Escapologist on the Hunt
An Assassin Oak Guide by Zamzoph
Changelog
7/02/09 - Original Post
Introduction
I love how Oak can do anything. He’s an autoattack brawler, a minion commander, a ranged attacker, a damage taker, a creep clearer, and a team player. I also love the Cloak of Night, the highest-leveled General Favor item, granting a very handy short teleport (I like to call it “blinking”) that greatly increases the ability to pursue or retreat from enemy demigods. Combine this with Oak and his natural abilities, along with the right control and good judgment, and you essentially have an unkillable killing machine. The theme of this guide is playing Oak in an initially Spirit-less assassin style, using his abilities and a few key items, particularly the Cloak of Night, to excel at both chasing down fleeing demigods and escaping from what would have been certain death, eventually becoming proficient in everything like a good Oak should. Being a regular player since launch with over 150 matches, much of my recent time in Demigod has been spent playing as Oak in this style, and I am confident that it is a very effective build. I’ve seen good Assassin Oaks before, and while they tend to be rather annoying, facing one that uses the Cloak of Night would scare the crap out of me, which makes me question why I’m writing this guide. Lucky you.
Skills
- Shield I
- Penitence I
- (save point)
- Penitence II + Shield II
- Surge of Faith I
- (save point)
- Penitence III + Shield III
- Divine Justice I
- (save point)
- Penitence IV + Surge of Faith II
- Soul Power I
- Soul Power II
- Soul Power III
- Raise Dead Ward I
- Surge of Faith III
- Raise Dead Ward II
- Raise Dead Ward III
- Raise Dead Ward IV
- Divine Justice II
- Divine Justice III
Standard Items
Cloak of Night
- Monks
- Banded Armor
- Vlemish Faceguard
- Plenor Battlecrown
- Nimoth Chest Armor
- Hauberk of Life
(in no particular order)
- Narmoth's Ring (replace Banded Armor)
- Bishops (replace Monks)
- Wand of Speed
Luxury Items
- Godplate
- Orb of Veiled Storms
- Mageslayer
- Heart of Life
- Bulwark of the Ages
- Ashkandor
- All Father's Ring
Early Game (Lvls 1-7)
By all means, you’ll usually find yourself comparatively weaker than other demigods right at the start, a commonly known disadvantage for Oak. Fortunately, though, you already start out with two methods of escaping from an opponent who’s beating you down: Shield and the Cloak of Night. With these, you can usually battle until you’re nearly dead and easily fall back. In addition, with Monks and the Cloak of Night’s slight passive mana buff, you can steadily regain both health and a little mana if you’re left unimpeded, allowing you to remain on the frontline longer.
The biggest danger to watch out for is Unclean Beast’s Spit and Regulus’s Snipe, both of which you need your Shield ready to nullify any gank attempts as you (or your allies) fall back. Remember, until you get to Shield III, the ability will only remove negative effects at the moment of its activation, rather than throughout its entire duration, so if you’re being chased down by Unclean Beast, don’t pop Shield until after he Spits on you. Penitence is also handy to stop Snipe attempts on you and your allies, providing you’re in range of Regulus when he begins using his slow and apparent ability.
Skill-wise, your first order of business is to max out Penitence and get Shield III as soon as possible to maximize both your survivability and potential to hunt down your opponents. Shield III is especially important for doubling its duration to six seconds and nullifying all negative effects while it’s active, something which can very likely save you or your ally at some point during the match. It’s also advisable to get your AoE ability, Surge of Faith, as soon as possible at Level 5, allowing you to quickly clear out creep waves, especially if you’re in the middle of a demigod brawl. Early on, it’s the cheapest ability for you to use, and it also helps in chasing down or escaping from enemy demigods, especially if you have an ally by your side.
As for gold expenditure, after starting with a Monk Idol, you’ll want to get all of your passive item slots filled up with relatively cheap (< 2000) mana helmets and health armor. You also need to ensure that the essential Citadel Upgrades get purchased: Fortified Structure I, Building Firepower I (if an opponent is minion-building), Currency I, and Priests. Usually, I get Tower Regen on my first trip back to the Citadel and also Tower AoE, if necessary, requesting that one of my allies at least gets Currency as soon as it’s available. As far as personal items go, I go for the Vlemish Faceguard and Plenor Battlecrown first to perfect my mana, but I’ll likely just settle with getting Banded Armor early if I return to the Citadel without enough cash, which occurs often enough. Early on, I find consumables to be a waste of cash that delays me from getting what I really need so that I can be more effective in combat, with the possible exception of getting a single Teleport Scroll to use in case of an emergency.
Mid Game (Lvls 8-13)
During this stage, you should comfortably be able to battle against any demigod, but the advantage you have is the abilities that allow you to easily pull back if things go sour or hunt down your opponent if he begins to flee. With your escape methods ready, you should also be able to hold off two opponents on your own for at least a little bit, kiting with Penitence and Surge of Faith. Expect to have accumulated several kills, or at least plenty of assists. Usually, at about Level 10, I tend to start knocking on enemy towers to get to the flags on their flanks, making use of Surge of Faithv’s attack speed buff and keeping an eye out for any demigods that are coming to stop me.
With Shield III obtained and only one rank left for Penitence, you can begin allocating your skill points elsewhere. You’ll want both Penitence IV and Surge of Faith II as soon as you hit Level 10, but as for Level 8, Divine Justice I is a good choice for its health and mana regen from kills, especially since your opposition will likely have meatier creep in the form of Priests at this point. After Level 10, it’s time to begin increasing your autoattack, which will come in handy for the later part of the match. Start by maxing out Soul Power so that you can get some permanent weapon damage increase and continue to not have to deal with Spirits for the time being.
By the end of this stage, you should have yourself decked out with everything from “Standard Items”, making you rather hardy with roughly 5000HP and excellent health regen, not to mention still having the mana helms to be able to use your abilities almost whenever you want. By Level 7, it is advised that you always carry at least one Teleport Scroll to use in case of an emergency, but if you find yourself being able to easily take enemy portals and gold flags, flag locks are also acceptable. Further Citadel Upgrades are not necessary at this point.
End Game (Lvls 14-20)
The late stage of the match is when you truly begin to hit critical mass and outclass any single opponent. There’s a chance that you can even battle against two demigods at once with confidence of winning, or at least giving them a hard time without even getting to kill you. If enemy Catapults and Giants are roaming the battlefield at this point, expect to level up very quickly, about just as fast as a Torchbearer, as you use Surge of Faith II or III on every creep wave. Your primary focus in building should be to continue boosting your autoattack, as reflected by the recommended skills and items. At this point, I usually find myself constantly on the move to cap flags, also keeping an eye out for sneaky enemy demigods to gank, but it should be noted that with Divine Justice and Surge of Faith, Oak is very good at riding allied creep waves and pushing to the enemy Citadel.
With Soul Power maxed out, you can begin accumulating weapon damage-enhancing Spirits by investing in Raise Dead Ward up to Rank 4. Just remember to set your Wards on creep killing grounds, something that can actually be forgettable since you did not have them to use until now. I hear that some Oaks would send their Spirits to their health crystal so that they’re not at risk of losing their autoattack buff, but since there will be creep dying all over the place by now, your Spirits can be easily replenished, anyway, so you might as well keep them around to use as conventional minions. So much creep wandering about will also make Surge of Faith III worth getting as soon as possible at Level 15. Once you get the maximum ten Souls, Divine Justice II and III make for good dump skills to keep you and everything else on your side healthy, especially benefitting from killing Giants or health-stacked demigods.
After having gotten all of your standard gear during the mid game, you should see to it that your team upgrades to Catapults and Giants to start the heavy push to the enemy Citadel, making arrangements for who buys what with your allies. Once that’s done, you can start getting yourself some “Luxury Items”. I tend to get myself a defensive item, first, usually Godplate, just to ensure that I’m truly unkillable and also improve the health of my new Spirits. The Heart of Life is still a viable option in post-1.1 since its combo with Shield still works, but at three times the cost and twice the cooldown for only 50% greater effectiveness, I find my gold better spent elsewhere. My other choice would be an artifact that increases my autoattack. While Mageslayer and Ashkandor are obvious and popular options, the Orb of Veiled Storms is also a good choice, especially if you don’t want to replace one of your passive items. Mageslayer and Orb of Veiled Storms combined even cost less than Ashkandor while giving greater attack speed. With items like these, along with your set of skills, expect enemy demigods to run away a lot as you come at them with a hard-hitting autoattack and roughly 45-70% greater attack speed.
The Art of the Escape
With abilities such as Shield and Divine Justice, Oak is considered to naturally be a harder demigod to kill when in the right hands. Often times, however, Shield just isn’t enough to get you out of a pickle. Sometimes, it might be in cooldown or without sufficient mana, or an opponent could just chase you closely during the duration and finish you off once it wears off. The key to overcoming such situations is to have multiple methods of being able to escape from an enemy demigod, namely Shield, Cloak of Night, Teleport Scroll, and Wand of Speed. Your usage of them should be managed so that you’re never caught in a fight with all of them on cooldown, and the more you have available, the more likely you are to survive. This means that you shouldn’t needlessly use up your methods when going into the fight, such as using the Cloak of Night to immediately get into melee range, unless it’s for the purpose of an insta-gank.
My escape plan usually works in steps when in a normal demigod-on-demigod skirmish. First comes Shield so that I can get a few final hits before taking flight. Next, with about a second left on the Shield duration, I use the Cloak of Night to blink towards my escape route. This is often enough to lose an opponent’s interest in pursuing, especially if he’s still engaged with an ally, allowing me to stick around and kite him with ranged attacks as my Priest minions restore my health. If he gives chase, though, with a good chance of catching up, then I use the Wand of Speed to keep my distance. For certain demigods with ranged abilities, I may save my Shield until after I blink away to keep me protected as I retreat. Remember that Shield (particularly Shield III) nullifies speed debuffs and any other negative effects, increasing your chance of being able to lose pursuers.
Sometimes, you might be caught completely unprepared. With some of your methods on cooldown, your planned escape route might be blocked by an enemy demigod, or the entire opposing team might suddenly get the jump on you. In this case, it would probably be a good idea to use a Teleport Scroll to get the hell out, which is why you should always have one on you by the time you hit Level 7. Why Level 7? Because the best way to use the Teleport Scroll is to do so while under the effect of Shield III, making you completely uninterruptable and guaranteed to make it out alive. If you’re unfortunate enough as to have Shield on cooldown, though, then you should make note of any interrupt abilities your direct opposition may have and try to wait for them to be used before teleporting out.
The four main methods are not all Oak has to make a clean exit. He has other abilities that can give aid to his retreat, as well. Surge of Faith will increase your movement speed by up to 20%, and Penitence reduces an opponent’s movement speed by up to 16%, both lasting for 7 seconds. It’s practically the same as using the Wand of Speed, except with mana expenditure. Ideally, if you want to use these abilities to aid in your retreat, you do so between popping the Shield and blinking away.
In summary, the steps to escaping are:
Shield -> Surge of Faith -> Penitence -> Cloak of Night -> Wand of Speed
The Art of the Kill
In addition to being used for retreating, all of the abilities can also be used to pursue and kill fleeing enemy demigods. Before doing so, though, you should know your limits. If the opponent still has thousands of HP left and is falling back through several towers, chances are that you will only put yourself at risk if you try to give chase. There are also times where you are in the middle of pursuing and you have to pull back to ensure that you stay alive, such as if another enemy demigod is trying to sneak up on you from behind. Chances are that if you’re going to be doing any long chases deep into enemy territory, it won’t be until you at least have all of your passive item slots filled out, but even so, it’s still risky business, so you better have an escape plan or two.
Like before, I also carry out this practice in a series of steps. Assuming that I’ve just been exchanging blows with a single opponent before he begins to retreat, I try to keep him in range for autoattacking as long as possible. Usually, other demigods are naturally faster than me, so once they get out of autoattack range, I pop Surge of Faith to hit him with the AoE and give myself the speed boost. I immediately follow through with a Penitence on him to speed debuff and blink on top of him with the Cloak of Night to begin autoattacking again, this time with increased damage from Surge of Faith and Penitence buffs. If I have the Wand of Speed at this point, I use that as well to stick onto my fleeing opponent for even longer, but if he does manage to break away, another Penitence or Surge of Faith will hopefully finish him off. I usually keep a close eye on my opponent’s health so that I can quickly finish him off with a single Penitence once he hits that sweet spot (< 800HP with Penitence IV). Finally, I pop my Shield to make a clean exit, as I’m often among enemy towers at this point. If I have to act a bit more quickly to give chase, I often cut out using Surge of Faith, considering its 1.5 sec cast time.
A couple of other tips for using Cloak of Night and other blinking items (Warpstone, Cloak of Elfinkind) to pursue a fleeing demigod:
- If possible, try to blink yourself between the opponent and his escape route so that you’re not at risk of immediately falling behind again.
- The best place to blink is around corners. You actually cover more distance this way since your prey has to navigate around the whole path while you’re able to cut through empty space.
- If possible, try to conceal the fact that you have the Cloak of Night from your opponents for as long as possible. You might be able to trick a squishy ranged demigod into trying to kite you with low HP, allowing you to completely catch him by surprise when you suddenly blink on top of him and kill with a few swings of your ax.
A common tactic among many demigods is the ninja gank, warping in on top of an enemy demigod and nuking him with a large amount of burst damage, often while he’s in the process of capping one of your essential flags. I enjoy doing this myself, particularly later in the match when I’m building up my autoattack, although I take further steps to ensure that my prey is dead. For one thing, rather than simply warping on top of the opponent, in which he can easily see me coming and begin falling back, if he wants, I instead often try to teleport to a point in his escape path, the towers that protect one of my portals in Cataract, for example. Not only does this mean that the other demigod will have to go through me to run away, but I’m also not at risk of not teleporting at all if he neutralizes the flag he’s capping before my cast time is done. Once there, I use Surge of Faith and go into combat, hopefully before the flag can actually be capped and locked. I refrain from using Penitence to stop any teleport attempts until I at least see that my opponent is trying to run away on foot. Usually, such an attack will be occurring on my side of the map, so that’s a lot of distance to cover before my prey can hope to escape me.
In summary, the steps to pursuing are:
Autoattack -> Surge of Faith -> Penitence -> Cloak of Night -> Autoattack -> Penitence -> Surge of Faith -> Shield
Playing Well With Others
The only thing worse than an Oak is an Oak with a buddy. Not only do his abilities make himself more effective, they aid his allies, as well, whether it’s in fleeing, pursuing, or just flat out brawling. These particular abilities are Shield, Penitence, Surge of Faith, Divine Justice, and whatever minions are at his disposal, namely Priests.
Whatever the situation may be, chances are that if it involves, you, an allied demigod, and an enemy demigod, you’re going to want to use Penitence and Surge of Faith. For brawling, it increases your side’s attack speed and debuffs your Penitence target to taking more damage. For fleeing, it increases your side’s movement speed and decreases one of your pursuer’s. For doing the chasing, yourself, again, it increases your side’s movement speed and decreases the prey’s, not to mention him taking more damage, as well. It’s also important to use Penitence to interrupt enemy abilities that threaten your allies, such as Regulus’s Snipe or Rook’s Hammer Slam.
Of course, the ability most notable for being able to save allies is Shield, particularly when it’s at Rank 3. With it, there’s often at least a decent chance for your ally to escape alive, especially if his attackers were just in the middle of trying to finish him off with some burst damage. Again, use Penitence and Surge of Faith to try and ensure that your ally escapes. If you’re in the middle of a big skirmish and you have to retreat, blink away, but try to stay in range of your ally to use Shield and cover his escape, as well. Be warned, though, that sometimes, rather than using the opportunity to run away, your ally will consider having six seconds of complete invulnerability a good excuse to charge right into the enemy, only to die horribly as soon as the Shield wears out.
In addition, you can have your minions lend a hand to even distant allies. If you have to return to the Citadel, or you’re farming unbothered in a different part of the map, feel free to send your minions to any allies in need, as they’re better off actually being put to use. You can actually assign your minions to follow an allied demigod by having the minions selected before right clicking on an ally. It is especially handy to have your Priest minions stick to an allied assassin demigod since he usually doesn’t get to have such a luxury.
