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Lord Raiden General Discussion Thread

If I was going to use Jo Push, I'd probably pair it with Storm Cell. That way you can still do 29% mid-screen with B12xxxSC J2-F2-121 and push the opponent to the corner, and then they'd be at a great range to harass with Jo Push. Plus you'd have Jo Push to use as a side switch combo. You lose a lot of good potential defensive options that way though, but then you get the range.
In my opinion, you'd have much more versatile offensive and defensive options if you replace Storm Cell with Lightning Rod. You'll still be able to do plenty damage in the corner, and you'll have scary pressure options on the opponent with your Rod bubble. Again, I'd happily help you guys out with these things if we did some matches together.

Just to be clear, when I offer to 1v1 with you guys, I'm not doing it to be a jerk and go full blast "try hard mode" or anything, it's more to show and help you guys (even in online practice mode) with some real time examples and scenarios of how to use Rod and Jo staff competitively under real pressure.

I've had many, many Storm Cell raiden players that have 2,000 plus Raiden hours on the game actually get intrigued and open their minds to Jo Push and Rod after running some matches together.

In my opinion there is no one "single" optimal Raiden Style. It all comes down to what moveset you choose and how good you are with those tools.
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
Swapping out Storm Cell loses a big chunk of mid screen damage and corner carry, along with slightly worse corner damage and no good way to set up Raiden’s B2 KB 50/50.

Lightning rod offers no defensive value, and limited offensive value or pressure. It can check the opponent’s movement, but it’s value is limited, and spending meter on it is inefficient.

Alternatively you can swap out Jo Push for Teleport and now you have better safety, defense, and mobility while still maintaining side switches and gaining a good ender with corner carry In Electric Fly.

Or swap out Jo Push for Quick Charge and Electric Burst and now your defense is better and you have a safe pressure tool to use with your best normal B4.
 
Swapping out Storm Cell loses a big chunk of mid screen damage and corner carry, along with slightly worse corner damage and no good way to set up Raiden’s B2 KB 50/50.

Lightning rod offers no defensive value, and limited offensive value or pressure. It can check the opponent’s movement, but it’s value is limited, and spending meter on it is inefficient.

Alternatively you can swap out Jo Push for Teleport and now you have better safety, defense, and mobility while still maintaining side switches and gaining a good ender with corner carry In Electric Fly.

Or swap out Jo Push for Quick Charge and Electric Burst and now your defense is better and you have a safe pressure tool to use with your best normal B4.
Respectfully, several of those statements are flat out untrue. Swapping out Storm Cell you only lose a SLIGHT amount of raw midscreen damage, and your Jo Push already has tons of corner carry (it only side switches when you're close to your opponent). You also still have plenty of corner damage with a bread and butter Jo Push corner combo amplify, then 3, 2, 2, 4, 3, DB2 (summon lightning) ender, with the added bonus of it being an excellent armor breaker. Also the "no good way to setup B2 KB"? Again, the Rod can literally chain combo together a B2 KB, turning it into a full streamlined combo. The Rod bubble can also trap your opponent in the corner while you apply pressure on them at the same time.

You then said, "Lightning Rod offers no defensive value."

This statement alone shows me you don't have a good grasp of Lightning Rod's abilities. The Rod bubble can absolutely be used both offensively and defensively. You can plant the bubble directly on yourself and that prevents rushdown characters from advancing. This also protects you from teleporting scorpions, Raidens, skarlets, etc.

If a rushdown fighter ignores it and mashes his combo anyway, they will get staggered and you immediately get your turn back to follow up with your own combo. If they block it all, they still eat MASSIVE chip damage. The rod also turns all your regular "high" lightning projectiles to multidirectional shots. You can also do a rod plant setup, then advance a combo on the enemy and mix in a "Rod Retreival" (D, D, 4) special cancel to further play mind games with the opponent. None of this is possible with Storm Cell. You also lose your armor breaker with storm cell.

Jo Push complements all of this greatly and together with Rod allows great "map control" and Neutral options. It also has longer range than Electric Burst, and doesn't require Quick Charge to bring its max efficiency.
 

Darth-Nero

Come Thunder! Come Lightning!
Phew indeed, even thought he doesn't look like earthrealm's protector now. i think they are going for a reversed roles with Liu as the mentor and Raiden as the apprentice. Kinda cool and much better than Raiden getting deleted.
 

Marlow

Premium Supporter
Premium Supporter
I'm curious if he'll still get some lightning powers, or if they'll stick with him being a more "human" fighter, and he'll fight more like a monk instead of a god.

BTW I'm a sucker for that "Hero loses powers but still finds a way to be awesome" redemption stuff, so this instantly makes the character much more interesting to me. Even if it means he could lose some of his iconic moves.
 
I dunno how to feel about this yet. Will wait for gameplay. I prefer my characters old looking (Raiden) so I hope we can still skin them up.
I hope Cary is voicing Shang at least.
 

Darth-Nero

Come Thunder! Come Lightning!
I'm curious if he'll still get some lightning powers, or if they'll stick with him being a more "human" fighter, and he'll fight more like a monk instead of a god.

BTW I'm a sucker for that "Hero loses powers but still finds a way to be awesome" redemption stuff, so this instantly makes the character much more interesting to me. Even if it means he could lose some of his iconic moves.
He wont be Raiden without lightning, in the trailer the sky is crackling behind him when he's facing kung lao. 100% he'll have lightning otherwise imma revive the hot takes thread and nitpick the shit outta this game.
 

Pterodactyl

Plus on block.
no one is talking about it really but I really like that he actually looks east-asian now.

He's always been overtly Japanese mythology themed and coded, but has perpetually been played by and modeled after white dudes. Originally it was sort of just a budget thing, then it was because of the movie, but it stopped really making sense a long time ago IMO.




 

xenogorgeous

.... they mostly come at night. Mostly.
no one is talking about it really but I really like that he actually looks east-asian now.

He's always been overtly Japanese mythology themed and coded, but has perpetually been played by and modeled after white dudes. Originally it was sort of just a budget thing, then it was because of the movie, but it stopped really making sense a long time ago IMO.




yep, even so that Raiden dude was based more or less in the character Lighting from the movie Big Trouble in Little China , who was pure asian , so, yeah, is pretty welcome this race change for Raiden !