I love the RAAM from Gears, and I like the ideas behind his KI interpretation, but not all of the execution sits well with me.
Nitpicky, but the voice is nowhere near as good as it is in Gears. The guy they picked does alright, but personally I LOVED the voice of Gears RAAM. I understand that maybe they couldnt have the money or the VA was busy, but still. I would’ve preferred a deeper, grumblier, scarier RAAM voice, but again, this is a nitpick.
secondly, seventy percent seems really high even for a damage heavy character to have. I love the idea of the Kryllstorm instinct, but having one chance to avoid seventy percent once I get locked in seems unfair. I guess you could argue it makes up for his easily breakable combos, but does that really justify 70% in a one-chance-break combo? Feel free to try and explain this to me and show me the balance that I’ve been missing. It just feels kinda… messy, i suppose.
Is there an easy counter to the 70%? What do I do to avoid it? And just a suggestion, but would it be more fair if his instinct behaved differently? What if the white health started to slow down during a combo, so the damage wouldn’t be nearly as high? Would having another linker make up for some of this lost damage?
I don’t feel right getting 70% so easily. It doesn’t feel very rewarding to me playing as RAAM and it feels frustrating to lose so much health so easily playing against him.
Help is appreciated and I am totally open to having my ideas shot down. I appreciate the work Iron Galaxy has put in, I am just giving my feedback. Also, IG has stated they won’t be making more stages for S3, but does that mean they won’t return in the future to bring Rash and RAAM stages? I would love Battletoads and Gears of War stages. Imagine an emergence day stage or a maybe even a moving train for RAAM to fight on!
Just block low and block crossups. He can’t open you up and cash out the damage (unless he does fully charged kryll shield, which you can see coming if you’re good). Sure, he can grab you, but what Raam is going to grab you over and over because they know you’re not gonna move?
It happens, but… I’d rather be grabbed stomped and even flipped out while still blocking up mixups to avoid his full combos.
Shadow opener > manual > instinct cancel > manual > Shadow command grab… gives me the shivers. So go for it, grab me!
Played a guy with 2 pro stars who had an amazing RAAM, ended up winning because I blocked. I did take a lot of damage, no doubt, but I’d rather the grab than his insta-death combos.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try blocking more and avoiding the knife as much as possible. It still seems kinda wonky and unfair though for a few hits to deal 70%, but maybe thats just me.
Well, he can only do that amount of damage while in instinct. Aside from that, he only has three animated strengths and one linker. If that isn’t convincing enough, he moves 2cm/second.
70% is actually on the lower end of what his instinct is capable of.
Also not sure why you guys don’t mind getting grabbed over and overa gain. With Kryll on you it only takes three command grabs to eat 80% of your health, at that point you’re one grab away from dying. And that’s not counting any extra damage from stomps.
Also if you decide to just block Raam has some sneaky cross ups off his throws that no one really uses. For example regular throw, whiff medium stab, jump forward LK.
If you did the whiffed medium stab on the first frame then the jumping LK will hit behind.
If you did the whiffed medium stab slightly later then the jumping LK will hit in front but Raam will land behind and can go low on the opposite side meaning you have to go from quickly blocking high on one side to blocking low on the other, this one is also un-dp-able since you’ll just whiff as Raam flies behind you.
But if you delay the whiffed medium stab even further the jumping LK will hit in front and Raam will land in front. The timing difference between these is really minuscule, I doubt any non-raam player would be able to tell. So yeah, eating grabs will let him set this stuff up.
Eating a ton of command grabs isn’t really that much less damage than he would have gotten in instinct if you got hit. So “go ahead, grab me” doesn’t seem like a particularly viable option to me. I don’t know any other instinct where it’s a good thing to just take 50% damage so you can avoid 100% damage. As a Raam player, that just sounds like each instinct is a free 50% to me, and I’ll take that if you want to give it to me!
Also, grabs are hard knockdowns which set up pretty ambiguous stuff. So yes, you don’t have much of an overhead threat in neutral but if you get grabbed, there is a reasonable chance you will get hit on the meaty mixup, and even if you block that AND are content to continue blocking, Raam will just keep doing damage to you and keep getting free chances at the meaty. The reality is, most (all?) people will be trained to flinch to avoid the grab + crossup situation, and you can’t just block forever.
Yeah, I really don’t want it to seem like I’m crying “OMG PLZ NERF RAM”, but some of the stuff he’s capable of doing feels a little much. Do you think some adjustments are needed or no? I really love playing as Grapplers in other FGs (Hakan, Birdie, Zangief from Street Fighter), but I haven’t been sold on RAAM, even if he’s an awesome character, because personally I feel dirty for using him and earning easy 70+% even when I know my opponent could’ve or should’ve won.
Also, what the hell does he do when he uses his Kryll Rush attack? is he hitting them a few times, stabbing them a few times, I can’t see a thing. just curious, lol
I don’t know, in some match-ups, he can use ALL the damage he can get. The way zoner can keep him out, if Raam can manage to get in twice, he is going to need the kill combos.
Well, from the little I’ve played (level 10 RAAM) I use Kryll rush to get closer and my Kryll shield to soak a few fireballs, this helps me with zoning but I haven’t really played enough RAAM to notice the trouble zoners set him up for.
It’s my personal belief that you should never “feel bad” for hitting someone with something insane that does a crap ton of damage. Those are the tools you’ve been given, and to a certain extent they exist to make up for your character’s weaknesses in other areas. So go nuts and have fun
Funny how Krill in GoW is an instant kill and here is an “almost kill” XD
I still have to figure Raam out, but people tend to save instinct and destroy my lifebar with it when they have the chance. For now I’m doing pretty well in this MU but I haven’t faced a lot of Raams.
His instinct definitely needs an adjustment or a completly rework in my opinion (a 70% combo with one chance break is not fair) but you shouldnt feel dirty for use the tools that tha game gives.
I spent some time playing RAAM in exhibition tonight to get a better feel for him. I really loved setting on the Kryll and adding more damage to my throws. That part of RAAM I really like, while I think my final conclusion on the instinct is that a rework or some adjustments are whole-heartedly welcome.
The problem with adjusting it is that in some match ups he absolutely needs the instinct to be able to close the life gap after blocking dozens of projectiles trying to get in. It’s in the non zoning match ups where it gets a little silly. How do you adjust something for some match ups without neutering Raam in other match ups?
