The new Duelist starting area - OP for LLD?

I have been looking at it too. One thing to note is that he actually gets less block pen than previously. Other than that I agree that the duelist has gotten insanely strong for PvP without crit, only exception to that is twin terrors.

The APS is insane and so is the damage. U get acces to unwavering stance somewhat easier aswell (for some builds, which can mean the difference of 400 life, resists and other stats.)

He still does not get acrobatics tho, and currently 70 percent of llders seem to be Shadows or Rangers and Witch. The dex side of the tree is the only tree that seems to be introduced to LLD, but now the STR/DEX class actually got introduced more aswell. (Not that it sucked previously.)

I quess we are going to figure out if stuff is op or up by seeing how marauders and templars are going to perform. Currently the templar is actually the strongest for extremely early PvP. (Very high damage on hit early on while still getting life, talking about current tree.)

IMO the balance is not only related to classes, but base weapons associated with the characters, which are going to be extremely hard to change in order to balance better for PvP, but with this duelist tree revamp I hope we could see more weapons being viable.

The templar is also interresting. I def think its a buff for him in LLD (For melee. dont ask me about casters.) The problem about the templar is that 1: There are no good melee skills associated with him for LLD other than possibly Glacial Hammer, which got fucked by a nerf and introduction of Multistrike (Possibly increased mana reservation for Hatred, as it costed alot of mana to use GH), and 2: His base items suck dick, which encourages you to use duelist weapons on a templar for LLD in Melee. One thing that might change is the new upcoming elemental melee skill, which I hope for Gods sake will be some sort of high damage multiplier ele skill. If it doenst help, the be prepared for Melee templar to suck dick even harder than you have ever seen in LLD in the history of PoE, because he can no longer use duelist weapons, which tells you alot about how base weapons are not taken much into consideration when it comes to LLD balance.

I know im talking about other classes, but thats because the base weapons are associated with these characters. I play the Duelist only because the templar is a piece of shit, and because base tiers are better for Duelist. Its just rly retarded how the templar works with current tree for LLD.

Duelist did need a smaall buff imo, im just more concerned about base item balance more than I am with tree balance as of this update. (Mainly because Fell The Weak and, the Sword node under it got removed near templar.)

FIX THE TEMPLARS BASE WEAPONS FOR LLD, and for God sake give the poor old man a skill that doesnt suck dick.(And then nerf the skill that somewhat sucks dick???) The only reason duelist is "killing machine" is because it was possible to make him due to base item tiers, so GGG grabbed that option. (Which will prob, introduce some more variety hopefully.) It seems they cant do that for Templar, but we will see.

I rly dont feel like commenting on Marauder due to lack of experience. He got some sword nodes now tho, and u can potentially get block pen nodes with him, which does give him something at least.

Duelist still doesnt get acrobatics, just keep that one in mind. Anyways thats just my opinion on the topic.

By all means tho, strength based Melee needed a HUGE buff in LLD, Duelist just happens to be str/dex so he gets DOUBLE BUFF, at least thats the reason I see as to why he got so strong. Next step is to make "int based melee" work.