What Is Poison in Raid Shadow Legends
What the Poison Debuff Does
The poison debuff in RAID: Shadow Legends is a “Damage Over Time” effect. This means the target doesn’t take damage immediately, rather they take damage gradually at regular intervals, known as “ticks” over a specific duration. The duration is decided by the champions ability that placed it. If the ability on the champion says “Place poison for 2 turns” then the unit under the debuff will take 2 “ticks” of damage. You also have to wait until the champion or boss with the poison debuff to take their turn before they receive any damage. A target can only be under a maximum of 10 debuffs at any one time.
Different Poison Debuff Types
There are 2 types of poison debuff in RAID: Shadow Legends. There is the smaller “2.5% poison” debuff and the larger “5% poison” debuff. The % is refers to the targets maximum HP.
How Poison Damage Is Calculated
Poison Damage and Enemy Turns
As mentioned earlier, poison is a damage over time effect. So the unit will not take any damage until they take a turn. They will take damage for each poison debuff they are under. If an enemy is under five 5% posion debuffs, at the start of their turn they will take 5% of the max HP as damage five times.
Why Poison Is Strong Against Bosses
Poison damage is calculated based on a targets maximum HP. In other words if a target with 100 HP is under one 5% poison will take 5 damage at the start of their turn. If a target has 1000 HP and is under one 5% poison debuff, they will take 50 damage at the start of their turn and so on. This is why poison is one of the most effective ways of killing some of the bosses in RAID: Shadow Legends. The higher the health pool the bigger the return you get on those poison debuffs.
Outside of certain Hydra heads, a lot of bosses have ways of removing these debuffs either. So you get maximum return on them once they are placed, they cherry on the top, the damage is not reduced by enemy defence.
Poison Debuff Limits
The Debuff Bar Limit
The debuff bar is a key factor when it comes to building your teams and is the main reason why players are not able to just load up 25 poisons on a target and kill it in one shot when it takes a turn. We have mentioned a couple of times in this article that you can stack poisons up to 10. That is because 10 is the maximum number of debuffs an enemy can have on them at any one time.
Why This Matters for Poison Teams
This matters for poison teams because you have to take into consideration that you may have other debuffs on the target as well. This could include ATK Down that you wanted to help you survive, or DEF Down so your regular attacks hit harder too. The more debuffs of other kinds that you have means the less poison debuffs you are able to place. Sometimes resulting in you have less than 10 on the target. It also means that you may not want more than one unit who can play poison debuff on your team when entering a fight as you will get diminishing returns.
Champions That Use Poison
Here we’ve listed 10 of our favourite Poisoners in the game: note that these are not necessarily “top tier” but ones that hold a place in our heart. This list is also 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.
OUTLAW MONK
Unless you chose Kael as your starter, Outlaw Monk might be one of the first poisoners you come across in your RAID journey. He might be an Uncommon, but I know when I started back in the day, he was my early poison unit for Clan Boss. His A2 places two Poison debuffs, which gives new accounts a quick way to start stacking damage. His A1 has a chance to grant an extra turn, and this helps him cycle back to his A2 faster. This loop lets him maintain steady poison uptime with very little setup, which makes him a strong early-game option.
Kael
Lets be real, you cant have a list like this have not have Kael on it. Arguably the best starter champion, he brings strong AoE nukes alongside multiple chances to land Poison. Bringing a mixture of both 2.5% and 5% poisons, he is a great enabler for many early game bosses, such as Dragon or Demon Lord.
Frozen Banshee
Another OG champ that carried many accounts when released, Frozen Banshee is the other well-known rare poisoner. In some situations she was seen to be slightly better than Kael due to her ability to place Poison Sensitivity with her A3. You would then follow up with A1s which place the larger poison debuff for maximum poison application. Just make sure to disable her A2 to prevent it from ruining your speed tune.
Urogrim
This champion was so busted back in the day, they had to be nerfed. But even after that nerf, Urogrim is still a reliable support with strong poison output. Urogrim places two 5% poison on all enemies with his A3 as well as two continuous heals on your team. The basic attacks twice with a 25% chance to land the big poisons as well. When he’s not debuffing, he has a full cleanse for an ally with strong healing and brings a all battles SPD aura. Lovely stuff.
Taurus
This is a niche pick for most people, but full of nostalgia for me. Taurus is the OG poison explosion guy. His A3 deals damage to himself equal to 99% of his current HP. He would then place Unkillable on himself for 2 turns before placing four 5% poison debuffs on all enemies for 2 turns. You would reset this with someone like Renegade before letting Elenaril set off the fireworks. Outside of this niche Taurus would also function well as your poisoner in a unkillable clan boss team bringing weaken to give him more value here as well, but seldom used outside of these use cases.
Myciliac Priest Orn
As a member of the Sylvan Watchers, Myciliac Priest Orn is one of the newer epic poisoners on the block. Myciliac Priest Orns entire kit is focussed on placing and activating poisons and is some peoples first option to solo both Dragon and Ice Golem. He is able to do this because his passive boosts his defensive capability once poisons start activating, this paired with Regeneration Artifact Sets is the key for this strategy. Outside of this, his abilities make him a strong poisoner which is great for Clan Boss, especially as he is spirit affinity which gives players an option when champions like Kael are a bad choice.
Teodor The Savant
I didnt get this guy until long after his release, but I will still thrilled when I got Teodor. Teodor is a elite poison specialist who speeds through progression by not only placing poisons. But he is also extending and activating them and HP Burns, making him exceptional for Clan Boss and for fast, safe clears of dungeons like Ice Golem, Dragon and Spider. And because hes just not quite good enough, he also brings both Increase and Decrease SPD.
Kalvalax
For some of the units on this list, this is what power creep looks like. Kalvalax has one of the most infamous poison abilities in the game, putting out four poison debuffs at the start of every round. This makes him the unquestioned MVP for any poison speed-farming teams. From here you can pair Kalvalax with a poison Activation champion can instantly wipe out an entire wave. Alternatively you can just leave the rest to him, with his A2 and A3 getting additional damage benefits the more poisons that are out on the enemy, perfect for clan boss!
Bad El Kazar
Bad-El-Kazar was the original top tier champion in the game for most of 2019! He remains a fantastic legendary because of the utility he provides. Bad-El-Kazar is here though because of his poisons and heals on his A2. You combine this with the AoE hits on his A1 which heal and it makes him capable of soloing content such as affinity keeps, Ice Golem or Dragon 25! Bad-El-Kazar also has a passive which activates whenever any poison is on an enemy making your whole team deal increased damage to the target by 20%.
Tomb Lord
Finally, we have Tomb Lord. For a long time, Tomb Lord stayed ever vigilant guarding our vaults. But in Patch 4.70 Tomb Lord received a set of buffs that made him into the strong poisoner he is today. It was these buffs that essentially doubled his Poison output, by increasing their duration from one to two turns, and his A3 cooldown was reduced. These improvements made him capable of soloing dungeons like Dragon. Its not just the poisons that make him great in dungeons and Clan boss, hes also bringing SPD Down, ATK Down and Def Down in his kit. Making him a real suisse army knife.
Where Poison Is Most Useful
Clan Boss
We hinted at why poison is one of the main damage strategies earlier in this article. The reason why its so good here is because of the Clan Bosses massive HP pool. In RAID: Shadow Legends and other games like it, bosses tend to have low Defense but high HP and we can leverage this to our advantage with poisons. Each poison on the boss will tick for a significantly large amount of damage and as the Clan Boss cant be killed like a normal boss. You will never not get value from the poison ticks, especially in unkillable set ups.
Dragon Dungeon
Dragon is another dungeon where poison is particularly useful. This is due in part to the higher HP pool (similar to clan boss above) but more-so because of the abilities of the Dragon. The Dragon has an ability called Inhale, during this point players must deal a certain amount of damage to him to prevent him from casting his secret skill called Scorch. Scorch is a hard hitting AoE that places Stun on your whole team, so its important to prevent this. Fortunately, this is where the poisons come in. When the Dragon takes his turn, all the poisons debuffs will tick and provided you have enough poisons debuffs on the dragon, is enough damage on its own to prevent Scorch being cast. This becomes more important as the lower the Dragons HP is, the amount of damage required to prevent Scorch increases, poison makes it easy. The Dragons basic also places ATK Down on all your champions meaning you will lean more heavily on those poisons ticks
How to Build Poison Champions
Accuracy Requirements
Accuracy is the single most important stat for poison-focused champions, as it determines whether your debuffs actually land. A general rule of thumb is to build roughly 25 more ACC than your target’s Resistance.
For example, if you’re fighting Dragon Stage 20, which has 200 RES, you’ll want around 225 ACC to ensure your poisons stick consistently. If you’re unsure about specific enemy stats, tools like the Raid Stages Tool on our site can help you fine-tune your builds for any encounter.
Speed Requirements
Speed is key when it comes to maximizing poison damage. The more turns your champion takes, the more opportunities they have to stack poisons and ramp up damage over time.
In most cases, running moderate to high Speed on your poisoners will give you the best results. However, if you’re building for a speed-tuned Clan Boss team, you’ll need to follow exact speed thresholds to maintain proper turn order, so always check those dedicated guides before locking in your stats.
Recommended Artifact Sets
When gearing poison champions, focus on sets that boost Accuracy and Speed. Popular choices include Speed, Perception, and Feral, all of which help improve debuff consistency and turn cycling.
There are also some standout niche options. Reflex is great for reducing cooldowns, letting you apply poisons more frequently, while Regeneration provides steady healing each turn, which is especially useful in solo setups where survivability is critical.
Blessings And Relics
The Lethal Dose blessing is designed specifically for poison playstyles, but it’s limited to PvP modes like Arena and Siege. For PvE content, Brimstone is often a better pick, as it pairs well with high-Accuracy champions and excels in boss fights.
On the Relic side, Arachnelixir stands out as the top choice for poison-focused builds, even shifting some value toward Attack as a stat. If you’re looking for more accessible options, Golden Elixir (Epic) offers solid self-sustain, while Hoarder’s Cauldron (Rare) provides a helpful boost to Accuracy.