Too Much Rook

rook is immensely overpowered

nerf the hammer smash

If you're finding the Rook extremely overpowered, you probably haven't given the other characters enough of a chance. If he/it's just a little overpowered, then I'm inclined to agree. The strategies that are required for each character are quite different, but I don't find either of the other two assassins lacking in destructive ability when played right.

It's already been noted that tower-eating skill is being made available earlier than it should (i.e. ST II available at lvl 3, even though it says lvl 6). The cooldown on his moves are a little short too, but that's just my own opinion. It would help if the Rook actually WAS slower than the other two assassins. I've had the Rook chase me as both Torchy and Reg, and their movement speeds seem to be the same.

wat

Fully leveled stun and hammer smash used in conjunction can take off near half of a Demigod's health that has all the top tier armor. Couple that with the 3 towers on his back and a couple hits and most people are pretty much dead.

Suggestions:

Increase cooldown on hammer smash

Small decrease to damage of hammer smash

Slower animation of hammer smash

Increase recharge time of volley of arrows from the arrow tower

Let's talk about demigod balance once we've seen all of them. It's equally possible that Regulus and TB are underpowered.

Also I think it's because the Rook is one of the easyest to use that people think he's overpowerd.

But I agree with Legerdamain too.

Rook isnt' the easiest to use.
He's the easiest to use against players that don't understand the boulders aren't instant-hit and the hammer slam has a long cast and targets the ground not players.

And christ.. you expect the game to be balanced in a PERFORMANCE/COMPATABILITY TEST BUILD?  That's like complaining about lack of control in watching a tech demo video recording.

Torchbearer is the broken one.

I'm only saying it needs to be looked at. The truth is, The Rook IS overpowered, it's not a style thing either. I personally love the torchbearer, but fighting aginst the Rook, even when it's a dumb computer is just rediculus, i get beaten almost everytime. Not to mention that Rock throw has such a quick recharge time and knocks out people in an area. The Rook is easy to play, it's true; if I wanted to teach someone how to play i would tell them to choose Rook. Still, the damage, and because of it's shoulder things, the rate at which it levels, it's just a little to beastly to fit the game. It might take a bit to get it right, but thats fine, it's why they have this beta, and hopefully we will see a better balanced Rook as time goes by.

stardock look what you did here !

instead of giving us a buggy 10 mins crashing tech beta, this build even survives 60 mins battles without anyone dropping and everyone complaining about overpowered heroes in the phase where fun should be nonexistant

I tried Rook just now and I have to say that with the passive damage boost, he can get somewhat overpowered. If you have the +50% attack speed boost plus the gloves that have tons of extra damage, you can easily get over 1000 damage a hit with a two second attack speed. Also keep in mind with each Stat boost you do, you get a quicker attack and extra power (which is increased by 200% also)

I just got over two dozen "Kyrein is Godlike" messages in a game.

I played the Rook.

I died 0 times.

if i can find the screenshot folder i'll post the screenies for anybody that doubts the Rooks overpoweredness.

Rook is definately overpowered. Boulder stun coupled with a Hammer smash is already imba as it is. If you consider that this game is team based, you have to figure that if you had several allies that deal these nukes at the same time, simply stunning an opponent and then slamming him 2x-3x is an instant kill. It seems that all the heroes have some sort of nuking ability that basically rips a large amount of hp. This would be fine if you only have the ability to choose 1 hero type per person (if someone else chose Rook, no one else can choose him). However, players are given the option to choose the same hero, and this already breaks the game. 5v5 battles would be terrible, where if one team decides to be douches and all pick the sniper heroes and just use their snipe ability to instantly kill any heroes in a couple seconds of engagement. Can you imagine 5 players running around together sniping stuff to death in an instant?

The only way I could see this problem aleviated would be to limit 1 unique hero per person. That would mean there has to be a large pot of differing heroes to choose from to make this game both fun, interesting and fair. Imagine a game where everyone is a goddam Rook... But since this game is supposed to ship with only 8 heros, things don't look so great atm...

gun, stop beating the dead horse, unique heroes has been argued for the last month or more.

and if 5 people want to go around sniping, let them.

2 rooks as they are currently would decimate them

I wasn't here reading posts for the past 5 months sorry...

Stun needs to be nerfed. That's the first and biggest offender. After we've got stun to the realm of fairness as opposed to something you can chain until your opponent tears his face off from frustration, then we can worry about the rook. If you can't permastun, then hammer smash does tons less damage, and the rook goes back to being hard but manageable (IMHO). A lot of the rook's power comes from a stun based combo. If you only get enough stun that you can't plod over to the other guy and then give him a head thumping but need to be on top of him, then you can be kited and all sorts of other fun defenses. Another priceless classic is when Regulus decides to be a dick and leave a stun mine or five out for you. It makes the rook a bit less insane. Another fun way to take out a rook is with a pair of ice torchbearers chaining stun and hail. Now look back and realize that stun is imba, because I really can't think of another way to defend against that kind of thing.

note: you said A rook

ONE rook takes TWO torchbearers to kill

two rooks would annihilate the two torchbearers

stun is only OP if you gangbang

And people who have probably only played 2 games complaining about the balance, at that..

How so? AoE stun hits two rooks, and most of the torchies' attacks are AoE. It'd be quite doable to make the rooks weep blood and die. Just stun them if they try to hammer, and have some potions, and you're good. Have one stay ice and AoE freeze while the other goes all out for damage. I'm pretty sure it's doable, and three torchbearers would absolutely humiliate three rooks. Two stunners to keep the rooks down while they all pour DPS onto them? Please, unless the rooks had great coordination and the torchies suck, the torchies would go to town. Torchbearers go really well with each other. The only thing more rooks can do is chuck out more stun rocks. Torchbearers can hold their enemies even tighter and still get good DPS. A pair of hailstorms and a full firey fusilade is enough damage to make for a messy death. Swap a torchie for a regulus and you can throw in stun mines to the mix along with sniping, or add a rook for the sheer dps while the torchbearers supress the enemy. Rooks as a group aren't the be all and end all, they're just very good solo, and with the AI running around without communication, that makes them excellent in SP.

No edit. Grrrrrrrrrrr....

No, it isn't, and that's part of the problem with the rook. Chain a hammer smash to the end of the boulder stun and you've got a nearly dead demi. The rook's the only one who's great at using stun solo, and that's a lot of why he's being called OP. Also, stun becomes insanely good when you gangbang, and it's a major problem. It's one thing when a single gets killed by a pair. It's another when he doesn't get an attack or move in edgewise because he's stunned the entire bloody time by a boulder the rook hit him with from out of LoS. THAT is annoying.

I've played about fifteen or so games, am I entitled to talk about the balance, or should I get back to the game?

No, the fact is, that Rooks would beat about any combo of enemies, because there rock throw does AoE stun, not to mention it only takes one or two hits to desemate an enemy, which can be done while they are stunned. The Rooks have so much health that the damage that it requires to beat them, coupled with health potions, make them there nigh near impossible to take down.

The truth is, two skilled torch bearers could probably beat two average Rooks, but they would have a hard time. if the Rooks were skilled players, or a group of friends who could team up, they would just shred any opposition to pieces, the fact is, it doesnt take a great player to own with a Rook, but if you added that strength with the skill of a good player, well then you have yourself an almost unbeatable challenge

I don't know... I thought Rook was overpowered, too, until I started playing Torch Bearer to higher levels. He too is fully capable of taking another Demigod down to half health with his Fireball and Fireshock. Fully upgraded (around level 15), I was a monster of damage-dealing and Ice-stunning. I killed two Rooks easily.

I agree that the Rook needs re-balancing (my big concern is the building-eating heal. It does a lot of damage to Towers of Light) but the Torch Bearer, at least, seems to hold his own very well when played right.

Does everyone not realise this is Beta I? To clarify, that means they don't care about statistics, nerfing, character flaws, buffs, special abilities. The only thing on their minds is getting the basic, technical game down. Once they have a stable platform, they will begin with the issues you're talking about.

We all know that this is the first beta, we know it probably doesnt matter, now or most likely for a while. But we still like to go over it now, while it's fresh in our minds. We might as well say it now so it's here when they get to that stage. Plus for all I can tell, they have a great game here. I've played at least 10 games, probably around an hour each (if I'm looking for bugs) and I havent had it crash, or for that matter even freeze once. The point is they already put out a great game, so soon enough they will be to the point where they need this stuff, and then we've enjoyed talking about it, and refining what we want to a point where we're in agreement and they don't have to take a side and make a hard choice.  we're all happy, and we still get a great game. If you really care, then skip these posts, and move on to the technical ones.

The rook has a good 1v1 stun, but against multiple opponents who aren't total fools, it isn't an AoE. It's on a line, and that means it's predictable. Also, if you are quick enough, you have a prayer of dodging it until you get close enough to use your own stuns. I know how much the rooks can do, but the enemy has to be stunned or it's a resoundingly mediocre heavy ability. The damage other demis can put out is amazing too. A high level torchbearer chaining all their fire in the proper order after uncorking some ice (ice storm, fire storm, fire ball, closing fire nova, fire circle, fire storm again) can easily bring a pair of rooks (all AoE except for one) to the brink of death while its buddy keeps them stunned, and its regular attack isn't exactly weak. Did I mention its buddy can chain ice storms into the rooks as well? The torchbearer is devastating on offense, and that chain can easily kill a torchbearer or regulus if he doesn't get stunned and the enemy doesn't run.