I'm Malcrave. I've been playing through Alpha a lot and Raynor immediately became one of my favorite characters. I've played Mobas for nearly four years now, as I began originally playing League of Legends in late Season 1. I was 2450 MMR in S2 and Diamond 1 in S3 and S4. I've mained AD carry through all of these seasons. Most of my favorite characters are ranged assassins in this game and I plan on making content, guides, and so on for them.

Raynor is a powerful ranged assassin. Although he lacks an escape, he makes up for it with his healing ability Adrenaline Rush. Penetrating Round, coupled with Bullseye and Lead from the Front, can result in a spammable stun during team fights. Advanced Optics allows for him to outrange most ranged characters. His heroic abilities, like all pet heroes, persist through death and can clean up enemies. Overall, Raynor excels at team fighting and can duel other assassins extremely well.

Pros

- Amazing team-fight ability
- Resets cooldowns from kills
- Adrenaline Rush can often be the difference in team fights
- His Q can interrupt important channeled abilities

Cons

- Takes some time to scale
- Only escape is from Bolt of the Storm talent at level 20
- Adrenaline Rush can be nullified by burst

YES: Give Me More!

This provides an insane amount of healing and is able to keep you alive through tough spots. It synergizes well with Activated Rush. Raynor already does massive damage and scales fine into late game, making the survivability generally the better choice. This sort of replaces any type of escape ability pre-20.

SITUATIONAL: Seasoned Marksman - This talent can be a decent pickup if you're able to soak a lot in the game or get a lot of kills. As much attack damage as you receive from this ability, its core weakness is the fact that its useless if you're dead. Raynor already does enough damage, and the ramp effect from this talent seems weak in comparison to an improved heal.

NEVER: Demolitionist - Offers neither offensive or defensive benefits
NEVER: Bribe - Offers neither offensive or defensive benefits
NEVER: Scouting Drone - Offers neither offensive or defensive benefits

YES: Advanced Optics

This talent is amazing because it allows Raynor to out-range most ranged assassins. This allows for easier kite, chase, and positioning during team fights.

NEVER: Focused Attack - Very weak talent with little return.
NEVER: Vampiric Assault - Lifesteal is always nice, but range increase is far more important and useful.
NEVER: Quick Fingers (Trait) - Honestly have not experimented with this very much, but I can't imagine it being too useful since the main part about the reset is your Q which you'll end up getting even without this talent.

YES: Revolution Overdrive

The more I've played Raynor the more I've valued any type of movement speed. This increased movement speed allows for Raynor to chase down enemies, kite them with ease, and escape bad situations. It also makes him very mobile in team fights since he'll be buffing allies. Searing Attacks is very close to this ability in terms of potential. Ultimately, it's mobility versus damage.

SITUATIONAL: Searing Attacks - Definitely worth looking at. This talent is very close with Revolution Overdrive, and honestly, it seems like the choice comes down to personal preference. More damage versus mobility.

NEVER: Heavy Ammo - A further knockback will generally cause more problems than benefits if you're positioning properly.
NEVER: Fight or Flight - Very weak talent that neither boosts damage nor improves mobility. The Unstoppable effect is only beneficial at some points, while mobility and damage is always useful.

YES: Raynor's Raiders

The two banshees that spawn from this heroic ability do a ton of damage and focus your target. While the cattlebruiser will zone, this ability basically allows you to kill people quickly, get your resets going, and destroy in team fights. It also helps you peel for yourself since you have two pets that will always be damaging your target.

SITUATIONAL: Hyperion - This heroic is mainly used for sieging, pushing, and zoning. In certain AoE oriented team fights, Hyperion can absolutely demolish teams simply because they are unable to run and forced to fight underneath it. However, Raynor's Raiders is generally more consistent.

YES: Activated Rush

This is a strong talent because it guarantees your ability to get your heal off. Certain abilities like Zagara's Devouring Maw will kill you inside of it without allowing you to heal. This basically allows you to heal at safer percentages rather than reaching a critical health at which you can get bursted down in. In general, this talent allows for more consistent and safe play.

SITUATIONAL: Giant Killer - More damage is always good. If you're able to heal reliably and the other team is very tank-heavy then this talent will work well.

NEVER: The Art of War - Works well with Executioner since slows count as disables. However, Bullseye is the superior talent and therefore this one is not really worth considering.
NEVER: Spell Shield - Assuming you activate your heal with Activated Rush, both are on a thirty second cool down and spell shield will not help mitigate basic attack damage. Activated Rush is beneficial against both spell damage and basic attack damage.

YES: Bullseye

This is Raynor's most powerful talent. The potential of chain stunning during team fights and picking people off is amazing. Barely winning fights because you're able to stun each new focus target after defeating the previous one allows for so many huge plays to be made. The other three should very rarely be looked at as this stun is ridiculously powerful and is what makes Raynor such a threat.

NEVER: Executioner
NEVER: Cluster Round
NEVER: Berserk

YES: Bolt of the Storm

The "blink" ability that many heroes have access to. Raynor lacks an escape so this talent allows him to get out of bad situations, reposition in team fights, and stun crucial targets. It also helps him chase down and stun enemies. The only thing Raynor is missing is some type of Vault ability and this completes his kit.

NEVER: Fury of the Storm - Useless.
NEVER: Battle Hyperion - If you've selected Hyperion you might as well get this talent since it is pretty awesome. Seriously though, it's very underwhelming but still feels really cool to have. Blink is way better.
NEVER: Hel's Angels - Never found this useful. Blink is too important.

With the game still being understood, strategies being optimized, and teammates not always playing very well, creating an early-game and late-game section seems very useless. Heroes in this game change dynamically through talents, team variety, and map variety. However, there is often a structure and pattern to playing every character no matter the map or team. I will list a simple progression of a play-through as Raynor through levels and certain talents.

• Raynor is not a great solo laner. His early game isn't that great so just push the waves with Q. Lane pushing early is important because it causes turrets to use ammo, allows for you to move back safely from any incoming ganks, and gives you the ability to roam without losing experience.
• If you do happen to take a lot of damage, Adrenaline Rush will act as a second healing fountain for your health pool.
• Level 4 is where things get a little cleaner since you'll outrange basically everyone with Advanced Optics at this stage.
• This allows for safe harass and safer positioning.
  Note: Around level 4 team fights will start happening since the mines will be opening, tributes spawning, and so on. The range increase will provide you with a great advantage so make sure to level it the second you hit Level 4.
• Heroic Ability at Level 10 is a nice power spike.
• Your true power spike comes at Level 16 with Bullseye. You should be able to win team fights with proper positioning. If you're feeling bold you can easily pick people off around the map; however, don't get too crazy doing this if you aren't sure where the rest of your opponents are.
• Remember to finish enemies that are running with Penetrating Round since the knockback can push them to safety if not used properly.

Raynor is a fun character to play. His kit is very simplistic and is an accessible hero to everyone. Raynor has an extreme amount of potential to carry games through his continuous resets, high damage, and amazing survivability. A lack of escape can be frustrating at times, so play safe and wait for the perfect opportunity to lead the charge in team fights.

Thank you for reading this guide! Upvotes, comments, and suggestions are always appreciated. Cheers.

EDIT LOG:

1/14/2015 - Closed Beta is out now. Ranked is out as well, so I've modified the build and title. Some small changes to the build have been made; descriptions have NOT been updated yet.

Level 1 Talents: Give Me More! vs Seasoned Marksman is still worth further review. Games from I have seen have been moving quickly, and the scaling from Seasoned Marksman still never reaches a useful point. Give Me More! is always useful, so I stand by it being the better choice currently.

Level 7 Talents: Searing Attacks outperforms Revolution Overdrive since from actual ranked experience now I can say for certain that the mobility does not synergize well with his playstyle.

Level 13 Talents: Activated Rush vs Giant Killer is no longer really a question. Activated Rush feels almost mandatory because of the amount of CC and burst teams are able to put out. Remember to use it BEFORE 30% because it's a complete waste if you don't.