I play a lot of Rook and have generally done fairly well.  Typically my first skill is lvl 1 towers... and that's the only point I put into towers.

Boulder+Hammer is effective if you can time it right but Hammer Slam has it's uses otherwise.  It's extremely useful on creep waves to gain quick experience when on the move for instance.  It's also very effective at simply scaring enemy demigods off and giving you a little breathing room.  Many will start to run as soon as they see the hammer go up and it's easy to stop the slam when they do, making it easy to keep it around as a constant deterent to some gank manuevers.  Do not throw the hammer the second an enemy demigod gets in range either, they'll often waste their stun right away thinking you will - meanwhile you just slap them around instead and hammer after.

I'm not arguing that a tower Rook can't be good or very effective, but it's certainly not the only viable way to play the Rook.

-dolynick

Rook doesn't need "Towers" per se but they're really nice until late game. By then you have God's strenght III and some decent equipment and won't need towers OR structural transfer to wipe the floor with absolutely everyone!  The towers are a purely inconsequential but they've more than made up for it in early and mid-game! And you'll still trash the opposition due to your enormous base damage, excellent armor and health. Chasing is for other heroes but you can usually suprise the enemy (I tend to have more kills than any other hero late game!)

mmmmmm  sarcasm, yes feed me.

sneaky troll is sneaky.