The Healing Oak!

Description:           

                   This guide uses an oak build centered upon the use of the wings of seraphim favor item; in short, your objective is to be quick, use a lot of quick attacks like penitence and surge, while being amazingly deceptive and crafty in the way you get your kills and escape from battles. Notwithstanding your combat abilities, you make an excellent support fighter like sedna in as much as you can shield and use wings of seraphim on allies, keeping them safe from danger at a moment where they are near death. You will not beat everyone, but all things being equal it will be a cold day in hell before you die many a death.

Favor Item: Wings of Seraphim

                   2000 Health restored over 10 seconds (200 per second). Its weakness is that if you suffer damage while using it the effect will automatically break. This item is a poor man's heart of life, but should not be viewed only as being such. There are diverse ways to use this item effectively, all of which will be elaborated upon in the three sections of Combat, Healing, and Flight.

Combat:           

                   Part A, Deception - Philosophically, this build relies heavily upon deception and craftiness. Your main weapons will be penitence, surge, and shield (an offensive tool). You pound your opponent with penitence and surge as many times as possible in order to lower the def. and speed (penitence) while increasing your attack and movement speed (surge). When you are low on health, this moment is when you active shield--which you should get at least the first three levels of which--use wings of seraphim, and then watch as your opponent who thinks that you are dead now finds himself in a sticky predicament. There may be an argument made as to whether or not on should use Blood of the Fallen (+800 Health and +5 Health Per Sec.) versus the wings, but it is an easy decision to make for me. Level 1 shield will allow you 3 seconds to heal 600 Health, Level 4 with allow you 4 seconds to heal 800, and Level 7 will allow you to heal 1200. Now, if your opponent takes to flight, chances are that you will be able to recover the full 2000! So at Level 4 you can already match the value you get with the blood, while at Level 7 you get a nice 1200 at the very least. If your opponent runs you can use wand of speed to chance him down, in which case you can pound him again with penitence. A good finish a combination of surge/penitence while the enemy is still in range if you know you can deal enough damage with both. In many cases you can penitence your foe multiple times while he is still in flight, something which is hard to do if you use an oak build that relies on minions alone and soul power.

            Part B, Craftiness - Using quick attacks like penitence and surge, one great method of making kills is to use the teleport scroll. Find a situation where you have a weaker demigod like a regulus or torch bearer, a foe near death, or a moment where one or more allies are engaged; use the teleport scroll and immedinate use the abovementioned combo, a wave of initial damage that will be hard to overcome in a drawn out fight. This tactic works very well against foes that would otherwise outrun you like regulus or torch bearer, but also helps against foes that have more health like unclean beast and others. Outside of outright decieving your enemies into believing that you have no health, whereupon you use wings and shield, you can simply outwit your opponents by teleporting to where they are at times they least expect it, dealing fast damage with penitence and surge, while being able to chase them down with wand of speed--keeping them in range for more dishing out of penitence. Oak does not possess the power to stun opponents or warp in like erebus, so being as sly as possible is a must for getting kills early in the game.

Healing:           

                   Early in the game you have a significant advantage with respect to recovery power; even if you take on a demigod in a duel immediately, you can always retreat and use wings to recover a full 2000 Health. Your bread and butter move will be to use wings in conjunction with shield while in combat, or retreating to a safe spot to get the full 2000 worth of recovery. Using wings thus will allow you to avoid going back to the health crystal in order to replenish health, nor will you have use for priests. When your allies are low on health, make sure you guys are at a safe distance from taking damage (otherwise the effect of wings will be broken), that they are also in range of the wings ability, and then use it to restore their health. When in the midst of a fight, an excellent way to save your allies is to shield your dying buddy, use wand of speed to run up to or past him, and then use the wings to recover his health while he is retreating! In this way you can both prevent damage being done but also recover that which is dealt to an ally. Being a healing oak is not only about recovering your own health, but restoring that of your teammates.

Flight:           

                   You know that you could possible lose a battle or that you have been ambushed and your life is in peril. In this case you do three things: first, shield yourself; second, use wings to recover your health; third, use wand of speed to haul your recovering behind out of there. Nine times out of ten you will be able to recover a full 2000 because you will outrun your opponents or they will cease to attack a shielded oak. Another very easy recourse is to shield yourself, use wings, and immediately use a teleport scroll while still shielded. The length of duration for the shield, especially at Level 7, will give you enough time to teleport without being stunned or taking further damage--the only thing that can interrupt his teleport even with shield is another oak's penitence. Try not to use wings, shield, or wand of speed upon entering a battle in order to give yourself the option of using all three in the scenario where you are going to be badly beaten. Like a bat swarming erebus, it is hard to kill an oak that both shields and heals himself on the run, and even more unlikely is to kill him if he uses a teleport scroll while shielded.

Abilities:           

Level 1: Shield I

Level 2: Penitence I

Level 4: Shield II/ Penitence II

Level 5: Surge I

Level 7: Shield III / Penitence III

Level 10: Shield IV / Penitence IV / Surge II

Levels 11: Soul Power I + 20 ATK

Levels 12: Wards I +40 Bonus ATK with 3 spirits (20 Bonus ATK with 1)

Levels 13-14: Soul Power II, III +20 ATK each level; +20 Bonus ATK each level (Getting these two levels yields +80 ATK)

Levels 15: Surge

Level 16-17: Wards II, III +20ATK upon reaching Wards III.

Levels 18: Wards IV +20 ATK

Levels 19-20: Last Stand I, II

Summary of Soul Power / Wards: Cost-efficiency reaches max damage using four levels to accumulate 140 additional damage per hit.

Items (in order):           

Banded Mail (with scale armor gives you enough protection to stay in fights early in the game)

Scale Armor

Vlemish Faceguard (in conjunction with Plenor and Unbreakable Boots, it will give you enough mana for the game)

Wand of Speed (the oak is slow; this wand will allow you to chase down foes or outrun them).

Teleport Scrolls (maybe one or two just to see if you can get a kill or to escape in a sticky situation).

Plenor Battle Crown

Nimoth Armor (very nice for the price and the armor / health it provides.

Unbreakable Boots (after selling scale armor)

Teleport Scolls (generally after the boots and sometimes one or two around the time I get the wand; have at least two of them so you can teleport to ambush an opponent, while still having one left to retreat in case of emergency, especially when chasing down a foe into his own base near his portals.)

Narmoth's Ring / Bishops Idol  (not absolutely necessary, but if you sell the banded armor you'll get a nice health regen. in addition to life drain with Narmoth's; I get this item if I know that I need more health to be competitive. I take the Bishops idol if I face UBs or health stacking oaks.)

Gold Usage: Generally I try to get the currency upgrades and buy reinforcements instead of worrying about artifacts or overpriced armor that does not get you the bang for the buck.

How to deal with all the demigods:

Torch Bearer / Regulus: I list them together because they are both squishy foes that die easily. The healing oak should be able to handle them very easily, especially if they do not get gear to add to their health. The best way to kill them is to chase them down with penitence, and the best way to initial combat is to teleport to a flag they are trying to capture and pound them with a combination of abilities. They can be pretty fast, so this is where the wand of speed comes in along with the added effects of movement slowing / accelerating due to penitence and surge. Watch out for the ice torch bearer, however, because if he stuns you and lengthens your cooldowns, you could be in for a problem if you are already low on health and cannot use wings.

Oak: If you face a minion oak, your advantage will lie in your usage of penitence and surge multiple times. You should ultimately fair very well against this one if you use wings effectively (or a teleport scroll), and the simple way to dispatch him if he uses minions / spirits is to buy a parasite egg--your damage due to your abilities will kill the minions as all damage dealt to the master is dealt to them. In using the egg the use of shield will be paramount as it will protect you from minion damage until you can wipe out the weaker ones like spirits. Furthermore, you may realize there may be an initial problem with a good minion oak mid-game if they are both stacking health items and at the same time going for the extra 200 damage increase by selecting the soul power and dead wards abilities from the onset. As you look for mana they look for health, but you SHOULD be able to out-kill them because of your being able to run opponents down with penitence (usable more times because of more mana). Once you get more kills you stack up on armor, and you can also buy minions like priests to counter their own usage thereof. Another minor problem with the healing oak versus the minion build oak with wards / soul power is that you sacrifice the attack bonuses early on for maxing out your penitence, surge, and shield abilities--the Level 7 shield giving you virtual immunity to any attempt to block a teleport. With this disadvantage a head-on approach is not appropriate once they've maxed out their spirit wards and soul power--between levels 8-12--so you either wait until you have your own or get a parasite egg to destroy theirs. If you face an oak who similarly uses penitence and surge, your deceptiveness in using wings / shield at the last minute will come into play, and in the long run of the battle carry the day. Notwithstanding its power to deal with most oak builds, the healing oak will be absolutely destroyed by an oak that uses items like the hauberk of life and has all six if not most of the morale levels--along with a ring of divine might favor item being used. By the time you destroy all the spirits and weaker idol minions, you will already be half-dead. Your only recourse in this case is guerilla warfare.

Unclean Beast / Sedna: I put them in the same place because you can have issues with them for the most part, unless you face a spitting beast. If you face a Sedna that stacks health, her health regen. will often recover the a lot of the damage you deal with penitence, her heals will further unbalance the fight, and if she pounces you that there will be another problem for the healing oak. Weak Sednas are not too much of a problem, and you can use your normal tactics. Your best bet for killing the health-oriented Sedna will be to wait until you have gotten spirits and soul power in order to solo her, otherwise wait for an ally. Realistically, if you INTERRUPT every single heal she does with penitence (or most of them), you can kill her easily; but this is rare, and when it happens it is sweet like candy. Once Sedna heals, count to seven in order to time your penitence with the expiration of her cooldown (both penitence and heal have a cooldown of seven seconds). Ultimately, the best oak build for Sedna is a minion / spirit build using the Ring of Divine Might favor item. The Unclean Beast, if he is an ooze build with stacked health, will absolutely wreck you, unless you use the alternate healing oak build. If you go with the penitence / surge build, do not be discouraged however, because there are few demigods (even a minion oak) that can solo one of these. In this case your best bet is to ambush them when they are weak, fight alongside your allies and team up on them, or retreat when you see them. They will drain your health with ooze and stun you with their grabs. The spitting beast is more of a suitable match, and the interrupt ability of penitence can at times disrupt the spit they attempt to throw upon you.You might want to add as much health as possible while maintaing mana with plenor and vlemish, but the real trick for fighting the spitting beast is to use priests, bishops etc. The extra healing power will keep you in there as you use your combinations.

Rook: The rook is like food for the healing oak, as you can easily run him down and penitence / surge him multiple times during while he is on his flight path. If he has towers, this moment is when you shield and use wings and power through them as he retreats or to spur him to tuck tail and run. If he attempts to hammer slam, merely run through him to avoid it; if he succeeds in hammer slamming you, lull him into a false sense of complacency and then use wings / shield to turn the tide of the battle. This demigod is so slow that once you get him on the run, he is all but toast. What can be slightly problematic is when you face a hammer slam / boulder rook with a lot of health, in which case the alternate healing oak build would be more suitable. But regardless of build the simple reality is that you can avoid the boulder if you stay at a distance and use penitence. The hammer slam can be also interrupted, so ultimately there are few problems with a rook.

Queen of Thorns: Pretty much a form of annoyance will her shield, but early in the game you can deal with her by just recovering with wings from a safe point. Pounding at the shield with surge and penitence will be your best bet, but a good queen will often keep the shield on as long as possible. But the ultimate way to deal with her is to use penitence when the shield is off, possibily interrupting an attempt to cast it. She will not kill you, but she might not die herself. Nonetheless, if she is busy shielding someone else or out of mana, the punishment from a combination of abilities will do the job along with the pursuit ensured by wand of speed.

Erebus: The real problem with erebus versus any oak (regardless of build, all things being equal) is that there is nothing comparable to bite for the healing oak early in the game, absolutely NOTHING. For example, if you use the alternate healing oak build to get maximum bonus damage from soul power, by level 5 you will be dealing 100 additional damage; for every seven seconds--or one hit of bite--you deal about five attacks totalling 500 additional points, whereas the vampire deals you 425 with bite, while healing himself for 425, effectively dealing 850 damage! At level 7 this becomes 140 bonus damage per hit totally around 700 every seven seconds, compared with level 7 bite, an effective 1200 damage with the healing taken into account. Level 7 penitence does not measure up with its 600 damage, and the cooldowns are the same. Your only option if you use the alternate build is to wait until mid-game where you are at levels 10-12 when you acquire the highest levels of penitence and shield, so you can match up well with him. Using the first build you probably would like to get the spirits and soul power around level 12 if all things are equal. The best time to use shield and wings is just before he is about to bite you, effectively delaying the time he can use the bite that just completed its cooldown. If you face a minion erebus, use the Parasite Egg to get rid of them, while employing shield in order to protect yourself from minion damage until the nightcrawlers and weaker idol minions are destroyed. What can be problematic is if you face a vampire that stacks health instead of mana, in which case you will need to try to counter that with items like Narmoth's Ring. Ultimately the problem you have with him is the fact that he will bat swarm into and out of combat. You should be more than a match for any of them in a one on one, but right before you kill him he will probably warp away to safety. Watch out for the stun, as it can and will interrupt your shield. Your primary tactic will be to find him before he finds you, and for this reason you stock up on teleport scrolls or engage him while he is preoccupied. If you find that you are at a health disadvantge for whatever reason, a Narmoth's ring would do just fine, and at late levels your added strength due to spirits and soul power will help you seize the day.

Additional Stuff - Why I Dislike Spirits and Minions:

The simple fact of the matter if you are trying to get the 20-120 Bonus Damage due to (1-9 Spirits) you can't allow them to die. If you are running through towers chasing down foes they will likely meet their end, and you cannot just leave them at the health crystal in safety if you are teleporting multiple times because with each teleport your minions / spirits go wherever you go, and if you teleport into the middle of a creep swarm as you target someone you might end up losing spirits. Ooze beasts and fire torch bearers will also pose problems. Additionally, you can easily end up outrunning your minions while chasing someone down, and your minions will not be doing any damage as you do so--hence the need of penitence. Honestly, unless you plan to just go full throttle with the wards and get every level that you can have an unlimited supply of spirits at any given time, and in the same breath invest in money to upgrade minion health, or you destroy every tower on the map, one must come to terms with the fact that this build--which relies heavily upon teleport scrolls and quick movement--is not good for minion use. By the end of the game when you will be rarely teleporting to flags to make kills but rather teleporting to flags to lock portals or escape from an enemy base whose portals you just locked, the aforementioned qualms I have with spirits will be inconsequential. For this reason I choose to get spirits later in the game. You cannot undervalue the initial burst effects of surge and penitence combined when teleporting in on a helpless opponent that would soon run, as you now can speed up as he slows down: I would much rather be concerned with investing in skills that keep myself in the chase rather than skills that mean little or nothing if the enemy is out of reach. Lastly, Shield III at Level  7 is nothing to scoff at, an irreplaceable skill if you wish to have immunity to any interrupts when using a teleport scroll.

On the Nature of Parasite Egg:

This item can be countered by an opponent using Orb of Defiance (5 seconds of invulnerability), or an Erebus using mist, in both of which cases you must use hit and run tactics with penitence.

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Alternate Healing Oak Build (Emphasis on getting Soul Power and Wards early)

- Anti Health-Stacked Demigods ( Primarily UBs, Oaks, Rooks; sometimes Erebus).

Level 1: Wards I +40 Bonus ATK with 3 spirits (20 Bonus ATK with 1) when soul power is taken.

Level 2: Soul Power I + 20 ATK

Level 3: Shield I

Level 4: Shield II

Level 5: Soul Power II + 20 ATK; +20 Bonus ATK

Level 6: Penitence (primarily used to chase people down and interrupt people trying to teleport away)

Level 7: Shield III

Level 8: Soul Power III + 20 ATK; +20 Bonus ATK

Level 9-10 : Penitence II / Penitence III

Levels 11-12: Penitence IV / Shield IV

Levels 13-15: Surge I, Surge II, Surge III

Level 16-17: Wards II, III +20ATK upon reaching Wards III.

Levels 18: Wards IV +20 ATK

Levels 19-20: Last Stand I, II

Items (in order):           

Banded Mail (with scale armor gives you enough protection to stay in fights early in the game)

Scale Armor

Nimoth Armor (very nice for the price and the armor / health it provides.)

Wand of Speed (the oak is slow; this wand will allow you to chase down foes or outrun them).

Teleport Scrolls (with this build primarily used to escape, as you will probably lose spirits if you teleport in for a kill).

Bishops Idol

Vlemish Faceguard (in conjunction with Plenor and Unbreakable Boots, it will give you enough mana for the game)

Plenor Battle Crown

Unbreakable Boots (after selling scale armor)

Teleport Scolls (generally after the boots and sometimes one or two around the time I get the wand; have at least two of them so you can teleport to ambush an opponent, while still having one left to retreat in case of emergency, especially when chasing down a foe into his own base near his portals.)

Narmoth's Ring (essential when the opponent is stacking health, after selling banded armor)

Tactics: When going for a kill you will basically be going in straight up. Order your spirits to sit at the health crystal so you can have the bonus damage (80 at Level 8) without losing any of them. As you will lack mana for most of the game, primarily use it only for shield, and penitence when you need to interrupt a teleport.