I’m a MOBA fiend. I absolutely love the genre. I played League for 9 years, dabbled in Smite, Heroes of the Storm and Dota. I’m getting back into HOTS now, and I’m so thankful I am because at BlizzCon this weekend, the new hero Orphea was announced. And having played her, she is the best thing since sliced bread.
The first hero to be born within of the Nexus – the Heroes of the Storm universe – Orphea is the heir to the Raven Lord, rebelling against her father to protect the innocent. Having seen her home crumble beneath her father’s influence, she chose to rise up as a hero and use her chaotic magic to try and save the Nexus.
As a ranged assassin, Orphea thrives of darting in and out of battle while being able to sustain herself through her trait, Overflowing Chaos. Every ability she hits against an enemy hero grants her a stack of chaos, capping at three, increasing her basic attack damage per stack and also healing her for the damage dealt.
Her Q, Shadow Waltz, slams a tendril of chaotic magic into the ground, damaging enemies in a line. When she makes contact with an enemy hero, she gains a short ranged dash straight after landing her tendril while reducing the ability’s cooldown, allowing her to waltz around the enemy.
Chomp is a short ranged cone attack with a 0.625s wind-up to compensate the high amount of damage it does. It can be used as a follow up to Shadow Waltz, or to catch aggressive heroes on their engage to chunk them down before the fight starts.
Dread, Orphea’s E, shoots a vine of chaotic magic through the ground, damaging enemies on the way through and creating a pool of dread at the end, damaging enemies hit while slowing them. Landing the slow on someone is a good way of starting the fight, making your Q easier to hit.
Her first heroic ability, Eternal Feast, spawns a circle of chaotic magic, dealing damage to enemies in the area. As long as Eternal Feast is hitting an enemy hero, it will keep repeating every second, making it a great heroic to use in a prolonged skirmish.
Crushing Jaws, her second heroic, is a more crowd-control-orientated ultimate. After a short delay, she pulls all enemies in a rectangular area to the middle, stunning them in the process. This heroic is a great way of setting up fights and catching enemies off-guard while you are on the flank.
With a lot of short cooldowns, she also excels at wave clear, giving her a lot of power in a competitive sense. Her sustain from her trait gives her the ability to stay out on the battlefield for longer, while landing her Shadow Waltz in a fight is crucial to keep resetting its cooldown. When Shadow Waltz is down is when Orphea is at her most vulnerable and the best time to strike.
Chomp is not always locked to Orphea’s model too. The Lurking Terror talent at Level 16 allows Orphea to cast Chomp from a pool of dread as a separate active, and can be combo’d with her ‘actual’ Chomp for an insane amount of burst. This combined with Backbiter at Level 4 and Abyssal Symbiosis at Level 13 gives her more sustain and mobility with a W-centric build.
Alternatively, a more standard Q-centric build will see you take En Pointe at Level 1 and Allegrissimo at Level 4 gives you more power if you clip your foes with the end of your Q, reducing its cooldown even further while dealing more damage.
Combine that with Final Toccata at Level 20, which resets Shadow Waltz’s cooldown after dashing, and you’ll truly be waltzing to your own beat. All in all, Orphea is a highly versatile ranged assassin who specialises in dashing around the battlefield – and has the best aesthetic out of all the heroes. While I’ve been on the fence about getting back into HOTS recently, her release only makes me want to play the game more.
If you want to watch some gameplay footage of Orphea, check out the video below.
