Rowan, the 25-gold frontline: verified 0.5.4 numbers and where he fits

Patch context. Numbers below are verified on Demo 0.5.4 (client build 24690909). The live game is at 0.5.7 — check in-game values before relying on any single number.

Who Rowan is. Rowan (罗恩) is a Vanguard · Tank from Gaia Project, priced at 25 gold, tagged Stall. On paper: 1000 Max Health, 54 Defense, 115 Mana (starts at 60, regenerates 4/s), 31 attack damage, 0.35 attack speed, 15% crit, melee range, 1.5 move speed. That is a lot of body for one of the cheapest heroes on the roster.

Fault Line (active). Grants a shield of 25% Max Health, then hits enemies in front for 50 + 25% Max Health + 200% Defense + 100% Magic damage and stuns them for 4 seconds. Peel, survivability, and front-loaded damage in one cast. (Patch 0.5.4 note: the shield on his The Tectonic specialization dropped 33% → 25% Max Health, and his Max Mana rose 110 → 115.)

Hearty (passive). Once his Stall state kicks in, Rowan regenerates 2 + 1% Max Health + Defense/15 HP per second — on his stats that works out to roughly 15.6 HP/s. The longer a fight runs, the harder he is to burn down.

Specializations — what the data says.

• The Tectonic: keeps Fault Line as the active. The 0.5.4 shield nerf (33% → 25%) applies here.
• The Protector: every auto attack grants 3% Max Health as shields, and converts (75 + 25% Rank)% of current shields into bonus damage, capped at 100% Max Health. Smooth scaling, no cast dependency.
• The Friend: each Stall trigger permanently adds 20 Max HP and 4 Defense. As a Backup pick, tanks and vanguards receive the full accumulated bonus at combat start.

• Enemies pick the closest hero first; class priority breaks distance ties, with Tanks ahead of Vanguards. A cheap, durable unit like Rowan is built to absorb that opening attention.
• Fights start with your heroes walking forward — place the frontline so the first step soaks cleaves and skill shots away from backliners.
• Split one attacker onto a secondary holder when it buys your main line time, and keep carries out of random-target and AoE range.
• Gaia Project teammates in the 0.5.4 data: Pollen, Pimenta, Sal.

Data source. Every number above is verified against the extracted 0.5.4 client (build 24690909) and published on the Guildrun Wiki hero page: https://guildrunwiki.com/heroes/hero-11/