Here are some of the best RAID: Shadow Legends team formations for you! We will divide this article into different parts and each part is for each specific activity in the game.
Please do note that this is a basic guide that helps new and free-to-play players have a great mindset about choosing the synergy that suitable different goals in the game.
Best Team Compositions in RAID: Shadow Legends
Guide by wsoul13
If you are new to the game and are wondering what are the best RAID: Shadow Legends teams you can build for free, this guide is for you.
It will give you a rough idea regarding the top priority Champions you must get to 6-star first and their roles when building up your very first teams. The aim of this guide is to help you maximize the progression with the lowest time and effort.
How to use this guide to build up your RAID Teams
In general, you want to 6-star your Champions following the below priority list.
- Starter Commander (Campaign Farmer)
- Warmaiden (AoE Decrease Defense)
- Carry
- Poisoner
- High Khatun / Apothecary (Speed Buff / Turn Meter Boost)
- Decrease Turn Meter
The first 5 Champions are for Dungeon and Clan Boss teams. Poisoner and is for Dungeon and Clan Boss, while Decrease Turn Meter is for Fire Knight and Spider Dungeon.
The goal is to take you to Dragon Stage 20 as soon as possible, Stage 13-16 in the other Dungeons, Silver Rank in Arena, and Nightmare Clan Boss (Top Chest) after 100 days.
All of the champion ratings in this article are mainly for new players and free-to-play players. We also don’t mention Legendary Champions here in this guide as they are very hard to obtain in general. If you are lucky enough to get one, then just use it.
For a quick look at the other rankings, please check out our RAID: Shadow Legends Tier List for Champions.
Once you have obtained the Champions for the mentioned roles below, pretty much all modes of the game are now easier for you and your next goal is to max out the best Champions for each specific game-mode.
Uncommon Champions to Keep & Upgrade Skills
Lock these Champions and use the duplicated copies to increase their skills
- Armiger – Excellent with Decrease Turn Meter Debuff and deals damage based on Enemy Max HP.
- Zephyr Sniper – Excellent for tanking at Spiders 20
- Outlaw Monk (Optional) – Great Poisoner during the Early Game, easy to replace.
- Shield Guard (Optional) – Great Poisoner during the Early Game, easy to replace.
Ranking Summary
- Tier SS: Simply the best for their role in RAID: Shadow Legends. They are game-changing Champions that help you!
- Tier S: Best Champions for the effort. There are only a few Champions that are better than them for the jobs. If you have them, just use them for their role. It’s totally worth it to max them out.
- Tier A: Although there are better options, they are still great for their roles. These should be in your starting team.
- Tier B: They can do their job effectively but are expensive to book. Just use them if you don’t have any better choice.
- Tier C: They can do the job decently but they are costly and ineffective.
Starter Champions (Campaign Farmer / AoE)
All Starters are actually good and they should be in your main teams until the mid-stage of the game. There are better Campaign Farmers, but Starter Champions are the easiest ones to upgrade and you only need one of them for the early-mid game.
They are also your nukers in the Arena for now.
- Kael (Tier SS) – There isn’t anyone better than Kael. He is excellent for Clan Boss and Dragons.
- Athel (Tier A) – She has the 100% chance to weaken the Clan Boss, which is actually a great debuff. She is also better in Fire Knight than anyone else due to the multi-hit skill.
- Elhain & Galek (Tier B): They are great, but not the best choices!
AoE Decrease Defense
Warmaiden should be your first [AoE Decrease Defense] Champion and obtaining her from the Campaign Chapter 9 is not hard at all. Your goal is to get the duplicated copies of her to max our her skills until you find a better replacement.
She has a 100% chance to decrease the enemies DEF by 50% in AoE for 2 turns, and it has only 3 turns of cooldown. This helps weaken the enemies and bosses by a lot so that you can get through them efficiently.
Tayrel (Tier SS)
He has the 100% chance to cast AoE Decrease Defense Debuff (-60%) for 2 Turns while giving the extra Sleep Debuff for 1 turn if the enemy is having a Decrease Attack Debuff. The cooldown of this skill is 4 turns. You should use him in all game contents if you are lucky enough to get him. He also has Decrease Turn Meter and Decrease Attack Debuffs, which are also super good.
Madame Serris (Tier SS)
She casts the AoE Decrease Defense and AoE Decrease Attack at the same time, while also removing all buffs and giving no chance to get weak hits. She is excellent for Arena battles. Her skills are all excellent and they has a perfect synergy.
- A1 has a 20% chance to place the Fear debuff on the enemy with 0 Debuff. It’s increased to 30% probability if the target has 1 Debuff, and up to 45% if the target has 2 Debuffs. However, her A3 has 100% chance to cast 2 Debuffs on the enemies.
- A2: AoE Attack skill which offers [Block Debuff] buff for all allies. It also has a chance to steal 1 Random Buff from each enemy and place a True Fear debuff on each enemy getting buff stolen.
Only these 3 skills make her a super good Champion in RAID: Shadow Legends. Not to mention that her Passive gives 10% Max HP Shield each turn while offering a 35% chance to cast the [Fear] debuff on the attacker.
Stag Knight (Tier S)
He has a 95% Chance to cast the AoE Decrease Defense (-60%) and Decrease Attack (-50%) for 2 turns. If you have the Mastery Sniper, the chance increases up to 100% when casting those Debuffs. His 2-hit A1 has Decrease Speed Debuff (-30%) for 2 turns as well, making him an excellent Champion for Fire Knight. His AoE Skills are amazing for Spiders too.
Zargala (Tier S)
A3 has a 75% chance cast AoE Decrease Defense (-60%) for 2 turns (It has a cooldown of 4 turns.). If her A2 kills the enemy, you can use the A3 immediately again. The A1 has a 50% chance to cast Weaken Debuff 25%. She is great for Speed Runs later when you only care about the speed of the battles.
Warmaiden (Tier S)
She should at Tier S for all free players simply because she is insanely good for the job with her 100% Chanace AoE Decrease Defense for 2 Turns, and she is farmable. All players can get her and max her out.
If you don’t have any of the above Champions, she should be the best choice. Farm her so that you can max out her A3 skill.
She should be all of your teams during the early game, from Clan Boss to Arena or Dungeon team.
Bellower (Tier S)
He has 100% chance to cast AoE Decrease DEF (-30%) and Decrease Attack (-30%) Debuff for 2 Turns, with 4 turns of cooldown. He has a lot of great utilities and can be a 7-second campaign famer later in the game. You can easily replace him with Warmaiden if you want. The Stun Set allows him to control waves easier in the Dungeons.
Spider (Tier A)
If you invest books on him, he offers the 100% Decrease DEF with no weak hits and a 60% chance to place the AoE Weaken Debuff. He also has decent AoE Decrease ATK & 25% Speed Aura for Dungeon.
Valla (Tier B)
She has 50% chance to cast AoE Decrease DEF (-60%) which last for 2 turns with a 3 turns of cooldown. She is a tanker howerer, and have a lower chance to cast the debuff comparing to Warmaiden.
Fleshmonger (Tier B)
He has a 75% chance to cast the 60% AoE Decrease DEF which lasts for 2 turns with 4 turns of cooldown. He is okay if you don’t have Warmaiden available.
Speed Buff / Turn Meter Boost
Apothecary/High Khatun
This role is super important in any team.
You can use Apothecary, which is a rare Champion, or you can use the High Khatun on the 30th day from the Daily Progression Rewards. Both of them are excellent for this role. You don’t even have to use any other Champion, unless you accidentally sacrifice them.
Apothecary (Tier S)
He is definitely the best rare in RAID: Shadow Legends. He should be in all of your teams during the early-mid stage of the game.
His Speed Buff and Turn Meter Boost allow you to have a chance to work on the other stats like HP%/DEF%/Crit%/ATK%, while still having enough Speed to take the turns.
His A1 has 3 hits, which is excellent for Giant Slayer mastery and great for Fire Knight.
He also has the best healing effect in the game. His DEF Aura is excellent too for some players.
High Khatun (Tier S)
She is pretty similar to Apothecary with the exception of not having Healing and multi-hit A1. She has an amazing Speed Aura (+19%), A1 Speed Debuff, and AoE Decrease Turn Meter Debuff (-15% Reduction, 75% Chance) with a cooldown of 4 turns. You really annot go wrong with her!
She is an Epic Champion, so maxing out her skills is a bit harder, but it’s totally worth it if you are not lucky enough to get Apothecary before High Khatun.
She really shines in Arena as Speed means almost everything here.
Diablolist (Tier A)
She is very easy to farm at stage 12 so everyone should be able to max her skills at some point in the game, making she a great Champion to have. She is amazing for Faction Wars in the early game. However, High Khatun is totally free and totally worths upgrading to 6⭐, making Diablolist a low lower on the list.
She can be your Speed Booster during the first 30 days in the Arena.
Golden Reaper (Tier A)
She is a Epic Void Champion, and is very similar to High Khatun with the exception of Speed Aura. However, she offers the AoE Decrease ATK, which could help you a lot when progressing in the early game.
Haruspex (Tier B)
He is a very interesting Rare Void Champion that has Speed Buff and Turn Meter Boost in the same move.
He offers Revive buff, which is very useful in the Faction Wars for getting 3⭐ wins.
His A1 Poison is not bad for Clan Boss as well.
Decrease Attack
Decrease Attack 2 (-50%) is super important against Clan Boss Brutal+.
The first Champion you want to check when deciding to to 6⭐ next should be a Tier S/A Decrease Attack Champ. If you only have Tier B/C Champion for this role, then just skip it for now and work on the next roles first.
The Decrease Attack needs to be on the A1 to defeat Nightmare Clan Boss and higher.
Tayrel (Tier SS)
Mentioned above already. He is amazing with the 50% chance to Decrease Attack (-50) on his A1.
Madame Serris (Tier SS)
Her A3 offers both 50% Decrease ATK & 60% Decrease DEF for 3 turns, and removes all of the enemy buffs. Which is crazy enough.
Maneater (Tier SS)
He has the 100% Chance to cast the Decrease ATK Debuff on his A1 if it’s a critical hit. While being excellent already, he also offers the Full Turn Meter Depletion and the Unkillable buff for Clan Boss. Not to mention that he also has the Block Debuffs. He is literally an excellent Epic Champion.
Stag Knight (Tier S)
He is like a combination of 2 roles: Decrease DEF and Decrease ATK, and he can do both with just 1 move.
Sepulcher Sentinel (Tier S)
Her A1 has a 60% chance to Decrease ATK (-50%). She is insane in Clan Boss battles and should be able to give you a great result here.
She also has the 25% DEF Aura, Block Debuff, and 60% DEF Buff. Her passive also blocks damage one per turn.
She is an excellent Epic Commander who can carry you throughout the game. It’s totally worth it to fully book her.
Lightsworn (Tier S)
He has the 100% chance to cast Decrease Attack & Decrease Speed Debuff (-30%) with a cooldown of 3 turns. He also offers some great Decrease Turn Meter Debuff, Increase Defense, and Revive on Death Buff.
Jareg (Tier S)
He has a 60% chance to cast Decrease Attack Debuff with his A1. He also offers some excellent abilities like Team Ally Protect, Increase DEF, and Continous Heal Buff for teammates.
Grizzled Jarl (Tier S)
Offers 100% chance to cast AoE Decrease ATK (4-turn cooldown). He also has some great buffs like the Block Debuff, Increase DEF for all allies, synergying perfectly with AoE Decrease ATK, helping you a lot in Spider Dungeons. His A1 has Heal Reduction for Fire Knight.
The downside is that he requires quiet a bit of books, but it’s still totally worth it!
Rearguard Sergeant (Tier S)
Has a 75% chance to cast AoE Decrease DEF -50% for 2 turns (3-turn Cooldown). She is amazing for this job while also being a great carry for the team.
You can pair her up with Warmaiden for the Early Clan Boss levels, as she can continously use the A1 if the Boss doesn’t have the Decrease Defense available.
She is quiet expensive to book but still worth it!
Coffin Smasher (Tier S)
His 3-hit A1 has 30% chance to Decrease ATK by 50%. He is super good in Clan Boss and Fire Knight. He is also super good with HP Burn, making him one of the best effective rare Champions in the game. You can just book and use him without even thinking much.
Peydma (Tier S)
100% chance to cast Decrease Attack if it’s a critital hit. The other skills are not excellent for being the team carry however. Still, she always can be the secondary Tank/Nuker for your team if you give her enough Defense.
Spider (Tier A)
He has amazing AoE Decrease ATK Nuke, AoE Decrease DEF, and Weaken.
Nazana (Tier A)
She is a quite great Champion with a very effective AoE Decrease ATK (3-turn cooldown). However, she is more of a carry Champion. Can be useful in Brutal Clan Boss Team too.
Bogwalker (Tier A)
He is a rare Champion that has a 50% chance to Decrease ATK (-50%). He has some great utilities as well, such as Increase DEF (30%) and Reflect Damage. He is really good for the cost if you don’t have any better option.
Oathbound (Tier A)
He is excellent if you can get him early in the game, totally worth investing.
His A2 AoE Decrease ATK has 95% chance and 3-turn cooldown, but if you get the Sniper Mistery, it will be 100% chance.
His skills are about Wave Control in Dungeons. He is great for Early Boss Clans too.
Veteran (Tier B)
The A1 has 50% chance to cast the Decrease ATK (-50%), which is not bad at all. However, Veteran is not great for Clan Boss, so he is in the tier B.
Runic Warder (Tier C)
Multi-hit has 50% chance to Decrease ATK (-50%) with 3-turn cooldown. Although his Decrease Attack is not from his A1, he is still good enough if you don’t have any better choice. He is very good for Fire Knight tho with his Reflect Damage.
Carry / Crowd Control
Mausoleum Mage (Tier SS)
He is excellent throughout the game. Your run could be a bit slow, but you will be able to finish 100% of them when you have the right team. He combines the Block Debuffs and Increase DEF perfectly well, while also offering the Increase Crit Rate +30% at the same time. This allows you to focus more on Accuracy, Speed, HP, DEF, etc. instead of just damage. He also makes it a lot easier for Champions who need Crit Attacks to land the buffs/debuffs.
He also has the Team Heal based on his HP and the Remove All Debuffs.
His A1 has Decrease Speed, which is great for Fire Knights and Spiders as well.
Reliquary Tender (Tier S)
Reliquary Tender synergies super well with High Khatun even if you have Apothecary available! You can do a lot of interesting stuff with these 2 Champions in your lineup.
Apothecary gives her better SPD, Single Target Heal (while Reliquary gives Allies Continous Healing for 2 turns), and 3-hit A1.
However, with High Khatun, if you lose 3-hit A1 but you get Decrease ATK, Remove All Debuffs, Revive Ally with 30% HP & 30% Turn Meter , 19% Speed Aura, 65% chance AoE Decrease Turn Meter -15%, and Decrease SPD (-30%) from High Khatun.
It’s a perfect synergy for the entire game.
Marked (Tier S)
She works great in Dungeons (with the exception of Fire Knight) and also works very well in your Arena Team.
She also has 2 best Buffs for Clan Boss, which are Increase DEF (60%) and Block Debuffs. Her A1 has an 80% chance to Decrease DEF (-30%), working well with her A2, which is Decrease DEF -25%.
Gnarlhorn (Tier S)
100% chance to place AoE Provoke, being followed by Unkillable buff in the next turn. So if you have him fast enough to go 2 turns at one and have enough healing, he can take all of the Waves.
He is excellent for Dragons being just a Rare Champion. The gears from Dragon Dungeons will help you throughout all of the content in the game.
He is great for Spiders too.
Bellower (Void Tier S)
Bellower is a great carry champion who can be your 7-second Campaign farmer, and help you defeat Dragon 20 a lot easier.
He can do wave controlling super well. Stun set is best for him, but Lifesteal or Daze are great too!
Umbral Enchantress (Tier S)
She is amazing with AoE Provoke which also offers some great damage. The Lock Cooldown Debuff helps you clear waves much faster. The AoE Blocks Buff with great damage will get casted first, getting followed by the AoE Provoke.
Her A1 also hits very hard.
She is very good even with 0 books, having an 80% chance to cast those Debuffs.
Vergis (Tier S)
He is amazing for almost all aspects of the game. If you have in early in the game, just upgrade his skills right away and it’s totally worth it. He has the Team Ally Protect, Increase SPD, Reflect Damage, and Continous Heal. The Passive offers Shield and Healing, helping him last through waves easier. The aura gives +33% Defense in Dungeons is massive as well.
Gorgorab (Tier S)
Gorgorab is a great Speed Lead for Arena. He is also excellent for Dungeons with his Heal and Team Revive.
Sandlashed Survivor (Tier S)
Sandlashed Survivor is an amazing carry for Clan Boss as well as Dungeons. Upgrade her skills and you are good to go!
Nazana (Tier A)
Nazana is great with the AoE Decrease ATK, HP-based Shield, and the Ally Protect ability. Her A1 skill is AoE, which is amazing too.
Seducer (Tier A)
He is a solid all-round Champion from Void, so you will get neutral hits from the others. It’s very easy to book him as well, giving a 100% chance to cast AoE Decrease ATK. His A3 offers Incrase DEF and Block Debuffs for 2 turns (4-turn cooldown).
Pain Keeper (Tier A)
Great carry with Decrease Cooldown for Allies, which is excellent for almost all top tier Champions in the game. Her 2-hit A1 is amazing against Fire Knight. The Decrease Cooldown is such a game-changing ability for Fire Knight.
Oathbound (Tier A)
He is great in general. The AoE Decrease Attack offers a great value fow waves.
Rock Breaker (Tier A)
He has the 100% chance to cast AoE Provoke (3-turn cooldown) and a great Counterattack ability.
His A1 stacks DEF 4% each time, up to 20%, coming with the AoE Provoke makes him a great Defense Champion.
The Passive has 50% Chance to cast Decrease DMG by 50% for Each Attack he takes.
He is a great tanker!
Poisoners
- Frozen Bashee (Tier S): She is currently the best Poisoner in RAID: Shadow Legends. She is also a Rare hero, which is very easy to book.
- Occult Brawler (Tier S): Excellent Champ, but is Epic.
- Steelskull (Tier S): One of the best Poisoners in the game with some great carry abilities for Dungeons.
- Kael (Tier S): Starter Champion, viable till Endgame. Great for Clan Boss up to Nightmare.
- Aothar (Tier A): Great enough fỏ Nightmare CB.
- Juliana (Tier A) She is great for Speed Team, which is very popular for Clan Boss.
- Marksman (Tier A) He is okay for Nightmare Clan Boss. He gives a bit of Turn Meter Boost, making him great for Speed Teams. You don’t need to book him as well.
- Erinyes (Tier A): Pretty good champ as she has Poison and Extrend Debuffs, which are a great syngery for Clan Boss. She has a great base SPD. You want to book her to get the max potential.
- Gravechill Killer (Tier A): She is a great rare champ, so you can use and max her out if you don’t have any better choice. She synergies perfectly well with Frozen Banshee.
- Outlaw Monk (Tier B) Gret for early game but falls off later. You can sacrifice him later.
Decrease Turn Meter
Coldheart (Tier SS)
She is one of the best rares you can ever have in this game. Having 1 Coldheart is enough for you to get to the Endgame.
She is excellent for Dungeons, Ice Golem, Spider, and especially Fire Knight.
She is just amazing.
Tayrel (Tier SS)
He has almost everything you want to have on an Epic Champion. It’s crazy that he is not a Legendary Champion.
His Decrease Turn Meter is excellent for Spiders and Fire Knight.
Royal Guard (Tier SS)
He has an amazing Decrease Turn Meter while doing AoE Damage based on the enemy HP, excellent for waves and spiderlings. He starts shining in the late Stages of the Dungeons.
He offers amazing Speed Runs for you later.
Soulbond Bowyer (Tier S)
Coldheart is a bit better than Soulbound Bowyer. However, Soulbound is excellent enough for you to do Auto on all Dungeon 20 battles.
She is okay for Dragon, Ice Golem and is excellent for Spider and Fire Knight.
Max her out if you don’t have Coldheart.
Armiger (Tier S)
Excellent Uncommon Champion that offers Decrease Turn Meter on A1, and can potentially lock a Boss down forever. His 2nd skill can deal damage based on the enemy max HP. He is a must have Champ for all free-to-play players. Just keep 1 copy of him and max its skills out.
Alure (Tier S)
Alure is always an excellent Champion to have. Her 3-hit A1 has Decrease Turn Meter -25% for each Critial Hit.
She is amazing for Fire Knight. And if she is great enough to clear Spiderlings often, you can decrease the Spider Queen Turn Meter down by a lot.
As she is Attack Champion, if you protect her with enough HP, there will be not any issue at all.
Stitched Beast (Tier B)
He has 100% Decrease Turn Meter as a rare Champ, which is great. He also offers Weaken.
Acolyte (Tier C)
Not bad Decrease Turn Meter and offers Cleanse as well.
Team Building for Different Modes
Campaigns
For farming in the Campaigns, you want to have a farming Champion who has high AoE damage skills and low skill cooldown.
I always recommend investing all of your resources at the beginning to max out a farming Champions. This will boost your game progression by a lot!
A farming champion with decent gears can easily clear the Brutal 12-3 or 12-6 stage with ease within 20 seconds, or even lower, saving tons of time for you eventually.
Arena Battles
This is a bit challenging at first because you have to build up a team composition based on your limited Hero pool. Test all of your top Champions first, see how they work and who works best for you.
Next, start building your team based on some particular Champions. Here are some basic ways for you to approach the team building progress:
- Offense: Max out your offense abilities. You want to focus on Speed Meter buff, attack/defense buffs and max out the AoE skill damage, or high single target Damage Dealers. Take the advantage with your high Speed and take down the enemies before they start their turns.
Some great and easy to obtain Champions are Spirithost (Shield + Speed), Diabolist (x3 Speed), Starter Champion and an AoE Champion. - Defense: The defensive team relies on surviving the initial burst damage. This strategy usually works in the early game or the very end game. You want to put 1-2 Shield sets on your supports to help them survive the burst, especially for those who have Defense Up buff or defensive Champions. Executioner is your friend!
- CC Team: If you don’t have any great damage dealer but you have many great utility Champions, you want to build up a Crowd Control Team. You want a Speed Meter Buff, Freeze, Stuns, Provoke and Block Buff Effects in your team. However, ensure you have enough damage to take down the enemies.
Bosses
Dungeon Keeps: are very straightforward, simply brute force them If your team power is enough to do that. Otherwise, ensure you have a debuff in your team that can counter the boss’s strengths like canceling shields, healing reduction debuff, etc.
Dragon Dungeon: Debuff Removers are great against Dragon. You don’t need Speed here because the Dragon can reset the Turn Meter very often so that you cannot get many extra turns.
Ice Golem: You want to have Block Revive in your team. Also, try to avoid the full team counterattack buff because it can be very painful. Having Debuff removers is a plus point. Heavy single target Champions work best here.
Fire Knight: You want to use Multi-hit Champions to deal with him as it’s best way to break his shield. The Speed Debuff and Turn Meter Reduction are great here as well as they increase your DPS by a lot. Healers are not very useful here because his hits are not too hard, especially when he takes a lot of debuffs.
Spider: This is one of the most tactical battles in RAID: Shadow Legends. The easiest strategy you want to use is to go for AoE skills or super high single target Champions while using Speed Debuffs and Turn Meter Reduction. You want to have some decent Speeds as well because you want your AoE Champions cast their skills after the others. If you use counter-attack Champions, make sure their HP is the lowest ones so that the spiderlings will focus on them. Heal Reduction doesn’t work in this Dungeon. Also, avoid using Grant Extra Turn on Kill to avoid getting more Spiderlings.
Clan Boss: The easiest strategy is to use HP burn Champions and Poison Champions while having a decent Healers in the team before you have Giant Slayer Mastery. Multi-hit is great as well. This strategy works great up to the 3rd boss.
Last but not least, the power of your team is just a simple indicator amongst a lot of others. Do not take only it into account. Do not rely on it a lot. You want to check out the enemy skills, their synergies and your abilities against them.
Thank you your tips and has given me more insight into the games strategy:)
Glad that you’ve found it helpful buddy!