Best Provoke Champions in RAID: Shadow Legends
Looking for the best Provoke champions in RAID: Shadow Legends? Discover the champions that can control enemies and protect your team.
What Provoke Does in Raid
How the Provoke Debuff Works
The Provoke debuff forces enemy champions to use their default attack (their A1) against the champion who placed the Provoke debuff.
This is not as strong as the Stun debuff (which causes champions to fully miss their turn and get no cooldown reduction at turn start), but it is still a fantastic and reliable form of crowd control. The biggest downside of Provoke is that your provoker will take a lot of A1 attacks which can be dangerous if enemies have powerful A1s.
The Provoke Gear Set
The 4-piece Provoke gear set from the Ice Golem dungeon can give any champion a 30% chance to place Provoke on each attack. This is unreliable, but can be a helpful addition to any champions with consistent AoE attacks against waves, since the low chance will add up over time against multiple enemies.
Note that this set only triggers once per attack, not once per hit.
Does Provoke work against Bosses?
Most bosses are immune to the Provoke debuff (and all other CC effects), with a couple of notable exceptions:
- The Magma Dragon in Doom Tower can be provoked, turning it into arguably the easiest boss fight in the game if you have good provokers.
- The Head of Decay in Hydra Clan Boss can be provoked, and this is an essential strategy to preventing it from Removing Debuffs from the Hydra.
Why Provoke Champions Are Valuable
Controlling Enemy Behavior
Provoke locks enemies into using their A1 attacks, which is usually the weakest ability for any champion. This gives you a huge advantage in battle by: preventing enemy control champions from applying CC to you; preventing enemy damage dealers from using their strongest attacks; preventing enemy revivers from reviving dead allies; etc.
Counterattack Synergies
Their are a few types of abilities which combo very well with Provoke.
Counterattack passives or buffs, such as on Angar, are a powerful combo; force enemies to attack your champion, then counterattack back for solid damage output.
Champions who apply debuffs or gain benefits when hit are also great at using Provoke, such as Krisk who applies Decrease ATK and Decrease DEF when hit.
Best Provoke Champions in Raid
Here we’ve listed 10 of the most best Provoke champions in RAID: Shadow Legends. This list is not exhaustive, but it should steer you in the right direction for knowing what makes these types of champions so powerful! Check out our Champion Tier List for more info.
Gnarlhorn
Gnarlhorn is an incredible rare MVP for control, bringing an AoE Provoke on a 3-turn cooldown. This is not an attack, meaning that it is affinity friendly! This makes Gnarlhorn a fantastic consistent option who is easy to pull and book–you can even run two Gnarlhorns for some teams. Don’t sleep on this champion; he’s one of the few “must build” rares in the game.
Gladewulf
Gladewulf is an incredibly verstatile rare champion, bring a decent Provoke on his A2; the change to land isn’t 100%, but this is somewhat balanced out by having no negative affinity matchups since he is void affinity. He also has great Ally Protection and a fantastic A1 which will be extremely helpful against Fire Knight. His Counterattack buff gives a natural synergy with his Provoke as well.
Skeuramis
Skeuramis can be consider “mini-Krisk”, bringing tons of utility and self-buffs alongside his Provoke. He is great against waves but even better against Hydra, where a high-RES build combined with his self-buffs will enable him to perform as a “Mischief Tank”, getting targetted by Head of Mischief and preventing its stealing effects by resisting it.
Toragi the Frog
Toragi is one of the best epic champions in the game for keeping your team alive thanks to his fantastic debuffs and Ally Protection buffs. His Provoke is also excellent, but make sure to have debuffers place some debuffs before he takes a turn to give him a better chance to land it. His innate tankiness and self-healing let him easily take any incoming hits… and place Poisons in return!
Umbral Enchantress
Umbral Enchantress stands out from the pack by bring a 2-turn Provoke… on an epic champion!? This is incredible value, with the big downsides being the very long cooldown and the protected Block Active Skills self-debuff. The Mercurial set prevents this debuff from being applied, making her incredibly strong (though this may be a bug and may be changed); alternatively, for Faction Wars you can plan to use her Provoke on waves 1 and 3, and have (an)other champion(s) handle wave 2.
Krisk the Ageless
Krisk is the GOAT of RAID, staying relevant over the many years the game has been out. He brings a reliable Provoke on his A3, and places the ever-useful Decrease DEF and Decrease ATK debuffs on enemies who hit him. On top of this he has tons of self-healing, Increases Buff Duration, and can be a “Mischief Tank” in Hydra. An amazing legendary for keeping your team alive.
Soulless
Soulless was recently reworked and is ironically slightly worse at Provoking than he was before. On the other hand, he’s massively improved in literally every other way, and is now a worthy void legendary! He brings great DEF-based damage, tons of debuffs and utility, and a very juicy shield. His Provoke now gives himself Counterattack, and his A1 can land a Stun. On top of this, he also boosts his team’s damage by 25% against enemies he has Provoked. All in all, Soulless is now a top-tier provoker.
Bayek
Bayek was a time-limited champion from the Assassin’s Creed crossover event. He has an incredible passive for PvP, preventing low ACC enemies from landing crits, on top of a mountain of other great buffs, debuffs, and damage output. He is a fantastic Provoke champion, with the potential to land 2-turns of Provoke on enemies with 3 or more debuffs, making him particularly adept at Hydra Clan Boss or wave-based content too.
Ash’nar Dragonsoul
Ash’nar brings Burns, Turn Meter Boosts, and Damage boosts in his Base Form. His Alternate Form is a hybrid damage dealer and debuffer–and this is where his Provoke comes in. His A3 is a very powerful nuke which places Provoke for 1 turn against regular enemies, and for a whopping 2-turns against bosses. This also cannot weak hit enemies who are under HP Burn debuffs. He brings huge damage output on all his skills, further boosted by enemies who are burned, making him a massive threat.
Arne the White
Arne is a ludicrously powerful damage dealer in his Base Form, but it’s his Alternate Form which brings Provokes. His A2 here places Provoke for 1 turn, or 2 turns against bosses. On top of this it cannot be resisted by many PvP enemies, and also gives him Strengthen and Counterattack–perfect complementary buffs to Provoke. His A1 then lands a Stun 100% of the time, if it’s not a weak hit or resisted, and his A3 becomes a massive damaging attack if enemies are under Provoke (or some other conditions). Terrifying in both forms, Arne is a provoker with both metaphorical and literal claws.
How to Build Provoke Champions
ACC Requirements
Landing debuffs or negative effects in RAID nearly always relies on beating the enemy’s RES stat with your ACC stat. You should aim for 25 ACC more than the enemy has RES. For example, Dragon Normal Stage 20 has 200 RES, so you should aim for 225 ACC.
Check out our Raid Stages Tool to see the RES and ACC requirements for almost any fight in the entire game!
SPD Requirements
SPD is the other key stat for Provoke champions. Unlike standard debuffs, provoke debuffs usually only last for 1 turn, with only a few particularly special champions placing it for 2 turns. Therefore you will want to build very high SPD on these champions to rotate through their skills as quickly as possible in order to maintain maximum uptime.
SPD is particularly important for PvP content, since the player whose CC champion goes first is usally at a massive advantage. Players will often build control champions in the fastest gear on their entire account. Speed boosters are the only type of champion who might get higher priority on SPD gear, since they can reach higher potential SPD in realistic builds due to not needing to build any ACC.
In PvE, you should still build high SPD but you can balance it out with more defensive stats or versatile gear sets.
Recommended Artifact Sets
Any sets which increase SPD or ACC are the perfect choice for control champions.
Cooldown reduction sets such as Reflex or Impulse are very useful for PvE content, where there is less of a desperate need for SPD.
In PvP, Supersonic or Mercurial are top-tier sets which provide SPD alongside incredibly powerful effects.
Tips for Using Provoke Champions
Target Dangerous Enemies
Some provokers have single-target Provokes, so you will have to choose your target carefully (note that for Hydra Clan Boss the AI will automatically target the Head of Decay with Provokes).
In wave content the best champion to Provoke may not always be the enemy damage dealer. For example, their damage dealer is probably far less dangerous than an enemy Odin who can Remove Buffs and place Stun and Decrease DEF on your entire team. Or perhaps they have a reviver like Hilvi who is about to revive her entire team. Think about who the most dangerous enemy to your team is over the next 5 or 6 turns to find the best target.
You also need to be very wary of enemies who can Remove Debuffs: there is little point in landing Provoke on a damage dealer if a champion like Elva is not affected and is able to remove the Provoke before the damage dealer ever takes a turn.
Even for AoE Provokers, choosing the right time to Provoke can be key. If enemies are all vulnerable, it is often safe to use the ability ASAP. However, if enemies have Block Debuffs, Stoneskin, or Total Guard, etc. you might want to postpone your Provoke until you know it will land.
Combine Provoke With Defensive Champions
Provoke champions are naturally going to take a high amount of damage, particularly when fighting multiple damage dealers at once. Watch out for affinity: a positive affinity matchup can protect your provokers from crits, whereas a negative matchup will increase the chance of being crit.
You can also bring defensive buffs such as Shield or Strengthen to help mitigate damage; bring Healing to top your provoker back up; or bring mitigating debuffs such as Decrease ATK to help them stay alive.