The OG Powerhouse Extraordinaire – Raider Guide

A shout from the mountains, the sound of an axe breaking bones and tearing flesh, and then, suddenly…. You’re dead in three hits and this beast of a man is literally tearing your head off.

If you wish to be the tear-er and not the tear-ee, continue! Everyone else, form an orderly line and prepare for the afterlife.

Raider is the Viking’s vanguard hero, standing head and shoulder over most other heroes in the game, and swinging an axe of the same size. This man is no joke. A single heavy attack from a Raider is upwards of 35 damage, almost 1.5 times that of a standard heavy. That means this sucker can kill you quick if you aren’t careful. He can also chain his zone attack into his combo to do 50 damage. 50 “You’re dead now” damage. That means a 3 hit max damage combo consisting of two overhead heavies and a zone will deal 140 damage. That literally kills 90% of the cast. And the zone is a bitch to dodge. Take that assassins! There is one problem with all this damage though.

His attacks are SLOW. Slow. Slooooooow.

Side heavies take 800ms (milliseconds) while overhead heavies take 900ms! You can’t hit them with a top heavy off of a light parry. And that 50 damage zone? only comes from one direction, so it’s practically parry bait. The only mix-up available to the Raider is a soft feint into a stunning tap, which is predictable and only slightly less parryable. Playing Raider often means you have to get into the head of your opponent and learn how they want to react to your attacks and do the opposite. But he’s due for a rework next season, so we can look potentially look forward to some new options in a couple months.

Even with all these drawbacks he’s still a satisfying hero to play, as every hit takes chunks from your opponent and sends them panicking. And the executions are some of the most brutal and satisfying in the game to date. The Raider is worthwhile hero to learn and play, and I regret no time I’ve spent playing him.