LogFAQs > #965549761

With apologies for how bloody long it took for something that's probably low-quality. I work in a library, and the last two weeks were a combination of "people had COVID so we're shortstaffed" and "Summer Reading Program is starting oh holy shit."

ANYWAY, I already let this one be known, sooo...

75 - Oracle (ranged Intelligence)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/6/4/AAAACbAADTas.jpg
Basic Abilities: Fortune's End, Fate's Edict, Purifying Flames, Borrowed Time
Shard Ability: Upgrades Borrowed Time to make the recipient invisible with a 0.15 second fade time.
Scepter Ability: New ability "Rain of Destiny," a 650 radius AoE spell that deals 50 HoT/DoT in the area (friend vs foe) while providing healing amplification/reduction in the radius.
7.31 changes: Fate's Edict lasts 0.5 seconds longer at all levels. Fate's Edict has a 1 second longer cooldown at all levels. Purifying Flames manacost equalized to 80 at all levels. Scepter upgrade changed from improving Fates Edict to only disarm enemies/only magic immune allies to the new ability.

Oracle might ooze style, between his look and his voice actor literally being the G-Man, but you know what he doesn't ooze? Competent pub allies. Oracle is among the lowest picked heroes in the game for good reason in lower levels of play, because literally nobody knows what he does - and this usually harms your allies more than his enemies.

Every one of Nerif's abilities can be summed up as "potent, but a double-edged sword." Fortune's End is a single-target point-click which dispels debuffs from allies or dispels buffs, damages, and roots enemies, but its root duration scales in duration to charging time, and if targeting an enemy, they are given vision of Oracle during the windup. Fate's Edict is a single-target point-click buff that simultaneously disarms the target and gives them 100% magic resistance. Lastly, Purifying Flames is a low cooldown, single-target point-click nuke that can hit friend or foe, which will buff the target with a stackable heal-over-time buff.

As such, Oracle's playstyle involves combos and situations, plus knowing what can and can not be dispelled. The basic ones to know about:
Fortune's End (ally) -> charge it on an initiator and release as they're jumping in to root and damage the area around them, plus remove any counter-initiation like DoT debuffs, slows, or cyclones.
Purifying Flames (ally) -> hit them under tower when they're already low for a net gain of regeneration. Purifying Flames by itself cannot kill an ally.
Fate's Edict (enemy) - Disarm your target (and force them to use self-dispelling items early.) Use on scary rightclickers when your magic damage allies aren't nearby.
Fate's Edict (ally) - Use on someone getting ganked to give them a chance to survive the chain of magic damage that tends to go along with it.
Fortune's End (enemy) -> Purifying Flames - your generic nuke combo. Fortune's End will purge the heal over time buff.
Fate's Edict (ally) -> Purifying Flames - your heal/save ability combo. Higher levels of Fate's Edict, plus the talent for Purifying Flames cooldown, will let you stack the buff on an ally to heal them an inch from death, with the only downside being that they can not attack during it.
Fate's Edict (ally) -> Fortune's End (ally) - Block magic damage then dispel the disarm when convenient (while similarly rooting anybody next to the ally)

And that's just basic abilities. Oof. Not mentioned is Oracle's ultimate: False Promise. It buffs the target with an undispellable buff that freezes the target's healthbar in place, strong-dispelling the ally otherwise, and for every bit of damage that strikes the target, it will be bursted on the target at the end, as will any healing - except the healing will be doubled. This causes some nutty interactions based off of healthpool, such as the Oracle target getting nailed by an Ancient Apparition Blast while on a sliver of health, constantly triggering the shatter effect until the end - which causes some hilarious overkill numbers at the end of its duration. Also not mentioned, however, is Oracle's current Scepter upgrade, which looks "meh" on paper but is a decent buff to throw down in the middle of a teamfight to give everyone on his side an advantage and everyone on the enemy side a sizeable disadvantage with the heal amp/reduction swing on top of a sizeable DoT/HoT.

That said... I hate the new Scepter upgrade. It USED to have a huge boon for Fate's Edict - in particular, it didn't make enemies magic immune during the disarm, nor did it disarm allies while giving them 7 seconds of magic immunity, which was hilariously abusable if not for the fact everything Oracle does is single target except for the splash AoE on Fortune's End. He spams so many spells he almost rivals Batrider or Bristleback for "buy wand for free healing" in lane, and yet his aren't low mana at all, which makes him buy mana items or regeneration despite his excellent Int growth and okay Strength growth... yet doesn't help his personal survivability, which is in the toilet due to poor agility and the standard "shoot the medic first" protocol, and... well, we're getting into problem territories. Oh, and did I mention "single target" a lot? This makes Aether Lens almost a necessary pick if neutral items don't go your way, which to be fair, builds into Octarine Core which he *really* wants in the lategame, but all that single targetting is going to shoot him in the face against Lotus Orbs or invisibility sooner or later (even if he can also provide said invisibility with a sharded ult.)

Playing Oracle well is a lot of hair-trigger thinking on your feet, which makes for really fun supporting, and playing him well is an exercise in frustration for the enemy team. Alas, it can be just as frustrating for the Oracle when he starts getting ping-spammed for Disarming the 200 health PA without any lifesteal. But hey, at least he gets to flash farm with Purifying Flames at level 7 if his lane ally shits the bed early, or even better, killsteal with it! Return of the Coreacle, baby?!

Next hero hint: summer's coming. Who's bringing the picnic basket? A blanket? Some watermelon?