Can someone enlighten me to the ways of Ragna?

[Dancing Kitsune]

Boy, I for the life of me can't figure our Ragna. I struggle with him even on Normal, let alone Hard - and that's with almost everything unlocked in Mind Training. He just seems to always lose more HP than he gets back with his skill, the potential that makes EVERY attack lose HP is brutal if you whiff even a couple of times, and then most of his potentials for skill make him stand there and channel and eat even more hits..

So I would welcome any suggestions for his potentials/tactics you guys use. For support Evotypes, I usually take Lambda-11/Hakumen for defensive option or heal + Jin for slow on everything.

[Gnodab]

Your evotypes are what I take, so no issues there.

In my experience, Ragna is best played at 50% HP or lower. That's when your skill's cost begins to equalize, and with the help of Potentials, starts to actually heal you more than it costs. Carnage Scissors is based on current HP, so the more life you have, the more it costs, and vice versa. In other words, don't use Carnage Scissors at all at high HP.

And naturally, if you whiff your skill it's pretty punishing, so don't Don't use it on a single target unless it's a boss and you're low HP. Aim for crowds.

In general, Ragna's good with any playstyle; you can just play him as a brawler with Hell's Bite + Triple Dashes and spam invulnerable dashes(good beginner build), Inferno Divider and its extended combo for more flexibility and air mobility, or you can focus on his skills and the risk/reward side of things. Demon's Wave is always good.

For the skill build, Soul Devourer(more damage and healing at low life), Blood Kain(more damage and healing but attacks cost HP) and Devoured by Darkness(grab attack) all synergize for extra damage and lots of healing. Black Onslaught(ultimate) heals you to full if you land it while near death.

FYI, DbD is hard to land because it's very short range, and you can't use it on low HP targets, as they'll just die on contact. But if you use it at low HP it can heal you for up to 50% HP.

For Tactics, Ice for Cold stacks and Light for Blinds and Stuns are both good defense for the riskier playstyle. For the Hell's Bite style, go Dark or Blades for dash daggers/dash shadows because you'll be doing a lot of dashing.