One of the biggest changes to ever happen in RAID Shadow Legends is the addition of Live Arena being added to the game because it is the first time that players are able to battle each other in real time as opposed to just AI versions of someone else's preset defense. Live Arena plays very different than previous versions of the Arena also, because it has more depth with mechanics like alternating picks, blocking duplicate champions, and being able to ban champions that your opponent wants to use.

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The Live Arena is also different than other PvP modes because it is not always open. There are 4 different time windows that the Live Arena will be active for you to que for matches.&nbsp;

TIMES IN UTC

<ol>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">00:00 - 02:00</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">06:00 - 08:00</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">14:00 - 16:00</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">20:00 - 22:00</li>
</ol>

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There is also new gear up for grabs by winning Live Arena matches. You will get a Live Arena Chest every time you win 35 Live Arena battles. This means for most players who are active in the Live Arena, you should get one of these chests every 5-10 days.

The new artifact sets that were introduced, and drop from these Live Arena Chests, are the Impulse and Zeal sets.

<ol>
	<li>Impulse: (4 pieces) Speed +12%, also 30% chance to reduce a random skill cooldown by 1 turn.</li>
	<li>Zeal: (4 pieces) Critical Damage +25%, also +7.5% damage for every 25% HP the target has.</li>
</ol>

The Impulse set is kind of a buffed up version of the Reflex set that drops in the Ice Golem, and the Zeal set is a buffed up version of the Crit Damage set that drops in the Fire Knight. These will be added to our <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/tierlists/artifact-sets-tier-list">FULL ARTIFACT SETS TIER LIST</a> very soon!

&nbsp;

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There are 12 different ranking tiers that players will filter into as they compete in the Live Arena. Four in each of the Bronze, Silver and Gold leagues. These ranking tiers represent how high you will be able to upgrade the new bonuses that were added to the Great Hall in relation to the Live Arena.&nbsp; You will need to reach Gold league, to be able to upgrade the upgrades that require Golden Live Arena Crests.

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There are 3 different "grades" of areas to upgrade, and the cost to upgrade will go up depending the grade. These grades tend to reflect the areas that players will most likely want to prioritize valuing the upgrades. Grade 1 being just the Potion Keeps, Grade 2 being Ice Golem, Fire Knight, Dragon, and Spider, then finally Grade 3 being Hydra and Demon Lord.&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li>Grade 1: 25 - 500 Crests</li>
	<li>Grade 2: 50 - 1,000 Crests</li>
	<li>Grade 3: 100 - 2,000 Crests</li>
</ol>

You will be able to get 3 upgrades in each area even if in Bronze, levels 4-6 will require you be in Silver, and the 7-10 upgrades will require you farming Crests in the Gold tier of Live Arena.

&nbsp;

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There is also a new champion that is exclusive to being earned by competing in the Live Arena, similar to what <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/builds/lydia-the-deathsiren-build-masteries-and-guide" target="_blank">Lydia the Deathsiren</a> is from Faction Wars, and what <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/champions/mithrala-lifebane" target="_blank">Mithrala</a> is from the Hydra. This champion is <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/champions/quintus-the-triumphant" target="_blank">Quintus the Triumphant</a>, and we have a full breakdown of his addition to the game right here in our <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/blog/new-live-arena-champ-announced-quintus-the-triumpant" target="_blank">NEW LIVE ARENA CHAMPION ANNOUNCEMENT</a> article.

It will take at least a milestone ranking of 4,000 to attain Quintus the Triumphant, which means you will need to rank up to Gold 3 in the Live Arena to earn him onto your account.

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As far as actually facing opponents in the Live Arena, the mechanics are very different from all other forms of PvP, because of being up against another human instead of just facing their predetermined AI defense that they set. There are 2 phases to a Live Arena battle, first you will have the pick/ban phase, then once the teams are set, you will enter phase 2 which is the actual live fight.'

<ol>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;Phase 1: Pick/Ban 
	Each player will alternate picking champions until each player has selected 5 champions that they would like to bring into battle. Up in the highest tier, which is Gold league, duplicate champions cannot be used. This means if either players selects a champion, the other player cannot pick that champion for their team. 
	 
	Once each player has selected their 5 champions, now each player gets to ban one champion from their opponent's team, making each player now have a team of 4 that is ready to go into battle. At this point, each player picks who they would like to be the leader aura, and the battle is ready to begin. 
	&nbsp;</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Phase 2: Live Battle 
	This will now be a mostly normal 4v4 arena match, but each player will be there actively paying attention. There is a 20 second countdown during each champion's turn that the player can try to decide which ability to use and where to target it. There is also a 30 minute timer for a maximum length of time that the battle can last, and once that expires, both players will be given a loss.</li>
</ol>

&nbsp;

The most common overarching strategy, is for players to choose 3 supports, and 2 damage dealers. This is because if a player only chooses 1 damage dealer, it can simply get banned, leaving that player with no way to actually confirm kills. This means that a lot of Live Arena matches end up being teams of 2 supports and 2 damage dealers vs each other, because many times banning a crucial support champion is a very popular choice.&nbsp;

Live Arena has come to RAID Shadow Legends and it's completely changed PvP.

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Raid: Shadow Legends

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RAID Live Arena FULL Guide...

RAID Live Arena FULL Guide

The Sylvan Watchers were introduced to RAID Shadow Legends towards the end of 2022 as the 15th faction. There is usually a gap period between when a new faction is announced, and when it will have a faction crypt to fight through where you can farm up glyphs and crafting materials. This is usually about 4-10 months and as of May 2023 it has been confirmed by Plarium that the Sylvan Watchers will be getting their own faction crypt in July 2023.

You can view all of RAID's champions and their grades on our <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/champions" target="_blank">OVERALL CHAMPION TIER LIST</a>, but in this guide we will be talking about a specific faction, and their grades within a specific area, in order to help plan an effective team for taking down the Sylvan Watchers faction crypt.

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The chart above is showing all of the Sylvan Watcher champions as of the faction crypt's announcement and their grades within the context of just faction wars. It is important to note, that these grades could change slightly later one when we find out which of the faction war bosses will be the one who is guarding the final stage. There are 4 different faction war bosses, and we don't know yet which one will be in which in the boss stages, which are 7, 14, and 21.

Right now our faction war ranks for the Sylvan Watchers are:

<ol>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Elva Autumnborn</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Claidna</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Duedan the Ruenic</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Myciliac Priest Orn</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">King Gallcobar</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Mistrider Daithi</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Ailil</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Greenwarden Ruarc</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Oella</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">White Dryad Nia</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Ruella</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Criodan the Blue</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Wyrennon the Silken</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Searsha the Charred</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Pathfinder Cait</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Kellan the Shrike</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Merouka</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Locwain</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Shadowbow</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Cormac the Highpeak</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Enda Moonbeam</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify;">Shadow Tirlac</li>
</ol>

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The undisputed Queen of Sylvan Watchers for Faction Wars is Elva Autumnborn. Heals, Block Debuffs, Increase Speed, Perfect Veil, All Battle Speed Aura,&nbsp;&nbsp;AND the ability to Revive, along with great base stats including a 110 base speed make her an amazing cornerstone of any Faction Wars team if you are lucky enough to have her on your roster. Elva Autumnborn was a <a href="https://aftershockunited.gg/raid/blog/all-guaranteed-summoning-events-history">GUARANTEED SUMMON EVENT</a> back in November of 2022 for 20 Sacred Shards.&nbsp;

One the crypt is live, we will try to get some teams posted here that are used to farm the final stage at both the optimized and budget fronts!

RAID Sylvan Watchers Faction Wars guide complete with grades of each champion and how to plan effectively.

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Sylvan Watchers | Faction Wars Guide...

Sylvan Watchers | Faction Wars Guide

Hey RAID players, in this blog post I share with you a 1 picture guide showing my team achieving 90M damage on Hydra Brutal including a lot of information about it.

If you want to skip the text just scroll down to the picture below - it is a large picture, feel free to zoom in and move around to see all aspects shown on the picture. Otherwise, continue reading below for various text explanations.

<h3 style="text-align: left;">Hydra Brutal Guide by COSMOS</h3>

Team Composition 1:

There are mostly 2 types of compositions when it comes to Hydra: 4 support champions and 2 damage dealers (which is more common for beginners who struggle to stay alive) and 3 support champions with 3 damage dealers. This run is with the latter: 3 SUPPORT + 3 DMG.

Team Composition 2:

I noted on the picture the roles for each champion. This is also to help to choose alternatives if you want to adapt the team to your account. And I also explained about ALTS on the picture. Basically:

<ul style="text-align: left;">
	<li>All of the damage dealers can be replaced. What you will replace them with, of course, matters. You can't put a Rare Kael and expect to get the same result. So assuming you replace by a similar caliber all of them can be replaced. I would only recommend to try to bring at least someone with HP Burn as that will help against the Head of Blight if the Block Debuffs fails.</li>
	<li>MAX HP damage dealers would be the primary targets such as extra Husks or Royal Guards. Of course, if you have the cheat code (Acrizia) you don't need any guides.</li>
	<li>There are other unique damage dealers such as single target hitters which might need dedicated support such as the combination of Turvold and Mithrala. In this case you would switch to a 4 support + 2 damage dealer combination.</li>
</ul>

When it comes to support it is different:

<ul style="text-align: left;">
	<li>While damage dealers, most of the time, can be judged individually, the Support champions must be judged as a group.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>This is because the people who make Hydra teams think and plan for specific elements so you cannot just randomly replace one support - the whole team could fail.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Instead, write down the things the group of supports must do for the team and if you need to replace then replace by another group that does the same.</li>
</ul>

<h3 style="text-align: left;">To revive or not?</h3>

It is important to consider if you can build a team without Revive. The reason for this is because this opens up the possibility for much more damage if you don't need to worry about Reviving.&nbsp;

And it is not as simple as weak vs. strong equipment. It has more to do with the type of champions. For example if you compare Husk and Royal Guard, they will dish out similar damage but Royal Guard will die many times while it is very much possible to do an entire Hydra fight without Husk going down.

It is very difficult (but possible) to keep ATTACK-type champions alive.&nbsp;

<h3 style="text-align: left;">Dealing with Hydra Heads</h3>

You need a plan to deal with them all. Often times less experienced RAID players will wine about a specific head, but when you play a full run until turn 246 as shown here, you will, 100%, end up dealing with all of Hydra Heads and multiple times at that.

There are regularly players complaining about not having Shamael, yet some of the top damage dealing teams don't use him!

Head of Torment

This Hydra run was done in Rotation #1 with the Head of Torment and, as you can see, I am not using Shamael. I dealt with this head by putting HP Burn on it and ignoring it most of the time. When Husk was not in fear (or cleansed 1 turn before his big Max HP smash was ready) he would help bring it down further. If the Fear debuff is on the plan is not to use any critical skill, use A1 and wait for the cleanse. This means watching and remembering when the critical skills are becoming ready!

Head of Mischief

Mischief Tank? Nope. I have no buffs to steal so he is free to steal nothing. OK there is a Speed-up sometimes, but I neither care if he steals that nor he manages with the Block Buffs from Uugo. So mostly I ignore this Head and don't see it as a threat unless it eats someone.

Mischief and Suffering are the most dangerous Heads in the game when you are on a high Turn count. Mischief because it is fast and Suffering because it is fat. So the plan is always to ignore them unless they will be eating your champions.

Head of Suffering

As mentioned above, completely ignore it. I don't see it as a threat at all and am happy to have that Head appearing as it means I will only have 3 opponents.

Head of Decay

This is probably the most dangerous Hydra Head. Therefore I have 3 champions in Provoke sets to keep it domesticated. Once in a rare blue moon it manages to Cleanse which is not a major issue but if all the stars align for the Hydra it can end the battle. Therefore Provoke takes priority over HP Burn.

Head of Blight

The least dangerous Head for this Team. HP Burns can bypass the Poison Cloud and Block Buffs prevents it. On top of that this Head helps to deal more damage to the Hydra via the HP Burn mechanic.

I completely ignore this Head unless it eats a champion.

Head of Wrath

The best friend you can have with this Team! Yes, I know this is a surprising statement for some players. But managing it correctly and triggering his big attack helps to both release eaten champions and to dish out more damage to the Hydra!&nbsp;

It is important however not to overdo it. The healing capacity is limited - you can't just constantly trigger it.

<h3 style="text-align: left;">Hydra Brutal Guide by COSMOS - 1 picture guide / collage</h3>

90M Hydra Brutal Guide by COSMOS 3 Support 3 DMG - RAID guid...

A guide to help players be more successfully at beating Hydra.

Interesting things about Hydra Chests for Beginners -thumb.w...

90M Hydra Brutal Guide by COSMOS - 1 picture guide / collage...

90M Hydra Brutal Guide by COSMOS - 1 picture guide / collage + Explanations

There are 7 Hydra chests, they are:

<h3 style="text-align: left;">Hydra Chests</h3>

<ul style="text-align: left;">
	<li>Novice – Hydra Normal Difficulty -- contains 2 Artifacts</li>
	<li>Adept – Hydra Difficulty: Normal + Hard -- contains 3 Artifacts</li>
	<li>Warrior – Hydra Difficulty: Normal + Hard + Brutal -- contains 3 Artifacts</li>
	<li>Knight – Hydra Difficulty: Brutal + Nightmare -- contains 4 Artifacts</li>
	<li>Guardian – Hydra Difficulty: Brutal + Nightmare -- contains 6 Artifacts</li>
	<li>Master – out of scope for this post -- contains 6 Artifacts</li>
	<li>Grandmaster – out of scope for this post -- contains 7 Artifacts</li>
</ul>

Naturally, the higher the chest the better the rewards, and, on top of that, sometimes it is better to get 1 higher chest than 2 of lower ones (with 1 exception):

<h3 style="text-align: left;">The Cut off points – chests to target:</h3>

Novice chest is the worst, not because it is the lowest one, but because it can drop 4 star equipment, which is completely useless. It has 25% chance to drop a 4 star Rare and another 18% chance to drop a 4 star Epic. This chest exists only in the Normal Difficulty.

The next group is Adept and Warrior chests. These have a 22% to 25% chance to drop 5 star equipment and another 27% to 30% chance to drop 6 star equipment. That means roughly half the time these will give Rare equipment which is not ideal. However, they do start dropping 5 star and 6 star legendary equipment at 5% to 10%. Still, the chance of Rare is very high and makes these chests less desirable. 
These 2 chests exist in Normal, Hard and Brutal difficulties.

Knight chest is the next “gamechanger” because it no longer drops 5 star rare equipment, although, it still maintains the chance to drop 6 star rare equipment. However, this, alongside the small chances for Mythic (0.75%), an 8.21% chance to drop 5 star legendary equipment and a 2.99% chance to drop 6 star legendary equipment makes it significantly better than the previous chests.

If you have a choice to go for 1 Knight chest versus going for 2 Adept or Warrior chests I think it would be better to go for the Knight one.&nbsp;

An exception to this is if you are still collecting Mithrala fragments in which chase the quantity of chests is important. Adept and Warrior would drop 1.9 fragments while Knight would drop 2.38 so in this case 2 smaller chests are better than 1 higher one.

You’d need 20.4M damage on Hydra Hard or 19.6M damage on Hydra Brutal to get the Knight Chest. This is very much doable once you understand how Hydra works and build a dedicated team for it.

Lastly, the Guardian chest is the main goal to reach for most players who are able to do Hydra up to Brutal (Currently not many (out of the entire player-base) are able to do even Brutal, so Nightmare difficulty and it’s Master and Grandmaster chests are out of scope for this article).

What makes the Guardian chest special is the complete removal of Rare equipment pieces. This chest will drop only Epic and Legendary items with a slight chance of Mythic. The majority should be Epic pieces because it has a large 34.45% chance to drop 5 star Epic equipment and 46.22% to drop 6 star Epic equipment. Together that makes it a little over 80% chance that the player will receive Epic equipment.

When it comes to Legendary items there is a slight increase versus previous chests:

<ul style="text-align: left;">
	<li>5 star lego: Adept 4%, Warrior 8%, Knight 8.21% and Guardian 10.08%.</li>
</ul>

But there is a much bigger increase for 6 star lego drops:

<ul style="text-align: left;">
	<li>6 star lego: Adept 1%, Warrior 2%, Knight 2.99% and Guardian 6.72%.</li>
</ul>

The remaining couple of percentage points is for Mythic equipment.

You’d need 29.4M damage on Hydra Brutal to get the Guardian Chest. This is much harder to achieve than the Knight Chest but it definitely can be done.

&nbsp;

This post explains the different Hydra chests and what they contain so players know what to target.

Interesting things about Hydra Chests for Beginners -header....

Interesting things about Hydra Chests for Beginners...

Interesting things about Hydra Chests for Beginners

Yes, it's true that in 99.9% of cases, you should still proceed with the Fusion if you've already pulled the Fusion champion in RAID Shadow Legends. There are numerous reasons for this decision, which we'll explore in detail below to provide a comprehensive understanding of the benefits and advantages of fusing in this popular game.

<h2>Faction Guardians</h2>

One of the primary reasons to pursue Fusion even after pulling the Fusion champion is the value of Faction Guardians. The majority of RAID players are not high spenders, meaning they won't have a plethora of Legendary champions to fill up their Faction Guardians. If you've managed to pull the Fusion champion by luck, this presents an opportunity for you to obtain a second one through the Fusion schedule. This will enable you to add another pair to your Faction Guardians, granting an additional bonus to all Legendary champions of that specific Faction. As a result, your overall performance in battles and your ability to progress in the game will be enhanced.

<h2>Multiple Copies / Builds</h2>

Another compelling reason to go ahead with Fusion is the existence of certain champions that benefit from having more than one build. This can be broken down into three categories, each showcasing different ways to optimize the strengths of various champions:

<h3>Category 1:</h3>

These are simply exceptional champions that you can use multiple copies of, particularly in situations like Hydra where using the champion once locks them out. Uugo is a prime example of this, providing both Defense down as well as Block Buffs and healing – an outstanding Epic champion. By having multiple copies of such champions, you can ensure that your team remains powerful and versatile during battles.

<h3>Category 2:</h3>

Similar to the first category, these champions are also great when used together. Double Teodor, for instance, can lead to extremely fast dungeon runs. This strategy of combining champions that complement each other can help you maximize efficiency and achieve success in different aspects of the game.

<h3>Category 3:</h3>

This category includes versatile champions with multiple functions, allowing you to build one champion with a specific equipment set and purpose while building another one differently for a separate area. For example, you might have a Geomancer tailored for Clan Boss with a very precise speed and damage output, and another one built for Hydra with a faster, tankier setup and lower direct damage output to focus on applying HP Burn. By diversifying your champion builds, you can effectively tackle various challenges that the game presents.

<h2>Empowerment</h2>

Lastly, there's always the option to Empower one of the champions to make them stronger. This is typically done by a minority of RAID players who already have numerous legendary champions. However, as players accumulate more champions over time, even the majority will gradually start empowering their champions.

It's worth noting that while a +1 Empowerment may not seem like a significant improvement, it's still better than the base champion. Moreover, there's always the possibility of further empowering the champion to +2 and beyond in the future.

That said, it's important to emphasize that the vast majority of RAID players should not "waste" legendary champions on empowerment before filling up their Faction Guardians. Prioritizing the completion of Faction Guardians will ensure that your overall roster remains strong and well-rounded, providing a solid foundation for future growth and success in RAID Shadow Legends.

By understanding and implementing these strategies, you can maximize the effectiveness of your champions and optimize your gameplay experience in RAID Shadow Legends. So, don't hesitate to proceed with Fusion even if you've already pulled the Fusion champion; the benefits are well worth the effort.

Explore the benefits of fusing even when you've already pulled the Fusion champion in RAID Shadow Legends, and boost your gameplay.