Castle Age Dueler Strategy Guide

Castle Age Dueler Strategy Guide by Sophia Dragonhunter

Introduction

This guide is intended for players who want to specialize in PvP, without having to add 500 strangers to their army. The more people you have in your army, the better, but it is absolutely not necessary. In this guide, you will learn about how to focus on the dueling part of the game. However, this guide is not intended for those who care a lot about their win/loss ratio, because, as a Dueler, you’ll probably have a small army and will be an easy target for Invaders.

Why should I make a Dueler?

What’s fun with a Dueler is that you don’t have to care about being attacked or not. When you lose a fight, you lose gold and battle points, and possibly a few experience points. The good news is that you don’t need gold for anything other than quests prerequisites, since the best items in the game come from demi points and monster rewards, and the best generals come from treasure chests, which costs favor points and not gold. Concerning battle points, you don’t have to be scared either because as a Dueler, you’ll have a pretty good amount of stamina and will be able to gain battle points faster than you lose them. Also, the rank you’re aiming for is not the highest (High King) but the second highest, King. Why? Because the reward for High King is an item [11/11], and there are better options for a Dueler. Additionaly, once you lose the requirements, you lose the privilege of being able to buy those items (High King’s Crowns), but as a King, your reward is 5 stat points, and if you ever stop meeting the requirement (80,000 battle points), you will not lose those stat points. These stat points are a nice bonus, but they are not absolutely necessary to be a successful Dueler. So in the end, you won’t have to worry too much about your battle rank and battle points. Not only that, but you also don’t have to care about your army size. You can be the only one in your army and still be able to beat people with 500+ members in their army. Finally, you can freely pray to Aurora, who offers two of the best items for a dueler, as health isn’t as detrimental to you as it is to an Invader. Why? Because more health only means you can attack more without having to go see Celesta. It also means you can be attacked more when you’re offline, but as I said before, it doesn’t really matter anyways.

Preparation

With all that said, we can start talking about how to be a good Dueler. If you want to be as effective as possible, you should follow these simple steps. If you already started your dueling career before reading this guide, don’t worry, you can easily adapt to these suggestions. First, when you create your character, you will want to select Strider as your starting general. If you already selected your general and it’s not Strider, don’t worry, you can buy him in the Heroes section. There are two reason you want to pick Strider as your first general. First, it’s because he has the best stats for a starting Dueler (3 attack and 0 defense). A bonus of 3 to your attack is huge when you first start out, as you’ll essentially be an attacker, not a defender. The second reason why you want to pick Strider is because he is the first general required to complete a quest. Having him already means you don’t have to waste 5,000 gold on buying him. The next thing you’ll want to do (if possible) is to add at least 5 of each of the demi alignment members to your army. The reason for this is that when you pray to a demi power, such as Ambrosia, you can get up to 5 bonus demi points for the first 5 army members of that demi alignment. This might look like a tiny bonus, but in the end, it saves you about 2 days of demi-blessings to reach the final breakpoint of 4500 demi-points. Ideally, you’ll also want to get a Dragonbane, a Serpentine and a Dragon Charm, which can greatly help a new player, but you can only get those through gifting. If you only have a few friends, you might want to wait until you have enough pieces to make each of those 3 items in the alchemy tab of your keep before starting to battle, as your opponents might have them and be able to repel your attacks. If you have no friends at all, then your first demi blessing should come from Ambrosia, because she’s the only one to offer an item as a 100 points reward.

Equipment

Top 3 Weapons: Zarevok’s Meat Cleaver 44/22 (Arena), Celesta’s Devotion 22/44 (Goblin Emporium), Genesis Sword 20/30 (Genesis)
Top 3 Off-Hand: Sword of Redemption 50/30 (Azeron), Purgatory 30/30 (Azriel), Deathshield 24/24 (Skaar, Goblin Emporium)
Top 3 Helmets: Helm of Dragon Power 30/30 (Dragons), Volcanic Helm 32/14 (Bahamut, both versions), Berserker Helm 12/10 (Malekus)
Top 3 Armors: Deathrune Hellplate 18/27 (Skaar), Archangel’s Battlegear 26/14 (Azriel), Swordsman’s Plate 25/12 (Arena) / Hellforge Plate 25/12 (Bahamut, both versions)
Top 3 Amulets: Transcendence 46/36 (Alchemy), Moonfall Amulet 40/40 (Aurora), Soulless Pendant 25/25 (Azriel)
Top 3 Gloves: Death Touch Gauntlet 12/12 (Lotus, Goblin Emporium), Nightcraft Gauntlets 9/14 (Onslaught Chest), Hellforge Gauntlets 14/6 (Bahamut, both versions)
Top 3 Magic: Gladiator’s Strength 25/12 (Arena), Frost Bolt 12/25 (Ragnarok), Angelic Rebirth 17/17 (Azriel)

Demi Powers

As you can see in the equipment section, the only demi power that does not offer at least 1 high-end item is Corvintheus. What does this means is that you can skip praying to him entirely, as his stat boost is also suboptimal for a Dueler. This leads us to decide which demi power would be the best to pray first. Well, Malekus offers the best stat boost for a Dueler: attack, but he only offers one very good item (which is only 3 attack points higher than Azeron’s Blade of Vengeance) and his Berserker Helm is easily outshone by the Helm of Dragon Power. Ambrosia, while offering 3 good items, is not as good a choice as it might seem. Her Tempest Storm, which is the best magic in the game, is only 2 attack points higher than Lightning Storm, which is obtainable by simply completing quests. Her stat boost is nice, but in general, it’s not enough to make her the best demi power to pray first. Now we’re left with Aurora and Azeron. Both offer 3 very good items, Aurora even offers 2 of the very best items for a Dueler. However, her stat boost, while not as detrimental to you as it would be to an Invader, is not really necessary, since you can always heal at Celesta. Also, the total attack of her 3 best items is lower than the total attack of Azeron’s 3 best items. Azeron’s blessings give a stat boost to stamina. This is very good, especially at the beginning, because it will help you gather your daily demi points for attacking if you can’t check on the game every 5 minutes. In conclusion, Azeron is the best demi power to start with, as he offers 3 good items that will help you for a while, and his stat boost is very nice to start with.

The second demi power you should pray to is Ambrosia. This is because as you progress in your quests, there will eventually be a point where you can’t progress any further with only 84 energy (see Stat points, below). By the time you complete Azeron’s path, you should have around 420 demi-points of Ambrosia, because it takes 42 days (21 blessings) to fully complete Azeron’s path, assuming you have five members of that demi alignment and that you get your daily limit of Azeron points each day. Continuing with Ambrosia as your demi power of choice after Azeron ensures that you get 4500 points and 120 energy (the most energy you’ll ever need for a quest) at the same time. After that, you won’t have to worry about your energy and your Ambrosia demi points ever again. Why Ambrosia instead of Aurora as your second demi power, when Aurora clearly offers better items? Because each time you complete a quest or a subquest to 100%, you receive 1 extra stat point. There are 5 quests in each land, along with 2 subquests for each quest (after you complete the boss quest), and you can complete them up to four times each. This means an extra 60 stat points for each land, which results in much more attack points than the total of Aurora’s items. Also, the only difference between a stat point increase from using stat points or from taking a demi blessing is 100+ bonus demi points. So whether you use 1 stat point to increase your energy by 1 and take Malekus’ blessing to increase your attack by 1, or you use 1 stat point to increase your attack by 1 and take Ambrosia’s blessing to increase your energy by 1, it’s not really different, except for the fact that you’ll eventually get the Tempest Storm. So if you want to be as good a Dueler as possible, you’d be patient and get your last 41 energy points from Ambrosia, since you need to bring your energy up to 120 anyway.

Your third demi-power should be Aurora, simply because she offers 2 of the best items.

Finally, you should pray to Malekus. He offers the best weapon and the best stat boost for a Dueler. You can continue to pray to him even after you finished his path, which is what you should do for the rest of your Dueler career. His attack stat boost will make it so that even if you do not get the Berserker Axe right away, you’ll still become more powerful daily by praying to him.

Then, you have to option to pray to Corvintheus to unlock additional demi quests. Doing so will ensure that you get more than +1 attack per day (compared to Melekus’ blessings when you have all of his items).

Of course, you may ignore all of this if you intend to play for more than 450 days, as you’ll get these items for free by just getting your daily amount of demi-points for battling (and even faster if you fight monsters). So just pick Malekus and stick with him.

Demi Points

You can get up to 105 demi points each day for simply taking the blessing of a demi power (210 in the case of Azeron). But there are two other ways to crank up your demi points. Once a day, you can earn up to 10 demi points of each type by battling. You may earn a demi point of each demi alignment every time you defeat a person of that alignment. You can see a person’s demi alignment by looking at the colored symbol between their picture and their name on the battle page. It is very important that you get at least 10 demi points of Aurora and Azeron each day, because their stat boosts do not directly affect the outcome of a battle, so you want to be done with them as soon as possible. Your next priorities should be Ambrosia, and finally Malekus. This is one of the reasons why it is best to start with Azeron as your demi power. With only 3 stamina to start with, you may not be able to get enough demi points each day for battling. By taking Azeron’s blessings every 2 days, it ensures that you are able to get your daily limit of demi points each day. Even if Corvintheus offers the worst items, you’ll want to eventually obtain his daily limit of demi points too for battling, because he can award you with favor points, which are very useful to you as it means more chance to get the best general, Malekus.The other way to get more demi points each day is by fighting monsters. Each time you hit a monster, you may be awarded a few demi points, at random. It is also possible to receive more demi points as a monster reward.

Generals

Currently, the best general in the game for a Dueler is Malekus [28/18], which is obtainable through the Vanguard Tresure Chest. Because on top of having the best stats for a general, he can give you a bonus to attack of up to 0.45 per general you own (at level 4). So if you own 20 general, you get a bonus of +9 to your personal attack stat. This is a huge bonus, and can be even greater the more generals you own. The downside to this is that he is extremely rare (5% chance of getting an epic; 1/4 of getting Malekus) and comes from the most expensive chest (Vanguard Treasure Chest: 30 FPs for 1; 80 FPs for 3).

Alternatives to Malekus, would be Azeron, Ambrosia, Aurora, Azriel, Sylvanas, Mephistopheles, Athenia, Illusia, Memnon, Lotus Ravenmoore, Keira, Marina, Stone Guardian, Ophelia, Orc King and Vanquish. So if you don’t want to spend Favor Points for generals, your best general will be Keira, but you need to obtain her pieces first. So in the meantime, use Vanquish.

Against monsters, equip Morrigan. While equipped, she gives you a 5% chance to receive extra Demi Points from battles and monster battles when you collect loot, so you can get your demi reward items faster.

Another neat trick is to use Terra/Aria (or Elizabeth Lione/Tifanna for boss quests) to gain energy above your normal maximum. That way, you can spend less stat points than actually needed into energy (see Stat Points, below). So in the end, you get more stat points to spend into attack and stamina.

Also, be sure to level up Sano early and equip him for all subquests. It will help you gather skill points for completing them to 100% a little bit faster.

Stat Points

Stat points allocation for a Dueler is simple, yet requires planning. Your three most important stats are attack, stamina and energy. It is important to note that stat points regenerate at a rate of 1 every 5 minutes, or 12 every hour. This means that if you can log on and play every 2 hours, you won’t need more than 24 stamina, the amount you should have after completing Azeron’s path (21 from demi blessings + starting 3). Your first goal is to get to 120 energy, because it’s the most energy you’ll ever need for a quest. The faster you get your energy up to 120, the faster you’ll gather free stat points for completing quests, subquests and boss quests. It is important to plan how many hard points you’ll have to put in energy. If you followed this guide perfectly, you should have to put 69 hard points into energy, for a total of 84 (with your starting 15) by the time you complete Azeron’s path. After that, no more points in energy, you’ll get your last 36 points from Ambrosia’s blessings. Put all your remaining points into attack and stamina. You should keep a ratio of at least 4 attack points per 1 stamina point. I suggest you do not get more than 120 stamina, that way your stamina and your energy will regenerate and be full at the same time (after 10 hours).

Dueling

When dueling, you bring your selected general, equipped with one of each part of equipment: one weapon, one shield, one helmet, one armor, one amulet and one spell. You have to manually equip your best general for better results, but the game automaticaly picks your best equipment. Your attack stat will greatly increase the outcome of the battle, so it is very important you keep increasing it as you gain stat points. Remember: you will get more battle points for winning against someone of the same battle rank as you than you will lose for losing against that person.

Battle Formula

When attacking: Attack stat + 70% defense stat + (total attack of general and items) + 70% (total defense of general and items) + % luck factor
When defending: 70% attack stat + defense stat + 70% (total attack of general and items) + (total defense of general and items) + % luck factor

Monsters

What is great with your stats allocation is that you’ll have a natural synergy with monster hunting. Monsters require high attack and stamina, and you’ll have plenty. However, you should only spend your stamina on monsters once you have obtained your daily amount of demi points for battling (Corvintheus points are optional). Since I’m running out of characters (there’s a limit of 10,000 characters per post), I’ll simply list the reasons why you’ll want to fight each monster:

Cronus, the World Hydra: Jewel of Fire
Dragons: Dragon Talon (Emerald Dragon), Dragon Scale (Frost Dragon), Fire Wall (Gold Dragon), Jewel of Fire (Ancient Red Dragon), Favor Points, Experience
Sea Serpents: Atlantean Map Pieces, Atlantean Gauntlet, Atlantean Spear, Atlantean Armor, Atlantean Archer, Spartan Helm, Spartan Shield, Spartan Spear, Spartan Warrior

Gildamesh: Gildamesh’s Charm (Summoner), Gildamesh’s Gloves, Gildamesh’s War Plate, Experience
Colossus of Terra: Star Metal, Experience
Sylvanus: Star Crystal
Keira, the Dread Knight: The Dreadnought, Dreadnought Greatsword, Dreadnought Horns, Keira’s Soul (Summoner), Dreadnought Plate, Demon Strength, Dragon Talon
Lotus Ravenmoore: Death Touch Gauntlet, Raven Cloak, Demon Strength

Low-Level Setup

General: Celesta 12/12

Weapon: Trident of the Deep 6/3
Amulet: Gildamesh’s Charm 2/1
Armor: Gildamesh’s War Plate 5/1
Shield: Serpentine Shield 4/6
Helmet: Poseidon’s Horn 7/3
Magic: Dragon Charm 3/1
Glove: Gildamesh’s Gauntlet 2/1

Tips

1. Always stash your gold. This is important as some people will stop attacking you if they see you give them no cash, saving you some battle points. Be sure to equip a level 4 Aeris first, that way you don’t have to pay the fee.
2. Always spy on your target before attacking. You can do this by clicking on their name instead of clicking on Duel. This way, you can see if they have better items than you or not. You can’t see their stat points, but you should not worry too much about that as you’ll have a very high attack stat.
3. Attack the highest ranked people you can find on your battle list. The highest their rank, the most battle points you get for winning.
4. Buy land. I said gold was not really important for a Dueler. While this is true once you hit the higher levels, you must still have some income because you’ll need to buy units and generals for completing quests. You don’t have any other use for that gold anyways, you might as well invest it. Be sure to equip a level 4 Mercedes before logging out, so you can get even more income while away.
5. Plan ahead! Sometimes, the best demi power to pray to is not the same as written in this guide, especially if you didn’t follow this guide to a T. You have to calculate the ratio of power you’d get from praying to a demi power instead of another one.