It's always the same, the game starts and I have to choose my favor item. I open the menu and I'm thinking: 'Blade of the Serpent' or 'Teleport Amulet'. Surprise the other team, get lots of mana for free and save one item slot.

When my eyes lock on the Assassins Favor tab and my mouse begins to move it calls to me. It's not a shout, more like a whisper: 'Take me, I know you want it too!' I hesitate. There it is, my Blood of the Fallen. We have a long and beautiful history together. It's like your first big love, you will never forget her.

It looks at me, begging for my attention. 'But we already have spent so many beautiful hours together, please let me try something else - just this once!' I say. It looks at me, with it's big, sad puppy eyes. 'Don't you love me anymore? What have I done to you?' I swallow.

What am I going to do? I promised the Blade I would give it my undiveded attention today! Ah, the Blade, such temprament and fury at the same time. It's new, not the save choice but exciting, exotic and seductive! Watching your bar rise when it replenishes your mana. I want to use it, I need it!

My mouse is still hovering over the Assassins tab, I haven't clicked it yet. 'Please, only one more time! How often have I saved you and I didn't ask for anything in return until now!' the Blood sais. I know it is the save choice and we make a great team.

'But Blood, I need the flow of mana! Please understand!' It lowers it's eyes, ' I know but I will keep you save in times of great need. I'm always there for you. You don't have to ask me to do anything, I will provide - always...' My eyes begin to water, 'I know and I will never forget what you did for me!'

How can you refuse the Call of the Blood? I have tried and I have failed several times - miserably. What do you think? What is your faviorite you can't refuse?

I think my team has regularly skipped blood of the fallen, except UB. There's just better items out there that provide unique properties not available or on expensive items. All blood of the fallen provides is hp and regen, which while particularly favorable early - loses usefulness through the game.

lol nice post.

It depends if I'm going to be an in their face sort of build or a ranged/utility build.

Blood's regen and extra life is great early-mid game. Late game it doesn't matter nearly as much. So I take that into consideration with what kind of term build I'm using as well.

The whole point is that there's massive slippery slope in Demigod, so winning at the beginning typically means winning at the end.

This hardly requires botf. Many other favor items are better choices usually.

What's your list of useable alternatives to BotF, if I may ask?

Swift Anklet, BotS, Poisoned Dagger, Staff of Renewal, Heaven's Wrath, Horn of Battle, Ring of Divine Might, Blood Soaked Wand, Cloak of Night.

Swift Anklet, BotS, Poisoned Dagger, Staff of Renewal, Heaven's Wrath, Horn of Battle, Ring of Divine Might, Blood Soaked Wand, Cloak of Night.

I usually play an ooze/spit hybrid and the choice is either to get BotF to help me early with ooze or BotS to keep my mana up during the game without helmets or potions. Blade is usually the better choice but the 800 HP and even the small regen help a lot early.

Alternatives to BotF
Assassins:
- Blade of the Serpent (free mana YAY!)
- Amulet of Teleport (large maps, sneak attacks, map control)
- Heavens Wrath (Reguli love it)
- Staff of Renewal (how could I forget it!!!)
- Poisoned Dagger (stay with me, why don't you?)
- Swift Anklet (nice on Prison)

Generals:
- Horn of Battle (always nasty)
- Cloak of Night (Sedna!)
- Ring of Devine Might (if you feel Horn is OPed )
- Tome of Endurance (if you feel squishy but want to buff your minions)
- Wings of the Seraphim (never tried that one but it sounds useful)

Blood Soaked Wand's cast time is a little on the high side for my taste.

The Dark Crimson Vial isn't nearly as bad as it seems either. It's like having infinite large pots.

Wings of the Seraphim works real nicely with Oak and really anyone.

But for Ooze UB, BotF tends to work best just because you need all the extra HP and regen you can get normally.

Just tested the Wings of the Seraphim, not that great really. It doesn't scale, it's almost unusable late game because you are constantly hit by something and the 2000 HP take too long to regenerate.

Crimson Vial is probably a much better choice and a little archer wont interrupt it either...

Well with Oak you can use it while shielded for some free healing. With everyone else it'll nearly fill them up by mid game. Late game you just have to get out of the fight for a few seconds to heal up. Its not that hard to take a step back and stop getting hit. It just requires some extra attention.

I've been Rook with Wings vs another tower Rook with BotF. I couldn't out fight him in a single direct match, but I'd out last him every time. I ended up getting a few kills even on him.

I play rook so am a sucker for the swift anklet. Good to have the big fella on the move at a decent speed.

Beginners mistake: dont play on your weakness(speed), play on your strenthg: hp.

QFT! If I have to chose between more HP and more speed Ill only prefer speed if we are already doing well. Then it is useful to get the kill. Otherwise I want more HP so I can push and stand my ground.

Don't be so quick to discount swift anklet on Rook.

Hmm, I can see the value for a hammer slam Rook. However I think I'd still prefer BotF or teleport and buy the Wand of Speed early.

But please do tell Shadow, what do you have in mind?

In my experience, a Rook can have 2 of the 3 following:

Speed
Health
Mana

I haven't had too much luck with Speed. A level 10 rook *needs* 2 mana helms. That leaves me with 3 items slots and a favor item. If swift anklet is chosen, then I have only 3 items for HP gear. It's not enough to give me the survivability I need. I always pick mana and health above speed. That's just me, though. Plus, anyone can be faster than you if they want to be. The Rook starts off so slow that it isn't too hard to be faster than him.

If you are willing to fiddle around with items a little you might bring that down to one helmet and a trinket: Vlemish and Magnus Rod. That leaves you with 4 main slots + favor item.

I don't always need two helms. If you don't waste your skills, you can get by just with Vlemish.

yeah, ive read that on the official forums but its a personal preference thing. i love playing rook but i hate how slow he is, and i like having the choice to run away from a confrontation, especially since he can auto-attack units chasing him.

the anklet also means you spend less time in transit, which i think is valuable (even if you might try and stay in one place as rook).