As a player on XBL with a 80%+ win rating, and probably a 90% win rating when I play with my main (and I don't usually play scrubs except if I'm in KoH), let me just say that Raiden is 100% overpowered online. No doubt about it, anybody who tells you anything different is lying to you.
I can deal with Kano, I can deal with Kung Lao, I can deal with Reptile, Ermac, Smoke, and Kabal. Bring 'em. But Raiden? Raiden I have no chance against. In order to block his superman, I have to guess early with block. However, even if I do block his superman, he bounces away so far that it's a 50/50 whether or not I'm going to be quick enough to punish it. That's a safe, extremely fast, high damage forward attack - nobody has all of those in one. But the other problem is that his teleport means I can't block, because he'll simply teleport as soon as I do and either grab me, sweep me, or begin a combo that he can stop at any time and switch to grab. There's literally nothing I can do except eat chip damage and get ready to be thrown.
And sure, I do win a few matches against Raidens. And most of those I win because I make it a mirror match and watch the supermans go flying. I almost refuse to play against Raiden anymore with another character. Let's break it down a bit:
With Reptile, here are the following moves that I use against most characters (obviously there are some matches that require different things):
Slow forceball, fast forceball, slide, dash, acid spit, EX Slow Forceball, EX dash, EX slide, EX acid spit, X-Ray, 1-2-2-1 Combo, 3-2-1 Combo, 2-3+4 Combo, F3-1+2 Combo, Throws, B3, and occassionally 1-2-B1. Those are the moves I use. Sure, I'll go invis against some match ups, and I'll go with the F2-B1 combo against Scorpion all day long... but the above are my typical repitoire.
With Raiden, me and any other good Raiden who plays with him use this:
Teleport-Throw/Sweep/3-3-4, Superman, Electric Bolt, EX Electric Bolt, Superman, EX Superman, X-Ray, and we'll do a few other moves if we get the juggle combo going, but only in that situation.
So basically, with Raiden I'm going to do ten moves against you. With Reptile (another top tier), I need to do seventeen moves.
Now, not only that, but also there's the issue of the pattern. With Reptile, I'm going to throw forceballs, acid spits, dashes, slides, combos, and grabs at you in an effort to hit you unexpectedly and get some damage in there. With Raiden, I'm going to repeatedly teleport faster than you can respond, grabbing you if you're blocking before you can adjust, supermanning you if you try to, and chipping away at you with my overhead combo if needed. You'll know the pattern, but there's nothing you can do about it.
That's what's patently overpowered about Raiden. If I know somebody's pattern, I should be able to exploit it. Ninety-percent of Raidens online have the same pattern, and there is no way to exploit it unless they make really foolish mistakes. That's the problem.
aiden: lol
