Which starting area do you recommend playing first and why?

[Eorayn]

The Human area is more open for starters, I think. It’s a great zone.

[Deleted]

Good question, I have played throughout them all and I finally picked the Sylvari however more for their looks... If i had to chose a starting place it would be the Norn I love that area with the snowy mountains and all.

[Number1gentleman]

I didn't try any beta weekend, because I wanna save the hype for the launch day. Let's say I'm gonna play a human race, how am I gonna be able to do the sylvari/norn/charr quests. like... I'm confused, I thought it's like WoW, night elf has it's own starting zone in teldrassils, human in elwynn forest, etc. walking from teldrassil to elwynn forest, you're gonna have to skip monsters lv 2-10 ish and that's a long walk and quite dangerous.

I'm confused when people said "starting place" do we get to choose our starting zone for any race? is there a portal or something?

[Fencers]

I didn't try any beta weekend, because I wanna save the hype for the launch day. Let's say I'm gonna play a human race, how am I gonna be able to do the sylvari/norn/charr quests. like...

Each race has a short tutorial area and then a 1-15ish newbie zone. However, as soon as a player exits the tutorial [which takes like 5 mins], they are able to instantly teleport to The Mists.

The Mists are a kind of hub world that allows travel to either the PVP battleground or to Lion's Arch. Lion's Arch is like Dalaran or Shattrath- it has portals to every racial city and by extension every racial starter zone. Can move freely among these as you please.

Human city: Divinity's Reach. Human noob zone; Queensdale
Charr city; Black Citadel. Charr noob zone; Ashford Plains
Asura city; Rata Sum. Asura noob zone; Metrica
Sylvari city; The Grove. Sylvaria noob zone; Caledon Forest
Norn city; Hoelbrak. Norn noob zone; Wayfarer Foothills

The game is mostly non-linear outside of Personal Story.

I would strongly advise reading either Mass Information for Uninitiated thread sticky or visiting the GW2 Wiki.

[DrakeWurrum]

You can also just find the portal to Lion's Arch in your race's home city, but the Mists probably is faster.


Which reminds me, fully exploring each race's home city should reward a lot of exp.

[zito]

Which reminds me, fully exploring each race's home city should reward a lot of exp.

I think its like 2 levels or something.

On topic: I would go with asura, I love sylvari but asura are just the comic relief/fun race.

[PACOX]

The Norn area is definitely fast, compact, and easy. I loathe Queensdale. I've sent 9 character there, I had to search relatively hard for things to do because I would exhaust all level appropriate content in the area. I would have to grind DEs I already did, leech xp from high DEs/Hearts by tagging monsters but contributing nothing, or leave Queensdale for another zone.

I only did the Charr area when about 20 levels higher than the level but this was when they would actually downlevel you under at or under the recommended level (now you are 0-3 levels higher). Its was the hardest IMO but the most rewarding. In retrospect the Human and Norn areas were extremely easy. I feel like I could 100% the Norn area within the first 2 hours of launch if I wanted.

Enter Metrica (Asura), its where the Norn and Charr area meet IMO. Not to easy, not to hard. Not too big, not too small. Has a number of multi-sequenced DEs like the Human area. Asura are funny as hell too.

Unfortunatley the Sylvari area didn't hold my attention long enough. The Heart where infiltrate whatever factor and do stuff(?) irritated me. I ran out of things to do in the area and had to wait for someone to come around so I could leech off of one of their mobs.

---------- Post added 2012-08-19 at 11:09 PM ----------

I think its like 2 levels or something.

On topic: I would go with asura, I love sylvari but asura are just the comic relief/fun race.

I got 1.5-2 in BWE 1-2.