Is the duelist a good class for beginners?

First class/build, whatever you want. You'll screw it up big time anyway.

Next char, make a Duelist.

After that, check out Kripparrian's videos.

As previously mentioned, you really have two choices initially.

First, which most people recommend, is to simply pick whatever class you think fits your idea of how you'd want to play, and just give it a shot. If you take your time, do all the side quests / mostly full clear the areas as you go, and don't get really unlucky with drops, you should be able to clear Normal in a softcore league. You might need to 'zerg' some of the tough bosses, especially Dominus, but it's doable.

However, it is very likely that you'll get stuck somewhere in Cruel, or early Merciless. Once XP penalties start kicking in, you can't progress anymore if you're dying all the time. At this point it will probably be easier to simply abandon your character and start a new one rather that try to salvage this one.


The other option is to find a good build guide, and follow it step by step with no deviation. This will mean that your build won't be an issue, so if you get stuck 'fixing' the character is just an issue of farming and/or trading for the right gear.

The problem with the latter is that there are so many complex mechanics at play in PoE that it's very hard to understand what's going on without the context of having it be something you've faced in game. Once you have gotten to a certain point and been exposed to the different types of things that happen in the game, you'll have a much easier time understanding the principles behind good builds and good gear, so if you want to be able to make your own decisions at some point, it's worth going through the growing pains once.

Okay guys thanks for the replies. I chose a duelist at first but then decided to play as the witch. I'm gonna take the witch so that I can understand the gameplay mechanics while also not have a complex character to build.

all my friends who've started this game almost inevitably end up with a duelist blender. it's getting boring for me to see, but really it covers pretty much all you need to get to maps for a first character.