Newb Raven needs help.

[Lord Lolik]

Hello people,
I started maining Raven quite recently,and I'm being bodied like no one. It doesn't matter what I do, I cannot get the excitement bar full because of the grabs, so I cannot do good combos so no good damages while characters like Johnny and I-No stomp me.

And because of that, I'd like to have some advices to progress because it's quite painful in the end.
I'd like to precise that it's my "first" Guilty Gear (I played SIGN before,I was a Faust main.) so I don't really know the core techniques of this franchise,and in general I only played SFV and GGXRD for fighting games.

Thanks everybody o/

Edit: I find him incredibly broken.He relies too much on his stance who is way too easily countered.Dunno if he is worth the effort to play.

[Pig Mac]

He's fun, but seems hard to learn..(for me at least, especially longer combos!)
I watched a combo video that almost made my throw my arcadesick out the window!
EDIT-> But it seems to rely too much on 'exitement' and no instant recovery when watching it again!
https://youtu.be/kHju9QOZHto

[Rikkore]

1.) You don't need as much excitement as you think you do. In matches make sure you apply offense first before thinking to build meter

2.) learn his Okizeme, make sure not to IAD your Oki because you can't cancel the air dash to a low

3.) Learn the Air Dash Cancel

4.) He does not relly to much on his stance, His stance is great for absorbing an attack then yrcing/super it for the punish. His stance is very punishable with a grab, so don't throw it out willy nilly

[Penguinator]

Kazunoko got into EVO top 8 last without using the stance practically at all. Raven has ridiculous normals, great mobility and very good variety of special moves, not to mention easy to loop okizeme.

The ball okizeme from IAD can be actually done into a low by stopping your air momentum with j2K which makes you land from the airdash quickly and allows going for a 2K and such.

That being said, the first location test of Rev2 has nerfed Raven to be really dependent on the stance with the "oki ball" having fewer hits and the "big claw" having longer startup without any Excitement. Unless you really like Raven for his stance concept, character design, seiyuu etc. instead of him being really easy to use top tier character, it might be wise to drop him now and pick some other character before Rev2 is finalized and hits arcades (and consoles?) in spring.

[Pig Mac]

Damn! Well I really like him, and don't really care for 'Tiers', as I'm still struggling getting BnB combos to work as I intend, when needed.

Well Baiken is one of the old semi-favorites, one of the only exceptions I ever have in playing a female char in any game!

[Chimto]

Raven does not rely much on the stance as you think (at least right now). However on the next patch (Rev2), he gonna get some rework so that his stance can be more useful than the current patch.

Advice on using the stance:

1) use it on predictable situation
2) YRC to keep it safe
3) punish opponent while you're at it

Here is some link to useful information that you can learn about basic of the game:
http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php/Guilty_Gear_Xrd_-REVELATOR-
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj34EySs1IeZ8GpjKW8R2T6dzI6B3GSuH


Watch Raven footages:
Kazunoko: a top 8 EVO, solid Raven
Zadi: one of the best Raven, out of the box play style

Bonus: FAB uses the lowest tier character and becomes the top player, so why give a ♥♥♥♥ about the tier. Anyway Raven is A tier so don't worry.