Raynor

Jim Raynor, the Renegade Commander, is a Ranged Assassin Hero from the StarCraft universe. The Ex-Confederate Marshall has stood against whatever the universe can throw at him and survived. He stands as a bright beacon of hope among enigmatic aliens and monsters, still fighting for justice in a cold uncaring universe.

Raynor is a Physical Damage Assassin who can keep enemies away.

Background
was a former soldier of the, who abandoned the sector-wide conflict of the to turn to banditry alongside his comrade Tychus Findlay. However, soon he began to see the dark path he was following, and after Tychus was captured it turned a new leaf, becoming marshal on. Years later, the alien zerg invaded the world. Despite bravely fighting the alien aggressors and saving many lives, he was arrested by Confederate forces on the pretext of destroying zerg-infested Confederate property at. When he was subsequently liberated by, an anti-Confederate revolutionary group, Raynor chose to fight alongside them.

Mengsk’s hunger for power and his growing lack of scruples soon began to trouble Raynor. Eventually Mengsk’s betrayal of his own lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan and his ruthless manipulation of the zerg to attack Confederacy-held worlds showed Raynor that Mengsk was no better than the oppressors he sought to overthrow. Raynor led a revolt within the ranks of the Sons of Korhal and seized Mengsk’s personal flagship, the Hyperion, and a small fleet of ships, forming Raynor's Raiders. While attempting to rescue Kerrigan from the zerg planet Char, Raynor was forced to fight against the now zerg infested Kerrigan, but allied with the protoss forces there and gained the respect of the valiant Executor Tassadar. Raynor’s frank honesty enabled him to forge a bond between Tassadar and the dark templar Zeratul.

Raynor and his troops went on to fight alongside the protoss in several campaigns and played a key role in battling the incursion that followed. A twist of fate found Raynor temporarily allied with Arcturus Mengsk and the Queen of Blades, the being reforged from Sarah Kerrigan by the zerg. Although these two tyrants fought against a common foe, it was only a matter of time until their tenuous alliance collapsed. In the end Kerrigan was the one who turned against her erstwhile allies and struck the first blow, and many of Jim Raynor’s comrades died to her treachery, including his protoss ally Fenix.

Raynor escaped the massacre and vowed vengeance. Even so, against the full strength of the zerg Swarm and the vast psionic powers of the Queen of Blades, his chances seemed slender at best, and his retaliatory attempts failed. Eventually, exhausted and disillusioned, Raynor returned to terran space to lead a resistance movement against the spreading power of Arcturus Mengsk’s. Over the years this fight hasn’t gone well. Arcturus Mengsk has used his greatest weapons – oratory, the media, and propaganda – to marginalize Raynor’s efforts. Raynor’s Raiders remained public enemy number one to the powerful Terran Dominion. Mengsk sees Raynor’s continuing existence as a challenge to his authority. However, Mengsk is also wary of creating a martyr by having Raynor assassinated, and so he has taken steps to keep Raynor and his followers constantly hunted and harried, denying them any chance to gain a respite and build their strength.

After years of losing skirmishes against the Dominion, Raynor fell into a depression until the return of Tychus Findlay, who came with an offer of funding from a science group named the if the Raiders helped find pieces of an. However, not long after the zerg returned to invade Dominion space, and Raynor used his forces to help civilians against the zerg, rally forces and strike against the Dominion, and gather the artifacts as he could. During his war, Raynor received a prophecy from Zeratul showing that a fallen, progenitor race of the universe, was returning, and Kerrigan was the key to stopping them. He also discovered the Arcturus's son,, was behind the Moebius Foundation, and wanted Raynor to help him use the artifact to save Kerrigan. Raynor agreed, and the two's forces attacked her core hive on, purifying her and reverting her to human.

Raynor escaped with Kerrigan to the nation of the, but they were followed by Mengsk. During the raid Raynor was captured by Nova Terra and imprisoned, but months later was freed by a now reinfested Kerrigan who once again lead the zerg. Raynor was first appalled she returned to the Swarm, but soon saw she was not the same murderess, and helped her attack Mengsk on Korhal and kill Arcturus once and for all. Raynor then helped install Valerian as the new emperor of the Dominion, and aided in establishing a new fairer rule for the nation.

A year later the xel'naga from Zeratul's prophecy,, returned, leading terran thralls and on an attack on Korhal. Raynor rallied a defense of the planet, but was only victorious when aided by the protoss under Artanis. When Amon was pushed back into his home dimension, Raynor, Artanis and Kerrigan assaulted the realm, finally slaying the alien. In the aftermath of the battle, Raynor was never seen again, with the only sign of his departure being a marshal's badge left on the counter of a Mar Sara bar.

Gameplay
Raynor is a Ranged Assassin who relies on his hard-hitting Basic Attacks and long range to fight his enemies from a safe distance. He combines plain abilities with simple mechanics, however, he requires good positioning and map awareness in order to unfold his true strength. Since Raynor lacks any form of innate escape mechanism, like teleports or dashes, knowing when to take a fight and when to retreat is crucial to achieve good results when playing this Hero.

Strengths

 * Strong Basic Attacks with long range
 * Low learning curve
 * Adrenaline Rush makes him quite durable compared to other Assassins

Weaknesses

 * Blinds
 * Lack of escape and engage
 * Weak early game

Abilities

 * See Data page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Trivia

 * Raynor first appeared in StarCraft (March 1998).
 * Raynor is voiced by Robert Clotworthy.
 * Raynor was one of the 18 heroes revealed at BlizzCon 2013.
 * Coloration is the main thing that distinguishes Raynor's default skin from Tychus's.
 * “Until his rework in July 2018, Heroes of the Storm players have been crying out for a Raynor rework. The character was added early in the game’s development, and at the time, was considered something of a tutorial character. His abilities were all straightforward, easy to manage, and even had fewer buttons to press compared to other characters, with some of his abilities triggering automatically. Raynor was originally the character in the game with the longest attack range, allowing newer players to play safe with him, but additions like Chromie and Hanzo have that range, too — without sacrificing their Trait for it, like Raynor did. The running gag became Raynor wasn’t a hero so much as he was an oversized lane minion, marching down a lane and autoattacking until his inevitable demise and respawn.”
 * During Raynor's rework in July 2018, Blizzard was originally going to stick with term "Acquire Weak Spot" for his passive trait. The community simply asked that it get a more flavorful name, something more inline with Raynor's personality - and what better suggestion than "Give 'Em Some Pepper,' a popular catchphrase of his.
 * Raynor's "War Pig" tint references the, a group of former convicts that were first hired to kill Raynor, but later joined his revolution against the.
 * Raynor's "Dominion" tint is a reference to the Raynor sought to overthrow and later helped rebuild. The tint puts the symbol of the Dominion on his shoulder.
 * The Penetration Round ability is a reference to the Raynor uses in the Wings of Liberty "."
 *  is Raynor's flagship, and serves as one of his hero units in StarCraft. It reappeared as the central hub area in Wings of Liberty and a hero unit in Heart of the Swarm and Co-op Missions.
 * Raynor's Raider is a reference to the cinematic "," where Raynor calls down to rescue General Horace Warfield. The cut level 20 talent "A Card to Play" also referenced this cinematic. The ability is also a reference to Raynor's rebel group.
 * The level 20 talent is a reference to the Banshee mercenary group from Wings of Liberty.
 * The removed level 7 talent "Revolution Overdrive" is a reference to Raynor's quote from the beginning of Wings of Liberty, "'bout time we kick this revolution into overdrive."