Dota 2: Is Oracle the best support in meta 7.21?

Oracle is currently the most picked hero and one of the most successful heroes at DreamLeague Season 11 with a win rate of nearly 70%.

HISTORY OF BUFF

Purely defensive supports aren’t as popular right now, but Oracle can both deal massive damage and play actively in the laning phase. Since Fortune’s End’s damage was increased in 7.20, it’s become one of the best nuke moves in lane – 120 damage with 75 mana.

The hero also has decent starting health and armor, as well as has the highest intelligence stat growth in the game, allowing Oracle to continue casting spells without having to invest heavily in mana items.

Although the starting damage is quite low, but the BAT stat is up to 1.4, allowing Oracle to attack Phoenix Egg, Tombstone or Will-o-Wisp quickly in the early game.

FITS META

As a support, Oracle has decent damage in the laning phase, possessing one of the best lifesaving ultimates in the game. But the main reason why this hero is so popular right now is because of the way Oracle counters and works well with some of the most popular cores today.

Heroes like Dark Seer, Ursa, Necrophos, Doom, Batrider and many others have a hard time dealing with purge effects, especially against low cooldown purges. Dark Seer is almost useless against Oracle in lane, as he can’t use Ion Shell to farm, and Ursa doesn’t have her damage burst – nullified by Fate’s Edict’s Disarm or Purge on Overpower.

Against many popular heroes in the current meta, Disarm or Purge can make a big difference: heroes often rely on buffs to themselves or auto-attacks to deal damage. In addition, Oracle can purge most effects from allies, as well as reduce silence and root time.

Damaged heroes are also quite popular nowadays and that means False Promise becomes more attractive. Heroes like Death Prophet, Razor, Leshrac and even Viper often like to prolong combat to maximize their damage. These heroes don’t necessarily have burst damage, but deal more damage than cores if ignored and False Promise will extend their survivability so these heroes can snowball in teamfight.

TO PLAY GOOD ORACLE

Oracle has 4 spells, 3 of which can be cast on allies or enemies, making the hero a bit difficult to play. All of these moves have fairly low cooldowns, so Oracle needs to actively cast spells to be effective.

Meanwhile, Oracle’s cast range is among the best: with maximum lifts, the lowest cast range of a move goes up to 850, so Oracle rarely shows up to the enemy.

The way to raise skills, as opposed to using skills, is quite obvious: at level 7, you’ll want to raise the Purifying Flames to the highest level and give 1 point on the remaining moves. This will maximize the hero’s damage and healing, without sacrificing too much utility. As for the talent, the level 15 talent +120 GPM is usually chosen, which means that the +25% XP received at level 10 is also preferred.

When it comes to how this hero plays, it’s important to understand that Oracle can ‘harm’ the team and you need to be careful and restrained in casting spells. Of course, casting Fate’s Edict on an ally will allow you to heal them with Purifying Flames without taking damage, but it also prevents the hero from attacking. Of course, Purifying Flames is a powerful nuke, but if you don’t dispel it, it can heal targets very quickly and should be used with caution against heroes with high magic resistance or a Holy Locket possession.

Above are some things and conditions you need to pay attention to about Oracle for this hero to really shine. Fortunately, this hero’s strongest move is quite simple and this hero will achieve 50% effectiveness if his ultimate is used perfectly.

EPILOGUE

Times when heroes are slightly buffed is the best time to get to know that hero as you can experiment with the hero in the game without fear of creating a burden on the team. Now is the time for you to try Oracle, before this hero gets nerfed next time.

According to Dotabuff