Ragna the Bloodedge/Move List

Overview
Ragna is the standard-issue all-around character who is easy to use and has basic, but effective bread-and-butter combos. Unlike most main characters, Ragna does not use projectiles for range, and has an aggressive, melee-rushdown oriented playstyle. He is all about forcing his way through the opponent's guard by any means necessary, and bringing the pain with high-damage, long combos. Because of this, he can often experience difficulty with characters that excel at zoning, such as Nu-13 and Jin Kisaragi.

He is certainly not without range, however. Utilizing his amazing 5B and 5C, Ragna has all the tools he needs to catch his opponent out and then immediately close the distance with Hell's Fang. Once Ragna gets in close quarters, his damage potential increases considerably, and even becomes borderline devastating if he enters his powered up state, Blood Kain, but not without it's risks. Ragna's health is one of the lowest of the cast, at only 10000, but this is compensated for by his unique Drive ability, Soul Eater, which steals some of the opponent's life force during certain attacks. As such, a tenacious Ragna is awarded for his offense with precious vitality, while a Ragna without momentum is quick to fall at the hands of his opponent. He also sports a good mixup game, with him packs a crossup, overheads to supplement his low attacks, and good Rapid Cancel options.

Ragna has trouble healing his health in big amounts if he extends his combos too much due to damage scaling, and he also has a lack of reliable air finishers, should Ragna use Gauntlet Hades or Inferno Divider(including its followups) too high in the air the opponent can recover soon and take the chance to counter. As well as having an unsafe 2C, Ragna has quite an amount of weakness to exploit.

In Continuum Shift, Ragna was provided with several major buffs which pushed him up into top tier. Most importantly, the addition of the move Belial Edge (j.214C) set him up for some easy, extremely high-damage combos, many of which end in his Not Over Yet (22C) special, which deals fixed, unprorated damage and forces standing, preventing the opponent from rolling. Additionally, his 2C is now extremely safe and fatal counters on hit, giving him an easy setup into extremely high damaging combos (over 8k). Last but not least, his Soul Eater drive moves now regain a fixed amount of health (as opposed to a percentage of damage dealt, as in CT), allowing him to steal much larger quantities of health unaffected by proration and to gain health in a more fair amount. As well as healing when the orbs touch him instead of healing him on hit.

However, his combos can still be badly affected by damage scaling if they are dragged on for too long. Plus Ragna's capabilities lie within the corner, when out in the open his Belial Edge can messup quite a few things and it becomes much less effective, but it does not leave him open to enemy attacks should his opponent 'fall through' it. If they are launched too high for Ragna to drag down during an air combo, then the Inferno Divider can be a good alternative.

Continuum Shift II, unfortunately, has not done Ragna any favors. With the nerfing on Belial Edge, which now requires different, more strict timing to get a combo going, and a major portion of his combos being removed, Ragna was unceremoniously kicked off of the S-tier throne. Instead of long combos, Ragna now relies solely on mixup pressure to get in, which is more akin to his Calamity Trigger counterpart. Unfortunately, characters like Makoto, whose offensive potential received a massive buff, now overshadow Ragna in roughly all aspects that define his playstyle. Don't let this discourage you, however. Ragna still has his godlike 5B, outprioritizing all attacks that come his way. However, his underused Dead Spike now flings the foe away if it connects on them while they are in midair, thus, Ragna gains a few new ways to perform combos and juggle as well. Also, his Inferno Divider finishers are harder to punish, as Ragna can now perform air actions upon recovering from them.

For those who have adjusted to his changes in Continuum Shift II, there is no need to worry. Extend has brought him nothing but buffs, such as his Carnage Scissors now being immune to projectiles. Add the numerous other balance changes to the equation, such as the nerfing of every major character that did what he does better, and you have a road paved for Ragna to ascend the tier list once again. The changes mostly involve some moves such as his 6B and 6D having more combo setup potential, and his Hell's Fang proration has improved. It would seem that Ragna is not so different from his CS II counterpart, but is now more reasonably balanaced from the first CS in this regard.