Placing the staff on the ground? What does it do?

[Lun]

So, one of Raiden's extra moves allows him to place his staff on the ground to "aim his lightning at it". But I don't understand how that works.....

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Basically when you use either Lighting Bolt or Lightning Strike and hold the button down as the shot hits near the staff it will arc from the staff a short distance towards the opponent's position.
So, for example, if you placed the staff mid screen and went for a Lightning Bolt, but they jumped, if you hold the button the lightning bolt would hit the staff and arc upwards to hit the player who tried to avoid it.

Amplifying the staff plant causes a ring to appear around it that damages the opponent any time they pass through its edge, which can likely allow for some interesting setups.

 

[Cold Case]

I've been messing around with this move all morning. Only the amplified version seems somewhat useful. With the regular version you have to use his slow ass projectiles, and its awkward setting it up effectively. With the amped version you can trap people inside a bubble and apply pressure relatively safer. If you get them into a corner its pretty nasty tho.

 

[Cosmic Forge]

I've been messing around with this move a bit. It's so situational that I'm not sure it should require meter.

Some pros and cons to it so far.

Pros:

• You can set up for some odd combos especially in the corner by knocking them into the perimeter(amplified), giving you time to follow up with new strings.
• Does 15 points of chip damage.
• If you CAN manage to throw them into the field with f+throw (set the field behind him), it adds 38 dmg to the throw (178 total).

Cons:

• When the staff is deployed, you lose moves! F+1,1 and (3),2,1 are lost.
• If you deploy the amplified version, and try to throw the opponent out of the field, it breaks the grab and you do 60 dmg instead of 140.
• The amplified "sphere" will try to hit them when they wakeup roll forward out of the corner, but it tries too soon, so they take no damage.
• There's pretty much no hope of knocking them into the amplified field from a KB (1,2,1 or d+2).
• You can't push them into it from a standing position then combo off it. They recover before any 7f move can connect.
• The zap effect from the amplified field isn't unblockable. So you can't push them into it.

Combo Example:

Will update this post as I find stuff

 

[Trustful_Whale]

To add to that, 2-player animations get interrupted if they contact the edge of the bubble, so Electric Fly gets stopped cold and Raiden suffers a hit react for it.
Also, major lol at the preset variation that pairs Jo Push with Lightning Rod. Since the latter occupies your staff for its duration you cannot use Jo Push, you don't even get Lighting Bolt back as an exchange; simply nothing. Lol why can these even be paired?

I so want this move to be good but until Lightning Strike gets buffed I don't think it will be. It's far too much setup for its payoff and meterless just doesn't do enough with how slow his projectile startups are.
It is cool that at medium-close range of the rod, Lightning Bolt will travel through them for a hit before arcing back off the rod and hitting them again if you choose to hold the button while they're in front of it. Creative ability, but it's likely this was designed around Lightning Strike being faster, which it clearly was at the reveal exhibition.

Likewise I've been trying to get some uses out of Rolling Thunder, but either they can easily avoid it manually or Raiden is constantly pushing them away from it or past it if you land an attack. I suppose it could be said that its presence can create mistakes in the opponent but I'm just not seeing its value yet. They can just as easily land a hit on you and push past it too, so I feel like equipping it isn't worth what you give up right now.

 

[Cosmic Forge]

I wouldn't mind if deploying lightning rod on hit acted as a re-stand with + frames. THEN it would be nice to end combos with, especially since you can control where it lands. You could do long combos and have the staff fly in from nowhere and whack them into a re-stand.

And if you amplify, they're re-standing into the bubble.

Rolling thunder is a joke atm. It tries to compete with Quick Charge which is a total joke. If i were to buff Rolling Thunder, I'd make it simply follow the opponent rather than just crawl forward. Also, if you do any lightning attacks near it, it should add damage like the lightning rod. Either that or give it some other functionality. Like zapping projectiles when the come near it or something.

 

[Cosmic Forge]

Another small corner combo with Lightning Rod. This still doesn't scream "useful" or "amazing" to me at all.

 

[MKF30]

Personally, I think they should have just given Raiden a shield bubble move that surrounds him/protects and juggles your opponent similar to Kitana's posing fan move and KL's spinny hats around him move. But nah, they were like let's give him this shitty essentially useless move instead. lol