How to write a DarkMatters Featured Guide or Build

[myles 2]

The ABC of a Guide

 

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Section

 

A. Introduction

B. Formating

C. Extras steps

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A. Introduction

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A curious question has been raised ever since we started the compiling and indexing of Sacred guides.

 

What is a guide? What's the different between a guide and a build?

 

Therefore I'm here writing this guideline. This is important to us in several ways.

 

1) We as the complier needs a criteria for our guides hunt.

2) We need to decide what to include within our own DARK Sacred community.

3) Last but not least, we hope that this guideline would tip you, another Sacred veteran, to write a guide.

 

This guideline is tailored for character building guides and will ultimately served as our screening criteria. We welcome your opinions and comments on this matter.

 

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B. Formating

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The formating is certainly up to the guide writer, but a general format is listed here.

 

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1. Credits (if applicable)
   
2. Introduction
   
3. Section Page
   
4. Skill
   
5. Attribute
   
6. CA/Spell Selection
   
7. Equipment, Socketing Choice, Set Choice
   
8. General Tactics cross Difficulty Levels
   

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C. Extras steps

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1) Spell Check: Nobody is perfect, and you won't believe how much spelling errors I make. So yes this is a must, for obvious reason.

 

2) Revision: It is a good practice to read it to yourself before you post it. That would significantly eliminate errors and confusions.

 

3) Dress it up: The age has changed, we are no longer solely relying on plain text. It won't take too long to Bold the section title, indent a graph or table, to color a key point, and so on.

 

4) Screenshot or/and Video: This is certainly not required, but surely it would take your guide to another dimension of awe.

[gogoblender 3,070]

How to make it sexy!

 

This is the part where we talk about being sexy.

Yes there is such a thing as sex-guide appeal and this is how you can look to see if it's in your submission.

Sexy guides read fast and easy. So as Myles mentionned that use of the spell checker is important. NOONE is above using the spell checker ^^
Spelling is sexy!
 
guides can have pictures, tables, and COLORS. Yes. All of that is sexy, but garrish use of Picasso's's palette may have adverse occular effects . Use things like that in good taste and you will come off as having a great hard hitting guide that people will appreciate and refer too. You want a relationship, not a one night stand.
Relationships are sexy!
 
Sexy guides use formatting. Super important this. Formatting makes things look organized and not like a messy bedroom. Keep it clean, format attractively and you're on the way to being sexy maker of guides.
Formatting is sexy!
 
BE YOU! Stick in anecdotes and personal stories if this is your style. Googles of writing with no breaks for our eyes can quickly have a deleterious, mind-numbing effect upon the mind. Stick in adjective, invective and verve. Celebrate, sing...take off your pants! Show the world that you're excited about your build and want to share it with them. Every single part of it.
YOU are sexy!

 

 

So there you go. You've got your standards, you've got your mojo...time to take it out and make it all beautiful...

 

Go Go sexy guidemakers!

 

gogo

[gogoblender 3,070]

Pevil's Template!

 

For all the new builders out there who are excited about getting their ideas published in the form of a guide, please remember that the main point of a guide is to share information. It takes good research to write a good player guide, and some attention to writing. It's important to try and share the excitement you felt when playing your build then find a way to get others to share that same excitement. Myles and I covered a few of the ground rule ideas for putting your guide ideas up, and now to help you out even more, Pevil has allowed us the use of her Guide Template from her Sacred Fan Site over at Pevil's Place.

 

Her template is genius.

 

It's just a few lines long, but is absolutely comprehensive and will provide a good framework for you to lay your guide ideas upon which from there you can then easily "flesh out" once the primary questions are answered if you'd like to get your build published here in the DarkMatters Guides Index. So if you made a guide and you're wondering why it hasn't been included in our Index, just refer to this template and ask yourself...is your work complete?

 

Thank you Pevil

Pevil's Guide Template

 

Build Name: The name you give this build

Character Type: The character used, e.g. Seraphim

General Overview: Use a description with either sentences, poetry, anything... to show us what the build is about (Be creative if you can!)

Skills: Which skills you would take, how many points to add and why

Attributes: Which attribute(s) you would use and why

Combat Arts: Which Combat Arts do you favour and why

Equipment: Any recommended equipment or modifiers, if any

Strengths: Where your character works well

Weaknesses: Anything people should be wary of with this build

 

 

gogo

[ShadowsNitemare 1]

Well I have some build ideas I'd like to try out but not sure what to do during testing is it like a trial and error thing or what?

 

 

-Shadow.

[Ryanrocker 200]

Well, that is one way to do it. Personally when I have a build idea I write down what skills should be taken and what modifications I should pick. Then I move onto the testing phase. Most of my characters only make it to level 18 because by then I am almost able to decide if I like the gameplay or not. Every individual has there own way of making a build, so experiment and find out what works for you

[gogoblender 3,070]

It's a good question Jacob. I think the best place guides get written is probably in our heads, when we're playing the game. All of a sudden, in the midst of battle, all of our project's salient points come to life. And our thinking, our act of creativity, catches on fire.

 

And when we sit down to write... all gone up in a puff of smoke.

 

I'd suggest perhaps penciling some ideas, roughing it out... the most important thing would probably be the skills, orders you took them in, mastery order, Combat Arts...why you like them, then ideas for equipment, particular monsters yer build is good against, those it's not.

 

Is it a mass mob killer, is it a primary boss killer, can it take down guardians? What level did you take it too...

 

Maybe questions like that can help guide your writing.

 

But above all, remember to have some fun putting it all together. Everyone loves to cook right?

 

 

gogo

[gogoblender 3,070]

For the community members looking to make some guides and/or articles for the game, I'm bumping this up, so you can have an look at some ideas for setting up guides discussed in the past.

 

 

gogo

[Gordius 6]

A general remark I would like to make on the subject of writing builds, hope this is the best place to post it.

 

I read a lot of them for inspiration and sometimes I follow a build guide pretty closely. Sometimes I want to print the guide. Some guides, with lots of pictures and videos are not so easy to read when printed. It would certainly help me if there was a short, printable summary of the build at the end of the guide. For example list of skills chosen and points allocated, CA Mods chosen, attribute points allocated and so on. At the moment I find myself copy/pasting from the web page and doing exactly that myself, basically trying to get most of the info given by the writer onto a single page so that I can have it on the desk beside my PC and refer to it quickly.

 

Summary: any chance of a printable version?

[gogoblender 3,070]

We have a shiny new guide on how to get all you potential guide makers extraordinaire out on the net, looking good and blinged up for the fans!

 

Guide on Writing Guides by Claudius

 

 

gogo