Anti-Pestocide: An oak Build

Oak + Heart is a noob build.

The title made me laugh.

What has Pasta Sauce have to do with DG?

DG was originally a cooking game.  Check the LUA files.

Pesticide is used on plants, oak is a type of tree.  Yeah, I know, it's a stretch.

inadvertent pun on Pesto, a type of sauce made from cheese and herbs.

inadvertent confusion of Pesticide (kills pests, small animals that damage your crops) with Herbicide (kills weeds that interfere with your crop). 

language misuse abounds. funny typos.

what's a Zechno anyway and why are you afraid of it?

back on topic:

I don't like the build. seems confused. Not sure if its a minion build or not. For an assassin style Penitence based build i couldn't dream of skipping Shield, which is one of the Oak's best skills. 

my take on a Penitence focused build goes like this

1. Penitence 1

2. Divine Justice 1 (very helpful to get this early as it helps your lane staying power)

3. Shield 1

4. Penitence 2

5. Surge of Faith 1 (also very helpful to get this early since it speeds up your farming by so much)

6. Shield 2

7. Penitence 3

8. Shield 3

9. Divine Justice 2

10. Penitence 4

11. Surge of Faith 2

.

.

15. Surge of Faith 3

specific point assignments end at level 11. remaining levels can be developed in multiple ways. can develop Soul Wards (Raise Dead Wards 1-4, 1 point in Spirit Frenzy, and 1 point in Soul Power). or instead of Soul Wards can focus on basically everything else, so maxing Divine Justice and getting Rally, and finishing up Shield line to Purity.

sample item selection:

Blood of the Fallen (favor)

Nimoth Chestguard

Vlemish Helmet

Unbreakable Boots

Heart of Life (way too good with level 3 Shield, kinda abusive)

Bishops Idol

Wand or Boots of Speed

plays like an assassin throughout most of the game (except you're a sexy assassin with Priest minions). you really take off in abusive power at level 8 when you can combine a 6 second Shield with Heart of Life. thats just unfair. will have to reconsider this build slightly after 1.1 and HoL nerf but for now i see no reason not to abuse it.

Hehe, just your title is Pestocide

Sorry just made me laugh....... not really much to add to the build tho, I use a similar one with Oak, he is the perfect minion machine

I realize, it is a 'pun'. 'anti-pesto' is a type of salad, also plant related.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipasto

spelling. ugh. also, antipasto is a type of salad WITHOUT vegetables. ugh. 

so...how's that Oak build workin out?

I've played a few games (single player) with pretty much this build today and so far I like it.  I've been playing for a while a much more focused minion build but this leaves Oak pretty weak early when he needs to be farming.  This build is similar but puts more emphasis on Pent early which really help survival against enemy DG's early and can at least turn them back if you can hit them twice with it.

All in all not bad and after level 10 or so it's getting on par with a more pure minion build and by 12-13 you've got spirits all over the place and you've got some better punch against DG's.

May be different experience online but that's what I'm seeing so far.

You can't tell if it is a minion build or not... because while it has minions, it is not a 'minion build'. Minions are there to pump up soul power, as well as provide a little extra damage and vision. Instead of needing shield three, I do 60 to 80 more damage per swing, not counting a little extra minion damage.

Oak's minions are actually substantially stronger than anyone elses (In terms of damage) so even just having them around while the enemy tries to AA you will often greatly increase your overall dps. Especially with Penitence, especially with surge.

The main focus, though, is still on making oak a juggernaut.

Shield without Heart I find far too situational for it to be a main part of a build.

I highly disagree.  Even without the Heart, Shield III is extremely effective in not only saving your life, but also the lives of your teammates, no matter what opponent your facing.  I'm thinking about making a guide for my Oak build that, among other things, puts getting Shield III at top priority, although I'm waiting for 1.1 to see what changes it brings to the Heart.

In addition, though, I also think you're rather misguided in prioritizing Divine Justice so early, especially when you're not getting Surge of Faith until Level 9.  As you stated in your example, Divine Justice is best in combination with Surge of Faith.  Without the aoe, you'll be killing creep pretty slowly, likely not even getting killing blows because of your own creep or nearby allied demigods.  No killing blow, no Divine Justice benefit.  Also, it's pretty much guaranteed that for most of pre-Level 10, you'll be facing nothing but minotaurs and archers, anyway, which give a laughable amount of regen in return.  My suggestion as a quick fix would be to save the Level 3 point for Penitence II and Soul Ward II at Level 4, get Surge of Faith I at Level 5 (the sooner you get it, the sooner you can farm effectively), and wait until Level 9 for Divine Justice I.

And one more thing in regard to items: If you plan on throwing around Penitence and eventually Surge of Faith a lot like it looks like you intend to, you really need to get yourself mana helmets.  Waiting to save money for the Heart and then relying solely on that (and Divine Justice) for mana is not going to cut it.  In fact, quick DemigodDB calculations show that by Level 10 with the Heart, you will have 1417 mana with 6.61 regen, which means that you will only be able to use Penitence III (650 mana) twice before needing a refill, which, without Shield III, will require you to disengage from combat completely to use the Heart, something that obviously won't always be possible.  On the other hand, having Vlemish and Plenor, instead, will give you a whopping 4042 mana and 32.99 regen, not to mention 1000 gold to spare.

boo... I missed my chance to bust chops on pesto-cide...meh.  All that AND you used the word synergy... anyway, silliness aside, I'll give your build a shot.  Thanks for the post.  I do get nervous without seeing much shield strength in your build though. 

I'll second this build -  

I generally play oak about 3 different ways, and a build similar to this is becoming my fast favorite. 

Spirits are fantastic against oponents lacking in AOE (yeah I'm looking at you regulus) and for helping break down QoT's barriers while you're out of her attack range. I find them far less usefull against TB in particular so I'll build accordingly. 

My only comment would be that not taking Surge of Faith until level 9 & 10 is a scary prospect. SoF is one of my most powerful post level 5 early game abilities. But the points have got to come out of somewhere I suppose. 

And for you haters - its not so scary to play a build without shield, personally I often fare better without it. I find that I use shield as a counter to UB mainly, failing that its an escape ability at early levels - Wand of speed is a good alternative for an escape route and you can pick that up early game. 

I am not an extensive Oak player, I usually play him when there are no AoEs or feel like a change.

I also don't take HoL and Shield, not sure why, just never found I needed it.Would rather spend the 4250 getting minion buffing items.

Shield I don't find that useful, at least not in a minion build, the points can be spent elsewhere. For an assassin build it can be a lot better off.

kill urself