Orphea Talents

Last updated on Nov 22, 2020 at 15:00 by Oxygen 20 comments
General Information

Welcome to our Talents page for Orphea. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Orphea's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.

1.

Orphea's Talent Build

Level Choices
1 En Pointe ? Growing Nightmare ✘︎ Ancestral Strength
4 Allegrissimo ? Backbiter ? Chaotic Assault
7 Insatiable Ravenous Hunger ✘︎ Mind Devourer ?
10 Eternal Feast ? Crushing Jaws
13 Determination ? Abyssal Symbiosis Invasive Miasma ?
16 Bond of Anguish ? Dead Magic Lurking Terror ?
20 Monster Within ✘︎ Engulfing Oblivion ? Eldritch Conduit Final Toccata ✘︎
2.

Orphea's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Overflowing Chaos Build

Recommended
Level 1 Ancestral Strength Icon
Level 4 Chaotic Assault Icon
Level 7 Insatiable Icon
Level 10 Crushing Jaws Icon Eternal Feast Icon ?
Level 13 Abyssal Symbiosis Icon
Level 16 Dead Magic Icon
Level 20 Eldritch Conduit Icon Engulfing Oblivion Icon ?

Meta build. Focuses on providing reliable damage through Overflowing Chaos Icon Overflowing Chaos stacks generation for powerful Basic Attacks woven between Ability casts.

Shadow Waltz Build

Situational
Level 1 En Pointe Icon
Level 4 Allegrissimo Icon
Level 7 Insatiable Icon
Level 10 Crushing Jaws Icon Eternal Feast Icon ?
Level 13 Determination Icon
Level 16 Bond of Anguish Icon
Level 20 Eldritch Conduit Icon Engulfing Oblivion Icon ?

Orphea's Shadow Waltz Build focuses on improving sustain damage, particularly against tanky, melee-heavy team compositions. En Pointe Icon En Pointe, Allegrissimo Icon Allegrissimo, and Bond of Anguish Icon Bond of Anguish combo together to dramatically improve Shadow Waltz Icon Shadow Waltz's damage potential. Recommended for advanced Orphea players only.

3.

Hero-Specific Information

Orphea has very little Talent diversity due to the very heavy synergy between most of her Ability-specific Talents. In practice, this means that one build is generally going to be dominant, as dictated by the state of the metagame.

4.

Level 1 Talents for Orphea

Orphea En Pointe ?
En Pointe (Level 1) Blizzard Orphea

Shadow Waltz deals an increased 90% damage to enemies hit by its end and grants 1 additional Chaos.

Orphea Growing Nightmare ✘︎
Growing Nightmare (Level 1) Blizzard Orphea

Increase Dread's damage by 50%.

Quest: Hit 3 enemy Heroes with a single cast of Dread's eruption.

Reward: Permanently increase Dread's eruption damage by 50% and increase the Slow amount of Dread's eruption by 15%.

Orphea Ancestral Strength
Ancestral Strength (Level 1) Blizzard Orphea

Non-Heroic Abilities deal 15% more damage to Stunned, Rooted, Silenced or Slowed enemies. Enemy Heroes who are hit with Overflowing Chaos are Slowed by 20% for 2.5 seconds.

4.1.

Discussion

This tier improves Orphea's damage output.

En Pointe Icon En Pointe nearly doubles Shadow Waltz Icon Shadow Waltz's damage output, making it the highest damage Talent available at this tier. The requirement to hit Heroes with the ending part of Shadow Waltz Icon Shadow Waltz's targeting reticle, however, makes En Pointe difficult to reliably use against some Heroes, and particularly without significant experience playing Orphea. Further, it does not improve Orphea's survivability, unlike its recommended Ancestral Strength Icon Ancestral Strength counterpart. Recommended for advanced players only.

Growing Nightmare Icon Growing Nightmare requires using Dread Icon Dread in a way that is either suboptimal or too difficult to be effective under most circumstances; lining up several enemies to then get an accurate eruption hit is wishful thinking. Further, Ancestral Strength Icon Ancestral Strength provides an equal and more reliable damage increase against single-target hits, making Growing Nightmare unattractive. To add to this, Growing Nightmare does not work in PvE unless Heroes are also hit, unlike its alternatives.

Ancestral Strength Icon Ancestral Strength improves Orphea's damage output through its situational 15% damage increase and modest but reliable Slow effect. This effect makes each of Orphea's Abilities significantly easier to hit to yield more damage and survivability.

5.

Level 4 Talents for Orphea

Orphea Allegrissimo ?
Allegrissimo (Level 4) Blizzard Orphea

Reduce the cooldown of Shadow Waltz by 1 second.

Hitting Heroes with the end of Shadow Waltz sets its cooldown to 1 seconds.

Orphea Backbiter ?
Backbiter (Level 4) Blizzard Orphea

If Chomp hits a Hero, Orphea immediately dashes a short distance backwards.

Passive: Gain 15% maximum Health.

Orphea Chaotic Assault
Chaotic Assault (Level 4) Blizzard Orphea

Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes while having 3 stacks of Chaos deal an additional 75% bonus damage.

5.1.

Discussion

This tier revolves around mobility.

Allegrissimo Icon Allegrissimo synergises well with En Pointe Icon En Pointe, as the cooldown reduction it provides multiplies the damage increase of En Pointe. Allegrissimo also shares En Pointe's condition to hit enemy Heroes with the ending part of Shadow Waltz Icon Shadow Waltz's targeting reticle, making it equally as difficult to use.

Backbiter Icon Backbiter is a powerful counter to Melee Assassins and Bruisers. Against multiple ranged Heroes, however, Backbiter may be a negative Talent, knocking you away from your target when you would not intend to.

Chaotic Assault Icon Chaotic Assault is the most reliable choice at this tier, providing both damage and survivability. Keep in mind that Chaotic Assault does require you to hold back on delivering Basic Attacks until you reach three stacks of Overflowing Chaos Icon Overflowing Chaos.

6.

Level 7 Talents for Orphea

Orphea Insatiable
Insatiable (Level 7) Blizzard Orphea

Hitting a Hero with Chomp sets its cooldown to 2 seconds.

Orphea Ravenous Hunger ✘︎
Ravenous Hunger (Level 7) Blizzard Orphea

Quest: Minions that die within 1.5 seconds of being hit by Chomp permanently increase its damage by 2 and heal Orphea for 60 (+4% per level).

Heroes that die increase its damage by 40 and heal Orphea for 25% of her maximum Health.

Orphea Mind Devourer ?
Mind Devourer (Level 7) Blizzard Orphea

Quest: Hitting Heroes with Dread increases its damage by 5, up to 150.

Reward: After hitting 30 Heroes, hitting an enemy Hero with Dread's eruption sets its cooldown to 6 seconds and refunds 50 Mana.

6.1.

Discussion

This tier improves Orphea's damage output.

Insatiable Icon Insatiable provides a powerful cooldown reduction effect that can in theory increase Chomp Icon Chomp's damage output approximately four times. In practice, this is rarely going to be the case, though Insatiable still allows Orphea to become extremely threatening at short range.

Ravenous Hunger Icon Ravenous Hunger is a difficult Quest with ultimately limited payoff, particularly when considering Insatiable Icon Insatiable's reliability as an alternative choice.

Mind Devourer Icon Mind Devourer is a safe option against range-heavy team compositions, where Chomp Icon Chomp and thus Insatiable would be difficult to use. Its Quest is comparatively easier to complete than Ravenous Hunger Icon Ravenous Hunger's, and the cooldown reduction Reward is useful across a number of situations, including interrupting the capture of Objectives.

7.

Level 10 Talents for Orphea

Orphea Eternal Feast ?
Eternal Feast (Level 10) Blizzard Orphea
  • Mana: 75
  • Cooldown: 50 seconds

After 1.5 seconds, deal 210 (+4% per level) damage in an area. Eternal Feast repeats every 1 second as long as it hits an enemy Hero.

Orphea Crushing Jaws
Crushing Jaws (Level 10) Blizzard Orphea
  • Mana: 75
  • Cooldown: 70 seconds

After 1.25 seconds, pull enemies in an area towards the center, dealing 250 (+4% per level) damage and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.

7.1.

Discussion

At this Level, you gain access to Heroic Abilities. If you want to read more about them, check the dedicated section in the Abilities and Strategy page.

Eternal Feast Icon Eternal Feast offers strong combo potential and may work "as is" against uncoordinated opponents. It has a niche on Maps featuring two Bosses or important points of contention (such as Cursed Hollow), as its relatively large area of effect allows it to cover the entirety of the Capture Point. However, picking Eternal Feast makes Orphea significantly less threatening as an Assassin, as her lack of crowd control makes it difficult to secure kills even against isolated targets. Crushing Jaws Icon Crushing Jaws alleviates this weakness.

Crushing Jaws is Orphea's main team fighting Ability and only true source of crowd control. Further, the combo opened up by successful Crushing Jaws casts, involving Dread Icon Dread and Lurking Terror Icon Lurking Terror, define Orphea's viability, as it is her only way to wrench kills against targets who are not grossly mispositioned.

8.

Level 13 Talents for Orphea

Orphea Determination ?
Determination (Level 13) Blizzard Orphea

After dashing with Shadow Waltz, Orphea gains 50 Spell Armor against the next enemy Ability, stacking up to 2 times. While Orphea has Determination, her Physical damage is increased by 15%.

Orphea Abyssal Symbiosis
Abyssal Symbiosis (Level 13) Blizzard Orphea

Hitting a Hero with Chomp instantly grants Orphea maximum Chaos and a 170 (+4% per level) Shield for 3 seconds.

Orphea Invasive Miasma ?
Invasive Miasma (Level 13) Blizzard Orphea
  • Cooldown: 10 seconds

Activate to deal 150 (+4% per level) damage to all nearby enemies after 2 seconds. For each Hero hit, heal for 182 (+4% per level) and gain 1 Chaos.

8.1.

Discussion

This tier improves Orphea's damage output and survivability.

Determination Icon Determination provides Orphea with a modest but very reliable survivability increase. The Physical Damage increase is of little consequence. Against team compositions with little to no Ability-based damage, go for Abyssal Symbiosis Icon Abyssal Symbiosis instead.

Abyssal Symbiosis Icon Abyssal Symbiosis vastly increases Orphea's survivability, making aggressive Chomp Icon Chomp usage safer and therefore more viable. Great synergy with Insatiable Icon Insatiable.

Invasive Miasma Icon Invasive Miasma is the offense-oriented option at this tier. Used aggressively with Shadow Waltz Icon Shadow Waltz to gap close to one's target, Invasive Miasma can add an unsuspected amount of burst to Orphea's basic combo. It is more difficult to use than its alternatives.

9.

Level 16 Talents for Orphea

Orphea Bond of Anguish ?
Bond of Anguish (Level 16) Blizzard Orphea

Shadow Waltz deals bonus damage to Heroes equal to 3% of their maximum Health, healing Orphea for 50% of damage dealt.

Orphea Dead Magic
Dead Magic (Level 16) Blizzard Orphea

Basic Attacks that consume Chaos ignore Armor and deal 90 (+4% per level) Spell Damage to the target and all enemies around them.

Orphea Lurking Terror ?
Lurking Terror (Level 16) Blizzard Orphea
  • Mana: 60
  • Cooldown: 10 seconds

After Dread erupts and for 2 seconds after, activate to cast Chomp from the eruption area. Enemy Heroes hit by this Chomp are Slowed by 70% for 1.5 seconds.

9.1.

Discussion

This tier improves Orphea's late-game damage output.

Bond of Anguish Icon Bond of Anguish is used to punish team compositions featuring two or more Tanks, as the combination of percent-based damage and high leeching value off of that make Orphea difficult to threaten, especially if Allegrissimo Icon Allegrissimo has been picked earlier.

Dead Magic Icon Dead Magic significantly increases Orphea's sustain damage output while being extremely simple to use. Particularly powerful against Heroes who rely on Armor, including Anub'arak, E.T.C., and Garrosh.

Lurking Terror Icon Lurking Terror defines Orphea's late-game power by opening up the devastating Crushing Jaws Icon Crushing Jaws plus Dread Icon Dread plus Lurking Terror combo, which is enough to threaten many damage dealers and Healers. It is a niche choice for burst-oriented team compositions.

10.

Level 20 Talents for Orphea

Orphea Monster Within ✘︎
Monster Within (Level 20) Blizzard Orphea

Eternal Feast grants 1 Chaos each time it hits a Hero. While Eternal Feast is active and for 5 seconds afterwards, Orphea's Basic Abilities recharge 150% faster.

Orphea Engulfing Oblivion ?
Engulfing Oblivion (Level 20) Blizzard Orphea

Crushing Jaws reduces the Armor of Heroes hit by 50 for 3 seconds. Takedowns set its cooldown to 5 seconds.

Orphea Eldritch Conduit
Eldritch Conduit (Level 20) Blizzard Orphea

Each Chaos consumed increases Orphea's Spell Power by 3%, up to 30%. After reaching the maximum bonus, the Spell Power is increased by an additional 30%. Lasts 10 seconds.

Orphea Final Toccata ✘︎
Final Toccata (Level 20) Blizzard Orphea
  • Cooldown: 20 seconds

Activate to instantly reset the cooldown of Shadow Waltz. For the next 5 seconds, dashing with Shadow Waltz resets its cooldown and increases the duration of Final Toccata by 1 second.

10.1.

Discussion

This tier improves Orphea's late-game damage output and utility.

Monster Within Icon Monster Within is a clear example of a winmore Talent; landing enough Eternal Feast Icon Eternal Feast hits for Monster Within to generate any real value would typically be enough on its own to secure kills against key targets.

Engulfing Oblivion Icon Engulfing Oblivion further empowers Orphea's signature Crushing Jaws Icon Crushing Jaws combo by not only increasing the Ability's damage, but also bolstering allies'. The cooldown reduction also promotes aggressively using Crushing Jaws against squishy Heroes to initiate a snowball effect in the late-game.

Eldritch Conduit Icon Eldritch Conduit is the powerful sustain damage counterpart to Engulfing Oblivion Icon Engulfing Oblivion. If Crushing Jaws Icon Crushing Jaws has been unable to secure kills, such as against a particularly resilient team compositions, Eldritch Conduit is a proper choice. This is particularly true against two or more Tanks, as they will provide excellent targets to develop Eldritch Conduit stacks.

Final Toccata Icon Final Toccata's power potential is limited only by the player's mastery of Orphea. In the right hands, it may lead to six or more chained Shadow Waltz Icon Shadow Waltz hits, which is extremely powerful with the right Talents. Missing a single Shadow Waltz hit, however, ends this power spike, making Final Toccata unsuitable for most players. The alternatives are generally going to get more value, but experts may find Final Toccata to their liking.

11.

Changelog

  • 22 Nov. 2020: Talent description for Ancestral Strength and Insatiable updated.
  • 14 Aug. 2020: Talent builds and recommendations updated.
  • 14 Apr. 2020: Talent builds and recommendations updated.
  • 27 Jan. 2020: Talent builds and recommendations updated following January 22 balance patch.
  • 11 Dec. 2018: Talents updated.
  • 06 Dec. 2018: Shadow Waltz build added.
  • 13 Nov. 2018: Guide published.
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