bpat wrote:I don't think there are enough general guides to warrant splitting it into two sections. I can't think of any outdated guides that'd still be useful. Sawbutcher isn't even close to tier S, in fact it's not even close to Temporal Warden. Steamrolling Normal difficulty isn't a very hard or impressive thing to do and Oozemancer does that even better. Beginner class choices are pretty arbitrary, I found Alchemist to be way harder than other classes when I was starting out. Also Micbran's guide covers beginner class choices.
I have to say, whenever you have a list of more than five or six items, splitting it into sub-sections just makes readability, and finding what you're looking for that much easier. It makes sense too, given that all the guides fall within two very specific types - general guides and class guides. Plus, there'll likely be a continuous stream of new class guides. Regardless, if you don't want to do this, and that's of course your prerogative, then I think you should at least move ToME Tips to the top. It's a bit messy that it's at the bottom, after all of the class guides, when all of the other general guides are at the top. If you're
not looking for class guides, I think it's very easy to miss it, since some might just skip reading the rest of the list when they realise it's only class guides from there.
As for the Sawbutcher, I'm a bit surprised to hear you say that. I thought there was a wide-spread opinion that it's an OP class, and my own Nightmare (RL) run was a breeze, and it's so far the only class I've won with without ever rerolling, due to dying or anything else. I've only had one Sawbutch character, and he steamrolled.
EDIT: Admittedly, the run was in the Embers campaign, which, is probably a good bit easier, not to mention shorter.
In terms for beginner-friendly classes being arbitrary, I definitely agree. However, there's still a good bit of consensus around which classes are easier to get a handle on - even if they're not necessarily better, they might be less complex to learn, even if it's a bit subjective. Heck, I'm even like you in regards to the alchemist. The Golem mechanics, speccing/gearing, and party management was less than straightforward for me when I started out, even though the Alchemists own skills are very easy to get a grip on. Now I just find the Alchemist to be a perfect combination of boring and a hassle.
But, subjective or not, I think many newcomers would like at least a recommendation on what to start with, since it can be a bit overwhelming at first, when you just want to learn the game - and there's got to be at least some reason for the consensus regarding Alchemists. Maybe tiering all classes in terms of beginner-friendliness/complexity is overkill, but I think recommending at least a handful of classes or so for beginners would be a good start.
I don't hope you find me to be contrarian. I just think a great effort and resource like this deserves the best feedback possible.
. However the solipsist guide looks weird and it says that its mandatory to get a full set of items from the vault beside other cheesy stuff. I would reconsider adding it to the list personally.