Orphea Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ? ✓
4	? ✓ ?
7	? ✘︎ ✓
10	✓ ?
13	✘︎ ? ✓
16	? ✓ ?
20	✓ ? ? ?

En Pointe is for advanced players only, requiring a whole build around it. It nearly doubles Shadow Waltz's damage, but is hard to use reliably. Pick it only if you are very experienced with Orphea and paired with Allegrissimo.

Growing Nightmare greatly increases Dread's damage output even without quest completion. However, it should be chosen in very specific cases as the eruption part of the ability is relatively easy to dodge. It is very effective if you are focusing on following up a tank from afar. It should only be chosen when paired with Mind Devourer and Lurking Terror.

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.

Allegrissimo is a good option for this tier, boosting Orphea's damage, mobility, and survivability. However, crowd control easily cancels her Shadow Waltz, greatly reducing this talent's efficacy. Therefore, it should only be chosen if enemies cannot easily punish her; otherwise, Backbiter is a better choice.

Backbiter is overall a great talent, increasing your survivability with 15% extra health and giving Orphea a new dash that can be used in several ways. However, it shouldn't be paired with a Chomp-oriented build, as the added dash will make it easier for enemies to kite her.

Chaotic Assault is a weak talent in the early game and should only be picked when paired with Abyssal Symbiosis at Level 13. Before that, Orphea will often attack without three stacks of Overflowing Chaos, wasting this talent's potential. However, after picking Abyssal Symbiosis, it will significantly increase her damage.

Insatiable provides a powerful cooldown reduction effect that can, in theory, increase Chomp's damage output approximately four times. In practice, this is rarely the case, but Insatiable still allows Orphea to become extremely threatening at short range. It is only a good talent if enemies cannot easily cancel your Chomp.

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

Mind Devourer is a versatile talent due to Dread's uncancelable nature and large range. It can be picked in all games, and Orphea should focus on completing it as soon as possible, as the cooldown reduction after completion is excellent. Aiming Dread behind enemy heroes to stack both the wave and eruption helps complete the quest quickly.

Eternal Feast should be chosen most of the time due to its large range, short cooldown, and overall consistency. It can be used as a follow up, a peeling tool, or for point control. The best way to use this heroic is on an immobilized enemy to guarantee a significant portion of the damage.

Crushing Jaws is a slow, short-range, high-cooldown, and inconsistent heroic. It should only be picked if you need to cancel important channeled abilities, like Mosh Pit or Holy Word: Salvation. However, despite being a weak heroic ability, it has an excellent upgrade at Level 20. It can be chosen for a late-game strategy if you have allies that can help you land it.

Determination is a weak talent that provides minimal resistance and a small damage boost that may not activate often. Invasive Miasma usually offers more survivability, damage, and waveclear, making it a much better choice at this talent tier.

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

Invasive Miasma is the recommended option for this tier, as it greatly increases her survivability, waveclear, and damage. It is not easy to use and takes time to master due to its 2-second delay before activating. However, if you are not used to it, activating it as soon as an enemy reaches melee range is good choice, as the area will either make them retreat or greatly heal you.

Bond of Anguish is only useful if you are using a full Shadow Waltz build. In that case, it will greatly increase Orphea's damage output and survivability. Otherwise, it should not be chosen.

Dead Magic significantly increases Orphea's sustain damage output while being extremely simple to use. It is particularly powerful against Heroes who rely on Armor, such as Mal'Ganis, E.T.C. and Garrosh. The fact that it ignores Armor also improves Orphea's self-sustain against these targets, making it a very good quality-of-life improvement.

Lurking Terror should be chosen if your priority target is a high-ranged backliner, where you cannot normally hit Chomp. It is very consistent in these scenarios. However, if enemies have high Armor, Dead Magic should be picked instead.

Monster Within is a good talent, excelling if you manage to hit several targets with Eternal Feast. Even if it does not hit any target, it remains valuable as it greatly reduces the downtime between Orphea's combos due to the cooldown reduction it provides. This makes it a good choice in most builds.

Engulfing Oblivion further empowers Orphea's signature Crushing Jaws combo by not only increasing the ability's damage but also bolstering allies'. Given that the heroic ability is very hard to hit and reduces a significant amount of armor, it is a good idea to aim for easy-to-hit targets. This allows you to burst down even very healthy and tanky targets due to the -50 armor debuff.

Eldritch Conduit significantly boosts Orphea's damage output, but it outperforms other options only if it frequently reaches maximum stacks. This talent is best used in combination with Abyssal Symbiosis, which makes stacking much easier.

Final Toccata is a good talent but is extremely weak when not paired with Shadow Waltz talents. It is the hardest talent to use in this tier, so it is only recommended for experienced players. Additionally, it resets the Shadow Waltz cooldown, so you can use it immediately if you miss a Q and need a quick recovery.