How to Build Damage Dealers in Raid: Shadow Legends

Discover how to build your damage dealer Champions in Raid: Shadow Legends. Learn which stats to prioritise, the best build paths, and how team synergy through buffs and debuffs can maximise your damage output.

Damage Dealers are the Champions responsible for defeating enemies throughout Raid: Shadow Legends, providing the damage needed to clear waves, defeat bosses, and eliminate opposing teams in the Arena. While support Champions keep your team alive and enable your strategy, damage dealers are the ones who enable success across content such as Clan Boss, Hydra, Dungeons, Doom Tower, Cursed City, and PvP.

Not all damage dealers are built the same. Most scale from ATK, DEF, or HP, making their primary scaling stat the foundation of every build. Others deal damage through unique mechanics, such as Enemy MAX HP skills, Bombs, Poisons, HP Burn activations, or hybrid kits that combine strong damage with valuable buffs or debuffs. Understanding how your Champion deals damage is the first step towards building them effectively and getting the most out of their potential.

Attack Based

ATK based damage dealers scale the damage of their skills from their Attack stat, making ATK their most important attribute when building them. They also gain significant value from the Increase ATK buff, allowing them to hit much harder and maximise the damage of their skills.

Many ATK based Champions are designed to deal direct burst damage, while others combine their damage with utility such as debuffs, buff removal, or crowd control. Their builds are often tailored to their role, but all benefit from investing in the stats that amplify their Attack based scaling, alongside 100% C.Rate, and as much C.DMG as possible.

Defence Based

DEF based damage dealers scale the damage of their skills from their Defence stat, giving them the unique advantage of increasing both their survivability and damage output through the same attribute. This allows them to withstand far more punishment than many ATK based Champions while still dealing impressive damage.

These Champions also benefit greatly from the Increase DEF buff, further improving both their durability and offensive potential. Many DEF based damage dealers excel in longer encounters where their ability to survive incoming damage allows them to consistently contribute throughout the fight.

HP Based

HP based damage dealers scale the damage of their skills from their HP stat, making them naturally durable while still dealing meaningful damage. Unlike ATK and DEF based Champions, there is no Increase HP buff to instantly boost their damage output, so they often rely more heavily on the strength of their kit than external scaling.

Many of the strongest HP based damage dealers stand out through conditional damage, bonus attacks or scalability rather than raw HP alone. Champions such as Tekteon, Narses and Embrys are prime examples, using powerful mechanics within their kits to maximise their damage while benefiting from the survivability that high HP provides.

Enemy MAX HP

Enemy MAX HP damage dealers scale part of their damage from the target’s maximum HP, making them exceptionally strong against bosses with large health pools. However, beyond the early progression stages, most bosses cap Enemy MAX HP damage at either 10% or 5% of the calculated value.

Despite these caps, Enemy MAX HP Champions remain some of the best boss killers in the game. Champions with multi hit abilities, such as Gnut and Marius, can repeatedly reach the damage cap across multiple hits, allowing them to wear down bosses far more quickly than most conventional damage dealers.

Hybrid Champions

Hybrid damage dealers combine strong damage with valuable buffs, debuffs, or crowd control, allowing them to contribute far more than raw damage alone. Champions such as Kro’khad can weaken enemies while dealing significant damage, making them highly effective across both PvE and PvP without sacrificing much offensive potential.

Because these Champions may also rely on landing debuffs, they require Accuracy alongside their damage focused stats and often benefit from sets such as Perception or Pinpoint. They also make excellent use of scaling effects like Nature’s Wrath and relics such as Irethi Coronet, steadily increasing their damage output as battles progress while continuing to support their team.

Debuffers

Some Champions deal relatively modest direct damage but make up for it by activating Bombs, HP Burns or Poisons, allowing them to wear down bosses through repeated damage over time effects. This makes them especially effective in longer encounters, where consistent activations can contribute millions of damage over the course of a fight.

Some Champions, such as Ninja, offer the best of both worlds by combining strong direct damage with powerful HP Burn activations. These hybrid kits allow them to deal high burst damage while also enabling sustained damage over time, making them valuable in many boss encounters.

Damage dealers are valuable across every area of Raid: Shadow Legends, providing the damage needed to overcome the game’s toughest challenges. Whether you’re reaching the required damage thresholds for top Clan Boss, Chimera and Hydra chests, clearing waves and defeating bosses throughout PvE content, or eliminating teams in Arena, a well built damage dealer is essential to your team’s success.

The best damage dealers are those that suit the content you’re tackling, with some specialising in boss encounters, others excelling at wave clearing, and many capable of dominating PvP. Understanding where each Champion performs best will help you build more effective teams and progress through the game more efficiently.

Build Focus

Firstly, build your damage dealer around their primary scaling stat, whether that’s ATK, DEF, HP. Alongside this, prioritise 100% C.Rate (unless guaranteed by their kit) and high C.DMG to maximise their damage output.

Once these foundations are in place, tailor the rest of the build to the Champion’s role. This may include Speed for more frequent turns, Accuracy for hybrid damage dealers who rely on debuffs, and the right combination of Artifact Sets, Relics, Blessings, Masteries, and skill upgrades to get the most from their kit.

Gear Slots

For most damage dealers, C.DMG gloves are the ideal choice to maximise your damage output, although C.Rate gloves are often an option if you can’t reach 100% C.Rate through gear substats alone. Your chestplate and boots should then be chosen based on the Champion’s role, with their primary scaling stat often being the priority, while Speed boots are a common choice for hybrid Champions who rely on taking more turns to apply debuffs or cycle through their skills.

Your gear substats should reinforce the build you’re aiming for, prioritising your primary scaling stat, C.Rate, C.DMG, ACC and Speed where appropriate. For accessories, the Ring should match your primary scaling stat, while the Banner should also focus on that stat unless the Champion relies on debuffs, in which case an Accuracy Banner can be suitable. Finally, a C.DMG Amulet is the preferred option for almost all damage dealers to further amplify their damage potential.

Core Damage Set Combinations

The best gear sets for damage dealers are those that maximise their damage output, with Savage, Lethal, and Merciless being among the strongest options thanks to their Ignore DEF effects. Merciless is especially valuable in PvE, offering powerful offensive stats alongside cooldown reduction and a chance to gain Extra Turns, while Slayer is another excellent option for Champions who rely on AOE attacks.

For more flexible builds, particularly in PvP, lower piece sets such as Cruel, Zeal, and Lethal pair well with utility sets like Stoneskin. Hybrid damage dealers who also rely on debuffs benefit greatly from pairing primary damage sets with Accuracy focused options such as Perception, Pinpoint, or Feral. Combined with an Accuracy Banner and ACC substats, this allows them to consistently land their debuffs without sacrificing significant damage output.

Relics & Blessings

Over time, you’ll unlock Relics and Blessings that can increase a Champion’s damage potential. Hybrid damage dealers benefit from options such as Nature’s Wrath and Irethi Coronet, which scale their damage as they place debuffs throughout the fight, while more budget choices like Malefic Talon provide offensive stats and additional damage. Champions looking to maximise Ignore DEF can also make great use of Blessings such as Crushing Rend or Relics like Cat’s Gaze to push their damage even further.

Be sure to check out our Blessings and Relics Tier Lists to find the strongest options for your Champion, taking into account both their role and the level of Awakening you have available.

Masteries

Masteries are another key part of building a damage dealer, helping to maximise both their damage output and overall effectiveness. The best setup often depends on where you’re using the Champion, with Warmaster and Giant Slayer being excellent choices for long boss encounters such as Clan Boss, while Helmsmasher is a popular option for Champions looking to maximise their direct damage through Ignore DEF.

Your secondary mastery tree should complement the Champion’s role. The Defence tree offers additional survivability and utility, including access to Counterattacks, while the Support tree is ideal for hybrid damage dealers who rely on buffs, healing, or debuffs alongside their damage. Be sure to check out our dedicated Champion Guides for recommended PvE and PvP mastery setups for every Champion in the game.