Raven Guide & Analysis – Should you Pull?
Overview
- An amazing B3 Iron DPS, but is strictly a bossing unit only. Not recommended for use anywhere else.
- Her DoT’s high base damage gives her constant DPS against any boss once it’s fully stacked up, whether it’s her turn to burst or not.
- Raven works well against bosses without parts as well because of her DoT dealing significant damage
- DoT base damage is high enough to warrant use in element neutral raids.
- Auto-friendly.
- Her burst gen is acceptable vs bosses thanks to her DoT, but in spite of her awesome attack animation, her ‘radius’ is incredibly small, similar to SBS. This makes her burst gen for a rocket launcher very poor in regular stages.
Newbie/Incomplete Box Section
Raven is a unit that inflicts damage over time. To maximize her damaging effect, she must attack an enemy at least ten times to build up her damage-over-time ability. Once this ability is fully built, each additional attack will renew the duration of the maximum stacked damage-over-time effect.
As a devoted fan, I can’t help but marvel at how her extraordinary Sustained Damage (or DoT) remains permanently potent against bosses due to her refreshing effect. This feature ensures a steady barrage of damage throughout the entire encounter. However, when it’s her turn to unleash her burst, watch out, because her Sustained Damage output soars to unprecedented heights! Without a doubt, she’s destined to be one of the top boss-slaying Nikkes for the immediate future.
Basic Information
- Skill 1: Shock Wave
- Skill 2: Blue Blade
- Burst: Tempest
- Cooldown: 40s
- Rarity: SSR
- Burst: III
- Weapon: RL
- Class: Attacker
- Element: Iron
- Manufacturer: Abnormal
- Squad: Airborne Squad
- Weapon Name: Cryo Blade
Skill 1: Shock Wave
● Triggers during Full Charge attacks, impacting the enemy unit closest to the aim.
For 5 seconds, it inflicts continuous damage equal to 68.46% of the final attack power every second, with a maximum of 10 stacks.
● Triggers upon entering Full Burst, benefiting the caster.
For 10 seconds, the attack power increases by 47.52% of the caster’s own attack power.
Most of her attacks deal significant damage, and it’s nothing to underestimate. Each fully charged attack will weaken an enemy located closest to where she attacked, inflicting a Damage Over Time (DoT) effect. If the same enemy is hit again, a new stack of DoT will be added, and the duration will be refreshed. Once 10 stacks have been accumulated, only the duration will be refreshed, not additional stacks. Throughout the majority of the fight, her attack speed reaches an impressive 684.6% final attack per second, placing her well above many attacking units when fighting bosses.
Due to the attack buff provided during each full burst cycle, rather than solely upon Raven’s use of burst, it’s crucial to max out S1 for this advantageous reason!
Skill 2: Blue Blade
■ Triggers during combat. Boosts the user.
Vital Strike: Deals 21.12% damage to parts for 5 seconds.
■ Triggers during Full Burst. Boosts the user.
Vital Strike: Deals 21.12% damage to parts for 5 seconds.
■ Activates when an enemy’s part is destroyed by an ally or self (if not in A.N. Mode). Empowers the user.
Sustained Assault: Takes 47.32% continuous damage for 15 seconds. Removes Vital Strike.
A decent ability, particularly for Raven, as it specifically impacts her basic attacks when targeting a part and certain sections of her burst attack that hit specific areas, making this feature exclusive to her character.
This ability primarily serves as an alternative method for inflicting a Damage over Time (DoT) effect on enemies. Although it doesn’t combine with the DoT boost from burst attacks, it significantly enhances damage output against bosses with detachable parts, particularly during phases of the fight when your character isn’t bursting. Since Raven or her allies can demolish the boss’s components to grant her the buff, it offers a convenient and unconditional means to boost DPS (Damage Per Second).
In the updated Vital Attack, her personal burst will trigger it, providing an enjoyable, unconditional damage boost specifically for her burst when fighting bosses that have separable body parts.
Burst: Tempest
■ Impacts all adversaries, encompassing each part of them.
Delivers 492.3% of the final attack power as a Burst Skill’s destructive force.
■ Applies to self.
A.N. Mode:
Effect 1: Eliminates a targeted strike.
Effect 2: Inflicts sustained damage, increasing by 89.44% over a duration of 10 seconds.
In this attack, there are two main phases. Initially, Raven will strike all adversaries, much like abilities such as Scarlet, Privaty, and Harran. What sets Raven apart is that every segment of each enemy, even bosses, will receive an extra hit during the second phase of the attack.
This action causes multiple damaged areas on leaders, inflicting significant harm simultaneously due to her explosive attack. It’s important to note that the hits targeting specific sections will be enhanced by ‘Damage to Parts’ bonuses, such as those from her Vital Strike, Destruction Cube, and Dorothy’s Skill 1.
2. Following this, Raven significantly boosts her self-inflicted Damage over Time (DoT), currently the highest in the game. With this enhancement, coupled with the substantial DoT damage from her S1 when fully stacked, it leads to an extraordinary on-burst DPS. It’s advisable that Raven should not be used as an off-burst unit due to the high DPS her burst provides.
Campaign
Although Raven boasts potent abilities, she primarily focuses on dealing damage to a single target, rather than multiple ones. Despite the spectacular attack moves she possesses and being a rocket launcher, her ‘splash’ damage is relatively minor, comparable to SBS’s attack in scope.
Although her ability to trigger a burst meter is useful, the enemies usually don’t survive long enough when Raven’s damage over time (DoT) is active on them. Given her limited blast radius, her burst generation is just average. Moreover, her slow attack speed makes her less effective against common enemies compared to other campaign veterans, as her default attack primarily affects a small number of enemies at once, and her slow attack animation further slows her down in these encounters.
Arena
As a devoted admirer, I find that her primary approach to inflicting damage takes a bit too long in player-versus-player (PvP) scenarios, and there are other Nikkes out there boasting more potent burst abilities at my disposal. Additionally, her burst generation capabilities are merely average, excelling primarily against bosses, not so much elsewhere.
Special Interception | Union Raid | Solo Raid
Here, Raven truly excels. She’s designed to take down bosses efficiently and does so exceptionally well. During most of her encounters with individual enemies, Raven can continuously apply a high base damage over time (DoT) effect, making her a formidable opponent.
Given that many bosses possess vulnerable components, it would be advantageous for Raven to possess a stronger Damage over Time effect not only during her own burst but also beyond, once a component is destroyed. Additionally, she will receive bonus damage when her burst specifically focuses on damaging boss components, in addition to the boss itself.
For an extended period, Raven will excel as a premier combatant in all Iron raids due to her consistently high damage output throughout battles. In fact, she’s so effective that she’s an excellent choice for anyone aiming to conquer AI-controlled opponents during their Ultra runs.
Because of her significant continuous damage over time, Raven is likely to be useful against both neutral and elemental bosses. Her powerful burst can potentially shatter the glass slips of a mirror container. However, further testing is needed to confirm this.
One advantage of DoT (Damage over Time) damage is that it continues to inflict damage as periodic ticking on an invincible boss, provided it was applied before they vanish. This way, Raven can maintain her DPS (Damage Per Second) against a fleeting boss, although she may need to reapply her S1 (Special Ability 1) after the boss has disappeared.
Teams
In battles where bosses lack any defensive features at all, Summer Rosanna can significantly boost Raven’s Damage Over Time (DoT) output throughout the entire encounter, even during off-burst moments. This is facilitated by her unique ability to enhance DoT damage and apply a substantial damage taken reduction debuff on enemies, which benefits the whole team. Additionally, Summer Rosanna’s burst ability also amplifies Raven’s DoT effect.
Apart from the specific scenario mentioned, Raven has the potential to be an effective flex DPS in many team compositions for boss fights, given her overall strong abilities.
Strengths
- Powerful DoT that is effectively permanent against bosses
- Thanks to her DPS method, she isn’t as OL hungry as standard attacker units
- Strong damage whether it’s her turn to burst or not
- Can work well in element-neutral raids because her base DPS is so good
- Has a strong burst against bosses with tons of parts
- DoT against bosses specifically provides consistent burst gen in spite of her slow attack speed
- Enemies with DoT already applied on them will take the damage even if they disappear, so Raven can score damage where most DPS can’t
Weaknesses
- Single target only. Outside of her burst, her wave clear is lacking
- Slow attack animation, small blast radius and DoT not lasting long on regular enemies makes her burst gen mediocre in regular stages
- Bosses that disappear for longer than 5 seconds will have all their stacks removed, forcing Raven to re-stack her S1 on them, putting a temporary pause to her big DPS
- Has no utility, is primarily a DPS bossing unit
- We can’t fix her, bros…
Rating
Category | Rating |
---|---|
Overall | 8.74 (S) |
Story | 7.3 (B) |
Bosses | 9.7 (SSS) |
Arena | 6.5 (C) |
Recommended Cubes
Should you pull?
Without a doubt, Raven stands out as an essential unit to acquire from the current Stellar Blade collaboration banners. She possesses an exceptional ability against bosses and is expected to remain significant in raids for the coming period. It’s best not to use her outside of boss fights, though. Make sure to get at least one copy!
Expected Skill Priority
Nikke | Budget Skill Investments | Recommended Skill Investments | Skill Priority | Notes | Investment Priority |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cinderella | Skill 1: 7 Skill 2: 4 Burst: 4 | Skill 1: 10 Skill 2: 7 Burst: 7 | S1 >> S2 | Skill 1 is where all her damage comes from. Massive ticking DoT with >99% uptime. Skill 2 provides a small buff to part damage and upon destroyed parts, buffs her sustained damage (DoT). Burst buffs her sustained damage but a big margin and therefore pushes the damage of Skill 1 even higher. | High – Highest |
Overload Gear Priority
Gear Priority = Head > Gloves > Chest > Boots
Attribute (Sub-Stat) | Priority | Recommended | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Increase Element Damage Dealt | ★★★★★ | 4x | Wanted for Union raids and Solo raid content. |
Increase Hit Rate | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | — |
Increase Max Ammunition Capacity | ★★★★☆ | 1-2x | Does not need more than 2 lines. |
Increase ATK | ★★★★★ | 4x | Simply more damage. |
Increase Charge Damage | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | RL Nikke but main damage comes from DoT tick unaffected by charge values. |
Increase Charge Speed | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | Although she is a RL Nikke, once reaching max stacks has no real gain from charge speed. |
Increase Critical Rate | ★★★☆☆ | 0-2x | Remaining rolls can either be Crit Rate/Crit damage |
Increase Critical Damage | ★★★☆☆ | 0-2x | Remaining rolls can either be Crit Rate/Crit damage |
Increase DEF | ☆☆☆☆☆ | 0x | — |
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2025-06-26 10:08