Raz — Patch 1.62 Verdict
[Liquipedia RPL: C] Pro play (RPL 2026): 7 picks, 42.9% WR, 2.4% pick/ban rate. Note: pro meta may differ from ranked.
Raz — Mage Guide
Raz wins trades by walking into them. Where most mages want safe positioning and long-range poke, he is built to close the gap, launch an enemy into the air with a rising uppercut, and detonate them before they land. His kit is a tight loop of melee-range magic: every skill hit refunds 25 energy, so a clean three-skill combo essentially pays for itself and lets him chain aggression that looks reckless but is actually deliberate resource management. Fist Spirit's passive dash and empowered auto after each skill cast glue it together, rewarding players who read the flow of a combo rather than pressing buttons in a vacuum.
This patch he sits at S tier, not because he is obviously broken but because the meta has drifted toward squishier mids and mobile assassin threats that his knockup and knockback can delete before they act. His 42.9% win rate looks modest, but the 2.5% pick rate tells the real story: this is a specialist pick, not a blind spam. Diamond-and-above players who invest ten games to learn his passive-dash animation find a hero that punishes the meta's habit of grouping carelessly around objectives. If you like mages that demand a fighter's instincts, Raz is one of the most rewarding picks in ranked right now.
Strengths
- +Raz's Q-into-passive-dash loop gives him consistent, repeatable CC that a single Purify cannot fully negate, since the knockback from Odin's Fist arrives separately from the Q airborne.
- +Every skill hit restores 25 energy, making Raz one of the most self-sustaining energy-based heroes in extended skirmishes, a clean three-skill combo nearly fully funds the next one.
- +The magic-resistance shred on Volatile Fist means Raz scales through the build naturally and does not require a Staff of Nuul to crack tanky supports the way other mages do.
- +Fist Spirit's post-skill mobility dash makes him extremely difficult to kite once he is inside melee range, punishing immobile or positionally passive mid laners who try to walk away from trades.
Weaknesses
- −Raz has almost no kill threat against a target who correctly maintains distance past his dash range, he is entirely dependent on being within roughly one body-length of his victim to function.
- −The linear, narrow hitbox of Odin's Fist is easy to sidestep for mobile heroes or anyone with a blink that does not require a cast bar, meaning his ultimate occasionally whiffs at the worst possible moment.
- −His 0% ban rate and low pick rate mean opponents are less likely to respect his damage early, but he genuinely lacks reliable wave-clear compared to meta mages like Tulen or Diao Chan, slowing his path to first-item power.
- −Flicker is nearly mandatory as his summoner spell, which leaves him without Purify against heavy-CC compositions, a hard-engage team with two or more lockdowns can keep him out of melee range and delete him before Fist Spirit can reposition.
Abilities
PFist Spirit
After using a skill, Raz leaps in a designated direction and gains movement speed. His next auto attack deals magic damage and knocks the enemy back.
1Rising Dragon Fist
Raz leaps and punches upward, dealing magic damage and launching the enemy into the air. If this skill hits a target, Raz restores 25 energy.
2Volatile Fist
Raz releases power from his fist, dealing magic damage and reducing the target's magic armor and movement speed. If this skill hits a target, Raz restores 25 energy.
ROdin's Fist
Raz charges forward in a straight line in a designated direction, dealing magic damage and knocking the enemy back. If this skill hits a target, Raz restores 25 energy.
How to Use Raz's Kit
The passive dash triggers after every skill cast, not just offensively, use it to micro-reposition between each button press so your empowered auto always connects at maximum melee range rather than whiffing into thin air. The movement-speed burst it grants is brief but meaningful for closing the last half-step on a fleeing target. The single most common mistake at Diamond rank is burning the passive dash sideways or backwards out of panic, which strips the empowered auto from your combo and tanks your total damage by a significant margin.
This is your combo opener in almost every situation because the airborne state is the longest hard-CC in Raz's kit and everything else you do lands more reliably against a floating target. The vertical jump has a deceptively short horizontal range, so you must already be inside brawling distance before you cast it, using Fist Spirit's dash on the approach is how you close that gap safely. Missing Q against a squishy means you've wasted the only guaranteed lockdown in your kit, so learn to pre-position with the passive before committing rather than leaping from maximum range and praying.
Volatile Fist's magic-resistance shred is the reason Raz's late-game damage scales so aggressively, cast it early in the combo so the debuff is active when your heaviest hits (empowered autos and Odin's Fist) land. It also applies a slow, which is essential for keeping the target inside Odin's Fist's linear path. A subtle point: because W also refunds 25 energy on hit, landing it in the middle of a combo keeps the chain going without needing to dip into energy reserves that should be saved for re-engaging after a skirmish.
Odin's Fist is a linear dash-and-strike that knocks enemies back along its path, which means it pushes them away from you, potentially out of follow-up auto range. Always cast it last in your sequence, after the target is already slowed by W, to guarantee the line connects; do not use it as a gap-closer on an unslowed enemy because they will simply sidestep it. In teamfights it has genuine multi-target potential if enemies are stacked along an objective, and the knockback can interrupt channeled ultimates from heroes like Tulen or Natalya if aimed correctly.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Rising Dragon Fist | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | 13 | · | · |
2Volatile Fist | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | 14 | · |
ROdin's Fist | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Desolate
Spirit
StainStandard Build
1
2
3
4
5
6Core Combos
Standard All-In
P1P2PRThe bread-and-butter combo for any isolated target, use the Fist Spirit dash before Q to close the final gap, weave the empowered autos between each skill for maximum damage, and save Odin's Fist for last when the enemy is slowed and cannot sidestep the linear strike.
Flicker Ambush
1P2PROpen with Flicker rather than the passive dash when you need to surprise an enemy who is respecting your dash range, the instant displacement bypasses their defensive positioning and the Q airborne prevents the immediate escape response.
Poke-to-Execute
2P1PRLead with W's slow and magic-resistance shred at the edge of your melee range when the enemy is above 60% HP, let the debuffs do early work, then commit the full Q-into-ultimate finisher once they have burned their escape or are low enough that the combo kills.
Gameplan
Raz's first true spike is Soaring Aura: the ability haste and magic power together cut his combo cooldowns short enough that the energy-refund loop feels fluid rather than forced. He can bully lane at level 4 with all three basics unlocked, but his biggest in-game spike is level 6, when Odin's Fist turns every successful Q into a full three-part execution combo. His second item, Boomstick, is when he becomes genuinely terrifying in skirmishes. Play safe in the opening two minutes if you are behind on level; a Raz with no passive-dash control and a half-built Soaring Aura is a liability, not a threat.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Focus on hitting level four before or at the same time as the enemy mid laner — your trading power before all three basic skills are online is limited, so farm under relative safety and use W poke to apply pressure without fully committing.
- →Use Fist Spirit's dash to hop over skill shots rather than burning Flash, preserving your summoner spell for the level-six all-in assassination window.
- →Track the enemy jungler's position before stepping up to trade; Raz caught by a double-CC gank with no Flicker available dies almost every time.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →With Soaring Aura and Enchanted Kicks completed, rotate to dragon or dark slayer skirmishes where the confined geometry of an objective fight prevents enemies from walking out of your melee range.
- →Target the enemy mage or marksman in teamfights rather than the frontline — your job is to delete the backline threat, not to brawl with tanks who can absorb your combo and outlive it.
- →Use Odin's Fist's knockback to interrupt objective channels or push enemies back into your team's follow-up CC, turning a pick into a full teamfight win.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →By the time you have Staff of Nuul completed, the magic-resistance shred from W combined with the penetration makes even tanky supports one-rotatable — don't hesitate to chain-combo support heroes who walk up to vision-check bushes.
- →In high-stakes teamfights, patience is more important than aggression: wait for the enemy displacement abilities to be spent, then Flicker-Q onto their carry to avoid trading CC with your combo window.
- →Keep Rhea's Blessing's shield in mind as a pseudo-escape tool — if you are collapsing into a fight at low HP, the shield can absorb the counter-burst that would otherwise finish you before your combo completes.
Matchups
Raz is a first-pick risk unless your team is drafted around hard-CC delivery. His best games come with Baldum, Grakk, or Arum in the comp, because those heroes turn his short-range burst from a situational gimmick into a guaranteed execution loop. If the enemy has locked Butterfly or Nakroth, don't first-pick him; the matchup drains your energy every time you walk up to trade and accomplishes nothing. Against Keera, play it as a farm lane and look for kills through roam pressure rather than direct fights. Jinnar is the matchup to dodge most aggressively; if he is across from you, respect his poke range and wait for jungle help instead of forcing trades you can't win.
Raz gets countered by
KeeraKeera's blink-on-demand lets her simply step outside the linear hitbox of Odin's Fist and then re-engage on her own terms after Raz has burned his entire combo with nothing to show for it.
NakrothNakroth's extreme dash speed and double-jump evasion make it nearly impossible for Raz to land Q on him in lane, and Nakroth's burst trades are faster than Raz's full combo rotation at equal gold.
ButterflyButterfly's untargetability during her ultimate completely negates Raz's all-in window, she can tank out the entire combo duration, then execute him at full damage from behind.
JinnarJinnar's long-range CC chains keep Raz at arm's length and strip his mobility advantage; if Raz cannot close the gap, he contributes almost nothing to a fight.
Raz synergizes with
BaldumBaldum's Tongue Grab pulls an enemy directly into Raz's melee range and briefly roots them, turning even a range-keeping carry into a free Q target.
GrakkGrakk's chain hook sets up the same melee-delivery service as Baldum with the added bonus of pulling the target toward your team, ensuring Raz's knockback from Odin's Fist doesn't launch them to safety.
ArumArum's bind is one of the longest-duration hard CCs in the game and keeps enemies completely stationary, a gift for a hero whose combo requires the target to sit still long enough for a three-part melee sequence.
ThaneThane's ultimate wall blocks escape routes, and his bodyblock presence in the frontline keeps enemies funneled into positions where Raz's linear Odin's Fist cannot miss.
Pro Tips
- →The Fist Spirit dash has a direction input, you can dash perpendicular to your attack angle to sidestep an incoming skill shot mid-combo without breaking your damage rotation, which is only possible if you pre-decide the dash direction before the skill animation ends.
- →Energy management is Raz's invisible skill ceiling: if you land all three skills in one combo you refund 75 energy, meaning you can immediately re-engage a second target in a teamfight, tracking your energy bar in real time separates players who get one kill from players who get a triple.
- →Odin's Fist pushes enemies backward along its path, which means aiming it toward your own team rather than away from them turns the knockback into a CC setup for your allies rather than an accidental save for the enemy.
- →Against immobile mages in lane, the W-slow into passive-dash-forward-then-Q sequence is safer than opening with Q from max jump range, because the slow guarantees Q connects even if they flash reactively, it buys you a half-second of forced proximity.
Raz is the pick for mid players bored of casting from a safe distance who want a hero that rewards in-fight decisions over pre-fight positioning. His S-tier rating reflects how well his melee-range magic loop punishes the meta's squishy, poorly-spaced comps. The thing to master is Fist Spirit's directional dash: get that right and every combo tightens, every trade gets safer, and every teamfight becomes a showcase. Put your practice time there first and the rest of the kit clicks around it.
Raz — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Raz good in the current ROV patch?+
Yes. Raz is firmly S tier on the current Thai server, and while his 42.9% win rate reads low at a glance, the 2.5% pick rate confirms it is a specialist number skewed by players still learning the combo rhythm. In the hands of someone who has drilled the passive-dash weave, he is one of the strongest burst mages in Diamond-and-above mid-lane play.
What is the best build for Raz?+
Core build is Soaring Aura into Enchanted Kicks, then Boomstick, Hecate's Diadem, Staff of Nuul, and Rhea's Blessing in the final slot. Soaring Aura first is non-negotiable; the ability haste makes the energy-refund loop function, and skipping it for early damage leaves your cooldowns sluggish through the mid-game.
How do you counter Raz?+
The simplest counter is distance: any hero who reliably stays beyond his passive-dash range forces him into irrelevance. Untargetable abilities like Butterfly's ultimate waste his combo window completely, and heavy-CC junglers who collapse on him before he finishes a rotation shut him out. A mobile mid laner like Nakroth or Keera is the cleanest lane counter.
Is Raz hard to play / good for beginners?+
Medium, and accurate. The buttons are simple, but the passive-dash direction control and energy-refund timing that separate good Raz from great Raz take real investment. Beginners can pick him up and have fun immediately, but don't expect his true carry potential until you have specifically practiced weaving empowered autos between every skill cast.