Oak v Erebus advice

Just to be clear, I didn't quit at that point. I'm just recounting this point in the game as the point at which it became clear to me I was probably going to lose. And I did.

for oak pentinence is your most powerful and useful move.  If you cast it on him, it will deal 200 damage and slow him for 7 seconds, also causing him to take increased damage for 7 seconds.  If you have full mana on level 3 you may be able to cast it twice in a row.  this hsould always be the first spell you get

morale is useless, especially at the early levels when you dont have many minions for it to effect.  i would personally suggest never getting it, but thats just me and you may be having more success with it.  you can always pop your hp potion and mana potion.  you should be able to teleport away.

if you are losing a battle especially in early game, retreat to under your tower and start fighting, the tower will hit the enemy for quite a substantial amount of damage as well as your hits.  Remember when you are running they take no damage from you and are only being hit by the tower.  the spirits are bad at attacking while moving (i am not even sure if they can).



In conclusion, retreat to under a tower and then attack him, the combined dps of you, the spirits and the tower will win. especially when on level 3.

if you want to keep running, cast pentinence and use your speed advantage to get some distance.

What map was this? A level three can't just casually ignore towers. I don't know the specifics of your situation but I think it's probable that the best thing to do was to fight him at a tower. You had a health potion to keep you alive that much longer in the worst case while your tower pounded him. He is dependent on having mana for bite, don't forget.  I just don't see how he could have the raw output at level three to win with a tower there.

Maybe his monks healed erebus and in combination with bite he prolly had full hp all the time, besides after he killed him he prolly gained a lvl which also gives a slight amount of HP. The monks have around 700 HP alowing them to take 3 full hits from a tower each.

The things I said are only possible on the map Prison I think but its a stretch. I can hardly believe that he would survive 2 Towers of light/darkness and 2 arrow towers bashing him at lvl 3 and that he survived (IF he entered the base on the front that is). but to counter this you would have to fight at the towers like the above people already sayd. Erebus is really hard in the beginning for alot of people because he can heal and damage you at the same time. I'd say Sedna would have been a better Demigod to go up against an erebus.

Yes, I think this is good advice. In fact since I posted the OP, I decided I should get penitence first even if I'm going for a minion heavy build.

It doesn't slow movement, though, right? Just attack speed?

Morale makes a big difference when you have lots of minions, but I think you're right that I shouldn't get it early. Not til I have maybe level three spirit ward or have gone for lots of idols or something.

Spirits can definitely attack while moving. It's a great thing to watch when I send them after a running DG and they just drain him as he runs.

But in any case, I think you're right that I should have fought once I reached the tower. I'll keep that in mind!

Prison[/quote]

 A level three can't just casually ignore towers. I don't know the specifics of your situation but I think it's probable that the best thing to do was to fight him at a tower. [/quote]

Somehow, this guy was able to ignore the towers. But I think you may be right that I should have been fighting instead of running once I got to tower cover.

 

it slows movement speed.  i have not thoroughly testing it however i believe the damage increase is also valid for spells, i tried on a bot casting pent then using surge of faith and hit the bot for around 339 damage.



morale makes a big difference if you have lots of minions.  However in the current state of the game i would rather invest the minion money into the citadel or my personal gear rather than spreading it across all 3.  monks are essential for any general simply because of the healing. always buff yourself first over the minions, morale may sound like an attractive option however that skill point could go to more useful skills such as the next level of pentinence (which should always be max available).

I have played against many players who make the mistake of trying to have very powerful minions, often they sacrifice their own DGs power as they are inevitably stretched for money and skill points into useful skills if taking morale.  Their dps will be high, however i will compensate by taking high armour items.  Then when they try to fight me i use my superior mostly DG power and kill them.


if you want any more help i would be happy to write a short guide on how to play oak.  i know there are a few guides but they seem to mostly be selections of when to pick spells and which 5 artifacts you need to win.

A question about priests. If I've ordered them to attack something, will they still heal me every ten seconds? Or do they have to be idle in order to heal?

There are players who seem to know what they're talking about and who think almost exactly the opposite of this, so I'm going to have to just wait and see who turns out to be right.

But like I said, I do think you're right that morale should be added later, not earlier. You would probably add "if at all."

As an Erebus player, the 2 most annoying things Oak does are penitence and shield. Penitence for the stun and slow, and shield well.....that's obvious.

Erebus is already a very fast char, and he might've taken the swift anklet (+15% move speed) as his favor item, so he's very fast at that point.

Of course he had bite, he was slowing you down every 7 secs, removing armor every 7 secs, and draining 300 health and doing 300 damage to you every 7 secs. Add that and maybe a potion and you're done.

My advice would be to change your build up a bit, and fight back somewhat, or use penitence to stun him and get away to safety.

If someone starts running from me, I chase. Period. Because I know I can catch them, and chase them hitting them while they run, just trying to get off a bite to slow them down then they're really in trouble. And I'll chase past towers too, because in many levels there is a safe spot right on the other side of that tower, so I take a zap or tower, then bite you once to make up for the damage I took. You'll be much better off trying to do enough damage to me to get me to stop attacking and run myself, or fighting till 50% health and then stunning / shielding and running.

Were you playing in a game with high starting money?  The only way a level 3 (any demigod) can survive chasing to crystal is if it's a game with high starting money on Prison, *maybe* crucible.  If you guys were playing a game with high starting gold then any strategies that would normally work are going to be void because starting with 20,000g changes the game entirely.

i think what you are saying definetley is valid.  However i feel as though in larger team games, AOE nukes will force you to spend all your time carving gravestones for your minions.  In small games as Micah said (in another thread) and is a general problem with minion builds that you have trouble killing enemies as enemy DGs can exit the battle when they choose. minions do not attack while moving.

though don't get me wrong i swear by minions, the spirits are free dps and sponges to soak up that nasty tower damage. when possible i choose items that buff my minions.  however skill points are too valid a resource for me to spend them on my minions.  I am usually stretched for skill points and can't find place to fit morale in.

Could you please give me a skill+buy order that includes focusing heavily on morale. i will try it online.

It's an interesting point about the fact that a heavy minion build depends on physical damage, allowing opponent to negate with armor.

I think you're right that even if I'm focussing on minions I should max penitence as well. That way I can do both physical and magical damage.

I just played a couple of games in which I prioritized penitence and ward, taking one point each in soul power, divine justice and surge of faith. Only when I couldn't add to penitence or ward did I take morale. It has worked.... better... though I can't say I won any of the games.

Now you guys are going to ask why no shield, but look, you can't have everything!

They do, I swear they do. I've been watching for this. They chase DGs and DG health drains until minions stop chasing.

I'm almost certain. But I've been wrong before. Maybe I misinterpreted what I was seeing.

 

Well, at least if the DG is running from minions I've made the DG run away which serves my purpose in most situations.

i only take shield against UB, i find its cooldown to be too long for my liking and i get by with QoT shield (my friend plays).

I don't think we're talking about high gold starts, because the OP said all he had was banded mail and a few consumables.  That sounds like a 1000 gold budget. 

However, there is one thing that stands out about his item choice.  In a typical match, banded mail is better than scale mail.  This is not true against Erebus.  You should always get a scale mail at the start of the game against Erebus, presuming he's getting bite.  Usually increasing your hit points with banded mail gives you the best results, but bite debuffs your armour.  If your armour turns negative, you take massive amounts of extra damage.  Having an item like scale mail to keep your armour above water after you take a bit is critical to surviving Erebus.

 

Actually, at level 3 you can.  You can have wards, shield, and penitence at level 1.  Those spirits don't become really powerful till later on, and getting the first level of shield and penitence is absolutely critical.

 

Oh God. This is the kind of thing I'll never remember until its too late.

No, really, I'll try, I promise. I do want to get better.

(But I do wish there were a ladder so I could reliably be paired with people who are just a little better or worse than me, instead of a lot better or worse. I think in games you can learn better that way.)

I would suggest playing a single player game on crucible versus normal cpu AI, and trying different builds using and trying skills you normally never would with Oak, as it will help you find the best build for you.

Each DG plays differently, or should I say has their strengths that make them unique. Oak is special in that he can be played more like an assasin where you focus on skills like penitence, soul power, and surge of faith. Or, he can kind of be played like a tank where his strength is to outlast the opponent, by using divine justice and shield combined with heart of life to keep his minions flowing and himself safe from damage attacks.

I personally feel that with Oak shield is an absolute must, helps protect against UB and players who just do tons of damage in general and combined with Heart of Life it's super powerful. Start dying? Hit shield then Heart of life for all you mana and health back while you are still fighting.

I honestly don't find Oaks shield that useful either.  In niche scenarios you can get some extra durability out of it, but his other options are so amazingly good, shield just doesn't impress me.

You need to avoid early skirmishes with him unless you buy the monk idol early on which I do. You need to know when you can fight him and when you cannot. What you need to do is time his bite so that the next one you pop shield and he wont get any hp back from the bite which is crucial to EB.

 

Get yourself a heart of life and pop shield + trinket to reset the battle this will gain you a huge advantage because chances are EB will be low on mana and pots.

 in all honestly i played a game without favor items where  a lvl 1 fought me in front of my towers, killed me then attacked my tower for a while doing good damage before walking out with a lot of health left.  

dont know what gear they were using from the start but damn

You probably should have thrown a penitence at him, then stood slap bang in the middle of 2 of your towers.