Oak the almighty

Please prcise order I would like to try it out on AI

Hi Paul,

Well, I have 2 ideas for you.

1. You are playing against the AI, who sucks. Big time. You mentioned your oponents skill level so I will assume this isnt the case and we will go to point 2.

2. You play a general as a general. Most of the community to date plays generals as assassins. So yes, he is ranked low as basically, people are not using him to his full potential. I applaud you for finding the right way to play him and beseech you to bring thy wrath upon the masses online so they may see the greatness of generals.

I myself have a minion erebus build that is just absolutely dirty. Its going to be a few weeks till the community as a whole realises how powerful minions are. Make good use of that time and show emm who found out how to do it right!

Cheers,

Chaosbrynn

I love pentience cuz it makes hunting other gods down so much fun when you finally get treads. They are slow as molasses!  And if you have sniper on ur team... they are FUBAR

What Chaos said.  Unless you're playing in Custom games, don't expect all of your opponents to be human.

That said, I love Oak and have found the same thing - he is amazing when played as a general.  Getting a swarm, slowing enemies with Penitence then boosting your swarm's attack and move speed will break anyone to pieces, if executed right. Just gotta make sure you can get enough spirits with you for the extra damage, Torchbearer and other AoE enemies have a tendency to obliterate them...

What is your fav minons to buy early?  Progression of them please cuz I am curious!

Many people don't know how to play as or against Generals yet.  Give it a couple of weeks and we'll see plenty of OMG Minions OP posts...

Until yesterday the only minions I was using on Oak were priests.  Caldur showed me the hard way that it's all about the siege archers ^^  If you read this, Caldur, we should re oakduel sometime soon

I wasn't asked but I'll answer anyway

I like to get Monks first to give him staying power in the first push, as he doesn't have great staying power in the opening minutes.  After staying in the lanes and getting enough gold I'll try to get the Minotaur Kings, then upgrade Monks to Bishops.  Finally, the Siege Cannoneers (or whatever the 4th level ranged is called). 

You'll want highest level guys so they have the staying power to be healed when you kill stuff instead of dropping like flies. It's good to get a Wand of Speed somewhere too, as low speed is one of Oak's drawbacks, and more defence/health is handy (defence if playing against tanks, health if against casters)

That's what I've found works, anyway

I've been playing Pantheon so I'm not sure whether they're human or bots (didn't realize pantheon threw in bots to fill games), I'll try some custom games and see how these things go.  It may just be as simple as "I've been playing against bots and that's why I own."

Basically right now my build (not optimized just what I've been throwing together) is as follows:

Ward

Justice

Soul Power I

Surge of Faith

Ward II (might have surge and ward II flipped)

Soul power II

Ward III

soul power III

Last stand or divine justice II

Surge II

Ward IV

Divine Justice III

After this I start buying things just on a whim because I've started marching through anything in my path.

Like my skill build, I'm still tinkering with items, but the first few are always the same

Items:

I get the minotaur Idol II first and then a potion or a scroll (depending on game type)

Next is Bishops, the archer IV, and mino IV. 

Next comes a helm, usually the Faceguard.

After that I'm absurd enough to just march around destroying things until I can afford godmail.

Hi There Seevtastic,

It really depends on what General I am playing at the time. For my Vampire Lord I do not buy Idols at the beginning. I find it is generally better wo wait untill your own minions are up and running before buying Idols. But thats just me, also I dont use the resell exploit.

The main reason for this is the first few minutes of the game is not about tower pushing and it is very rarely about demigod kills. It is almost universally about getting as good a start as possible. When I play my Vampire Lord as a minioner, I rely heavily on Mist. Fortunately, mist is also very good at wiping out creep waves and hence, gaining me exp and gold. I generally take mist, the cheap +mana/sec helm and then head out with the first creep wave. Mist the enemy wave, normally getting me all the kills. Often I have enough mana leftover to mist the second wave as well. After that I go cap a few flags while my mana regens. Once it has, I go back to the creep and mist another couple of waves. When I run out of mana again I either go cap more flagd if they have been retaken by the enemy or use my melee, very carefully, to help with creep kills. I head back to town once I hit level 5 (often thats right after my 3rd misting). Much to the shock of most people, I do not take bite. If you build your mist build properly, you dont need bite as most of the time you are invulnerable. I focus on mist and minion buffing and take bat swarm when it is useful or needed. I generally start buying idols when I get back to town. I like sticking with the minotaurs when I play vampi and only get the other 2 types much later into the game. I find it better to spend my money getting equipment that will upgrade my shamblers.

As to Oak, Ill let the OP handle that one as I rarely play him (and my friend who does, plays him as an assassin with the very dirty invulnerability/Heart of life combo).

Cheers,

Chaosbrynn

I run a Sedna build that does not use minions at all, and I'm currently 8-0 with it in Custom Games, and yes, I usually am 1st or 2nd for most kills and least deaths. You don't need minions for certain builds, Generals have 2 types of skills: Those that damage, and those that bolster. Obvious, yes, but your reliance on minions will be relative to how heavily you spend your points in either category.

I use Oak a fair bit, my current strat works about the same as yours, but minus the emphasis on minions early game. I buy the two cheapest chest plates (that early armor boost is great) and then run for the most helpful flag I can find. Same as you until we get to when to level ward. For me, it always involves priority leveling of ward first, then soul power, then justice. SoF bought at lvl 6 because I tend to be running a mana-less build early game. Hauberk of life helps out, and just makes Oak EVIL in the early-midgame part. About lvl 8 with SoF, DJ 2, SP 2, Ward 3 and all that extra armor and health. Hoo boy. Damage is about 350 on creeps, 300 on DGs. The speed boots and cheap weapon damage gloves follow, always with teleport scrolls waiting. Save for mage slayer and its just GG. Oak can shell out DG hits of close to 400 unless they have armored like none other, run them down as they flee, and gains health when he pops SoF to run you down. Shield? Penitance? Don't bother, unless you want to put a few points in them during lvls 10-15.

I have to agree with the Original poster. My brother and I both play Oak in a very similar style, I have lost one online game so far which was a 2v2 when I still won damage and kills but my team mate was an utterly hopeless Torch Bearer who thought he was above citadel upgrades. My brother was ranked 239 in the pantheon yesterday.

When I start the game, 2 Scrolls of Teleport and a Scaled Helm to keep my mana up.

1st major purchase is the bishop idol and that is the only idol I ever buy in most games, unless it's a siege idol in 1v1 conquests.

Item Purchase order: Sell scale helm buy plenor's battle crown, slayer's wraps, Groffling warplate (sold later for godplate), Mageslayer. Cloak of Flames. After these items, usually before cloak actually, I'm dominating so will go for the comedy items like All Father ring or the 20k axe thing. Buy boots of speed after mageslayer if them getting away is a consistent issue.

Skills: Penitence to max as soon as each level is avaiable, Soul power & Ward of the Dead to max, one rank of the kill heal thing (think it's called purity) in the first 3 levels to gain some impressive lane staying power when coupled with bishops, the AoE to Max, then shield to Max.

They key to Penitence is it's timing. It is a hilarious skill: Instant cast, ranged, good damage, small cooldown, medium mana cost, slow, damage buffer, cast interrupt. You can use it to harrass but if you're going into melee to attack someone do not use it straight away. The key to demigod is skills, they are the big killers, and most of them have a cast time, it takes practice but once you've seen all the spells being cast, knowing when to fire is just a case of quick reflexes. Most players will stay in combat or meet you head on because they have one skill that they believe will trump you and give them the advantage, be it Rook's Hammer, TB's freeze nova or Erebus's Mass Charm. They will either use these skills to try and stand toe to toe with you or to start retreat, once interrupted they are taking more damage, badly slowed, and left floundering with their skill on cooldown and no way to fight back, or their plan of escape completely ruined.

Swift Anklet Favor item, debatable whether or not the 2k favor blink cloak is better in all honesty, the only situation I can see it being better is 1v1 vs an Ice Torch bearer.