Rose

 is a hero in Art of Conquest. Rose grew up in an elven community where her mixed human blood was despised and her surpassing beauty was resented. In her despair, she sacrificed herself to the dark and was reborn as the ghastly Queen of Spiders.

One of two heroes that expend 3 energy when used in battle and are banned from being used in the Abyss. Considering this, you would think she is overpowered, which she kind of is.

Her main focus is overcrowding the field with Spiderlings which she not only comes with when she is deployed, but can also periodically summon. These are not overly strong on their own, but are easily expendable and numerable, providing cover for fragile troops as well as cover fire for melee troops. Even in death, Spiderlings can be an annoyance to the enemy as they can burst into venom, dealing damage over time to nearby units.

But Spiderlings aren’t the only trick up Rose’s sleeve, as she can attack from afar with her ranged attacks, which can be upgraded to deal additional poison damage and slow down enemies. She provides a nice buff to the already powerful Spider units of the Lich Race and even has her own spell to make use of her Mana exclusively which can turn the field in the favor of her spiders, quite literally!

Not everything is roses for the old Rose though, as much of her damage will be dampened by the Dwarf’s Mechanical Troops as well as the Lich’s Undead troops. She shines best against Humanoid troops.

Abilities
Note: The higher the level of your stronghold, the higher the level of the Spiderlings.

Note: Undead, Mech and Building-Type units are inmune to Poison Damage 

Rose Builds:

There are two ways to go about her build, the first concentrates on her ability to spawn Spiderlings while the other on her ability to buff Spiders. The last one being an option only to Lich, as the bonus to the overall power of the Spiders can be huge with their large base stats. Otherwise, Spiderling is the better specialty.

Spiderling Build: There are two main abilities you want to maximize as quickly as possible: Mother of Spiders and Speed Hatching, though you might want to use a point early on to get Venom Explosion at level 1 for massive damage with the sheer number of Spiderlings summoned. I’m not sure if Spiders Mastery applies to Spiderlings, if it does you would pick that next. If not, then Spiderweb would be your final choice before you start placing points into Toxic Touch.

Spider Build: First is maxing out Spiders Mastery, with a point into your choice of Toxic Touch (if you want Rose to attack herself) or Mother of Spiders/Speed Hatching if you want to use summons, though you might want an early Spiderweb to provide a buff to any Spiders that end up in melee range as well.

Due note that Command increases the overall power of the summoned units and the % buff of the passive abilities to specific unit types. As such, regardless of the Build you choose for Rose you’ll want to raise her Command as much as possible.