Kestrel's Hybrid Oak 2.0
Demigod Forums
The meta has shifted quite a bit since I posted my first Hybrid build here.
Since then it's become important to get Shield III at level 7-8 so that you can lockdown enemy portals without fear of interruption.
That makes it hard to cram Spirits/minions into an effective Oak build before level 10, and most games are decided by that point.
So I'm going to post my WIP Hybrid Oak build with a caveat, as follows:
*This isn't the miracle build Hybrid used to be before gameplay evolved. Under given circumstances it's more effective than a typical Assassin Oak build or Minion Oak build, and that's about all I can claim. I'll go over what makes it a good build later on.
Favor -
BoTF if tanking. Anklet for fast self and minions. Horn for unkillable minions. Vial for staying power in the face of attrition. Wand for burst self and minion heals. Ring for fierce minions. Cloak for escapes. The nice thing about this build is you can branch out a bit from HP as king. Me, I still go for Blood because I like to brawl, but it's down to your playstyle.
Starting Items -
Monks, one mana pot (wait for the pot, it puts you 5 seconds behind but lets your mana last twice as long)
Skills -
1. Shield
2. Ward
3. Penitence
4. Ward II
5. Surge
6. Shield II
7. Shield III
8. Ward III
9. Save
10. Surge II / Ward IV
11-14. Penitence II-IV
15. Surge III
Gear -
Vlemish Helm
Mino and Siege I
Unbreakable Boots
Plenor Helm
Nimoth Plate
Upgrades -
Priests/Angels or Catas
The above + supply of Sigil/Port/Lock is probably all you can afford, because you won't be rocking the kills with this build. If you do end up with a bunch of gold you can upgrade your idol siege and healers and get a Wand of Speed or tank up with Nemoth Ring or Orb of Defiance.
Wand of Speed is nice because it increases not only your speed, which will be handy for portal grabs, but also the move speed of your minions. That's important because they can't hit something while chasing it.
Orb is good for this Oak the same way it is for a Tower Rook. You can sit back and relax while your abilities cooldown and your bishops heal you and the flag changes ownership and your minions take a giant bite out of the guy trying to beat you up..
Flavor -
Death by 1000 cuts. You want to bring out as many small, angry, confusing minions as you can and focus them all on a single DG or tower and you want to do all of this the first time you come back from the shop. You can achieve that with a single level of each idol minion (minos too, for the extra bodies) and two levels of spirits. That's 12 minions for around 1500 gold and 2 skill points, pretty good value for so much cannon fodder.
Once you have your little army out you can hold flags against most DGs and destroy enemy towers without risk, or support allies from across the map.
You gave up your primary Nuke (maxed Penitence) and your passives (Divine Justice, Soul Power) to get that, though, so make sure you have staying power and burst damage coming from elsewhere.
You are saving Penitence exclusively for interrupts.
It takes a while for minion damage to show, so you have enough HP and armor to last until your opponent has to back off. If you see an incoming gank shield and port out, or Orb and chill while your minions eat lunch.
How a 3v3 Cata game plays out -
You are usually at Forti flag because you can hold it. If you are against a TB or Occ i.e. good AoE ask to switch lanes, you won't be as effective. As soon as your cannon fodder is up (level 5-6) you are going to start pushing hard on the lane tower. If it has a DG guarding it focus your minions on him until he backs off.
Rinse, repeat. Once lane tower is down you are sending your minions repeatedly to take down portal towers. If your opponents act quickly to defend portal towers then you can decoy by grabbing at the portal and Shield/porting out when it gets hot. Do this a couple times and you have a clear lane to the portal.
Once the portal is open you lock it, your team gets grunts, you hold your home portals, and you either assign your minions to defend the portal or take out more towers. If your opponents are good they will lockdown the portal you opened. Fine. Switch lanes and open up the other side or just wait the lock out while farming.
If your team backs you up you should win right here.
Speaking of backup - throughout play you want to keep your teammates from being ganked. That means you port to them with Shield ready when they hit 2k hp, not when they hit 400 hp..
Who this counters, hard - DA, Snipe Reg, Assassin Erb, Rook, Sedna, Assassin Oak (until Surge II)
Who this mostly works against - UB, Minion Erb, Minion Oak, AF Reg, Assassin Oak (After Surge II), QoT
Who counters this - TB, Occ
What I like about this build - You have your minions set up with 1500g and level 4. If you want to drift back towards an Assassin build from that you can without issue, but you get the benefits of all those minions throughout play. As a hybrid you can sharpen your minions into little knives, without sacrificing all of your survivability to do it. And finally you can ignore Pent II and up if you want to and just fill in Morale to shift into a full Minion build.
Also, this build kills roaches dead. I'm looking at you, DA 
What I don't like about this build - you can't set up Penitence ganks and you don't have the stamina Divine Justice gives you. The lack of gank assists and last-hits means your income will be lower than other Oaks, which means you can't tank as aggressively in most games. Finally, Oculus was pretty much made to counter this build.
Thoughts, comments?
Thanks for reading
Kestrel
