About me: I have played Ladder Slasher for about a year and a half now and the highest character I have unlocked is the Headhunter.

In this guide I will quickly go through every class and give you my personal preference on how to play them. There is no ”best” class and there is no ”best” build, it is all about what you want and how you like to play.


If you are new I REALLY recommend you watch this video before you start playing.



List of shortenings I use and what they mean:
Str – Strength
Dex- Dexterity
Int – Intelligence
Vita – Vitality
EE – Enhanced effect
HM – Heal Mastery


Note: I will not tell you how many points to put into each ability, it is up to you to figure out how you want to play. I will however tell you what abilities to use (imo).
Bolded abilities are the ones I think you should focus on first.
Pro tip: If you play more in group, focus more on abilities that attack more than one monster. (aoe)


Important note: See this chart for weapon ratios before buying gear.

Weapon ratio means how much % str/dex you should have to make the most damage.
For example: axe users should have equal str and dex, sword users 75% str and 25% dex.


Feeder classes: Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Mage, Guardian.

Fighter
Stats: All into str.
Abilities: Powerstrike, Knockdown, Bottomsup.
Gear: EE weapons, STR armors, STR charms.

Barbarian
Stats: All into str.
Abilities: Knockdown, Powerstrike, Retribution.
Gear: EE weapons, EE or STR armors, STR charms.

Rogue
Stats: All into str and/or dex, depending on your weapon of choice.
Abilities: Backstab, Powerstrike, Knockdown.
Gear: EE weapons, str and/or dex armors, str and/or dex charms.

Mage (caster)
Stats: All into int.
Abilities: Piercecast, Pillarcast, Powercast.
Gear: Int weapon, Int armor, EE charm, EE heal charm (try to always carry one even if you focus on dealing out damage)

Mage (healer)
Stats: All into int.
Abilities: Multiheal, Salvation, Powercast (only if you carry damage charms with you)
Gear: HM weapon, HM armor, EE heal charm, EE charm (optional)

Guardian
Stats: All into int.
Abilities: Multiheal, Salvation
Gear: HM weapon, EE armor, HM Charm, EE Heal Charm



Unlockable classes: Samurai, Paladin, Monk, Ninja, Warlock, Headhunter, Alchemist.

Important note: To unlock the Samurai, you must successfully complete the Master Quest as a feeder class.
To unlock the Paladin, you must successfully complete the Master Quest as a Samurai.
To unlock the Monk, you must successfully complete the Master Quest as a Paladin... etc. You can not unlock paladin by playing a feeder class.



Samurai
Stats: All into str or dex, depending on your weapon.
Abilities: Multistrike, Twohitback.
Gear: EE Weapons, Str or dex armors, str or dex charms.

Paladin (tank/damage)
Stats: All into str.
Abilities: Revenge, Multistrike, Powerstrike.
Gear: EE Weapons, EE armors, Str charms.

Paladin (tank/damage/healer) (my absolute favorite class&build )
Stats: First 40 points in int, rest in str.
Abilities: Multiheal, Powerstrike, Healback.
Gear: EE weapons, Str armors, Str or HM charm, EE Heal charm.

Monk
Stats: All into Dex.
Abilities: Crosstrike, Doublestrike.
Gear: EE Weapons, Dex armors, Dex charms.

Ninja
Stats: All into str or dex, depending on your weapon.
Abilities: Jumpattack, Multistrike, Powerstrike.
Gear: EE Weapons, str or dex armors, str or dex charms.

Warlock
Stats: All into int.
Abilities: Multicast, Doublecast, Sapcast (only if you have a heal charm)
Gear: Int weapons, int armors, EE charms, EE heal charms.

Headhunter
Stats: str and dex, try to keep them as even as possible.
Abilities: Slapdash, Multistrike, Powerstrike.
Gear: EE weapons, str or dex armors, str or dex charms.

Alchemist I have never played Alchemist before but if you get this far you shouldn't need any guide.


Other useful guides for new people
How To Do Your First Climb On A 20fg Budget
How Can I Make Fg In Ls?
Ladder Slasher Mentoring Program for any questions you may have.
Don't forget to browse in the menu to the left here for tons of useful information

Thanks to:
Warfox for making the awesome youtube video.
Stok3d for always having good info and pictures in his profile.
Guild: Storm for hours and hours of fun climbs and discussions in guild chat.
Every single member of the ladder slasher community. For good or for bad you all contribute, making the game and the community a fun place.


Final comments; There are people who may disagree with stuff that I have said in here. As I previously mentioned, this is how I play my characters.
This is not a bible, just a guideline. As you grow better with the game and get more and better gear, you can experiment all you want and find your perfect style.

After much clicking around, this is probably the best simple guide I have found... Very well done


THANK YOU FOR POSTING ABILITY SKILLS

seems like every guide doesnt even mention these.




*** I hope this gets stickied ***

This post was edited by Gudder on Sep 13 2011 02:39pm

Thanks. This helped me a lot. I was losttt lol

Nice work, this is very concise and organized. I can see it helping people, and that's what counts the most.

Probably because those were just introduced a few versions ago



Great guide mate, really top notch very easy to read and to the point.
The only thing I'd change personally is to recommend that magicians add their first 5 - 10 points into vita, since playing with 20 base vita can get pretty hairy sometimes unless you have somewhat decent gear (just my opinion though, I know some people disagree)

Thanks for the feedback so far





I preferred going all int when I played mage, even with low-medium gear. IMO mana > life when you can hide behind a tank or two.

Bump

nice guide

Excellent guide... I believe one of the most concise guides.
On another note... I disagree with your Guardian:

Guardian
Stats: All into int.
Abilities: Multiheal, Salvation
Gear: HM weapon, EE armor, HM Charm, EE Heal Charm

This is what I use on Hardcore:

Stats: Upto 75 Intelligence and rest in Strength
Atilities: Multiheal, Knockdown, Powerstrike
Gear; EE weapon (club / heavy), Stat/HM Armor (go in back and either STR+HM or INT+HM), EE Heal charm (note: Stat charm in main if you EE heal charm is 1xx+ ee on ACC slot)

Note: only 3-4 points into Multiheal and organise other abilities based on more dmg either in a group or solo'ing.

Also... Heavy weapons should be used with Retribution and 50% ee armor and tanking with multiheal and retribution... it balances things out while healing you can dmg

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Sep 23 2011 08:17pm

The thing is I tried to stay away from hybrid builds since they suck more often than not, especially for new people without good enough gear. The one exception is my paladin build since as previously mentioned its my favorite.

However I have to admit I've never really played a Guardian so I'm not at all trying to say you're wrong, I appreciate your input.