Best world to start new character in

^^ What they said.

I just wish we could take Ritualists and start them in Tyria :/

I did Vizunah with my Canthan (Daggers) R/A at level 12, AL 55, with 15 henchmen. It's not hard, just aggro everything nicely so that Togo won't die in the start, and keep playing like that further on (only died once!)... nobody likes me. Also henched Tahnnakai at level 14... and that same armor set.

Nothing forces you to stick to one continent... my Canthan Necro keeps going to Tyria to quickly do another quest for some easy experience and perhaps even a free skill.

But overall, i'd say: Cantha for people that have a bit more gold (so they can already buy loads of skills (and that already know what they want), Tyria for first-timers (for a profession, that is) that want to take their time getting a good build together at their own pace.

i'd start in cantha if:

1. i have had previous experience with the prof
2. had already unlocked a decent chunk of this prof's skills
3. had the money to buy all the skills
4. liked the very limited choices of female faces and hairstyles offered for canthan characters

otherwise, my character would be tyrian.

I can usually find at least one face/hairstyle I can deal with in either Cantha or Tyria so:

Canthan character
1) Shing Jea Island - quests + 2 missions + 2 attrib quest ~ lvl 15
2) Run to KC (Not take a run...just get out there and do it yourself on the safe path...or fight for more fun)
3) Go to Tyria for Kryta, Jungle, Desert skill quests (So you only miss about 14 skill quests...about 6-8 of which are equivalently learned in SJ)
4) Gain skill points through your choice of farming/questing/missioning after that

It's true BUT you get A LOT more money on the Cantha starter island so basically it pretty much evens out, also all the skills you get from Tyria (the quest you can't do with a Canthan born char) are core skills so you won't be missing out on anything.

My suggestion make a Canthan char and then do the Kryta quests until you get to level 20 then go back to Cantha.

If i were to make a canthan character, i'd only pick female monk. All other faces, hair styles are all too ugly for my pick.

Exacty what I just did for the same reasons. Also, I was getting tired of the Shing Jea area and quests and wanted a change. I like the Shing Jea area, though (but I find that people are more relaxed in pre-searing Ascalon and just hang and dance, which is nice).

To the OP: I'd say Cantha since you want to level and pick up skills quickly.

Just what i was going to say, who cares if it takes an hour or two more in Tyria, the look of the character is what matters, when i made my warrior i went for a Tyrian character as i dont like the squinty look of Canthan characters.

Just remember that Canthan chars can't get any of the skill-giving quests prior to Lion's Arch. They are gold/exp rewards only. So if you're going for mass skill unlocking, then I'd suggest Tyria starting, but to get to level 20 asap Cantha is the obivious choice.

If you know which skills you want, then a Canthan char might be the better choice since you can just buy those skills instead of finding the right quest somewhere in Tyria.

Best pick: The one you think looks better. I remember back when prophecies came out all the comments of "Whoa, you max out so fast in this game!" While its true Canthans are even faster at maxing out, neither really take that long, so level and skill points will soon become unimportant. So, pick the one that you think looks cool. You can change your build, you can't change your face (unless you're a ranger at the dragon festival :P).

I think the answer to the question lies in how much help you can get in the process. If you can get a couple friends to help you burn through Tyria, you can get to level 20 with both attribute quests done in nearly the same time it takes solo in Cantha.

Tyria: Take a secondary, grab the skills quests (you don’t need to complete them but you might as well get all skills for your primary and secondary.) Go to Post Sear, Run to Lion's Arch, slip into Cantha for some new armor, Back to LA, over through ToA and then down to Sanctum Cay in order to get to the dessert. Run through the dessert and do the 3 missions and the Attribute’s quest. After you get through The Dragon's Lair, you can either do the Caves of Sorrow Mission so you can get close to the 2nd Attribute's Quest, or you can get a run to Copperhammer. After that you can proceed through Cantha for more XP and Elite skills, and then go back and fill in the skills quests throughout Tyria when you have the time, or really want to start using one of the skills given in a quest. You could do this all with mercs, but doing so would take considerable more time than going the Cantha route. Of course just how fast you could run through Cantha with a little help from some level 20's would probably require the use of an Olympic quality stopwatch to time as 1/100s of a second would count for the record.