Quote (rusclaudiualin @ Jan 3 2011 12:06pm)

You should had stated that from the begining BlindBoy so I'll change it a bit. It's way easier to flame and insult then to think and be constructive.

Quote (Boss @ Jan 3 2011 05:35pm)

yea when lance started playing he logged in and was an alchemist
this is a good guide for a pure tank
but what you might not understand cyber is that in good quality runs sacrificing a decent damage tank for a pure tank doesnt make any sense
i dont expect you to be able to grasp this concept since quality groups is not something you have experienced

good guide nonetheless i think if newcomers followed this guide it would indeed help them lots.

but this guide serves to help people come to hardcore with a good build and i think this does exactly that

Quote (Luvve @ Jan 3 2011 12:14pm)

Let's say, Probably.. eh?
If you slash with 3 gg casters and 1 pure melee and 1 tank with pretty much base vit (if you're a barb for exampel then you'll have 60 vit) then you'll kill that fast that you don't take much damage.
But if you slash with 1 healer and 4 melee which is VERY usual when it comes to Hardcore (for most of people) then you'll take 10 times as much hits as you do when you're playing with a perfect balanced group (in a Speedrun)
So how much vita you should pump in, pretty much depens on how fast you can kill the monsters basically
This is just my point of view, and flame me if i'm wrong.
So basically, It's a great guide Rus , for a certain type of climbing, I agree with most of people that it's wall of text for sure, but nice to see that you've put effort into this!

Quote (rusclaudiualin @ Jan 3 2011 11:50am)

The difference between 100 vita tank and a tank that has more strenght can be solved with better gear. I did not make this to teach players that have more then 2 years playing here how to play but to give a hint to the newcomers or the ones that did not tryed tanking yet. Even with 100 vita points having a sword 200ee+ , a hybrid armor ee/str and a strong charm str/intel can bring you very high damage. Let's evaluate a bit: having 65 vita points is sort of having a dps character not a tank and even high ee scales can  help you in strong situations. So wake up a bit and think that a player does not start with 300.000 fgs to buy everything from the beginning. This is a progresive game and new players does not even know what high standards in this game means.

Quote (ToughGuy_TJ @ 3 Jan 2011 19:25)

I didn't start with 300k, I started with a lot more.

Why say you want opinions in the title descriptions if every opinion pisses you off and you get defensive and talk shit.

Next time just say you want everyone to agree with you and you don't truly want a discussion and then npbpdy will post.

I disagree with your advice. Doesn't mean I'm right or you're wrong, just means we don't agree

Quote (rusclaudiualin @ Jan 3 2011 09:41am)

Ladder Slasher tanking guide
by rusclaudiualin



We all know Ladder Slasher changed so much into a team based game that implies creating an efficient group that can climb the 71 levels as fast as possible.

Climbing this way is faster than solo but it’s somehow better in my opinion because you actually feel that you are playing a game and not doing some other stuff while you regenerate for the sake of items as it was in the past.

We must face the truth that this game is not bad as it is at the moment but that it’s still needs some more changes to make it better.

So with the new version of this game you need a group to level faster while slashing the evil monsters in a place called catacombs, but not just a random group referring to the hardcore part where If you make a mistake you are dead and you lose time invested in your gear and in many cases you will quit even If quitting is for silly bears.

The group must be a balanced one and it always needs a player called ”tank” and another one called ”healer” along with the other players.
I really don’t want to discuss about how many players a group needs or the level range and I’m sure you can find answers about that in some other guides. I made this introduction just to make sure you understand what I’m saying If you have no clues about this game at all.

So a tank is the player that takes the most damage and it’s placed in front of the group preventing the team to die while the others attack clearing the waves of monsters. There are some rules for a tank and you must know them very well so you’ll have a long life here on hardcore. Of course many would say on hardcore you need great gear and then you’re a God. That’s actually not true. I saw may players with high end gear that ripped because they forgot hardcore has some proper rules and you must respect them with any means.

Why a tank? Why not? You can get with a tank until monk and that’s a long road.
I did many climbs only as a tank and I say to you I enjoy keeping a team safe while not shrining and I enjoy driving in the maze.

I will mark the rules of safe playing hardcore as a tank with red just so you know.
When I create a tank I pick up either fighter or barbarian because both have advantages in some way or another. Barbarian has higher strength doing more damage and also having more vitality getting more life in the end. Fighter has a bit more intelligence and dexterity.
It’s your choice in the end but both are good.

The key of a solid tank is pumping all stat points into vitality until you have  100 based vitality. It’s possible to tank with less but I found out from my experience that 100 vitality points it’s safe. After you got 100 vitality points you have two options: strength/dexterity depending on what weapon do you prefer or intelligence. I personally put all points into intelligence and use a strength/intelligence charm to boost my damage. The intelligence is nice because it gives you protection against casters that can rip you If you have low magic defense.

So we talk about two aspects:physical defense and magical defense. You have two ways to higher your magical defense: getting armors that have high magical defense ( leathers/scales/chains ) or pumping intelligence with stat points and gear.
So for a tank it’s crucial to think about improving his max life, physical defense and magical defense while sustaining his damage. This is the key of a tank well made.

As wenzor said and yes it’s true you can also build your tank like this: put the starting points and all the points until you have like 80 vitality, then change and pump your intelligence with 20-30 points and get back to your vitality until you get 100. This will balance your stats.
It’s handy to keep a heal charm with enhanced effect for safety even If you would get like some casts only it will still help you in dangerous situations.
We found out how to invest our stat points now we must know what gear should we use and when.

In starting levels until level 10 I’d say we need more than ever max life, life per attack, life per killso we should go with tier III items with more than 250 max life as armor and charm and with a weapon somewhere between 50-60 enhanced effect.
After level 10 try to make a set of weapons like swords/axes with decent ee and this is the time when you need a better defense as max life does not count that much anymore so you’ll be getting an enhanced effect armor and a charm like mine for example: 15 strength / 365 max life.

After this point you will be getting only ee armors, swords and defensive charms. A good example of a nice charm that can get you to master quest can be: 30 strength / 33 intelligence, but you actually can get one with other adds too like max life and vitality.
Other rule of a tank is that you stay in catacomb while there are players there and always ask for permission to go to town at higher levels.

You never know when you go to town as a single tank and some objective with high risk of dying spawns and rip your team. You won’t want something like that and you will blame yourself long time after. As tank you are a leader because they are used to clicking while you should be only thinking about keeping the group alive!
If you’re the driver always check If your healer is ready. He might be afk and you can rip.

As a tank on hardcore you must always have in mind the possibility of sacrificing your character for the others safety. If things go wrong, it’s better just to die and save players with high gear or warlocks with nice casting gear as gear for tank can be replaced. You should be the last one that leaves in town in a hard situation so when you think things are messed up stop clicking so your door won’t stuck!

I did not mentioned guardian just because the restrictions it has for the gear and the fact that after you passed it you must play with other character but overall it can be a tank do doubt about that.
I think healers should have their purpose and we must stick to the tanking part. Don’t be hasty to think we should have some mana for our heal as you only need a bit of it to not die in hard situations.

I am sure you will enjoy your tanks and thank you for your patience to read these up. I started from nothing with a tank so don’t be scared to start hardcore because of high price of items. The drop rate is decent so you will progress fast enough while having a fair roll for any item. Keep your common sense and a friendly attitude while in game and you’ll see that this version of ladder slasher is just a cool stage of a great game.
I wish you a great year and play it safe!

Thanks Paparick and Wenzor for the help.

Quote (WarFox @ Jan 3 2011 01:17pm)

There. Now for God's sake, just stfu and please read it.

Quote (ToughGuy_TJ @ Jan 3 2011 01:27pm)

I need a table of contents with quicklinks

Quote (ToughGuy_TJ @ Jan 3 2011 01:27pm)

I need a table of contents with quicklinks