Raiden Shogun Build and Guide

Raiden Shogun is a 5-star Electro Polearm user most commonly played as an on-field DPS and Burst support or as an off-field reaction DPS. Her Burst is powered up by the Energy consumed by the team, and allows her to enter a DPS state where her attacks restore Energy for the team, while her Skill offers her long-lasting and frequent Electro attacks from off-field. 

Whilst not always her most important ability, Raiden’s Burst is what most of her kit’s mechanics are centred around. When Raiden is in the party, Raiden’s Burst passively creates a “Chakra Desiderata” which can be seen as a purple ring on the back of the active party member; this ring holds “Resolve” stacks, causing it to light up based on the number gained. Raiden can hold up to 60 Resolve stacks, and are generated in two ways: either whenever party member cast Elemental Bursts based on the Energy consumed, or - thanks to her first Ascension Passive - 2 stacks once every 3 seconds when Energy Orbs or Particles are gained. The former effect scales with the Talent Level, with 0.2 Resolve being gained per point of Energy at Talent Level 10.

These Resolve increase the multipliers of Raiden’s Burst when cast. The ability itself consists of a powerful initial slash, then for 7 seconds allows Raiden to use enhanced Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks that deal Electro damage considered Elemental Burst damage. Just as crucially, these attacks restore Energy for the entire team once per second, up to 5 times. At a baseline, the ability restores a flat 2.5 Energy each time. Thanks to her second Ascension Passive, however, Raiden’s Energy Recharge above 100% can both increase this value while also providing her Electro DMG Bonus; each 1% increases each by 0.6% and 0.4% respectively. The Energy bonus alongside the incentive to build Energy Recharge largely offsets the Burst’s otherwise staggering 90 Energy cost.

Raiden’s Skill is not quite as flashy, but can be her more important ability as a reaction DPS. When used, it creates an “Eye of Stormy Judgement” that grants a Burst damage bonus based on the Energy consumed, as well as allowing Raiden to perform co-ordinated Electro attacks on the enemy once every 0.9 seconds when dealing damage to an enemy. The Skill has a lengthy 25 second duration compared to its 10 second cooldown, also making maintaining uptime on it effortless.

Note that while its Electro application to a given entity can be rather lackluster due to internal cooldown rules, these cooldowns are considered individually per entity; essentially, this means that Raiden can apply Electro and thus trigger Hyperbloom from Dendro cores at a rapid pace despite her mediocre Electro application against a target. Also, since Raiden’s Skill requires the enemy to take damage, it does not trigger against enemies that have a shield that does not display a damage number - for example, Abyss Mage shields. 

Finally, Raiden’s standard Normal Attacks are unspectacular and barely ever used.