Pre and Post Searing?

I'm confused on the whole Pre vs Post Searing thing I keep hearing about. As an admitted newb, can someone help me out and explain the difference and how you go from one to the other? My current (and only) toon is a whopping level 5 right now as I a try and get the hang of everything.

The Pre-Searing is when you first start the game on a Roleplaying character. It's when Ascalon is actually green xD. After you can a second profession in the happy Ascalon place, you can talk to Sir Tydus and do your first mission. After completing it, there will be a short cutscene, and just in case you don't know what happens, I won't ruin it. Everything after that little cutscene is the Post-Searing.

Hope this helps!

Yep, that does help - thanks! How long can you stick around Pre Ascalon and level up? Does it kick you out after a certain level? Do you run out of exp giving mobs to fight in Pre and are forced to move on?

It is possible to reach the max lvl20 in pre, but it takes forever (literally). The first thing you do is kill, kill, and kill some more until absolutely nothing gives you xp anymore. Be sure not to do any quests. After you're done the xp killing, do the quests, and collect the rewards. After that, you still won't be at lvl20. At some point, a smart fellow figured out that enemies can level up in the same way you do. So, basically, you aggro a wolf, or some such creature, then lure him to the respawner, and let him kill you. You will respawn, and he will kill you again. And aggain. And again. Eventually he will attain a level high enough so that you can kill him, and gain xp form him. w00h00!!! one down, 100000000000 more to go! You see why this takes forever.

If you walk around and kill everything untill your lvl 8 and then do all the quests getting to lvl 9,5 is a breeze, after that you can either join people (a person) to go "Charr Farming", which is painfully slow and time consuming and more a goal to try and reach once you've completed the game several times.

The content in pre-searing is sufficient to last you to about level 8, but you can go through whenever you feel like it really. However, I'd suggest exploring pre & doing quests, it's a nice area.

And yeah, you do stop receiving exp from mobs in pre, unless you go through some really, really, tedious tricks detailed above. The only reason some people do so is, however, to farm, and to try to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond, which is what you'll be when you go through.

I usually play till I'm level 4-7, but when you're new to the game, I advise you to stay untill level 7-8. Enjoy Guild Wars!

these guides might be of help

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...-10-id1195.php

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...lon-id1264.php

With your FIRST Character,
Stay in the pre for as long as you feel comfortable man.

I've had probably what is now close to 20-30 characters where I either get bored, Or just am not having fun any more at like, lvl 12-15 and delete, and start over...

I've come over and gone as far as the citadel at lvl 1 with runners...

And I've stayed as long as lvl 11 to help guildies...

So, the choice is yours...
And with your powers combined,
I. AM CAPTAIN PLANET. lol

Cool, thanks for the replies all! I'm looking forward to trying a bunch of builds out.