The Power Of Counter Attack Champions in Raid Shadow Legends
In this guide, we explore the importance of Counterattack champions in Raid Shadow Legends. We break down how the buff works, why it plays such a crucial role in your teams, which champions apply it most effectively, and where you’ll get the most value from using it.
What Counterattack does in raid
How the Counterattack Buff Works
Counterattack is a buff that allows a Champion to immediately respond when hit by an enemy attack, using their default A1 skill at 75% of its normal damage. There are some exceptions, either where a skill specifically states that a different ability will be used when counterattacking, or niche cases such as Gnut, who deals 100% damage when counterattacking.
Many Champions also gain additional value from Counterattack through unique interactions in their kit, whether that’s extra damage, stronger debuff application, or other mechanics tied to their A1. Despite the usual damage reduction, Counterattack remains one of the strongest buffs in Raid, generating additional attacks without requiring extra turns and increasing overall damage, debuff application, and team efficiency.
Whether placed on the whole team, specific allies, or just themselves, Counterattack is especially effective in content such as Clan Boss, Arena, Fire Knight, and other encounters where additional attacks provide a significant advantage.
Why Counterattack is Important
Counterattack is an important buff because it allows your team to generate additional attacks without taking extra turns, increasing both damage output and the value of A1 abilities. These extra attacks can help apply debuffs more consistently, speed up encounters, and deal more damage over the course of a fight. This makes Counterattack especially effective in content where repeated attacks provide great value.
Why Counterattack champions are valuable
Retaliation
Counterattack effectively gives teams additional retaliation attacks throughout a battle, allowing Champions to strike back whenever they are attacked instead of waiting for their next turn. These extra attacks can quickly add up over the course of a fight, increasing damage output and providing more opportunities to trigger valuable A1 effects, debuffs, and abilities.
In encounters where enemies attack frequently, Counterattack can generate value without disrupting your team’s normal turn order or cooldown rotations. One exception is in speed tuned Demon Lord teams, where A1 abilities that manipulate Turn Meter or reduce cooldowns can potentially disrupt the tune if not accounted for.
Improving Team Damage
It can generate a significant amount of extra damage over long encounters by creating additional attacks whenever your champions are hit. As these extra attacks accumulate throughout the fight, they can greatly increase your team’s overall damage output without requiring extra turns or excessive speed.
Best areas to use Counterattack champions
Clan Boss
Counterattack is especially effective in Demon Lord, Hydra, and Chimera Clan Boss, allowing your team to generate additional attacks throughout the fights. This increases both damage output and the frequency of valuable A1 effects, making it particularly powerful against Demon Lord where predictable attacks can help push towards key damage milestones.
In Hydra and Chimera, Counterattack remains valuable, though mechanics such as buff stealing, removal, or spreading can reduce its effectiveness if not managed properly. Despite this, it remains strong for increasing overall damage and value from your team across long boss encounters.
In these battles, success is determined by how much damage you can deal before either reaching the turn limit or losing your team, rather than how quickly you defeat the boss. Because the best rewards are tied to higher damage thresholds, maximizing your survivability is essential.
PVE Waves & Bosses
The buff can be very effective against PvE bosses and waves because it generates additional attacks whenever your Champions are hit. Against bosses, this helps accelerate encounters and gain more value from powerful A1 abilities, while in wave content it provides extra damage, debuff application, and opportunities to take down enemies as they attack into your team.
Fire Knight
Counterattack can be extremely useful against Fire Knight because every counterattack counts as an additional hit against his Shield. This allows your team to remove Shield counters even during the boss’s turn, helping expose him more quickly and keep the Shield down more consistently.
PVP
Counterattack can be effective in PvP, punishing enemies for attacking the wrong target and creating pressure even when it isn’t your turn. Even champions that can place the buff on themselves, such as Leonardo or Joan, become far more threatening while Counterattack is active, as every hit against them can trigger additional damage.
This often forces opponents to think carefully about their target selection, as attacking into a Champion under Counterattack can quickly swing the momentum of a fight if the buff isn’t removed or the Champion isn’t controlled first.
Best Counterattack champions in raid
Here we’ve highlighted some of the top Counterattack champions in Raid: Shadow Legends, showcasing the different strengths they bring. While this list isn’t exhaustive, it should give you an understanding of what makes these champions so effective. For more options, be sure to check out our Champion Tier List.
Valkyrie
Valkyrie is able to simultaneously place a Shield on allies for 3 turns and Counterattack for 2 turns, providing both protection and offensive utility through a single skill. This makes her one of the strongest enablers of Counterattack teams, especially in content where enemies attack frequently. She further enhances her value through her passive, increasing her Turn Meter whenever enemies receive buffs while reducing theirs. This helps her cut in against buff heavy teams and cycle back to her A2 more quickly.
Martyr
Martyr is a classic Champion in Raid, combining offensive and defensive utility with crowd control. She can place both Decrease ATK and Provoke on all enemies, helping reduce incoming damage while controlling waves and encounters such as the Magma Dragon. Her A2 places Increase DEF and Counterattack on the entire team, improving survivability while enabling allies to generate extra attacks when hit. Combined with her strong all battles DEF Aura, Martyr remains a highly effective Champion.
Klaazag
Not only can Klaazag place Counterattack and Unkillable on all allies, but he also places Taunt on himself, with these buffs becoming protected against bosses. This provides excellent survivability while enabling your team to generate additional attacks. He also brings strong utility through his A2, placing Decrease DEF, Weaken, Decrease ACC, and Decrease RES, while his passive deals Enemy MAX HP damage whenever he places debuffs. This combination of damage, debuffs, protection, and Counterattack support makes him a powerful all round option.
Skullcrusher
Since his release, no Epic Champion has stepped forward in Teleria capable of placing Counterattack on the entire team. He does this alongside Ally Protection and Unkillable on himself, helping keep allies alive while enabling additional attacks, making him the backbone of many players’ Demon Lord teams as they progress. He also passively decreases the duration of debuffs on himself and brings the small version of Heal Reduction, providing some additional utility for encounters such as Fire Knight.
Cecilia
Cecilia is a powerhouse Champion, able to place Increase DEF, Strengthen, and Counterattack on allies, greatly improving both survivability and damage output. She follows this up with an Enemy MAX HP attack and Perfect Veil, adding further protection while contributing meaningful damage. To round out her kit, she can passively place Revive on Death on allies who fall below 50% HP and removes a random debuff from an ally at the start of each turn.
Alaz
Alaz is capable of placing Counterattack on the entire team, doing so alongside Provoke & Block Damage to provide protection, Control and additional attacks. This makes him exceptionally strong for content such as Demon Lord & PVP. In his Alternate Form, he enhances the effectiveness of Fear and True Fear, places AoE HP Burn that cannot be resisted by enemies under Stoneskin, and can instantly detonate those burns. Alaz also brings team support through healing, MAX HP restoration, Strengthen, and Increase RES, making him a powerful all round option across both PvE and PvP content.
Self or Target examples
Some Champions can place Counterattack on themselves, while others can grant it to specific allies. Below, we’ll highlight a variety of options that utilise Counterattack in different ways, whether for damage output, improving control, or providing additional support and utility for your team.
Leonardo
Leonardo is a great example of a Champion who blends strong damage with team support. He can place Increase DEF and Ally Protection on allies, while granting himself Unkillable and Counterattack to improve his survivability and generate additional attacks.
His A3 is where he truly shines, especially once Unity is enabled alongside other Turtles. The skill scales significantly in damage, can activate when allies fall below 50% HP, and deals increased damage based on enemy buffs. If he secures a kill, he also removes those buffs, making him a powerful mix of damage, protection, and utility.
Gnut
Through Gnut’s A2, he places both Decrease ATK and Weaken on enemies while granting himself Counterattack, allowing him to trigger his A1 more frequently when attacked. This provides additional opportunities to decrease Turn Meter or place Freeze, making him especially effective against bosses such as Dark Fae.
He also brings a powerful triple-hit Enemy MAX HP attack for dealing with high health bosses, while his passive allows him to deal 100% damage instead of the usual 75% when counterattacking, further increasing his damage output and value from the buff.
Baerd
Baerd is able to place Counterattack on both himself and your highest C.DMG ally, helping generate additional attacks while supporting vulnerable allies through Continuous Heals from his A1. This makes him a strong option for enabling key damage dealers while providing sustain. Alongside this, he brings Provoke and Pain Link, a triple hit A2 that steals buffs, transfers his debuffs to the target before spreading them, and a passive that heals allies whenever he takes damage.
Joan
In her Alternate Form, Counterattack becomes a core part of her kit, as she places it on herself at the end of every turn. This synergises with her A1, allowing her to deal double damage when counterattacking while progressively ignoring more DEF, making her a constant threat in both PvE and PvP.
Outside of this, she provides strong support in her Base Form through a full team cleanse, Increase ATK, Increase RES, Turn Meter boosts, and a revive with Unkillable. She also brings strong damage, Turn Meter control, and strong RES based scaling across both forms, making her an excellent blend of support and offence.
How to build Counterattack Champions
Speed & Stats
Building Counterattack Champions effectively comes down to prioritising Speed and the stats that best suit their role. For tankier Champions, this often means HP%, DEF%, and RES to help them survive long enough to gain value from repeated counterattacks, or having buffs removed/stolen.
In content such as Demon Lord Clan Boss, timing is especially important. Ensuring Counterattack is active for key AoE attacks can dramatically increase your damage output, while pairing it with effects such as Block Debuffs helps protect your team from incoming crowd control and debuffs.
For damage dealers or debuff focused Champions, make sure you have enough ACC to land key effects, or sufficient offensive stats such as 100% C.Rate and strong C.DMG to maximise the value. Regardless of their role, Speed remains important for cycling back to Counterattack skills more frequently and maintaining consistent uptime on the buff.
Recommended Artifact Sets
Artifact sets for Counterattack Champions should focus on improving their role while ensuring they have enough Speed to maintain Counterattack uptime. Sets such as Speed, Impulse, and Perception are all strong options, with Perception being especially valuable for Champions who also need ACC to land debuffs consistently.
As you progress into later game content, Protection becomes increasingly valuable by helping safeguard Counterattack and other important buffs from being removed or stolen, while also providing useful stats. Mercurial is another strong defensive option through Total Guard stacks.
For damage dealers, sets such as Savage, Lethal, Merciless, and Cruel can increase damage output by ignoring a portion of enemy DEF. These can be paired with Stoneskin for PvP survivability or Accuracy focused sets for Champions who also rely on debuffs, while ensuring their core scaling stats, such as ATK, DEF, or HP, are properly supported.
Tips for using Counterattack Champions
Champions under Counterattack are at their best when they can consistently retaliate against enemies. Depending on their role, you’ll also want to prioritise damage stats, Accuracy for debuffers, or survivability for tankier Champions such as Skullcrusher. In longer encounters like Demon Lord, timing Counterattack buffs around key enemy attacks can dramatically increase both damage output and the effectiveness of powerful A1 abilities.
Many Counterattack Champions offer far more than just additional attacks, often bringing valuable debuffs, damage, crowd control, protection, or team support alongside the buff. Building teams that can protect, sustain, and enable these Champions will help you gain the most value from every counterattack, while ensuring the buff remains active when enemies are most likely to attack.