As a Dervish should I...

I'm pretty new to the game and got the trilogy and EotN. I want to play through everything for both the PvE/story and HoM. I have a Dervish that has just finished up the beginning part of Nightfall (the first island). Should I continue through Nightfall in order to get more Dervish skills, or can I go through them in order starting with Prophecies? I kind of wanted to do Prophecies/Factions/Nightfall/EotN in that order, but I was wondering if not getting the Dervish skills will hurt me a lot? It seems I can only get new ones in Nightfall and some in EotN.

Thanks for any insight!

EDIT: Oh, I'll just add this here. Is Dervish decent for PvE and building up the HoM?

If i were you, id go Nightfall to get skills,and heroes, then eotn, then faction/proph together
this way you dont need henchman, as you got heroes that you can build , and rune up any way you want.
my 0.02.

As a character from another campaign you will arrive in Prophecies or Factions at a later point than the start, I hope you know this. You will "miss" a portion of those campaigns, but it's not a big loss, in practical terms, because, like in Nightfall, they are meant as beginner tutorials. You can work your way backwards and do missions and such but you won't get XP for them. It can be useful to unlock the outposts for Zaishen missions, or for easy access during festivals, access to the weekly Nicholas location and farming the items for him, vanquishes, cartography etc.

Now, regarding your approach: ask yourself what you want from this game. If you're not interested in the story/lore and just want to unlock everything ASAP and grind for HoM, do what kajusbonus suggested. Strictly speaking, entering either Proph or Factions with a character and hero team formed in Nightfall will automatically be extremely overpowered and a major advantage.

If, however, you want to enjoy the experience of the first run through the game, I strongly suggest making a character in each campaign and doing it from start to finish at least once without using stuff from the other campaigns (heroes, skills, armor etc.) That first experience is something you will never get back once you've become jaded. I for one miss that magical feeling very much -- playing Prophecies for the first time was absolutely amazing -- but there's nothing I can do about it anymore.

For the time being, however, I think you're getting ahead of yourself. The first thing to do would be to finish Nightfall. The fact you're looking at Proph/Factions makes me think you like the dervish but perhaps not like Nightfall very much? You can also try EotN, but it might be a bit tough to swallow at your current level of game experience.

And Prophecies does not have any derv skills if I recall right, Only Nightfall & Factions

Only Nightfall and EotN have dervish skills. I agree with kajusbonus, go nightfall->eotn->prophecies/factions. That way you'll get a majority of the dervish and pve-only skills. The storylines aren't really connected so you won't be confused.

Also, Dervish is one of the best profession for PvE / getting titles for the HoM.

If you started in nightfall there is really no point in going into the other campaigns early, characters started in other campaigns have a reason to go to nightfall.I would just finish nightfall and then do EotN that way you get all the skills you can get as dervish.After that it does not really matter which order you go trough.

No only Nightfall and EotN ,Factions only has skills for the assassin,ritualist and the basic 6 classes,(EDIT) oh and of course the luxon/kurzick skills but those aren't really worth it enough to head to cantha early, especially after they changed AoHM.

Dervish is a pretty good choice to build your HoM, they can focus on 1vs1/AoE/Conditions, and I have a Dervish right now building up my HoM perfectly fine. I've got 12 points in about twenty days of casual game play with him and it's been a really easy ride.

What I've done : Started Dervish, Beat Nightfall NM missions and got most of the heroes. This included me getting Olias from a small quest in Tyria and I would suggest getting Livia but I didn't get her at first. Once I got most of the heroes, I went back and did HM missions and maxed Sunspear and Lightbringer which took a whole weekend of double SS/LB farming. I also got three armor pieces from bonus missions for Koss, Dunkuro and Sousuke while Mox already has upgraded armor and I went to the Underworld and got a Black Widow Spider. +SS/LB/Guardian/Protector/5 Companions

Went to EotN and beat the campaign, mostly because I wanted Monument armor and PvE skills and the rest of the heroes. I also accomplished getting a HM Vaettir Farming build and area ready in preparation for event farming. At the end of the game I created a Destroyer Scythe which added on more points to HoM. +1 Armor/Funding for Minipets/Armor/Weapons. [I also built a Spirit Spammer build to farm weekly Nick Gifts which pocket even more money and Party Points/Drunkard/Sweet Tooth].

Cantha and Tyria ... Pretty much only for finishing Protector/Guardian/Cartography/Vanquishing. I recommend doing Tyria last seeing that there is 25 missions and some if not half involves you standing there with something in your hands. It's pretty quick though because most missions link back to back.

The only real issue I find is Dervishes are lacking good looking armor and can't get Luxon/Kurzick so you can't get the extra +1 with HoM. You either have to do Vabbian [Ugly] or Obsidian [Expensive]. I've had no money issues with my Dervish so I see myself rolling another character just to get Kurzick/Luxon and Vabbian so I can get an extra +2 points for HoM.

I hope that helped a bit.

I think Assassin would be better for that (not my favorite profession anyway), but to each is his own. Always go through the story-line your character was created in far enough to unlock the extra 30 attribute points and ascend, I recommend EoTN once you have those two things listed above for the extra heroes and PvE skills, the only exception is to pick up the heroes from Nightfall to assist you with this. However, the only campaign you don't have your attribute points before you can travel is basically Prophecies, Factions you can easily skip ascending which is important if you want to speed-clear.
Having Olias, Master of Whisperers, Livia, Norgu, ,Gwen, Xandra, and Razah will help you out in many cases for HoM related tasks.

Thanks for all the replies! Lot of good info, explained quite a bit. I'll continue Nightfall/EotN, then the others. Thanks again! I may be back later with more questions... =P

NF & EotN are the most fun too!

Enjoy. You have a great game ahead of you.

Are you sure about missions not giving xp? I think they totally do.

Storylines are connected if you do them in the order they were intented to be done.

After Prophecies, Mhenlo and his merry bunch get called to Kryta due to an outbreak of a mysterious disease. After pwning Shiro, our heroes are called to the distant island of Istan where the Sunspears are facing Kournan army, pirates and a malevolent force that has a sweet-tooth for eyes. Once they beat Abaddon, they frolick around for a bit and decide to investigate strange cave-ins near three great cities and end up chasing the Nornbear and staring at his little sister's boobs.

If you really want to play through the campaigns in order, you can. In Normal Mode you could easily go through the content with no skill bar on yourself. However, I would advise that you capture an elite a set up a half decent skill bar, just to make it easier.

The story's of factions, prophecy's and nightfall are very stand alone story's, meaning they are in essence not connected to the other storylines. There are a few spoilers bout prophecy's and factions in Nightfall. The first is only a spoiler bout the tutorial part. You'll encounter it roughly halfway and propably would never recognise it as being a spoiler. The second is all the way at the end of nightfall and concerns both prophecy's and factions campaign. By now you should have all the skills and hero's you need, so if you want to keep safe from this spoiler, put nightfall on hold after you are inside the Vortex (you'll know what that is when you get there) and start and finish prophecy's and factions first.

Eye of the North has many spoilers bout all campaigns (as being an expansion instead of a stand alone campaign that makes sense. So if you don't want to know anything bout the campaigns before hand, don't play it till you finished the other 3. Though you might want to get the hero's, most of them can be obtained spoiler free.

It would still be worth it for him to pick up SY! if he is a /W. Even at a low allegiance rank, it's crazy powerful.

AFAIK the ones after the entry point (LA/Consulate Docks/Kaineng) do. The ones before that don't, if you are a foreign character. In addition, upon entering any such mission you will be warned that "you are about to watch past events as they unfolded before your arrival to [continent]".

Not to be confused with quests. With quests, you can either get the quest or you cannot, and if you can get it you also get the reward.

PS: May I suggest marking your spoilers as such?