Ladder slashing: the final frontier
First of all awesome game from njaguar I appreciate the time and effort u put into it and are still putting into it to make it better every day.
The basics:
Ladder slasher is a text based rpg created by the loved and adored njaguar of d2jsp. It is a simplistic turn based game created to pass time when other things just aint happening. The game has no real storyline or plot but it relays all the classic elements of an rpg in gaining experience to level fighting ferocious monsters like hairsplitter the obnoxious and the dreaded nailtrimmer and finding items with an array of possible stats and abilitys to keep you building different chars long after you’ve completed the trek to level 61 and the elusive master quest.
When u first start you must choose a character as is usually the first choice in an rpg u have 2 major choices…melee or magic. In this particular game there are three different characters geared towards melee the rogue, the fighter, and the barbarian. There is only one character geared towards magic and that is the mage, however all characters CAN be made into a type of magic or melee user each character has a main statistic higher than the others in order to make them more appealing to specific builders. In addition each character type is limited by the types of equipment they can wear throughout the game some items which u find may be entirely useless to your own character but quite useful to a friend or a random person in which case u can use a feature I will talk about later called the market place (mp).
When first starting the game you may want to choose a specific char with stats complementary to what u want to raise for a majority of the game.
FIGHTER:
For people who want a melee char but aren’t sure of what they want to make I would suggest trying the fighter, it tends to have a fairly balanced initial statistic setup for any way you want to build him. The fighter starts out with 50 points in strength 40 in dexterity 10 in intelligence and 50 in vitality. Which means he doesn’t tend to lack anything from the get go and can use a wide variety of stat boosting equipment you may find throughout your gameplay. The fighter is only able to equip axes swords or clubs, however they have the ability to wear any type of armor which can be nice when trying to find the right mods on a particular piece of equipment. This character can essentially go any way you want it to however its low intelligence makes it a sub-par magician and its average statistics make it too well rounded to really focus on any one particular stat and have it surpass any other characters ability, a good idea with the fighter when first starting out is to play around with stats find out what u like, fighters are a good build for testing the waters.
BARBARIAN:
Anyone who has played an rpg knows that the very word barbarian conjures up a tank massively strong with the ability to endure for a long while but usually having a weakness to long range or magical attacks. Well that’s the barbarian here too, an as you might suspect the barbarian specializes in the same two areas as most barbarians from other games strength and life. The barbarian starts out with a whopping 60 strength AND 60 vitality however it comes at a price, the barbarian has extremely low dexterity and intelligence. This tends to mean that most barbs will get eaten alive by magic monsters and in most cases will not be the first ones to hit in battle. The barb can be a great powerhouse to either deal damage or take it like a man. They can also be a nice mixture of strength and life leaving them to be able to take and dish out on a regular basis.
The barbarians are restricted to the same equipment as a fighter axes clubs and swords, and like the fighter can wear any armor.
ROGUE:
Now it might seem odd in the scheme of things but in this game the rogue is the real powerhouse. If you want 1 hit kills with an easy build and a very conveniently exploitable power, then u want a rogue. Why is a rogue so powerful? Because they start out with 60 dexterity and although their other stats take a plummet from there why worry about that when dexterity takes care of damage speed and helps you hit more! Add on top of that the fact that rogues are free to use ANY and all weapons found in the game u have a character that can get by easily with minimal work. The downfall of the rogue is in the armor, not only can they only wear medium and light armors such as armors ending in the word “armor” or “robe”, when the occasion happens that the rogue doesn’t strike first or doesn’t do enough damage quick enough they can be ripped apart but just about anything, decent intelligence for not being a main skill is nice for a little defense against magic but none the less they cant take much in the way of hits. The dexterity build of a rogue is by all means not the only way to build a rogue, but if u want to get to the master quest quickly and efficiently without much work, this is the character for you.
however at higher levels their defenses become atrocious leading many to want more hp, in which case the best time to put into vitality is before u level at all. But if u can find enough damage on a weapon the critical can make short work of most enemies.
MAGICIAN
Magicians are obviously skilled in magic, it is their primary stat and their primary use to be magicians. Unlike other characters whose “weapon” will be their attack the mages rely on “charms” to do their damage and weapons are more of a support to the charms however the weapons can be used to attack usually if u have run out of magic or are very close to having killed the monster you are facing. Magician start out with decent dexterity of 50 and it is definitely a nice stat to have as it increases the mages chance of hitting first, however that’s all it does and can be bothersome to increase because it has little affect on mages unless they chose to use melee attacks. They start out with high intelligence which tends to be their primary stat throughout leveling, and their atrocious 20 vitality and 20 strength make them fairly useless for anything else. Life will most likely be a large problem with mages, although magic hits constantly it can be extremely depleting on your magic especially if you have spent forum gold on a spell beyond your level. You might think that magic shouldn’t be a problem if you stick with intelligence to increase mage damage but due to high costs of stronger spells magic depletion is very common and in some cases mages take more damage to their mana in a battle than their health. Magic is more consistant than melee damage because it doesn’t require dexterity to hit regularly, however some mods such as leech life don’t tend to work, as to whether critical hits work with magic it is somewhat uncertain it appears dex has little to no affect upon a mages critical damage however + critical items may…either way mages regularly hit outside their “range” of possible damage. If u wish to use a mage you should know that patience is needed as they have to regenerate both life and magic however items can come with both life regen and magic regen which in the end could make a mage quicker than most in regeneration. Mages defense tends to be very low however as they can only wear light armors with the word “robe” at the end of the name all of which have a base minimum defense of 0. mages are also very restricted on weapons as they can only use daggers or staves, and unlike other characters whose charms can afford to be low damage mages rely on the magic damage from charms to keep them killing monsters up till the MQ.
Now you have chosen your character you are ready to begin the game. But wait, not only do you have 10 stat points to distribute beyond your initial stats you also have forum gold u may wanna spend in the market place to make your leveling faster. So what should you do first? And how do you do it?
Stat allocation:
You start out with ten stat points which u could save but y? it wont help u to save up stats in this game. But what do these stat points do?
You can either go here for a more complete listing of some stats other than your main 4 or you can just follow the posting below from the topic
(courtesy of njaguars sticky on game mechanics
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=3770403&f=272 )
Strength:
- Increases physical damage (weapons)
Strength is great for melee chars if u wanna get a nice jump on damage however u can add strength at any time throughout your leveling if u need it and these first ten stats can make or break most characters ability to be decent at higher levels
Dexterity:
- Increases speed and chances to strike first during each combat round
- Increases chances of delivering a critical strike
- Increases damage done when a critical strike occurs
Great if you want to blow through your first few levels and get more stats and higher level requirement equipment but I would only go with this like strength for my first 10 if you already have your gear ready and it is very good.
Intelligence:
- Adds to Max Magic at level up
- Increases offensive damage of spells (charms)
- Increases defensive vs. spells cast at you (hidden value, not shown)
- Items that give +Intelligence do not increase your Magic Points!
As this adds to your magic at level up it is a great stat to put some of your first points into IF you plan on using magic, if not don’t waste your time here but if u do adding points into this stat early on is much better than waiting till later as the magic will accrue as you level more and more
Vitality:
- Adds to Max Life at level up
- Increases defensive properties of armor
- Items that give +Vitality do not increase your Life Points!
Similar to intelligence this increases your life as you level great first stat to use and I recommend unless u already have equipment or know you can afford some later on to put your first ten points into vitality with any character, as later levels you will really enjoy the 600 life point boost.
(all u need to do to add your points is click on the desired stats red + icon)
you will notice if you have any items in your inventory that they have a red + icon as well and a blue – icon, these icons allow u to use or discard w/e item they are in front of and like most other mouse buttons u can put your cursor over them to see what they do (for example if u place your cursor over the + it will say “equip”)
Now you’ve put your stat points in but u wanna see what there is in store before really getting into the game right? Well at the side of your screen are 6 main options 4 of which u will most likely visit on a regular basis. These options are as follows….
Enter the market place
Ye ole market place is pretty much the nickel ads, a giant viewing of everyone’s for sale items and their prices that you can search through at any time sometimes u can get great deals on really good items for your character, and sometimes u may have to pay through the nose. While other times u can try your luck by buying items to transmute in the cube which I will explain more about later. The downside of such a great place, u have to use actual forum gold to buy the equipment if you want it. And if u don’t have forum gold well then u will be hard pressed to find your own items or make some fast.
When u first click on the enter market place link u may notice next to any items in your inventory with a prefix in front of them (magical – unique) will obtain a slanted arrow icon, if u click this icon u may paste your item for sale on the market. But beware! The market takes its share 5% of the price u place the item for will be deducted from the total price and if you place an item on the market for 20 or more you will have to pay the cost upfront. Also keep in mind that someone must buy your item from the market place for you to get money, it is not a store to sell and buy from a “bank” type system. It is merely a classifieds ad showing your item to potential customers, much like a pawn shop u will receive nothing until someone has bought your item. The on screen instructions are fairly simple to figure out how to sell your items just follow them u will need your fg password if u have one on a regular basis to buy or sell items.
You want to find items right? So your character can level quickly, well just click the perform market search button and watch it unfold. There’s TONS to search for here u can choose if u want weapons armor or charms (the three types of equipment in the game) what level requirements they must meet how much fg they cost and up to 3 stats they could have! You can make your search as broad or as defined as you want. When u search u can find helpful links at the top and bottom of the search results to take u back to the main menu or search for something different, also links to other pages if there are lots of items falling under your search topic. To buy an item all you have to do is click on the little red + sign and ok it and put in your password and poof the item is in your inventory and your fg is sent to the other person just like that!
Exit back out to the main menu using one of the links and you will find yourself in a familiar place. Click on the enter market place icon again and u will notice another link to manage your items if you click on it u probably wont see anything but when u go to sell items this is where they are saved in case u forget. You can lower prices every 3 hours on an item and you can remove items after 24 hours of inactivity. Many people tend to make a lot of money using this market place in conjunction with the d2jsp ladder slasher trade forum.
Enter the combat arena
The second link leads u to the place where pretty much everyone will spend most of their time the combat arena! This is where u level up and fight monsters and the second place where items can be obtained, u don’t HAVE to spend fg to get items u can fight a lot of monsters and get items tho the chances of finding good items is low so its not the best idea to depend on.
You can choose the level of the monster you wish to fight, being level one u cant choose any higher level monsters or lower level monsters but later you can choose which u want to fight, lower level monsters will give u reduced experience points, and it takes 1million experience points to level once, the entire goal of the game is to reach level 61 and take the master quest. So this is where a lot of your time will be spent. There are also player vs player option u can do if you wish or aren’t good at leveling. You can choose from reading a list of available pvp requests or u can make your own to begin you simply click the red + and when the fight appears just like a monster you attack, however unlike a monster the battles are real time not turn based so u have to click immediately as fast as you can or you wont be alive long enough to tell about it.