GuildWiki:Profession archetype guides/Guideline

The GuildWiki advocates the creation of guides based on various roles commonly played by each of the professions. Unlike a rigid build, a guide discusses how a role is played and the basic tenets in creating a character to play this role instead of providing skill bars and attribute distributions. The concepts of "build" and "guide," while often used in tandem, are entirely different, and this guideline deals only with advocating the creation of guides. The question of the merits of builds is relegated to another discussion.

A common misconception is that this policy is entirely devoted to "effective profession guides." In fact, the primary goal of this policy is the creation of role or archetype guides that are essentially profession-agnostic.

What Constitutes a Good Guide?
As mentioned in the introduction, a guide is not a build, nor should it try to emulate the characteristics of a build. Rather, the purpose of a good guide should be to aid users in making informed decisions regarding various roles and archetypes. The two primary purposes therefore are to give the user a better understanding of how a role should be played as well as a comprehensive list of variants to help allow the user to make informed decision regarding their skill bar.

A guide should not contain specific skill bars nor should it contain other specific aspects of roles unless they are necessary. An example of a necessary specific is the equipment section of a guide on 55 Monks. A guide for 55 Monks that neglected to to mention the -50 Cesta wouldn't allow for informed play.

However, the exact contents of any given guide should not be determined by any single template since different roles require different kinds of information.

An excellent example of a guide would be the Build:Team - Underworld trapping. It has the tactics, the walk-through (necessary in this case since it is a guide devoted to farming a specific area), a suggested popular build and a long list of nice variations.

Roles
A role is an irreducible foundation that an original build stems from. For example, both warrior/monk tanks and warrior/paragon tanks stem from the role "warrior tank." Furthermore, a "warrior tank" would stem from the most basic role of "tank." Thus, roles documented in guides are specific, and not limited to large, undocumentable generalizations. Role guides are also inclusive -- they can include outdated or unpopular roles although some amount of common sense is necessary. Simply stated, roles are any general playstyle.

Each profession has several typical roles -- a monk is typically a "healer" role, a warrior is generally a "tank", and so on. Guides should attempt to document these most frequented roles primarily. However, more exotic, atypical role guides are encouraged as well. For example, while a monk is typically a healer, other roles for monk primaries include "protector" and "invincimonk farmer." All of these roles should be expanded by dedicated guide articles. It should also be noted that while an "invincimonk" is more specific than a "healer," the invincimonk certainly deserves its own page.

Certain generic roles, like "farmer" or "runner," can be played by many of the different professions. Generic role guides, like effective farming guide, should be created for these roles, describing the general purpose of this role in general and how to go about building your own character of this role. Additionally, specific guides, like effective monk farming guide, should exist when individual profession-based roles have a significant amount of unique information. If the differences for each primary profession are small, they can be included as subheadings in the generic role guide. However, it is important to note that while some roles span multiple professions, they do not necessarily span all professions. For example, Ritualists, in general, do not make very good "runners" which means that when writing a general "effective role guide" it is important to be clear which professions specifically should be considered for the role. Please note however that while some roles may span many professions, others are dedicated to one profession alone and guides for these should be documented as well.

Notes about specific builds that would fall into the role may also be mentioned or links to other pages describing that specific build may be added to the guide. An example might be a Hex-Stack Necromancer Guide that mentioned that a popular build is derived from SS. This would belong in the variants section (or as a link to another page), however, it is important for the user to be aware of specific, popular builds.

Style and formatting
Currently, no formal style and formatting article for guides exist. However, the following structure is suggested.

First, a guide should start out with a summary of what the role is for, where it's generally used, and the limitations of the role. It should also discuss the general tactics and usage of the role in question. It should then discuss the different skills such a role needs to work, giving specific examples where appropriate as well as variations. This is not a build article, however -- a simple list of skills is inappropriate. There should be a detailed narrative of what each skill does, when and why it's used, and how each skill works together with the rest of the role's needs. Subheadings for significantly different strategies are appropriate.

A good example of a specific role guide, though much of the information is out of date, can be found at meleemancer guide. A good example of a broader guide can be found at effective ranger guide.

Quality of writing

 * The guide should be written precisely without sounding redundant or stupid.
 * Review your use of grammar in the build.


 * Guides should not contain any first-person point-of-view.
 * Convert all POV's into second-person (ie, I would take a break here -> you should stop here).


 * Guides should consist mostly of fact, rather than opinion.
 * Do not use a lot of "I think" or "It is believed that".


 * There should not be any spelling or grammar mistakes.
 * Use a spell checker and make sure there are no red links because you've spelled something incorrectly.

Guide Content

 * While different guides/roles require different information, the basic layout of guides should remain relatively consistent.
 * The guide should represent a unique roll; it should be distinct enough from all the existing roll.
 * Redundancy: while breaking up guides into smaller, more specific guides may be necessary, new guides should not be created that restate something which can be found in a broader guide.

Why guides?
Guides more closely follow the “documentation wiki” format by sticking to universal understandings on what a given role does or does not tend to do. Subjective questions about how to best accomplish these roles are less emphasized, which allows us to collaboratively work on objective information. Further, guides are meant to be entertaining reads -- users can browse through guides, gain information, and thus more easily make informed decisions about their character, thanks to greatly enhanced simplicity and cohesion within the guides section.

Finally, this guideline exists because many popular roles in the game are currently undocumented on the GuildWiki.

Organization
(blank on purpose)

How you can help

 * 1) Expand/edit existing "Effective Profession" guides
 * 2) Create new guides for common profession roles (see Role guide project for more information)
 * 3) Note that as stated above, guides are by no means limited to the list found on the link or to necessarily common roles although some amount of common sense should be used to judge what deserves a role.
 * 4) Convert existing userspace build articles into role guides