Dueling & the Potters Army Tier list

PART 1: DUELING

Being an active member on PA and never dueling is like being in a debate club and never talking. Yeah it happens every so often, but most people duel, especially the graduates. There are numerous situations where your character would duel of course. If your in a faction, you'll be involved in faction battles, which happen quite often. As for students, they can go to the dueling club and duel with another student there.

Some members don't like to duel. Thats perfectly fine, and you don't have to read this thread then. But have a look before you participate in a duel, or you might be unknowingly breaking the rules.

Predictably, unrealistic dueling happens very often. In fact, it happens so often there is no way to stop it, but we have done our best to limit it. We have mainly done this by creating Dueling rules and creating a Tier list. To see the Tier list, check the following post. The rules, scroll down.

DUELING RULES:

1. DO NOT duel unrealistically.
   
   
2. Recognize Magical Limits according to your Tier and your age.
   
   
3. Use spells that your characters would use. Shacklebolt for example would not use Crucio.. etc.
   
   
4. Respect the Tier list. If someone's at a higher Tier level then you, like it or not, they are better than you in dueling. So keep that in mind while roleplaying
   
   
5. Only use the spells which you are ALLOWED to use. For the list, check the Spell Compendium
   
   
6. Don't constantly dodge every spell that comes your way, thats not realistic
   
   
7. You can't block every spell that comes your way either.
   
   
8. Make sure you have a good understanding about what the spell does. Again, check the Spell Compendium when in doubt.
   
   
9. Use a MAX of three spells a post. Any more and its unrealistic.
   
   
10. And follow the normal rules of roleplaying during dueling. IE: no godmoding, metagaming... etc.

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ETHICS OF DUELING

Try NOT to make your opponent go insane, as there are a couple of things that could make a duel very annoying for them. To avoid this, you need to understand dueling better, and what could annoy your opponent quite a lot.

First of all, dodging. Dodging spells happens quite often in the books. Or does it? In many instances in the book, the spell misses. Misses, not dodged. Dodging a spell is not quite like dodging a bullet, but it is like dodging a ball pitched directly at you at a high speed. It's very hard. So having: Person 1 shoots spell. Person 2 dodges, shoots spell. Person 1 dodges etc. is annoying , unrealistic and not fun at all.You can't dodge every spell that comes at you.

Secondly, blocking. Protego is the most overused spell in dueling and its usually used in a wrong way as well. Protego blocks most spells (all except Avada Kedavra) but it weakens over time, and sometimes it only partly blocks spells (ala Harry vs. Dolohov OOTP). This happens especially when someone is way stronger than you. So you cannot completely block a spell from a wizard in a way higher tier than you.

So how do you avoid spells? Well, much like RL battles, wizards usually use cover. This means ducking behind something which will block the spell. (graves in the graveyard duel).

Next - sending multiple spells in one post is not allowed. Maybe two, or three, but not more. Why? Because when you use a spell against someone, they have enough time to dodge or block it then send one back. So you won't have time to cast two at a time, yet alone four.

You can use objects in the environment, but please do it realistically. A basic student wouldn't be sending tree's at their opponent. For more information on this check "How Magic Works thread."

On a last note, try to get hit every once in a while. Its not like your dueling to see who will win, you choose if you want to let your opponent win. If you feel that he used a spell well, be nice and let them win the duel. Or if your just bored and don't see the duel going anywhere, you could just retreat and not duel with the person again.

Most importantly, Duels, like roleplaying, are to have fun. They are NOT contest's. In contest's you cant choose who wins. So don't take it to seriously. Don't think, oh my character is better so I should win the duel. It doesn't work like that, its all about fun. The only real exception in that rule is dueling competetions, where the judges decide who did better. Dueling is, in the end, roleplaying. Its not only about sending spells at a person. For example, it shouldn't be like "Vincent casted sectusempra at the opponent, then casted avis to form birds. Oppugno! He casted nonverbally, sending the birds to the opponent. Using incarcerous, he tied them in ropes, making it impossible to dodge spells. He then used stupefy, petrificus totalus, avada kedavra and crucio at the opponent. He then used the ruducto curse on the cieling above to make it drop on the opponent." Thats an example of an extremely bad post. And believe it or not, it DOES happen. DON't do that. Roleplay about your characters feelings, their thoughts.. etc.

ALL rules of roleplaying rules apply in dueling as well including thr 75 word minimum.

next post - the Tier List.

PART 2. THE TIER LIST

At Potters Army, we have a tier list to sort characters according to their magical potential. What is this tier list? Well read on.

See, dueling and battles are important at PA, for some members more than others, however, dueling and battles can also lead to unrealistic roleplaying, metagaming etc. To minimize this, we sort all the characters from their magical levels. This creates a system, which helps stop, for example, a first year student defeating a graduate. Every active character at Potters Army is listed in this tier list. If you are dueling someone in a higher Tier Level than your character, then you will most likely lose, and if you duel as if your character is more superior, the other person can just remind you, or notify an admin. Because if you do that, you are roleplaying unrealistically, which IS against the rules.

We sort people in Tier levels after accepting their applications. They can of course, go up in Tier level while roleplaying, but this is difficult to do. How do we sort people? Well thats quite simple. A graduate who is exceptionally talented goes to Tier three, an average or good one goes to Tier 4, a below average one goes to Tier five. Students aren't sorted into Tiers. As how good a student is depends on their year. A first year for example, stands no chance against a NEWT student. To get to Tier two, you have to: RP a bit and prove you can roleplay realistically, roleplay for a while and be of appropriate AGE (see the "How Magic Works" thread).

If you aren't happy with your Magic Level, contact an admin.

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So at PA, there are basically 8 levels of Magic.

1) Top Tier.Characters in this are the best of the best. No one messes with em. Only canon characters are at this level. Such as Voldemort, Bellatrix, or

2) Tier 2. These wizards/witches are great at magic, have high ranks and are experienced. These are leader of factions or exceptional wizards and witches.
Examples of characters from the series are Lupin, Moody etc.
To take or make a Tier 2 character, you need at least ONE active character, and need to be responsible and realistic.

3) Tier 3. Or High tier. Characters in this level are the very talented Graduates. These mean the best Aurors or advanced Death Eaters and Order members.
Examples of characters from the series are Tonks, etc. These characters are usually far better than Examples of Potters Army characters are Vincent Majere or Lucius Malfoy.

4) Tier 4. Characters in this level are graduates who are good at magic, though not exceptional. Exceptional NEWT students can be in this tier too, though very rarely
Examples of characters from the series are Harry (7th year), Hermione, Umbridge, etc.

5) Tier 5. Middle Tier. Characters in this level are graduates who aren't so good at magic, or NEWT students who are good at it.

Examples of characters from the series are Fenrir Greyback, Ron etc.

6) Tier 6. Characters in this level are NEWT students. (Will not show)

7) Tier 7. Characters in this level are OWL students (Will not show)

8 )Tier 8. Characters in this level are basic students. (Will not show)

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Any character who isn't sorted into one of the Tiers is either a) A ghost or b) a new member who hasn't been accepted yet or c) A student who is not in the 7th Year.

How does this Magical Potential system work? Basically if a person is in a higher Tier than you, they will most likely win a duel unless they allow you to win. The person in a higher tier can roleplay more superiorly and dodge and block their opponents spells more easily. A character in a lower Tier than their opponent can rarely do that, and are often at a disadvantage. If your in a lower level than your opponent, and still duel as if your character is superior, than it is unrealistic and therefore against the rules of Potters Army. The other person may report you, and they are also allowed to godmode you if you do this.

The Spell compendium features spells that you can use to your according Tier. Go have a look there.

Magical artifacts and whatnot don't matter. They may take you to a higher tier, but after that, even if you have the best wand, or whatever, it doesn't mean your character is superior to another who is in a higher level than you.

The admins automatically rank people according to their magical potential, ranks and age to their magical levels. If you dispute it, just PM any admin. Age of course is the most important factor to which tier you are in. For information as to why, read the 'How Magic Works' thread. Ranks also have a big effect on the Tiers. As with more ranks, you get more power.

To read more about Tiers, see the last post. For now this is all you really need to know.

Next post, example of a good duel.