Amazons
Bowazon: (Easy)
I want to list these guys as medium, but I just can't bring myself to do it. 99% of bowazons just get mowed down by shamans. Theres one or two I've seen that can go even with me, demonstrating that with a proper player, they can be effective. But crushing them is trivial in pubs and such. There are so many tools at your disposal. You're immune to guided arrows thanks to bear, half immune to multishot, and you can plant a fissure at their feet and they have no choice but to run out of it, and a namelocked volcano will dodgelock them so they can't react, and a grizzly often 1-hit's them. However, its best not to underestimate bowazons. Teleport around them in a strafing pattern, going circular to the angles orbitting them. Drop a fissure from the edge of your screen under their feet, and then as they choose to move, move in for the kill with volcano/bear. A bowazons main tool against a shaman is strafe. Strafe is worthless at range, but if you teleport on top of a strafing amazon you WILL die, period. If they don't strafe, volc/bear owns them. If they DO strafe, fissure owns them. Outplay them and switch between the two. If they move out of a fissure, you can land your big hit.
Laughed
Melee Druid: (So Easy Its Like Duping Ears!)
You can't lose to a melee druid without rabies. Just drop fissures on em, drag them through fissures, hell, let your bear have his playtime like in advanced techniques. Its easy as pie. Without teleport, melee druids simply cannot win this duel, its laughable. Many have lots of HP and move quickly, and will travel at angles to you, so don't sit still, and as long as you keep teleporting to stay out of range, you'll be safe. The only way you'll die is if you get overconfidant.
Rabies Druid: (Easy)
These guys have one trick they can use against you and one trick only- they can poison your summons, and it will spread to you. This is dangerous! It WILL kill you if you teleport around. So instead, beating them is quite trivial- just unsummon your grizzly & spirit, and duel as a 'naked' fire druid. They'll just be like melee druids without your bear, thats all. And thus, they will die, and die horrific burning deaths of agony, serves em right, those furrys with aids.
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BvC's: (Medium-Hard)
The most basic BvC's are easy duels. Lure them into fissure patterns and they'll fry themselves to death as they play offensively. But this will only avail you against the weaker ones, the ones that don't know how to leap/telewhirl/chainlock as properly. A good BvC is a real handful. To win this duel, you need to not just know how to drag them into fissures, but also how to lance a cunning bearstrike on them. Anticipate when whirlwind ends. Catch them offguards, get them while they teleport around. Your grizzly deals huge damage and these guys often don't have entirely maxed DR, and never block, so your grizzly can do a number on them. BvC's can be a right pain in the ass if they absorb (hotspurs). The real key is to keep widdling them down with the fissures, and only bearstriking when their guard is down. No barb is going to mindlessly chase you through fissures, so whenever they hesitate, remind them of your 8500 damage friend. If they leap heavily, your only chance is to stay out of range and drop fissures from long range. It can be a slow, punishing duel, and kill you if you screw up even once, but you should still be able to land at least 20 hits of fissure on them to every 1 whirlwind they land on you. The worst part of this duel is that most pubby BvC's will simply return to town when low on HP, and repeat it. You'll have to frustrate them to really score a win, here.
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Singers: (Easy-Medium-Hard)
Ok a good singer can actually make an incredibly interesting duel, and even a hard one. If they lock you down, you either WSG out of you die, and it is that simple. They often have such ridiculous HP's that you can't reliably tear them apart with your grizzly, which means the best way to really win this duel is to defwhore with your fissures and drag them through them until they are widdled down. Good singers will know how to chainlock and telestomp, which can make it incredibly dangerous to ever be on the same screen as them. They will howl away your bear, and they will leap to stun you in a large aoe. They are a serious threat against a shaman. One of the hardest matchups I ever had was against a singer. Fortunately, most singers suck balls, and you'll tear right through them. They are not nearly as susceptible to fissure as a whirlwind barb, and yet its your best tool against them. I love a good singer, if these guys were more popular, being a shaman could really be difficult. Its a tough duel, done right.
Laughed
Hammerdins: (Easy)
The most popular character on d2 (sigh) is a terrible one. They can't hurt you, they can't kill you. The best they can do is absorb you. Walk south, drop fissures, watch them burn. Its a robotic duel thats uninvolved and shallow, the opposite of a bone necro. Mindless namelock-tele-hammer pallys will do nothing against you. Your fissures rip them apart sans sorb, and even then volcanos/bear destroy them. Use matador techniques, grizzly playtime, etc.
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Nah i just stop here nn Pasting more of this crap ^^ , i think u did all those duels with ur mate on TCP/Ip
Oak vs Heart of Wolverine:
"AKA: Why we don't use oak"
Oak is a highly overrated druid skill. A shaman uses heart, not oak. The reason for this is non-obvious; HOW adds only minor damage/ar, like +20% overall or so. Meanwhile oak might as much as double your HP. Why not use oak? It has to do with how Oak simply does not work. Oak is a misconception, a lie told by wind druids. The +% HP on oak is NOT anything like battle orders. See, the problem with oak sage is that it dies. And after oak dies, you lose its +% HP. And what good is +% HP if it vanishes the second you get hit? None, whatsoever. If you get struck by a fireball, and it kills your oak, then your HP drops. You thought you had 6000 HP, now you have 3000 HP. Instead of dying in 6 hits, you die in 3 hits. So what did oak accomplish? Nothing. Almost every single attack in dueling games will either be an AOE, and thus kill your oak and you at the same time, or be single target, and thus kill oak first, since it is a minion stack. For example, a hammer will hit oak first, and a fireball hits you both. But either way, 1 hit of anything kills oak, and then you lose the benefit INSTANTLY, on the same frame, before the damage resolves, leaving you down hit points as if you didn't have it. In other words, oak does almost nothing. Heart of Wolverine, on the other hand, tends to die *after* you hit someone, meaning it will give its bonuses to your bear just fine. Hence, we opt for HoW. Remember, the HP from oak is purely an illusion, it does not actually exist for PvP purposes. Druids who say they have 6000 HP with oak are liars, they really have 3000 HP without it, and that is all that matters. Oak sage sucks.
i just had to paste that ^^
This post was edited by whookash on Nov 24 2009 03:21am