Elden Ring: Raider Class Hands-On - IGN

Elden Ring's greatest strength lies in its diverse playstyles, and my personal favorite involves maxing Strength stats, wielding colossal weapons, and demolishing enemies with staggering jump attacks and charged heavy strikes. If this resonates with you, let me introduce Nightreign's Raider (featured in the video below).

While the Guardian - another tanky class specializing in massive weapons - focuses more on defense with its starting shield and team-wide damage mitigation ultimate, the Raider embodies pure offensive dominance.

The Raider's signature Retaliate ability might seem underwhelming at first - just two stomps dealing minor physical and poise damage. However, thanks to the class passive, the Raider becomes completely immune to knockdowns during Retaliate. This creates an incredible defensive-offensive hybrid technique that lets you plow through enemy attacks while transforming the second stomp into a devastating punch capable of staggering even the mightiest foes - provided you absorb a sufficiently powerful hit.

Then there's Totem Stela, the Raider's ultimate ability that summons a massive damaging totem upon slamming the ground. Like all Nightreign ultimates, this game-changing ability not only deals heavy damage but creates a climbable structure for tactical positioning and grants the entire party a damage buff. This makes it a top priority for team coordination.

The Raider begins with the Greavtaxe - a serviceable starter weapon dealing fire damage and featuring the Endure skill for weathering attacks when Retaliate cools down. However, you'll want to upgrade to heavier strength-scaling weapons as the game progresses.

Among all Nightreign classes, the Raider stands out as my personal favorite. Its design shines in one-on-one combat scenarios, perfectly complementing its gladiatorial arena-style Remembrances (which we'll explore later this month).

That wraps up our class preview, but stay tuned throughout the month for deep dives into Nightreign's mechanics, developer interviews, and more as our IGN First coverage continues.