[ArcaneLegend]

See if you can accomplish everything listed here:

Originally Posted by RazieL

Raz's Guide to Guides

Many of you have the general idea and/or are sometimes on the dot with your builds. However for people reading your quick skill / equip lists, the posts lack information. RPGForums needs to get a good amount of strong in depth guides so to encourage you all to put a little more time and effort into your guides I've written up a little checklist and some guidelines for creating a Build Guide.

1) Give your guide a layout that is easy to read, original, and looks well organized. Include a Table of Contents in your guide and label each section as a number and/or letter so that the sections are easily referenced. This also allows readers to use a quick text search for the section they want and be able to go straight to it. Determine your sections by subjects. (i.e. skills list, equip list, duel tips, leveling, etc)

2) Include how to level the build. Where to place your skill points at what levels as well as possibly listing good equipment to aid the player in leveling. Same goes for stats. List when to add to certain stats during the leveling process.

3) Check your information several times before posting. Be sure that your numbers are correct. Reference The Arreat Summit for a lot of your formula's and other information.

4) Include any math, calculations, theories, or experience that brought you to your conclusion as to why you built this character the way you did.

5) When listing your equipment be sure to specify the quality of the items with mods that can varie. (i.e. Annihilus spawns +10-20 all stats)

6) Include final damage, life, mana, and any other stats so that the reader may determine if this is a character that they feel strong enough to attempt.

7) Use proper punctuation and be sure your guide is legible. Many times readers are easily confused where punctuation is missing. Make sure you are clear on everything and re-read your guide several times before posting.

8) Check and see if there is all ready a guide for the build in the forums. If yours varies more than 20% from the existing guide then there is no harm in posting yours. If it does not varie more than 20% then you can probably get your point across by simply posting in that guide's thread, rather than creating an entirely new one.

9) Please don't include rumors in your guides. Readers assume your guide to be 95-100% pure hard fact and a proven build. If your build is experimental then mention it at the beginning and end of your guide. Experimental guides are different from RUMORS. If you hear a rumor you may think to be true then make sure you can research it and prove it right before including it in your guide.

10) When you finally post the final copy of your guide be sure to attach the txt file for download by the reader. This allows the reader to have your guide in a convenient place for them without having to copy and paste your entire post.

11) Keep your entire guide Uniform. This means using maybe 2 highlightable colors at most. (i.e. white for normal text, red for chapter titles, pink for important information.) Use the same color scheme through out your entire guide. Make sure you are consistent with your text alignment and spacing. If you have a huge paragraph in your guide then double space it to make it easier on the reader's eyes. Small things like that. Space out Chapters with a few enters. Make full use of [fake]indent[/fake] and [fake]list[/fake].

12) Your readers shouldn't have to go to other sites to find information that they may need to know in order to complete your guide. Include any and all information that you think you would want to see if you were the reader. This includes such things as starting stats, stat bonuses on level up, break points, other equipment options, etc. etc. No matter how small a detail may be, it is always one less detail that your reader will have to go look up!

Follow these guidelines and hopefully we'll have a lot more in depth guides and inspire some superb discussions. Following these guidelines will benefit us all.

I can't encourage enough how important content and orginization is!!!

([ Include a "CREDITS & DISCLAIMER" section where you specify that this guide is infact your authentic hard work and dedication and address any borrowed information and the source you received it from. No one wants credit for their guides stolen. ])

Thanks,
RazieL