Rot Beard

Rot Beard

Rot Beard was on the shitlist of many back when he came out, and only a few acknowledged his real powers. He was just pure damage with a stunning move, along with a skill granting him energy and a five hit life shield, which only procs when Rot Beard kills a foe. The shield was unreliable as Rot Beard's kills may be stolen by an ally. However, his skills were only realized as worthy and useful right around this time; before his legendary skill update. Welcome to the new meta, true water pirate.

Skills: 

Rot Beard's special is a heavy shot of water fired at the enemy hero with the lowest health, splashing onto nearby enemies around it. It does massive true water damage. His green skill works well with this, in which the skill grants five shield charges, shielding Rot Beard against five attacks or five debuffs, but it only procs whenever he kills a foe. Shooting his special at the weakest enemy hero makes a very likely chance for a kill, activating his green. His shields are very annoying, as killing an ally makes it harder to kill him, and the fact he has five shield charges just makes him almost unsinkable. However, with a hero with good attack speed, such as Bardbarian, Dwarven Archer, or Trio, his shield will just melt like butter. I'm not sure whether Cosmic's legendary can destroy all of shields at once, but if so, that would be useful. As for Rot Beard's blue skill, he throws an anchor at the foe with the highest health, dealing magic bashing damage and stunning them for several seconds. This is very useful as he'll target Draculs (With practically the most health in the game with his purple skill), Dark Horses, all of the tankiest heroes. Rot Beard's purple skill turns him into an all around True Damager (except for his blue). His basic attacks become very powerful, dealing heavy true piercing damage to all foes in front of him. This is almost like his special, except it does less damage and splashes at the foes in front, not the weakest. Put this with some bolt runes and he'll be splashing for days. For the grand finale, Rot Beard's legendary skill, "Gun Salute". This skill causes Rot Beard's pirate ship to fire a bullet at Rot's last target, dealing unspecified but possibly true water damage. On Rot Beard's death, his ship fires a bullet at each of the remaining foes as a salute. This legendary skill is useful for killing off foes that survive his basics and specials, granting him his five shield charges. The after death gun salute is a nice add on, making it easier for the remaining allies to kill off the foes. I feel as if this skill isn't that useful, unless his legendary does massive amounts of damage, comparable to his special. 

Rune Sets: 

Bolt, Flame, and River are recommended for his four setter runes. Tree, Mist, Rock, and Hail are recommended for his two setters. I run Bolt Tree on my Rot Beard, allowing him to spam his basics more frequently and kill enemies faster. River would be useful for spamming Specials. Flame is good for increasing is overly massive basic attack damage. His true damage can miss sometimes, so Hail is useful (up until O5 and O6).

Rune Bonuses:

Basic Attack Growth, Water Damage, Piercing Damage, Accuracy, Attack Speed, Expertise, Fury, Conservation, Max Health, Armor, and Magic Resistance Growth, Starting Energy, Longer Disables, Cooldown Reduction.

Unnecessary, but do have a positive effect bonuses: 

Movement Speed, Bashing Damage, Tenacity, Skill Power Growth

Ending Note:

Rot Beard's your top true damager who can dish out massive damage and shield himself. With his new legendary, he'll be even more of a threat and a threat for killing. Killing him is a priority, but killing him practically kills your team too.

Edit: Rot's legend deals true piercing damage.