Ok so there is a lot of whining on the forums.. like a lot haha but hear me out.
The Raider is someone who is supposed to throw people around and hit hard, thats all well and good. But as a character thats meant to literally man-handle everyone else and chop them to pieces.. why is he the only vanguard character that does not get a guaranteed guardbreak after a successful parry? Plus even when he does land a guard break, none of his heavy attacks are guaranteed either. Granted, he has an unblockable that can be fainted.. but I feel like the damage it does for the amount of stamina it costs makes it not even worth throwing out unless its to end a chain, and even then its quite easy to parry and after the chain you might not have enough stamina to spare to try and feint it into something else.
So at high level where people are teching guard break attempts consistently, this leaves you with this playstyle of slowly chipping away at your opponents health with light attacks and stunning taps, which is very counter-intuitive to the Raiders archetype. Yes, you can do heavy into light cancels (which are all a high), heavy feint into guard breaks (which people can tech), or baiting out a move and get a dashing stunning tap (gimmicky and guarentees you no real follow up).. but at a high level you have no real way of opening a reactive defensive player up or getting any worthwhile damage in.
Maybe I just suck and need to "get good", but i feel like the Raider fails to do what he's supposed to excel at and the risk/reward isnt even in his favor seeing as your left with only doing light attacks after successful parries, forward throws, and stunning taps. Ideally if the Raider were to be adjusted, all I would want is guaranteed guard breaks after parries and 1 guarenteed heavy attack after both a guard break and a forward throw where you chuck the opponent to the ground (not when you stun them against a wall).
Guess I've been lucky since I don't really share in this complaint to its full extent. Granted I'm only prestige 1 rank 16 yet. When I wall someone I can most of the times get off a top heavy + light and sometimes even the unbreakable to finish off for massive damage, sometimes finishing people off. But for openers I'm a bit stumped. No offensive opener is reliable imo, I most of the time need to parry into a combo to do anything.
I'm fine with the Raider really. Not the best character out there in different scenarios (Dominion vs. Deathmatch require different playstyles), but anyway he's intended to be multi-purpose. I do believe the parry speed could be increased, and the heavy attack tuned so that it's not as predictable//easily parried - on high-level duels he really takes a beating.
But I promised myself that I'll stick to it and learn it as best as possible, inside and out.![]()
Thematically, Raider is my favorite character, but you are right he sucks right now. He's too slow and needs a boost. Guaranteed heavy off of wall stun and successful parry, better/faster animations on his combos, and a light-heavy-heavy combo are all a great place to start. He should be the most "offensive" of the Vanguards seeing that the other two have defensive moves, like the top hit counter on Warden and dash strikes on the Kensei. He also needs a bit more stamina efficiency and should cause a bit more stamina damage when you just sit there and block him.
Right now he suffers from a bad/predictable moveset and is TOO slow, even for a "strong" character. Heavies are faster than him. His one gimmick is running people off cliffs, which is kind of cheap. There's literally no reason to ever use this character once you unlock Conqueror or Warlord.
yeah man i mained raider this beta and i just ranked up to the level of people who have really solid defence. it was only then that i realize my parry into guard breaks were because of my opponents just not teching. i didnt know it wasnt a sure thing until then. but just to be clear if you throw someone into a wall you can get a guaranteed over head heavy if you start it as soon as your recovery is over. meaning you have to realize you are gonna throw them into a wall. not the knee to face but just the throw. .1 seconds to late and you will get parried. but the side heavy is much more forgiving thankfully. so yeah they need to fix that about him. making it really really hard to beat people who dont just let you hit and grab them. possibly impossible.
You cant get a overhead heavy you mean? tested this with a friend like 20 times and with side heavies too. Maybe its character spesific or its just really inconsistent.
Some times they do connect for god knows why smashing heavy attack right after throw to wall didint make any difference.
Maybe P2P lag??
No, it's not just overhead heavy. Side heavy won't land either if the guard is in the right direction. I have tested this as well and you cannot land a free heavy after a wall stun or a parry. The animation is too slow and the opponent's guard will be back up before the hit will connect. He's the only character who cannot punish mistakes or capitalize on a good wall stun or parry.Originally Posted by Desperaato Go to original post
If you're playing against noobs you might land one because they didn't move their guard into the right position, but if it's there then the hit will not land, ever.