Started yesterday, help me with my duelist!

Hello everyone, I just started playing this game for the first time yesterday. I've decided I want to main a duelist. And I have no clue what the duelist is good for or excels at. I just figured he'd be good at dual wielding and went with it. I'm level 11 atm and have been following this guide: http://pathofexilebuilds.com/builds_show.php?id=149

If some one could point me in the right direction and giving me some starter tips for the duelist I'd be very grateful, thank you!

The guide you linked doesn't look like it was made by an experienced player at all. I advise you don't follow it. All he did was disregard all defenses and go for every offensive node.. and even plan up to 120 points(which no one really does).

You can not reach high levels in PoE with such a build and will hugely struggle by midcruel.

Check out the duelist section here for many good guides http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-forum/40 My biggest advise is to focus more on HP if you want a smooth ride to merciless.

I'd bear in mind that 120 point builds are extremely unrealistic, and would plan on more of an open ended 80 point build to start with.

Thank you for the answers, I'll try to find another guide :)

yeah, and like that other guy said, don't neglect defense.
probably most common mistake players make is to hog every offensive node because they feel life and defense is boring.
you need a balance.

With the recent leech mechanism update, life on hit is the way to go for replenishing health. i.e splash attacks, quick attacks, etc.

I am using double strike, with multistrike and splash, and it seems to do the job.