Template talk:Classbox

Information currently displayed:
 * Type
 * Profession
 * Races
 * Stats

Are we happy with this information displayed? I would like to change the Type from Melee/Support/Caster etc to something more easily identifiable.


 * Ranged DPS
 * Melee DPS
 * Tank
 * Healer
 * Buffer

It could be worth noting the spec of each line, for example cleric.


 * Ranged DPS (Smite)
 * Healer (Rejuvenation)
 * Buffer (Enhancement)

--Etaew 10:02, July 26, 2011 (UTC)

None of the information included into the class box is useful. If you ask me... using it as a picture box is the best that we could do. Why? So in the end so only thing that is still there is the picture. And that picture is useful because it's showing you the class your searching information for.
 * A huge "Class Box" (Armsman for example) breaks down the design of the page. The box push the attribute box down leaving a big empty space between box and headline
 * "Class Stats" is miss leading. It sounds like "get this attributes for this class" (already saw someone editing this because "hey this class does not need quickness, its a caster"...). Also it's something that you can not alter at all, so how cares about it? The information within the attribute box is enough for this topic and it's displayed on the same screen.
 * The "Profession" is also complete useless information. No one ever will open a class page because he want's to look up the profession of a class.
 * "Races" this would be a bit useful but we have the attribute box just below. Showing a information twice on one screen is bad.
 * "Type" is a heretic a melee? a ranged? a supporter? a ranged dps? a buffer? a healer? You can not answer that question for many classes, it depends on how you spec and how you play. Also a big question is what you are doing? 1on1, small man, 8vs8, zerg battle? And if we can't answer that then we should not display this anyway.

Vanesyra 13:21, July 26, 2011 (UTC)

In relation to the Armsman page and the attributes box, yes I can agree the length of the box impacts the style of the page.

I do think it's important to have some standard information separated from the main content of the page taking World of Warcraft's Paladin page it has the bare minimum of useful information which I admire:
 * Important Features
 * Class Type
 * Armor
 * Weapons
 * Available Races

These are all split into separate boxes, which may be a way forward for us.

Regarding the class stats I do agree with you the attributes box below covers that well enough. Also yes, Profession does not need to be there, a simple text link in the initial description is good enough.

We could do the following:
 * Wrap the main content and class box in 2 separate divs and float them, to enable a 2 columed view. The question is what other information goes on the right, images?
 * Have a standardised class page header with 2 divs, floating side by side, this allows us to have a class overview and class picture the way we want them, and leave the rest of the page as normal text.
 * Have various boxes covering various information around the page, the way we have it now is a bit disorganised.
 * Leave the class box as an image and have the rest of the information in-line, but personally I find long wiki pages a chore to read which is why I like to separate vital content out of it.

Type is pretty important in my opinion, lets take your Heretic for example:
 * Melee DPS (Flexible/Crush/Shield)
 * Ranged DPS (Rejuvenation)
 * Healer (Rejuvenation)
 * Buffer (Enhancement)

And yes, this does have lots of combinations and options, and we can address this in different ways: For placement in the Classbox, I would then use the 2 cells for this instead of the one currently.
 * Display type only e.g. Melee DPS / Ranged DPS
 * Display type with spec e.g. Melee DPS (Flexible/Crush/Shield)
 * Display as it is now: Melee

To summarise, if we think in terms of visitors to the page important class related information would be:
 * Image
 * Type
 * Races
 * Specs
 * Key Features (unique class abilities) - something would be quite interesting

It's good having someone to sanity check my ideas and designs and I value your opinion. --Etaew 13:48, July 26, 2011 (UTC)

I really hate pages like that "WoW Paladin" one. It has nearly no information but lots of pictures and bla bla text all over the page.

I did a preview on the Paladin page. You have the information you need on the TOC as a overview and none unneeded or double information on the front page of the class.

Vanesyra 15:33, July 26, 2011 (UTC)

It's a matter of taste really, I agree your recent change of the Paladin page is a lot better, having the TOC in a separate section with text in the middle and picture on the right is quite nice, followed by the tables of information. I would move the tactics sections down down down out of sight as they can get very wordy, and then move the realm abilities table up a bit.

For a compromise we could have a summary list as the opening paragraph of the class description, the layout of the page shouldn't be affected. Something like this:

Paladins can fill the role of a Tank when Specializing in Shield and Parry or Melee DPS when training in Slash, Crush, Thrust or Two Handed, they are also a valueable Support class when using their group Chants.

The main section of the paladin text does go into more detail, but I think summary at the top of a page is quite useful. --Etaew 15:44, July 26, 2011 (UTC)

I agree that the "Tactics" should be placed on the bot. So that RA selection is more on top. Just didn't changed that yet because it's done that way on all pages at the moment.

Yes we could use such a sentence as first sentence of the page to give a useful overview. For that few people how will read that. Think really most people just use the TOC to jump to whatever they are looking for.

Vanesyra 17:19, July 26, 2011 (UTC)

Just created the Template:Box/Class Page Header template to replace the Template:classbox on all class pages. Just needs two options: realm = Albion / Hibernia / Midgard and text = class info text. If we realy want we could later easly add again some more to the picture box at the right. Ah and well we need to make all pictures 200x300 with the name of the class (should be that way already but isn't). The Character on the picture should use the epic or epic dungeon torso (the one with the class unique skin and not colored black) and in most cases the champion level five weapon (look at Wizard for an example). May delete the as it's no longer needed (use  instead). Vanesyra 16:08, August 1, 2011 (UTC)