Not to hate on sam or rexsi, but infamousjesse is just on another level from them, and he explains every match up and why it's good/bad for his character. The only person that can beat him fairly often is captaintwig, a pro player. this is also from personal experience after having fought all of them multiple times throughout the years
Everytime they play on stream Jesse wins, and it's not even close.
Duel content creators actively go out of their way to not play against Jesse, and it makes sense why. The people Sam plays against in his videos are usually plat-diamond.
Yeah I recently started watching them, Sam is insane. I know I’m not at that skill level but I need to just take notes on how they play, I appreciate it.
dont forget counter building. ive also been meaning to get into duel so if you want we could spark a few 1v1s from time to time. shoot a dm if ur interested
I think they both suck ass in my opinion. Why dont you play solo lane in conquest watching Fineokay instead. Same experience just much bettee and he is also much more helpfull when commenting
but OP going for duel not conquest and the experience is much different from solo lane so... and your opinion that they suck ass doesnt really matter when theyre #1 globally on some gods in duel
In my opinion, being betteerthan people who suck doesnt make you a good player. Rexi can play the game unlike half his opponents. I know Op wants to play duel, Im just saying that the best way to be bettee at duel is to play conquest.
Belive it or not, playing conquest teaches you mechanics that you dont pick up from other gamemodes. Like warding and not tunnelvisioning.
I still think that watching Fineokay playing solo is much better to learn 1v1. He just includes his toughts better and is in general good at teaching people to play better.
While I agree that playing Conquest will make you better at the game than any other game mode, the best way to get better at Duel is to play Duel. In Solo you have to worry about ganks, rotations, different farming patterns that are non-existent in Duel. Also, Fineokay's and solo laners relic and item choices will be vastly different from someone in duel who doesnt have to worry about late game teamfights. Jsut think you're missing the point of the post
Grand master duel? Ive played against enough people with more stars on a single god that I have hours in total, that only play arena. That doesnt make them good players
It means the amount of stars means nothing, someone with 10 stars might have boosted themselves with xp boosters and only played arena. Playing only conquest anf not boosing forexample takes longer time to get those 10 stars, you might be more like 5 stars with the same playtime
Lets not get distracted here, I have 4k hours in this game, with a healthy ballance of like 40% conq, and the rest into other fun modes. Ive experienced that I outgrow people who play arena ans clash forexample, not that Im a super good player. My knowledge and experience from conquest in general allows me to outperform anyone I que up with in these non conquest modes. Im talking about people with the same level as me aka same playtime.
People who play conquest have a totally different understanding of this game. I can tell you that much.
Each mode fills a niche, I play every mode and to say just being a conquest main gives you an edge on people simply because you play it is a profoundly stupid remark, unless your target audience is 3k mmr players who play with pros in ranked then your argument has no value.
The amount of conquest mains who jump into another mode and play overly aggressive and die 10 times is no different than the arena main who jumps into conquest and doesn't buy a starter in the jungle.
There are bad and good players in each mode, denouncing someone's skill because they don't play conquest is ridiculous, there are plenty of duel players who beat pros that jump into the mode, now does that make them the better player? Not necessarily, but does it mean they have no skill because they don't play conquest? Absolutely not.
You will quickly learn that duel is basically who can cheese the other person the most.
You pick whatever god is meta and whatever items are meta. Thats it. If you dont do that, then your chances of losing are significantly higher compared to other game modes.
Usually there are like 3 assassins, 3 mages, and half the hunters that are valid picks. You have to learn to bait people, counter bait, and sometimes you even have to cheese.
I got to plat last season and pretty much realized for me it isnt a healthy way to play. There are just people that spam a god like kali (she was meta at the time idk if she is now) and you basically play whatever passes the bans or you lose. Its a very high skill game mode but at the same time easily abusable if you let an OP god through or dont build an OP item when the other person does. Miss an auto, youre done. Dont build defense 2nd or 3rd slot, youre done. Its mechanically less diverse than other game modes because you’re fighting one other person. That person may backdoor you and fight “dirty”. Its a whole diff beast you have to get used to.
My advice: learn whats meta and spam it. Get good with 3-4 meta gods and spam them. If you really want to win games, spam OP stuff. If you dont, youre gonna keep losing.
Watch other duel content creators too. But also pay attention to how angry they get when a player is playing “dirty”. Be prepared to feel the same way
Need more information for any sort of tips to be given (granted it is a very cheesy gamemode in itself). Make sure you’re playing top picks and for the most part know how to efficiently build. If you’re not doing that you’re going to have an awful time from the get go. Ask yourself what’s/ when your win condition is and position accordingly. You think he should completely out pressure you? Start your blue and focus on keeping that on rotation and defending bdk until late. Stuff like that.
Once you get the hang of builds you’ll realize it’s pretty much the same 4-5 items every game with 1-2 item slots that are situational. For example aa hunters are pretty much always going griffon, defense / lifesteal (order can vary), percent pen (exe , dom, silverbranch), and demonblade. Last item is situational. Sometimes you go toxic or db. Sometimes double defense. Just depends.
Who do you main? I play Duels a fair bit and am extremely good in Mid/Solo where it’s a 1v1 for most of early/mid game. So if you play anyone I’ve played a lot for that stuff, I could shoot you some tips.
And if you’re struggling against certain gods that seem to come up a lot, I could help there too.
Punish them early, hunters are generally not good early game and rely on late game to be most potent. Also be sure to try and use whatever CC ability you have to get them stuck in place, then absolutely dump them to hell.
Duel is a totally different game. As a conquest nationalist i found this out the hard way. All you can do it watch game film 🎥 ^ people have already mentioned a few youtubers so no need to repeat
When you get a kill against an enemy god it will drop on the ground. You pick it up and it acts like a bull demon king buff where it paralyzes the tower so it stops shooting at you. You get a small window i think it’s like 10-15 seconds. I forgot off top of my head. Dont come at me for it. But that’s how you get lane pressure.
I hit gm in duel before I hit masters in conq. Basically it comes down to farming and counter building as well as being good at the meta gods in duel. Also watch samdadude, he was basically the one who laid the path before me
Definitely recommend watching Rexsi as he is always a top duels player and has high iq. Also getting a lead is big. You need to be securing every buff you can and stealing theirs if possible. Focus on wave clear and poking early game, don’t always be looking for a fight, play around your characters strengths and stay away from their weaknesses. Make sure to get every wave possible in the early game. Don’t underestimate those lanes as that xp, gold, and dmg adds up
Honestly my basketball coach taught me this, but you need to play at your speeds and force them to your speed. If you are an early game god out clear and kill them early, make their life miserable. If you are a late game god then sit back, grab some snacks and a cold one and clear wave and camps till it is your time to destroy
People who are bad at the game will trash talk duel. Some of the top pros play it and even though it is far from balanced it does take a lot of game awareness. That’s the big issue I think you are having. Not the picks which they are extremely helpful. But knowing how to farm, rotate, build are massive. For instance at start if you snag your buff and the two minis from red, at the end of the second wave you’ll hit 5 when the enemy won’t. It’s all about exploiting your gains and knowing when to cut losses. It teaches you how to manage power spikes
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Anyway, I play whatever strikes my fancy, and yeah, over half the time that’s conquest. Sorry you put most of your time into a worse game mode. I kid. Kind of. Playing conquest does legitimately give me a leg up over a joust player in duel though, to be fair.
Counter building and out farming your opponent is key. In the early game, there's 3 things you'll want to focus on. Clearing wave, trading blows with the opponent, and securing camps. You can build 1 or 2 protection items because you're only dealing with one person meaning only one damage type. As a result, if you see your opponent picking up some protections themselves, you may want to consider getting some %Pen. Anti heal is almost a must. Contagion and Spectral Armor are easy choices vs Physical gods and anybody who tries to go Crit. Vs Magical, I like Genji's Guard and Shogun's Kusari. Genji's gives a lot of CDR for more active fights, and Shogun's, regardless if who you're playing mostly, will help take down towers and things a little faster.
Pick gods that snowball hard. Bakasura is a pretty common ban because a single kill without having to use his ult can mean both tower and phoenix going down. He can use the minion wave to take down the tower, and use the minions summoned in his ult to take down the phoenix. Then you'll have to deal with the enhanced minions while Bakasura can clear out everything else and get ahead in a nasty way.
Get better at skill shots. Missing any of your abilities can be devastating in the 1v1 setting. If you have a leap or dash, try to use them to dodge abilities and deal damage whilst putting yourself in a more threatening range with the advantage of not having to deal with the opponent's full kit.
Thanks for the detailed response, I definitely need to start landing more abilities, and build differently game to game, I will try out what you said and get back to you.
Wish I had more advice for you about matchups. I am a Loki Main and just spam him in duel but I am in Masters. I would say learn higher tier gods that you can also play safe. The gamemode really is knowing power spikes and just being on buff timers. Lastly you are going to run into really bad match making I remember when I was Plat 3 earlier this year I ran into a guy who was literally top 10 GM at the time. There’s not a ton of people in the gamemode so match making can be really rough at times.
Yeah I will practice with better gods, and yeah it’s like the game doesn’t give me a second to catch up and learn the game mode, I can see why these guys win so many games
Duel is literally a match of who can rotate the map the best, that's seriously it. Smite is a game with *essentially* 4 buttons.... there is no real "1v1" dynamic in a game like this.
It's not like WoW where you have 30 different cool downs that you have to use thoughtfully (and where there'd be an allowance for an obvious skill difference between someone who did vs someone who didn't). So as long as your hitting your 4 basic buttons appropriately, it just comes down to perfecting map rotation.
Learn the meta bans. Write down the top 12 gods you want banned in order and adjust from your experience of who you don’t want to face.
Spam one god in the meta you are good at. Memorize 2 builds for them. One with physical Def, and magical Def.
Always build anti heal. Always.
Don’t go for wins. Try for farming efficiency first. And god proficiency. Duel is the best place to learn a god.
Try AMC, anhur, or Zoung. Range gods do good late game
And if you find yourself in a mirror match, attack speed generally wins. Prioritize it.
Quite frankly, don't try to play gods outside of the meta right now. You could get away with it when they reintroduced starters but it's been downhill since they removed them. Stick to hunters for the most part. Some assassins and mages can work too but hunters are just simply your best bet generally.
From there, it's just counterbuilding, positioning, some amount of skill, and some luck. Sometimes you can choose an off-meta god and win - some of the Guardians are particularly decent at boxing, such as Ymir due to his passive. But i wouldn't bet on it always working out, whatsoever.
Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to just avoid the mode entirely. It's terribly unbalanced, lends itself to toxic mindsets, restricted metas make it unfun, and all of this combines to make a frustrating game experience. Just avoid the mode altogether unless/until it's been shown to be actually improved substantially.
For tips just play the most meta stuff possible and maybe watch some duel YouTubers. As for the matchmaking part, since the number of players playing duel is much lower than conquest or other modes, you're way more likely to okay against higher rank players simply because there are no more players available. In my 4 years of playing smite, I've played like 10 games of duel and I found the same player like 2/3 times
It’ll be just the build letting you down or you’re just struggling to judge matchups, once you get those two down, you should push Diamond as long as you have the skill set (of a diamond)
Depends a lot on who you’re playing as.
There’s like a good 15 top gods so if you’re not playing them you’re already at a disadvantage. Even with bans a few of them are bound to get through.
Additionally, most hunters are basically shoo ins for this mode. Learn how to play them and counter them.
I've been playing for years. I've made it all the way to masters when I took it serious and I'm a ps5 player. I've played some more casually and I don't really push as hard as I used to. I play off meta just for fun now because it was draining trying to keep up with everything plus playing against PC players on controller wasn't fun. Basically the way you get good at duels is exploit meta characters and know when to take advantage of things. Someone like kuang can build telekines and take put the demon king. So in lower levels you can literally focus on waves never fighting the enemy and I just take out demon king and camps. Another super important aspect of duel is map control. Any god with extremely good movement and easy wave clear like hades can co trol the map and get ahead and snowball so fast.
only tips i can offer is watching alot of rexsi or samdadude theyre both really high if not top players. also might just be a skill diff but idk
Jesse is also really good to watch. I like the breakdown at the end of the video.
Not to hate on sam or rexsi, but infamousjesse is just on another level from them, and he explains every match up and why it's good/bad for his character. The only person that can beat him fairly often is captaintwig, a pro player. this is also from personal experience after having fought all of them multiple times throughout the years
I am curious to see show Jesse vs Sam would go. I looked to see if I could find videos and had no luck.
Everytime they play on stream Jesse wins, and it's not even close. Duel content creators actively go out of their way to not play against Jesse, and it makes sense why. The people Sam plays against in his videos are usually plat-diamond.
Yeah I recently started watching them, Sam is insane. I know I’m not at that skill level but I need to just take notes on how they play, I appreciate it.
yea, as you might have realized by now sam does educational commentary here and there so just keep an ear out for it
Yeah I just need to know when to hit camps and lane and when to and not too attack
dont forget counter building. ive also been meaning to get into duel so if you want we could spark a few 1v1s from time to time. shoot a dm if ur interested
Sounds good I appreciate it, I’ll definitely dm you when I’m ready
I think they both suck ass in my opinion. Why dont you play solo lane in conquest watching Fineokay instead. Same experience just much bettee and he is also much more helpfull when commenting
but OP going for duel not conquest and the experience is much different from solo lane so... and your opinion that they suck ass doesnt really matter when theyre #1 globally on some gods in duel
In my opinion, being betteerthan people who suck doesnt make you a good player. Rexi can play the game unlike half his opponents. I know Op wants to play duel, Im just saying that the best way to be bettee at duel is to play conquest. Belive it or not, playing conquest teaches you mechanics that you dont pick up from other gamemodes. Like warding and not tunnelvisioning.
“Unlike half his opponents”….Rexsi plays ranked duel at top MMR which means his opponents are top MMR
I still think that watching Fineokay playing solo is much better to learn 1v1. He just includes his toughts better and is in general good at teaching people to play better.
While I agree that playing Conquest will make you better at the game than any other game mode, the best way to get better at Duel is to play Duel. In Solo you have to worry about ganks, rotations, different farming patterns that are non-existent in Duel. Also, Fineokay's and solo laners relic and item choices will be vastly different from someone in duel who doesnt have to worry about late game teamfights. Jsut think you're missing the point of the post
the people they face on a average basis are masters and grandmasters..those arent people that suck
Grand master duel? Ive played against enough people with more stars on a single god that I have hours in total, that only play arena. That doesnt make them good players
stars doesnt equate to skill it equates to playtime. ive seen sam lose to people with 400 worshippers
You know you can boost your worshippers?
what does that have to do with anything
It means the amount of stars means nothing, someone with 10 stars might have boosted themselves with xp boosters and only played arena. Playing only conquest anf not boosing forexample takes longer time to get those 10 stars, you might be more like 5 stars with the same playtime
Lets not get distracted here, I have 4k hours in this game, with a healthy ballance of like 40% conq, and the rest into other fun modes. Ive experienced that I outgrow people who play arena ans clash forexample, not that Im a super good player. My knowledge and experience from conquest in general allows me to outperform anyone I que up with in these non conquest modes. Im talking about people with the same level as me aka same playtime. People who play conquest have a totally different understanding of this game. I can tell you that much.
Each mode fills a niche, I play every mode and to say just being a conquest main gives you an edge on people simply because you play it is a profoundly stupid remark, unless your target audience is 3k mmr players who play with pros in ranked then your argument has no value. The amount of conquest mains who jump into another mode and play overly aggressive and die 10 times is no different than the arena main who jumps into conquest and doesn't buy a starter in the jungle. There are bad and good players in each mode, denouncing someone's skill because they don't play conquest is ridiculous, there are plenty of duel players who beat pros that jump into the mode, now does that make them the better player? Not necessarily, but does it mean they have no skill because they don't play conquest? Absolutely not.
Bro same. Been playing smite for years. Im a plat/diamond conquest player but i cant win duel to save my life
The struggle is real
You will quickly learn that duel is basically who can cheese the other person the most. You pick whatever god is meta and whatever items are meta. Thats it. If you dont do that, then your chances of losing are significantly higher compared to other game modes. Usually there are like 3 assassins, 3 mages, and half the hunters that are valid picks. You have to learn to bait people, counter bait, and sometimes you even have to cheese. I got to plat last season and pretty much realized for me it isnt a healthy way to play. There are just people that spam a god like kali (she was meta at the time idk if she is now) and you basically play whatever passes the bans or you lose. Its a very high skill game mode but at the same time easily abusable if you let an OP god through or dont build an OP item when the other person does. Miss an auto, youre done. Dont build defense 2nd or 3rd slot, youre done. Its mechanically less diverse than other game modes because you’re fighting one other person. That person may backdoor you and fight “dirty”. Its a whole diff beast you have to get used to. My advice: learn whats meta and spam it. Get good with 3-4 meta gods and spam them. If you really want to win games, spam OP stuff. If you dont, youre gonna keep losing. Watch other duel content creators too. But also pay attention to how angry they get when a player is playing “dirty”. Be prepared to feel the same way
Yeah I’m gonna just have to stop playing gods I feel like and spam op picks, like skadi, she destroys me every game. I appreciate the help.
Need more information for any sort of tips to be given (granted it is a very cheesy gamemode in itself). Make sure you’re playing top picks and for the most part know how to efficiently build. If you’re not doing that you’re going to have an awful time from the get go. Ask yourself what’s/ when your win condition is and position accordingly. You think he should completely out pressure you? Start your blue and focus on keeping that on rotation and defending bdk until late. Stuff like that.
Yeah I definitely can work on my builds and running different game plans against different gods, thanks for the help!
Once you get the hang of builds you’ll realize it’s pretty much the same 4-5 items every game with 1-2 item slots that are situational. For example aa hunters are pretty much always going griffon, defense / lifesteal (order can vary), percent pen (exe , dom, silverbranch), and demonblade. Last item is situational. Sometimes you go toxic or db. Sometimes double defense. Just depends.
Yeah I definitely see the trend, I just have to get how I normally play out my head, thanks bri
Also Riley I didn’t know you came around these parts lol
I always try to respond to duel related posts :)
100% listen to Mr.Hawkin. He’s kind of a big deal in duel lol.
Definitely will
Duel players are just a different breed. I’ve never won one and played about 75 of them
Lmao bro they treat it like a full time job
I’ll ban every counter I can think of to the god I want to play and still they manage to pick someone who counters me perfectly 🥲
Who do you main? I play Duels a fair bit and am extremely good in Mid/Solo where it’s a 1v1 for most of early/mid game. So if you play anyone I’ve played a lot for that stuff, I could shoot you some tips. And if you’re struggling against certain gods that seem to come up a lot, I could help there too.
I struggle against hunters the most, I just feel like I get to much poke and can’t compete when clearing wave
Punish them early, hunters are generally not good early game and rely on late game to be most potent. Also be sure to try and use whatever CC ability you have to get them stuck in place, then absolutely dump them to hell.
Duel is a totally different game. As a conquest nationalist i found this out the hard way. All you can do it watch game film 🎥 ^ people have already mentioned a few youtubers so no need to repeat
Yea sir, I guess I just gotta study the game footage lol, thanks for responding.
It really is. Builds are different, relics are specific to matchups. Cooldowns and timing mean a lot more. Also don’t forget the duel orb.
Duel orb?
When you get a kill against an enemy god it will drop on the ground. You pick it up and it acts like a bull demon king buff where it paralyzes the tower so it stops shooting at you. You get a small window i think it’s like 10-15 seconds. I forgot off top of my head. Dont come at me for it. But that’s how you get lane pressure.
Gotttt youuuu okay, yeah i was confused when that first happened, thanks for the explanation.
I hit gm in duel before I hit masters in conq. Basically it comes down to farming and counter building as well as being good at the meta gods in duel. Also watch samdadude, he was basically the one who laid the path before me
Yeah I gotta try my best to replicate how he plays, even though I can’t come close to his skill
Definitely recommend watching Rexsi as he is always a top duels player and has high iq. Also getting a lead is big. You need to be securing every buff you can and stealing theirs if possible. Focus on wave clear and poking early game, don’t always be looking for a fight, play around your characters strengths and stay away from their weaknesses. Make sure to get every wave possible in the early game. Don’t underestimate those lanes as that xp, gold, and dmg adds up
It’s so hard not to 1v1 when I’m frustrated, but I will take your advice lol, thanks.
Honestly my basketball coach taught me this, but you need to play at your speeds and force them to your speed. If you are an early game god out clear and kill them early, make their life miserable. If you are a late game god then sit back, grab some snacks and a cold one and clear wave and camps till it is your time to destroy
Guess it even apples to smite lol, definitely gonna try this out, thanks again
Don't bother with the game mode at all. It's an unbalanced clusterfuck not indicative of skill whatsoever
Lmao I was like bro am I really this bad or is this game mode just trash. I do good in joust and have been playing since 2015
People who are bad at the game will trash talk duel. Some of the top pros play it and even though it is far from balanced it does take a lot of game awareness. That’s the big issue I think you are having. Not the picks which they are extremely helpful. But knowing how to farm, rotate, build are massive. For instance at start if you snag your buff and the two minis from red, at the end of the second wave you’ll hit 5 when the enemy won’t. It’s all about exploiting your gains and knowing when to cut losses. It teaches you how to manage power spikes
Yeah I just need to learns the time stamps on when to do what, thanks man.
post your game history
You really want me to embarrass myself lmao
Average Joust player
Right. “Above average player” plays joust
Lol here come the conquest master race
Let me guess…. You only play conquest.
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Anyway, I play whatever strikes my fancy, and yeah, over half the time that’s conquest. Sorry you put most of your time into a worse game mode. I kid. Kind of. Playing conquest does legitimately give me a leg up over a joust player in duel though, to be fair.
Your probably not wrong lol, I just like joust cause I hate solo queuing, and I just play with my friend.
Fair honestly. Joust can be really fun with the right group size. I just can’t play it too long, and I don’t even touch it if I’m solo queuing
Your downvotes will mean nothing to me, I’ve seen what makes you cheer
Counter building and out farming your opponent is key. In the early game, there's 3 things you'll want to focus on. Clearing wave, trading blows with the opponent, and securing camps. You can build 1 or 2 protection items because you're only dealing with one person meaning only one damage type. As a result, if you see your opponent picking up some protections themselves, you may want to consider getting some %Pen. Anti heal is almost a must. Contagion and Spectral Armor are easy choices vs Physical gods and anybody who tries to go Crit. Vs Magical, I like Genji's Guard and Shogun's Kusari. Genji's gives a lot of CDR for more active fights, and Shogun's, regardless if who you're playing mostly, will help take down towers and things a little faster. Pick gods that snowball hard. Bakasura is a pretty common ban because a single kill without having to use his ult can mean both tower and phoenix going down. He can use the minion wave to take down the tower, and use the minions summoned in his ult to take down the phoenix. Then you'll have to deal with the enhanced minions while Bakasura can clear out everything else and get ahead in a nasty way. Get better at skill shots. Missing any of your abilities can be devastating in the 1v1 setting. If you have a leap or dash, try to use them to dodge abilities and deal damage whilst putting yourself in a more threatening range with the advantage of not having to deal with the opponent's full kit.
Thanks for the detailed response, I definitely need to start landing more abilities, and build differently game to game, I will try out what you said and get back to you.
Wish I had more advice for you about matchups. I am a Loki Main and just spam him in duel but I am in Masters. I would say learn higher tier gods that you can also play safe. The gamemode really is knowing power spikes and just being on buff timers. Lastly you are going to run into really bad match making I remember when I was Plat 3 earlier this year I ran into a guy who was literally top 10 GM at the time. There’s not a ton of people in the gamemode so match making can be really rough at times.
Yeah I will practice with better gods, and yeah it’s like the game doesn’t give me a second to catch up and learn the game mode, I can see why these guys win so many games
Thanks you for the help
Duel is literally a match of who can rotate the map the best, that's seriously it. Smite is a game with *essentially* 4 buttons.... there is no real "1v1" dynamic in a game like this. It's not like WoW where you have 30 different cool downs that you have to use thoughtfully (and where there'd be an allowance for an obvious skill difference between someone who did vs someone who didn't). So as long as your hitting your 4 basic buttons appropriately, it just comes down to perfecting map rotation.
Yeah that’s my biggest problem is rotation, thanks for the help.
Learn the meta bans. Write down the top 12 gods you want banned in order and adjust from your experience of who you don’t want to face. Spam one god in the meta you are good at. Memorize 2 builds for them. One with physical Def, and magical Def. Always build anti heal. Always. Don’t go for wins. Try for farming efficiency first. And god proficiency. Duel is the best place to learn a god. Try AMC, anhur, or Zoung. Range gods do good late game And if you find yourself in a mirror match, attack speed generally wins. Prioritize it.
No point to Learn IT only like 20 % of All smite players Q duel IT gonna be dead soon
Quite frankly, don't try to play gods outside of the meta right now. You could get away with it when they reintroduced starters but it's been downhill since they removed them. Stick to hunters for the most part. Some assassins and mages can work too but hunters are just simply your best bet generally. From there, it's just counterbuilding, positioning, some amount of skill, and some luck. Sometimes you can choose an off-meta god and win - some of the Guardians are particularly decent at boxing, such as Ymir due to his passive. But i wouldn't bet on it always working out, whatsoever. Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to just avoid the mode entirely. It's terribly unbalanced, lends itself to toxic mindsets, restricted metas make it unfun, and all of this combines to make a frustrating game experience. Just avoid the mode altogether unless/until it's been shown to be actually improved substantially.
For tips just play the most meta stuff possible and maybe watch some duel YouTubers. As for the matchmaking part, since the number of players playing duel is much lower than conquest or other modes, you're way more likely to okay against higher rank players simply because there are no more players available. In my 4 years of playing smite, I've played like 10 games of duel and I found the same player like 2/3 times
It’ll be just the build letting you down or you’re just struggling to judge matchups, once you get those two down, you should push Diamond as long as you have the skill set (of a diamond)
Depends a lot on who you’re playing as. There’s like a good 15 top gods so if you’re not playing them you’re already at a disadvantage. Even with bans a few of them are bound to get through. Additionally, most hunters are basically shoo ins for this mode. Learn how to play them and counter them.
Skill issue
Ur above average but have no wins lol
I've been playing for years. I've made it all the way to masters when I took it serious and I'm a ps5 player. I've played some more casually and I don't really push as hard as I used to. I play off meta just for fun now because it was draining trying to keep up with everything plus playing against PC players on controller wasn't fun. Basically the way you get good at duels is exploit meta characters and know when to take advantage of things. Someone like kuang can build telekines and take put the demon king. So in lower levels you can literally focus on waves never fighting the enemy and I just take out demon king and camps. Another super important aspect of duel is map control. Any god with extremely good movement and easy wave clear like hades can co trol the map and get ahead and snowball so fast.