Duelist is better as a starter because the bottom of the tree is stacked, absolutely stupidly stacked.
Guardian minion start is also super good but the radiant big boy falls off hard and becomes a wasted ascendancy to get to unwavering crusade. And minions are 1 single archetype meanwhile duelist can do almost anything other than caster.
Slayer, champ and glad never fall off. They get even stronger