Orphea Build Guide “I won't miss your face.”
Welcome to our guide for Orphea, a Ranged Assassin in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Orphea's Overview
Orphea is an odd caster with above-average survivability and high damage output potential but limited access to crowd control. Given that all of Orphea's Abilities have a cast time or delay, they can all be avoided by prepared opponents... unless you are better prepared.
Orphea's Strengths and Weaknesses
Powerful burst damage
High sustained damage potential for a caster
Relatively high survivability
All Abilities have a short cast time or delay, making them avoidable
Very limited access to crowd control
Relatively short range on most Abilities
Unable to efficiently claim Mercenary Camps
Particularly weak when playing from behind
Orphea's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Overflowing Chaos Build
RecommendedMeta build. Focuses on providing reliable damage through Overflowing Chaos stacks generation
for powerful Basic Attacks woven between Ability casts.
Shadow Waltz Build
SituationalOff-meta build. Focuses on improving sustained damage, particularly against
Tanky, melee-heavy team compositions. En Pointe,
Allegrissimo,
and
Bond of Anguish combo together to dramatically improve
Shadow Waltz's
damage potential. Recommended for advanced Orphea players only.
Orphea's Synergies and Counters
Since Orphea depends highly on skillshots to deal damage, she works well with any Hero that can provide reliable crowd control. Her frailty also makes her dependent on other Heroes to peel for her against melee Assassins particularly; Tanks tend to fulfill these two needs, though other Hero types can too.
Since Orphea relies chiefly on skillshots with a cast time to deal damage, she does particularly poorly against Heroes that have ways of quickly dodging her Abilities.
Orphea's Maps














Orphea's inability to deal sustained PvE damage makes her a poor choice on Maps that feature objectives which must be killed. Otherwise, she is a reasonable pick on most Maps, as long as another Hero is able to claim Mercenary Camps.
Orphea's Tips and Tricks
- Each enemy Hero hit by
Overflowing Chaos generates one Chaos, making area hits key to improving your survivability.
Shadow Waltz may be tempting to use on-Cooldown, but using it to avoid dangerous skillshots is paramount.
Chomp synergises naturally with Shadow Waltz; use the latter to dash to your intended target.
- Both
Dread's initial wave and eruption can hit a given target.
Role in the Current Meta
Compared to most other casters, Orphea provides higher-than-average on-demand burst damage and decent sustained damage. On the other hand, she lacks much crowd control, making it necessary to pick her along Heroes who can provide it. As with many Heroes who provide little more than damage, Orphea's popularity depends entirely on her power level resulting from game balance. Regardless, building a team composition that aims to stay ahead of one's opponents in terms of Experience is the best way of exploiting Orphea's strength as a snowballing Hero.
Due to her reliance on crowd control, Orphea is at her best when part of a roaming group of Heroes. She can hold her own in the solo lane as well against most melee Heroes, but must be careful when rotating and may need help clearing out large Mercenary Camps.
Changelog
- 22 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Talent description for Ancestral Strength and Insatiable updated.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
- 14 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations updated.
- 14 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations updated.
- 14 Apr. 2020 (this page): Guide fully reviewed.
- 27 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations updated following January 22 balance patch.
- 15 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
- 11 Dec. 2018 (talents page): Talents updated.
- 06 Dec. 2018 (talents page): Shadow Waltz build added.
- 13 Nov. 2018 (this page): Guide published.
- 13 Nov. 2018 (talents page): Guide published.
- 13 Nov. 2018 (abilities page): Guide published.
More Ranged Assassin Guides
Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.
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