How to be successful with the Raider | Forums

[Kharneth88]

So, first off, there's this wonderfully in-depth guide that was posted earlier today. http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php...tain-Dominance I have not read it yet, but looking over the content it seems to have anything you'd need.

Additionally, I wanted to share some tips that I'm sure many have heard but might need another reminder. I'm by no means the best Raider, but I've gotten a lot better over the weekend and it was all thanks to advice I found here on the forums and practice/experimentation with that advice.

The way to find success with the Raider is to utilize many, many feints and parries. In fact, against the best players, the only way to beat them is with feinting and parrying. The hardest thing for me to figure out was what the best thing to do during a parry was, and I'm still not 100% sure as we can't even reliably get a heavy off after a parry. I had a really nice video of a duel against a Lawbringer from this morning but the upload didn't see to work. He was reliably parrying many of my attacks and all of my unblockables, but I learned what is basically the worst case scenario combo.

In a usual fight, this is what will get you the most success. Begin by playing defensively to get an impression of your enemy. If they are also defensive I tend to open them up and initiate combat because I'm an aggressive player, but I need to focus on defensive gameplay because of my aggressive nature. As soon as possible you want to unleash an unblockable and feint it. Then prepare for your enemy's reaction. Did he do nothing? Did he parry-attempt? Did he dodge? Most enemies will parry, some assassins will dodge. If they dodge and they are not an assassin than they likely don't know how to parry and the fight as already been won lol. However, if they do try to parry, make sure to parry their parry and you'll likely exhaust them. Feint possibly one more time and then go in for the non-feinted unblockable and if you haven't killed them with it they'll be critical I'm sure.

You will fight the enemy who always parries and doesn't care about your feints. I fought one this morning, the Lawbringer. The problem with the always-parriers is that you'll never once get your unblockable off during a combo unless he messes up, but it's not worth the risk. What you need to do is feint him into a parry and parry his attack. You need to get him exhausted, so you either need to A) parry him twice (by feinting or punishing aggression) or B) Stun him one way or the other and then parry him. Now, once he is exhausted you need to go for the unblockable (in a combo, no less) but you need to feint it because he's going to parry. He's exhausted, so his parry will be a slow heavy, but you need to parry it. This will cause him to fall on the ground where you can get a free heavy. If your enemy reliably parries all the time, this is the only way to defeat him. Most enemies will stop parrying every time when they see you feinting a lot, but some people don't care.

Now, I've heard the super-pros will cancel their parries when you've cancelled your heavies. I've never experienced someone cancelling their parries, but I can imagine this would be the true worst case scenario and if they're good enough at it than it might be an impossible victory for the Raider, but I'd like to think there's a way around every foe.

[TTVPappusGaming]

You have good chances of still getting the guardbreak if you feint your heavy straight into it, but the raiders heavy is not really good for that. Really good players will only parry commited attacks because of that. Not much you can do about that - just how the game is.

So the worst you could be facing would be a conqueror that only blocks you, parries the stunning taps and does nothing but shieldbash and if it hits he gives you a light. Not much you can do against that, but that is pretty much true for everyone.

What you can do outside of parrying is protecting the best space for your opponent by heaving into that space. An opponent can only parry if the strikes makes contact with him and walking into an attack and parrying is tough so usually people will avoid it. Even the best will misjudge the range here and there and eat a sideheavy for it.

That is especially good against a pk for example. He wants to be in your face or in that range where he goes whiffed first light and stepping in for the faster second light. Should you see that you can just let a heavy rip - it will only connect if he steps into it with the second light for example. Just make sure to not give the enemy optimal range for free.

[Kharneth88]

Thanks.

That's some pretty advanced advice. I surely need to get more familiar with my attack ranges and areas of effect, but I think that'll help a lot with the PKs. I can just keep the occasional heavies launched out in front to keep them on their toes and maybe catch a forward lunge. Feinting a couple of them will be useful, too.

Are you sure that if I do a heavy attack in the open space between me and a PK she can't punish it by immediately forward lunging it after I've started, to hit me as it ends?

[TTVPappusGaming]

of course because you can do heavy -> light since that is a chain of the raider so you see the pk trying to whiffpunish you can check if you can protect yourself with the light or maybe even have time to let another heavy go.

Just like don't fall into complete inaction or do only lights / stunning taps. Protect your space and if you use heavy, heavy -> feint, heavy -> light, Heavy -> heavy, heavy -> zoneattack everytime you press a button the opponent has no idea what is really coming and what he can do.

At the end of the day you only need to connect 3 times with your heavies and the PK is down. During 3 matches if you only hit twice doing this it is already a good netgain and it will happen.

[Iuslez_]

Now, I've heard the super-pros will cancel their parries when you've cancelled your heavies. I've never experienced someone cancelling their parries, but I can imagine this would be the true worst case scenario and if they're good enough at it than it might be an impossible victory for the Raider, but I'd like to think there's a way around every foe.

I've met such a guy just yesterday. He was very good and playing it safe with his warden: only blocking my heavies, which mean neither feints nor pommel strike mixups would be of any use (and pretty much every top Attack ended up as a crushing counter). He would parry all my zone attacks and when I feinted them, he would feint-cancel his counter heavy. Only attacking me with zone and fast attacks after 2-3 fast feints to mess up my parry timing...

I often lose games due to mistakes. But at that level of play, I honestly saw no way to win for me, even if I had played it perfectly.

of course because you can do heavy -> light since that is a chain of the raider so you see the pk trying to whiffpunish you can check if you can protect yourself with the light or maybe even have time to let another heavy go.

A good PK will be able to Attack you between the heavy and the 2nd light. I had it happen numerous times.

[TTVPappusGaming]

I've met such a guy just yesterday. He was very good and playing it safe with his warden: only blocking my heavies, which mean neither feints nor pommel strike mixups would be of any use (and pretty much every top Attack ended up as a crushing counter). He would parry all my zone attacks and when I feinted them, he would feint-cancel his counter heavy. Only attacking me with zone and fast attacks after 2-3 fast feints to mess up my parry timing...

I often lose games due to mistakes. But at that level of play, I honestly saw no way to win for me, even if I had played it perfectly.


A good PK will be able to Attack you between the heavy and the 2nd light. I had it happen numerous times.

PK lunge attack is not faster than the raider light and nothing else is in range for the pk in the situation i described.

[Iuslez_]

PK lunge attack is not faster than the raider light and nothing else is in range for the pk in the situation i described.

he doesn't need to use the lunge attack, if he is just out of reach of the heavy he can just walk forward slightly after the swing and do a regular light in between my heavy and my light. But a well timed lunge also works (he has to start it during the heavy animation to jump just in between the swings)

I just tried it vs a bot and he could do both. Is the light-top faster ? maybe that's the only way to not get hit by the light of the PK.

[nf_Straydog]

Feinting to cancel your missed parries is by no means a super pro only technique, people at my level of play do it almost 100% of the time, but it isn't certain doom. One of Raider's few saving graces is that the startup animation of his lights are almost identical to the startup animation of his heavies. I like to make liberal use of light attacks to stuff enemy actions (especially warlord and conq unblockables) and also periodically just throw lights at them in general to harass them. Once they parry light attacks, sometimes I just let side heavies rock and they'll go for a parry against light attack timing and just get boinked for a quarter of their health. If they don't parry light attacks then... you just win I guess? 'Cause if you're throwing light attacks out like rice at weddings then they can't really do anything. Also, one thing that works against people who feint cancel their missed parries is feinting into GB. They will be unable to tech the GB because it will catch them during the startup of their heavy attack. It isn't flawless and you have to do it really fast. This will often make people second guess their parries and just retreat into passive guarding, but you can still force parry attemps with zone. Whiffing light into zone is my preferred way to use it in neutral because the combo zone does a baflillion damage, so when they catch on to your feints and try to get cute with waiting there you can just let it rip and blow them up. Feint into GB also works against dodge.

EDIT: zone feint into GB > zone works but will drain your stamina 100% so you might just want to GB > light attack or pommel bash, or just throw them

As for what you can get off of a parry, you can either GB and get a zone attack or throw them into a wall and get a side heavy. Using the controlled throw passive works for side throw and back throw as well, you just hold the button down and you will twirl them around hilariously. You can also get a side heavy or a top heavy raw off of parrying a light attack (no GB.) This is character specific, most characters you can get a side heavy (all except conq I think,) and some characters you can get a top heavy, but I haven't played raider enough to know which ones. Pretty sure you can get it on warden nobushi and peacekeeper though, and possibly berserker.