Oracle
   20 + 2.4
15 + 1.7
21 + 4
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Nerif, the Oracle, is a ranged intelligence hero who alters the fate of allies and enemies with his combination of multipurpose nukes and buffs. He possesses the ability to change his foes' fortunes with Fortune's End, which deals nuke damage and pins down any enemies in its radius, while dispelling buffs from them. His Fate's Edict can be cast on allies and enemies alike, disarming them but also granting them complete resistance against magical damage; used with skill, he can render his foes' weapons useless or shield his allies from unfriendly spells. Purifying Flames, like Fate's Edict, can be cast on friend or foe, dealing magical damage but also applying a healing buff to them. His signature ability and ultimate, False Promise, puts an ally's fate on hold, removes every dispellable disable and prevents them from being harmed by the enemy for a short time, and then fully returning them to reality at the end of the spell's duration. Knowledge of Oracle's skills is key to use him at his full potential; while he can defy destiny and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, one mistake can potentially seal the fate of his allies.
Bio
Nerif, the OracleRaised by same Pallid Sybils who bred and birthed them, all sanctioned Oracles were anchored by their physical form to the world we most of us share; meanwhile, their souls roamed far afield, barely bound by the airiest astral umbilicus. From such cosmic roamings the prophets would return, speaking words of fire with tongues of flesh. Their mystic utterances were analyzed by the Cymurri Advisors, who found in them visions of the future, diplomatic advice, all the supernatural ammunition the line of Graven Kings needed to secure victory in every campaign, whether in the court or on the battlefield. Thus it went for generations, the Graventome's pages filling with the names of triumphant kings and the new domains they had acquired. So it went, that is, until the particular Oracle named Nerif arrived to serve the very last of the stone-helmed kings.
From the first, Nerif's prophecies were unusual. They seemed not merely to portend the future, but to shape it. The weird soothsayer croaked out advice no one had requested, and suddenly the Cymurri found themselves immersed in conflicts with newfound enemies. The Advisors, sensing a threat to their power, were quick to pin these unwelcome developments on the latest Oracle. They demanded his removal, petitioning the Sybils to reclaim their defective prophet and replace him with a worthy substitute. But Nerif described an ominous dream of the Incubarium's destruction, and within hours came news of the ancient school's destruction in a catastrophic avalanche. Fearing the same fate as the Pallid Sybils, the Advisors withdrew to their counsel chambers, suddenly anxious to avoid the Oracle's notice. The Graven King, however, was a creature of great practicality. He doubted the commitment of his overprudent Advisors. An Oracle of such rarity, he reasoned, ought be used as a weapon to enlarge his domain. He therefore demoted his timid counselors and stationed Nerif at his side. With only a blunt understanding of Nerif's talent, he boldly stated the outcomes he desired, and coaxed Nerif into uttering his wishes as prophecy.
At first, all was well. The Last Graven King boasted that by adopting Fate's pet, he had made a plaything of Fate itself. He should have taken it as a warning then when, on the eve of his invasion of the Unsated Satrap's realm, he attempted to coerce a prediction of certain victory from his Oracle, only to hear Nerif quietly mutter, "It could go either way." No firmer statement could he force from Nerif's lips. Still, the King was confident in his army. The Satrapy was landlocked, poorly armed, and shut off from all possible allies. He took "It could go either way" to indicate that with tactical might on his side, there was little risk in his plan.
Of course, we now know that he should have taken the sayer's words more literally. Even with careful study of the Annotated Annals of If, what happened on the field before the Unsated Satrap's palace is almost impossible to visualize. It appears that in the midst of the carnage, the battle began to bifurcate. At each pivotal moment, reality calved and broke into bits. Soldiers who staggered and fell in battle also stood sure-footed, forging onward to fight. Their minds also split; the warriors found themselves both dead and alive, existent and non-existent. Victory and defeat were partitioned, so that each separate outcome was experienced in simultaneity by both armies. The universe became a hall of mirrors, with all the mirrors endlessly shattering.
The immediate effect on both parties was insanity. Unable to comprehend the state of being both triumphant and defeated, the Graven King's mind dispersed into motes of madness. The naive Satrap fared no better. The opposing paired realities continued to split and split again, echoing into infinite histories, all of them populated by a bewildered populace that soon lost the ability to feed, clothe, defend, or reproduce itself in the traditional manner.
Long before the repercussions had played out, however, Cymurri's wary Advisors had seized Nerif, bound and gagged him, and launched him out of their universe at high speed on a dimensional barque, in the hopes of depositing him where he could do them no harm forever. It was, of course, too late for them. And may well be for us.Abilities
930) 3) 3)
- The projectile travels at a speed of 1000.
- When targeting allies, the area effect is still applied to surrounding enemies. The ally only gets dispelled. Can target self as well.
- Enemies in the area always get dispelled, while allies only get dispelled when targeted, so only one ally can be dispelled per cast.
- Always removes Fate's Edict on affected targets.
- The dispel is applied before the damage, so that any dispellable protective buff is removed first.
- Can directly be cast on invulnerable units, fully affecting them, though the damage gets negated by the invulnerability. Does not affect hidden targets.
- When the projectile connects with a spell immune, invulnerable, or hidden unit, it still affects other units within the radius, but not the main target.
- The channeling is not canceled when the target turns spell immune, invisible, invulnerable, hidden, or dies.
- When the channeling is interrupted through disables, the projectile is released prematurely.
- The damage and dispel effect are static, only the root duration is based on the time spent channeling.
- The root duration starts at 0.5 and increases by 0.08 (
0.0833) for each 0.1 seconds channeled, reaching 2.5 ( 3) in 2.5 ( 3) seconds.
- Fortune's End roots affected targets, preventing them from moving and casting certain mobility spells.
- Provides True Sight over the targets, but only when the targets were not invisible or within a fade time upon hit.
- Fortune's End first applies the debuff, then the damage.
- Applies a visual effect on the targeted unit upon cast, indicating that it is directly targeted. This visual effect is visible to everyone.
- The sound during the channeling is audible to everyone as well.
Target Unit
Enemies / Allies
580/680/780/880) 16/13/10/7)- Applies a disarm on the target and sets its magic resistance to 100%.
- Fate's Edict always places a debuff on the target, no matter it's an enemy or an ally.
- This means for the target's ally, Fate's Edict can be dispelled by a basic dispel.
- However, for the target's enemy, Fate's Edict cannot be dispelled by any dispel except for Fortune's End.
930)
1)
- The damage is applied instantly upon cast, followed by the heal over time. The damage is lethal to enemies, but not to allies.
- Heals in 1 second intervals, starting 1 second after cast, resulting in 9 instances of heal.
- Can heal up to 99/198/297/396 health (9/18/27/36 when considering the initial damage before reductions) per cast.
- Multiple casts on the same target fully stack.
1080) 30) 9.5/10.5/11.5)
- Applies a strong dispel on the target upon cast. Can be cast on illusions and creep-heroes.
- False Promise fully negates damage after all reductions, causing several on-damage effects to not trigger.
- False Promise has the second highest priority in the group of damage negating spells. It also negates healing effects.
- This means when combined with e.g. Aphotic Shield or Living Armor, False Promise negates damage while the shield or armor do not.
- It has a lower priority than Borrowed Time, means Borrowed Time first turns damage into heal, and then it is blocked as heal by False Promise.
- As with all damage manipulating effects, False Promise only negates and delays the 3 damage types. It fully ignores HP Removal (except for Heartstopper Aura).
- Does not prevent instantly killing effects like Culling Blade, or Ice Blast shatter.
- Just like damage, False Promise also prevents the hero's health from increasing, with a few exceptions.
- Unlike negated damage, negates healing effects before any amplifications or reductions (e.g. Ghost Shroud and Ice Blast).
- Only actual heals are counted by False Promise. Other means of health increase are not counted, although may still be prevented (e.g. health gained from strength).
- Does not prevent the following spells from increasing the hero's health: Howl, Morph Replicate, Supernova, Sunder, Whirling Death, Decay, Time Lapse, Armlet of Mordiggian, Spirit Vessel
- At the end of the duration, the target gets healed (first sound) if the overall heal was higher, or damaged (second sound) if the damage was higher.
- All healing received gets summed up into one instance and doubled. Then, the heal sum gets subtracted from each individual damage instance in order.
- This is repeated until either all damage instances are negated by the heal, or until the summed heal value depletes.
- If the heal sum depletes, then the remaining damage instances get applied in order. The damage is flagged as HP Removal.
- Therefore, if the target dies, the kill is credited to whoever's instance dealt the killing blow, which can be the first, last or any other instance in between.
- Non-lethal damage instances blocked during False Promise are still not lethal when re-applied at the end of the duration.
- If all damage instances get negated instead, the remaining heal sum gets applied as a single heal to the target. This heal is always credited to Oracle.
- Despite being HP Removal, Shallow Grave can still save the target from it and Borrowed Time still turns it into heals.
- If the target is invulnerable as False Promise expires, the delayed heal and damage wait for it to become vulnerable again.
- Successive casts on the same target do not stack, but refresh the duration. The blocked heal and damage counters are not reset.
- If the accumulated damage exceeds the accumulated heal and the target's current health, the orb above the target glows red and emits fire, indicating it will die.
- When the level 20 talent is chosen, grants the target invisibility with a 30 fade delay.
- Attacking or casting spells or items breaks the invisibility and resets the fade delay.
Talents
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +1.5s False Promise Duration | 25 | Instant Fortune's End |
| +30% Purifying Flames Enemy Damage | 20 | -20s False Promise Cooldown |
| -1s Purifying Flames Cooldown | 15 | +80 Fortune's End Damage |
| +10 Armor False Promise | 10 | +0.5s Fortune's End Duration |
Attribute Bonus
33
Passive
Self
Strength Bonus: 2/4/6/8/10/12/14
Agility Bonus: 2/4/6/8/10/12/14
Intelligence Bonus: 2/4/6/8/10/12/14- Requires hero level 6 to be unlocked.
- The minimum levels required per level of Attribute Bonus are 6/8/10/12/14/16/18.
- If all ability points are spent on their respective levels, this ability levels up automatically on levels 17/19/21/22/23/24/26.
- The attributes effectively grant the following stats on each level:
- 4.2/8.4/12.6/16.8/21/25.2/29.4 main attack damage to universal heroes.
- 2/4/6/8/10/12/14 main attack damage to other heroes.
- 44/88/132/176/220/264/308 health and 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1/1.2/1.4 health regeneration.
- 2/4/6/8/10/12/14 attack speed and 0.33/0.67/1/1.33/1.67/2/2.33 main armor.
- 24/48/72/96/120/144/168 mana, 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6/0.7 mana regeneration, and 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1/1.2/1.4% magic resistance.
Recommended items
Gameplay
| Assigned to council the Graven King, Nerif's words came true with such accuracy that his advisors began to question whether the Oracle merely spoke prophecies, or shaped the very paths of fate itself. Exiled from his own universe for his disturbing powers, Nerif now turns his gifts to more immediate concerns. It could go either way. The Oracle's famous words reflect his own double-edged actions. Dispelling both boons and curses, Fortune's End comes sooner than expected. Fate's Edict shelters heroes from magic, yet prevents them from raising arms. Purifying Flames stimulate regeneration, but not without the initial pains of cleansing. Allies may find themselves briefly immune to both healing and harm, only to receive their effects twofold at the end of Nerif's False Promise. | |
| Roles: |  Support  Nuker  Disabler  Escape
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| Complexity: | 
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| Adjectives: | Legs ( 2 )
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Audio
History
Equipment
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Trivia
- Oracle made his first official Dota 2 appearance in the comic The Contract, revealed on the 14th of November 2014 on the official Dota 2 blog. On day 2, his spells and model were revealed.
- Mike Shapiro (Oracle's voice actor) is also well-known for voicing Barney Calhoun and G-Man, two prominent characters in the Half-Life series
- The line ▶️ ▶️ ▶️ "So it goes." is a reference to the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. In the novel, it is a phrase used by the aliens, known as Tralfamadorians, who perceive all time simultaneously.[1]
- The line ▶️ "First blood! Out of fifty possibilities, that was my preferred." is because there actually are 50 possible first bloods (each of 10 heroes can be killed by any of the 5 opposing heroes).
- Oracle's spell Purifying Flames and his phrase ▶️ "I must harm to heal." are a direct play on the medical principle "Primum non nocere", which is latin and translates into "First, do no harm".[2]
- The hero kill line ▶️ "Ask again later." is a reference to an answer of the Magic 8-ball, a toy used for fortune-telling.[3]
- The respawn line ▶️ "Like the past, I'm never dead. I'm not even past." is a reference to the novel Requiem for a Nun from the author William Faulkner. The original quote goes The past is never dead. It's not even past.[4]
- The very rare death line "I want to die" alludes to a passage from Petronius's Satyricon, concerning a seer from Roman Mythology: "For I, myself, saw the Sibyl at Cumae, hanging in a jar; when the boys asked Sibyl, what do you want? She responded I want to die." The passage was made famous as the preamble to T.S. Eliot's poem The Wasteland.
Prophecies
- The prophecy line for Lion ▶️ "Fear neither witch, nor wardrobe. Tis a demon beast that fingers your demise." is a reference to the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia book series by C.S. Lewis, titled The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.[5]
- The prophecy line for Faceless Void ▶️ "You ought to read Chronosphere of a Death Foretold. It's a prophetic book." is a reference to the book called Chronicle of a Death Foretold, written by Gabriel García Márquez.[6]
- The prophecy line for Viper ▶️ "V is not for visions of victory, but for a victim of a vicious viper." is a reference to the quote of V for Vendetta.[7]
- The prophecy line for Chaos Knight ▶️ "Beware the knight who commandingly demands: do you even rift?" is a reference to the internet meme "Do you even lift?"[8]
- The prophecy line for Ember Spirit ▶️ "I foresee four flames." may be a reference, both in content and length, to the fact that most of Ember Spirit's spoken lines are four words long, or to the four of "him" – the real one and three remnants.
- The prophecy line for Morphling ▶️ "No empathy test can save you from the watery replicant." is a reference to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where human-like androids called replicants can only be distinguished from human beings through an empathy test called the Voight-Kampff test.[9]
- The second sentence of the prophecy line for Meepo ▶️ "Four friends await divided from earth. But they are no friends of mine." may be a reference to the sentence in the song Safety Dance from Men Without Hats.[10]
Gallery
Model
Ability icon progress
References
- ↑ Slaughterhouse-Five, the novel Oracle is referring to with some of his lines.
- ↑ Primum non nocere "First, do no harm".
- ↑ The Magic 8-Ball Oracle is referring to with his line "Ask again later.".
- ↑ "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
- ↑ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- ↑ Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
- ↑ V for Vendetta.
- ↑ Do you even lift?
- ↑ Empathy test in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
- ↑ Safety Dance - Men Without Hats Official Video