Donatello – Champion Spotlight

Fans of Renaissance painters were in shambles this week when the new crossover IP collab with RAID: Shadow Legends was revealed to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead.

In this guide we break down everything you need to know about the Fragment Legendary from the TMNT event, Donatello, from how his abilities work to his best gear sets, blessings, and more!

Check out our dedicated Champion page for Donatello for even more info and ratings!

Donatello is a fantastic general support champion, helping your team stay alive, increasing Turn Meter, removing debuffs, reducing cooldowns, buffing up, and healing… With so many useful effects in his kit, you can expect him to be useful almost everywhere in the game!

A1 – BO-DACIOUS BASH

Donnie’s A1 is a small teamwide heal that is minor on it’s own, but starts to add up when combined with the extra attacks from his passive. Activating random Continuous Heal buffs is ok for some burst healing but can easily lead to overhealing as well.

A2 – SHELLSHOCKER

This is an incredible move which is only held back by its 4-turn cooldown. An AoE attack can synergise with Warmaster masteries or Stun sets–and, of course, by bringing in the other Turtles to attack. Increase SPD is always a top-tier buff.

2-turns of cooldown reduction for your team is also incredibly useful. You can use Donnie in the new Chronophage set to reset your own team when fighting lockout champions such as Fabian, or simply rotate through your skills faster in PvE battles.

A3 – SECRET OF THE OOZE

A short 3-turn cooldown full debuff removal for your team, alongside a 20% TM boost is good enough on its own, but paired up with a Continuous Heal and a Strengthen buff for 2 turns, this becomes a very high value ability.

The only real downside in his kit is that he lacks Shields or Revives, so your team can be vulnerable to champions being taken out by high burst damage (although Strengthen does help).

P1 – I GOT YOU BRO!

What a passive!

Firstly, we have the same bonus as all the Turtles, where they will join in together on any of their attacks. This is fantastic on Donatello since he will be constantly pumping out small A1 heals that add up over time, and he will be taking lots of turns to activate the passive on the other Turtles in turn.

Secondly, we have a 4-turn Cooldown active effect which can save an ally who is about to die. This is very similar to Freyja’s passive but is arguably more useful: it can save anyone on the team, not just your damage dealer; and due to the HP equalisation, it can put them back to a save HP threshold, whereas Freyja can leave them open to simply dying to multi-hit attacks. Unlike Freyja, you don’t get an Instant Turn, but it’s still a fantastic passive.

AURA – 30% HP IN ALL BATTLES

This is a generally great HP aura, which adds easy survivability to your team and boosts HP damage dealer damage and healing based off HP.

As you can see from the breakdown above, Donnie is an amazing generally useful champion who can be used almost anywhere in the game. Nonetheless, here are some ideas for where to use him!

TURTLE TEAMS

Not an area, but a type of team: combine Donnie with the other Turtles (Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo) to boost all of their power. Donnie is the only pure support of the Turtles, which means he is arguably the best combo champion for any one of the other Turtles!

Michelangelo will be the most common pairing, and Donatello helps him cycle through his skills and further boosts his survivability.

Rapahael doesn’t help Donatello, but Donnie helps him to stay alive. There is some counter-synergy though where Donnie can remove Raph’s Berserk debuff with his A3, which you might not want to do.

Leonardo provides even more defensive buffs to make your team super resilient, and reducing his A3 CD with Donnie is massive value.

The more Turtles you run together, the better their A1 spamming passives will be, so don’t be scared to try squeeze 3 or even 4 into a team and see what happens!

CLAN BOSSES

Donnie is a great option against every Clan Boss, helping your team stay alive against the high incoming damage, and cycling through turns and abilities with his A2.

DOOM TOWER

Likewise, Donnie is a surefire pick for progressing through Doom Tower (and any other similar content, such as Dungeons or Faction Wars), bringing the survivability you need for waves and bosses, and helping you get key abilities back quickly, such as CC abilities for waves.

Best Stats

The key stats to look for on Donatello are:

1. SPD
2. HP%
3. DEF%
4. RES

As a tanky buffing support, Donnie has a very straightforward build. Stack as much SPD as possible to keep taking turns, then stack HP% to survive and boost his healing. DEF% is nice as well to boost his effective HP. RES is optional: worth it if you are going for a high-RES build only.

Best Gear Sets

The best sets for Donatello are:

1. Protection
2. Chronophage
3. Relentless
4. Reflex
5. Impulse
6. Bolster
7. Stoneskin

We are looking for any sets that boost his favourite stats, or which improve his support potential.

Protection is very strong, particularly at 9-pieces, since it can Protect his buffs and turn them into damage boosts.

Chronophage is a very interesting option after its buff, letting Donnie protect his A2 CD, then reset the rest of your team in arena against champions like Fabian.

Relentless lets you take extra turns to cycle abilities and activate more Turtle passives; Impulse or Reflex are similar in helping you cycle abilities.

Bolster and Stoneskin are great arena options, helping you survive, particularly in go-second teams.

Best Masteries

Check out our dedicated Donatello champion page to see his best masteries!

As a support champion, Donatello is less reliant on Blessings (though they still open up some useful strategies) but has many very impactful Relic choices. We are expecting some sort of event to earn his 5-star Soul, so stay tuned to the website to hear the news as soon as it’s announced!

Best Blessings

Check out our Blessings Tier List for full details on all Blessings!

There are a few viable Blessings:

1. Cruelty (Epic): With his frequent attacks, Donnie can quickly stack this and boost your teams damage. This is the best option for PvE.
2. Brimstone (Legendary): This is a good option too… But only at 6-stars! Donnie doesn’t build ACC so the Brimstone won’t place at 5-star or lower.
3. Lightning Cage (Legendary): A solid arena option, particularly if you are relying on buffs from go-second sets, such as Stoneskin or Chronophage.
4. Life Harvest (Legendary): An interesting option for Arena and waves, since a Donnie attack could call in the other Turtles and finish off the revived enemy.

Best Relics

Check out our Relics Tier List for full details on all Relics!

There are several great options for Relics:

1. Hallowed Hilt (Mythical Standard Relic): The SPD is amazing, and the frequent A1s from his passive can keep great uptime on the Fervor buff.
2. Wand of Submission (Legendary Standard Relic): The typical Arena choice, protecting Donatello from CC effects.
3. Perched Shadow (Epic Faction Relic): An amazing support relic; effectively a mini-Relentless set, which calls in even more Turtle ally attacks with extra turns.
4. Journal of Necrotos (Rare Standard Relic): A strong and accessible budget option, increasing Donnie’s healing and TM boosting.