Raven

With a cancellable & loopable Shadow Sprint and a loopable Crouch Step, Raven has the means to quickly get close to the opponent and apply his strong 50/50 pressure with a diverse array of lows and deadly mids.

Raven has Heat Engagers in all of his stances. His clone attacks become completely safe on block at -3. His Heat Smash is a projectile that guarantees a stance mixup at +14 on block, and he gains a new tornado-launcher with Typhoon Fang Phantom (wr3,4).

He has a plethora of parries and high-value defensive moves that an opponent must keep in mind before pressing a button.

Raven boasts very decent combo damage and excellent wall carry tools, which can also impose very tricky okizeme situations for the opponent.

Raven excels at whiff punishing and generally dominating at mid-range. He also has an elite backdash, so players who are proficient at backdash-cancelling will find Raven to be a great choice for defensive/keepout playstyles.

Raven's new stance, Soulzone (SZN), gives you access to instant teleports that can put you back in neutral, backturn, or into crouching, instantly accessing his deadly full-crouch offense. As of Season 2, these same teleports can now be accessed from various strings on hit. When all of this is matched with his aforementioned parries, multiple unorthodox launchers from neutral, backturn, crouch step, Shadow Sprint cancels, Raven has many cool-looking tools to keep opponents guessing & do so in style.

His low attacks are either reactable or have poor damage and often leave Raven minus on hit. He also lacks a 2-break throw, and can be pretty linear at times - most notably with his Heat Smash, which is the most steppable HS in the game. It can be difficult to open up defensive or patient players who rely on punishment and/or movement.

The attacks that grant Raven significant and unconditional plus frames on block are either highs, slow, or have very poor range.

His jab-punishes either end his turn on block, leave him very punishable, or forces stance on hit.

Raven's 3 stances & various teleports flow into each other through a plethora of moves whose frame data must be studied extensively before playing him correctly. His movement tools also require solid execution & are practically essential to make up for Raven's otherwise lacking ability to build true pressure in the neutral.

Most of Raven's clone attacks are punishable when not in Heat. When combined with his very risky lows, dependence on his backturn stance, and lack of unconditional plus frames, Raven has to decide between playing safe & constantly losing his turn when he's not in Heat, or commit to taking big swings & leaving himself open to potentially severe punishment.

Has been wrong about Heihachi Mishima being dead twice now.