DUEL 2 NEWSLETTER

Date   : 02/03/2022    Duedate: 02/16/2022

JADE MOUNTAIN ARENA

DM-75    TURN-727

This Weeks Top Honors

THE DUELMASTER IS

BOUDICCA
LADY WARRIORS (353)
(75-3975) [16-0-1,123]

Chartered Recognition Leader   Unchartered Recognition Leader

BOUDICCA                       FLOWER POWER
LADY WARRIORS (353)            TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)
(75-3975) [16-0-1,123]         (75-3902) [3-1-1,43]

Popularity Leader              This Weeks Favorite

GREAT WHITE SHARK              GREAT WHITE SHARK
VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)        VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)
(75-4001) [12-6-0,101]         (75-4001) [12-6-0,101]

THE CURRENT TOP TEAM

LADY WARRIORS (353)

          TEAMS ON THE MOVE            TOP CAREER HONORS
Team Name                  Point Gain  Chartered Team
1. TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)         52
2. SAND DANCERS (67)           49      LADY WARRIORS (353)
3. LADY WARRIORS (353)          4      Unchartered Team
4. DEFROSTED (349)              0
5. VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)     -5      TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)

The Top Teams

Career Win-Loss Record           W   L  K    %  Win-Loss Record Last 3 Turns    W  L K
 1/ 1 LADY WARRIORS (353)       44  13  5 77.2   1/ 1 LADY WARRIORS (353)       8  3 0
 2- 2 DEFROSTED (349)           35  13  0 72.9   2/ 3 SAND DANCERS (67)         8  7 0
 3/ 3 VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)   48  42  1 53.3   3/ 2 VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)   4 11 1
 4/ 5 SAND DANCERS (67)        %1493 %2018 43 42.5   4/ 0*TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)       2  3 0
 5/ 0*TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)        4  12  1 25.0   5- 4 DEFROSTED (349)           1  0 0

    '*'   Unchartered team                       '-'  Team did not fight this turn
   (###)  Avoid teams by their Team Id          ##/## This turn's/Last turn's rank

                                 DUELMASTER'S COLUMN
                             Notes from the arena champ.

     This you can believe. I am again Duelmaster, the best in the city. Eight-time 
Duelmaster! Has a ring to it, doesn't it?
     But can you believe THIS? Ms. Fu, after prepping Zenobia for the Face-To-Face, 
was drinking a little (Well, a lot!) of wine the night she decided to send in the pre-
strategies for the event. Lo and behold, while Zenobia was warming up at The Face for 
her fight, and the rest of us Ladies were watching from the stands, the announcer 
called ME, Boudicca, for her fight! I was forced to replace her, with inappropriate 
armor (naked and embarrassed) and a healthy and go-get-'em weapon (which I knew 
nothing about) and strategy. I did not fare well in Tempe. Why? Why, was this. Ms. Fu 
had simply filled out the wrong warrior number on the entry sheet! 
     What a surprise to both Zenobia (who had been prepping and waiting for weeks) and 
me! But what the heck, we forgive her, and we all drank a bit of wine ourselves, and 
got blasted together! Plus she led us to a Lady Warrior 5-0 this round! She's our gal 
-- boss and mentor.
     With that, I say, here I am. Come and get me. But be careful, I just may pull out 
Zen's magic weapons and come after you. You never know!

                                          -- Boudicca, DMVIII

                                      SPY REPORT

     If you were disturbed from your beauty rest only to have to watch a bunch of 
JADE MOUNTAIN brutes like you, you'd be grouchy, too.  Of course, we're all terribly 
impressed to see HUNTER win a fight and gain 22 points, terribly.  Tsk, tsk, HUNTER 
beat ZENOBIA and ZENOBIA lost 19 points.  You're breakin' my heart.  And if variety 
is the spice of life, JADE MOUNTAIN may be getting bland, as BOUDICCA stays top dog 
in the city.  The Green Axe, humph!  I've tasted better ale at mortuaries.  Where do 
they get this stuff?  From JADE MOUNTAIN's trash dumps?   
     Well, let's take a look at some more misdeeds of you miserable sword-boys.  JADE 
MOUNTAIN, I am losing what little hope I had in you.  VICIOUS FISH 2021 the most 
avoided team?  What insult will suffice, I cannot say.  And it looks like LADY 
WARRIORS avoided them the most this turn.  What a pack of would be losers, if you ask 
me.  Hmph.  GREAT WHITE SHARK was challenged more times this turn than the 
Duelmaster.  Now was the DM insulted or feared?  Heh, heh.   
     Some people like volunteer work in the hospitals.  I volunteer for JADE 
MOUNTAIN's morgue.  More variety.  We're all going to die in the end, so why worry if 
the fate catches up with you sooner that later?   
     What does the JADE MOUNTAIN arena have in common with the inns?  It's just as 
comfortable to sleep in either place.  Ha ha ha ha!  Just wait 'till next time I show 
up here, I won't be so nice!  So nyaaah!  I see the crowds are getting restless, I 
must leave now-- Snide Clemens  

DUELMASTER                     W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 BOUDICCA 3975                16   0  1   123       LADY WARRIORS (353)

CHALLENGER CHAMPIONS           W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 GREAT WHITE SHARK 4001       12   6  0   101       VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)

CHAMPIONS                      W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 HUNTER 3963                  13  14  0    89       SAND DANCERS (67)
 PERILOUS PIRANHA 4002        11   7  1    88       VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)
-OUT OUT 3937                 19   6  0    85       DEFROSTED (349)
 THE ALLIGATOR GAR 4000       10   8  0    80       VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)
 ZENOBIA 3973                  8   4  0    75       LADY WARRIORS (353)
 HO CHANG 3942                17  17  0    68       SAND DANCERS (67)

CHALLENGER ADEPTS              W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 COLESTAH 3997                 6   0  3    58       LADY WARRIORS (353)

ADEPTS                         W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 LOTUS BLOSSOM 3962           12  15  0    51       SAND DANCERS (67)
 FLOWER POWER 3902             3   1  1    43       TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)
-JOAN D'ARC 3986               4   0  0    41       LADY WARRIORS (353)
 FALLING MOUNTAIN 3987         7   6  0    39       SAND DANCERS (67)

CHALLENGER INITIATES           W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 PUFFER FISH PERIL 3998        8  10  0    34       VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)

CHALLENGER INITIATES           W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 BRUTAL BARRACUDA 3999         7  11  0    32       VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)

INITIATES                      W   L  K POINTS      TEAM NAME                  
 DEATH BY PROXY 3945           1   0  0    17       TEA@TEMPE20.3 (345)
 SNOWDRIFT 4012                1   0  0    16       SAND DANCERS (67)
 CALAMITY JANE 3996            2   3  0     9       LADY WARRIORS (353)

'-' denotes a warrior who did not fight this turn.

THE DEAD                W  L K TEAM NAME            SLAIN BY              TURN Revenge?
BLACK FRIDAY 3948      11 19 0 SAND DANCERS 67      PERILOUS PIRANHA 4002 726   
DRAPMASTER TRUMP 3946   0  1 0 TEA@TEMPE20.3 345    CHAO-SO TALLTREE      727  NONE
FIREBALL 3943           0  1 0 TEA@TEMPE20.3 345    TREEMASTER            727  NONE
FRED TEH PS 3944        0  1 0 TEA@TEMPE20.3 345    STONEWALKER           727  NONE
SHIRKER 3958            1  3 0 ZOMBIE SQUAD 112 351 COLESTAH 3997         723  NOT REVENGED

                                     PERSONAL ADS

Hey, Lady Warriors, way to go! 5-0! Ladies, I salute you. -- Ms. Fu

Great White Shark, perhaps you were listening to the song "Baby Shark" way too much? 
-- Boudicca

Falling Mountain, I hope I didn't topple you too badly. -- Colestah

Brutal Barracuda, tsk, tsk. I am not THAT good! What happened? --Joan D'Arc 
(celebrating her surprising win)

Ho Chang, I was pleased with my performance. I hope you can quickly recover from your 
injuries. -- Zenobia

Sai-Ki, thanks for the fill-in effort. Too bad your pegleg is such a hamper. -- 
Calamity Jane

Ladies of the world unite! Let's drink wine together. -- Ms. Fu

Alligator Gar -- I hope you FREEZE and get smashed by ice floes in the river. -- Lotus 
Blossom

Perilous Piranha -- I knew the shopping binge was too good to last. -- ghost of Black 
Friday

Zenobia -- What would I do with your hand? -- Ho Chang, who has two of his own

Puffer Fish Peril -- Change your train! -- Hunter

Colestah -- Pah.  I wish you would fall off a mountain, or lie down and let me fall on 
you. -- Falling Mountain

                                  LAST WEEK'S FIGHTS

FRED TEH PS was viciously butchered by STONEWALKER in a 3 minute Dark Arena fight.
DRAPMASTER TRUMP was viciously butchered by CHAO-SO TALLTREE in a 2 minute battle.
FIREBALL was murdered by TREEMASTER in a 1 minute Dark Arena fight.
BOUDICCA unbelievably bested GREAT WHITE SHARK in a 3 minute Title brawl.
ZENOBIA was defeated by HUNTER in a crowd pleasing 1 minute match.
PERILOUS PIRANHA bested HO CHANG in a 2 minute gory duel.
THE ALLIGATOR GAR was bested by KO-HA OAKCHOPPER in a 2 minute bloody match.
COLESTAH handily defeated LOTUS BLOSSOM in a action packed 1 minute uneven fight.
PUFFER FISH PERIL was viciously subdued by FLOWER POWER in a popular 2 minute duel.
BRUTAL BARRACUDA was vanquished by FALLING MOUNTAIN in a 1 minute one-sided fight.
CALAMITY JANE was savagely defeated by DEATH BY PROXY in a exciting 4 minute fight.
SNOWDRIFT devastated SAI-KI THE PEGLEG in a 2 minute mismatched conflict.

                                    BATTLE REPORT

             MOST POPULAR                        RECORD DURING THE LAST 10 TURNS     
|FIGHTING STYLE               FIGHTS        FIGHTING STYLE     W -   L -  K   PERCENT|
|SLASHING ATTACK                  5         SLASHING ATTACK   25 -   7 -  4      78  |
|AIMED BLOW                       4         LUNGING ATTACK     9 -   5 -  0      64  |
|TOTAL PARRY                      3         TOTAL PARRY       13 -   9 -  0      59  |
|WALL OF STEEL                    2         AIMED BLOW        10 -  10 -  0      50  |
|STRIKING ATTACK                  2         PARRY-RIPOSTE      5 -   7 -  0      42  |
|PARRY-RIPOSTE                    1         STRIKING ATTACK    4 -   6 -  0      40  |
|LUNGING ATTACK                   1         WALL OF STEEL     11 -  20 -  0      35  |
|BASHING ATTACK                   1         BASHING ATTACK     3 -   8 -  0      27  |
|PARRY-LUNGE                      0         PARRY-STRIKE       0 -   0 -  0       0  |
|PARRY-STRIKE                     0         PARRY-LUNGE        0 -   0 -  0       0  |

Turn 727 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    5 -  0     TOTAL PARRY        1 -  2         3  SLASHING ATTACK
WALL OF STEEL      1 -  1     AIMED BLOW         1 -  3         2  WALL OF STEEL  
                              PARRY-LUNGE        0 -  0         2  AIMED BLOW     
                              PARRY-STRIKE       0 -  0         1  TOTAL PARRY    
                              PARRY-RIPOSTE      0 -  1         1  LUNGING ATTACK 
                              LUNGING ATTACK     0 -  1         1  STRIKING ATTACK
                              STRIKING ATTACK    0 -  2         1  PARRY-RIPOSTE  
                              BASHING ATTACK     0 -  1     

                               TOP WARRIOR OF EACH STYLE

FIGHTING STYLE   WARRIOR                     W   L  K PNTS TEAM NAME                  
TOTAL PARRY      BOUDICCA 3975              16   0  1  123 LADY WARRIORS (353)
LUNGING ATTACK   GREAT WHITE SHARK 4001     12   6  0  101 VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)
SLASHING ATTACK  PERILOUS PIRANHA 4002      11   7  1   88 VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)
AIMED BLOW       THE ALLIGATOR GAR 4000     10   8  0   80 VICIOUS FISH 2021 (357)
STRIKING ATTACK  ZENOBIA 3973                8   4  0   75 LADY WARRIORS (353)
Note: Warriors have a winning record and are an Adept or Above.

The overall popularity leader is GREAT WHITE SHARK 4001.  The most popular warrior 
this turn was GREAT WHITE SHARK 4001.  The ten other most popular fighters were DEATH 
BY PROXY 3945, FLOWER POWER 3902, PERILOUS PIRANHA 4002, FRED TEH PS 3944, COLESTAH 
3997, DRAPMASTER TRUMP 3946, THE ALLIGATOR GAR 4000, FALLING MOUNTAIN 3987, SNOWDRIFT 
4012, and BOUDICCA 3975.

The least popular fighter this week was CALAMITY JANE 3996.  The other ten least 
popular fighters were FIREBALL 3943, BRUTAL BARRACUDA 3999, PUFFER FISH PERIL 3998, 
LOTUS BLOSSOM 3962, HO CHANG 3942, HUNTER 3963, ZENOBIA 3973, BOUDICCA 3975, 
SNOWDRIFT 4012, and FALLING MOUNTAIN 3987.

                 FACE-TO-FACE TOURNEY LXVI

PRIMUS TOURNEY                         W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
SAMURAI 3119 (148-92-4)                5  3  0         GOLD STANDARD        
SAMSARA 3055 (75-57-0)                 1  4  0         GOLD STANDARD        
PARTY'S OVER 2179 (106-90-0)           0  5  0         EASTERN HORDE        

ELIGIBLES TOURNEY                      W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
MURDEROUS THRUST 3562 (100-48-7)       2  3  0         CRITICALS            

ADM TOURNEY                            W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
SPIRALS 3613 (103-30-2)                2  3  0         CRITICALS            
MENACING FURY 3859 (20-6-1)            0  3  0         CRITICALS            

FRESHMEN TOURNEY                       W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
DEE AY 1699 (74-130-3)                 8  3  0         BLOODMOON GUILD      
WINNER 813 (38-36-3)                   3  3  0         SUPERIOR FORCES      

CHAMPIONS TOURNEY                      W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
DEMONIC FURY 3929 (8-0-1)              7  3  0         CRITICALS            

ADEPTS TOURNEY                         W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
BOUDICCA 3975 (14-0-1)                 0  3  0         LADY WARRIORS        

INITIATES TOURNEY                      W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
BAD SANTA 3883 (4-1-0)                 1  3  0         HOLIDAY HELLIONS     

APPRENTICES TOURNEY                    W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
COLESTAH 3997 (4-0-3)                  7  3  1         LADY WARRIORS        
HOWDY HAL 3861 (0-0-0)                 0  3  0         WEIRD STUDENTS       

ROOKIES TOURNEY                        W  L  K         TEAM NAME            
HALIAX 3991 (0-0-0)                    5  3  0         THE CHANDRIAN        
CINDER 3993 (0-0-0)                    1  3  0         THE CHANDRIAN        

                              MY TAKE ON THE PARRY SLASH

I'm sure I'm not covering any new ground with my insights on the Wall of Steel. It is 
my best fighting style and a favorite. I have currently 3 in ADM, and about a half 
dozen active in the arenas with one currently undefeated and Duelmaster in DM 41. 

So a bit about my observations.  Like most defensive styles it seems to work best to 
run these guys offensively while they are young so I outfit them and run them like a 
slasher. They favor the initiative, parry and attack skills which sucks a bit in ADM 
because they lack in defense skill and since defense is king in the late game, Walls 
of Steel fall back into the pack quite a bit. It stinks but done right they can hold 
their own vs anyone except end game lungers and aimed blows who seem to be way OP at 
that level. 

Anyway, stats are important of course. Strength should at least be 9+ to get slashing 
weapons. Con can be lower; I have gotten away with a con of 7 because I run them fast 
and furious anyway so if they get out jumped or crit dodged and ripped then they go 
down easy. Most fights are over in minute 1 anyway. Size is a thing; smaller sizes 
would be nice but you have issues with damage if you go low size and strength less 
than 11. I have an upper limit of around 14 size and a lower one of 5 in my current 
crew. Wit is a no brainer: 15+ is almost mandatory but I am running one with a 13 that 
is doing ok but learning slows down to a crawl if you have less than 15. Will is super 
necessary so I try not to go below 15 here with a build. Speed isn't really a 
priority, so I often go as low as 3 here and they still do very well. More speed would 
be nice, but speed is a luxury and not a necessity. Deftness is nice, I won't run a 
WOS with less than a 13 here; my highest is 21 with a current ADM build.

Now how to run them. Well, minute one is offensive so I typically run 10-10-6 and then 
taper off to a high offensive effort and a low or moderate activity level. It seems 
that the majority of my ADM builds prefer a high-low pace. 

So a couple of current warrior builds to show off the style. 

     Midnight, currently in ADM -- 9-11(2)-10-17-15-3-21, about to start stat raises 
     but currently has ad masters in attack and initiative. 

     Ishmail currently in Home Guard -- 12-9-6-15-17-9-15, currently at 93 skills and 
     wont be stat raising for a minute.

     Average Joe in Mordant -- 11-11-14-13-13-9-13, painfully bad at learning and 
     definitely not recommended for the faint of heart.

     Beowulf in Seam -- 11-12-9-15-17-3-17, currently at 54 skills and near the top of 
     the arena. Has fallen on hard times of late because of diminishing returns on 
     skill learns. 

     Broken in Shadowspire -- 9-14-9-17-17-5-13, very new and probably going to be a 
     .500 warrior when it's all said and done because of the low speed and deftness 
     combo.

     Bender in DM 41 -- 9-7-14-17-17-3-17, currently undefeated and duelmaster, won't 
     last long but he started out as a tourney warrior and has gone at best 6-3 and 
     went 4-3 in this past mail-in as an adept.

So for anyone who doesn't know, a speed and deftness of 21 total is needed to get 
normal coordination and a combo of 28 is needed to get the "fights well with either 
hand" tag on your roll up. So not really relevant to the topic but just thought I'd 
throw that out there. I like to keep this total at the very least 18 to get slightly 
uncoordinated on all my builds because coordination is vital to defense and attack. 

Okay, that's my take on this fun style. If I have enlightened anyone then you are 
welcome, I hope I at least entertained everyone. Take it easy.  

                                          -- Eli