Sanguine Maria – Champion Spotlight

The spooky season is upon us with the release of Sanguine Maria, the Halloween Fusion legendary champion for RAID: Shadow Legends in 2025.

In this guide we break down everything you need to know about this sinlge-target, extra-turn-taking, damage machine–from how her abilities work to her best gear sets, blessings, and more!

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

Maria brings massive single target damage and extremely consistent sources of Extra Turns on many of her abilities, allowing her to cycle through her turns to wipe out multiple enemies in a row. She is also a very complex champion, requiring you to track multiple passive effects and conditions based off the number "3" to get the most out of her kit.

A1 – HEMATIC BLADES

The trick to her A1 is to target high health enemies to try to get the best chance for an Extra Turn: each hit has a 33% chance, giving you a 70% chance for an Extra Turn if you land all three. She can only get one Extra Turn per use of this A1, but she can use it multiple times in a row if she wants (you have a 49% chance to get two Extra Turns in a row from back-to-back A1s).

NOTE: This A1 was nerfed after Test Server testing to prevent it working against bosses, and that damage multiplier was lowered by about 15%.

A2 – SANGUINE FISSURE

This is a ludicrous damaging skill! The mini-game to using this effectively is to aim for every 3rd turn that Maria takes: so, for example, start with A3, then A1, then A2; or go A1, A1, A2. This gains an extra 66% ignore defence (an insane damage boost) if used on one of her turns divisible by 3, as well as letting her ignore Stoneskin, Block Damage, and resistance. Even by default, it's very strong, ignoring 33% defence and increasing enemy skills (she needs to pass an ACC check if it's not the empowered version of the attack) by 3 turns if she kills someone.

The big challenge is getting her to consistently use this on auto, particularly if you're running any masteries, gear sets, or champions (e.g. Merciless gear; Donatello) that can disrupt the turn this move comes off cooldown on–generally, you'll need to avoid all these things on auto, and have her cycle A3, A1, A2 to have it work properly.

There is no in-game way to easily track what turn she is on.

A3 – GORESCREAM

This is a beast of an attack as well, removing all buffs from all enemies (which cannot be resisted if they have 3/6/9 buffs) and giving Maria an Extra Turn if she has 3/6/9 buffs as well. The follow-up attack on enemies below 66% HP hits just as hard as the initial attack, making this a devastating AoE ability against wounded enemy teams.

P1 – SAY HER NAME

Finally, her passive does several extremely powerful things.

Firstly, she deals 33% bonus damage per subsequent hit, cycling back to 0% after the 99% hit. There is no in-game way to easily track how many stacks she has of this passive–though she hits so hard anyway that it's not a big concern (focus instead on managing the best timings for her active abilities).

Secondly, she takes 33% reduced damage per subsequent hit she takes, cycling back to 0% after the 99% reduction. Again, there is no in-game way to easily track how many stacks she has of this passive and it's not something you should focus on–just know that this makes her significantly more survivable than you would expect!

Thirdly, she automatically revives at 33% HP and 66% Turn Meter when an enemy is revived, which is very handy–particularly in situations where an enemy reviver brings back a damage dealer at 50% turn meter, since you have a good chance to kill them with Maria before they get a turn! She places a 2-turn True Fear on all enemies when she revives and it cannot be resisted or blocked–this is stupidly powerful, though it does make her vulnerable to Polymorph.

AURA – 33% ATK IN ALL BATTLES

This is a great aura, though you will generally prefer to use SPD Auras in PvP content.

As you can see from the breakdown above, Maria is an incredibly strong single-target damage dealer who is tankier than expected and can chain multiple turns together.

ARENA AND SIEGE

It should be no surprise that Maria is going to be a top-tier pick in Arena and Siege modes. Force affinity nukers are a little harder to come by, so she may well fill that gap in your roster. On top of that, she brings monstrous damage, ignores very annoying defensive buffs in Stoneskin and Block Damage, does lockout, removes buffs, and can get free revives and True Fears. It's a bit like if Fabian and Rotos had a baby.

She is likely a strong consideration to counter oppressive arena opponents who rely on Block Damage and revives, such as Siegfrund, Nais, and Odin. She's strong affinity against Nais and Siegfrund, and is neutral affinity to top-tier tanky revivers like Galathir and Theodosia. Expect to see her played a lot!

FACTION WARS

She's just as strong against wave-based content like Faction Wars as she is in Arena, since all of her effects work against waves. She's extremely good against bosses too, even if her Extra Turns are limited from her A1.

FIRE KNIGHT

Maria had to be nerfed due to her ability to chain too many Extra Turns and hits on her A1–which effectively let her solo the Fire Knight's shield, and even solo the entire boss for players with Dreadbomb relics. Make no mistake though: she's still great for this boss. A triple hit A1 is still fantastic, and her huge single target damage will wear him down quickly.

BEST TEAMMATES

Maria will love any teammates who can provide Increase ATK for her, or any Turn Meter Increase or Instant Turn effects. She also really likes champions who can provide healing or shielding, since her passive effectively multiplies their value.

It's also worth trying her in teams with a second damage dealer; if your first damage dealer softens up the enemies enough, Maria can delete them all with her A3.

One final consideration is to use a teammate with the Life Harvest blessing with her in PvP: Maria can reliably secure kills but won't always wipe out an entire enemy team, so adding even more counterplay to enemy revivers will be high value.

Best Stats

The key stats to look for on Maria are:

1. SPD
2. 100% C.RATE
3. C.DMG
4. ATK%
5. ACC

High SPD is very important, ensuring you can snipe key enemy champions with her A2 before they can act, and ensuring she has a good chance to take a turn after reviving from her passive.

C.RATE should be built to 100%, then strike a balance between ATK% and C.DMG% for maximum damage. Use our Hellhades Optimiser Tool to find the best build for your account.

ACC is optional, for situations where you don't get the irresistable effects from her A2 or A3.

Best Gear Sets

The best sets for Maria are:

1. Lethal
2. Stoneskin
3. Merciless
4. Savage
5. Feral
6. Reaction
7. Zeal
8. Cruel

In general, we are looking for sets that will give her as much Ignore Defence as possible (for her A3 and A1, mainly), and then secondary sets that will improve her survivability in arena.

Merciless gives her the best damage output by far, but requires manual play to ensure her A2 is used on every 3rd turn. The 9-piece Extra Turn effect is particularly nasty on her! Reaction accessories are a powerful synergy if using Merciless in PvP.

Lethal is the easier set to use, and can be combined with Stoneskin or Feral for surviving the first turn in PvP.

Zeal or Cruel are good 2-piece sets to complement a 6-Merciless build, particularly for PvE.

Best Masteries

Check out our dedicated Sanguine Maria champion page to see her best masteries!

As a top-tier damage dealer, it is essential to give Maria the best Blessings and Relics that you can to maximise her potential.

Best Blessings

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

There are a few viable Blessings:

1. Lightning Cage (Legendary): This is the standard damage dealer pick for PvP, especially if running her with top tier buffs like Stoneskin or Block Debuffs.
2. Phantom Touch (Rare): This is a strong damage boost and works very well for taking down Fire Knight shields as well.
3. Crushing Rend (Epic): The best PvE option but only at 6-stars. This will give her a massive damage boost, and basically removes the importance of worrying about timing her A2 (with this and Merciless set and area bonuses, she'll likely hit 100% ignore defence off the base 33% version anyway).
4. Life Harvest (Legendary): An interesting option for Arena and waves, if you want to punish revivers even more.

Best Relics

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

There are several great options for Relics:

1. Dreadbomb (Mythical Forge Pass Relic): Bonus ignore defence on Extra Turns, and even more chances for Extra Turns? Combined with insane stats and gems? This relic is totally OP, and almost feels like it was designed for her specifically.
2. Wand of Submission (Legendary Standard Relic): The typical Arena choice, protecting her from CC effects.
3. Gorecrescent (Legendary Chimera Relic): An accessible and strong damage option, helping her chains kills and wreck teams with her A3.
4. Malefic Talon (Rare Chimera Relic): The budget damage dealer relic. Basically a C.DMG% stat stick.