Why so much malice for Rooks?

I really like having the consume tower feature for the tower and it would be a shame to see it go. I think the rook stacks up pretty well right now, but the towers might have to be weakened a little offensively.  If you get four towers in a little area its almost impossible to not get killed. Maybe dropping his armor but letting him gain more max hp could be an interesting trade off?

I'm sure they want all the demigods to be roughly equally attractive. Right now, before the balance beta has begun, Rook murders.

Rooks can bacicly kill weaker Dg's with 2 spells thats why. boulder roll and hammer slam kill all weaker demigods and if u up Rooks spped he can easily chace u down because he goes the same speed as other Dg's.

Rook is either right where he needs to be and all other demigods need to be brought to his level, or he needs to be pulled down to other Demigod's levels.

I don't know if many would agree with this point, but the problem I have with Rook's boulder roll is that there is no real way to avoid it unless you are waiting watching and are ready at every single moment to click in pattern tangent to where the Rook is at any given time, and being as most demigods are Melee based, this means that the Rook effectively completely locks you down from doing anything until he throws that boulder and either misses or nails you and you die. You can't go in and make an attack because if you are too close it is impossible to dodge anymore and if you are too close, his base melee damage will be much higher than yours. So you're stuck at range, doing no damage, constantly waiting, watching, and trying to predict when and where he will throw his boulder and while you do this, he gets to cap every flag, make any foward movement he wants.

If there's a strategy around it, I'd love to hear it, but with a solid .2-.5 s lag between clicking and moving, the only reliable way to dodge the rock and avoid Rook's base attack of 400 is to play evasively, not attacking, until he finally swings. And a smart player will keep that boulder until he's all but sure to nail you, and by then he's taken every flag he wants.

I think the rook is cool, I just think he moves too fast.  I was always under the impression that he was supposed to trade speed for power, but he doesn't really trade speed.  He just gets extra power.

Even if they made him a bit slower, he would still be able to get boosts from all the speed items.  I'm not sure if this should be handled by making him MUCH slower (potentially irritating), or by reducing the effect of +speed items on him (to 50% effectiveness or something).  No matter what happens, he does need a speed nerf.

EDIT:  Then there's the boulder as Rasgriz reminded me (ninja!).  I think this needs a longer start up.  As it is, it is virtually impossible to dodge.  But then it would become almost useless...  Ugh, decisions, decisions...

Virtually impossible to dodge the boulder? It's virtually impossible to get hit by it!

As above, for the same reason people hate on Regulus - both have optimal builds which are difficult to counter, especially when used together.  I'm not sure what diversity you are seeing in Regulus right now - his bread and butter remain Mines and Snipe afaik

Sure, at maximum distance if you're already moving.  I suffer from a very low apm and can't consistently dodge it starting around half of its maximum range.  When I do, its usually because I got lucky.

How do you do it?  Massive amounts of speed boost items?  Short range insta-teleport items?  Spending the entire match never getting closer than maximum boulder range?  If you're a melee hero, how do you dodge a point blank boulder?  Serious questions.

I've made a post about this here

I spend the game moving, of course. Knowing rooks casts boulders that kill me, I get out of the way when they roll up. Unless I am actually in melee range, I rarely get hit by one.

Have u played with Wagnard. Trust me playing with waganrd as Rook is hard as hell. He teles in and boulder rolls before u ecen no hes their, than hammer slam finishes u.SO tell me how u stop that.

The guy in the other thread suggested not standing still next to a flag.

You play Regulus 90% of the time, right Soccer?  Against an endgame teleganker this might help:

i.  Mine the flag with as many tosses as possible before you get close enough to start the telltale flag swirly magic.  Three full casts gets you 3600 damage and slow effect.  Telegankers aren't thinking defensively, if they are well-synched they might all port onto your mines at once, which is fun

ii.  Once you have all your mines in place start running around the flag but make sure you are far enough away from it that you never enter it's LoS

iii.  Be ready to snipe as soon as you have a target, adding another 1k dmg even while stunned (haven't tested this in most recent build, snipe might not proc while stunned anymore).  Alternatively have warp ready so that all you have to do when a port occurs is click once somewhere unpredictable...

iv.  Bring backup - Oak's Shield, Sedna's Heal, or QoT's Bramble are all nice

If you can twist the trap enough times you'll get easy kills instead of giving them but more importantly keep your opponents guessing and off-balance.

Yes i have, actually it's one of the only only games i played and with me having 300ms Ping in the game, i managed to dodge nearly every Boulder from wagnard where my partner was just playing stupid and giving them free kills every time. It was like my only ever game against other players and i didn't find it hard at all to miss his boulder.

I agree it's a powerful move but you don't need to call nerf of things because you personally don't have the ability to play well against it. Work on your reaction time and reading the enemy player's movement patterns, yes it is harder to do then to say OMG NERF BOULDER ROLL.

i think all the demigods should be equally playable.  im fine with a paper rock scisors situation. but having one or two demigods take more skill to counter than the others seems kind lame to me. sure its a skill game  but lets not make it an 'only the leet need apply' game.

on a side note how about a game mode where a buffed up rook IS the citadell   fun ensues .

Ke5trel tried that my mines didnt do nearly enough damage to him and I could only place them at one flag at a time. some pathways are very narrow and boulder has like a 90% of hitting because it fills the eniter path way. Not everyone can react in less than a sec in which it takes for Rook to boulder roll when he just tele's on top of u. i could dodge boulder roll but in new vers even if your like a foot away from rock u get stunned. I'm just saying no other demigod can kill that quickly. I mean even with all mines and a snipe and several hit he won't die. He can tele out before I kill him too. I just can't do like twice my health that quickly. I have played Rook against several people some could doeg it and got some kills on me, but He ran from me every time I came running at me making him fall back alot. because with short cooldown's on boulder roll all i need was 1 good shot like when hes trying to lay down mines or snipe. Also usually its 2v2 and my ally goes to other side and since its not prison I'm messed.