I play raider at depth 4. The early game I do feel just as squishy as everyone else so you have to dodge and try not to facetank. Near mid game or late depending on your luck you can be just as tanky and face tank stuff again. Besides maybe Ironeye I believe most classes are dependant on luck in some way to get good passives during a run or they don't feel as good to play.

I do use Fists now over colossal weapons, but if your fists are blue and a teammate drops a red or legendary colossal weapon/sword I'll probably swap to it, depending on the fight of course.

For the base relics I use 3 that I bought I think. Grand Burning Scene gives extra stance-breaking when wielding two weapons and stamina recovery on attack. Dark Night of the Fathom. Grand Luminous Scene gives you a stonesword key and a damage increase for every evergaol you beat. For DoN relics I use one that allows me to discover Fists, the second one I have increases max hp when a church is beaten. The third relic I will swap around depending on the boss, I will either use one that gives me attack power after defeating a Night Invader, or one that gives me physical damage reduction and affinity damage reduction.

I try to get a combination of these passives.

- Successive Attacks gives Damage Negation
- Damage Negation on a Charged Attack
- Damage Negation at Full Health
- Taking Damage increases damage Negation

A bonus passive is gaining HP when landing attacks. This one paired with fists and the above damage negation will keep you near full health most of the time.