[4]Dueling Strategies*Amazons
bow zon, non telly: A telly zon of this caliber should never lose to a walking amazon. Your maneuverability and skills developed with time will completely overthrow her ability to cope. There was a reason enigma was banned in amapk. If you really want to be funny, hit them with one arrow, allow poison to demolish, then telly on top of her with your valk out to "valk-pk" her. This trick can be done to any character with little life remaining. Totally worth it!
bow zon, telly: It is my thorough opinion that the hardest duel you will ever have is with a character of the same class. It comes down to 50/50 + skill. Skill determines the winner here, good luck.
cs zon: Telly or non, your maneuverability should prevent her from ever landing a hit. Which would obviously mean you win.
fc zon: Hacks = sorb. Sorb = the end of her. Attack her with wiz spike if you have to, even your valk can be immune to light and whoop a zon's ass alone.
*Assassins
trap sin: Your resists will be more than enough to take out a non-offensive trapper. Since traps are like sorceress attacks, run in circles around the trap field the asn hides in. When traps fire off they go in a single, one-lined direction, easily avoidable. If you are mindblasted, hit your "w" key to switch back and forth between wizspike and your bow. This trick eliminates stun's effect on your character. An offensive trapper will take more minding, but still dealt with easily with the afore-mentioned tricks combined. Don't walk in straight lines with a trapper, since their attack shoots in a straight line!!
wwsin/ghost: You have to play much more defensively with these. Their resists are enormously stacked v your poison, so equip a pair of dracs and drain her life (open wounds + ranged attack + lvl 90 = 300 life taken over 8 seconds roughly. Also, don't be afraid of stacking your resists, as a wwsin is vastly about her venom, but her open wounds will bite as well. Avoid getting hit. If she catches up to you, she will mind blast, then ww on you. Step off to the side, get a few shots fired off, then run for it. Chances are she'll have you name locked and repeat her same attack: mindblast/telly/ww, so repeat what you did, or telly out of her name lock range and resume the duel from the very top, playing defensively (not my favorite, but whatevs).
*Barbarians
bvc: No block = death by a bowa, however do not get carried away. Yes, you can tank a few hits, but since your phys dmg is low, so can he. Open wounds on a ranged attack v a mass life char is retarded, so instead switch to clegaws. Clegaws 25% slow combined with 10% from arachs = 35% slow which affect the travel of ww, which is already kind of slow. When you do this you also gain kb, so get the barb slowed, when he comes in to ww you, step to the side and let him have it. Anticipate when he'll exit his whirlwind attack, rinse, repeat. For reals though, slow will hinder him stupid during his ww's.
bva: I once dueled a 7k life, max block, doomz barb and won 5-1, so it is quite possible LOL! (and yes, with this very char). You must play defensively, he will absolutely tank the shit out of you, but guess what? He's a fat ass. If you see that you've landed a hit you have 1 of 2 options: run around for 6-8 seconds (use dracs v max block, you don't land enough hits for clegaws to be of any help)while psn and ow do their job, or continue firing away
Depending on the barb's level of skill, you can just easily avoid him.
bvb: When this build first came out it was okay, now it just blows. The main feature of this fort barb is to ww lock you, then hope his ww desynch confuses you then you stop and die/get hit. Learn to anticipate desynch!!! This is one of the most important skills that can be learned for dueling within diablo. If you can anticipate his desynch, he will never hit you and eventually be forced to town (as their ability to tank can sometimes prove troublesome).
*Druids
wind: The hardest duel I have is vs. a wind druid. The dodge lock (birds, wolves, hurricane, nadoes, etc. etc.), the erratic tornadoes, max block -.-*, and almost all of the druids on east nl use tmc with some sort of self-aiming mod. However, a druid's fhr is horrendous and not too many have max block anymore (I would suggest reading the bps for all character classes and familiarizing yourself with their weaknesses), and even if they have max block their fbr's are absolutely awful. With 7fps arrows you could comprehensively put one into "block lock" (you're being attacked faster than you can block, similar to dodge lock..)
melee: I really appreciate someone with enough balls to make a melee char and then bring it into pub duels. That being said, these poor guys are no competition, thought their desynch gives them a fighting chances. Always main a decent distance without ever being too defensive (i like to "dance" around char and tease them..)
town: Town druids come in all assortments, and the only chars affected by them are town huggers, town guarders, and people towning. Good riddens.
*Necromancers
Bone: Can be very difficult, or very easy. Simply play as defensively as them. IBS (invisible bone spirits) can be harsh, but chances are if you slow missile a bm necro (as bm deserves bm) his attacks will be so incredibly slow that you can just walk around. One thing always surprises me tho, a bone necro will still bone prison a teleporting amazon... perhaps it's nostalgia? I always make it a point to show them out. I have no respect for necros who bone prison zons. None. Anyways, telly-walk (teleporting combined with walking/running around to avoid attacks that shoot in straight lines like bone spear) will take care of most necros. If you must, slow missile him and laugh =/
psn nova: I have met very few good good poison nova necros, but if you do they can be far better than bone necros. If you come across a good one play defensive, if he's just of normal skill/quality, run around and telly around him avoiding the shabby circumference of psn nova.
*Paladins
Foh pally You dodge and have amazing resists and foh dins are not known for their tanking. Hit him a few times then fly right in and lay it on him, letting valk walk up to him and take a few hits as well. You should not die to a foh pally, unless by accident or gangbang. (always resummon valk, she is your clay golem)
hammerdins Can be difficult, can be easy. For the most part, walk south and shoot off arrows, teleport away quickly making sure he doesn't name lock you and fire off more arrows. Beating a hammerdin shouldn't take too long. Some hammerdins are now catching on to the run south trick or use mods that auto-telly them right above you/to where your cursor is. This is still avoidable by good ole telly-walking: he tellies above you, you walk north instead (danger, don't fuck up!) then tele away, shoot off some ga/multi, then begin running downwards when he comes in for you. Desynch pallies can be good, but once again, train yourself to anticipate desynch and you'll be better. When hammerdins equip ebotdz or grief in order to charge/smite you, begin playing defensive. Fuck that shit.
smite/smite variants There's really nothing to it, the only challenge I've ever had is with smiters who mod (auto telly/telly stomp), or when I try to tank a smiter. Laff. After one or two duels with the same opponent, I get a feel for their strategy/ability and can then more easily defeat an opponent without having to be defensive at all. Anyways, if you're just starting off, telly in one direction, a smiter will follow but you telly faster than he charges so get to the end of your "telly-line" or w/e, then fire of some shots, then teleport in the opposite direction, rinse, repeat. Shouldn't take long at all.
*Sorceress
vitaYou are poison + open wounds (if you chose to wear dracs), there is no reason to lose. Light + fire sorceress's attacks continue in straight lines, simply walk in spirals/circles to avoid their attacks (same as trapper), if you feel pressured telly off a bit to one side or the other away from obstructions (puddles/trees/rocks can fuck you over easily). If you feel the need, slow missile as well. The hardest sorc is a max block/full vita/stacked resists one. Since her attack is easily avoidable, it's simply a matter of not fucking up for 30-60 seconds until her death.
es My favorite thing to do is a find a sorceress with a perm btals and perm bmanas and then trash her with a char worth half as much. A full es sorc will have around 1k life and low resists = death. A nova sorc wearing infinity has proven difficult once or twice, but that's because of my dodge lock. Bmanas = sorb, btals = sorb, mods = sorb, that's my rule of thumb. Pop a tgods on and go to town on her ass. A 2/3rds vita/mana es max block sorc like my own can be quite difficult, but no sorc is undefeatable. It's important not to teleport v a blizz sorc since blizzard's attack is kind of funky, similar to druid's fissure. Teleport to get away but anticipate blizzard's delay frame and lay it on her between blizzard's, then when she's ready to blizz again you get out of her name lock zone, or if there's no time run away in a straight line (fastest possible route).
That's a lot of typing, I'm never doing one of these again.
[5]Last WordsThis is as cut and dry as I could make it. What I really wanted to stress is how important it is to experiment with not only zons, but every character class. I mean, really, who would have thought a psn-vita-telly zon was a feasible and even elite character build? Find what suits you as far as skill/stat placement and equipment choice and just rock it out!
Skill > all within duels, never forget that.
(page 3 coming shortly)