[Gameplay] Rook Uneffective

from Demigod Forums

   Today I played a few games, trying to give the Rook some love. My biggest issue with him, that when faced up against another player, he has no real useful abilities. Certainly he can take down the AI no problem, and with large amount of armor items and various other things he can be a mean guy. But when you take away the damage modify weapons from the equation, and have him face up against Demigods like Tourch Bearer - he simply can not compete. A Tourch Bearer player can use Frozen Aura to keep him at bay, and even without that he is easy to run away from with a few speed increase items. A Tourch Bearer's range can not be countered, even with Warpstone to try and gain some ground on the nimble little spell caster.

    Once upon a time this Demigod was a real meany because of his bowling ball stun. Now this is completely useless, even against the Trouch Bearer. I've found that when the Rook is under the TB's slowing aura, hitting the Tourch Bearer with the bowling rock stun does nothing. You can not advance upon the Touch Bearer fast enough, nor can you run away. The Trouch Bearer can run ciricles around the Rook, even if the Rook has various speed increases, armor, and regeneration. All of Rook's abilities are easily dodges, the Hammer attack can easily be seen coming and a Warpstone allows any Demigod in the radious to get clear. So against smart, real, active players - the Rook really sucks right now. He's most unpopular Demigod in this phase because his abilities are lacking, his unthreatening, and frankly the Unclean Beast and Tourch Bearer just have far more effective abilities.

   Rook really needs some loving. I've tried several items and lots of tactics to try and see how he can be improved, but at the moment he's very frustrating to play to because he's so slow and weak. Even his Defensive towers aren't a threat, nor do they last long enough on the field, and also they vanish on their own due to their 'limit'. I fail to understand why he can drop Towers if they aren't very strong, nor do they last against enemy Demigods. He really needs something stronger, something that makes him a threat again because right now he feels a little too weak in contrast to prior beta phases. With all these new items, many Demigods can easily defeat him now without much of a problem.

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Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

In addition to my prior post, the Rook is very Item Dependant in this build. Yes, he can be very effective with items as I pointed out above. A solid build would have to be the use of Deathbringer + Warpstone + Stun. But, surely there is a way to counter this as well, perhaps when Deathbringing is used against him instead, because that item shuts down Demigods for waaaaaaaaay too long. 15 seconds or so feels like forever when you're in a solo match, once that thing is cast on you, there is nothing you can do. You can't even use items, it's a real punishing item.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

So wait, you compared the Rook without items to the TB with items? You know, each part of the game is supposed to work together.

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Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

I mentioned the Warpstone yes, but in hindsight I was mainly discussing both Demigods on a basis without items. Even the Rook AI has to buy items which slow down enemy Demigod just so they can keep scoring hits - which say a lot already.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

I agree rook is a little lacking some Ideas:

  • Increase the damage on the trebuchae, as it is it's doing very little damage, it should hurt like a catapulsaur hit, also it should target demis not some random buildings I can niether see, nor for that matter, currently care about.
  • ToL's are pointless, they need to either have no limit, or not decay, because both is way to limiting. I'd go for a limit with their current strength, that way you can build chains of them. The way I would see them used is as reinforcing or for extending your front lines, so increase their health and damage, and removeing one of their limiting factors would go a long way. Also a neat synergy could be having the rooks shoulder ToL increse in power with levels in this ability.
  • The boulder was great and is now rather pointless, perhaps increasing it's size and AoE would be helpful as well as increasing it's stun a little or adding a slowing factor afterwards. (drunken unclean beast!) A neat synergy might be increasing the trebuchaes power with levels in this ability.
  • Also another neat synergy would be increasing the Arrow tower with levels in stats, alowing it to scale well. Perhaps also splitting up the towers and make them pre reqs for diffrent skills (ToL's ToL turret, stone/ treb, arrow... well that could just be seperate) or you could even make them offshoots once you get a skill, for example level 1 ToL leads to ToL Turret or ToL level 2. (and both in the long run)
  • Also an idea for increasing the slam, if you have glowy weapons, you could cause it to damage in an aoe around the rook (less than the slam) as a devine energy blast, allowing it to be more useful late game.

Anyways just some ideas.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

I found a pretty good combo. There is an item that increases move speed 30% for short time in the consumable items tab. Use that in conjuctions with the gloves that reduce move and attack speed. The warpstone for finale if you really want but the combo works pretty well already.

Use stun, close, get a hit (this will slow the defender down), turn on speed boost, win.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

From what I've played him (and everyone pretty much), I get God's Strength and ST. Everything else into Stats.

It's REAL easy to get to over 1.5k dmg and insane attack speeds. He starts off a lot slower though, can't damage beasts from a distance or get away...and that hurts with BR :(

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

I'd say that discussing balance right now is a waste of breath sort of. Rook used to be really good, and now, not so good and UB is clearly OP, and everything will change with every version. Nevertheless, Rook, with the right items can be pretty tough at the moment.

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

These are just simple observations. :) Not exactly too focused about -how- to balance the class, I'm more into just stating how the game is at the moment. So I wouldn't say this is a discussion of balance, it's showing we're trying to see how the game plays outside the spectrum of the mighty Unclean Beast.

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

I do really hope they raise the damage of Hammer Slam. It's pretty much the signiture move of Demigod. It must hurt!

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top

What I mostly want to see redone is the ToL ability tree. Its a complete joke as is.