A few questions before I start Factions

I'm near the end of Guild Wars Prophecies and before I start Factions I was just wondering will there be any differences in it if I use my Prophecies character instead of making a new one? will I start in the same place? will I miss anything out by using my old character?

You will start a little bit into the storyline of Factions. This is because the events that occur on Shing Jea Island (the starter area of Factions) would occur at the same time as the events in Ascalon (the starter area of Prophecies). Factions is designed so that foreign characters will jump in at the point where Factions characters are getting to level 20, so the difficulty is appropriate. Your Prophecies character will not be able to do any quests on Shing Jea Island or get rewards for completing the missions, but otherwise you won't miss anything. You can always create a Factions character later to see what the Factions start is like.

Just to add to what Marty said - You can still go to Shing Jea Island and do the 2 missions there, but you won't gain any XP for doing them.

Ok thanks, I'll do that then I'm getting Factions for a friend for their birthday so I'll just create a new character when they start it and play through the first bit with them.

Personally i think you'll eventually have a few characters anyway, I say start a new character in the factions campaign and play until you reach mainland (about 2-3 missions in if i recall). Once the player has reached Kaineng they can go to Lion's Arch.
This could help you experience a new proffesion as well as experience the tutorial area for the 2nd game, which has a very different level curve.

Then ofcourse continue playing with your main guy! this is what i did, then i did the same on nightfall too, it just makes sure your not missing out on anything really.

PS: Do it for the sake of having a ritualist character You'll love it

Great ideas from above..dont think i can add more except that its wonderful idea to try and do and complete factions with a mete, so great idea for the birthday present. some of my fondest moments have been doing this with pals, notably getting titles, but just doing some missions together can be cool.

Its really worth getting a new toon up in factions, there are some really useful skills to be had at the start..have fun

Also when you get to Kaning center(sp?) on your first character you will have access to all non elite skills in the game(factions) from the skill npc there. even if you don't play with your first char you should take him/her there to check out all the new skills at your disposal.

you might even want to do it before you complete proph just so you can have fun messing around with a ton of new skills.

I dont know if its been 100% said. But create a Factions character, the noob island is very short and not as frustrating as NF/Prophecies (I refuse to start a prophecies character and I've been playing since 2005, I've made 1 Proph character and that was it)