I always prefer to take confusion over discord II. I just love being able to turn a group against each other. Plus distracting the boss is invaluable. As to lunge, I tend to take lunge 1 over disengage 2 these days if idon't take that I take strafe attack, because strafe 2 + bow. When disengage 2 got a damage nerf, it lost priority on my list although youmake some fairly convincing points so Ill look into it on my next duelist run. Oh, and shroud of wind is definitely still OP early game. The upper dungeon has some of the most pits out of the mainstream dungeons and the rails across give a whole new meaning to the word kiting. Meanwhile, the only things even capable of hitting you, being ranged, are hitting themselves instead of you. On such levels I rarely even need lightning bolt (except to take out supporters outside my rage). Unfortunately Idon't have the time to write an opinion piece on shroud of wind so for now I'll just wish you a happy new year!
Viewing post in Anyone have optimal skill progression for the various classes?
I find confusion just doesn't do enough at lvl 1 for 6mp, compared to what you can get for 4mp. It feels like a waste of mp whenever I try. The only boss you can't kite from easily, the archer, dies so fast to discord 2.
We will just have to disagree on shroud of wind, imo it doesn't give much value early game compared to more LB2 killing everything.
Happy new year to you as well :)
Strafe 2 would come a long time after disengage 2, so taking strafe 1 instead of disengage 2 doesn't make sense. Strafe lets you attack more, but gets much less value out of each speed point. Combining lunge and disengage lets you kill far more stuff, with 3+ actions per turn, often keeping multiple speed points. I value dash attack more then strafe as it provides additional gap close and utility (ability to move through enemies). Even against Yendor I find I often prefer to chain disengage, lunge, dash attack, knockback (charge, power strike, cyclone strike), lunge, disengage, compared to just spending all the speed points on basic attacks with strafe.
I agree with you late game, but strafe attack is an invaluable asset to an early game duelist who can't afford to use their other (admittedly very powerful) abilities often. strafe attack allows one to stay mobile while continuing to doll out modest damage (+ you get that sweet strafe dodge) . While I agree that dash attack is much better, strafe attack has some good distance applications as well. I'll admit that strafe attack pales in comparison to many late game tactics available it is usually enough to trivialize most upper dungeon encounters (assuming that you have a bow otherwise it just makes melee more interesting).
If you have a bow I find upper dungeon is completely trivialized by that alone, no need for strafe attack. Additionally, a bow greatly multiplies the power of disengage 2: You can put everything into kill range, and keep 100% uptime on your SP by always getting the points back. A bow and disengage 2 is far more powerful than a bow and strafe attack in UD. Disengage 2 is all about letting you use those more powerful abilities more often, that's why it is essential imo for a duellist to get it immediately.