The game gives you eight character slots to start with, and you can buy four more. (Yes, enough to make one of every class in every faction if you want to) Also, thanks to cadwells you can experience all the quests in all the factions with one character.

Keep your main DC characters. Make EP and AD characters if you wish. Go out and enjoy the game, most is nifty, and some is even better! And I am glad you realized that!

As for listening to "them"... you know how that goes, right?

I've played the game since launch. For the first year I mostly PVE'd. Which is prob why ive stayed this long. The PVE part was great.
Then for about 10 Months I played in bwb (8 as EP and 2 as AD) Which was also fun to a point. I left EP when me and some guild officers got tired of zerging by the main ep guild. Gate farming at their base was kinda bs.
And since then ive played in Trueflame on AD. While the pvp can be fun at times. The endless zerging, cookie cutter ball group builds, and lag (holy god the lag); I'm steadily asking myself why I still play the game. Or better yet, why I stil pay for membership for a game where fixing the lag has been ignored for 2 years. I've looked at the next update on the pts, and the massive laggy zerg balls will not end anytime soon.

Well, jumping off Alessia bridge saved me more than once. And I saw it from a streamer lol

Ok, let's compare the two storylines. Spoilers ahead.

EP gets attacked by DC. DC commits all sorts of atrocities, killing villagers, burning them alive in locked mill and stuff.
You fight to drive off DC, and finally you do so.
Then you deal with some internal cult problem, before focusing on skinstealers from AD, and their kid eating ways.
After that, you have to deal with more DC bs, since they try to put a Quisling in power that would hand them North on a F silver plate. At last, you deal with all necromancy bs DC and reachmen. You will get into Sovengarde for a minute and that is it.

DC storyline. You mess with some pirates that recently found honor and you get to next zone, Bethnik. Leader of pirates will be pissed at you if you don't bring weapon of mass destruction to her, so she could deliver it to emeric.
Then you go to Glenumbra, to be bored by destrouing this and that dead breton royal arse, with some light action with AD.
After that, next zone. Bretons haunted by dreams, boo hoo, hurr durr derp. Cheesiest zone in entire game.
Then you get to go to vampire infested zone that is in civil war. Yeah, emeric sure know how to rule his lands.
After another soap opera, you move to desert. If there were no Tu'wacca priest bs, this would be pretty good, imo. Other than that, its pretty similar to Deshaan, you have some cultists and their mummies.
At last, you get to Bangkorai. Only thing wort there is spriggan set. And you get to kill few imperials. And yeah, you will see for a minute how is redguard afterlife zone.

Lets compare leaders.

You have Skald king, he actually fights next to you few times. Pretty weak char, but far from pathetic.
On the other hand, there is a breton merchant who is constantly looking for pat on the back, whine like, well, a F breton merchant, he is secure as a 12 y old when his new favorite toy starts to work, and all in all he is beyond pathetic.

I can understand why some ppl play for AD, I mean, their queen at least tryhards to do something, no matter how naive is that. But Emeric? I would not give him a penny if I see him on a street. When I heard who will voiceact him, I was sure it will be good. But when I did quests that involved him... I was pissed how poor Emeric was done in game. Terrible, pure disappointment.

Lets compare zones.
EP
Bleakrock - name said all. Cold island under snow somewhere south of Soltsheim. Nothing special.
Bal Foyen - I liked it. It might be Morrowind nostalgia or something, but it is very nice.
Stonefalls - This is my favorite zone in ESO. Volcanoes, ash, cliffs, with a touch of fertile land. If housing gets fixed and stash space gets implemented, I will buy at least one house here.
Deshaan - Fertile lands mixed with lakes, marsh and sea on the east. For those who love Morrowind, this will be pretty nice area.
Shadowfen- I am not someone who enjoy marshy terrain, but was surprised how this area was done. Pretty interesting, looking forward for Murkmire.
Eastmarch and Rift - if you liked them in Skyrim, you will like them here too.

DC
Stros M'Kai- I liked the island, not the quests. It looks pretty cool, maybe I expected it to be a bit larger in size
Bethnik - After Stros M'Kai, this zone looks like bs. Plain and boring, nothing to see here
Glenumbra - At first, it was ok, but gets boring pretty fast. Of all 5 large zones in DC, this one is least appealing for me.
Stormhaven - Despite few interesting stuff, pretty boring aswell. Maybe too plain for me.
Rivenspire-dark, harsh area, nice change after 2 boring lands, main story is soap opera but even that is better than one in previous area, where Emeric was whining 24/7
Alik'r Desert. After seeing Stros M'Kai, I was kinda anxious to see how Bethesda did larger desert. It is not bad at all, pretty interesting zone (for a desert lol)
Bangkorai- At least, the middle split in the zone made it interesting. I spent countless hours here grinding for spriggan, it is interesting one.

All in all, when you compare everything, EP zone have more interesting stuff to offer for a new player. Story is more polished, zones are nostalgic and well done. And leader is not that lame.

If you take Orsinium DLC as addition to DC, it really improves the entire storyline, and aesthetic feel of DC. But compare Wrothgar to Glenumbra or Stormhaven. Its like comparing the work of master and complete beginner.