DUEL 2 NEWSLETTER Date : 10/24/2016 Duedate: 11/05/2016 NIANIA ARENA DM-2 TURN-697 This Weeks Top Honors THE DUELMASTER IS CRYINARA THE RUNAROUND (381) (2-6131) [20-22-1,92] Chartered Recognition Leader Unchartered Recognition Leader CRYINARA POSITION IS EMPTY THE RUNAROUND (381) (2-6131) [20-22-1,92] Popularity Leader This Weeks Favorite CRYINARA CRYINARA THE RUNAROUND (381) THE RUNAROUND (381) (2-6131) [20-22-1,92] (2-6131) [20-22-1,92] THE CURRENT TOP TEAM THE RUNAROUND (381) TEAMS ON THE MOVE TOP CAREER HONORS Team Name Point Gain Chartered Team 1. THE RUNAROUND (381) 22 2. 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) 2 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) 3. SAM'S TOYS (677) 1 Unchartered Team 4. DELINQUENTZ (511) 0 5. MENTOR DEMENTOR (697) 0 HELTER SKELTER (601) The Top Teams Career Win-Loss Record W L K % Win-Loss Record Last 3 Turns W L K 1/ 1 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) 25 10 0 71.4 1- 1 MENTOR DEMENTOR (697) 5 1 0 2- 2 DELINQUENTZ (511) 11 7 0 61.1 2/ 3 THE RUNAROUND (381) 4 5 1 3/ 3 SAM'S TOYS (677) 10 8 0 55.6 3/ 2 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) 3 1 0 4- 4 MENTOR DEMENTOR (697) 93 78 7 54.4 4- 4 DELINQUENTZ (511) 1 0 0 5/ 5 THE RUNAROUND (381) 152 194 16 43.9 5/ 5 SAM'S TOYS (677) 0 3 0 '*' Unchartered team '-' Team did not fight this turn (###) Avoid teams by their Team Id ##/## This turn's/Last turn's rank SPY REPORT Ready for some action-packed adventure, some thrills, chills and spills? Well fergit it, cause this is the Spyreport for NIANIA. Too bad, MENTOR DEMENTOR, but THE RUNAROUND was just too good to be stopped. MVP award for COOL RUN-IN? THE RUNAROUND's proud of him after beating MR. MONKEY and getting 2 points. This Duelmaster is like something else! CRYINARA stopped KHALHUMS DWARF dead in his tracks! Who was the wiseguy that said NIANIA's Duelmaster was paying for drinks at Jim's Tap Room? Don't look at me! AAARRGH!!! I HATE SPYREPORTING!!! Sorry. I just had to say it. THE RUNAROUND was the most avoided team. Is a 152-194-16 record really that scary? Hhmph! What kind of warriors are 2ND DIRE LANCERS? THE RUNAROUND, an easy team to beat if I ever saw one, can't get them to accept an invitation! Can 2ND DIRE LANCERS' FENZE be more popular than me? He was challenged the most, but is that really the same? What does a fighter fight for? I mean, the crowds don't give a hoot if someone gets killed. Not after four more fights. What if they had a fight and nobody showed up? I'd be out of a job, that's what!!! Remember, blood on a purple robe may stain. Soak it in cold water, and hand wash. I'm getting tired of writing this stuff, so I'm calling it quits. Remember you guys, ease up sometimes! Chill out! Later, Debby Tonte DUELMASTER W L K POINTS TEAM NAME CRYINARA 6131 20 22 1 92 THE RUNAROUND (381) CHALLENGER CHAMPIONS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME -GATLITH 6026 10 1 0 108 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) CHAMPIONS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME FENZE 6024 10 3 0 68 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) CHALLENGER ADEPTS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME COOL RUN-IN 6213 9 12 2 65 THE RUNAROUND (381) ADEPTS W L K POINTS TEAM NAME -RITHLO 6022 5 3 0 47 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) -COBAIN 6244 4 3 2 45 MENTOR DEMENTOR (697) MR. MONKEY 5850 4 7 0 40 SAM'S TOYS (677) -LADY GAGA 6243 5 4 0 36 MENTOR DEMENTOR (697) CHALLENGER INITIATES W L K POINTS TEAM NAME -EAU DE PERE 5789 2 27 0 33 THE RUNAROUND (381) -JOSHUA 4463 2 2 0 27 DELINQUENTZ (511) '-' denotes a warrior who did not fight this turn. THE DEAD W L K TEAM NAME SLAIN BY TURN Revenge? DA1 6274 0 1 0 THE RUNAROUND 381 BANDIT PRINCE 697 NONE PERSONAL ADS LAST WEEK'S FIGHTS DA1 was dealt death by BANDIT PRINCE in a 1 minute Dark Arena fight. CRYINARA viciously subdued KHALHUMS DWARF in a 3 minute veteran's Title duel. COOL RUN-IN defeated MR. MONKEY in a crowd pleasing 4 minute bloody duel. FENZE overpowered FRATSFA SLAVE in a 1 minute one-sided fight. BATTLE REPORT MOST POPULAR RECORD DURING THE LAST 10 TURNS |FIGHTING STYLE FIGHTS FIGHTING STYLE W - L - K PERCENT| |AIMED BLOW 3 PARRY-STRIKE 1 - 0 - 0 100 | |SLASHING ATTACK 1 PARRY-RIPOSTE 1 - 0 - 0 100 | |STRIKING ATTACK 1 PARRY-LUNGE 2 - 1 - 0 67 | |PARRY-LUNGE 0 WALL OF STEEL 4 - 2 - 0 67 | |PARRY-STRIKE 0 AIMED BLOW 17 - 17 - 0 50 | |PARRY-RIPOSTE 0 LUNGING ATTACK 9 - 9 - 1 50 | |LUNGING ATTACK 0 SLASHING ATTACK 8 - 10 - 0 44 | |BASHING ATTACK 0 TOTAL PARRY 3 - 4 - 0 43 | |TOTAL PARRY 0 STRIKING ATTACK 9 - 18 - 3 33 | |WALL OF STEEL 0 BASHING ATTACK 0 - 2 - 0 0 | Turn 697 was great if you Not so great if you used The fighting styles of the used the fighting styles: the fighting styles: top eleven warriors are: SLASHING ATTACK 1 - 0 AIMED BLOW 1 - 2 4 AIMED BLOW STRIKING ATTACK 1 - 0 PARRY-LUNGE 0 - 0 2 SLASHING ATTACK PARRY-STRIKE 0 - 0 2 STRIKING ATTACK PARRY-RIPOSTE 0 - 0 1 LUNGING ATTACK LUNGING ATTACK 0 - 0 1 PARRY-RIPOSTE BASHING ATTACK 0 - 0 TOTAL PARRY 0 - 0 WALL OF STEEL 0 - 0 TOP WARRIOR OF EACH STYLE FIGHTING STYLE WARRIOR W L K PNTS TEAM NAME AIMED BLOW FENZE 6024 10 3 0 68 2ND DIRE LANCERS (693) Note: Warriors have a winning record and are an Adept or Above. The overall popularity leader is CRYINARA 6131. The most popular warrior this turn was CRYINARA 6131. The ten other most popular fighters were COOL RUN-IN 6213, MR. MONKEY 5850, FENZE 6024, DA1 6274, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and 0. The least popular fighter this week was DA1 6274. The other ten least popular fighters were FENZE 6024, MR. MONKEY 5850, COOL RUN-IN 6213, CRYINARA 6131, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and 0. The following warriors will travel to AD after next turn: CRYINARA (2-6131) THE RUNAROUND (381) An Informative Guide to the Parry-Riposte Style composed by Sir Jessie Jest Greetings to all. After many weeks of compiling a database with informationon the parry-riposte, I would like to thank the many managers that donated their time and effort to make this project work. We all hope that many managers benefit from these efforts to further the interest in this style. This article can also be found in the Duel Masters Web page on the internet at: http://www.netis.com/johnh/dm.htm Also, for those of you who have e-mail access, I invite you to join in on the DM discussions on the Roundtable. The roundtable is a forum that discusses anything that has to do with Duelmasters. It is made up of many other DM managers like yourself, and will answer any question you have about the game. To join the Round Table send e- mail to listserv@ambience.com.au with the message "Subscribe Duel-L Your Name". *** *** *** Parry-ripostes, or rippers, can be very deadly if trained and managed effectively. Rippers aren't as widely understood as the more common high skill base styles are. They do draw managers who like more of a challenge. It is not a style for quick fix, so to speak. They start with much less skill and development than many other styles. This means they require a much longer development time before reaching that successful stage. Rippers are not good short-term warriors. They lack what it takes to get many wins early in their career. When you make a ripper, you're in for the long haul. When making a ripper, it is good to think about making him survive through Basic. Rippers have the second highest death rate, with aimed blows being the first. The main reasons for this, I believe, are poor warrior design and/or poor strategy. Rippers, even if designed exactly the same, vary more from one to another than most styles in general. The aimed blow, I believe, is the only other style that varies more widely from one to another than the ripper. Finding your ripper's likes and dislikes may be quite a task, indeed. The first thing to get a good ripper is warrior design. His starting stats will greatly effect his starting skill bases as well. Since rippers starting skill base is lower than some of the other styles, getting as many bonus skills from initial stats is very important. These bonus skills are given most in the WIT and DEFTNESS stats. Odd numbered stats are where most of the bonus skills are at, such as 13, 15, 17 and 21. There are no bonus stats to be gained at 19 in any stat except speed. Good rippers will have a minimum of 32 points between wit and deftness. 34 or more points is preferred. 17 or 21 WT and 17 or 21 DT makes the best rippers. Ripper stats: Strength: 7-11 gives you the range you need for all ripper weapons. Con: 10-14 helps keep your ripper alive and helps with encumbrance. A wise manager would put any left over points here, rather than speed. We'll get to that in a minute. Size: 3-11, no bigger. It's a waste of points and kills your defense, which is one thing that will keep your ripper alive. Wit: 15, 17 or 21 -- No less. You need the bonus skills and the quick learning to make up for the lower skill base. Will: 15+ Not necessary, but to be successful quicker in ADM get at least a 15. Speed: 5-9 Speed is the most disputed thing among ripper managers. It is split 50/50 on its contribution to a rippers success. I believe any extra points left over after adding to odd number WT, WL, and DF should go to CON, not speed. It makes no difference whether you get those skills gained from speed now, or later on. They are still the same number of skills. Those few skills won't make as much difference now, as CON does in keeping the ripper ALIVE. A dead ripper's bases don't matter much, now, do they? ;) Deftness 15,17, or 21 no less. This is a MUST. Deftness gives the most bonus skills out of all the stats. Unlike other styles, which start out with higher bases, a ripper needs all the bonuses he can get. Don't skimp here. Also, many of the rippers weapons require high deftness. The average skill bonuses you get for the parry-riposte style are as follows: (Taken from the "Ween Chart" that includes decimals) Skill Bonus ====== ====== Attack -1.6 Parry -0.1 Defense -3 Initiative 3.1 Decise 1.8 Riposte 4.6 Naturally, rippers get more bonus skills in the riposte area. To help understand that chart, round the numbers up to the nearest whole number. Example, Decise 1.8 = 2 extra decise skills. There is no way to predict exactly what your ripper's starting skills will be. But you can get a good idea when your get your overview back by using the skill chart which is not listed here. There is the luck factor, which is a random number that RSI gives to make sure no two warriors are exactly alike. Some are blessed and get more than average skills, whereas others get considerably less. Rippers in general seem to get LESS more than MORE skill in the luck factor part of character generation. Listed below are some examples of actual rippers in ADM and Primus.Please take note of the + or extra skills these rippers received with thestats they have. Notice the amount of extra skills they received from high WIT and DEFTNESS. The luck factor had some play in these startingbases. These are also examples of when the luck factor gives you MOREstarting base skills. The one at the bottom, with the -2 skills, is an exampleof bad luck. The average skill base totals is +4.8 or 5 skills rounded up.That means that if you get a ripper with more than + 5 skills to his base,he is lucky. Less than + 5 he is unlucky, depending on his stats. If theripper has less than a 32 total points WIT and DEFTNESS, his chancesof getting less than +5 is MUCH higher. If you get more than +5 skills withless than 32 points in your WIT and DEFTNESS total, you a very lucky.One exception is when you have a 30 WIT/DEFTNESS total and a 21 WILL.Then you should get +5 or better to your skill base. If not, you are unlucky. ST-CN-SZ-WT-WL-SP-DF BASE: ATT INIT DEC DEF PAR RIP (Bonus +/-) 17-13-4-17-9-9-15 60(0) 60(+4) 30(+2) 40(-1) 45(+1) 65(+5); +11 9-13-8-17-15-5-17 55(-1) 55(+4) 15(0) 30(-4) 55(+3) 70(+6); +8 11-9-12-15-17-5-17 55(0) 35(+2) 20(+1) 30(-3) 45(-1) 75(+9); +8 9-12-5-17-15-9-17 45(-3) 50(+1) 40(+3) 45(-2) 40(0) 70(+5); +4 10-10-9-21-15-4-15 60(-1) 50(+2) 45(+5) 35(-4) 35(0) 65(+5); +7 8-9-7-17-17-9-17 50(-3) 50(-1) 50(+4) 50(-2) 40(+1) 85(+8); +5 8-10-12-17-17-3-17 60(-1) 45(0) 25(+2) 30(-5) 40(+1) 55(+4); +1 8-9-8-15-11-12-21 50(-2) 75(+5) 35(+2) 35(-4) 50(+1) 80(+5); +7 12-10-8-17-11-9-17 40(-3) 45(0) 40(+4) 30(-4) 15(-4) 70(+5); -2 The numbers in the parenthesis are the + or - the projected skill base for that set of numbers. Example: +5 means that he got 5 more than the average projection. Pluses are good and minuses are bad. A simple method to see whether or not your ripper was lucky is to add the WIT and DEFTNESS together. If it is above 32 then you should get + 5 as an average, and any more than +5 is lucky. The higher the WIT/DEFTNESS total the higher the average. This is a quick guesstimate to see if your ripper was unlucky at getting a good number starting skills. It is not an exact way to tell. You can tell more accurately by using the skill chart that lists the skill bonuses, and the style modifiers. Good WIT statements for a good ripper include high order ATTACK, DEFENSE, and PARRY. An initiative statement is nice, but harder to come by for a ripper, unless you give up one of those 3 up there. If you get ATTACK, DEFENSE, PARRY and INITIATIVE high order you have a GREAT ripper. Rippers almost always get some kind of Riposte statement. Riposte isn't really as important as those 4 up there are in the long run. Decise skill is meaningless to a ripper. ARMOR ----------- Rippers should wear heavy armor at the beginning of their career. It is better to run a ripper defensively or `scum' him for awhile until he gains more skill. When he starts getting his experts in defense and parry, then you can take off some armor. Rippers are more like to DIE in their first 10-15 fights than later on when they have more skill and experience. Some people don't like playing defensively, and run them offensively at the beginning. Rippers are long term projects and are not ready for this. They lack the skill and experience to do this in the beginning. For this reason, and the fact most people don't put much armor on them at the start of their career, is why so many rippers DIE. Putting heavy armor on them and playing them defensively, increases the ripper's chance to make it to ADM ALIVE. I've put rippers in ACM and APA in basic for their first 15 fights. It keeps them alive and gets them learns without affecting their performance. Weapons ------------- Your ripper's favorite weapon is VERY important. Rippers have a very limited number of weapons to choose from, but do have some good ones. This is a list of ripper weapons. They are listed in order of which is best to which is worst according to a poll of 58 ripper mgrs. 1. Scimitar -- The best ripper weapon, without question. 2. Longsword 3. Epee -- I wouldn't advise using this weapon in Basic. 4. Shortsword 5. Shortspear 6. Longspear 7. Hatchet Using that chart above, you can tell whether or not your ripper got stuck with a lousy favorite weapon. Down below is more info on ripper's favorite weapons. Out of 44 parry-ripostes, the following is a chart of the favorite weapons they got: EP (11), SC (8), LO (8), LS (4), SS (7), SH (6) Notice that most got the top 3 ripper weapons. Just hope your ripper doesn't get stuck with a lame weapon. Off-hand weapon ------------------------ Rippers do better with 2 weapons than one. In ADM, a ripper can use either one or 2 and still be effective. Shortswords and hatchets are the most effective. Daggers and shields are OK, but not really good in ADM. If you have a ripper with high enough deftness, twin longswords or scimitars can be devastating. Rippers have an unusually high chance of being ambidextrous. Strategy- Using tactics ------------------------------- Rippers in general don't react well to tactics. This is agreed on by most ripper managers. They can use lunge, dodge, response and parry to some effectiveness. Out of 44 rippers, 3 got Lunge, 6 got Riposte, and 3 got Parry as a favorite tactic. Riposte tactic is lame, and should never be used on a ripper. He ripostes well enough without that tactic. All it will do is penalize him in other important areas. Strategy- (favorite rhythms) ------------------------------------- Unlike other styles, the ripper favorite rhythm is used more closely. Most managers use different strategies in basic than they do in ADM for their rippers. They play it more by ear in Basic, and stick mostly to the ripper's favorite rhythms in ADM. Unless, of course, they have very bad rhythms for favorites. Then they may go back to playing it by ear. Below is a graph of 44 Parry - Riposte's favorite rhythms. A. L. -- O. E. VL LO MO HI VH TOTALS VL 3 1 2 0 0 6 LO 2 1 2 2 0 7 MO 2 19 0 1 0 22 HI 2 0 5 2 0 9 VH 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 9 21 9 5 0 As you can see, most of the favorites for a Parry Riposte fall in the LOW offensive and moderate activity range. To give someone an example of a basic strategy, I will give you an example below. MIN 1 2 3 4 5 6 Desp. OL 2 2 2 4 4 3 7 AL 2 2 2 4 4 2 7 KD 5 5 5 6 6 5 5 Att RA-----------------------------------------------> Pro HE-----------------------------------------------> You can experiment with other strategies, and might even check out how your ripper likes tactics. In ADM, I'd stick with the favorite rhythms, unless they aren't working for him. Best style match-ups for a ripper in basic are: PR, TP, BA, PS, WS. Worst in Basic are : SL, LU, AB, PL, ST. Best style Match-ups in ADM are: TP, PR, BA, ST, PS. Worst in ADM are : LU, SL, WS, PL, AB. Well, that should be enough information to get any manager started with a good ripper. If you need more information about rippers or anything else about DM, contact me. I can be reached via e-mail at 103260.3347@ compuserve.com or you can Diplo me at the Joker's Wild 2 in DM 75. I hope this helped someone. Cheers, Sir Jessie Jest Credits -- Major contributors: Mitch Nakagawa -AKA- Sensei Slowburn Glenn Uren -AKA- Heretic JRK Jeanette Jerles -AKA- Shark Jester Gary Triplett -AKA- Miles The Boss Man The Lunatic Voo-Doo Assurnasirbanipal Soultaker Lord Bosk Buri C.J Caviness -AKA- The Visionist Doctor Scot Manager(Dwayne) Revenant Eric Goche Seeker Rajesh Nanda Johan Behrenfeldt -AKA- Bartender and many others.