I hate Oak

the secret is you hit guys with the axe until they die. 

Quoted For Truth.

On a more serious note, Oak doesn't start laying down damage until he's at least level 5+. At lower levels it is recommended to go with Banded armor + gauntlets of brutality + blood of the fallen favor. Stay in lanes, try to outsurvive other people and push them back and gain XP as fast as you can, at which point you should be laying down the law. I usually mix in later mana helmets with a nice piece of armor and boots of speed, but that's because I use a mana-heavy build (I like the minion-less build).

If you find early game survivability a problem then by all means, purchase priests instead of early game items.

Oak is possibly the worst character in the early game... however... once he starts leveling up he becomes very, very powerful. Oak doesn't excel at anything in particular, which lies is greatest strength, he is an all-arounder. He can dish out more DPS than most characters, can stun/slow with pentitence, can summon minions, has one of the highest auto attacks in the game (with souls), has a shield that also heals at higher elvels AND let's you use HOL at the same time, decent speed (just as fast as Reg), Last Stand can be very handy, and then to top it all off he has a very good AOE attack. There's a few other things I am omitting, but I absolutely love Oak. You need to practice with him and get better, that is all I can say. He's amazing once you figure him out and use him strategically.

Oak is insanely powerful once he hits mid-game. He can be simply absurd once he gets going. Go and fight a good Oak, come back, and tell me that he sucks. Please.

1. Soul Ward I

2. Divine Justice I

3. Penitence I

Buy monks in the beginning and maybe a mana pot.  I've been using the Blood of the Fallen lately because the extra hp and health regen is huge in the beginning and lets me focus more on damage later in the game.

This thread proves again that Demigod is balanced.

Getting people to call one of the strongest DG's as bad is a good indicator.

Oak can strengthen his spirits and they in return strengthen him directly and indirectly.

Oak can heal his spirits and himself by killing others.

Oak can damage, slow and make enemies more suspectible to his already high damage ... from a distance and quite frequently.

Oak can become completely invulnerable for a short time, nullifying all dangerous attacks if your reflexes are up to it.

Oak can fight after death, getting a shot at revenge or attack base structures while completely ignoring everything the enemy throws at him.

Oak is almighty.

Did our match a minute ago just show you what Oak is good for?

OK, yea.  I've been romped by Oak before.  I know he can be good.  I just can't use him.  Good tips though on early game survivability.  Think I'll buy both low armors and just focus on not dying until 5ish next time.

BUT!  Still don't think Oak is the best.  He tries to do too many things and, while I have a hard time killing him, I can consistently push him out of lane, which is good enough.

Oak is a tough cookie to get used to playing. I had the advantage of playing him a lot early on when everyone was just learning the game. You're probably going to have a tougher time with it when playing against experienced players.

Oak is an excellent general

Oak is an excellent assasin

Oak is excellent as a gen/assassin hybrid

The trick is knowing how to pace yourself in early encounters. Don't expect to wrack up a ton of kills pre-level 5. As in that movie above, learn to love the term Tactical retreat.

Speed (swift ankelts + boots of speed at level 1) is a great way to start for a more assassin oriented build

Mana helm + teleport scroll + heal potion is another good starting combo for a more general or hybrid oriented build (plus swift anklets favor item)

Learn how your skills compliment one another. Every skill Oak has is useful on its own, but when you combine them effectively they make for deadly combos.

Here are a couple of examples - 

Using penitence to open a fight, get close to the DG (away from towers) and pop surge of faith. Follow with another penitence and start chasing the enemy down. your penitence slows + debuffs, while your surge of faith increases your attack speed. As he retreats (and he will) chase until just before you hit the towers. If you almost have him down, hit shield just before you get in tower range, finish him off and make a speedy retreat.

If you decide to take raise dead early on, make sure you put at least one rank into soul power and focus on always having at least 2 ward flags up. This ensures your attack power is maximized by the added spirits (I think its +40 weapon power, +20 for every 3 spirits you have up). Combine this with penitence and lure the enemy away from their defenses. If you mock like running away, while at the same time sending your spirits to attack the enemy DG, they will generally follow you. As you pull him far enough away, hit with penitence to slow him down, turn around and start wacking.. The slow movement speed + your spirits chopping away will often catch and enemy DG by suprise and you can finish him off before he can retreat to his towers. 

The nice thing about Oaks skill trees is that you can create amazing hybrids that pretty much allow you to max out your most important skills while still being able to round your character out with the rest of the skills in the tree.

In games that I hit 20 I usually have something that looks like this:

Penitence maxed
Surge of Faith Maxed
Spirits to level 4
Shield to level 4
Divine justice to level 4
Soul power at level 1

The only skills I don't often take are Last Stand (or whatever that one where you turn invuln after you die) and morale, although I sometimes take morale if I've got all my level 4 idols and a high rank of Raise Dead before level 10. Maxing out your Morale will help a lot in the late game if you're a minion oriented player. Otherwise they tend to get one shotted by enemy AOE's. 

Playing Oak takes a lot of ego. Don't be afraid to back off from anything remotely dangerous, and run to your towers whenever you have to. Just make sure the game isn't over until you reach lv15+, which is when you start being able to hold off 2 DGs by yourself if you have the right gear.

The x-axis is the amount of time you spend alive, and the y-axis is the amount of ownage you deal out. It starts off at negative since he sucks so much early game.

There is an easy way to curb how much he sucks.

Take whatever skill you want at level 1. Take Blood of the Fallen. Buy Monks, cast and sell back. Buy Banded Armor and Scale Mail. You'll have 1000 Armor and 2900 hp at level 1 and be literally unkillable without HEAVY 2v1 situation or dry-humping towers.

I wouldn't get to attached to this strategy. The whole "buy idols->cast->sell back" thing could potentially get nerfed in the future. They are already looking to nerf minion-stacking. This might go along with it.

But, you are right, that is a very powerful way to start up with Oak.

Oak is a powerhouse, lvls 7+, early game buy priests, summon, sell them (if careful priests will last long enough for you to get HoL), buy armor and a mana pot.  Go to first flag, position priests behind you between yourself and a your towers out of harm's way.  You'll have a HP pool to outlast anyone with blood favour item, if it's a melee battle, pull up your priests to start healing you, if you're getting spat on/ranged down pull back to your towers, your priests will heal you as you retreat since they're already in position. 5+ you start getting mad XP with that aoe skill of yours.  

End game I remember I was doing 450+ damage per swing with .7 attack speed, and that's with a few armor pieces thrown in.

Tried him again a few games today, focusing on surviving the early levels.  I bought the two low-level armors and used blood of the fallen to start.  Didn't want to buy priests then sell priests - it feels like an exploit to me.

Anyways, worked well.  I avoided DGs until level 5.  Built up my spirits, soul power and penitence with a smattering of shield, surge of faith and divine justice.  Rolled the competition.

Thanks guys!  Oak has been upgraded from "hate" to "meh".

Having someone who sucks at the game make wild assumptions based on how bad he is with a certain character doesn't show balance in any way.

Ass comment, Strangler.  Speaking of wild assumptions, you've got no idea if I suck at the game.  The fact that I brought up my troubles and sought out advice should be some indication that I'm not a complete idiot.

I think Oak is kinda faceroll if you know how to build him. He gets so many minions so easily, and +M stats have such a large effect on his damage because of that. I just played a game where I killed an early oak 5 times, and he came back to rofl-stomp the match. Oak is the only hero i know that can do that so naturally.

Spirits get kills, is the general message. Especially after pent and buffs. He and erebus have quickly become 2 of my favorite heros.

It's not really an exploit considering you loose 20% of the gold you paid for it and you can only cast it once. If they die you are out another chunk of gold early game. When you have 8 Priest minions following you, THEN it feels like an exploit.

I wasn't talking about you directly. But if you want, I can.

lately ive been playing oak as an assasin till lvl 10, and then a general.  Its been roflstomping. 

Isn't The Oak the Demigod that Frogboy prefers?

Frogboy has the secret hacked version of Oak though that does double damage and has an extra 5000 hitpoints but they're invisible hitpoints. Secret Frogboy Oak has tears that cure cancer. too bad he's never cried.

etc. 

If he's going for a minion-heavy build then parasite egg will work wonders. Every time you hit the general his minions will take the damage as well. A couple of strong hits should be enough to kill his entire army.

And like the others said, he's weak early game. Harass him continously and don't let him gain experience.

so unless a demigod has the best damage out of all the demigods and the best survivability out of all demigods then that demigod is underpowered? 

Doesn't make him underpowered - I'm certainly not recommending a buff.  Just makes him a less attractive Demigod than another.