Basics of Dueling

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What is dueling? We've all seen it. Two guys clicking each other and shooting spells every which way. But what are they really doing?

Obviously, they're dueling. But how does it work?

Everyone knows what a character is, and everyone has one. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sword user, a fist user, a dart user or even a magic user, anyone can duel. Although, I would recommend not using piano, scavs, xtremes, or etc. to duel with. Some characters are level 1, some level 50, but the ones we care about are 100... Hopefully you already have a level 100. But is that all you need? HECK NO! You need to have a high Hand Skill, High Element Skills, the necessary Spells, and the coup de grace, THE EQUIPMENT.
 

You gotta have the right equipment for the job. Even though the "Mythical" Soul Armor is what most people think is the best, we duelists like to mix and match different equip. Here is the most common "default equip":

Ysne's Crown (96)
Soul Armor (99)
Soul Weapon...Wait what?

Every class has a different “default weapon”, whether it be bow or book, or staff or sword. Most of the time, the Soul "Weapon" is the one used, because it has the most attack points (excluding the Soul Staff [Magic Users]). But for special cases, like yes, the Magic User, and the Sword User, a different weapon is used. For the Sword User, we use "El Diablo (96)". For the Magic Users, they usually equip the level 96 Drakken Staff, even though they use spells not weapons.

"El Diablo? The Soul Sword has more attack!!!"

Well, here's the deal. The Soul Sword has 10 more attack points. So why do we use the El Diablo? It’s because the Soul Sword is very slow, and makes snow, which really slows up the camp. So, we use the El Diablo because it’s faster.

"I use spells, cause I'm a magic user, so I need more defense..."

That would be wrong, because spells are affected by weapon's attack points, just like weapons are. That means, your spells will do more damage if your Attack points are higher. So, just use the regular equipment. This is just my opinion though. You can try out different attack/defense combinations to see what works for you. Although I recommend 780/1000.

Anyways, here's the list of default duel items:

Ysne's Crown (96)
Soul Armor (99)
Soul Weapon or Other (96-99)
Soul Boots (99)
Soul Shield (99)
Soul Ring (99)
Bloodtooth Amulet (96)

Bloodtooth Amulet (96) is used because it gives more attack then both the Blind Amulet (98) and Soul Amulet (99). So most people use it instead. You should too.

"Wait, Soul Items? I don't have those yet, how do I get them?"

Luckily, I made a little page that will show you exactly how to get all the items you need to duel.

Soul Equipment

Spells are a necessity. You gotta have your debuffs and rebuffs.

"Wait, what? What are all these "redebuffers" you are talking about???"

These debuffs and rebuffs are spells used in the game to "buff" you or your opponent.

Think of buff as a temporary change in one of your stats (like Strength, Dexterity, etc.). Now, think of "de"buff, which means a temporary
“lowering” of your stats. So debuffs lower your stats. What stats? The ones that should all be at 255...

Strength - Makes your HAND attacks stronger
Wisdom - Makes your SPELLS stronger and helps get PP faster
Stamina - Makes you live longer
Agility - Helps you dodge attacks
Dexterity - Helps you not to miss

(I don't have them all at 255. But do I really need Agility and the other stuff I don't use? - Yes! You need these stats at 255 if you want to duel well. Below it is explained what each stat does.)

So, what stats do debuffs, well, debuff? All of them. Debuffs temporarily make these stats weaker, so that you are easier to beat. When you get debuffed, you are weaker in that skill. And the more you get debuffed, the weaker you get. So let's go over all the debuffs and how they affect you.

Grease(- Dexterity) - Nature 1
This is the most common debuff. When you are Greased, you have about a 50/50 chance of missing your attack or spell, except for healing spells, because they never ever fail. Ever. Sometimes, you get Greased more than once, which doesn't make you fail that much less. It just means you have to make up for two Greases instead of one. That means if you get debuffed twice, you have to rebuff twice as well…We’ll go over that later.

Spiders(- Agility) - Nature 3
This is the least common debuff, because it is very odd. With all the other debuffs, you are weakened and very vulnerable. But if you get debuffed by Spiders, it lowers your agility, which will not show any type of weakness. Until you try to Grease your opponent, that is. Think of Spiders as the opposite of Dexterity. That means, if you have low Agility, people who are Greased will hit you almost 100% of the time. That’s because, if your Agility is low, you aren’t fast enough to dodge attacks, so even if they are Greased, they can still hit you! You see, there is an advantage to using Spiders, you just have to find a strategy for it.

Screech(- Stamina) - Nature 5
This debuff lowers your Stamina, and makes normal attacks on you take more health. Be careful not to be screeched and not know it, because it will catch up with you when they start doing 200 more damage to you.

Unravel(- Strength) - Nature 7
This debuff lowers your Strength, which makes your HAND attacks weaker and do less damage. TAKE NOTE: Always rebuff before using another debuff! Using Screech when you are unraveled won’t make your attacks hit normal, they will still hit low. So always rebuff when you get debuffed to save some hassle! Also, spells are NOT affected by Unravel.

Stupefy(- Wisdom) - Spirit 1
For Hand Users, this won't affect you at all. But for Magic Users, this is just like Unravel for spells. It lowers your wisdom, and makes your spells weaker. Same rules for Unravel apply for Stupefy.

Well, those are all the debuffs. So what are these "re"buffs? The exact opposite. Rebuffs "fix" the debuffs, and can also prevent them from hurting you. This is where it gets a bit confusing, so stay with me.

Remember that if you're debuffed, you are temporarily lowered in that stat. So when you rebuff, your stat goes back up to normal. If you get debuffed twice, and rebuff once, your stat is still down one debuff. If you rebuff when you aren't debuffed, you are safe from one debuff. We call this "prebuffing", in most cases. Sometimes you prebuff when you accidentally rebuff yourself, because they debuffed you and missed, and you accidentally hit the rebuff button. NOTE: Sometimes you should ask your opponent to re enter the camp so that you can make sure he did not prebuff. Once you exit a scene, your stats are back to normal. This is because someone might try to prebuff before a duel so that your debuffs don’t affect them.

Basically, the rebuffs are self explanatory. If you get Greased, use Raise Dexterity. Screeched, use Raise Stamina. Pretty simple.

Now let's go to our Spells section, and click Elements. You'll see this neat little picture that represents all your Element levels. Basically, the higher an Element is, the stronger your spells are in that element, the less those spells fail, and of course, the more spells you can learn. Here's what levels you should have your Elements at:

Nature: 9 and up
Spirit: 9 and up
Life: 7-8

Remember, Life spells never fail, so you don't need to have high Life Element, unless you want spells like Restore and Restore All. By the way, Resurrect doesn't work if you're a PKer.

(How do I get that much pp to put my elements/hand up? - Well, you could do it the hard way and just keep fighting monsters. Or, you could do it the easy and way, and let your pp go up on it's own. What? Is this a hack? NO WAY! This is a trick you can do with any Autoclicker. What's an autoclicker, and what is this trick? You can find out on my little page by clicking here.

Now that your character is ready, it's time to learn the real basics of dueling. Let's begin...

This is the only way to lower your opponents health. Whether you use spells or weapons, attacking is extremely important in dueling. You must remember! You always want to be up by one hit in a duel. DO NOT use a debuff if you are already up one hit, it is stupid. Let’s say you attack me, then I attack you, then you use a debuff on me. That’s WRONG! You see, since you started, you were already up one hit, and if we were to keep hitting eachother, you would win. But if you debuff, then I could get a hit ahead of you. So make sure you hit when you are up by a hit. But when do you stop attacking and start using spells? This is where Spells come in.
 

We all know now what debuffs and rebuffs are now, so how do we use them? Simple, just cast them. But when is a good time for that? In a duel, you usually "roll dice" to see who goes first (type /dice). The winner with the highest number goes first, and should "always" attack. Why attack first? DUH! We just talked about that. You ALWAYS want to be up by one hit. Remember…

So, when you roll dice, and you get the lower number, your opponent will go first. If he attacks you, and you attack back, just remember, he is now one attack ahead of you. Which means, you have to try and stop them from attacking again, so you can catch back up. How? Just debuff. Let's say that you go first and attack, and then they debuff you. What should you do? ALWAYS REBUFF. I don't care what anyone says, there are only a few circumstances where attacking is better than rebuffing after a debuff. ALWAYS REBUFF AFTER A DEBUFF!

Switching between different spells and your attack can get confusing, and difficult sometimes. That's where hotkeys come in. Many many many people will argue to the death over hotkeys, I myself don't really care. I use hotkeys, and personally, they make dueling a-lot easier. First, here is a cool tip: you can switch to your equipment screen at anytime by pressing F2. This makes switching from spells to attack quicker, without moving the cursor off your opponent. But what about that Hotkey Box. Is there something important to it? To me there is. First, let's set a hotkey. Go click on the spell Grease. You should know, by now, this is the spell that debuffs Dexterity. So, once you have it highlighted, press and hold Control, then press F5. You'll see "Grease" in the hotkey box. Click it and that will automatically go to Grease, no matter what screen you are on. Neat, huh?

Skip these questions if you already have a Hotkey box shown.

(Where is my hotkey box? - Well, sometimes, when you are first making a character, the hotkey box gets annoying, so you either move it off the screen or deactivate it. If you moved it off the screen, well, try to find it. If you can't find it, do this: Go to Books, then click Book of Options. Find the option that says: "Remember changes to window size and positions.". Make sure this is unchecked, if not, uncheck it. Now, restart WoS, and the hotkey box is back! Now, you can go back to the Book of Options and check the same option, so it remembers where you move the hotkey box for next time. See the picture below for a good place to put it.)

(I still can't find it... - Well, maybe you turned it off. Go to Books, then click Book of Options. Now, find "Show Hot-Key popup window while in scenes." and make sure it's clicked. Now, if it's not there, go to the question above and try that out again.)

(I visited a guild page, and now my Hotkey box is gone! - Yes, that happens. All you do is go to the Book of Options and unclick then reclick the "Show Hot-Key popup window while in scenes." option and it should pop right back up, without leaving the scene or restarting WoS. You can also just re-enter the scene and it will return.)

Ok, now you should have the Hotkey box located, so lets set the rest of these Hotkeys. You know how to set up Grease to F5, now do the same for each spell in the picture below. All you have to do is look at the Spell in the box, highlight it in your Spells menu, then Press and Hold Control and press the F button that is right next to the spells name. Set them all up, and be ready for a faster duel experience!
 

Notice where the Hotkey box is located on the screen. This is a great place to put it, because it doesn't cover any buttons completely and stays mainly out of your way. Try it out, or use your own spot. Maybe even try out your own hotkeys and see how they work.

Magic Users: You should probably set up your hotkeys differently, without Raise Strength and Raise Dexterity, and instead add Raise Wisdom and Nova, Ethereal Fog, or whatever spell you use for attack.

Well, that's pretty much the "Basics" of dueling. Now go out and get some friends to try them out. The more you duel, the more you learn about your own style of dueling, as well as other peoples’ style. The only way to truly get good at dueling is to practice and get as much experience as you can. Now, go off and practice!