My personal duel tier list
I got a little bit of want for writing a thread left after my other two so this one will round out my final thread for awhile. Disclaimer, this tier list is from a pc perspective. I am not a competitive player but I do understand the game some what at a competitive level. There for my rankings will be based on a mix of both. While I currently play on PC exclusively and play basically only dominion I have a long history of duels on console for most of the game's life span. Finally let me explain the ranking system briefly. There will be 4 ranks: Meta, strong, flawed but usable, unviable.
Meta picks are heros that essentially make up for one's not solid grip on fundamentals. And are even stronger if you do have a good grip. Strong heros do not carry you as hard but are still more than good enough for anyone to pick up and get good results. Flawed but usable are kits with several issues but if played absolutely perfectly can still net wins in high tier. And unviable is what it is. Wins with these heros are less based on the kit itself and speak more towards either the individual's capabilities or how poorly the opponent played. And last but not least the heros are NOT I repeat not ranked in order in the individual tiers. That would require much deeper matchup knowledge than I currently have.
Meta picks:
-warden
-lawbringer
-conq
-black prior
-warlord
3 of these heros have dodge bashes which are very strong defensively. 4 of these heros have the capability to deal with bash based offense. all 5 have aspects that are strong defensively. Warden has his back dodge bash. LB has a 400ms neutral light and a dodge armored bash. Conq has side dodge SB bashes, a strong zone option select and other OS options. BP's flip makes neutral based bashes far less threatening access to FB and backwards enhanced lights which are unpunishable if spaced right.
Warlord has a versatile full block, enhanced back walk lights, a strong zone option select etc.
Strong picks:
-gladiator
-pk
-centurion
-berzerker
-tiandi
-shaman
Gladiator's zone option select and toe stab are strong tools for defensive play but he's not got much else going for him. Pk's zone option select is probably the strongest in the game in terms of stuffing mix ups. Solid enough offense when you delay things. sort of lacks offense when the person isn't bleeding. She's carried by her defense but doesn't have strong defense. Centurion would be higher if it weren't for his total lack of dealing with bashes and how badly he's screwed over by option selects. Basically no defensive options what so ever besides an alright zone option select. Zerk doesn't have an option select, is easily spaced, and blocking is easier to deal with mix up wise over having to dodge. He at least has a way to punish bashes. Tiandi has undodgable lights to punish bashes, delayble 400ms attacks. A neutral bash that can be difficult to punish. kinda good defensively. Shaman's problem is how hard she's punished upon her opponent reading her right and her heavy reliance on knowing how to flicker her bite/bash. Very strong dodge attack in terms of defensive capability. Underrated for sure.
Flawed but usable:
-hitokiri
-highlander
-nobushi
-jj
-shaolin
-raider
-kensei
-valk
-nuxia
-zhanhu
Hito has no answer to bashes, a poor zone option select, and very shaky offense due to how much back walk attacks counter most or all of it depending on the hero. The nerfs didn't really effect her duel wise in a significant way in my opinion. Highlander has the come back potential of the century if you fully master his kit. Being able to end most rounds in 3 hits is absurd. His trading capability is underrated and of course even in nerfed state he can still semi turtle in OF and make up a bit with back walk lights having absurd range. Sounds good. But you have so much to over come to get there. The very definition of a pub stomp hero. Probably a controversial placement but I still put a lot of faith into nobushi. her HS is still a decent option select tool. Back lights if timed correctly avoid mix ups while punishing them. She's like a weaker highlander.
Nuxia lacks an option select, doesn't have a very good dodge attack for defense, and her gimmick is inconsistent. Despite all of that she has some of the strongest chain offense with double delayable 400ms lights. And even if her traps are not as strong currently they do make her heavies a bit safer to use in general. Meaning she ends up getting more damage in then you'd initially think. Zhanhu was hard to place. If you fully take advantage of every aspect in his kit you can absolutely pull wins. But one mistake punishes you so incredibly hard against most of the cast. And you can't rely on his dodge attacks due to a lack of I frames. Also his zone is pretty poor for option selecting.
Unviable:
-orochi
-aramusha
-shugoki
-shinobi
-jorge
Orochi has a good zone option select. And a decent deflect mix up. That's literally it. Aramusha's only remarkable offense of delayed 400ms deadly feint lights is unfortunately hard countered by many of the defensive tools the higher heros have. Full block is a benefit. but it's not good. Shugoki has zero offense and is hard punished for obscene damage if he ever commits to a full charge heavy or demon's embrace. Zone isn't even a decent OS tool. Shinobi can space and chip away slowly. Not much else. No remarkable defense options. High damage profile though. Jorm can no longer bash someone into OOS territory reliably. Entirely relies on the enemy playing poorly. zone and dodge into neutral bash are semi decent defensive tools. Dodge heavy is an okay parry mix up bait since you need to land a heavy blocked or not on an enemy for mid chain to have offense at all.
To summarize in order to be a good pick in duels you need exceptional defense and ways to punish/discourage strong offense. Having offense is also nice but not as important. If you're lacking in either of these areas pretty hard and/or your particular offense is pretty negated by better heros you can't really climb the ranks. If need be I can touch more on specifics for heros if asked. But i'm not all knowledgable so I may not be able to answer specific questions. To close out I will list some heros that I feel will move tiers come mid season patch:
-nuxia...she will most likely move from flawed to strong. Traps will be proper unreactable. And she has a few attacks that prevent you from defaulting to dodge out of her chains. Her lack of a decent defensive tool is still going to hurt her a lot though.
-valk...can potentially move from flawed to strong. She has a zone option select now. Back dodge into her stance and then feinting out is still a decent enough mix up avoider. her heavy soft feint bash is proper unpunishable now outside having a dodge attack. Her offense will be a bit more reliable overall due to indicator and animation changes. She'll still be held back because of dodge attacks against her and still having feint game/finisher issues.
-gladiator will likely go from strong to meta. Toe stab will be even harder to deal with now that skewer is a real mix up. Having a proper mix up, strong defensive tools, and ability to punish bashes is all prime material for a meta pick. He's only held back now due to basically no offense.
-pk should become meta from strong. Unless things change she'll be the only hero in the game with a 400ms neutral option select tool. If you already know all the strengths of her zone then you should know why that's a big deal. Indicator changes and animation changes is only going to make her decent chain offense even better. And with her ability to OS by parrying from neutral on light but dodge soft feinting it she'll have more solid defensive options to use as well. Her offense is currently reactable on the high end. This should no longer be the case. That and her good defensive options means she should absolutely be meta despite being semi weak from neutral.
-jorge may go from unviable to flawed. This would be entirely due to now having workable offense. He'll still struggle to OOS someone which means trying to do his main punish likely wont happen. But a workable offense with semi decent option select tools in my book means you should be viable in some regard. Even if it's just barely.
If you made it this far thank you for reading. I really do appreciate it.
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