I've been able to do some pretty nasty combos with him, but the problem is that they require some tough timing or they just aren't that practical. I'd say he's mid tier.

I'm also going to move this thread to the Strategy Zone because that's where it belongs, so please direct future discussion there.

Still too early to properly say about him.

Got him two days ago, been playing with him a lot.

He doesn't have any low starter combos, and he only has one combo that has a low hit in it, but it can't cancel into a special move or a pop up.
That right there drops him pretty low.

What is interesting is that his low hitting combo is really fast, and he has another combo that looks like that low hitting combo but it's actuall a mid ending popup combo that can be linked into larger combos. This is great for mixups and I'm sure tons of people will/have overlooked this.

His specials alone aren't very noteworthy. His water bubble projectile is rather slow for my tastes.
His geyser kick could use more reach.
I don't like how his super kick cam be charged for it causes some delay even if you don't charge it.
I like his lightning because it's a good popup, but it rarely connects outside of a combo because today's players love to hold on to block for dear life.

His teleport is nice, but if used too often, it could easily be caught by an uppercut.
Don't expect me to say anything about his water enhance. I think powerup moves like that are bullshit. Try landing one of those online when you have a spastic opponent doing e everything in their power to hit you. I like guacamole.
His combos are in the high thirties.

I'd say he is about middle mid tier, or middle class B. If he had a low starting combo hat could cancel into a special, he'd be a lot more dangerous.

I don't know. He's got a great zoning game. Probably ranked right below Ermac and Sub-Zero

But there's one huge flaw in Rain's game that I'm becoming more and more convinced might be damning: his wake-up game isn't scary. Rain is a zoning character, and my character is the best anti-zoning character in the game, but am I going to anti-zone Rain? Fuck no. I'm going to rush him down... all... day... long.

Why? Because for one thing, his can't control the air. His water ball is crazy slow, and I'm immune from lightning on jump. Second of all, once I get a knock down, I have two options. I can pressure him with chains and cross-ups, or I can bait a wake-up attack. I'm telling you right now, unless I have near certainty that he's going to geyser kick, I'm going to continue pressuring Rain. The reason being that If I guess right, I can continue my offense and possibly get in a combo. If I guess wrong, I'm going to get hit by a big scary geyser kick.

Except it's not scary at all. It only does moderate damage, you can't combo off of it, and it actually knocks far enough away from Rain so I don't have to worry about his potential mix-ups. It's not like Smoke's EX-Shake where if you get hit by it, your wake-up game begins right next Smoke himself.

Granted, I haven't tested out the EX-moves yet. If it turns out Ex-Lightning or Ex-Roundhouse have invincibility on wake-up, then that could make me think twice. But even then, if his meter is reserved for defensive options and combo breakers, that's going to limit his game severely when he has the zoning position. I've successfully knocked Rain players out of wake-up lightning (standard), so that's certainly a lost cause.

You won't, so I will. The regular version of it is complete garbage. Very negligible effect on the damage and lasts only two seconds, I believe. The enhanced version is fun to try out in practice mode just to see how big you can go, since it has a very noticeable damage increase to it, but I'm with you, it's not really worth using because it has to be set up and it's an obvious trigger for your opponent to start trying to zone you or rush you down.

I been playing with Rain online a lot recently and here are some of my newer findings.

His B2, 3 ends with a fast low sweep, and his B2, 1+2 looks exactly like B2,3, but it ends with a mid popup which in my case leads to a 40% meterless combo.

As for his enhanced water boost, what I have been doing is starting with this combo,

JIP B2 1+2 > B2 1+2, > 4 3 xx Water Bubble (place opponent above Rain), 4 3 Lightning

And while the opponent is popped up from the lightning do the EX Water Buff, then jump OVER the opponent to hit him with a cross up JIP. The reason you must jump over is to avoid a wake up attack. If you are fighting against someone who has an anti-air wake up attack, I would not go this route.

The first bit will do 34%

If you manage to land the JIP, then continue with the combo below,

JIP B2 1+2 > B2 1+2, > 4 3 xx Water Bubble (place opponent above Rain), 4 3 Lightning, Round House Kick, Uppercut = 53%

If you manage to land all of this, the total is 87% worth of damage, and the only risk is getting hit out of the enhancement and losing one bar of meter. If you ask me, this is all worth the risk of losing 1 bar of meter.

That is certainly something to consider.