Build Guide - Duelist | Sword x Staff

Note

Depending on your luck and budget, the skills you have available to you at the start of the game will vary. Also, some encounters demand different types of skills or damage types as well. Because of this, there is no one-size-fits-all build for all content; instead, it’s better to understand all the strongest skills Sage has to offer and use the ones your account has to build what’s best for you at the time.

Introduction

At this tier, we finally solve one issue of Warrior: being terrible at clearing groups. Still, the gameplay doesn’t change much - Duelist is a Melee character doing flashy skills here and there, but there’s no cohesive synergy yet that holds the build together, which makes it underperform compared to Sorcerers at this Tier in most content.

You’re still focused on dealing Physical Damage mainly, despite one of the strongest skills dealing Fire Damage, so keep focusing on Physical Mastery on your gear, just like you did on Warrior at Tier 1. Still, at least now getting some Elemental Mastery won’t feel wasted anymore.

New important skills

Flame Aura - Your only savior to do both ST and AoE damage at this tier. Due to the mechanics of this Flame, you will deal x3 x4 the amount it states, making this Tech insanely strong.
Sunset Sword - A very good amount of AoE damage, and the AoE is big too (3x2).
Indomitable Will - Since you are not strong enough to make use of Blade of Lament , it’s about time we change into something more reliable at this progress. 2 turns almost can’t die, and self-heal should pull you through a lot of nasty situations, assuming most of the fights end under 7 turns, 2 turns are A LOT.

Builds

AOE Build

Skills
Flame Aura	Whirlwind Slash	Sunset Sword	Flash Dash
Charms
Block Awareness	Indomitable Will	Blade of Lament	Counter Blade

A safe option featuring both damage and defense. In case you are fighting against a mixed group (Boss + Minions), just replace Whirlwind Slash with Heavy Impact . Still, when you push higher, you will need to go even more ham, which means replacing some defense tools with attack tools.

ST Build

Skills
Leap Attack	Flame Aura	Heavy Impact	Flash Dash
Charms
Block Awareness	Indomitable Will	Blade of Lament	Insightful Eye

The Flash Dash can be replaced with either Lion Combo or Edge Strike ; do your math. This works in PVP too.

Co-op Slave

Skills
Leap Attack	Flame Aura	Diving Gale	Phantom Assault
Charms
Blazing Clash	Strength Rules	Crit Mastery	Insightful Eye

As a Melee character, you will block or be blocked by other Melee players from dealing damage to the Boss. This means you need to deal damage from afar or go in and out quickly. Forget our words if you fight the Boss solo, it’s a different case.

Darkness Descends is an alternative option for Leap Attack if there are 4+ players that bring it.

Stats

Secondary Main Stats

Below are the recommended secondary stats to look out for when gearing up. Having the right secondary stats is important for maximizing performance, but significant “Power/Gear score” upgrades or pieces with better additional stats can overwrite this priority.

Note that for Duelist, you can start branching out to Elemental Mastery now due to the presence of Flame Aura , which is the main reason, and Darkness Descends (supposed to be the 2nd strongest ST at this tier, but loses horribly because of low Dark Affinity)

Sword

Physical Mastery > Elemental Mastery > Speed > Crit > Accuracy

Gauntlets

Physical Mastery > Elemental Mastery > Speed > Crit > Accuracy

Helmet

DEF >= Physical Res = Elemental Res > HP > Effect Res

Chest

DEF >= Physical Res = Elemental Res > HP

Boots

Physical Mastery > Elemental Mastery > Speed

Sub Stats

All item slots will roll a number of additional stats on them, which are chosen randomly from a universal pool. Below is roughly the order of priority to look out for on your gear; however, just because an item has great additional stats doesn’t make it the best choice. Make sure to consider the item's overall power and whether it has the optimal secondary stats as well.

Duelist has the highest Speed in nature (their stat growth says so), so you can push it further by giving it even more Speed, so you can do turn 3 when your opponent is only at turn 2.

Best Stats

Speed
Crit Rate%
Crit Damage%

Good Stats

Elemental Mastery
Physical Mastery

Average Stats

ATK
ATK%

Situational Stats

Elemental Res
Physical Res
Block Rate%
Accuracy%
Effect Hit Rate
DEF%
DEF
HP
HP%

Undesirable Stats

Crit RES %
Effect RES
Healing Boost%

Fantomon

Starting level 50, you will be able to summon pets - aka Fantomons to help you in battle. We won’t go in-depth covering pets since we have a dedicated guide here, so let’s just mention the good ones.

Fantomon Guide

Your job is to balance between damage and defense because you always go in Melee range. Therefore, at the early stage, you should consider this:

Armopi : It gives you a bit of DEF and a slight shield based on your DEF. Hope it can buy you a turn, because a turn of Duelist may mean 2 turns of actions.
Sylvaerie : The buff sounds nice on paper, but in reality, the amount is super small.

When you have enough pull (on average, 500 pulls), you will have 60 hearts to redeem a Mythic Fantomon. Go for this one:

Nyxarchon : The Dark Fantomon that debuffs enemies with max -30% def, and also deals good damage itself. Very suitable for a glass cannon like Duelist.
Aegiswing: By choosing this fantomon, you choose the path of living longer = more damage instead. You can consider dropping the Indomitable Will charm for another damage charm, because you have life insurance now.

Relics

Info

Important note for Relic! The %stats (beside Crit Rate, Crit DMG, Accuracy, Block, Crit Res, Effect Res, and Damage boost) are all scaled on your Relics stat, not total stat. For example, if your total flat ATK from relics is 2000, and you have a relic that increases 5% ATK, it will give you 5% x 2000 = 40 more ATK even if your total combined ATK is more than 10.000 already.

Actually, the formula is a bit more complicated, since the 5% can be improved by your character’s trait, too. For example, a Warrior has 15% ATK bonus that comes from the class, which means the final %ATK from the relic is not 5% but 5% x 115% = 5.75%. This rule applies to almost every category except the Class stat group - it runs a different formula, which we don’t really care much about.

A Duelist (at this rank) only needs to care about 2 elementals:

Fire: Very solid thanks to Flame Aura,
Darkness: You focus on this elemental if you are preparing for T4, too.

Since the relic hunt is more about RNG, we will list the best Relic to be showcased instead (gaining them is on you). These relics are updated up to Cinder Ridge.

Note

Since you are a melee Damage per turn character, you look to balance between your damage output and resilience (Affinity - ATK - Speed - Aegis - HP - Def), not power. There might be situations where you have to put a %stat Mythic relic on display instead to gain more Affinity, which is better than some small ATK/Speed gains. Most of the time, you can rely on power gain to check whether the Affinity increases by putting a Mythic item in a better slot or not.

Light

Luminous Edict (SPD - Legendary - Light Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge II
Crown of Unbinding (ATK - Legendary - Light Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge V
Omniscient Satchel (Def - Legendary - Light Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge VII
Astral Gauntlets (HP - Legendary- Light Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge VIII

Fire

Ouroboros Charm (Block Rate - Legendary - Fire Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge XVIII
Mirage Tinder Box (SPD - Epic - Fire Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglade III
Starcleaver (Crit% - Legendary - Fire Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cindy Ridge III
Carapace Flamethrower (Accuracy% - Legendary - Fire Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cindy Ridge VII

Wind

Fate’s Grand Banner (Elemental Mastery - Legendary - Wind Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge XIV
Chronoflute (SPD - Legendary - Wind Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglade XII
Truestrike Arrow (ATK - Legendary - Wind Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglade VIII
Zephyr Headband (HP - Legendary - Wind Affinity). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglade I

Water

Frost Casket (Physical Res - Legendary - Water Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge XI
Waterfowl Charm (Elemental Res - Legendary - Water Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge I
Twilight Teacup (Def - Legendary - Water Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge XIII
Pisces Earrings (HP - Legendary - Water Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglade IX

Dark

Phantom Hourglass (SPD - Legendary- Dark Aegis). Can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Cinder Ridge XVI
Abyssal Glyph Whip (Elemental Mastery - Legendary - Dark Affinity)
Obsidian Key (ATK - Legendary - Dark Affinity). This one can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglate X
Imp’s Statuette (SPD - Legendary - Dark Affinity). This one can be explored by Destiny Fruits in Verdantglate XVII

Note

Introduction

New important skills

Flame Aura - Your only savior to do both ST and AoE damage at this tier. Due to the mechanics of this Flame, you will deal x3 x4 the amount it states, making this Tech insanely strong.
Sunset Sword - A very good amount of AoE damage, and the AoE is big too (3x2).
Indomitable Will - Since you are not strong enough to make use of Blade of Lament , it’s about time we change into something more reliable at this progress. 2 turns almost can’t die, and self-heal should pull you through a lot of nasty situations, assuming most of the fights end under 7 turns, 2 turns are A LOT.