Towers suck.
The Rook can become an unstoppable lumbering juggernaut. You can crush enemy demigods in two mighty blows, send creeps flying, and steamroll your way to the enemy fortress. But if you want to become a mobile platform of death you have to start by skipping Power of the Tower.
Yup, I've found The Rook to be a very effective demigod when I'm ignoring Power of the Tower completely. Towers certainly have their place and make for great defence. But I've found that you need to move around a lot in this game to pursue or flee enemy demigods. Towers can make an area easier to defend but they wont save you if you're ganged up on by 3 demigods. And that tower farm doesnt help when you TP across the map to save an ally, protect a flag, or gang up on an enemy demigod.
This shouldn't be such a surprise though. The Rook actually has great default stats. He's loaded with Health and deals great autoattack damage. His armor is good too. Rook also has impressive AoE and burst damage powers and a great stun. His only real limitation is that he's slow and easy to target.
The Skills:
Early Game Strategy:
Start the game by double-clicking on your god's image the second the game begins. This stops the screen from circling and allows you to click on the item shop. Buy Totem of Revelation, Banded Armor, and either Scale Mail or Gauntlets of Brutality. Then zoom out and start walking to the most important flag in a lane with creeps. On Leviathan this flag is the 'Debilitating Flag' (10% extra damage to enemies) and on Cataract it's the +15% health flag. Ignore fighting over any flag in a lane without creeps. You'll have to let your allies handle that early on because you are relatively weak until level 4.
On the way to your flag you choose your first ability (Hammer Slam I) and your favor item. Blood of the Fallen is a safe and effective choice in most cases. But another great option is Blade of the Serpent. The BoS allows you to skip buying any mana items all game long AND adds to your DPS. Its a great choice on Cataract. Less valuable on Leviathan since there's a +15 mana per sec tower in your base. Heaven's Wrath is fun and keeps you levelling up but is less of a team-friendly power.
Your next purchase should be either Scaled Helm or Unbreakable Boots if possible. Choose the piece based on the map and your mana usage and favor item choice. Don't buy it until you are forced back to the citadel due to low health and mana though. Stick it out in your lane as long as possible to stay ahead of the level curve. If you are forced back to the crystal before then buy either Scale Mail or Gauntlets of Brutality, a TP scroll, and citadel defence upgrades if possible.
'The Juggernaut' will rely on Hammer Slam to get rolling in the early game. This is your creep-clearing power right from level one. One shot will clear a whole wave of creeps if you target properly. It's also your demigod-slaying power, but that's a lot harder. Until you get Boulder Roll most demigods will be able to flee a Hammer Slam. This is fine! You can interrupt your own Hammer Slam by moving before the animation completes. You don't need to kill every demigod right away, you just need to control your lanes and flags, farm creeps, and level up. You'll find that when you aren't laying down towers that you actually have plenty of mana to go around and you can Hammer Slam frequently.
Try to keep 2 TP scrolls handy from here on out. You also always want at least 1 Combat Health Potion. This is especially handy when fighting Regulus. You need a 1 second heal to deal with incoming Snipe. Eventually you'll upgrade to Robust Health Potion for field work. You may need to trade in your Totem or Revelation at this point if you are facing a good Regulus to deal with his Snipes.
It's critical to identify when you are about to get ganged up on, and back off before that happens. You are going to be slow all game. You need to learn when to run and when to stay with The Rook. This is different than with anyone else. With Rook you have to run before you are in combat. Once you're in combat you often can't escape unless you teleport away. You need to know who is coming, whether he has a stun or not, and whether you are getting ganged up on. That's why you always carry TP scrolls and Totem of Revelation. Using them to estimate the combat is critical to this build.
You need to hang around on the front lines as long as possible, using towers for cover when needed. You shouldn't have to retreat to the crystal more than once or twice before midgame. This is important so that you level up. Farm creeps, chase demigods out of your lane, and use creeps to attack towers. Whittle away as much as possible but be fairly cautious early on.
Mid Game Strategy:
As you go from early game to mid game your want to eyeball Assassins Footguards, Bloodstone Ring, and Plenor Battlecrown. If you are doing well though you should stick it out in the front lines and save money. Skip Vlemish Faceguard with this build. Use Plenor if you're having mana issues and write me a thank-you note for saving you 250 gold. Otherwise choose the item based on whether your on offense or defence and match that with your skill point choices.
By this point you will have the awesome combo of Hammer Slam plus Boulder Roll. Using this is CRITICAL. You want to save Boulder Roll for when an enemy is in melee with you. Roll, and immediately Hammer Slam centering on the enemy demigod. Most times this will deal the full 1500 damage to your enemy at lvl 7. Be aware of enemy stun, though. Oak, Sedna, and Beast all have fast activating stuns that interrupt either of your powers. You need to autoattack them until they waste their own stuns, THEN you levy the combo. Your autoattack is better than anyone else in the game, and your health is number one. Just don't waste your powers and get stunned and you'll win any 1 on 1 combo. I can take on 'Ooze' Beast builds and win with the Juggernaut.
Once you get Boulder Roll you will also be using a lot more mana. This makes it more difficult to clear creeps with Hammer Slam and still be prepared to combat enemy demigods. This is one reason to take God Strength. Not only does it give you a phenomenal DPS upgrade, but it deals AoE damage and knocks away small creeps.
Remember that this is a team game! Your allies can stun as well, which opens you up to Hammer Slam for free, and follow up with a Boulder Roll as the enemy runs away. This is ideal. Your Boulder Roll has a huge range which also helps you save the occassional ally from getting ganked. It's really an incredible power as long as you aim it right.
Also remember that your Juggernaut doesn't need to kill everything with Hammer Slam, even though it's a lot of fun. If you weaken your enemy to 500 health and he's running away out of melee range, you can still kill him with free attacks from your Archer and Tower of Light shoulder mounts. Just don't overpursue.
Eventually you want to get Narmoth's Ring. You're going to deal a lot of autoattack damage, which Narmoth's Ring converts to free healing. You also need to buy either Platemail of the Crusader or Groffling Warplate. That's all you should need other than citadel upgrades and consumables. Other items to think about are Wand of Speed and Sigil of Vitality.
Eventually you can take Trebuchet, which is intended as an offensive weapon. Don't take it if you're stuck on defense, and don't stick yourself on defense or chasing flags if you've taken Trebuchet. At this point you need to be stumbling around on the front lines, clearing creeps, and taking down towers. With Rook this happens when your not even attacking directly. Your shoulder and head attacks will do the work for you while you swat at creeps and enemy demigods. Just don't get killed and wander around outside of tower defence range if you have to.
Late Game Strategy:
Things rarely even get to late game nowadays. But if you make it to level 15 you are in position to absolutely dominate. You will have multiple powers to slow your enemies. Few opponents can stand up to a 2000 damage Hammer Slam combo and deal with your autoattacks afterwards. By late game Rook's towers are relatively worthless , but you didn't waste skill points on them. This build maximizes your power by level 15 and really makes you into an unstoppable Juggernaut. The tactics really don't change much, you just keep dealing more damage. Since Hammer Slam and Tower Archers will slow your enemies you'll start getting easy kills from anyone crazy enough to get into melee with you.
At some point you can look into buying Mage Slayer and Girdle of the Giants. But your gold is probably better spent on Citadel upgrades by now. You shouldn't need anything more than the affordable midgame items I listed above.
What you're saying has some merit very early in the game. But as you get to midgame you are going to get killed without Hammer Slam. Whether you are in a tower farm or not, when you face multiple human opponents you will die in 5 seconds or so. You're only real defence is to keep enemies afraid of getting 2-shotted by your Boulder Roll and Hammer Slam combo.
Hammer Slam isn't easy to use so you are likely to have more success with it when you get more experience.
If you mean 2-shotted as in Boulder Roll + Hammer Slam = dead, I don't see people run around with nearly that little health.
If you mean 2-shotted as in (Boulder Roll + Hammer Slam) x 2 = dead, won't cooldowns prevent that because you're dying in 5 seconds?
Besides, you say specifically in your guide that you have to back off before you get ganged up on anyways.
I say 2-shotted as in there are 2 attacks that go together and deal massive damage to a huge area. That combo is a threat to any demigod. Some are killed outright, some can handle the combo and but are then brought down by autoattacks, and some can make a call whether they want to fight on at half health or retreat. But everyone is wary about being 2-shotted by that combo.
I think I've finally figured out the usefulness of Hammer Slam (it seemed really bad in the demo because most of the games were at slow game speed, so it was ridiculously easy to avoid or interrupt). You can't just rely on it though. If you miss one or it gets interrupted, you'll be screwed, and even if you try to fake cast it, you'll still get interrupted sometimes or they'll not fall for the fake cast and just keep hitting you, which means you just did nothing while they damaged you even more. You're also in trouble if it gets shielded, or when you need to run and you don't have towers dpsing the chasing foes, or if they simply have too much health for a hit to deter them.
I tried blade of the serpent a few times (I figured it'd be good for fueling the hammer-tower hybrid build I'm working on, which I'll make a guide for soon) but the problem is that, even though it does what it's supposed to, your mana pool is very small without mana items anyways so you can still run out of mana between cooldowns, especially with how expensive the boulder roll + hammer slam combo is. Botf is definately better, especially against early-game harassment, when you're trying to stay out in the field as long as possible. I really don't get how Obscenitor survives early game so well when using the cooldown staff thing (played him once a day or two ago).
dude,i gotta say ,this build absolutely rocks and kicks ass.i played like 20 matches online not vs noobs (i don`t play vs noobs) and i won every single match.the secret is to fake cast hammer slam to make them waste their interrupts (for example that annoyng penitence) than quickly charge it again.when you get boulder roll things become really easy. item choice:botf favor,scalemail,banded, totem(at start); first trip back vlemish faceguard,then unbreakable boots and nimoth;wand of speed later (optional) after you have boulder roll i start to carry 2 tp scrolls always for gangs.rest of money(which is plenty since low cost of items) i buy citadel upgrades.
I have to echo the other posters on getting Tower I first. When the game first begins, the hammer rook will be forced out of the lane quickly without towers. UB spits and leaves, EB bites for health back, Reg/TB snipe from distance, etc. Even with shoulder weapon at level 2 most DGs can put damage into the Rook and then back off out of hammer range - and God forbid you get 2 enemy DG in your lane. With towers, you can keep a lane and keep the enemy DG back from harassing you.
After one point in towers though, I switch over to the hammer build. My biggest problem with the Rook, though, is the difficulty of killing anyone. I may get a great slam off, but they just turn and run away. So I hold the lane and can push the lane, but no kills on enemy DGs. If I can get an EB or UB working with me, then it turns out a little better. I have been experimenting with a speed build (anklet and boots), which seems to work out - but that is a lot of slots wasted.
[quote]I have to echo the other posters on getting Tower I first. When the game first begins, the hammer rook will be forced out of the lane quickly without towers. UB spits and leaves, EB bites for health back, Reg/TB snipe from distance, etc. Even with shoulder weapon at level 2 most DGs can put damage into the Rook and then back off out of hammer range - and God forbid you get 2 enemy DG in your lane[/quote
you are not playng him right,at the begin then.at lvl 1 with hammer slam i can hold even against 2 demigods with my huge hp pool and good timing for hammer slam..i can see you haven`t even tried this build yet..and if you did then you don`t know how to play it...
@Melric: Starting with Hammer 1 isn't too bad because you can slam the creeps and then the enemy DGs run back to their tower if they don't have aoe (since you go whack on them if they want to fight the creeps). Just 1 wave of creeps + 1 flag cap = level 2; then I get towers. If you want to catch enemy DGs, I've had better luck with poison dagger than anklet, since it'll slow guys more than you get sped up (still get the 10% speed boots).
@kalamity92: maybe you can hold off 2 noobs or AI or imaginary players, but in reality you get outharassed because you have no range or chasing ability.
dude you have no idea wht you talking about...play the build as much as i do,then come here to tell me it sux without towers ...and i haven`t play in my life against ai and as i said i haven`t play vs noobs...
p.s. play it with the exact item order i posted....
I never said it "sux" without towers (although I will maintain that a hybrid build does better, especially early-game). I'm just calling BS on your claims of holding off 2 DGs and winning 20 games in a row against good players.
Its extremely rare to be forced out of a lane with my build. When that happens it's because I'm up against multiple players on my own. I don't see a big difference when I have towers and when I just start out with Hammer Slam. Sure, you have a little more DPS with towers. But you use up WAY more mana. Without towers I always have tons of mana to hammer slam creeps or demigods. With towers I use most of my mana up just keeping towers up.
I've tried both builds and in default matchups on Leviathan and Cataract towers are no better than Hammer Slam. I consider it a wasted point. On maps like Prison and Brothers they are probably better, but I rarely play those maps.
I focus mainly on towers in the early game - without them you will get harrassed quickly out of a lane. How do you deal with any ranged attacker like regulus, TB or even a spitting beast? Towers are really the only answer. The fact that they are teleport points and free mini totems of revelation is just gravy.
That being said, Slam and Towers have pretty good synergy. If a slam will clear creeps, then the towers naturally focus on the DG which is a huge win. If you also have a good QoT or Erebus to debuff armor in the middle of a tower farm.... then its happy times.
I also like a tower focus because it allows you to fill in the role of citadel upgrader much better - you need 2 helms, 2 1500ish armor pieces and bloodstone to be pretty much fully effective. This is good as lots of teams wait for their other members to upgrade the citadel while they hoard for that mageslayer...
Not true at all. I never get forced out of a lane unless I'm taking on 2 or 3 enemies by myself. When that happens I get forced out of a lane whether I have towers or not.
Regulus is always forced out of a lane by a Juggernaut Rook. At level 2 you have archer tower and Hammer Slam, and Regulus cant stay in melee for more than a few seconds. He's always got to hide behind his tower and you always get the flag. Beast is a back and forth battle. if you took Bllod of the Fallen you can weather his Spit and beat him in melee with intelligent use of your own nearest tower.
The bottom line is that you are dead wrong to say "Towers are really the only answer." Towers work ok, but they arent the only way to build your Rook. On most maps I don't find them as effective as Rook's other powers.
Ranged DGs: kiting. When you run forward, they run back. When you stop, they stop and shoot you. When you run back, they run forward while shooting you. You control the flag until your health is low enough that they can beat you straight-up.
Generals semi-kite you with monks, and effectively beat you in health regen because they get healed a couple hundred health every several seconds, so they can go in, whack you several times, then run back and heal up faster than you do. Minion masters pretty much kite you with minions, since they take too long to kill with anything but slam and can run the minions around such that you'll never get a good slam off on the whole army.
Spit UB takes the flag after he's spit on you a few times. Tower Rook beats you via range; if you go for his towers he melees you, beating you in dps.
Against most of them, you can hold the flag for a few creep waves just because of how much health you have, but it's not as long as you want it to be.
Look, if you can't hold the lane on your own against Regulus it's not due to having Tower I or Tower II. It's due to your own skillsbeing weak. My build will easily outlevel any Regulus as I drive him back to his tower and I'll have flag control. Beast is harder but not impossible. If you really think it can't be done it shows your own lack of skill rather than any limitations in the build.
It's actually an amusing viable build as long as it's played correctly. In a 1v1 duel of equal levle and equal money the rook nearly always wins cause of his advanced strength and powerful slam. And it is a really good build to use if you know your fighting minion heavy armies. Minion build neutralize tower disturbing well if played correctly and since this build focuses on slam it's actually fairs better as with a single slam you can often take down all of the other sides minions.
It is vulenderable to kiting but argubably so is every build. The shoulder tower help to fill that hole as they damage kiting demigods quite well making it difficult to get a health advantage over the rook. Since you not using mana continually to raise tower it allows you to focus on health regeneration gear which while not quite as useful as say priests allow the rook to stay in the lane for quite awhile. Eventually the rook will have to return to base to heal and buy items but so does every other demigod but unlike say a tower build this rook doesn't need any setup time and can just walk up to the flag pushing the kiting Regulus or TB off the flag and gaining a warscore advantage.
The most imporant thing though is this build require you to destroy tower as quickly as you can. Walk up with a wave of minion and beat the living crap of the tower for awhile and then walk back. As soon as the tower is down kiting becomes alot harder when you don't have tower to hide behind. You high damage output allows you to do this quite easily.
Regulus has the skills to kite the crap out of you. If you haven't faced one who knows how to play, lucky you.
Wow, if your (A Rook) Can hold the lane against a Regulus, without towers, and the Regulus is good, you must be orgasmically good at this game.
I've played many experts and Regulus is not a problem. The hardest enemy to face is a good Oak with this build. Regulus is relatively easy because he has no interrupts. No regulus can stand up to this build, which means you have flag control and lane domination. Hammer Slam is a one shot creep wave killer which gives you an XP and gold advantage as Regulus will lose some to tower defense. Meanwhile you use your own creep waves to work on enemy towers.
You aren't going to get any solo kills against Regulus until you get to level 5, but you should outlevel him, control the flag, and probably take down his tower.
This is a very good summary BTW.
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