Beginner Duelist Build Help

Hello forum people!

I haven't played PoE in close to a couple years if I'm memory serves and have literally 0 clue on how to build a character. My friend and I are restarting characters (he's never played before) and I'm looking for some help/guidance in terms of builds. I don't mind playing ranged or melee and basically like using the Duelist and Scion. My friend, well...his favorite class of all time was the Necromancer from Diablo II (those were the days right?!).

I don't know if there are any "easy to follow/not screw up builds" out there that would work. I'm simply asking for some help/guidance. It seems that PoE has grown into an amazing game and my friend and I are anxious to play! I mostly want to avoid gimping myself after pouring hours into a character...I have a lvl 40 character that I...screwed up pretty bad.

Thanks in advance for any support you can offer! Merry Christmas!

Here's a incomplete list of things:

1. You can outrun almost any monster you can encounter. Running is frequently the best action as it gives you time to think and

2. Orbs are money. Don't use orbs on weapons or armor before Act 2. You will likely be replacing them repeatedly. See #6

3. Iron rings are wonderful. I think Nessa sells them...

4. Don't worry about resists until you meet Merveil.

5. Be aware of common vendor formulas. For example, an item with at least 3 linked sockets with at least on of every color will yield a Chrome orb. Or, non-magical boots + flask of quicksilver + orb of augmentation = magical +10% movement speed boots.

6. Some players like playing "self-found". That is, they do not buy gear from other people. The game isn't designed to be played that way and as such becomes very tough later on. You'll be able to buy gear very cheaply using the poe.trade web site. Don't do this until Act 3 or Act 4, however. Save your currency!

7. In normal mode, there is no penalty for dying except a little time. This is the time to experiment. Have fun and try weird things.

8. Resign yourself to the idea that it's smart (and ok) to retire your first toons earlier than you want to, before you've "won". I played my first toon, a Duelist, to level 85 and in doing so, wasted tons of time and currency trying to fix my mistakes.

9. Take the time to learn a little about the game. Find out what sockets are, and what linked gear is. Make sure you buddy knows this too.

10. When you're assigning passives, health nodes are boring. Take them anyway. Nothing is more boring than your 5th corpse run of the evening. There are boss mobs that will one-shot you if you have insufficient defenses, life being primary. Try not to be seduced by taking all damage nodes. Your character will become a 'glass cannon' and boss-type mobs will be able to kill you repeatedly.

11. Most "real" builds claim to be "Atziri capable" or some such. That is SO FAR down the line for you. Most of these builds require at least one piece of expensive unique gear and tons of skill and practice. It will be a long time before you see a 6L chest or a 6L Atziri's Disfavor. Don't worry about it. See #8

12. You'll see videos about how some guy's UBER CAPABLE BLURFL BUILD kills mobs with nothing more than a mean look. Those are very experienced players with a lot of resources. You won't be able to do that. Don't think there's anything wrong with your build/gear because you can't do that to mobs of your level. Would you feel bad because a Major League Baseball pitcher is a better pitcher than you? Of course not. The same applies here. Marvel at their accomplishment, but know that they've paid some dues.

Now, for you and your buddy, some build advice.

Your buddy likes Diablo necromancers? Then how about a witch summoner. Tons of fun, drop dead easy. There are builds out there, but in general, the witch casts fewer and fewer spells as her minions become more and more capable. She chooses Minion nodes from the passive tree with prejudice. Avoid the trap of trying to make a summoner toon that can also do a lot of direct damage. One does not normally excel in this game by being a jack-of-all-trades.

Any of the melee toons will complement a summoner nicely. Try a Barbarian or a Duelist. For these classes, you want... life. Then I like to have a way to get into combat quickly, and leave it quickly. Think Leap Slam or Whirling Blades. See the 'How to Flicker Strike' build for a more advanced movement technique (it requires Frenzy Charges but becomes awesome). Add a Decoy Totem as this draws attention while you heal.

I offer my amateur Duelist build as an example. It will never defeat Atziri. However, it requires no special gear and not a lot of skill. It's effective and fun. I started with an empty stash.

I've played a few dual-wield duelists. So this time I am playing 1h ax plus shield. The idea is to make a durable toon - shields can add a lot of evasion and armor once the proper passive nodes are selected.

I blew through Normal Act4 with a total of 2 deaths (both to Bonespire Talisman mobs - I didn't know what was killing me. Bonespire has since been nerfed). By Cruel Act 4 I was having issues because... I had not enough life. With the help of this forum, I respec'ed a little and improved the character. I also spent some currency (1 chaos!) to get a nice weapon. I then BS-ed my way through the end of Act4 and entered Merciless. I then blew through Merciless Acts 1 and 2 with no difficulty though I have been upended a few times by 1) stupidity and 2) really REALLY hard Stone Circles. Now I have more deaths than I care to mention, but I'm still having fun. I just spanked the Docks in Merciless. Tonight I'll visit Solaris...

So, at the risk of complete humiliation for my crappy build, here's my gear:



You'll see master mods all over the gear. Get your most appropriate masters leveled up to 5 as quick as you can, especially Haku. Consider - Haku can improve 4 or 5 pieces of gear. But don't improve it too early unless you're willing to lose the currency... Remember, a single alch can buy some superb gear on poe.trade with no RNG sadness :-P

Here's the passive tree. Don't for a minute think this is a great passive tree. It isn't. It is effective, however, through the first half of Merciless Act 3 and surely into Act 4.



What I do have is a plan. I took every almost every shield node I could find, perhaps to a fault. After that, I took life. Then when it became clear that I needed to kill quicker, I bought a new weapon and respec'ed into some damage nodes and more life nodes.

So it works like this (unsurprisingly):

If there aren't a bunch of mobs clustered together, I run past them. Fighting single mobs is not time efficient. When I find a cluster, I curse them with Poacher's Mark and then Leap Slam into them. If there are tough mobs, Leap to the periphery, not the center. (Guess how I frequently die, haha.) The Leap Slam casts Fortify, which reduces the damage I take while boosting the damage I give. Then I start with an AoE attack. Earlier it was Dual Strike and Melee Splash. Now it is Cleave. Note that this is my only melee attack. Leap Slam, while damaging, isn't what I call a melee attack - that is not its purpose. For me, it is a movement spell, designing to get me into position for my real attack. Poacher's + Cleave usually keeps me vertical as I get life for every mob hit by my AoE attack. Vengeance is just a little extra damage that costs me nothing.

When my INT is a little higher, I'll add Blasphemy to drive Poacher's Mark like an aura. This will give me one less thing to do before engaging mobs. I'll also get Tempest Shield running soon. That will give me more damage capability that I don't have to think about.

I swapped some gear to get INT, and started running Blasphemy.

I got through the Solaris, Lunaris, and the Library without issue. I got planted twice by Merciless Dominus. A better player would not have died at all.

I then got through Voll and to Deshret without any issues.

I`m starting a sword and shield reave Duelist using tips from this tread. What would you recomend for Bandits?

For uniques, I have a Belly of the Beast and a Slitherpinch. will those help me?

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IFarrell625 escreveu:

I`m starting a sword and shield reave Duelist using tips from this tread. What would you recomend for Bandits?

For uniques, I have a Belly of the Beast and a Slitherpinch. will those help me?

The Belly of the Beast adds sick Life and some resists. Not bad. The gloves will be ok through Normal but will start showing their age in Cruel though the Life Leech could be addictive. You'll probably be wanted them both 3-linked by the end of Act 2 (Standard).

For the bandits - Oak (+40 life), kill all (passive point), Kraityn (+1 Frenzy charge)

I am not sure if an Evasion shield, or an Armor shield, is preferred. I intend to try an Armor shield in the near future and see how that works. Right now it is possible to get unlucky and take a lot of damage because of the way Evasion works - eventually one is going to get unlucky. With an armor shield I'll take (perhaps?) more damage but it will be spread out over time, and thus easier to mitigate.