Alex

Jan 19, 2022

Raiden Guide: Eternal Transience

Raiden’s reception has been quite problematic and unfair to her, between the interaction with Beidou being denied, many people having the strong belief that her C2 was so strong because she needed it to do damage (a large misconception), and people demanding for her to be buffed, but all of that was simply an unnecessary overreaction to one of the best units the game has to offer. While Raiden isn’t as easy to universally throw into teams as the 3 archons that came before her, Zhongli, Venti and Bennett, due to the fact that they all play out as low effort required, strong supports, Raiden is in her nature a main carry that requires field time, but she’s still very flexible and able to pair with a lot of different units; just that instead of her playing around them, they are meant to play around her. We’ll be going over how this transpires over the course of the guide.

Here’s an analysis of what Raiden can offer and where she falls short:

Pros:

Strongest universal battery, capable of providing energy for any element and any number of units

Top tier Electro particle generation as well

Is an incredibly strong carry even at C0

Extremely powerful early constellations; basically caps out at C3 while being comparative to many C6s

Really good AoE reach and chasing potential while in Burst for a melee unit

Consistent and self sufficient off field Electro application

Team-wide Burst DMG% buff on Skill and high energy restoration to the entire team

Can gap fill in rotations, up to 10 seconds at a time

Good weapon selection; The Catch is cracked

Can build ER for comfort and energy generation without losing much damage

Lots of DMG% multipliers and high MVs; one of the best units in the game at scaling with buffs

Enables less popular/contested units to shine in new ways (ex. Lisa)

Fun to play

Cons:

While her Elemental Skill does consistent off field damage, the scaling is very low unless in large groups

Wants team comps built around her, especially for the rotation

Many elements already have good battery units; Raiden may not be an improvement for some comps

High Electro application during Elemental Burst doesn’t allow for use of most beneficial reactions

Requires a fixed amount of field time without flexibility

Cannot drive certain units (Beidou & Electro traveller) at all while in Burst

Fairly often she will overkill or fail to finish an enemy with very little health, leaving you in an awkward position of either not being able to regain energy (as targets are dead) or not having any damage without using her burst to finish the job

So, should you pull for her? Ultimately that decision is up to you.