I've been thinking about this for quite awhile and many ideas have come to light as I decided to take on the task of helping Newcomers into LS. However, I finally decided to say something about it after playing with PapaRick in a maze game tonight, remaking 4x, and being asked an absurd amount of elementary questions from all the players. I began to share some ideas I had for improvement and he asked me to thread them--and hence I am.

I've come to the conclusion that no matter how much effort is put into bringing ppl into this game (I've been making threads in donor forums to spark interest, created threads about the crazy amount of fg being found in this game, and even sent out some info on Facebook to 3000x of my closest friends regarding the game TODAY at work), people WILL NOT stay as an active player if their first impression is a poor one. The community tries very hard to give direction to ppl on what to buy, how to stat, etc. However, I caught myself today telling someone to read the guides before asking such remedial questions as "Where do I sell items at". I decided to revisit the guide section stickied and I have to say that I would be lost using this as my only resource.

I want to say one thing and one thing only. Pretend you know nothing about d2jsp.org except d2. You are about to take a closer look at the Ladder Slasher game and find these guides as you begin your journey starting at lvl 1. This guide is intended to be read Top to Bottom. You will want to find pertinent information to your dilemma IMMEDIATELY. What class should I choose? What Gear should I buy? How do I know if this drop is worth picking up? What are the absolute basics of this game and how can I learn all this in the shortest amount of time possible. Remember this noob is about to see a screen pop up for a cata, may get told 'full' and booted, and left wondering why everyone is so rude to invite him to the game and immediately kick him. These people need a clear, short, and concise Roadmap. They need held by the hand and given what may be expected as the most pertinent information first. Lets assume these ppl have the attention span of a 3 year old.

Nara & Rick-- I consider myself friends to you both. Your efforts and impact to this game is immeasurable. Please don't take offense to my ideas / criticism as they are rather straight forward. My only intention is to help grow this community and retain new slashers. I am taking the time to make this thread because I care and believe immediate action needs to be taken in this section. I am extending my hand to help in any way you desire and am soliciting feedback from the community to bring in ideas from the masses.

To those reading, please provide feedback or even volunteer to update an antiquated guide http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=18560908&f=272 (List in this thread what you intend to do and give yourself 1 week max to complete the task). Again, pretend you only know about diablo 2 on this site and know nothing about LS. You came to this guide first for guidance. With that frame of mind please read on:

















I will only go as far in this thread as to suggesting updates to the first page or so at this point in time:

Ladder Slasher Guide Collection for all players Version 1.21
© by NaRa with the friendly moderating help of Paparick

Note that Guide Audience is Color Coded as follows: Official from Njaguar, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

New to LS? (Start Here)

• Game Basics
• Nara's Helper Guide by Nara *Needs updated and focused on what isn't in the game basics
• Catas & Arena Mysteries Revealed by ????? *To Be Created (arena etiquite, maze expectations, common roles, do's/don'ts, profs, etc) I can do this if no volunteers. This is a VERY important guide
• What Gear Types Should I Buy? by ????? *To Be Created (Advantages / Disadvantages of all gear types. Especially include stuff like swords can take you to pally etc)
• How to be Successful on a Budget by Stok3d *To Be Created
• What to Keep and What to Shrine by Stok3d *To Be Created
• Rags To Riches - How to make FG in LS by Stok3d *To Be Created
• Does It Help to Be in a Slasher Guild? Who takes in New LSrs? by ??? *To Be Created (Link to guilds supporting new comers AND WILLING to take them by the hand, vent infos, reasons why guilds & making friends so important, community statements...)
• Still got Questions? I Can Direct You by ????? *To Be Created (Link Char Creation Thread, LS Mentoring Program, etc)

Character Classes Reveiled

• Fighter by ???? *To Be Created (Przy's still good?)
• Barbarian by ???? *To Be Created (Przy's still good?)
• Rogue by ???? *To Be Created (Przy's still good?)
• Magician by ???? *To Be Created (Przy's still good?)
• Guardian by ???? *To Be Created (Przy's still good?)

...
...
...
...
...

(yea I think my Effective Cata Casting Thread should be included in the advanced section somewhere)
What else comes to mind?
What will you take ownership of?

Nice suggestion and it would be interesting to see the many builds out there from tanking, pure melee, hybrid, and finally the clinically insane ones

Even if I have been reading the guides and don't have a short attention span the problem is hte amount of guides that people refer you to.... There are just too many and with too many different routes to take. Like today is my first day and i'm so mind blown by all the information. I'm currently level 26 and its getting harder and harder. and it seems like fg is too big a part of this game so for new comers like me its hard to level and compete with everyone i took a look at the threads and no one really replies to randoms not only that most items on the threads are ridiculously expensive like 100+ so i troll marketplace to find something

My point exactly. Lets make the official Guide Mean Something. Answer me this, would these few guides here (imagine they were created and go off title) taken care of your immediate questions that came to mind? I do suggest that you pretty much read every line of the first link...

New to LS? (Start Here)

• Game Basics
• Nara's Helper Guide by Nara *Needs updated and focused on what isn't in the game basics
• Catas & Arena Mysteries Revealed by ????? *To Be Created (arena etiquite, maze expectations, common roles, do's/don'ts, profs, etc) I can do this if no volunteers. This is a VERY important guide
• What Gear Types Should I Buy? by ????? *To Be Created (Advantages / Disadvantages of all gear types. Especially include stuff like swords can take you to pally etc)
• How to be Successful on a Budget by Stok3d *To Be Created
• What to Keep and What to Shrine by Stok3d *To Be Created
• Rags To Riches - How to make FG in LS by Stok3d *To Be Created
• Does It Help to Be in a Slasher Guild? Who takes in New LSrs? by ??? *To Be Created (Link to guilds supporting new comers AND WILLING to take them by the hand, vent infos, reasons why guilds & making friends so important, community statements...)
• Still got Questions? I Can Direct You by ????? *To Be Created (Link Char Creation Thread, LS Mentoring Program, etc)

This post was edited by Stok3d on Aug 19 2010 08:04pm

Although I really respect Tom as a Ladder Slasher player/trend - setter, I do believe the old - fashioned ways of creating a character have changed.
With the discovery of the hybrid and loss of dexterity power, those guides should all be remade, with the exception of possibly the Mage.

But I still believe the ONLY way these will help will be if people LOOK at them.
Often times, you can find the majority of the topics in the Character Builds and Discussion about what is Transmuting, when there is a detailed guide in the guide section.
I don't know how we can effectively broadcast this information, but we could throw ideas off each other and come to conclusion? (note : it may need to be bigger than just a ladder slasher thing, this problem is evident in Diablo II as well)

Here is Tom's guide to LS items : http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=32190773&f=272
I use his profile for several guides he has listed : przy

I'd be willing to help out wherever is needed. Just let me know

This post was edited by Seven11even on Aug 19 2010 08:03pm

honestly its not even about the first sentence becuase as a new comer you barely know much and i've read a variety of those guides in between as i wait to heal and hte problem is with so many directions to go its hard i think there needs to be a more interactive interface like i looked that the guilds have irc chat there needs to be an overall irc chat for ladderslasher players with moderators so you have someone monitoring the new memebers that way retention is easier lucky for me i just am dedicated to games like these but support is very hard to find as people of my level or i guess since i am new no one really takes you seriously. Like i posted a serious buying topic in trading not to mention posted in catacomb and no responses even replied to several catacomb threads..

All of Tom's character guides are up to date. They really weren't made that long ago.

And on topic: I'm all about reorganizing the guide forum. At the moment that place is an extremely confusing cess-pool of outdated information. I think there's still a dexterity rogue build in there ffs!

Great idea Nick.

All those guides are wonderful and dont get me wrong should still be there the tagline idea is of course great but there needs to be like a newbie thread or for people just starting and an irc or something that supports them if not overall your not going to retain any players
like when you think of other games there are tutorials and all sorts of support and forums and chatrooms but for this not so much and judging by the marketplace there are $1000's being spent and transfered left and right and in some cases single items that cost that much and yet so little support for beginners

This post was edited by FaithHopeLove on Aug 19 2010 08:12pm

Great Idea FaithHopeLove!!! I've been trying to take some of this responsibility upon myself and even push it off on a particular guild that welcomes New Players I feed them. How about this, what if the Ladder Slasher Mentoring Program http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=35883837&f=272 took on a proactive approach instead of a passive approach. What if a new thread was created where New LSrs Signed Up and ppl adopted one for a week. Like a big brother program. I think this idea would have some merit and the personalized attention would go a LONG way.

Thoughts anyone? Would anyone be willing to do this?

Haven't completly read it yet since I'm on my iPod
but it looks like you put a lot of effort into this
From what I've seen you have done a lot for the the LS forum

and IMO the whole guide collection should def. Be revamped

will read whole thing later when on a pc

This post was edited by tyler225 on Aug 19 2010 08:16pm