First off, nice site. I wonder if one of these threads describes how you started this site and how you pilfered the talent from all of the other boards into one super site. I wonder if it all went smoothly or if there were some angry admins at your former homes, respectively. Alas, that is a discussion for another thread....
With a new fansite, you have to ask "What will differentiate this site from all the others" which I'm sure you guys have already done to a large degree. I think the sites that people bookmark and visit regularly have a niche that they specialize in. Knights-Templar has the best skill database, Guild-Hall has the best community and forum, VN Boards is official however there are just too many people for my taste and there are other minor attributes you can assign to the others of varying popularity.
When playing the game was such a rarity, you could succeed just by featuring an updated skill list. Now that the frequency at which you can play the game has increased (and will continue to do so), each site has to define themselves as being the authority on X. For instance, when the game releases, I would imagine the Knights-Templar don't get as many hits.
The niche that I think Gurus has carved out is newb guides and skill location. As we near the release dates, I think the success of this site will depend on how well you redirect your attention from the former to the latter. Everyone is starting to figure out what skills they want and don't need them defined much anymore however locating and acquiring them is a different story. This is where I'd like to see Gurus take the lead.
I want to know what missions to take my Signet of Capture on and what bosses to tell my team to hold off on killing (curse you ANet for not addressing this problem!)
I want to know in what order the trainers appear in the natural progression of things and what new skills they have over the previous one.
I want to know what bosses only exist in explorable areas and what skills they're hiding.
I want a chart of what materials are needed to craft a skill charm and where the best place to find those materials are.
Outside of the niche:
I want to know where every item used to craft anything (esp armor) can be found. There's still a good deal of confusion out there as to which salvage kit to use and when. You guys have a good guide on your site but it's somewhat hidden....a chart would probably better serve the community.
I want to know locations of charmable pets. A guide on "How to charm a bear" would probably shut down the site due to all the hits you'd get.
I want a feature article on Damage Over Time spells/hexes/conditions/etc. Which ones take off the most damage overall, which ones take off the most damage the quickest. What combination is the best for each scenario: mixing poison with 'on fire', phantasm with bleeding, etc?
I want to see a list of strengths and weaknesses for monsters. Weak vs. Holy, Strong vs Fire, etc. I doubt very many monks know how powerful they can be vs the undead.......of course they should be healing, not smiting.
I want to see a guide on how to make money. I'm not talking bugs here but good tips on how to amass a small fortune. I have some ideas but I'd rather hear it from the "experts". Salvaging for multiple items, crafting skill charms, sell vs salvage. Then there's the chart that everyone wants (but they don't know it yet)......the pricing guide. Just imagine everyone in-game referencing the "Guru Guide" for pricing. You'll be the veritable Beckett Monthly for Guild Wars......oh yeah, no one trades baseball cards anymore. The economist in Ensign is just itching to do this......of course it would take a lot of time.
What differentiates this site?
Granamyr
Spooky
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What differentiates this site?
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Something like that, anyway. It started with THX and myself, I invited Saus, and he brought in basically all of our site contributors. There isn't really any 'dirty laundry', and if there was, it wouldn't be fair to air it. Pay no attention to the blood leaking out from the closet door..
Quote: I want to know what missions to take my Signet of Capture on and what bosses to tell my team to hold off on killing (curse you ANet for not addressing this problem!) We already have this information as best as it can be filled out at this moment in time. If you look at any skill, below it should appear if it appears on any trainers, creatures, or bosses. If it's on a boss, checking its information will tell you where we encountered it. That's about the best we can do in this kind of situation, because boss locations aren't 'fixed', they have a set number of areas where they may appear in. We can say "We found so and so here," but I would still anticipate on running the mission more than once if you're trying to SoC something.
Quote: I want to know in what order the trainers appear in the natural progression of things and what new skills they have over the previous one. It's hard to present what is a 'natural' progression. The Temple of the Ages comes well before Denravi, but it's unlikely that anyone would be able to make it there first. The only truly practical thing we could do would be to have a world map that is image mapped to link to the information we have on each area already in the database. Now that I think about it, it's not a half bad idea, but it might be murder on people with Dial Up connections.
Quote: I want to know what bosses only exist in explorable areas and what skills they're hiding. As far as i've seen, just about any boss that appears in missions can also appear in EAs (minus quest relevant bosses, such as the White Mantle..) and i've yet to see an EA only boss. If there is, it's just too much re-scouting of areas (to make sure you haven't missed a potential boss spawn) for too few people, with only one weekend a month to gather information. Back when the NDA was still light and breezy, we could have gotten away with this. Nowadays... it's a different story.
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I want to know where every item used to craft anything (esp armor) can be found. There's still a good deal of confusion out there as to which salvage kit to use and when. You guys have a good guide on your site but it's somewhat hidden....a chart would probably better serve the community.
It's not a bad idea to relocate and expound upon a 'crafting' section, since Weapons are now also craftable (again.) The problem, again, comes from simply not having enough time in one weekend a month to do this section properly. I was working on a list of what salvaged into what before the NDA was tightened .. but there's been so many changes since then, I wonder how much of it is even valid anymore. I would rather leave something blank with the intention of holding off until I could do it right, instead of putting up something that could be half wrong, and suffering endless complaints from people that read the site .. because people are vicious and demanding. I take enough abuse during the BWEs as is, no need to give people fodder for more, heh. Quote:
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. VN Boards was designated official but I have not seen that for a while [I think it was WPE]. Furthermore, I will contest any day that the best forum community, bar none, is here. Intelligent, smart, and without the excess fat, the trio of THX, Spooky, and S. Rex is by far the best. Sprinkle in Aladdar and Ensign moderating these forums and a good stream of contributers, and as time moves forward, skill listing, community, etc will all be home with the Gurus.
