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"I fight with quickness and wit, rather than with brute force and strength. I call myself a duelist because I honed my skills in duels with warriors I encountered over the years." - Isabela
"Duelists are deadly combatants who prefer to fight in light armour and strike with light, but precise attacks. Experienced duelists have preternatural reflexes that allow them to evade their opponents' clumsy blows, as well as strike with remarkable precision."
So, you want to be a duelist? Well, you've come to the right place! Admiral Isabela is flattered you'd ask her to teach you.
Isabela doesn't generally ask for much when taking on a student. However, as dueling is a dexterity-based specialization (and graduates of the training will come away with increased dexterity and damage ability), if she finds you lacking a certain grace or it seems like you are accustomed to fighting in a way that would be incompatible with being a Duelist, she will teach you the basics and no more.
Isabela will insist on getting to know her potential students at least a little bit before starting, and this is your first test in determining if you are worthy to be the Admiral's pupil. There are four options available to do this, and she may ask for more than one:
1) Come with a personal recommendation. If a friend of hers or another rogue (especially Zevran or Varric) has directed you to Isabela for teaching, she will generally honor the request. Members of Zevran's Rogue School come with an automatic recommendation.
2) Drinks and Wicked Grace. The point here is not so much to play the game, but for her to test your cunning, dexterity and possibly even your stealth in catching and proving her a cheat. You will get two chances. If you fail both, she will turn you away.
3) "Private Time" in the Admiral's Quarters. Yes, sex is also an option, regardless of gender, but don't kid yourself, this is still a test of your flexibility, ingenuity, stamina and willingness to take direction.
4) Payment, preferably cash. Pay her enough to make your instruction worth her time, and she generally won't say no. The exact amount is at her discretion on a case-by-case basis. Elves will generally receive a discount, but she will require extra payment from Qunari. No one ever said being a duelist was about fairness.
Training will mainly focus on using dual-wielding daggers and shortswords, but can also be adapted for one-handed longsword combat, crossbow use, and long and short bows. There are three levels of training.
This covers 4 key skill areas, in order of difficulty:
Basic Dueling, which focuses on proper form and increasing attack.
Upset Balance, which teaches the duelist to make a quick move to throw their opponent off balance, reducing their speed and defense unless they are able to physically resist the move.
Keen Defense, in which the duelist develops a knack for simply not being there when their opponent attacks and thus increasing defense.
Pinpoint Striking, in which the duelist learns to strike the vitals of an opponent with pinpoint accuracy from any angle.
At this level, the student works on developing confidence, style and more elaborate techniques in five key skill areas:
Throwing the Gauntlet, where the duelist issues an irresistible challenge to a single opponent, causing said opponent to immediately abandon any other opponents to engage the duelist. A duelist who gains mastery over Throwing the Gauntlet can further refine this skill in a challenge To the Death, where the opponent becomes so absorbed in the duel that not only will they not seek any other opponents until either they or the duelist fall, but becomes careless in their attacks and inflicts less damage against the duelist. With even more experience, the duelist can also add Cutting Barbs to the challenge, taunting the opponent into lowering their guard.
Parrying, in which the duelist's defenses become stronger by knocking the opponent's attacks aside. As the duelist gains experience and confidence, can make even more use of their parries by learning to Riposte, and thus make their counterattacks more lethal, and to use En Garde, where the duelist attacks with increased fury.
Sure Strikes, which comes as the duelist gains more experience and becomes more likely to hit opponents.
Evasive Maneuvers, where the more experienced duelist learns to become keenly aware of incoming attacks and how to avoid them.
Vendetta, a stealth tactic where to best gain the advantage of the first strike, the duelist vanishes behind a cloud of smoke, then strikes the enemy viciously from behind, even from across the battlefield. Once the vendetta has been mastered, the duelist can learn the Blood Feud, which causes even more serious harm against opponents, bypassing armor, and especially effective against opponents that have been staggered.
The advanced level allows the fledgling duelist to learn the power of being Elusive and to specialize their abilities along two distinct skill sets with 14 skill areas each: Step Smartly, which focuses primarily on melee combat (particularly with two daggers) and No Quarter, which focuses more on ranged combat (particularly with a crossbow). Students may choose to learn either skill set, or mix and match from each. It takes a truly dedicated duelist to fully master both.
Following the Step Smartly skill set, the duelist learns these skills:
Flashing Steel, where the duelist lashes out with both daggers, hitting all opponents in melee range. With additional experience, the duelist can refine the technique with Weak Spot, which takes less stamina and causes additional damage to opponents marked by Vendetta.
Dead In The Water, where the duelist gains constitution and opponents who attack while the duelist is being Elusive are weakened.
Gangway, where if the duelist's target is in melee range, they fall back and fire a crossbow shot. If they are at a distance, they hurl a grappling hook to leap to them, then kick them on arrival. As the duelist gains experience, they can refine this skill with Avast, which allows the duelist to use the Gangway technique more often against opponents marked by Vendetta.
Flank Attack, where the duelist leaps through shadows to attack their opponent with deadly strikes that hit them from behind. With further experience, the duelist can refine the attack with Hard Astern, which consumes any active Vendetta mark and makes the duelist more Elusive.
Look But Don't Touch, where, while being Elusive, the duelist is unaffected by damage over time.
Buccaneer, where, just as the Admiral is easy to love but hard to handle, the duelist, too, learns to be hardier, more cunning, and more dexterous.
Avenger, where when a party member dies, the duelist gains maximum Elusive and a bonus to damage.
Hoist the Mainsail, where movement speed increases the more Elusive the duelist is.
Advanced Parrying, where the duelist quickly blocks a strike made by the opponent, then counters as their own defenses fall. This can be further refined with the Effortless Riposte, where if the duelist succeeds in countering a blow, the Parry costs no stamina at all.
Ambush, where the duelist catches an opponent off-guard, taunting them to attack and dealing massive damage if the duelist is not already doing so. Further experience can refine this with Wind in Your Sails, where dealing damage to an opponent the duelist has taunted with Ambush restores some stamina.
Unyielding, where an attack that would bring the duelist down instead leaves the duelist with a small amount of health, and the duelist is immune to all damage for a short time.
Swashbuckle, where the duelist consumes all their active Elusive to unleash a flurry of dagger attacks. The more Elusive, the more attacks. Additional experience can refine this with Daring Speed, which increases the duelist's attack speed the more Elusive the duelist was being.
Naturally Elusive, where the duelist learns to be so Elusive it's like second nature, adding a bonus to being Elusive.
Following the No Quarter skill set, the duelist learns these skills:
Bolt, where the duelist fires a quick shot from their crossbow, placing a Vendetta mark on any enemy the duelist strikes. This can be further refined with Hot Streak, where a critical hit with Bolt gives the duelist an automatic critical hit on the next ability used.
Unforgiving Chain, where, learning to have additional dexterity, the duelist's daggers blur, a dance of deadly pain. Each strike adds to the duelist's critical hit chance. After a critical attack, the chain resets as the duelist begins another dance.
Keelhaul, where the duelist shoots a tethered bolt that chains two opponents together and places a vendetta mark on both of them. Both opponents are slowed and will be pulled together if they get too far away from each other. With experience, this can be further refined with Shark Bait, where Keelhaul chains and adds a Vendetta mark to an additional opponent.
Evade, where the duelist leaps away from incoming attacks, putting the duelist where they need to be to win the fight. With experience, this can be further refined with Hidden Step, where opponents will swear the duelist is still there, attacking empty air and hurting nobody but themselves as the duelist leaps away.
Looked Like It Hurt, where, as the duelist learns to be more cunning, the worst mistake the duelist's opponents can make is to let the duelist see them flinch. Whenever the duelist scores a Critical Hit, the duelist regenerates stamina.
Savvy, where each crossbow ability increases the damage of the duelist's next dagger ability, and each dagger ability increases the damage of the duelist's next crossbow ability.
Salty Sea Dog, where, learning to be hardier, when there are opponents nearby, the duelist's defenses increase. When there are no opponents nearby, the duelist's stamina generation increases.
Crow's Nest Lookout, where, in gaining more dexterity, the duelist's critical hit damage increases, especially against distant targets.
Fallback Plan, where the duelist places a thieves' lantern to mark a fallback location before heading into battle. When the fight gets ugly, the duelist leaps back to safety, as healthy as when the duelist placed the marker. With additional experience, this can be refined to Bait and Switch, where the duelist can fight for a longer period of time before leaping back, and pulls the closest opponent with the duelist.
Blinding Shot, where the duelist shoots an opponent with an explosive blinding powder, causing the opponent's next attack to deal no damage. With additional experience, this can be refined to Brilliant Shot, where the shot now blinds all opponents near the original target.
Broadsides, where the duelist hits all opponents around the target with crossbow bolts, placing a Vendetta mark on every distant secondary target. With additional experience, this can be refined to Cross the T, which does additional damage and weakens all opponents it hits.
Dead Men Tell No Tales, where, upon learning to be even more cunning, if an opponent dies while marked with Vendetta, it spreads to nearby opponents.
Black Mark, where, with further increase to cunning, targets marked with Vendetta take additional damage from all sources.
The Kirkwall Kiss, where, becoming more dexterous, all of the duelist's active cooldowns are reduced each time the duelist deals damage to an enemy marked with Vendetta.
Graduating from training involves, well, a lot of dueling. You have to sufficiently hold your own against Isabela herself and/or best her to get her blessing as a graduate.
Feel free to ask if you have questions or interest!
