Why so few guides?
I've written a couple guides, and working on a new one and updating an old one. My guides tend to be extremely detailed and very lengthy. I write them slowly - and often rarely - because they require a lot of effort on my part. I do them for the simple fact that it vastly reduces queries regarding some combos or primaries/secondaries; queries which I often end up answering.
I understand that you'd like more guides, but some of us take rather a lot of pride in the completed product and wish to make ours as complete, detailed and easy-to-read as possible.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
The real reason is that CuppaJo left and there are no updated official guide to guide threads (That I know of) concerning the Archetypes. Best thing to do is use the search function. I think they will make updates guides to guides once they get the new forum up and running.
This is definitely a part of it... not many of the archetype guide lists have been updated recently. The best guide I found for building my Ice tank recently wasn't on the guides list, for example. Some of the old guides really need removing, or moving to a different section of the list.
Building guides post-IOs is definitely more complex. Lots more to consider, like what IO goals are best for the build. Multiple build examples may be needed, an SO build, a basic IO build, and a super-purpled IO build. Takes time. Add in the reduced chance that your guide will be added to the main list, and it's possible that hardly anybody will see the guide that you invested all that time in.
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The best guide I found for building my Ice tank recently wasn't on the guides list, for example.
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If so, the author of that guide may have failed to list it in the Tankers FAQ and Guide post. Ice_Knight IIRC is the one who formats the changes for the Tanker Guides, but Ex makes it official. I'm not sure how regularly they update it, but it is updated periodically, at least on the Tanker boards.
To the OP: having gone through the burden of writing a guide myself, they tend to take a good amount of time and effort, if it's any good. So I can see why there isn't one for every possible combination.
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If so, the author of that guide may have failed to list it in the Tankers FAQ and Guide post.
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Possible. The only guide I've written is for a scrapper, so I've noticed the lack of updates there and presumed (especially after Serps' note) that it was fairly widespread. I posted notice to my guide everywhere appropriate, for example. On the scrapper list, there are no fire, dual blades, or willpower guides. Those guides do exist, just not on the list.
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The real reason is that CuppaJo left and there are no updated official guide to guide threads (That I know of) concerning the Archetypes. Best thing to do is use the search function. I think they will make updates guides to guides once they get the new forum up and running.
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Guide to guide lists are made by players and updated by Ex Libris. I did them twice for blasters and once for brutes and controllers. Some haven't been updated in a while, such as the scrapper guide to guides.
Not many people write guides mainly because there isn't much of a point. With the addition of the real number system, comparing power choices is incredibly easy.
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Not many people write guides mainly because there isn't much of a point. With the addition of the real number system, comparing power choices is incredibly easy.
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... and on the other hand, I vehemently disagree with this. Any good guide provides more than numbers.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
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To the OP: having gone through the burden of writing a guide myself, they tend to take a good amount of time and effort, if it's any good. So I can see why there isn't one for every possible combination.
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What are you TALKING about? Writing guides is easy as pie. Heck, I whack off in the bathroom, there's a guide laying there in the morning!*
*Horrible joke plagiarized from Denis Leary.
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Not many people write guides mainly because there isn't much of a point. With the addition of the real number system, comparing power choices is incredibly easy.
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... and on the other hand, I vehemently disagree with this. Any good guide provides more than numbers.
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Holy CRAP! I actually agree with something A_C wrote.
The Apocalypse is upon us!
Phos, I hope that wasn't my guide for Ice/Fire. I listed that in the "Tanker Guides and FAQs" Section.
Problem looks to be that the main page in that sticky thread hasn't been updated since July 10, 2008 My post was dated July 6th, so I don't know why it wasn't included...
I find myself hunting and pecking for guides all the time, since there is seldom a good updated index for them in the AT sections of the forums. Some of the regular posters can generally point people to the guides they need, but often it requires a lot of searching to get what you want.
Most of those guides are "I got to a high level and this is what I did" type guides. At the time most of those were written many players hadn't tried and might not have even seen what most of the powers do. At this point in time many players have at least a basic understanding of what certain terms and powers in this game do and mean. Those guides mostly provided an overview and anecdotal "this is what happened to me" type information.
Instead of needing a guide most people now have very specific questions about the use of one power verse another. A guide would have to be immensely long and detailed and updated frequently to answer half of those questions. Some of the guides actually do a pretty good job of accomplishing that (though certainly none I've written )
As others have stated your best bet is either to ask specific questions and for specific advice in the Archetypes forums, or ask some experienced players via pms on the forums or in game.
QR
Writing a decent guide isn't so easy, I spent almost a whole day writing mine, and I could have gone deeper into the powers. Plus with all the changes coming, some guides become outdated 1 month or less after they're written, that may discourage some people.
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Most of those guides are "I got to a high level and this is what I did" type guides.
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Yeah, those guides piss me off.
Especially this part of them, when I read "Well, I didn't take this power, so I don't know how good or bad it is. But I haven't heard anything good from someone else, and I didn't take it and didn't miss it, so don't bother taking it."
You'd be surprised how often I read those lines or something like them in a guide...
...and it makes my blood BOIL.
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Writing a decent guide isn't so easy,
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What are you TALKING about? Writing guides is easy as pie. Heck, I whack off in the bathroom, there's a guide laying there in the morning!*
*Horrible joke plagiarized from Denis Leary.
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WHAT??!! I can't reuse the same joke over and over again???
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QR
Writing a decent guide isn't so easy, I spent almost a whole day writing mine, and I could have gone deeper into the powers. Plus with all the changes coming, some guides become outdated 1 month or less after they're written, that may discourage some people.
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Yep. I spent a week crafting and editing my recent Broadsword/Willpower Scrapper guide. I also got editorial input from Werner and Desmodos to make sure I wasn't missing anything crucial. That guide was time consuming to assemble and publish. I can see why people don't do more of them...
I dont want to givez you my ebil trickz..
"hat off"
Honestly mate that is kinda like asking "Why aren't more people giving free advice"... It takes time and how does it benefit the guy that took the time to write the guide, other then a warm and fuzzy feeling. If its something that guy wants to do then they do it. Its not just a build that makes a guide its understand how to play that build.
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That guide was time consuming to assemble and publish. I can see why people don't do more of them...
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Eh, nevermind.. overplayed.
I write them but prefer to not actually share them and just regurgitate their content whenever questions are asked.
Provides me an opportunity to continually keep things updated with the game without having to go through the tiresome forum process and simultaneously allows me to avoid annoyance with people that choose to ask a question answered in the first paragraph of a guide that had they spent a modicum of time reading, the answer would have been garnered.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
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Writing a decent guide isn't so easy,
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What are you TALKING about? Writing guides is easy as pie. Heck, I whack off in the bathroom, there's a guide laying there in the morning!*
*Horrible joke plagiarized from Denis Leary.
...
....
...
WHAT??!! I can't reuse the same joke over and over again???
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Good guides aren't easy to write, how about that. I spend months refining mine.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
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Writing a decent guide isn't so easy,
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What are you TALKING about? Writing guides is easy as pie. Heck, I whack off in the bathroom, there's a guide laying there in the morning!*
*Horrible joke plagiarized from Denis Leary.
...
....
...
WHAT??!! I can't reuse the same joke over and over again???
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Good guides aren't easy to write, how about that. I spend months refining mine.
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Hey, I think that was an insult!
This is my MAD face! ---------->
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Hey, I think that was an insult!
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It was too good to pass up, even though I've never read your guide(s?).
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
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Hey, I think that was an insult!
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It was too good to pass up, even though I've never read your guide(s?).
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In that case I suppose I can't consider it an insult, since you've never actually read any of my guides. That means you were speaking from a position of complete ignorance of that facts... therefore, I can logically and truthfully say at this moment:
Angry_Citizen is ignorant.
Take THAT!
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The real reason is that CuppaJo left and there are no updated official guide to guide threads (That I know of) concerning the Archetypes.
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Rather than spreading rumors - you might try going to guides forum, opening the Guide to Guides thread, choosing an AT section... And checking the date of the most recent update.
http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/
One frequent problem I see with the newer guides is that a lot of them skip SO slotting advice, which would be what a lot of people have to rely on until they get rich enough to afford better.
When I go to an AT section and look at their guides, why are there so few combos out there? And why are they so old? I feel lucky enough when the power combo I'm interested in is even listed. I'm simply ecstatic if it is newer than Issue 9. Did IOs kill guide writing or what?
Please, if you know a powerset and can put a few words together, consider writing a guide. Even if you don't include slotting (if IOs are the reason), just knowing which powers are benficial or which work well with others, etc. This is useful knowledge that one can't get from a brief power description in game.
Thanks!