Duelist Guide

The Duelist is super fun to play! It is a melee character with high maneuverability. It can jump around the battlefield, easily reaching archers and mages to finish them off. The key to being successful with the duelist is understanding the damage lunge deals. Remember that number, any enemy with less HP is an easy kill.

As with all melee characters, be aware of the terrain and use it to your advantage. Also like all melee characters, without any better weapon it gets hard around floor 9.

The Duelist starts with evasive, making it great at using Strafe Dodging.

There are a few ways you can play Duelist: Go for Dexterity and play with the rapier, or strength and use the highest damage weapon.

### Race

* Human - Works well.
* Ogre - Might work, will need to test how lunge works while slow.

### Skill Points

* 10 Fortitude
* 10 Melee
* Extra points in Stealth

### Talents

* Weapon Mastery 1 - You can skip this if you find a good weapon on the first level.
* Lunge 1, Evasive 1, Evasive 2, Lunge 2
* Depending upon what you need one of: Sprint, Evasive 3, Weapon Mastery 2 or Strafe Attack
* Lunge 3 (Save Lv 11 talent point for Lv 12 to get this a level earlier)
* Then get whatever you missed: Sprint, Evasive 3, Weapon Mastery 2/3, Strafe Attack

With lunge and disengage it is possible to play without Strafe Attack at all, so I generally leave it for a bit later in the build. If you find a good cleaving weapon get Strafe Attack earlier.

List of talents that are useful:

* Swiftness/Ice Armor - Both of these are very nice.
* Fortitude - Health is always good
* Evade - Always a nice skill to have.

All of the Duelist's basic talents are good, often I buy talent points just to use on the basic talents.

### Equipment

* A strong melee weapon is essential. The damage of lunge is the most important thing.
* Often you wont be able to use a shield because of a two handed weapon, that is fine.
* Metal armor is good.
* Any item with -% HP is not worth it.
* Confusion and shock are the best charms.

### Merchant

* If necessary, sell other equipment to get a weapon.
* Sell most of the projectiles and spare gear.
* Keep your highest piece of enchanted gear for a transference table.
* Food, scrolls and potions are good items to buy.

### Altar

Wealth - Remember to stand in an open area and use an exp pot if available for the altar of wealth.

Archer is ok, and exploration is good when rushing.

### Potions

* HP: Save one, drink the rest to increase your stats. Buy HP pots from the merchant to drink for the stats.
* MP: These reset your cooldowns, which is very useful if you mess up your lunge or disengage. Buy MP pots from the merchant if you need focus for swiftness or ice armor.
* Resistance: If you get one drink all your HP pots.

### Enchantment

Enchant your main weapon to max first, then whatever gear suits your needs.

### Side Dungeons

Always try the side dungeons, even if to just poke your head in and see what's near the entrance.

#### Sewers:

* Sometimes with a weak weapon this is not as easy as it is for other classes.
* The biggest issue is the Giant Leach, with it's high HP and Life Steal. Lure it into water for the critical. If that is not enough: disengage, kite back and disengage again.

#### Arcane Tower:

* With a bit of food this is quite easy.
* Lunge to any imps in range.
* If out of range: Strafe Dodge the ability and basic attack and then close in to lunge.
* To kill stone golems quickly, disengage first then lunge to kill.

#### Ice Caves:

* You should be able to kill penguins in one hit.
* Disengage the polar bears, then lunge to kill quickly.
* There are two fires per level, if you haven't found one by 7 cold backtrack to previous floor, earlier if it is far from the entrance.

#### Core:

* The Duelist felt super strong in the core.
* Salamanders are extremely easy to kill with lunge.
* Disengage the fire bats.
* Obsidian Golems have a lot of HP, just disengage, kite, repeat.
* Disengage now avoids the damage from fire elemental homing bombs.

A tip for side dungeons: If you are at the lowest floor it counts as 4 floors deeper than where you are in the main dungeon. This is a great time to use your acquirement scrolls, as the deeper you are the higher the enchant levels.

### General Tips

A Duelist's cooldowns tick down for each step you take, not with resting. Sprinting counts as multiple steps. Disengage/Lunge do not count as any steps.

The idea behind the strength based Duelist is to kill enemies in one hit, to keep your abilities off cooldown.

Most high HP enemies are slow. To kill them more easily let them approach, disengage, then lunge to finish. This will put your disengage on cooldown, but it is only for 10 steps and isn't as important as Lunge.

This strategy is aimed at win streaking. I get an average time of 35 minutes per game. If you have any suggestions about playing the Duelist, or any tips or idea about the game either add it to the wiki or come join us on the discord. Random595.