What Rook build have you advanced players had most success with?

You get platemail, 1 teleport scroll, and a flag capture lock out of the gate. Save the rest. Your favor is Blood of the Fallen.

Choose a lane, it's your lane. Get to it and sit on the flag. Level 1 you take tower of power 1. Set your towers up on or near the flag. Push your enemy out of your lane, do not recast towers unless you need to (you have literally no mana). Follow this skill build, and stay in the lane untill you can no longer maintain towers / the lane due to over pressure. When the lane is to hot or you have gold, capture lock the flag and walk/teleport back to base. I recommend walking to base and teleporting back out, or possibly walking back out. Not using the teleport can save you 250 gold, but sometimes it's needed.

1 Tower Power 1

2 Shoulder Archers

3 Save

4 Tower Power 2

5 Shoulder Tower of Light / Boulder Roll

You should also buy the 550 gold helm from the shop ASAP, as well as keep up with teleport scrolls and capture locks. NEVER be without both of these, or your not playing rook properly. Use boulder roll only to keep players in your towers, or to save teammates. Casting it will take all your mana. The rest of the game you convert over to a smash rook to maximize your killing potential.

You have very good passives, so having lots of durability to stay in the fight is very important. The best items to make this happen are unbreakables, nimoth chest guard, and nimoths ring. Vlemish face guard is nice, but your better off using that money on teleport and capture locks, and just refueling your mana at base.

6 God Strength 1 (gives a cleaving attack, makes killing creeps much easier) You could also take trebuchet instead

7 Hammer Slam 1

8 Hammer Slam 2

9 Hammer Slam 3

10 Hammer Slam 4

Through these levels use your HP and Passives to deal damage. Try to refrain from using hammer slam till level 10, unless you are certain it will give you a kill.

11 Trebuchet (makes tower of light better, can net you a kill from 30 range away) If you took at level 6, get God Strength here

12 Boulder Roll 2

13 God Strength 2

14 Save

15 Dizzying Force And Poison arrows (You are now the best assissin in the game, believe it or not)

16 God Strength 3

17 Boulder Roll 3

18 Stats

19 Stats

20 Stats

Most games don't see level 15. The good thing about rook is he CAN be good early game and AMAZING late game. Many say go tower rook or go hammer slam. The problem is hammer slam is super bad early game, and towers are super bad late game. However towers are highly exploitable early game, and a fully upgraded hammer slam is the best AoE in the game. Rooks potential is that he can roll this type of build effectively, while many DG suffer from the need to take and concentrate on 1 build type the whole game.

Tower of Power is a good push skill for a lane, but pushing will only get you so far, and not all maps are as claustrophobic as Cataract.

The important things to know for choosing a Rook Build:

1. A single point in Tower of Power will let you create towers, which are teleportation points for your team.  This is *extremely* good to be able to do, especially later on in the game, where your entire team should have teleportation effects.
2. If you want to be able to contribute to combats outside of your tower farm, boulder roll + hammer slam are your best possible skills. The "RookRoll" where you roll someone and then slam them, is one of the most cost effective damage combo's out there, and scales well in big combats.
3. Rook is Slow. You will simply not be able to 'run' from combat in any traditional way.  There are two ways to deal with this.  Either A) Buy teleport scrolls early, or Get large healing potions.  The latter can be an amazing surprise to someone trying to kill you in your tower farm.  Also, make sure to keep your HP up by getting additional items.  Do NOT rely on structural transfer.
4. Your towers, like *all* towers, shoot at the same target until it is dead or out of range. Then they acquire a new target, the enemy unit closes to them.  This means that if enemy DG's attack you in the middle of a creep wave, your towers will hurt them less.  Huge swarms of high HP minions are also going to be bad for you.
5. However, it also means you can use your own towers as 'shields' against enemy ones.  Walk within range of an opposing tower, and put down one of your own.  Walk outside of its range.  The two towers will now be shooting at each other.  Return to range and melee it until your tower is dead (You may get the chance to put up a second tower before it dies).  This process is amazingly good at killing defenses, but will weaken your 'tower farm' if you are trying to build one.

That said, I am known to play 1 of two builds for rook:

1. Tower
2. Archers
3. Slam
4. Slam
5. Boulder Roll
6. Tower of Light
7. Slam
8. Trebuchet
9. Save
10. Roll/Slam

A very aggressive build that focus' more on your abilty to do damage to anyone near you, even without a farm. Second build is like this:

1. Tower
2. Slam
3. Save
4. Tower/Slam
5. Roll
6. Save
7. Tower/Slam
8. Archers
9. save
10. Slam/Roll

This second build is a mana hog, but gets you all the strong activated skills of Rook.  You do not get Tower 4 because level 10 is right when towers start getting pretty diminishing returns.  11 onward, get tower of light, then a bit of god strength, and then dizzy/roll 3.

Hope this helps you a bit.

When I play Rook I usually get Hammer Slam 1 first, then I don't upgrade it till later. The reason for this is that Towers and Archer damage does not count towards creep gold bonus. So I tag creeps with Hammer Slam then let the Towers and Archers finish them off.

don't ask me how to play it, since i'm not a Rook guy, but this is a template for an effective build. there are many variations of course, but in general you're gonna need to be able to use Towers early and switch out to Boulder/Slam later. all other strategies fall short.

1. Power of Tower 1

2. Archer Shoulder

3. saved

4. Power of Tower 2

5. Boulder Roll 1 and Light Beam Shoulder

6. Hammer Slam 1

7. Hammer Slam 2

8. Trebuchet on your head

9. Hammer Slam 3

10. Boulder Roll 2

11. Hammer Slam 4

12. God's Strength 1

13. saved

14. saved

15. Dizzying Force, Boulder Roll 3, Poisoned Arrows

16+. max out god's strength and get stats. 

some builds will go all the way up to 3 or even 4 ranks in Power of Tower as an alternative, this is fine but will somewhat delay your development of Hammer Slam (or shoulder turrets, one of them has to give). in general though builds like this one are what you need to be using to play Rook at the highest level. 

items would be pretty standard health/mana gear. you don't need to worry so much about speed. keep teleport scrolls on hand so you can retreat if necessary, but other than that, don't concern yourself with catching runners. your shoulder crap is for tagging runners, you don't have to catch up to them to kill them. 

edit: double post 

As an experienced Rook player, all of these strategies are more-or-less the generally accepted way to play Rook. You need 1-2 points in towers, and the rest of your skill points should be spent making Rook a Badass tank.

My Rook build is similar to the first reply but my order is a bit different.

-I start with Towers 1.  This is typically the only point I spend there, though in certain circumstances I could go for level 2 if need be.  Towers are crucial to holding ground in the early game.  Level 2 would make them more effective longer but in my case I have alternate uses for them as well.

-2nd level is always Archers.  I will also pick up the Tower of Light upgrade as soon as possible (level 5).  I usually don't bother with Trebuchet until much later of the game.  Level 1 and 2 of this skill path adds 218 dps, Trebuchets only add another 40 dps.

-3rd level is Structural Transfer 1.  This is the only point I invest in this skill path.  This allows me to use my 2 towers as healing potions if I have the mana and lets me stay out in the field longer (using it in combat isn't usually a good idea though, use it between fights).  It also means that I'm not spending gold on potions to boot, leaving it for other gear or upgrades.  Finally, this can be helpful in pushing towers as you can heal a bit while doing damage to the tower yet, which is often a decent trade off for the slightly lower dps than if you just bashed away.  It's also helpful for stealing flags that are guarded by towers in the same regard since Transfer can cover a good portion of the time it takes to cap the enemy's gold flag on Cataract for example.

-4th level is Hammer Slam 1.  Hammer 1 isn't that useful aside from quickly smashing creep waves if I'm in a hurry or possibly wiping out minions (particularly monks) in a pinch so I don't use it much at this point.

-5th, as previously stated is Tower of Light.

-6th is God Strength 1.  From here on out, I will pick up then next level of God Strength as soon as it becomes available.

-7th is either Hammer Slam 2 or Boulder Roll 1, depending on the game.  Boulder+Hammer isn't all that effective until you have Hammer 3 and Boulder 2.  Boulder 1 can still help you and your team get kills though and even boulder 1 + Hammer 2 can be effective against the right DG or at the right time.

-8th is whatever of the two I didn't take at 7th.

-From here on out I will always take God Strength improvements as they become available.  I will also get Hammer 3 ASAP followed by Boulder 2.  After that I continue to invest in Hammer Slam.

-In the late game, my target item (after armor, etc) is Mage Slayer.  It let's my capitalize on my God Strength investment.  If I have that then God Strenth 3 is my lvl 15 skill.  If not then Hammer Slam 5 is what I'll pick first.  After those two I may invest in Stats or pick up Trebuchets and the rest of the Archers path.  By level 20 I typically have full Hammer path, full Boulder path, full Archer path, full God Strength path and at least a couple points in Stats.

I usually go armor/health stacked, with at least 3 items from the armor tab of the shop.  Nimroth is a must, Groffling as well if possible but I'll get Mage Slayer before it usually if I have that kind of spare gold.  I always buy the two cheap armors as they're useful until I need the slot for something else.  I'll often start with a Scaled Helm until I can get a Vlemish.  I will sell the Scaled Helm once I need the slot afterwards.  I will always buy Unbreakable Boots over the Hauberk of Life if I'm looking for a 1500ish item to add yet.  Beyond that, God Plate is good as is the Bulwark of the Ages if you are that loaded.

For consumables I usual carry sigils, teleports and flag locks... although I don't often have them all on hand until the mid game at least.  My favor item is Blood of the Fallen, but the Poison Dagger, Blade of the Serpent (this would free you of the need for mana items for the most part) or Swift Anklet can also be good choices if you wanted to be "not so tank-y".

Being slow, you generally have to be cautious in how you advance since opposing teams love to gank a Rook.  He seems to be the #1 target choice in pretty much any game he's in so play accordingly.

-dolynick

I play without towers at all. Seriously.

Skills:
max slam, lvl 2 boulder roll, max shoulders, max god strength, max stats
(sometimes 1 point in towers at lvl 12 for ally teleports, sometimes 1 point in structural transfer at lvl 12 to kill buildings without losing hp, but very rarely)

Items:
blood of the fallen, narmoths ring, mageslayer, nimroths chest armor, vlemish, groffling warplate + wand of speed, locks, ports

If you play rook, as long as you don't die in the first 5 minutes, and don't buy stupid items, its pretty hard to lose cos he gets so much more stats than other demigods + slam is one of the largest burst moves in the game, they drop to 2k hp and they are toast (roll + slam).

Learn to fake cast slams, teleports, everything to make the enemies waste interrupts.

But thats just me. Everyone else swears by towers. I personally find them boring as hell cos no-one comes near you, and you need them to get cocky so you can unleash slam up close and personal. Its truely priceless to go into 1v2 and come walking away with a 'double-smite' or more.

QFT.

I quite frequently play an utterly towerless rook, though I've picked them up on occasion at level 1 for the teleport.

Yeah, that is great indeed.  I had a game last night where two UBs came after me 2v1.  I had no towers up but one of the UBs was squashed and the other ran for his life.  Unfortunately, I was slow on the sigil or tower + transfer and poison got me after the 2nd fled - but that was my fault.  The "omg" from one of the UBs made my night though.

Non-tower Rooks are certainly viable, but they tend to come into their own much later in the game (and with the right gear) whereas a tower Rook tends to do better in the early/mid game.  Many games end before level 15 which is my guess as to why so many people think that non-tower Rooks are failures but they just haven't reached their peak is all.

-dolynick

Rarely does a game progress past level 15. The winner is determined by level 10, and the next 5 levels just 'happen' as the game is sealing up. This is unless your team does not get creeps and the opponents don't defend properly. If you screw up the game can be forced to level 20.

I don't have actual statistics but we can agree that 50% of games are determined before level 10, won at 15. Of the remaining 50%, 35% are won really really early (pro vs noob games) and 15% of games are actually stretched to level 20 upwards. These numbers aren't perfect, but I believe they show a distribution accurate enough to explain why rook needs towers early on.

The 1st 5 levels rook does not have the ability to exit combat. He must stay in a lane, and in order to do so he needs to keep the opponents away from him, and keep his HP toped off. This is done through scaled armor and blood of the fallen, but it also makes a difference to have Towers early. Towers at 1 and 4, shoulders at 2 and 5, and boulder roll at 5 gives you enough lane staying capacity that you can ramp into late game without sacrificing 'late game' potential which will more than likely not be reached anyway.

level 5 - 10 you can still max hammer slam and other abilities, so you still peak late game. You just wont have the mana problems and the inability to stay in a lane against competent players early game.

-all graphs are depicted by an arbitrary number showing there power level in comparison to the quality of OTHER DG at the same level. Meaning a 5 is VERY good in comparison to any other DG an an equated level, and a 1 is extremely bad almost useless.

-----------------------------------------

5----------------------------------------

4-0-------0---0-----0--------------------

3---0-0-0---0---0-0---0-0----------------

2-------------------------0-0-0----------

1-------------------------------0-0-0-0-0

--1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-91011121314151617181920

A graph showing the power level at each level of a pure tower rook

-----------------------------------------

5-----------------------------0-0-0-0-0-0

4-------------------0-0-0----------------

3---------0-0-0-0---------0-0------------

2---0---0---------0----------------------

1-0---0----------------------------------

--1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-91011121314151617181920

A graph showing the power level at each level of a pure hammer slam rook

-----------------------------------------

5---------------------------------0-0-0-0

4-0-------0---------0-0-0-0---0-0--------

3---0-0-0---0-0-0-----------0------------

2-----------------0----------------------

1----------------------------------------

--1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-91011121314151617181920

A graph showing the power level at each level of a hybrid build

Using these rough graphs you can see that a hybrid build is in your best interest for 100% of all games you will play. It has great power in the early game and comes into power just as good as a pure hammer slam rook for late game. You CANNOT go wrong with a hybrid build on rook. Your rolling the 50/50 dice going pure towers, and your REALLY rolling the dice going pure hammer slam/roll build from level 1. I'm not saying that any build is not viable (unless you only take structural transfer) but I am saying pure builds are bad from a statistical perspective.

those graphs look pretty accurate.
nice job.

double post

As rook, you really dont have the option to run away, unless you barely see them and start waddling, I play hammer rook with BotF becuz iz awesomes.

Many many people play rook a little differently, I stack health because i dont see running away as a rook trait. stomping around with 5k+ health plus is nice, being able to slam towers and move or walk all over people because you have way more health and crazy hammerslam burst.

Whats also nice about hammerslam is you really dont need mageslayer or anything, boots of speed, vlemish, hauberk of life unbreakables, and some other not so spendy items and your rockin lots of hp and decent mana, which the rest can be used for the citadel and other stuff, like keeping potions and tele's stocked

lately ive been working with wand of speed and i actually like it alot more then i thought i would, mostly i use it to speed up for teh r00k r0llz or those 3v1 situations that i cant bash my way out of

Yes yes hybrid Rook. Seems nice, isn't that nice.

The problem indeed is that towers SUCK. They are very nice against noobs or average players and yes I played with them myself to great succes, BUT. Minions will screw you over, big time. And experience players will have this before your hammer rank is high enough to make a dent in the big hp pools. For most games, towers or hybrid is fine and can be quite good, but on a few good players who know how to coordinate... they will wait for a creep wave to walk to your tower farm, then send their minions with them. Your towers overwhelmed by little angry mobs will try to shoot them all, but to no avail since the enemy demigods will now use their speed to kill snipe Rook. Towers do work in a group however, and a Rook plus a regulus can be very iritating.

In retrospect, try the towers first, like all Rook builds there hard, but after a few games you'll notice little things like using orb of defiance to give your towers an extra 5 secs to shoot, or scroll to escape those pesky ganks.

Then try a hybrid build, and see how this works out. If you manage you can try the epithome of Rook; the full hammer build=D. Good luck!

P.S. Double hammer Rook... I cry OP. srsly check it.

There are reasons pure tower rook never reach 5 on the graph. Towers are simply innefective against rooks natural counters. These being regulus and erubus. In either case, taking towers early on and then going hammer is still better than going strait for hammer strat. The towers will help you hold a lane better than HS will, and thats all that truly matters.

Keep flag caps for when you can't hold a lane and early game tower builds shortcommings will never be seen.