Gaming
He’s already one of the least successful heroes in Dota, so here are the common mistakes to avoid.
In the two short weeks since his arrival, Oracle has already forced his way to the nether reaches of Dota 2’s hero ranking. If not for Io’s permanently horrendous win rate, he’d be bottom of the class as least successful hero.
It’s natural, with him being a new addition, for many to not understand how Oracle plays, and thus to lose with him. But there is something about the hero that makes losing with him a lot easier than with other debutants like Terrorblade or Techies: Oracle is hard.
The trick to winning with Oracle is to have a pure understanding of Dota from a mechanical standpoint, to have a deep grasp of all aspects of the game’s inner working and apply that knowledge at exactly the right moment in fights. Suffice to say, there are few who can boast such comprehensive awareness and even pros make mistakes. But whereas with some heroes, mistakes will get you killed, with Oracle mistakes get everyone killed. Here are some tips on how to avoid them.
Know your damage
The first main principle to nail with Oracle is to know about damage types. In the recent Rekindling patch, damage was simplified slightly by the removal of composite damage, but there are still three others to learn: physical, magical and pure damage. The reason this is such an important keystone to build off with Oracle is that the majority of his abilities interact with each other on a damage type basis.
Your W, Fate’s Edict, also completely negates magical damage on its target, acting as a sort of Black King Bar to afford 100 percent immunity to magical spells. But it also enhances the effects of physical and pure damage by 50 percent. On top of that, it disarms the target, preventing them from right-clicking enemies for three to six seconds.
There’s a lot to keep in mind with just that one spell, then: is your ally taking too much magical damage? Are they a hero who deals damage through right-click attacks? Are you casting on an opponent? Will they be receiving magical or physical damage? Do they deal damage through right-click? Every time you use that one spell, you must consider the damage types from both friend and foe and, ideally, communicate your action to your team. There’s nothing worse than using it on an enemy just as your team’s Lion is about to try Finger of Death – only for the magic resistance to save them. Or trying to save your Phantom Assassin just as she blinks in to punch the enemy Axe a few times – only to find herself disarmed. But you have other spells that interact with Fate’s Edict, and here’s how they can help.
Know your combos
Oracle isn’t quite a wombo combo hero. He doesn’t blink into the middle of a teamfight and proclaim “THIS IS REAL NOW, SUCKERS!” like Sand King or Tidehunter. But all of his abilities work in tandem with each other, on allies and enemies alike. Your E, Purifying Flames, is both an early-game nuke (dealing 90-360 magical damage) and a heal-over-time. The total healing amounts to slightly more than the initial nuke damage, so if you’re not careful and use it when your opponent isn’t low enough on health for the first hit to kill them, you’ll end up healing them up after 7 seconds. But there are ways around this.
Your Q, Fortune’s End, is a targeted disable dealing magical nuke damage between 75 and 300. You can channel it to increase the disable duration, but it will always deal full damage. And, importantly, it is also a purge, meaning it removes all buffs from enemies. This ranges from any ability or item-based attack modifiers, and even magical resistances like Omniknight’s Repel. But, more importantly, it purges healing effects, such as those from Purifying Flames. Using this, you can safely cast Flames on an enemy and follow it up with the purge from Fortune’s End to remove the healing effect and double down on the initial nuke damage.
The inverse of this is to cast your W, Fate’s Edict, on an ally to give them magic immunity and then cast Flames, to avoid dealing the initial (magical) nuke damage, but keep the healing afterburn. All of this multiple spell casting will be quite intense on your mana, but it’s essential to your role in the team.
Know your role
Your role is to keep your team alive any way you can. As a result, healing will be one of your main duties, so remember to grab an Urn early on, and a Mekanism later. This will help keep your mana up as you won’t be forced to Edict + Flames your allies in lane, and prevent you running out. Running out of mana is your number one concern, as without spells you are almost entirely useless in a fight. Oracle’s right-click attack is one of the best in the game, but you’re not a carry. As a result, always go for Arcane Boots.
When healing, remember that your ultimate, False Promise, isn’t just for hiding an ally and preventing them taking damage until the end of a fight. If it looks like your carry is in trouble, ulti them (be quite liberal with it, the cooldown’s only 20 seconds) and then spam any healing you have. Mek, Urn (if they’re not taking damage that could cancel it any more) and don’t be afraid to use Purifying Flames. The nuke will never kill an ally, and due to all healing being doubled during your ultimate, your ally will receive far more health back than the nuke takes away.
You don’t have to know everything there is to know about Dota to be useful to your team, but you do have to be wary about when to use which spells. Study up, practice a bit and you’ll be making clutch False Promise saves in no time!
