How to Win in Classic Arena in RAID: Shadow Legends – From Bronze to Gold

Classic Arena in RAID can be divided into two categories: Platinum League and all others. In this guide, I’ll show you how to build a good arena team for reaching the Gold V League as a beginner. As for the Platinum League, you shouldn’t dream about it in the first 1.5–2 years of playing in RAID. The Platinum League is limited to 500 slots, and only the best teams with the best gear can claim it. As you understand, there is no universal guide for how to reach the Platinum League, especially if you’re a free-to-play player. It is a long and very hard process.

But I have to calm you: there is no rational reason to strive for the Platinum League. The current rewards from the Platinum tier chests do not match the titanic effort required to obtain them. You can randomly get an avatar, a legendary tome, and a sacred shard. Do you really want to spend years or thousands of dollars to get these extra titbits? I will leave this question without an answer, but I’m sure we all know what the answer is.

What is the best team for Classic Arena?

The best team type for Classic Arena is a speed team. Because RAID: Shadow Legends is a turn-based game, someone has to make the first move, right? The speed parameter determines who goes first in a RAID. A champion with the highest speed will always go first in any battle (except battles against champions with special passive abilities like Hegemon). If you go first in RAID, you have an opportunity to finish off the enemy team before it has time to make a move. This is what the speed tactic is about: killing enemy champions before they make a move.

But if your champion has maximum speed, he can’t have maximum damage. The first reason for this is that the highest base speed and speed aura stats belong to support champions. And the second reason lies in artifacts: they can’t give you both maximum speed and enough damage for arenas at the same time.

So we must not only get the first move in a battle for our support, but also pass it to slower damage dealers who will kill the enemies. To do this, the support that got the first move must fill their turn meter by a certain percentage. Thus, even though the speed of the rest of your champions is lower, they will still be able to get turns earlier than the enemy because their turn meter is more filled.

How does the turn meter work in RAID?

The turn meter is based on “ticks,” some kind of very short period of time. Each tick, champions (or bosses in PVE) fill their turn meters based on their speed. The champion that has the higher speed in the battle will reach over 100% turn meter first, and that’s why it will get the first move. If a few champions fill their turn meters over 100% at the same time, the first turn will go to the champion with the highest percentage on the turn meter. Pay attention to the fact that the turn meter can be over 100%, even though you won’t see it in the game.

You can easily calculate the required speed to prevent enemy champions from wedging in.

1. Let’s say our fastest champion is Arbiter. It has 110 base speed, and 217 more come from other sources (artifacts, masteries, and so on). Arbiter also has a 30% speed aura for arena battles, and this aura is based on champions’ base speeds.
   
2. Then, the real speed of our Arbiter in arenas will be 110 * 1.3 (aura) + 217 = 360.
3. We know that Arbiter fills the turn meter of our team by 30%, so we can calculate the minimum speed for our next champion to prevent an enemy from getting a turn first. 360 / 1.3 (turn meter boost) = 277.
4. But it’s a real speed including aura, and we need to get clear speed without it. The calculation depends on a champion who must get the second turn. Let’s say it’s Seeker with a base speed of 103. Since we know that the speed aura is only based on a base speed parameter, we can calculate that the Seeker’s minimum clear speed will be 277 – 103 * 0.3 (boost from the aura) = ~247.
   
5. Thus, if Seeker has more than 247 speed, its turn meter after being filled by Arbiter will be higher than the turn meter of the enemy’s fastest support, so it will get the next turn.

In the same way, you can calculate the required speeds for the next champions (a defense breaker and a damage dealer).

But that’s just the basics you should follow. There are many different things in the game that may break this system. Let’s designate a few of them.

• Hegemon always gets the first turn in any battle due to its passive skill. If there are a few Hegemons at the same time, the right to make the first move will belong to the fastest among them.
  
• Valkyrie reduces the turn meter of enemy champions by 10% for each buff they receive and boosts its own turn meter by 10% for each buff an enemy champion places.
  
• Yoshi the Drunkard has a similar passive skill that fills its turn meter by 4% for each buff enemy champions receive.
  
• There is also a blessing called “Intimidating Presence” that strengthens the team’s aura and weakens the enemy team’s aura for a certain percentage.
  

Many things may destroy the classic speed tactics, so you should be ready for this. But don’t worry about all these things if you’re a beginner in RAID. Only near the Platinum League do the tactical features have a significant impact.

How to build a speed team for Classic Arena?

The classic speed team for arenas looks like the following.

• 1st turn meter booster (top-speed support like Arbiter). It fills the team’s turns meter, preventing enemy heroes from wedging in. 
• 2nd turn meter booster (middle-speed support like Seeker). It also fills the team’s turn meter, preventing enemy heroes from wedging in.
• Defense breaker (a champion that can place a 60% [Decrease DEF] debuff on enemies, like Warmaiden or Madame Serris). Champions under the [Decrease DEF] debuff take significantly more damage. That’s why this debuff is essential in arena battles.
• Damage Dealer (a champion that is able to kill the enemy team in one attack). Damage dealers have the lowest speed in a team and get their turn last to kill weakened enemies.

That’s how classic speed teams work. Let’s consider a few examples of speed teams in arenas for each stage of the game.

Arena team for absolute beginners

I’ve already shown this team as an example in the complete guide to RAID: Shadow Legends for beginners.

1. This team’s turn-meter booster is Diabolist. The champion can be obtained in the 13th chapter of the campaign (the chance to get a rare champion in a campaign battle is about 1-2%). It’s required for beginners because it has the same speed as Arbiter: 110 points (after reaching the 6th ascension). Diabolist must be equipped with maximum speed. Other parameters don’t make sense, except accuracy.
   
2. We also need a speed aura for extra speed points for our team, so the second slot goes to Spirithost. This champion can be obtained in the campaign as well. Moreover, it gives a 50% [Increase ATK] buff for the team, so it will be useful not only in arenas but also in artifact dungeons. This champion should get the turn 2nd.
   
3. The third slot is for Warmaiden, because it’s our defense breaker. This champion can be obtained, as well as the previous one, in the campaign. The most important parameter for Warmaiden is accuracy, as it is needed to place a 60% [Decrease DEF] debuff on enemies. Warmaiden will take the third turn. 
   
4. Finally, the last slot is Kael (or another starting champion), who is the main damage dealer. It requires high attack, critical rate, and critical damage parameters to kill enemies.
   

With such a team, you will easily reach the Silver League.

But you should know that the game will choose your opponents based on the total power of your account. Beginning with Gold 1, the algorithm changes to random (or something like random, since no one knows what exactly the rules are).

So if you want to easily farm Classic Arena medals, you should not level up useless champions and supply them with gear. They will increase the total power of your account, and the game will start to choose stronger teams against you.

Classic Arena team for midgame

After 30 days of logging in, you will get High Khatun for free. It isn’t the best turn meter booster by base speed (104), but it has a 19% speed aura at the same time. The champion can be potentially used in your speed team instead of Diabolist or Spirithost if you don’t want to level these rare champions to 6 stars. Actually, I think it doesn’t matter what color a certain champion has. The main question lies in whether it performs its task or not, and that is that.

At some point, you will notice that it’s not enough to have only one turn meter booster (Diabolist or Khatun). In this case, you can use both Diabolist and Khatun to fill the turn meter of your team, but you won’t have an [Increase ATK] buff because a [Decrease DEF] debuff from Warmaiden is much more important.

The solution is Dark Elhain. You will receive this champion for free after 120 days of logging in. It has a pretty weak AOE attack, but it places a 50% [Increase ATK] on itself before this attack. That’s why you’re recommended to use it until you get some good support with a 50% [Increase ATK] buff and a turn meter boost ability at the same time, like Seeker or Arbiter.

So your team will look like the following:

• High Khatun (aura, turn meter boost),
• Diabolist (aura, turn meter boost),
• Warmaiden (decrease defense),
• Dark Elhain (increase attack buff, AOE damage).

Of course, if you get some stronger champions, you can use them. This is the team for the worst-case scenario: you didn’t get any useful arena champions for the entire four months, which is impossible.

Lategame team for Classic Arena

There are a lot of options, but most of them are based on having Arbiter. It is a free champion obtained by completing the first mission chain. In general, players get Arbiter after 9-12 months of playing.

In current RAID realities, it’s enough to have 280-300 speed for comfortable farming in the Gold V league. So, if you don’t aim for the platinum, you shouldn’t be too concerned about speed. For example, I gave the best speed gear that belonged to Arbiter to Lanakis, which is amazing for beating the Demon Lord clan boss.

At the same time, I can still use both of them in Classic Arena battles. Lanakis takes the first turn, followed by Arbiter, Madame Serris, and Trunda. Different champions, but the same approach and the same result.

Even if you won’t obtain Arbiter for a long time, you shouldn’t worry about speed too much, as in the Gold leagues a few points of speed don’t mean anything. You can still roll enemies for free and farm medals using, for example, High Khatun and Seeker.

You can also use control effects instead of the second turn meter boost. For instance, I like to use Vlad the Nightborn to reduce the turn meter of enemies by as much as 50%. After the future rebalancing, Vlad will become even stronger.

I think you already understand what I’m getting at. Don’t be concerned about speed if you don’t aim for the Platinum League. Use a traditional speed team for manageable farming arena medals. 

How to choose the best nuker for Classic Arena

You should calculate the clear damage of the champion to understand how strong it is. To do this, you should multiply the damage coefficient of a certain skill, the damage boost from skill tomes, the base attack / defense / HP (depending on what the skill depends on), all passive ability bonuses (if they are present), and the base critical damage. All of this information should be obtained by visiting online RAID databases. My favorite one is https://raid.guide/en/shadow-legends/.

For example, the clear damage of 3rd Trunda’s ability will be the following:

• 3 * 2 hits (base coefficient) * 1.3 (boost from books) * 1608 (base attack) * 1.63 (base crit damage) = 20`444

It’s a lot. That’s the reason why Trunda is such a popular champion. So now you can calculate the damage of any ability of any champion and compare it with Trunda’s damage to find out how strong it is.

Answers to popular questions

• What are the best rare champions for the Classic Arena for beginners? Kael, Spirithost, Diabolist, and Warmaiden.
• What is the best gear for arenas? Speed for supports, accuracy for debuffers, and damage for damage dealers. The two best sets are Speed and Savage.
• Is it worthwhile to have a strong defense? No. It makes sense until you reach the Gold V league. You can then weaken your defense team to drop ratings faster. Thus, you will be able to farm more medals without having problems with too-strong enemies.
• Can I farm XP in arenas? No, there is no such opportunity in the game.
• Is there a time limit for arena battles? As far as I know, no. Sometimes I forgot about the RAID tab and watched YouTube while two defense teams were fighting against each other for about an hour.
• Is there a way to regain lost arena rating points? There is only one way: defeat the enemies and raise the rating.
• Is RAID arena fair? Not at all. It’s normal. The fairness is an illusion, as one of the two players will always be stronger.