[Guide] Oak - The Blood Soaked Oak Build! » Forum Post by Boxleitner

[Guide] Oak - The Blood Soaked Oak Build!

By Boxleitner!

By Boxleitner on July 28, 2009 8:52:48 AM from

----------------------------------
Boxleitner’s
Guide to the Blood Soaked Oak
----------------------------------

Copyright July 28, 2009 by Ivan Montecinos
Version 001
7/28/09
Created by: Boxleitner
Questions or Regards: [email protected]

-----------
UPDATES:
-----------
-July 28rd V1.1
FAQ posted.

-----------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------------

0. Legal Notice

1. Introduction
-A ) Who is Oak?
-B ) Who is Blood Soaked Oak?

2. Abilities
-A ) Ability Build
-B ) Shield
-C ) Divine Justice
-D ) Penitence
-E ) Surge of Faith
-F ) Soul Power
-G ) Raise Dead Ward

3. Items
-A ) Blood Soaked Wand
-B ) Scale Mail / Banded Armor
-C ) Vlemish Faceguard and Plenor Battlecrown
-D ) Nimoth Chestpiece
-E ) Wand of Speed
-F ) Narmoth’s Ring
-G ) Godplate

4. Minions
-A ) The Official Blood Soaked Oak Cheerleading Team
-B ) Bishops
-C ) Siege Demolishers
-D ) Why not get Minotaurs?

5. General Strategies

6. Replays

7. Thanks

---------------
0) Legal Stuff
---------------

I have written this FAQ for the purpose of spreading the word of the Blood Soaked Oak Build! . You can read the guide, link it to others, use the build to own BUT do not try to sell it or pass it off as your own. This guide has been Copyrighted. If you see it anywhere else than Gamefaqs.com or the Demigod forums please tell me! I’d be very grateful to say the least.

Demigod the game is the property of Stardock and Gas Powered Games.

------------------
1) Introduction!
------------------

A ) Who is Oak?

Thanos was a great warrior dedicated to the service of the Nimoth Kings. He was unique among his brethren in that he was immortal and reknowned in battle. It was upon the request of his last liege to slaughter innocents that Thanos turned to his Lord and argued against the order. For this act of defiance he was banished from his homeland, left to defend the remnants of his vassals from creatures of death and destruction in the Canyons of the Dead. Generations later the descendants of his servants dubbed him “The Oak” because of his stoic defense of their home.

B ) Who is Blood Soaked Oak?

Blood Soaked Oak, also termed the “The Girly Man Oak” by Mabmanz, is an Oak with a different fighting strategy than most other builds. He relies on Divine Justice to keep him and his allies topped off both in hit points and in mana. He also uses Blood Soaked Wand, the favor item, for even more allied healing!

This Demigod is amazing in the fact that he keeps waves of reinforcements pushing, minions attacking and Demigods alive. He is PRIMARILY a support character who spams his Penitence and Surge of Faith abilities and as such is best played in conjunction with other Demigods such as a hit point build Unclean Beast or a minion Erebus. This is a damage and debuff Demigod that is meant to attack from out of range until an enemy death is certain; only then does he close in for a melee kill.

--------------------
2) Abilities
--------------------

A ) Ability Build

Level 1: Shield I Level 10: Surge of Faith II

Level 2: Divine Justice I Level 11: Penitence IV

Level 3: Penitence I Level 12: Raise Dead Ward I

Level 4: Penitence II Level 13: Soul Power II

Level 5: Surge I Level 14: Raise Dead Ward II

Level 6: Divine Justice II Level 15: Surge of Faith III

Level 7: Penitence III Level 16: Rally

Level 8: Divine Justice III Level 17: Soul Power III

Level 9: Soul Power I Level 18,19,20: Raise Dead Ward III, IV and Frenzy

Level 10: Surge of Faith II

Level 11: Penitence IV

Level 12: Raise Dead Ward I

Level 13: Soul Power II

Level 14: Raise Dead Ward II

Level 15: Surge of Faith III

Level 16: Rally

Level 17: Soul Power III

Level 18,19,20: Raise Dead Ward III, IV and Frenzy

B ) Shield (1 point only)

Use: Oak grants a shield to a target, making them immune to damage for 3 seconds.

Cost: 400 Mana / Cast time: .1 seconds / 35 Second cooldown / Range: 20 yards

Shield is a wonderful skill that will give you 3 seconds of invulnerability. This is perfect for blocking a Torch Bearer fireball, Rook’s slam, or cleansing Unclean Beast’s venom spit. It also perfectly allows you to cast Blood Soaked Wand without interruption!

I only get 1 point in this because other skills are more important to this build. Thanks to Mabmanz for suggesting it be gotten as soon as possible: it will protect you and others from early game spell damage if you are fast enough on the cast.

C ) Divine Justice (Main ability branch for this build)

Use: When Oak kills a target, he and his allies receive Health and Mana equal to 10% of the unit’s maximum health.

Divine Justice is rarely regarded as a vital ability. However, it is simply amazing in that anything you kill gives you life and mana back. It’s like having vampiric abilities at no cost!! What’s even greater about it is that it heals and refreshes ANY ally in your vicinity. What it amounts to is an endless health and mana stream by level 3, both for you and your comrades, provided you get the killing blows (which is easy with Surge of Faith!).

I prioritize the purchasing of this ability as much as possible. It is indispensable for an Oak that wants to be a team player. On his own he can also work miracles with Divine Justice because he will keep himself and creep waves alive and pushing.

The last point in Divine Justice will give you Rally (When Oak kills a Demigod he and his allies receive +500 armor and heal 1000 health over 5 seconds), which I have rarely seen proc simply because by levels 10-12 most of my games have ended. I believe it to be useful in large fights and viable enough to get.

D ) Penitence (Second most important skill)

Use: Oak fills a target with holy remorse dealing damage, reducing their movement speed and increasing all damage taken by a percentage for 5 seconds.

Cost: 450,550,650,750 Mana (Per level) / Cast time: .1 seconds / 7 Second cooldown
Range: 20 yards / Movement reduction and Damage taken increase: 7% /10% /13% /16% (Per level)

Blood Soaked Oak is a Penitence spammer. This means that he will be casting it back to back unless he is waiting for an enemy to use an interruptible spell. If you think Sedna will pounce or heal or you see Rook about to hammer slam, Torch Bearer about to land a Fireball or create a circle of fire then you can stop them by casting Penitence on them as an interrupt. You should be able to prevent a potion from being taken or a teleportation from being cast.

You can also purposely cast Penitence to slow an enemy or increase enemy damage taken. Otherwise you will want to use this spell as an enemy Demigod softener in preparation for your charging in to melee and Surge of Faith him or her.

E ) Surge of Faith

Use: Deals 300,450,600 damage and increases allied unit movement speeds and attack speeds by
10%,15%,20% for 7 seconds.
Cost: 500,675,800 Mana (Per level) / Cast time: 1 seconds / 10 Second cooldown

This skill is your source of health, mana, gold and creep kills on the battlefield. Use it whenever you are in the midst of an enemy creep wave. The kills will net you gold, experience and health and mana!

F ) Soul Power

Use: Increases weapon damage by 20 and more per spirit you control.

This is useful later. It is not gotten early because other skills are so much more useful.

You may also choose to take this skill without Raise Dead Wards, thus giving you a flat +20 damage increase without the hassle of having to control spirits.

G ) Raise Dead Ward (Late game)

Use: Allows you to maintain an army of 3,5,7,10 spirits.

The reason I suggest getting this so late is so you can focus on Divine Justice, Surge of Faith and Penitence in the build. Another reason is that I dislike handling more than one unit; it can be complicated enough to move your Demigod correctly and moving more than one unit at a time takes practice! Otherwise in your confusion you might move the wrong unit and lose your Demigod.

However, Raise Dead Ward is a must late game because of the bonuses to melee damage it gives you in conjunction with Soul Power and the extra damage the spirits will do to enemies.

---------
3) Items
---------

A ) Favor Item: Blood Soaked Wand

Use: Heal self and all nearby allies for 1000.

Cost: 1750 Favor / Cast time: 2.5 seconds / 45 Second cooldown

The Blood Soaked Wand is a rarely used Favor item with tremendous support ability. I have seen it turn a 3v3 fight around completely in 3 seconds. Many players will not be prepared for you to suddenly heal yourself and your nearby allies! What’s more, one thousand life is quite a bit at the start and still quite formidable mid to late game. Thanks to Blood Soaked Wand an armored Level 1 Oak can sit at a flag killing enemy reinforcements and practically tank ANY damage a Level 1 Regulus does to him, wanding it all back every 45 seconds! I do it all the time, ensuring an early head start on Warscore and asserting my dominance on the battlefield. In larger fights I have saved countless allied lives, defeated many a foe, gained more experience and downed more towers thanks to staying out on the field longer… all because I can heal 1000 hit points every 45 seconds.

Why not use other favor Items? After much experimentation and consideration, I have found that the hit point heal the wand gives is simply way too powerful to pass up. It is much more useful than the Blood of the Fallen favor item, which gives a static 800 hit point increase and a small 5 health per second bonus. You will find that Blood Soaked Wand is like carrying a hidden 1000 hit points! All of a sudden you will bring it out and turn the tables on your enemies. Staff of the Warmage is no good since you will already have enough mana and damage with this build to wreck havoc! Amulet of Teleportation would be nice on big maps but this build is about support. You can pay for teleport scrolls; they cost way less than buying Universal Gadgets to heal allies (no one does that anyway?). Wings of the Seraphim are not as useful because they require you and your allies to be out of combat for them to heal. They also do not heal minions or reinforcements. General Favor Items are not useful because this build will not use the minions it gathers until VERY late game AND only possibly. Cloak of Night is a great getaway tool, but not such a good attack tool, since enemies can simply outrun you again. It also does nothing to help others on the battlefield.

As a matter of fact the only item that could possibly top Blood Soaked Wand for this Oak build is Swift Anklet. I have long debated whether Blood Soaked Oak should use Swift Anklet instead, thus allowing him to move at an advantageous +15% speed. But then I found myself having to return to the well for healing or spending gold on potions… and then end result was that I lost

B ) Game Start Items: Scale Mail and Banded Armor

Again: after much consideration and experimentation I have landed on the final conclusion that these two pieces or armor are indispensable. The 600 armor points negate an amazing amount of damage and should not be underestimated. Banded armor allows you to survive longer and the small hit point regeneration provided is pleasant. On normal game settings you will be keeping these two items for a great deal of the game, if not all the way thru. Late game if you have more gold they can be replaced by Narmoth’s Ring and Godplate for even more survivability, allowing you to melee even longer.

C ) Getting Vlemish Faceguard and Plenor Battlecrown:

By Level 5 you should have 1500+ if not 3000 gold already. You now have Surge of Faith and should get both helms at the shop now.

If things are going really well then you can postpone the purchase of one helm and get Gold 1 for the team. If not, then it is important that you get it after your helms. Remember: you are a team player. You will always be central to your game wins if you take a healthy part in the outcome. Do not expect others to do this for you!

D ) When to get: Nimoth Chestpiece

If you feel that you are taking way too much damage and having to return to the health crystal often after the start of the game then your next item should be the Nimoth Chestpiece. It will provide a significant increase in survivability and damage reduction. If not, then the proper time to get this item is just after buying both the Vlemish Faceguard and the Plenor Battlecrown.

Staying out on the battlefield is important. The longer you are out there the more gold, experience and flags you will receive.

E ) When to get: Wand of Speed

I am VERY aware that the drawback to this hero is movement speed. Because I advocate so much armor, health and mana reservoirs the build comes down to not having any boots at all. The result is that it can take an eternity to move around a map and engaging in melee can be dangerous if you misjudge the odds.

Fortunately Eskendale proposes a solution in his Healing Oak Build (For more information visit his guide at: https://forums.demigodthegame.com/357493 ). The purchase of Wand of Speed allows you to rush to a spot, chase down enemy foes or run from them whenever the need arises.

If you feel that the map is too big or that you are not getting away or landing kills because of lack of speed, then you should get this asap. Otherwise wait until after you get your two helms and your Nimoth Chestpiece.

F ) Narmoth’s Ring (Replaces Banded Armor)

This item is to be gotten if you can spare the gold. Personally I advocate investing your gold in Currency 1, Priests, Angels, Catapults and Giants (as well as Armory 1 and Blacksmith 1). Why? Because if you don’t make an effort to be the team player and buy the upgrades then no one will.

However, if you find the need for more hit points, hit point regeneration and more staying power then the life steal on this item and it’s other attributes are right up your alley.

G ) God plate (Replaces Scale Mail)

This wonderful item will allow you to take incredible amounts of damage and still stay in the thick of battle. It is the last item I suggest you get. Any other gold should be spent on the citadel.

Like Narmoth’s Ring, this item is for purchase if you have already reached all the important citadel upgrades or if someone else is appointed to do that.

-----------
4. Minions
-----------

A ) The Official Blood Soaked Oak Cheerleading Team:

Suggestion: When you have less than 7 spirits leave them at base near the crystal.

Reason: Blood Soaked Oak is about staying out of combat, supporting reinforcement waves and allied Demigods and their minions and casting ranged spells to weaken enemy Demigods. It is difficult enough to focus your attention on all this and stay alive. In order to keep the bonuses from Soul Power at all times, your spirits must stay alive. Because of these facts, it becomes easier to simply leave your minion spirits at base and benefit from their passive melee damage increase rather than have to continually replace them in battle or, God forbid, die because of moving the spirits rather than the Demigod.

After getting Raise Dead Ward 3, your spirits will be tough enough that it is wiser to use them in battle than to simply leave them behind at the crystal.

B ) Bishops

Wonderful healing. Unless you like managing units, I suggest getting these after you have Raise Dead Ward 3 and are moving spirits with you. Otherwise you can get these and their upgraded counterparts as soon as you like! You can even start the game with them.

C ) Siege Demolishers

These are fantastic help to Blood Soaked Oak since he is a ranged spell caster. Because of their good distance damage he can safely move them with him and not have to worry about them or bad pathing on their part as much as other minions.

Again, because of the afore-mentioned constraints, I suggest you get these once you are already moving other minions into battle with you.

D ) Why not get Minotaurs?

Suggestion: Don’t get Minotaurs

Reason: They are melee units. Our Blood Soaked Oak wants to attack at ranged as much as possible. Having to move Minotaurs in and out of melee range complicates matters way too much for them to be viable.

------------------------
5. General Strategies
------------------------

Stay in the creep lanes. You have the advantage of being able to heal from enemy reinforcement deaths. Your allied creeps will also help you with your attack on enemy Demigods.

Try to lure enemies to fight you within creep waves.

Don’t buy too many potions or scrolls but always keep 1 of each on you at any given time! Just 1 potion has saved my life from Regulus’ snipes far too often. Scrolls are best used to jump in on enemy flag cappers by surprise!! However be careful not to port into more than one enemy Demigod or into a Rook hammerslam. =.P

Always fight at full life or close to it. Don’t stay near death in lanes. Low hit points is just an open invitation to a heartache.

Watch the minimap.

Attack with friends. Flank enemies.

After a kill always leave and refill both mana and health. Otherwise you will be vulnerable to a revenge kill by either your victim or his allies.

For very good tips on how to play please read:

Ke5trel’s Tips - https://forums.demigodthegame.com/347388/
Avoidance Guide by Ke5trel - https://forums.demigodthegame.com/354641/

------------
6. Replays
------------

The following replays will Blood Soaked Oak in action. Some human mistakes are always made, but in general you will get the idea! Enjoy!

1) http://rapidshare.com/files/256838474/The_Blood_Soaked_Oak_1.DGReplay

2) http://rapidshare.com/files/256838562/The_Blood_Soaked_Oak_2.DGReplay

-----------
7. Thanks
-----------

For replies to any questions or comments you have please e-mail me at:
[email protected]

Thanks to Eskendale for his patience, guidance and advice. Check out his Healing Oak Build!

Many thanks to Mabmanz for all his counsel and frienship.

Thanks to all my Demigod friends out there: You know who you are! Each of you are wonderful, caring, patient people. Stay Frosty!

A special word out to Kalelsm1, Ataraxic, _Shadow, Rogdan, Dustbin, Demigood, Goggris and K5strel for their awesome comradery.

Thanks to Demigod Database for offering us such great build info:
http://www.demigoddb.com/

Copyright Ivan Montecinos 2009

0 Karma | 36 Replies

Well written. I'm going to give your build a shot.

Why are you running a healing build that doesnt get Monks/Bishops until level 18 or so? I think you would be very hard pressed to justify not getting Monks right off the bat. Bishops should also be gotten much sooner.

I think that the real question on this build is: What advantages does it have over a Sedna build? In other words, why not just play Sedna? I find that the number of situations in which you need 2 support healers is pretty limited since nobody plays 5v5 too often (which is really the only game size where I think that having 2 healers would be nice). I suppose that you have a bit more AoE damage with Surge than a Sedna build, but I think that in most cases, I would think that it would be better to just have the superior healing of Sedna.

I also think that you should replace scalemail before waiting for the 10k Godplate. Scalemail is good value for the money, but its not doing a lot for the item slot that its taking up by the midgame.

i get what you are saying about not getting monks... but so far in the few games I've tried this build, people see what they think is a poor oak build and make mistakes... then shield and heal and they die or run... plus if its 2v2 and ur ally is with you, he gets a quick heal and you can mop them... so far, i like this build.

Quoting pacov,

reply 3

Rofl!! ^^ Yes that might be one of the reasons why Mabman calls it "The Girly Man Oak." Can be underestimated.

I've always been a little hesitant on using builds that rely on your opponent making a huge, stupid mistake and dying as a result. For one, it should only work once, and really it should only work against very often against bad players (who you shouldnt need much help beating anyway). I dont usually see good players letting themselves get to really low health in a melee fight unless they have some understanding of what skills the opponent has and what favor item he is using.

I'd usually rather have a build that is just as good as it can be rather than trying to trick your opponent into underestimating you by doing something that is probably substandard.

And even if you were trying to trick your opponent early on, why wait all the way until level 18 to get Monks/Bishops? I think that the tricking would be well over by then.

ive seen box in action and the build was effective. im going to try the wand with my assassin build and see how good it works. i suspect its really going to shine during the big slugfests that pop up.

we should keep these builds using non favorite favor items coming. we all know how long we were stuck on the anklet, now everyones on botf. time for a new one!

Yeah, I dont really have a problem using Wand as a favor item - I just dont get why you wouldnt take Monks/Bishops on a healing build.

Quoting Krazikarl,

reply 5

I've always been a little hesitant on using builds that rely on your opponent making a huge, stupid mistake and dying as a result...

It's true: Bishops are amazing healing. I am hard pressed to justify their absence. However, the benefit of reduced damage and increased health points from both armors at the start of the game are just as effective in my opinion. Getting monks at the start simply prolongs obtaining EVERY other item in the build and I want my Oak to get to his Helms as soon as possible because that is where he can begin his intensive damage output.

This build is not a below average Sedna. This build is not a weaker Torch Bearer. This is a non-minion Oak build that does things no other build can do. It is meant to be played without minions. Otherwise I would be advocating getting Raise Dead Wards immediately and purchasing siege minions and monks... and before you know it my build is MUCH more commonplace Minion Oak.

The idea is ingenuity and individuality for a more enjoyable style of play.

Box's Oak

Well, Box. I managed to take out the Skirmish ranked 36 player (ladder 77) with your build in this game http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/player/55786. It was a silly game though. 1+3AI v 1+3AI. My opponent was a very good UB that opted for HP and damage. I'm pretty sure he felt fairly dominant throughout the game and was a much better AI farmer than me. This would have been a really fun game to have commentary in. In the end, my victory relied on flag control (got to giants 1st) and then using the advantages of this build for doing damage to their citadel (casting the heal every chance I could along with surge of faith). It also helped that because my opponent had such a good damage build and was focussed on killing dgs, he didn't pay as much attention to me end game while I grabbed portals. I felt the build was a little squishy in comparison to the UB, but again, the AI were my teammates and we all know how great they are. The only change I felt important was to get was last stand (as at 1 point in the game, the UB could pick me off and chase me down if he wanted).

You won! AND with a positive Kill Death Ratio!

Muhahahahahahaha!!!

Good show Paco! (..^^..)

hehe... MOST of my kills came towards the end though. I'm looking forward to trying this build out with good teammates.

Quoting pacov,

reply 11

hehe... MOST of my kills came towards the end though. I'm looking forward to trying this build out with good teammates.

.....Pick me, pick me, pick me......

Quoting Boxleitner,

reply 8

Quoting Krazikarl, reply 5I've always been a little hesitant on using builds that rely on your opponent making a huge, stupid mistake and dying as a result...

It's true: Bishops are amazing healing. I am hard pressed to justify their absence. However, the benefit of reduced damage and increased health points from both armors at the start of the game are just as effective in my opinion. Getting monks at the start simply prolongs obtaining EVERY other item in the build and I want my Oak to get to his Helms as soon as possible because that is where he can begin his intensive damage output.

Even if this is true, you still havent justified waiting until level 18 to get Bishops. Arguing against getting monks at the start is one thing (and most people say get monks, but whatever), but saying no Monks/Bishops until level 18 is something else.

Also, you dont need any support items or skills to make Monks/Bishops very worthwhile. You say that its not a minion build...so? Assassin Oak should be using Monks/Bishops also.

I'm trying to wrap my head around why I should play this instead of a Sedna. I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but I've been meaning to learn Sedna for a while now (and I've played Oak a lot), and I cant really think of why I would use this build instead of Sedna. So I'm hoping that you can clarify why this isnt a below average Sedna.

The unusual things are the use of Bloody Wand and Divine Justice. Bloody Wand can be used by lots of DGs, so that isnt what is making this build unique. And Divine Justice is a mediocre AoE heal in a game where directed healing is considered much more valuable (since any decent team is going to focus fire on one DG). Plus Sedna has her own area heals.

Is the limited AoE damage from Surge enough to make up for the relatively poor healing compared to a Sedna (who doesnt have AoE damage sources)? Thats the only angle that might make this build worth it that I can see right now. I suppose you have a novelty factor too (most of your opponents probably wont get what is going down) but that should wear off quickly for the better players out there.

Without monks in the beginning its stupid they heal u every 10 sek so u can farm like a crazy shit

I'm trying to wrap my head around why I should play this instead of a Sedna.

My friend: I believe your dilemma resides in the fact that you are looking for an efficient healing build rather than a playful, support build. Your goals are slightly different than mine and that happens alot in gamers.

I remember when I played Diablo 2 with my friend John.... One day I offered to give him an item I had traded alot of gold to get for him (he had been hunting for it for ages.) He immediately turned down the gift!! I was taken aback heavily; first of all I did not understand his obsession with items when, for me, the game was all about getting to the highest spots on the ladder. Second of all, why wouldn't he take the item he so desperately sought? He explained that it was worthless to him if he did not find it on his own.

Because people play games for different reasons there can be confusion in intentions and behaviour with others. Oak's Divine Justice is the ONLY Demigod based AoE heal. I am using it as a small part of a larger support build for a Demigod that helps others out! Thus all the effort to buy citadel upgrades too!

Do you see how this would be okay and fun at the same time?

.....Pick me, pick me, pick me......

Sounds good, Kokujin.

I'm still not sure about the monks. I tend to generally agree with monks being a better 1st option at the start, but I'm not sure how much impact it will have on this build. I still do like the surprise factor because people don't know what to make of you. No monks and low hp, they think your a noob. Krazikarl makes a good point though: "I've always been a little hesitant on using builds that rely on your opponent making a huge, stupid mistake and dying as a result..." I'll add that the build isn't dependant on that. I'm just always trying to figure out ways to get that first kill. Always nice to set the tone. If this build required people to just make horrible mistakes to have a chance, then the build is crap. So far, so good though.

I think without monks u can stand 1 fight in front with monks u need never run back

Today i had 31 hp the other needed to run back after he was back on flag i was agin full hp also ))
I think monks are better than everything else in the beginning.
They do dmg in a fight and they heal u in a fight u always stay longer than an none monk DG.

cheers

pRoneG

Oak's Divine Justice is the ONLY Demigod based AoE heal.

Sedna's Healing Wind fits the bill also I believe. And I suspect that it is better at AoE healing, although I havent ever compared the exact details (like say the radii of the effects).

tonight I played blood soaked oak. It's called that today because I died alot.

Okay, so Box is surely better than me with this build. Here's my experience from trying it out and trying to follow his build as close as possible. I get an immediate advantage at the start of most games because people over pursue me (I intentionally draw them in and let them deal more damage than is safe - then shield and heal). I've gotten some kills due to this build immediately, but it, at the very least, throws people off. I'm useful only really for heals prior to level 5 and scaring off dgs. Too slow to do much more, but I can support and save. Once level 5 hits, I only really useful in the lane, but I spend alot of time trying to decide if I should upgrade the cit or get something for me. Mid game it becomes pretty strong and you have the advantage of people thinking you weak initially (so they over pursue when they shouldn't engage). End game, assuming that you probably have been the guy buying alot of citadel upgrades for the team, my build has never reached Box's armor goals. I'm great at pushing along giants and okay at dealing damge to dgs, but typically have to watch my health carefully. But I can spam health and move/attack speed as much as possible. So, he's a good supporting role, but utterly terrible in a 2v2 without a tank (as this is meant to be played as mostly a ranged caster). I found this build was very difficult to pull off against experienced players, but fairly easy to slip in against others. I won't try it again in a 2v2 w/o a tank, but probably would give it another go in 3v3 and greater. If you haven't tried this build, you should give it a shot.

Paco!

Thanks for giving it all a go like this. I think Blood Soaked Oak is at his best in 3v3. 5v5 tends to be too messy and 2v2 requires alot from a player. 1v1 is not good for Blood Soaked Oak.

Just remember to pelt enemy demigods with Penitence and farm gold and experience as much as you can. Regain health and mana from enemy creep waves. Attack enemies with your friends, etc. All things I know you are doing, Paco.

I just want people to feel proud and have fun with a build that is definitely not seen often and can be a little haphazard! ^^

I tried it again... I never manage to get up to those high levels of armor... maybe that's my problem. Always buying upgrades for the team. We completely agree on NO for 1v1 and that I should only do 2v2 if my name is BOX. I really wish that some changes were made to oaks abilities to make it a little more viable a build. For instance, if there were bigger increments on the health returned for killing an enemy, that alone could add to the strength of the buid.

Leveling up soul power is a waste. It does not increase how much damage you get from each spirit, only gives you 20 damage. You are also getting lvl 1 surge way to early imho. Lvl 1 surge is terrible, and a waste of mana. Also divine justice does not scale well, I recommend only one level of it. By preventing these unneccesary skill placements you open up levels for shield and spirit ward, increasing your survivability and dps. I recommend only going to shield lvl 3, because later levels do not increase its length. Blood soaked wand is decent, however a good team will interrupt you as you use it. Should you fail to get your heal off, you will probably die. That is why i prefer the blood of the fallen; which will increase my lane control (via extra regen and hps) and provide me with more tanking opportunities. Also, it goes w/o saying that foul grasp, frost nova, and mass charm will all disable you b4 you can attempt to use your wand. This is a key strategy that teams need to do, using disables preemptively on heals and shields.

I will say, blood soaked wand is quite good early on to maintain a presence in the lane, increasing your exp attainment.

edit: I see you are going with an armor build, and i must stress that armor builds will hurt you later on. Abilities that ignore armor while dealing their damage (quite a lot of them) make such a build dangerous. That is why i recommend massing hps over armor.

Quoting pendrix,

reply 23

Leveling up soul power is a waste. It does not increase how much damage you get from each spirit, only gives you 20 damage. You are also getting lvl 1 surge way to early imho. Lvl 1 surge is terrible, and a waste of mana. Also divine justice does not scale well, I recommend only one level of it. By preventing these unneccesary skill placements you open up levels for shield and spirit ward, increasing your survivability and dps. I recommend only going to shield lvl 3, because later levels do not increase its length. Blood soaked wand is decent, however a good team will interrupt you as you use it. Should you fail to get your heal off, you will probably die. That is why i prefer the blood of the fallen; which will increase my lane control (via extra regen and hps) and provide me with more tanking opportunities. Also, it goes w/o saying that foul grasp, frost nova, and mass charm will all disable you b4 you can attempt to use your wand. This is a key strategy that teams need to do, using disables preemptively on heals and shields.

I will say, blood soaked wand is quite good early on to maintain a presence in the lane, increasing your exp attainment.

edit: I see you are going with an armor build, and i must stress that armor builds will hurt you later on. Abilities that ignore armor while dealing their damage (quite a lot of them) make such a build dangerous. That is why i recommend massing hps over armor.

On the Usefuless of Leveling Up Soul Power, Wrong - Advancing Soul Power gives you 40 damage per each additional level once you have at least 1 spirit; furthermore, if you are not using spirits and playing a pure assassin build you will get more dps from leveling up soul power over the dead wards (maxing out at 140 added damage by level 8) because you get ZERO bonus damage for the second level of wards, which offers four spirits. You only get +20 bonus damage from moving from in one of two fashions: 1 spirit, 3 spirits, 6 spirits, 9 spirits; or soul power 1, soul power 2, soul power 3. Each additional level of soul power gets you 20 damage for each increment in either path, but with level 1 wards you get 40 combined bonus damage for having met both the 1 spirit and 3 spirit requirements. With every level of soul power you add the bonus damage (20) to the spirit-independent base increment of +20, and thus you get the 40 total damage. Soul power uses a multiplier effect whose method is described here https://forums.demigodthegame.com/350419.

The last two things marked in bold are also inaccurate statements; any oak player that has ever used shield knows that you are invulnerable to EVERYTHING once you use it, and anyone that uses a time-dependent item like blood soaked wand, a potion, or a teleport scroll can avoid interruption by using shield.

Box's build is just fine because he uses a primarily assassin build that uses shield; he employs neither the horn of battle nor ring of divine might favor items, while choosing not to purchase equipment that increases minion health, so in keeping spirits at the base he does not lose them and benefits more so from using upgrading soul power than he would from spirit wards (only using level 1 initially). The only thing that I would criticize, a point upon which we could both agree, is the getting of divine justice early in the game. Divine justice is only useful when there are a lot of creeps with increased health; killing at most 6 creeps early game, only 4 of which reach a peak health value of 400, will net you only 40 hp per creep with level 1 of divine justice. At best you are getting around 200-250 health if you yourself kill each creep, because you get nothing if someone else does the killing. One thing you should highly consider would be the usage of an item like nature's reckoning, which could help ensure that you make all the kills on creeps / minions. It has a 15% probability of dealing 250 damage to all enemies in the area, and by using this item in conjunction with surge, you can not only increase your attack speed--thereby upping the likelihood of hitting that 15%--but you also get a possibly combined damage of around 550 early game. Nature's reckoning also gives you around 800 mana, so that could help you store mana for penitence. A last bonus item would be something like Warlord's Punisher, which deals out 300 damage to nearby enemies.

If I could warn anyone who uses this build of one thing, I would say that any build that stresses ranged attacks in a hit and run fashion--using spit / fireball / penitence--will have most of the damage negated by anyone who stacks health and uses monks, etc. Every seven seconds they will heal almost all the damage you deal them, while you lose mana with every spell cast.

Box's build is just fine because...

Thanks Eskendale.

Look at all that wisdom! Woot! You are right about this build. But now I want to do some encouraging because oherwise some folks will get downhearted:

1) Stacking HP isnt everything! It also isnt for everyone. I personally discovered, for example, that as a non-ooze Unclean Beast the only way I could defeat Sedna was by stacking damage!! For the longest time I just kept trying to stack hp and was getting nowhere fast. (In other words getting more life can sometimes get in the way of winning.)

Just because this build is about hit and harrass doesn't mean it won't work perfectly well against others, whether or not they have tons of hitpoints. Remember that this is a SUPPORT build meant to be teamed with other Demigods! We are multiplayer gamers who best net wins thru cooperation.

This build also stresses lane pushing and not necessarily Demigod killing. Get out there and net yourself gold and xp! You will be able to level alot faster if you spend the time out there with the equipment I'm giving you!

2) It's true. Monks and their respective improved kind can wash away your penitence damage quickly. When worried about this please keep in mind that:

A ) Only Generals can get them.

B ) Not all Generals do get them.

C ) You want to attack these Demigods from range once you know your teammates will help you take him or her down.

Begin the damage when you know you'll go for a kill.

------------------------------

EXTRA! Possible side build

------------------------------

I guess monks could be gotten at the beginning of the game. Then the next purchases would be Banded Armor and Nature's Reckoning INSTEAD of Scalemail.

But that's for someone who is no longer looking at Blood Soaked Oak as a non-minion build. However, it would seem to be in line with what so many people are trying to point out to me in this thread.

What do you think Eskendale?

The Forums Are Now Closed!

The content will remain as a historical reference, thank you.

[Guide] Oak - The Blood Soaked Oak Build!

By Boxleitner!