The ULTIMATE Guide to Oracle: 45 Tips for Heralds and Immortals

A guide by Roman Galeev.

I’ve always felt bad for my favorite hero. Oracle has never been popular: the hero is too situational for pros but too difficult for pub players. But ever since Fate’s Edict was redesigned, the hero is no longer so challenging. 

The gameplay on Oracle is still extremely versatile, with a bunch of non-obvious mechanics. To help you navigate through it, I’ve prepared 45 tips for Oracle, divided into 3 groups of 15 points each. First are facts for people who are new to Oracle, and then we’ll finish with mechanics that may surprise even Immortal players.

Beginner Oracle

1. Many people still don’t know how the False Promise indicator burning above the hero works. When the indicator is burning brightly, the hero will die after the False Promise. If not, the hero will survive, but it is not certain that he will regenerate health. 

2. Remember that in 99% of games, you max Fate’s Edict after Purifying Flames, not Fortune’s End. Duration of 100% mr and disarm, cooldown, ability to heal yourself and your teammates more often – all these things are more valuable than 60 extra damage and 4 cd reduction.

3. Fortune’s End dispels enemy runes. You should immediately cast the spell at the enemy with the rune. dispel a shield rune or suddenly ending the haste is priceless.

4. You should ignore the level 10 talent until lvl16. Both Fate’s Edict and Fortune’s End are scale great and that is more important than 0.5 second of root. 

5. To deal damage effectively on Oracle, you must cast Purifying Flames after Fortune’s End release. Q=>E and not the other way around!

6. Oracle is one of the best supports in terms of last hit ranged creeps when your carry couldn’t do it. Even lvl1 Purifying Flames deals 90 damage with 0,1 delay – it’s unbeatable for almost all heroes in Dota.

7. From level 3, you can keep the balance of the lane with a non-stacked pull or even without pulling at all. Use Purifying Flames on a ranged allied creep and immediately deny it. 

8. Oracle is one of the weakest heroes in Dota up to level 3. He has 42 damage at level 1 – it’s the worst damage in the game. This means we can’t effectively trade 1x1s with the enemy’s pos4, which leads us to two conclusions:

– Oracle is very passive up to level 3 and can’t even adequately contest pulls – you have to block bid camp with wards, not your body.

– You need a lane-active carry for Oracle. For example, the Oracle – Phantom Lancer lane will suffer for the first 10 minutes, but with Ursa, you can destroy your opponent.

9. Don’t forget to farm. Many supports, especially like Oracle, don’t pay enough attention to creeps. Remember that Shard + Fortune’s End = killed wave of creeps. Also, you can always get a ranged creep with Purifying Flames from some safe position, staying in the jungle.

10. Eating Cheese in False Promise = guaranteed survival after ulti. In Oracle matches, Cheese can be even more effective than Aegis, because your teammate won’t wait 5 seconds to respawn. 

11. Purifying Flames don’t have to be cast on Fate’s Edict when healing. Remember that now you can cast this spell on allies in BKB, so Oracle works especially well with Lifestealer and Juggernaut (in addition, both of them have their sources of healing). It’s also handy to cast heal on Ursa under Enrage, Templar Assassin with Refraction, Visage, and Anti-Mage with Counterspell. 

12. When playing Oracle, it’s important to self-cast abilities using Alt+hotkey. Your mouse cursor is always pointed at your teammates or enemies, and sometimes you will be forced to self-cast any of the four skills. When you learn to do this using Alt+hotkey, you will immediately notice an improvement in your impact.

13. Fortune’s End can be used as a budget version of Ink Swell. We cast it on the initiator ally with Blink Dagger (e.g. Centaur) and release it as soon as the ally casts Blink and stun enemies. This is a safe way to prolong control from a distance (remember that it is important to keep Oracle in position).

14. Fate’s Edict disarms Roshan. This greatly speeds up his kill, since your carry doesn’t get bashed.

15. When should I self-cast False Promise? This question is especially relevant in mid-game when the ulti cd is 110. There are three simple rules:

1. If you’re alone and there are no teammates around and no opportunity to trade, die, even if there’s a chance to survive because of False Promise.
2. If the fight has not yet moved to the 5x5 stage and your teammates can retreat without engaging, die.
3. If you are sure that you can win a few seconds with your ult for your team and it will be enough for them to win the fight (no matter if you die in the end or not), go ahead and press the ulti.

Experienced Oracle

16. The great mystery of Dota is that most players have no idea how much damage they need to deal in False Promise to kill a target. So usually opponents get too obsessed with the target under False Promise and hit it for the whole duration even if the target is already dead. So, False Promise can be a kind of soft version of Berserker Call, when you just go into a fight and take as much damage as you can. 

17. Fate’s Edict has 100 more cast range at level 4 than False Promise at level 1. That means that from levels 9 to 12, sometimes you should start saving your teammate from a distance with Fate’s Edict, especially for example, against Lion or Necrophos. In addition, Fate’s Edict’s cooldown is much lower, so you possibly won’t need to spend your ulti after absorbing damage by Fate’s Edict.

18. Healing Salve and Urn of Shadows don’t stop their effect when a target is taking damage during False Promise. Experienced Oracle players carry the potion  in early mid-game – it’s 60 health per second in ulti!

19. Designing an itembuild on Oracle, set the objective to «live as long as possible». Unlike Disruptor or Shadow Shaman, we have no game-changing artifacts, and we are completely free to pick our build. Our hero has absolutely everything we need to be an endlessly effective ally-saver.

But here’s the catch: enemies know it too. They will seek you out, flank you, and do everything to ensure that you are the first to die.

20. Out of the meta heroes, Timbersaw is the biggest threat. All of his skills can penetrate Fate’s Edict, and with the new Blink Dagger build, he can easily get close to you. And yes, you don’t want to play against Lycan and Broodmother. 

21. In the middle of a fight, it’s easy to missclick on a hero or lose time in selecting the right one. In the case of Oracle, it’s a matter of milliseconds. To avoid this, you can cast Fate’s Edict or False Promise just by clicking the ally icon above – especially helpful against summoners and illusionists. 

22. Lotus Orb should never stop you from casting Fate’s Edict and Purifying Flames. Don’t be afraid to get a disarm: you don’t hit in a fight anyway. 

23. You always want your teammates to buy Magic Stick and your carry to buy vampirism sources. Sometimes you don’t even need to heal an ally in the late game: if a carry with 5-6 items hits enemies with Satanic or at least Vladmir’s Offering, he’s likely to be healed at the end of False Promise.

24. Medusa is the worst teammate for Oracle. You have no idea how bad she is:

– Fate’s Edict doesn’t work for Medusa. I mean literally: you press Fate’s Edict, Lion presses Finger of Death and it – yes – does full damage to Mana Shield.

– False Promise doesn’t protect Medusa’s mana from any damage.

– Medusa doesn’t care about your shard.

– Medusa is a passive hero on the lane, which will never help you in a trade with pos4.

25. You can safely send an ally through a double portal by using Fate’s Edict and Purifying Flames on him in advance. This is especially useful when you suspect that enemies are waiting for you at the portal exit rather than taking Roshan. As a rule, players will instantly cast buttons at the first person who comes out of the portal, so you can save him while your enemy wastes some spells.

26. Doom and Ancient Apparition are not that good against Oracle. The thing is, that healing prevention doesn’t affect a False Promise’s target. Technically, the healing triggers once at the end of the ulti. So if you cast False Promise on a target under Doom, but Doom ends before False Promise, the target can be healed. 

27. You can dispel Dust of Appearence debuff. 

28. You can dispel the opponent’s Eul, by just pressing Fortune End on the euled hero.

29. Blink Dagger can be used in False Promise even if the hero is taking damage. 

30. Oracle’s Shard is often used strictly as an aoe heal, but don’t forget that it not only deals some damage to enemies but also lowers their healing by 25%. Fast shard is necessary against heroes like Morphling, Necrophos, Alchemist, and so on. 

Professional Oracle

31. Royal Jelly is OP for Oracle. Regeneration from active skill works in False Promise like Healing Salve – it’s 40 hp/sec! 

32. Aerobatics of playing Oracle against Silencer is to self-cast Fortune’s End during a possible Global Silence cast. If you get the timing right, you’ll dispel silence instantly.

33. Always keep an eye on the lotuses and collect them. Even Great Healing Lotus gives 800 health to ally with False Promise!

34. False Promise, Fortune’s End, and Lotus Orb dispel Fate’s Edict from an ally! This feature can ruin your teammate’s save. Technically, Fate’s Edict is a debuff, so False Promise removes what seems to be an important buff. It’s probably a throwback to the days when Fate’s Edict disarmed your teammates. 

35. Monkey King can dodge damage from False Promise by using Mischief. This, as well as the built-in vampirism, makes MK a great carry for Oracle. Note: not all Monkey King players know this, so you need to tell your teammate. 

Templar Assassin, on the other hand, cannot use this trick, as the damage will pass through Refraction.

UPD: Mischief abuse were removed and doesn’t work in Dota anymore (thanks Tsunami for noting that) 

36. Insania, the most experienced Oracle in the pro scene, has started buying Phylactery as the first item. I have a theory why Liquid’s support prefers this item: Phylactery gives ~350 health for relatively little money, so in a way, Phylactery increases survivability. Honestly, I only recommend using this build if you are very confident in your ability to hold your position in a fight. Insania’s build is for true professionals.

37. Linken Sphere is a good decision against Nyx Assassin. Yes, it’s expensive. But trust me: when the man with Dagon 5 can’t burst you, you will literally turn off an entire hero from the game. 

38. False Promise indicator can occasionally mislead you. The thing is that the sun above the hero’s head doesn’t take into account heal amplification from the Shard or Holy Locket. Under these effects, even with the sun burning, a hero can survive after False Promise. 

39. Every support knows the mini-game «Destroy a ward blocking a creep camp faster than the enemy support». Oracle can destroy any ward faster by simply disarming the opponent with Fate’s Edict.

40. When melee heroes are chasing you, self-cast Fortune’s End and release it after 0.5 seconds. This way you won’t waste time turning around and casting at the enemy, but you’ll be able to root the area around you.  

41. A consequence of the previous tip. As a rule, you can’t cast spells to Anti-Mage, because he will always react with Counterspell. BUT you can cast Fortune’s End in illusion from Manta, and it works well.

42. If you suddenly feel like a Topson and try Oracle pos2, remember the next things:

– You must buy two Bracers or Null Talismans, otherwise, you won’t get any creeps.

– You must spend mana on both your own and enemy ranged creeps.

– Topson prefers a build with Phylactery and Ethereal Blade, but I personally don’t like it. Oracle’s power isn’t in damage, it’s in the ability to get to crazy amounts of debuffs and buffs quickly. I mean, if you want a pos2 with strong single-target damage, why would you pick Oracle? I prefer rush Greaves + Shard + some utility items. 

43. Bonus to the tip above: Oracle is a surprisingly awesome counterpick to Arc Warden pos2:

– We use Fate’s Edict on every ranged creep to counter Wraith Spark.

– We dispel Flux and pass through any amount of sparks with Fate’s Edict.

44. Using Purifying Flames (even with Fate’s Edict!) on an ally can activate Aeon Disk – be careful with this!

45. Unlocking Aeon Disk during False Promise will only trigger after ulti and save you from fatal damage if the target’s health is above the 70% threshold at the start of the ultimate. Otherwise, Aeon Disk will trigger during False Promise. Don’t ask me how this works. Just remember that you can cast a False Promise on a target with Aeon Disk at full health and the target is guaranteed to survive. 

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I hope that now you will pay attention to this very versatile and interesting support a bit more often.

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