New Mercurial Gear Set and 8 New Relics coming with Grim Forest

In this article we dive into the 8 new relics and the brand new Mercurial gear set that will be available as rewards from the new Grim Forest content in RAID: Shadow Legends (expected before the end of 2025)!

DODGY STAT BONUSES

This new variable set looks fairly weak in terms of its variable stat bonuses: although it mirrors the stats provided by the Protection set, for example, it sadly has it's SPD% stat weighted towards the 8-piece rather than the 3-piece set. We hope this will be buffed before launch, to make the early SPD gains more desirable.

In total though, the 32% SPD is the main draw, and the 15% HP and 40 RES are only OK (RES is only useful if you are focusing on building it, though HP is always good).

TOTAL GUARD = A NEW BUFF

The big reason to use this new set, however, is the new Total Guard buff. This buff can stack up to 3 times and will completely prevent almost anything–including damage, any debuff, or any effect–per stack. The only thing it can't prevent is Increase Skill Cooldowns, leaving champions like Fabian as a strong counter to it, though it could also be paired with the new-ish Chronophage set to help there too!

Compared to Stoneskin, this set is much better against Bomb or HP Burn champions, which will make using those champions much more risky in PvP.

It's a bit unclear how these stacks work. For example, what if Marius uses his triple-hit A2, with each hit reducing buff duration? Does one stack stop the whole ability? Does each hit use up one stack? Does his first hit remove two stacks–one from the damage, one from the buff reduction? A lot will depend on how these interactions work: either this buff will be incredibly strong, or incredibly easily countered by multi-hit or multi-debuff champions.

Finally, at 9-pieces, you gain a stack of Total Guard every turn if you have none. This is great, turning the set into something which continues to help during longer fights.

TL;DR: many questions remain about how Total Guard works; it might be crazy, it might be weak; it's very strong against Bombs and Burns, unlike Stoneskin; at 9-pieces in continues to help in longer fights, unlike Stoneskin.

Both of these rare relics are quite weak–though they might be some of the easiest relics to craft in the game, providing solid budget options to earlier game players (pending how difficult the Grim Forest is!).

Steel-Eyed Cutter gives a low chance to ignore 5% defence: it's a small damage boost (equal to 2-piece Cruel set) which works for almost any damage dealer, but it's unreliable. A nice filler relic that's not worth upgrading much.

Hoarder's Cauldron gives a low chance to ignore 10% resistance when applying debuffs: it's a decent boost to debuff reliability against high-RES enemies, but it's unreliable and of no use if you have enough ACC anyway. Could be a filler relic if it has good stats, but it's not worth upgrading much.

Both of these epics relics are also quite weak–though they might be some of the easiest relics to craft in the game, providing solid budget options to earlier game players (pending how difficult the Grim Forest is!).

Compass of Anaxia increases Turn Meter fill effects if the wearer is under CC. This is likely a multiplicative buff (e.g. if you receive a 30% TM boost from Arbiter it would increase it by 20% to 36% total, rather than to 50%). This will be a very niche relic, since you're generally in trouble if you're CC'd and this won't be enough to make a difference in most cases, though note that it combos extremely well with 5-6 star Chainbreaker blessings.

Revolting Seedling is very similar to the rare relics here, giving a small chance to heal the wearer by 20% of the damage they receive. Like the rare relics, it's a weak and unreliable effect, but it's very generally applicable, making this a good budget relic but not one you should invest in.

Both of these legendary relics are fantastic, though they are more tailored towards specific types of champions than the more general buffs of the lower rarity ones.

Soulmar Crystal gives a high chance of gaining an Instant Turn whenever one of your allies is killed. This is incredible, either on powerful damage dealers–particularly if they can remove buffs–like Marius, or on high-TM revivers like Raglin. There is also currently no way to see what relics champions have, making this a very nasty surprise for your opponent.

Sporeburst Rod is the new go-to relic for Bomb champions, giving them a great increase in damage. This is great for both PvP and PvE, so let's hope it has good stats and gem sockets too. It's only OK for Poison champions: for most content, the Arachnelixir will give far more damage; for bosses (where Arachnelixir doesn't help), it provides a nice damage boost, though you can easily hit the debuff cap with Poisoners already.

As expected, both new mythical relics are insane, and will have a huge impact on your account if you're lucky enough to forge them!

Coronet of Gloom provides a Block Damage buff when you're the last champion standing, with a low chance to activate when even one ally dies. This has no cooldown, and is an incredible defensive effect for any reviver–especially since enemies currently have no way of telling you have this relic and will be caught completely unprepared!

Lens of Intangibility is the new best relic for damage dealers in the game, giving up to 30% Ignore Defence at max rank–more than double the 15% of the mythical Covetous' Passion, and 10% more than the legendary Cat's Gaze. The Perfect Veil buff it provides is very nice for helping damage dealers survive the first round of the fight or to avoid being targetted by things like Armanz' A3, and the baseline Ignore DEF is strong. Champions who can self-buff Perfect Veil are particularly strong (e.g. Ninja, Toshiro), otherwise you'll rely on champions like Duchess or Firrol for longer fights.