However, Rose comes out as the slightly better unit than Shadow Rose if we’re talking about pure utility and effectiveness in battle. I’ve compared their skill sets and overall performance in three of the most important aspects of the game:
PVE (Adventure & General Farming) PVP (Arena & World Arena) Wyvern Hunts (Speed Set Farming)
Skill Sets
While they fill more or less the same roles as a support/tank hybrid, their kit does differ highly from each other. To elaborate, here’s a brief overview of each of their skills!
Rose’s Skills
Sequential Cutter – Deals damage to a single enemy. It has a chance to Provoke an enemy if Rose has more than 50% HP and a chance to increase her own Defense if she has less than 50% HP. Shield of Light – Gives any single allied unit (including herself) a Barrier that scales off of her Defense and a CR Push. Goddess of Victory – Increases her own Defense before increasing her entire team’s Combat Readiness and Attack. Soul Burn is available for this skill – it increases the duration of the Buffs given to the team by one turn.
Shadow Rose’s Skills
Sequential Cutter – Deals damage to a single enemy. If the enemy’s HP is higher than 50%, the skill has a chance to Decrease their Defence. Otherwise, it instead has a chance to inflict an Unhealable debuff. Spear of Darkness – Deals damage to a single enemy (POS 4). It strips one buff from the target and decreases their defense. Soul Burn is available for this skill – it shortens the cooldown by two turns. Goddess of Ruin – Deals damage to all enemies. It increases her team’s Combat Readiness before decreasing the enemy team’s CR. Shadow Rose also gains increased effectiveness upon using it.
They’re pretty much equal when it comes to their skills — with Rose edging out a small win in terms of overall viability if we consider the various team comps we can use both of these characters in. From this comparison, we can gather that Rose is more of a buff-oriented tank/support hybrid while Shadow Rose is more of a debuff-oriented tank/support hybrid. Both are fantastic overall, but Rose is a bit better in terms of team synergy and elevating DPS units.
PVE (Adventure & General Farming)
When it comes to farming mobs or clearing hard boss waves in most PVE stages, you cannot go wrong with using either of these two. For example, Rose can be used as a solid tank and CR Pusher alongside a cleave unit in stages with many Fire element mobs or bosses. On the other hand, Shadow Rose is more versatile as a Dark element character and can be used as a Defense Breaker and CR Pusher in almost any PVE stage. This makes her a slightly better choice in this regard.
PVP (Arena & World Arena)
In PVP battles, Rose and Shadow Rose are (again) almost dead even simply because they are both great at the specific roles they need to fulfill. Rose can be a spectacular addition for Cleave teams with her Skill 2 and Skill 3. Her Provoke also makes her a good frontline tank against matchups that can’t be defeated in one turn. Shadow Rose, like her Ice element counterpart, is also a great unit for PVP battles. If built correctly, she can be utilized as a speedy CR Pusher or a Defense Breaker for almost any team comp.
Wyvern Hunt (Speed Set Farming)
While we’ve had nothing but close comparisons so far, this aspect of the game is where Rose wins over Shadow Rose resoundingly. Aside from her being an Ice element unit, Rose is just the better unit to take for Wyvern Hunts simply because of her purely CR Push-oriented skills and tankier base stats. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Shadow Rose is downright horrible for Wyvern Hunts. She can still carry a team up to the highest stages as a support, though she can’t do it as great as Rose can.
