Your favorite starting area and why?

I now have characters in all three of the starter areas and each has something different to offer.

If YOU were going to start a new character (today) where would you want to be?

This is more of a discussion than a question...
anyway

I generally start my new characters in Nightfall because I like the character models in NF and you can easily get your extra 30 attribute points within 1 hour of making a new character. You can also get someone to take you to the Consulate Docks and from there go on to any of the other campaigns. NF is just the easiest to start in if you plan to go really fast.

Always Prophecies pre-searing for me, Being there at the start when Guild Wars first come out it all just brings back memories.

I still like to go play there from time to time because of this. I remember first walking out the doors and wondering what i meant to be doing and how hard it was fighting foes there like the bandits haha. Going round kicking over barrels to try and get a better weapon other than my beloved starter cane.

I dont like Nightfall at all as i feel soon as you start your surrounded by Level 20's and Guild Hall travel makes for no experience at all as a starter campaign.

However Factions is cool and remember starting my Sin there first time, But this has no experiences like Pre-searing Ascalon Has.

Prophecies for nostalgia (and character appearance most of the time...), but Nightfall otherwise.

Nightfall actually has potential for drops you can use.

Factions gets you to 20, then plops you amidst a bunch of exploding mobs.

Factions or Nightfall.

Pre-Searing is lovely, but after that...no thanks. After dragging two characters through the desert to ascend I decided no more. I've a character that permanently stays in Pre-Searing for when I want to play around there.

Factions here. i really liek the character models and the storyline is my favorite. i also like the idea of training with masters of professions to learn your abilities.

so yea i got to say that factiosn si 100% my favorite starting area. proph jsut takes way too long to get anywhere and nF is jsut not preety at all :/.. so yea thats my opinion

prophecies allways, nf is awfull and factions is, well factions.......... factions is boring that's y point. prophecies has the character apperance and I allways love to start at pre
Peace <3

Prophecies for sure since I've spent so much time there over the years. It is easy enough to run a toon to LA and then go wherever you want. Plus all the free skills in Prophecies.

Prophecies, no question. The tutorial experience is really fun, but it's entirely nostalgic for me. I still remember learning Flare that first time and never taking it off my bar for a long time.

Each starter area has its ups and downs...

Like a lot of people, I like Presearing for nostalgia (even though I haven't been around THAT long and didn't even *have* Proph as my first campaign...)

I also like Shing Jea Island for its scenery and the almost-storyline of learning from certain people.

I do NOT like starting in Nightfall. I don't like the environment. I don't like the foes. I don't particularly care for the character models. I don't like the story. I find it boring.

If I had to pick, I would probably want to start in Factions.

Prophecies without a doubt.

Factions is factions and nf has forced grind.


Now when I just want a char ready asap, I'd start it in factions though. Simply because imo it's fastest.

Factions. It's a good balance of nice scenery and fast leveling. I don't like to be stuck on 'noob island' (NF) for days. Factions has the best character models by far (imo). So yeah, Factions is the clear choice for me.

Starting in Nightfall leads to less hero leveling.

light hero-ing:
Nightfall up to Hunted!, jump to LA, EOTN (for skills), backtrack to Ascalon. Wipe out everything to the end of Prophecies. Continue to Kaineng center. Wipe out everything to end of Factions. Jump back to Nightfall, grind the stupid Sunspear General (not that hard) r7. Get to end of Nightfall.

As an experiment I leveled from 1 to 17 in Nightfall on a clean account, took about 10 hours. Factions takes about 4-8 hours iirc (been a while).

Being able to get to consulate docks at level 3 for max armor is pretty imba. You can't do that in Factions.

Hero-ed:
Nightfall up to Hunted!, jump to LA, EoTN (for skills + Xandra/Hayda/Livia/Vekk/Pyre), and Kaineng to buy skills. Grab Olias. Jump back to Nightfall. Do Nightfall, grab Razah...steamroll from there.

Prophecies' and Factions' monk henchmen suck. Having Tahlkora/Dunkuro as options is nice.

Even if you start in Factions/Prophecies then you are still locked in progress in Nightfall.

Starting in Prophecies results in having zero heroes til you hit Lion's Arch and a shortage of attribute points til close to the end (Southern Shiverpeaks). Starting in Factions results in not having a decent monk who does something besides orison/Zealous Benediction/Blessed Light + Healing Breeze spam.

P.S. favorite does not mean most efficient I guess. In that case, Prophecies.

Factions, no doubt

1) it's fast exp, I think at least as fast as in NF
2) 2x15 quest attribute points can be aquired on the starter island, maybe not as fast as in NF but still really fast
3) I just like Shing Yea much better than Istan, pre searing is ofc very nice too, but creating a new char in proph, no thx, takes ages to level, gameplay is more boring and the prophecies attribute point quests take ages to get to

I ended up starting a new character - in Nightfall.

I started her in Prophecies and have done it SOO many times I just couldn't do it again. Nightfall is brand new to me so decided to go that route. Also I have 5 characters in Factions.

Can we say "Alt-a-holic"?

Not Nightfall! /12chars

If you mean which start area did I enjoy the most then Presearing prophesies without any shadow of doubt.
But then the game was new to me so that may be colouring my view somewhat.

The Factions start area was extremely good and I did start 4 characters there.
Got the advantage of being able to revisit after leaving and pretty scenery.
Post searing prophesies is depressing.

Nightfall has the advantage that the start area is one mission and after that you are on a combined start island and trading hub which is why its taken over much of the game imo.
Its likely to remain the best place to start a character until embark Beach arrives, which may remove Kamadan as the place to be.

I give presearing 9 out of 10
Shingjea island 7 out of 10
Kamadan 4 out of ten

Pre-searing because it's pretty.
Nightfall is easy and the attribute quests are done without you really noticing, but Istan seems to last an age.
Factions is quick, but not as pretty as Pre.

Also Proph gets the best looking chars in general (call me unethical if you must).

pre-searing pretty much self explanatory and prophecies also has the best character models:S

Factions. Shing Jea Island is one of the most beautiful places in Guild Wars, on top of that it's not a complete bore fest like pre-searing. In pre you can wand everything to death even if you're on a warrior, on Shine Jea Island you actually have opponents that are enjoyable to fight and dare I say challenging if you are creative with your party set up and go to areas a little further away from the Monastery earlier on. There are greens that can also drop if you want to spend a little more time enjoying the experience (I still remember zoning in and out on my ranger going for Jin's Hornbow simply because I could). Lets not forget Factions has the best soundtrack in all of Guild Wars. There's just more to Shing Jea Island than there is to pre-searing and the quests and locations you visit are a lot more interesting. Bonus points for allowing us to return to Shing Jea Island unlike stupid pre-searing.

On top of that you get out of there quick enough and have access to a tonne of NF heroes with a single quest (two if you want Jin or Sousuke) and with 10-15 minutes of Kaineng messenger quests you and your heroes are level 20, faster than either of the other two campaigns, it's also easier to use hencmen to get to Elona from Cantha compared to Lion's Arch (Cantha has a full party of 8 and Lion's Arch has a party of 6 with level 10 henchies against level 20 foes). If I want to survive I do it from Cantha.

Prophecies takes forever to play through to Lion's Arch and the Ascension points and Nightfall is the most infuriating of all. Sunspear point grind - why??? They make you do it on noob island and then again when you get to the main land. I have no idea why some developer thought having a Sunspear grind was a good idea. It's a completely arbitrary and pointless grind inserted into the middle of what is already not a smooth starting area. You also get costumes in Shing Jea Island and Kamadam. Ascalon stick you with the lamest of the lame armours which look pretty ghetto these days. Even if it didn't, armour from Shing Jea and Kamadan look way cooler than the lame crap you get in pre.