GuildWiki talk:Profession archetype guides

Discussion
Moved from userspace where this policy originated:

Problem I see here is that you will have to include almost all 8 skills for most guides on a play style. Basically this article is trying to take the guide articles and pull them closer to builds. However, it would probably be easier to take the existing build concept and pull it closer to a guide. Good solid play guys tend to be difficult for inexperienced players to understand and require quite a bit of experienced writing. Plus, the current guides to classes aren't actually that useful at all so this would be a huge task. -Warskull 11:41, 24 March 2007 (CDT)
 * As far as my view of it, large project (as Warskull says above) or not, it looks perfect. You have encapsuled my vision perfectly and I thank you for refining this.  100% support as is from me.  Sure it'll require more discussion and effort from the community but I see the final product as ideal and well worth it in the end.--[[Image:VallenIconwhitesmall.JPG]]  Vallen Frostweaver  19:11, 25 March 2007 (CDT)

I like it, although it could of course still use some refining. Like, "a bare bones build template including only basic, necessary skills)"--does that mean no elites in the template unless required as part of the role (obviously you can't have a SS Necro without SS)? I'm all for that, it's just an example of something that should be specified. (One thing I never liked back when I was a newbie was that there are almost no builds [anywhere] that cater, for example, to getting through the Prophecies campaign, where you spend quite a bit of time [if you're not rushing] without access to elites or max armor. And the non-noobs aren't the ones that need a guide.) -- Peej 23:20, 25 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Well, I think that is more a case by case decision. The kind of thing you are talking about could be part of a "tips" section, it could be part of the "variants" section.  I am not sure whether I should put this in the policy itself, but the idea is to give what is necessary to write a thorough, helpful guide, without creating a bloated page that isn't helpful due to its sheer length.  Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 23:23, 25 March 2007 (CDT)
 * "a thorough, helpful guide, without creating a bloated page"...
 * Do we have a distinction between bloated and just lengthy? ;) Are we trying to make a single page guide for each class or just for each role?  Because with 9 and counting roles for the ranger already, it's never going to be a small page if they're all together.  If we have one page per role instead of per class, will/can/should different classes that have the same role (aka farmer) be on one page ("Effective farming guide"), or whatever, or do we have "Effective warrior farming" and "Effective elementalist farming" and so on (currently there's a trapping guide separate from the effective ranger page, but it's a bad example because no one else has traps).
 * These seem like little details, but it makes it hard to get started if we don't at least have a general goal for what the end structure might look like in mind. -- Peej 12:16, 26 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Ok, I tried to answer your questions on the policy page. Hope the added information answers your questions.  Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 04:10, 27 March 2007 (CDT)
 * I think that covers what I can think of for now. My other ideas I guess are related more to the Profession Role Template / Style Guide than to the policy itself. -- Peej 08:22, 27 March 2007 (CDT)

Looks really good. I think it's simple enough that new players can read and understand what is going on with out overwhelming them with too much new information. Also I think it's a good prelude into specific profession guides that I think are a little bloated at the moment.... especially the monk guide. --Lania Elderfire 11:31, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

Guideline vs. Policy
Just to point out. This should be compatible with PNB and NOB, so, it is possible that rather than an actual "policy" per se, this should be more a guideline. I am not sure exactly how such a distinction should be made based on existing policy, so I am just opening up the floor for debate on the issue. Defiant Elements (talk ~ contribs) 23:23, 25 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Sounds good as a guideline. Guides should always be stressed over specific builds. -Auron [[Image:Elit Druin.jpg|19px||My Talk]] 04:08, 26 March 2007 (CDT)

Poll
Should this be a policy or a guideline?

This should be a Policy:


 * 1) (your vote here)

This should be a Guideline:


 * 1) (your vote here)

Profession Guide template
I started trying to work on one here. I think it still needs a lot of work. The more I look at it, the more it seems like we need to make a clear distinction between what is a role compared to what is an original build / role variant, but I'm not sure what the dividing factors are (some are more obvious than others, of course).
 * Seems like a good start although I would agree it needs a lot of work. Assuming this becomes a Policy, something like what you are writing could be introduced as the guideline much like the one about writing good builds.  Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 18:53, 27 March 2007 (CDT)

Also, I had another idea which is probably too much work and too hard to define: Team Guides, where you could just say "Take a team of Role X, Role Y, Role Z and use it this way" (focusing on the player interaction instead of having you try to process 64 skill icons on a single page), because a large part of the game does involve playing along with other people, which seems forgotten when focusing on specific roles/builds (for example, if you have a so-called Battery role on your team, that totally changes what you can do in terms of any other role's setup, since you don't have the same energy management issues). ;) -- Peej 09:31, 27 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Well... I think I would agree that that is simply to hard/vague to implement. On the other hand, to take your example of a Battery Necromancer.  What you could do is write something in the "Tips" section on the "Effective Battery" page or whatever that: Casters in the party needn't worry as much about energy when a Battery is around.  That helps define the role of the Battery and also gives that sense of a role in team play as well.  Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 18:52, 27 March 2007 (CDT)

Dissent?
Aside from Warskull, everyone seems to think this would work well as a Policy or at the very least a Guideline. Are there any major criticisms? (This also counts as a Recent changes bump) Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 23:33, 28 March 2007 (CDT)
 * A vote or a poll? -Auron [[Image:Elit Druin.jpg|19px||My Talk]] 00:03, 29 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Sorry... meant a poll.

I am gonna add a Poll to gauge people's feelings:

Poll
Should this be a policy?

Yes:
 * 1) As a guideline, yes. The "policy" should be something like PNB, which would contour to this guideline nicely. -Auron [[Image:Elit Druin.jpg|19px||My Talk]] 02:10, 29 March 2007 (CDT)
 * So is it safe to assume you would vote for "Guideline" in the above poll? Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 02:11, 29 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Most likely. I'm waiting for good arguments to be brought up in favor or against; but my first-glance take on it is "yeah, it'll work." -Auron [[Image:Elit Druin.jpg|19px||My Talk]] 02:31, 29 March 2007 (CDT)
 * 1) Yes please. It doesn't replace anything though it helps ease the builds wipe thingy that's going on and it should help others to understand and create what is expected of their character profession commonly. --[[Image:VallenIconwhitesmall.JPG]]  Vallen Frostweaver  07:41, 29 March 2007 (CDT)
 * 2) Well, in regards to Sarah's comment below, yes I'd ideally prefer to still have build pages for PVE builds, but considering the direction policy is heading here (NOB), it seems something like this policy is our only option to maintain some form of PVE build guidance for new players. However even if the builds wipe was not happening I still think this is a good idea to improve the understanding of the roles each profession should perform. -- BrianG 11:08, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

No:


 * 1) some playstyles do not blend well with abstract guides, and people will always clamor for more specific instruction. as cool as these articles would be (and are, if you count the effective guides) they're not a substitute for a solid build page. --Honorable Sarah [[image:Honorable_Icon.gif]] 00:30, 29 March 2007 (CDT)
 * Well.... this doesn't say to get rid of builds... in the implementation part it says that effective/well-known PvE builds will be kept. The idea is that original builds are going to be moved to the userspace anyways, this just allows for greater documentation.  Defiant Elements  (talk ~ contribs) 00:42, 29 March 2007 (CDT)

Clarification
Before too many people vote, can we highlight that this guide/policy does not preclude user space builds (and in fact even complements them quite nicely? -- Peej 11:20, 29 March 2007 (CDT)