Introduction

There’s an idea going around that Raider is a bad class in high depths. As a fairly dedicated Raider main, I disagree. At a fundamental level he’s able to survive things and stagger enemies in a way that many other classes can’t. However, that survivability is obviously diminished from the base game. There are still plenty of things that can one shot you, but a lot of things can be two or even three shots for you. That’s a big deal. 

Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a defense of the class. If you’re interested in any of this then I don’t need to convince you. What Raider does offer are a few options that are distinct from any other class. This is an effort to get those into words for people curious about trying some alternative play styles.

General Build Thoughts

In Deep of the Night, face tanking everything and returning hits isn’t the way to go. Like a well-played Executor or Guardian, you should be picking and choosing when to dodge and when to take a hit. Despite that, I do think some of the tanking relic effects from the base game are still very good. Raider's windups take a long time and not having to heal between every little stab and slash makes your run go faster.

Here are my must-have relic effects for a good general build. These will also be either must-haves or nice-to-haves for all of the rest of these builds. I won’t bother mentioning things like Physical Attack Up and Attack Power Up after Defeating a Night Invader that are obviously good and already well-discussed.

Must-Haves

• [Raider] Damage taken while using Character Skill improves attack power and stamina
• [Raider] Hit With Character Skill to Reduce Enemy Attack Power
• Partial HP Restoration upon Post-Damage Attacks

Nice-To-Haves

• Taking attacks improves attack power
• Improved Poise & Damage Negation When Knocked Back by Damage
• Max stamina increased for each great enemy defeated at a Great Encampment
• Stamina Recovery upon Landing Attacks
• Critical Hit Boosts Stamina Recovery Speed
• Improved Critical Hits

Mage Build

This one is a fun meme build, but it has some strong perks too. The most common criticism I hear is that it doesn’t reach the damage levels of Recluse, to which I say, "Duh." Raider is generally a class that doesn’t reach the damage levels of other characters. He’s somewhere between a support class and an offense class. What the Mage Raider does well is it gives you more tools to do some of the things you’re best at like pulling aggro, staggering, and offering solid chip damage in between big hits. Here are some stats at level 15 to consider as pulled from New Stat-Change Relics - Stat Spreadsheet (Patch 1.02.2) (shoutout to u/FawksB ):

Raider	HP	FP	STM	STR	DEX	INT	FTH	ARC
Default	1200	95	122	68	19	3	12	10
FP/INT Up	1040	140	114	68	19	38	12	10

38 Int puts you at a respectable 4 points behind level 15 Duchess.

Really you want to be thinking of this kind of like a Str/Int spellsword build from base Elden Ring. The good spells like Shattering Crystal and Carian Slicer are still good, but the Mage Raider is also going to get a lot of use out of utility spells like Glintblade Phalanx, Magic Glintblade, or Carian Retaliate if you’re a parry god. Further, spells with long build-ups are a little safer with a character that you feel safer taking at least one hit with. That includes things like the Haima spells or anything that charges.

An additional but minor thing the Mage Raider does well is pushes the damage of weapons like Troll Knight Sword, Ruins Greatsword, or any magic affinity weapon up since he doesn’t lose any Str from the relic effect. Magic Attack+ passives will take this even further. Some numbers for your perusal:

Weapon	AR at lvl 15 (no relics)	AR (with INT/FP Up relic)
Dark Moon Greatsword	176	202
Troll Knight Sword	184	212
Royal Greatsword	219	251
Ruins Greatsword	246	283
Starscourge Greatsword	245	282
Fallingstar Beast Jaw	242	270

The Mage Raider also flips the importance of his character-specific passives. The Totem Stela relic passives that aren’t as important with other Raider builds can be nice with this one because standing on top of the Totem and casting can be really great against the right enemies. On the inverse, the effects that focus on Retaliate, [Raider] Damage taken while using Character Skill improves attack power and stamina and [Raider] Hit With Character Skill to Reduce Enemy Attack Power, are less important as you really want to be spacing and dodging more than tanking hits. This build is also fairly relic hungry, so unless you have cracked relics with these passives you may find yourself lacking the space to get them onto your build.

Must-Haves

• [Raider] Improved Mind and Intelligence, Reduced Vigor and Endurance
• Max FP increased for each Sorcerer’s Rise unlocked
• Magic Attack Power Up

Nice-To-Haves

• Dormant Power Helps Discover Staves
• Dormant Power Helps Discover Colossal Swords
• Max FP Up with 3+ Staves Equipped
• Increased Sorcery
• Reduced FP Consumption
• [Raider] Duration of Ultimate Art Extended
• Defeating enemies near Totem Stela restores HP
• Improved Poise Near Totem Stela

Arcane Build

This is a build that I don’t see talked about much that I’ve been having a lot of fun with. First, some stats:

Raider	HP	FP	STM	STR	DEX	INT	FTH	ARC
Default	1200	95	122	68	19	3	12	10
ARC Up	1120	95	122	68	19	3	12	27

With the ARC Up relic, Raider only has 1 less point in Arcane at level 15 than Executor. While Raider misses out on the quick successive hits from Dex characters, he mostly makes up for it with the higher status buildup of the big weapons. From testing, I can proc Rot on the marionette with a single jumping L1 with dual Rotten Greataxes. That’s pretty cool.

Generally, you’ll still play this like a regular Raider but with much easier access to status procs. A nice thing about this build is that Raider has good access to the blue Rot weapons as they appear in both the Great Hammer and Colossal Weapon classes. It’s rare that I don’t see at least one of these appear during a run. You’ll also get a lot more mileage out of things like Ghiza’s Wheel or anything with frost.

Speaking of weapons, weapons that scale with Arcane will all be stronger (with one getting an over 40%) increases to their AR:

Weapon	AR at lvl 15(no relics)	AR (with ARC Up relic)
Ripple Crescent Halberd	134	140
Clinging Bone	104	147
Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear	188	205
Varre’s Bouquet	109	120
Ripple Blade	98	131
Eleonora’s Poleblade	121	133
Rivers of Blood	99	110
Morgott’s Cursed Sword	188	208
Bloody Helice	135	150
Marais Execution’s Sword	205	225
Regalia of Eochaid	156	171

I think the way to build this is to see what status you have good relics for, then build towards that with your starter weapon. I run mine as poison because I don’t have the relics for frost. You can also fairly easily stack the frost and poison relics from Caligo and Maris just like the famous Executor status build does. I've found that I run out of room for other important things when I build with both of those relics, but the benefits are admittedly huge.

Must-Haves

• [Raider] Improved Arcane, Reduced Vigor
• Starting armament inflicts <status>
• Attack power up when facing <status>-afflicted enemy
• Poison & Rot in Vicinity Increases Attack Power

Nice-to-Haves

• Arcane increased for each great enemy defeated at a Ruin
• Arcane +1/+2
• Changes compatible armament’s skill to <any of the following> at start of expedition
  • Poisonous Mist
  • Poison Moth Flight
  • Blood Blade
  • Seppuku
  • Chilling Mist
  • Hoarfrost Stomp

And additional PSA in case you don’t know: Rot and Frost buildup scale from Arcane in Nightreign. AFAIK, Madness does not.

Fist Build

I’ve heard murmurs that this is one of the best classes in the game, to which I say, “Maybe?”

Although most fist weapons do scale better with Str than Dex, they are realistically quality weapons. I don’t have numbers for this, but my gut feeling is that the B scaling in Str is a low B and the C scaling in Dex is a high C. All of this is to say that I think Wylder, Quality Guardian, or Quality Duchess are all better fist weapon users.

Man, what if there was a deflect relic effect and Guardian could deflect with L1 and guard counter with fists? That would be amazing.

Anyway, fist Raider is fun and definitely not outright bad. If you have good relics for it then you should try it sometime. One thing that’s nice is the chance of getting Veteran’s Prosthesis is fairly high because the item pool for fists is shallow. This is really nice for Fulghor expeditions. Raider doesn’t reliably get access to Lightning affinity weapons, so this is a bigger bonus than it might seem. Additionally, the only legendary fist is Grafted Dragon, which is cracked for Pest and Caligo. Take that as you will.

Must-Haves

• Dormant Power Helps Discover Fists
• Improved Attack Power with 3+ Fists Equipped

Nice-to-Haves

• Improved Fist Attack Power
• HP Restoration upon Fist Attacks

Don’t-Bothers

• Improved Stance-Breaking when Wielding Two Armaments
• Improved Stance-Breaking when Two-Handing

Colossal Sword Build

Something I haven’t seen mentioned in depth is a build focusing on Colossal Swords. Raider doesn’t get increased drops in these in his base config which stinks!

One of the biggest and most valid complaints about Raider is that his moveset with greataxes, great hammers, and colossal weapons is slow, slow, slow. Colossal swords however retain their base moveset. Specifically, I prefer the two-handed moveset for them rather than dual wielding. For instance, the Zweihander and the Troll Knight Sword have wide horizontal R1s, the reach of poke R2s, and pretty fast rolling poke R1s. An amazing moveset.

Another bonus is that the legendary colossal swords are amazing. Everyone knows Grafted, but Ruins Greatsword, Starscourge Greatsword, and Maliketh’s Black Blade are all insane weapons. Both of the two purple colossal swords are also great. One of my favorite things is to raise a Totem, then do Wolf’s Assault from the top ropes. Straight dopamine.

The passives you want are identical to the fist build except geared towards colossal swords. However, with this you can prioritize Improved Stance-Breaking for the playstyle of your choice: dual wielding or two-handing.

Because of the high amount of Str/Int weapons in this category, this build also synergizes well with [Raider] Improved Mind and Intelligence, Reduced Vigor and Endurance. Maybe try it both ways and see what you like more, higher AR with the relic or higher HP/END without it.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading, and I hope this is helpful. Raider is fun to play even if his totems do get in the way, and I think if you like playing the class, you'll last a lot longer grinding through DoN.