alesia the monk still doesn't understand what backline means. You can cross into EotN as soon as you reach Lion's Arch and obtain some heroes. But keep in mind that heroes are only as good as their equipment and skills so using them is not a cheap proposition.

It isn't so bad if you get the first three EotN heroes and bring them back to complete Prophecies. Prophecies is not very demanding, so you have time to gather runes, skills, and equipment for those heroes as you play through, and there are decent elites for all of them available in the campaign. The collectors in the Crystal Desert can provide acceptable max-stat equipment for all of them.

And most of all even a base-skilled Ogden is better than any Alesia. And henchies are always such a low lvl in your comparison/area demand tha at least heroes grow in lvl with you.
And @BrettM...collector armour for heores???

If you know your original username (that looks like an e-mail address) and your password (and a character name), your original account will still be there (unless it's been hacked).
I would say no. But you should get Eye of the North.

Yes.

No. There are said to be some cosmetic things that will be based on what you have in your Hall of Monuments, but no direct transfer of items.

It doesn't matter, play what ever class you feel like. All classes can do just fine with Henchmen. (The game is not really designed to be done truly "solo".)
And W/Mo is only "fail" if you actually try to be a part time monk. Leave the healing to the Henchmen. Actually, with a Warrior (or any class) it doesn't really matter what you use as a secondary - in the early stages of the game you don't have enough attribute points to spread around and you should concentrate on the Primary class only. By the time you get more attributes and skills, you will have the opportunity to change your secondary to whatever you want (and as often as you want), so there's no worries about being "locked" into a secondary you don't like or can't use.

You can't put collector armor on a hero. The armor of a hero levels with them, so it is always max AR for their class when they hit level 20. All they need is appropriate runes and insignia.

You can give a hero a collector weapon, however. Heroes do not come with max-stat weapons, and their starter weapons may not have the right req for the build you want to give them. There are good max-stat weapons for all core professions available from collectors in the Crystal Desert and beyond.

I took you for a madman bacause I thought I thought you were talking about armor I know perfectly how it works.

Regarding whether or not EOTN is worth getting. I do think it is mainly for the access to a large group of level 20 heroes as soon as you get to level 10 on a new toon (especially getting Xandra in Gunnar's Hold). Many of the PvE skills you can unlock in the campaign are pretty nice too. The campaign itself kind of meh IMO, but that's maybe because I've played through it so many times doing books that I'm pretty sick of it but considering there are a whole bunch of dungeons completely separate from the campaign it really does have a lot of content for you to play with. Visually, the scenery is really nice too, especially the Asuran areas.

As Xandra doesn't come with any spirit spamming skills and he isn't buying Factions, she won't be as useful as you think. But Ogden and Vekk can be useful with skills to which he has access.