When to prestige?

[Elegant Caveman]

And which characters first?

I've got one of each class (except bard), most are around 40, except for Paladin at 27 and Dark Knight at 36.

I've got a bit over 20k gold, though that could go up relatively quickly if I focused specifically on making money instead of just on levelling.

I've unlocked the Jeweler, but not the Enchanter, so I'm wondering if I should focusing on unlocking the Enchanter before I start doing some prestige, or if I should prestige ASAP so as to not "waste" any XP.

How does prestige work, exactly? Does anything carry over? Do enchantments carry over, or do they reset? Is there some benefit to maxing level before prestige, or should I prestige as soon as possible?

Thanks!

EDIT: Just thought of something else...

What happens to your equipment when you prestige? Does it simply get unequipped automatically? What if you don't have enough room in your inventory? Can you not prestige? Is it lost?

[Orzo]

Nothing carries over when you prestige, the equipment they have on stays on but it turns red and doesn't do anything until they hit the level requirement to use it. You can replace it with gear and get it back just like normal. You lose all enchantments you have on the characters.

I prestiged my warrior and mage, they're much more powerful now at level 30 than they were at level 50.

[Geek]

What worked for me...

I did not plan this as I was in about the same frame of mind myself but in the end I decided to just do it and see what happened. I started with 3 heroes. By chance I had also just prestiged my equipment crafters. The gear that the enhanced equipment crafters make is very good to reequip newly prestiged heroes with. I was able to leave bush grinding at level 4-5 and grind spider, snake, boar which are a great fast leveling spots. In the end I found it "painless" and was back to my previous level in about two weeks. Doing all mine the moment they hit 40.