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:
- Hammer Slam I
- Archer Tower
- Save
- Hammer Slam II
- Tower of Light and Boulder Roll I or God Strength I
- Remaining power from above
- Hammer Slam III
- Trebuchet
- Save
- Hammer Slam IV and God Strength II
- Boulder Roll II or Enhanced Attributes
- Save or Enhanced Attributes
- Save or Enhanced Attributes
- Save or Enhanced Attributes
- Dizzying Force and possibly Poison Arrows, God Strength III and Boulder Roll III
- Enhanced Attributes or what's left from lvl 15
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.
