Discussion: Octarine Core

Well, couldn't find any topic with in-depth discussion about this items in the forum. So let's discuss it!
What do you guys think about it? What heroes use it best? In my opinion, there are three kind of heroes that use it best:

- Teamfight heroes
Heroes with big spells, that usually builds Refresher Orb too, to best use it.
Ex: Doom, Tidehunter.

- Mana Heavy Heroes
Heroes who use big amounts of mana. Their abilities have no need for Refresher, but they usually build items with high cooldown ( Scythe of Vyse, e.g.) and make good use of the lifesteal.
Ex: Bristleback, Leshrac.

- Special Mention:
Heroes that benefit from the cooldown reduction to cause even more annoyance to the enemies with their skillset. The main example is Naga Siren with Radiance, but this is a thing now with Manta-Radiance Alchemist. Kind of a mix of the categories above.
Other examples: Nature's Prophet (with Aghanim's Scepter).

Any other thoughs about it?

Could be very decent on Zeus, but not in very lategame.

It's really good on Zeus, not just because of the reduced cooldown on R, but the HP, mana, lifesteal, and the reduced cooldown on Arc Lightning.

Because his damage in late game comes from his passive, so spamming his Q and W means a lot. Plus sustaining himself in fights to throw out more means it keeps adding up and up and up. He actually scales really well into the late game, because fights get drawn out more and more, BKB's are shorter and shorter, and he has lots of free vision.

On the other hand, that really relies on being a core Zeus, which has some potential issues.

It's also really good on heroes who have really valuable low cooldown spells, and the item lets you get an extra one or two off in a fight, like Earthshaker

It's also pretty sick on Warlock since he's a big time scepter+refresher hero who benefits from having more uptime on Chaotic Offering. Also you can a stupid amount of lifesteal from Fatal Bonds and Warlock can actually farm it up at a solid pace thanks to his golems.

Basically any scepter+refresher hero could be a candidate for octo-core like Omniknight, Disruptor or outworld devourer (especially od, since you can get a ridiculous amount of damage off of both Arcane Orb and Sanity's Eclipse since the item beefs up your mana pool and INT).

I've been experimenting a lot with this item, both it's spellvamp and its cd reduction, but didn't find a good time to share my results. Seems now is a good time.


Spell Vamp:

Blade Mail synergy with this item is sick. A quarter of the damage you take when it's active is healed back if the attacker isn't magic immune. Because of this, I love to put it on Razor after Aghs and Blade Mail, once he gets Refresher, the lifesteal from Octarine via Eye and BM is nothing short of astounding, and it makes his late game presence better than you would ever expect from Razor.

Other good candidates for BM combo are Bristleback, Timbersaw, and Doom.

I tried Axe with Octarine, due to helix and blade mail synergy, as well as bringing Berserker's call down to 7.5 cd, however, it was not as effective as I had hoped, since Axe rarely gets to cast more than 1 good Berserker's call, since he's gonna take damage when he uses the first one.

I tested it on Pugna after I got Aghs, since additional life drained was a drawing point, and a 4 cd on nether blast is not bad either. I was wrong, this item was a terrible choice, since most of your time you are spending using your 0 cd channeling ult anyway, so you were better off getting utility on Puggles.


CD Reduction:

I also decided to use it on Nyx Assassin after I got Aghs. 7 cd on impale becomes 5.25, meaning people are stunned more than 50% of the time, and Mana Burn comes down to 3 cd. This item is stupidly powerful with Aghs on a teamfighting Nyx, it's actually really disgusting, and I hope it becomes a thing.


Both:

And my most recent test was on Dragon Knight, because the cd of dragon form is pretty long late game, and since you heal from your splash damage. I decided to balance the build with DK's highest total damage but no survivability at all item, Mjollnir, so that he'd still have a balance between damage and tanking. The item progression was Mjollnir-BKB-Octarine-Travels. My bot games found it successful, I steal a lot more life than a Satanic Build in teamfights, I can dragon tail every 6.75 seconds which is insane, and I farm faster than the HotD build without using my ult for big stacks of ancients, but I still need to test it against people.


Heroes to try it on in the future:
Crystal Maiden (because Field Synergy), Chaos Knight (because CD reductions and no one can outfight him anyway)

Daaaaamn... A Nyx Assassin with an Octarine Core and Ag's can go Impale for 2.77, Spiked Carapace for 2.4, and then have stun up again in .08 seconds. That's AOE stun, pratically 7.5s of AOE stun.


That's hilarious. If only he could ever farm both at a reasonable rate. It's also reinforcing him as one of the best high ground defenders.

I think Octarine Core is okay on CM, but it's so expensive and it doesn't give a massive amount to the hero. I think one of the biggest things is having a 1.5 second downtime on Frostbite, which is pretty good. You also have 5.25 downtime on Nova and 67.5 second cooldown on ulti. Problem is, it take forever to farm on a CM, and you need blink/glimmer/force-staff whatever first. I don't see it as really viable but it's cool nonetheless.

Personally I like to buy it on Lina, since it allows you to use your spells a lot more in fights and it's really nice having a 37.5 second cooldown on Laguna Blade. Might not be the best choice but I find it fun and quite helpful, I like it more than bloodstone anyway

Moved to "Theory Crafting". Thanks Janitsu!

It's insanely good on some heroes, I honestly wish games would go later so we can see these big items more. BB, Timber, OD, Silencer and others all have huge potential with this item they just have to get other things first.

Timber Octarine sound good.

Has anyone tried it on Spectre? Now that Dispersion is insane, I assume it's pretty good.

Unless it doesn't interact that way.