In-Depth 1vs1 Duelling Guide Paladin
Hammerdin
If u know how to play, u cant loose vs hammerdin. Period. I havent lost serious duel vs hammerdin yet, no matter if they are using spurs.
First think u will notice is, that u cant outtank him with nl – he takes tons of fbs, while ur mana pool is empty in matter of seconds. Ive noticed that most of hammers r out of »fb stun« after 2-3 fbs, so dont f Its also difficult to tele out of his nl'ed hammers. So he is not enemy, u will be playin aggresive against at beggining.
But here comes the trick: Stand still, meteor yourself and spawn fbs in his dirrection. He will most likely tele in corner of your screen and try to nl u. When u see that, start running south which will make him tele in place where u stood second ago – fire two fbs in him and continue running. Dont become predictable though – he might try tele southeren from u, in dirrection u are running and u will run straight in hammers.
Every time u see him beeing on top of u, just do run trick and u will probably avoid all hammers. At this point, good hammerdins will realise that they cant nl-catch u and they will try with vigor-desynch and camping in hammerfields. If he is under ½ hp, start playing offensive but avoid following him and teleporting in areas where he has been before, cus u will probably jump in hammers.
U can also try to nl him, fire 2 fbs and run away. If u accidentally get low on health, retreat till u have 100 hp or so and attack again. For more challenge, try to duel those guys without teleport or without using run – that will mybe give them equall chances. If he puts on grief or even worse – weapon which provides huge ow, duel him as ill describe in smiter section.
Smiter This is one of my hardest duels nowadays. Laggy bnet helps paladins desynch as hell, skilled fire aura which counts as legit absorb, reduce your dmg badly and they will probably charge around with decent % of ow, which makes u die in 2 charges or so.
There is a way to win for sure, but it takes lots of time and patience – you will be playing totally defensive, trying to avoid on-screen contact with him. To begin with, never stand still for more than 2 seconds or so, cus u will find yourself beeing charged from nowhere. When they enter your screen and leave it, follow them – they r trying to desynch and come back when u dont expect them, so try to be always 1 screen away from them and dont let them surprise u.
If u think that u have better reflexes than your opponent, u can try to suddenly rush him, fire 1-2 fbs in him and tele xx screens away to get out of charge lock. I strongly dont recommend doing that, cus u will most likely get afficted by ow.
Working strat is to find area of map, which is full of puddles and start makin a meteor field and spamming fbs in pala's direction. Most players r afraid of meteor fields and will try to avoid them, but in case that they try to rush through, there is chance that they get stucked in puddles. Always keep pala on other side of field and dont stand still as ive already mentioned.
U can also try to camp in corners or places which prevents u beeing knocked back, meteoring yourself and spamming fb. Pala will engage and probably hit u, but u wont get stunned and u will be able to escape, while exporting more dmg than him, if he is not using ow.
Anyway, u must find your way to fight charger and analyse opponent's playstyle, just make sure that whenever u spam fbs around dont forget to cast some meteors – they hit pretty bad. Vs best smiters u will still find yourself dying and 50% win ratio is kinda nice score.
Note about foh/smiter combos: Threat them as normal smiters. Their foh is really to weak to hurt u, but make sure not to become to aggresive and nevrous cus of autoaiming foh will keep hittin u from nowhere. Just stay calm and »trade« foh hits vs fbs.
Necromancer Boner
Fuckin joke. No offense, but same as vs hammerdin, u cant loose this duel. Due to unknown reason, es totally absorbs any magic dmg, done to u and ~5k mana just enables u to stand still, tanking spears and laughing at him.
Anyway, take duel seriously, cus u cant afford loosing ½ hp to char who is in such disadvantage. They will start duel spamming spirits in all directions or more likely, teleporting in their own spirits and running instead of teleporting while nl'ed. Mindlessly namelocking them in that case will result in loosing whole mana and decent amount of hp.
If u see him on minimap, teleporting in straight line, he is probably teleporting in his own spirits – in that case just teleport beside him, fire fbs in direction he is moving and try not to jump in spirits. If u find yourself beeing low on health, ask him to teeth u – due to low dmg are teeth nice way of healing hostile sorc^^.
In tvt's, dont try to nl or follow good necro. He is aware of his disadvantage and he will probably try to lure u in friendly assa's mb.
PoisonerThere is not many good poisoners around, but he could be real ass. He is not such a threat in 1v1, cus u just dont allowe him to drain last hp from u (u only die from nova, if u r under ~10 hp when it is applied, which shouldnt be problem with hoto and his other spells/auras hit to weak to break es), but in tvts, u will get easily drained and then owned by his team.
U should switch frosts with death gloves and mana boots with sands. That gives u huge poison stack (75 with both dw and lower resist) and it also reduces duration of nova for 50% which will makes u tank 3-4 novas. Keep very defensive vs this guys and dont nl them under any circumstances. I think u can win this duel with very lame style. If necro keep chasing you, he will run out of mana soon (dw which is normally used by poisonmancers gives really low total mana).
If he is running around, dont get tricked and hittten by nova, stay away from him and keep spamming fbs at him, while keeping ½ screen of distance. If u got drained to 1hp, start running, wait till u replenish ~50 hp and attack again. Basiclly dont use any tricks from General section, try witn »nl-abuse« if u feel like risking, otherwise stay away and spam.
Druid Elemental druid
Druid is famous for beeing in class disadvantage vs fb, but following the euro ladder rules, he provides nice challenge to any sorc. Using both infernos and cyclone makes him tank tons of fbs, while ur mana is down in few tornados. He will also hide in zoo, made of vines, oak and either wolves or bear. If u have followed my advice and picked enigma over coh, u will have way easier time fighting him (to coh users: i suggest u replacing it with enigma, at least for this duel).
First rule – do never tank dud while he has full cyclon and possibily bear on. Life after each kill is wonder – killing his zoo heals u as hell and life replenish animation shows u, when he got hit and when is time to strike. Wolves users are usually joke, cus wolves die in 1-2 fbs and he is not able to recast fast enough, so basically play just u do against hammerdin, but with difference that u replace run with teleport and u retreat abit faster (when u see he gonna jump on u, tele half screen souther and fire 3 fbs at direction u stood before – he will most likely be there). That will make him loosing his minions and cyclone, so he is forced to retreat.
Now is your chance, so follow and nl tank him while he is recasting. (Small hint – most od druids will recast their oak before retreating from your screen, so try to lock-tele minion instead of druid, cus its easier and will surprise druid, teleporting next to them instead on their head when they can get u with tornados.) Better druids are aware of that and they will fake retreat and prepare for your rush by spamming tornados in direction u r comming from – so just as again nec's, dont mindlessly follow them.
While wolf users doenst represent huge threat to u, bear could be pain in the ass. He tanks couple fbs, is easy to recast and has nasty ability to additionaly stun u, when u get nl'ed, so its very hard to escape from nl (if u feel like not comming out of nl by teleportin, try to run – tornados will most likely miss u).
Imo u should win druid if u dont get totally outplayed – just get rid of his summons and wait for right chance to attack.
Sorcress Vita Light, Fb, Blizz
Tricky girls, specialised for outputing huge dmg. U fill find yourself loosing whole mana from 1 hit, while they all tank several fbs with infernos. Play very carefull against those and dont namelock them, especially from beggining when they are at full health (dont expect to kill them with 1 fb volley – they will get out of stun and outtank u). Start duel by »trading hits« with them (by this I mean to rush them, hit with one or two fbs and retreat, no matter if u take some dmg meanwhile – your mana heals fast as hell, while life replenish keeps u at full hp). If they play offensive, which they probably will, try to »Namelock Abuse« or lure them in own fbs, as ive described in general strats. By this time they should be at about half hp (dont care for your hp, u tank as good with 100 as with full), so start looking for chances to namelock them and finish duel. Make sure, not to take to much random hits and to keep distance from them (to avoid to get locked). If u got hit, try to run out of danger, instead of tele, but tbh u will be most likely dead in 2-3 hits.
Note about Vita Blizzers: Even though their main spell is blizzard, good sorc wont rely just on it (its hard to aim with against sorc and it has nasty 1-second delay after its casted), but will also play with ice blast and act like fb or light sorc agains u (fortunately, ice blast doesnt stun as much as fb or light), so ive put them in same cathegory.
ES Light, Fb, BlizzBest duels, which keeps me playing sorc. Blizzer and Light sorc are in disadvatage against u, becuase they both have low dmg and slow casting speed. U shouldnt really loose against them, but threat them just as easier version of fb sorc.
Try to use all tricks u have learned in mirror duels and act unpredictable. Analyse, what playing style your opponent has - does he like to nl all the time, spamming arround and jumping in own fbs, or maybe tries to »nl-abuse« u? I find players, who know to how to »nl-abuse« as most challenging, because only way to fight those is to do the same. Fact is that most of the time they will know when they got namelocked and u will be teleporting in your own death.
Wait for right moment and avoiding namelock contact at all (make sure to always spam fbs in north dirrection, which prevents u from beeing namelocked). Confuse opponent by randomly teleproting around, dodge his fbs, try to hit with some fbs, while they standing still (waiting to be locked), tele at their back if they are spamming and standing still, run around and use all the tricks ive described in general section. Its all about predicting enemy and not to fail to their tricks.
If u feel like having slower reflexes than oponnent, »nl-abuse« him. If he stays very defensive rush him (make sure he is not teleporting in own fbs) etc. Another way of distraction is to cast »blaze« on yourself and to run arround. (Blaze is not bugged as meteor fire is and burning animation will not dissapear for opponents, when they leave your screen.) Burning animation will provide nice cover for fbs u r spamming and will also make u way harder to namelock, because your char is totally hiden in fire.
Avoid duelling spamming sorc around river or corners, cus those areas provides great cover for her maneuvers and for unknown reason, fbs tends to becomes invisible sooner than they normally would behind corner or river.
If u are looking for bringing your svs skills to highest level, read about »namelocking abuser« in general section.
This duel is very day-dependant (which player is in better condition or »warmed up«) and also factor of luck cant be neglected (ive already lost to totally random players, while normaly walking side-by-side with best fb players).
Assasin Trap / Hybrid / Melle
I will consider all three assa types as one, because they roughly act the same: they use traps, either for exporting dmg or stunning, spam mb as another source of stunn, delivering ow by df (even pure trappers tends to have ow claw against es sorcs), having badly stacked resist with fade, blocking fbs as joke with claws, having minion on for stack and nasty mindblast. I find hybrid assasins (melle oriented ones) as hardest 1v1 matchup.
First thing to clarify is, that u dont play role of hunter, as in most duels, but u are prey. Behave like that and try to always stay out of assa sight. Dragon Flight is auto-aiming skill like foh and u will get inficted by ow sooner or later. 2 ow's will bring u down to 1 life. Try to »namelock abuse« her, when u see she is comming to deliver ow and trade as much fbs as possible. Dont be afraid if she starts to mindblast u, when traps arent on. Just do some running (not tele!) out and when u see traps appearing under your feet, tele away, cus she stopped mbing u.
Duel against good assasin will take ages. The most important thing is, to show her, how pointless it is, to chase u. Tele around, spam fbs and let her waste mana. If u get afficted by ow, feel free to retreat and heal. Remember that time works for you – every minute u gain about 150 life and she looses few pots. Main objective in this state of duel is to burn some of her mana pots, and avoid getting hit.
After chasing u around and drinking most of mana, while just taking random fbs, assassins will realise that is not the way to fight u, so they will place a trap field and hide in it. Here comes the time to »siege her fortress«. Most important is not to come to close, because u dont know location of traps, and u might jump in mb, which will combined with established trap field result in death. Having low mana will force assa to dodge fbs by running, which decreases her block chance to zero. If i spam fbs good, she will leave trap field and try to find better location for camp. Attack her at this point and escape when first trap is placed. If u survived for so long, u shouldnt really use duel now – simply retreat and heal if hp drops below 100. Sounds lame, but this is only way to win assassin.
Note about ww: Even though it is godly skill, assa should never ww sorc imo, because there are better ways to deliver ow (or get last hit) and ww by itself really doesnt do much dmg to Es. If they tend to do that, it is your chance to shot hell of them. Following trick requires fast fingers and u might still got hit, but feel free to experiment: stand still till assa comes on your screen (make sure that she got chance to nl u) and then immediately tele 1 screen away. Leaving screen will force them to use teleport instead of range-limited df. In next second she will appears on u, trying to ww, but there is slight delay between teleport and ww (which u normally dont even notice) and u are waiting ready for her, by using »namelock abuse«. Both delay and fbs (which she hasnt expected) will stunn her for a moment, giving u chance to tele half screen souther and start spamming fbs north in her direction. By that time she will recover and start ww-ing and if she kept u in namelock, she will run directly in fbs. If she teleport on u again instead of ww, new wave of north-oriented fbs will wait for her. What i have described in few lines, happens in about 2 seconds, so make sure to react fast ^^.
Barbarian BvC
Most popular and dangerous of barbarians types in 1v1 combat. Good BvC is same issue as assasin – he is made to kill casters and u will have hard time winning him (50:50 against best ones is really good achievement). Regarding to fact that he shares style of killing sorc with assassin (they both use high ow and ww, having killing stun, high speed), consider and duel him just one of them. If duel against hybrids took ages, multiply time to kill them with 2 and u have rough number, how long it will take to beat good bvc.
U can use most of strats ive described in assa sections against him. Most important thing against him is to force him to play your game – let him chase u until his mana is burned and he eats some fbs. Be even more defensive as u were against assa, cus beeing on his screen will result in leap stun+ww lock. Dont care to much about damage done, just try to »calm him down« in first phase of duel.
Now u have to negate his most dangerous skill – leap. When he is close, always make sure that your back is covered by puddle or wall, because leap knocks u back and puts u in recovery animation, so no knockback, no stun. Look for areas where he couldnt make good triangle whirls (that is what barbs do to output as much dmg as possible), cover yourself with meteors and let him come. Use same trick as u use against assa to escape from his ww.
Things u shouldnt never do agains barbarian are namelock tele (jumping in ww sequence hurts), running instead of teleporting from ww (that will result in tons of dmg taken), trying to tank ww (remember that barb desynch in special way while wwing, and ww radius is greater than radius of his axes), chasing him around or playing offensive in any form. It is hard to totally avoid beeing hit, so dont worry about ammount of hp left – u fight as good with 100 as with full and time works for u. Tactical, defensive play will be rewarded with win.
Some hints about Team vs TeamWhile u are doing great in 1v1 combat, Es Fb sorc is just the best in TvT's. U are only char (or one among very rare), who is able to fight and win against multiple enemies of equall skill to yours. Low base life and high life replenish enables u retreat, heal and start fights from »beggining«. Your high es and mana pool allowes you to tank tons of »minor mistakes«, like jumping in arrows, random hammers, invisible blizz, but on the other hand, any major mistake (which high hp chars could be rescued from) will cost u life.
Remember that u are in most cases main char of your team. Necros, barbs, assassins are there just to boost and support u, while you are the one who kills. That doesnt mean, u can do everything on your own, so keep defensive and be aware of your vournability. Team who looses fb first, normally looses duel, because there is not many char combinations who can stop you.
Its up to u to discover power of teamwork and how to fight and act in, imo »best part of diablo«.
Best partnersTrapper
(Stun and trap nest.)Barbarian
(Bo and stun.)Best team configurationsFb + Barb [2]
Fb + Assa [2]
Fb + Assa + Barb [3]
Fb + Hammer + Bow [3]
Fb + Barb + Trap + Druid [4]
Fb + Barb + Bow + Hammerdin [4]
Fb + Necro + Bow + Hammerdin [4]
Fb + Fb + Fb + Barb [4]