| 10 | +25% Damage |
|---|---|
| 20 | +10% Area of Effect |
| 30 | +15% Effect Duration |
| 40 | ASTRAL RADIANCE: Inflicts 40%/45%/50%/55%/60% weapon damage every 2s to enemies next to the Orb. |
| 50 | All Heroes: +15%HP/min Regeneration |
| 60 | +1 Magical Projectile |
| 70 | All Heroes: +2.5% Effect Duration |
| 80 | NOVA: Unleashes a 360° pressure wave dealing 300%/400%/500%/600%/700% weapon damage every 20 attacks. |
| 90 | All Heroes that share faction: +5% Area of Effect |
| 100 | SPECTRAL CASCADE: Killing enemies fills a meter. The Oracle releases Orbs in all directions, traveling farther and bouncing off walls dealing extra 100%/150%/200%/250%/300% weapon damage. |
| 120 | All Heroes: +4% XP Bonus |
| 140 | Strong Stat Bonus: +30% Weapon Duration (Additive) |
| 160 | All Heroes: +100% Damage |
I can see it now…
Your future holds a glowing storm of destruction. Bright orange orbs crackling with energy, stunning enemies before they can even touch you.
But this isn't a prophecy. It's the present power of the Oracle.
The strongest individual hero in the Mage Guild, this one-eyed time-traveling witch is formidable. Dealing massive AOE damage, she ranks as one of the top DPS heroes in Heroes vs Hordes.
So, how does she conjure this level of chaos from seemingly nowhere?
That's exactly what we're going to uncover. I'll break down her stats, forges, best modes, and the key strategies that make this glass cannon shine.
But, there's a catch. She's powerful, yes, but only if you build her right, play her smart, and know where to unleash her full potential.
By the way, I'm Kolz, a high-level HvH player on the grind for 1,000 subscribers. If this helps you master the Oracle, please consider subscribing.
The future looks bright and a little dangerous. Let's get into it.
With any Hero, it's important to start with the fundamentals. I've found in my video game travels that mastering the basics is what often separates the best players from the mids..
In the Oracle's case, once you understand her base stats and weapon, you'll see why she's so strong.
Looking at her level progression, she gets AoE at 20, Effect Duration at 30, Magical Projectiles at 60, and, here's where the pattern begins, Effect Duration at 140. Which stat did I say twice?
Her weapon, the Crystal Ball, unleashes watchful eyes that deal damage when touched. They are orbs that remain on the battlefield. They can, and do, overlap as more are cast and they remain on the battlefield.
That means that three important talents will improve the damage of the Orbs:
Thrice makes a pattern, my friends - effect duration. You can make orbs last longer on the battlefield via effect duration, making the Oracle one of the very few heroes to benefit from this talent. Furthermore, you can gather from her lvl 140 skill that Freywood, the lead hero design dev, has a model that says 30% effect duration equals about a 15-20% increase in the Oracle's damage.
But effect duration will only increase the time her Orbs remain on the battlefield. Why is that such a big increase in damage?
Looking through the Oracle's globals, she comes about right in the middle.
We talked about her level 3 forge giving 2.5% more XP.
You get another 2.5% XP at level 120, 15hp/min at 50 is a nothing burger. 2.5% Effect Duration at 70 fits with her theme. And a 5% Area of Effect faction at 90 is average.
Add in more effect duration from her Faction Bonus, and she'll buff herself up more than others in the Magic Council.
So my quick take here is nothing to brag about, you want Oracle for her damage as a main hero via forging, you won't gain a ton of value from her Forges.
Therefore, let me finish by giving an example build since it's slightly different from everyone else.
The Oracle's damage build revolves entirely around stacking Effect Duration. Stacking it as high to the sky as you can.
This builds off of Artemis' original build from the HvH spreadsheet. His idea was that with enough duration, you can enter a loop where her Ultimate is ready again before the orbs from the last one have disappeared.
It creates a rolling storm of AoE that never stops. You're not just casting ultimates. You're living in one.
The key here is that all of her effect duration focus increases the length of her ultimate too.
For weapons, you run Fire Orbs, Bombs, Lightning, and Crossbow. These synergize well with each other as the standard max damage build for base weapons.
You can then complement them with these tomes.
Tomes should always start with Effect Duration. After that, you want Cooldown, Duplicator, Area, and Damage.
Jewels follow the same logic. Start with Vulnerability, Ultimate Charge, and Ultimate Duration. Then run cooldown until you hit the 60% cap. Then you want to prioritize effect duration with any remaining slots.
The key for any forge is to see if it impacts skills in addition to the main weapon. In Oracle's case, she doesn't have anything as obvious as the Warlord or Artificer, but her forge does impact her skills.
Because in her timeline, everything leads back to Orbs.
Level One has the option for Mystic Strike and 1.1 times damage or endless vision with 1.1 times effect duration. You want the effect duration here because of everything we've talked about. This also marks the first time I've seen a multiple to effect duration.
Level Two has stunning smite for 1.15 times damage to stunned enemies, or swift seer with +10% projectile speed. The stun multiple is huge, but it's hard to stun enemies. Projectile speed seems ok as it gets orbs out faster, but both seem kind of mid.
Level Three has bonus XP, so you can see the future faster.
However, level 4 gives you a Prophecy Orb for a massive damage spike. Orbs can form an electric link to the furthest orb, inflicting damage per second upon touching an enemy.
Which means this bad boy multiplies the damage of her weapon, while also benefiting the most by effect duration.
Lastly, Orb Mastery allows an additional link between orbs, which has to be some kind of Factorial to damage. And Mystic Burst that makes Orbs no longer link to each other, but generate a stunning explosion every two seconds.
The stun doesn't get any talk on Discord, but it seems like it could work tremendously well for Arena and Nightmare Mode. Combined with the bump from her level 2 forge to stunned and it seems like a solid combo.
All in all, her Forge massively amps her damage, particularly via skills, because of the enhanced duration to Orbs. More orbs mean more damage. I'd go RLL (Right-Left-Left Forge choices) for max damage and try RLR (Right-Left-Right) for Nightmare Mode or Arena.
So, if you don't have a main hero, she should be a top consideration. If you already have a main, then her globals are mid.
The best heroes get the majority of their damage from skills, as they normally deal some multiple of weapon damage.
The best of the best get talents that modify skills, like Area of Effect and Wide Swing for the Warlord. Well, EACH of the Oracle's skills benefits from talents.
But if you guessed Effect Duration, then you're… still mostly right.
Her first level 40 skill is Astral Radiance, which inflicts 40% weapon damage every two seconds to enemies next to the Orb.
Think of this as a smaller, but more reliable version of Artificer's Energy Infusion. Your orbs get pulsing damage every two seconds whenever an Orb pulses.
You can have multiple orbs pulse and the MORE orbs pulsing the better. What gives you more orbs? Effect Duration!
Next, her second skill is Nova at level 80. Nove unleashes, this lady does a lot of unleashing, a 360-degree pressure wave dealing, 300% weapon damage every 20 attacks.
20 attacks, you know what that means! Say it with me, more effect duration, no not at all. This one is Cooldown. Any game modes with 90% CD caps mean you can get this to proc 9-10x faster via attacking more.
That means she'll excel in damage for Hard Mode, Boss Brawl, and pushing stages in Arena.
So BOTH her skills get bonuses from talents. That's a recipe for damage.
Finally, her Ultimate Spectral cascade fills a meter by killing enemies. The Oracle releases orbs in all directions, traveling farther and bouncing off walls, dealing extra 100% weapon damage.
Killing enemies is better than main weapon kills, but isn't anything special beyond the fact that it creates more orbs.
Orbs, orb, orbs. She's just an AOE beast, as all of these skills deal AoE.
Which leaves the last facet of her kit to analyze, her forge.
So there you have the Oracle's secrets, seen through the mists of time.
If you've been searching for a sign to build her… this is your crystal clear revelation. Build her correctly and make the effective duration of her legacy everlasting.
