RAID’s First Telerian Podcast: Champion Proving Grounds Revealed

RAID: Shadow Legends has launched the first pilot episode of its new Telerian Podcast. The show brought community members and developers together for an hour-long discussion about RAID’s current state and future plans.

Banana Jam hosted the episode alongside content creators Kruysen and Nub Raids. Vlad, the lead of RAID’s meta game design team, joined them to discuss new features, player feedback and planned changes.

The biggest reveal focused on Champion Proving Grounds. Players received fresh details about its structure, rewards and rotating Champion pools. The team covered Mercurial counters, background battles, Mythical Relics and postponed Mythical Faction Guardians too.

Here is a full breakdown of everything discussed.

The team opened with the recent Live Arena Win Streak event. Its strong rewards encouraged more players to enter Live Arena, including many who rarely play the mode.

The event only lasted three and a half days. This short window left some players unable to take part each day.

Nub suggested opening the event for five days but limiting each player to three entry tokens. Players could then choose the three days that fit their schedule.

Vlad explained that Plarium treated the first events as tests. The developers are studying participation, matchmaking and player behaviour. They will use this data to set the format and frequency of future events.

Plarium is not ready to run Win Streak events throughout every Live Arena off-season. The team wants players to have time for other activities between seasons.

Matchmaking Exploits Are Under Review

Some players intentionally lost battles ahead of the event. This lowered their standing and helped them find weaker opponents or bots during a Win Streak attempt.

Vlad confirmed that Plarium understands the issue. The team plans to add new Win Streak rules and continue adjusting Live Arena matchmaking.

The developers recently completed another matchmaking update. Further changes will arrive in stages after Plarium reviews the results.

Mercurial remains one of the biggest topics across high-level Arena. Total Guard can make Champions extremely hard to kill, mainly on accounts with limited counter options.

Kruysen argued that Mercurial becomes less oppressive after players grow their rosters. Multi-hit attacks, ally attacks, counterattacks and Deflection gear already provide several ways to remove Total Guard stacks.

Nub pointed out that players earned Mercurial gear much faster than Plarium expected. Accounts gained access to the set before many players had time to develop suitable counters.

Vlad confirmed that more direct answers are now in development.

Plarium plans to treat Mercurial much like Stoneskin. Stoneskin entered the game as a major shift away from the old Speed meta. Plarium then introduced Burns, Bombs and Champions capable of bypassing its protection.

Mercurial will follow a related pattern. New mechanics will give players more ways to fight Total Guard without removing the set.

Two Mercurial Problems Will Be Targeted

Vlad identified two separate issues:

• Players need enough early multi-hit attacks to remove Total Guard stacks.
• Total Guard stacks refresh and can create long battles that are hard to finish.

Multi-hit attacks are the first existing counter. A second mechanic will target the wider problem in a coming update.

Vlad hinted that many players already own Champions connected to this answer. Players have not viewed these Champions as Mercurial counters yet. He stopped short of naming them or explaining the planned mechanic.

The team will review battle data and community feedback after these changes arrive. Plarium will then decide whether Mercurial needs further action.

Vlad’s team created RAID’s background battle system. Its long-term goal is to let players complete more content at the same time.

Every major time-heavy feature released from this point will support background battles at launch. Plarium does not want each new feature to demand extra active playtime.

Classic Arena and Tag Team Arena are part of the team’s plans. Plarium wants players to run these modes alongside Live Arena and an active background battle.

No release date was shared, but the direction is clear. Background play will become a standard part of future RAID content.

Vlad revealed that around 20% of player time goes into account management. This includes reviewing Artifacts, changing builds and sorting stored gear.

Plarium plans to keep expanding its Artifact and Accessory filters. The current system is not viewed as finished.

Kruysen requested a bulk upgrade option. Such a tool could take several level-zero items to level four or eight in one action.

Vlad did not confirm this feature. He asked players to explain the source of their frustration in feedback. The design team can then select a fix that works across different account levels.

Recent gear filter changes came directly from community requests. The community team collects comments throughout each week and sends them to the developers.

Mythical Relic crafting can produce long runs without the expected result. Some players have reported 20, 25 or 30 failed attempts.

Vlad noted that many examples use mixed crafting materials rather than a full set of Mythical materials. The frustration remains real, mainly after players spend rare resources and receive a Legendary Relic.

Plarium is now investigating a fix. A mercy system or pity system is one option, but the final design has not been decided.

Players will see some form of action after the team completes its review.

Past limited-time Relics will return through selected future events. Plarium wants to give players more chances to obtain missing crafting materials from older releases.

Plarium recently postponed Mythical Faction Guardians after showing the feature on the test server.

The proposed system risked creating a much larger gap between top spenders and the rest of the player base. Mythical Faction Guardian bonuses included major boosts to Speed, Accuracy and other stats.

Players with many duplicate Mythical Champions stood to gain immediate power. Most accounts had little chance to fill even a small part of the system.

The delay received a positive response from both content creators and players. Plarium now plans to revisit Mythical Faction Guardians next year.

Early notice gives players time to save duplicate Mythical Champions. It prevents a sudden power increase across the highest Arena tiers too.

Champion Proving Grounds is RAID’s next major feature. It is a rotating dungeon aimed at players level 60 and above.

Each rotation includes 27 stages with different double-boss pairings. Players earn points by clearing stages and meeting set conditions.

Those points convert into stars. More stars unlock better rewards across a personal milestone bar.

The system shares some traits with Campaign and Faction Wars. Each stage offers several completion levels, with greater rewards tied to stronger results.

Champion Proving Grounds will not consume Energy. Players receive three stage keys and three rematch keys. Each rotation lasts 28 days.

Rotating Champion Pools

Every rotation features a selected Champion pool. These pools will often include Champions from recent Fusions, guaranteed events and other releases.

Each featured Champion adds its own point multiplier. Using several featured Champions creates a larger score bonus.

Players must balance two needs:

• Build a team capable of defeating the boss pairing.
• Include enough featured Champions to reach the top score requirements.

Any Champion can clear the base version of each stage. This lets more players earn one star and claim part of the milestone track.

The best rewards need higher scores. Those scores will require several featured Champions and stronger team building.

The bosses and stage rules will remain fixed during the first version. The featured Champion pools will rotate every 28 days.

Future rotations can include older Champions. Newer Champions will remain the main focus, linking the mode to active events and recent releases.

Future Champion Pools Will Be Teased Early

Players will see previews of upcoming Champion pools. Hidden portraits can hint at Champions tied to future Fusions or events.

This gives players time to plan resources. A Champion shown in a future pool can affect decisions about Fusions, books, Masteries and Blessings.

Players with enough options for an upcoming rotation can skip selected events. Others can target a new Champion that fills a gap in their roster.

Champion Proving Grounds includes a competitive leaderboard.

Rankings use a mixed formula. Clear time forms one part of the score, but featured Champion use matters too.

This stops players from taking every top position through raw power and speed alone. Strong team construction and point multipliers will shape the final standings.

The top 15 players receive leaderboard rewards. Personal milestone rewards remain separate, giving every participant something to chase.

Anomalous Accessories are one of the two headline reward types.

These Accessories contain no flat HP, ATK or DEF substats. Their pool includes percentage stats and eight new bonuses.

The new bonuses cover both PvP and PvE:

• Increased damage in PvP battles.
• Reduced damage taken in PvP battles.
• Increased damage against PvE enemies and bosses.
• Reduced damage taken from PvE enemies and bosses.
• Increased damage inside Dungeons.

Several bonuses can stack on one build, subject to the rolls on each item.

Anomalous Accessories connect to existing gear sets. For example, players can earn matching Accessories for a nine-piece Stoneskin build and replace their current jewellery.

Not every set will receive Anomalous Accessories at once. The mode uses keys rather than Energy, so Plarium can control how quickly players collect them.

RAID will add 200 Artifact storage slots and 200 Accessory storage slots alongside the feature.

Faction Relics form the second new reward group.

The first group contains six Legendary Relics. Each one has a standard effect that works on every Champion, plus an extra bonus tied to one Faction.

The standard effect grows through normal Relic development. The Faction bonus starts at full power and does not need upgrades.

A Champion must belong to the matching Faction to activate this extra effect.

Plarium plans to release more Faction Relics and Anomalous Accessories through future features. Champion Proving Grounds will serve as their first source.

The podcast closed with a tease for a new event arriving during August.

Kruysen and Nub guessed several possible collaborations, including The Witcher, Power Rangers, Dragon Ball Z and an Ancient Greek event. Banana Jam refused to confirm any guess.

The team only confirmed that the event is exclusive and that more news will follow soon.