So, who is the melee master?

And what matters most - attack rate or weapon damage?

I crunched some numbers and came to the conclusion, that IT DEPENDS. But see for yourself.

I'm using this table as base for calculations:

(Correction: Rook's starting armor is 240 - not 440 like stated in the above table.)

This results in the following data sheets:

First conclusion, UB starts better but Rook catches up by level 8 and clearly surpasses UB.

But since there is such a thing as skills the first conclusion won't be the same as the final one.

I'll concentrate on the passive ones for starters.

Let's take a look at Rook first.

He gets a massive weapon damage boost through God hand (+150 max) and surprisingly an enormous dps-boost through his shoulder mounts.

Yep, thats correct. Just two levels of shoulder mounted weapons increase Rook's dps by 218. Keep in mind that the archers spread their damage around though. But in a clean duel vs only one target all archers shoot on that single target. Trebs don't add that much, but they have an astounding range.

Total additional damage:

• 150 weapon damage
• 268,5 dps

Now let's check out Unclean Beast

UB has Ooze which increases his dps by 140. It also lowers enemy attack rate by 40% (assuming max ooze). Sadly it also increases the enemy dps by 50.

Inner Beast increases movement speed and attack rate by 10% at max level.

There's also bestial wrath, which increases weapon damage by up to 65% for 10 seconds. It's an active skill, though, but it fits well into an Ooze UB melee build and 10 seconds is plenty.

Total additional damage:

• 140 dps
• 10% attack rate
• 65% weapon damage when using bestial wrath

Extra effecs:

• -40% enemy attack rate
• +40 dps for enemies

So, let's put it all together:

First without Bestial Wrath

and with Bestial Wrath

If you look at the DPS chart (the only one that really matters) then you can see how thoroughly UB outperforms the mighty Rook in melee. Admittedly the comparison is a bit misleading because Bestial Wrath is an active skill and it's only working for a limited time, so we should calculate some active skill damage from Rook into the equation, too.

For example a medium level 4 tower farm constisting of 4 towers, each shooting for 190 damage every 2 seconds, averaging at 380 dps for rook. That would put rook clearly in the lead again (so much for "towers suck at late game"). Towers have the same problem as archers, though, meaning that attacking in a wave of creeps diverts most of the damage from the prime target to the cannonfodder.

Anyway, this little side-calculation shows why Rook shouldn't stray too far from his tower farm, especially if UB is around.

But UB has a skill that can tip the balance to UBs side again: Acclimation

A quick look at the weapon damage chart shows that a level 17 Rook with God Strength III triggers Acclimation every time ... and thus nearly halving ALL DAMAGE dealt to UB. And it's been known to happen that some rooks buy items to enhance weapon damage, "aiding" UB even as soon as level 15.

The following chart only calculates passive skills and factors acclimation in.

Which seems to leave us apparently with a strange recommendation: Don't increase weapon damage beyond 500 when fighting endgame UB.

One last chart with just passive skills shows that Rook leads the dps race even with God Strength II, albeit by a smaller margin.

However this does not account for armor. Since UB is also the most heavily armored DG and most sensible builds focus on defense & health items, it's unlikely that you'll ever repeatedly hit with more than 500 damage per attack ... unless you stack critical hit items. I think this is the only instance where buying Ashkandor is not the best decision you can make. And Hammer Slam should only be used as finisher, not a starter.

Speaking of armor: Note that we have two damage types - mitigated and non-mitigated damage. The first one is affected by armor, the second (that's usually skill damage) completely ignores it. Spit, for example, deals non-mitigated damage while bestial wrath simply enhances your weapon damage. And that's mitigated damage. That means that you always have to factor in a certain amount of enemy armor when calculating the final dps.

And in conclusion?

Weeeeell .... if you play Rook like UB then you'll lose, even if the stats say differently. UB is simply too fast for Rook to be hunted down. And bestial wrath adds enough damage to outlast rook without his tower farm.

When inside his tower farm, a wrathed UB still has the upper hand if he follows the creeps in. But attacking Rook solo inside his farm is most likely suicide.

Or short: It depends.