Today I'm here to bequeath upon you a fantastic and awesome power. A gift so powerful and obscure that you may not even believe that it's real. The gift of Rakan top. As a veritable wizard, and the most venerated member (and President!) of the Rakan Fangirls Association, I find myself the only person in a position to spread this joyous gospel.

Some peculiar folks like to question my motives, and tell me that Rakan top isn't worth playing or sucks. I forgive those people, for they know not their folly. Pay close attention and you'll be a charming top lane genius like me in no time at all!

This guide is a WIP and I'll be updating it more when I have the time!

Pros

[*] Tons of fun to play, mobile, pseudo-tanksassin beast
[*] Hard to gank with proper warding
[*] Highly underestimated burst potential after level 6
[*] Extremely good mid to late game scaling
[*] Superb at both teamfighting and skirmishing with allies
[*] Potentially a peel god similar to the likes of Thresh, for protect the AD compositions
[*] Can snowball out of control, and take your jungler with you

Cons

[*] Inconsistent early game; you can dominate and be pretty useless from match-to-match
[*] Lacks the damage to 100 to 0 people who buy resistances, or when behind
[*] Can struggle in 1 versus x situations, better at working with your team
[*] Sometimes your chimpanzee teammates will flame you, and you'll have to mute them and just communicate via pings

Flash and Teleport are going to be your summoner spells of choice. Although Ignite can be tempting, the inability to make teleport plays versus an overextended enemy bot lane, or TP back into lane to catch a big wave, is just really not worth it. You excel at being a team player, and TP allows you to do that even from top lane. Flash is pretty self explanatory - you have a lot of cc and mobility, flash enhances that a lot and allows you to survive early jungle ganks etc.

You'll want to have Thunderlord's Decree for trading in lane, bursting people, and just for all-around stylishness. Although it's tempting to take Windspeaker's Blessing , that's for SUPPORT ^{read "el nobo"} Rakan, which we are NOT endorsing here! Fervor of Battle CAN work be used if you take attack speed quints, but it's really not worth the payoff. You'll be stronger levels 1-2 but steeply miss your AP and TLD ever after. It's also severely less fashionable. Don't do it.

Early on

You're going to always want to start out Corrupting Potion or Doran's Blade. If you need to back early with anywhere from 400-700g, it's okay to buy the potion if you started Doran's. If you started potion and want to buy a Doran's item to ride through the early lane, then buy the Doran's Ring. The later you buy it, the worse the blade actually is. Cloth Armor are also okay, since they'll build into the Zhonya's Hourglass that you will probably buy 98% of games.

After that, you just want to rush your Hextech Rocketbelt. Both components are good and worth buying. Kindlegem is safer if you're versus something scary/that got an early lead. The Hextech Revolver actually makes you pretty threatening versus squishy targets, a full combo of R-W-Q with the revolver could easily take someone from 60% to dead - keep in mind that you CAN auto attack and cast abilities whilst using The Quickness!

Protobelt is love. Protobelt is life. Rakan needs a protobelt to keep his pants on when all the thotties come-a-runnin'. This item is so freaking good; it enhances your burst, it enhances your waveclear (deny dives by one-shotting huge waves that would otherwise crash into your turret), and it looks damn good while doing all of that, too. The cool down reduction and HP compliment the AP basically perfectly for Rakan.

AP (After Protobelt)

The core build is always going to be 40% CDR. Ionian Boots of Lucidity are extremely useful as they allow you to cheaply buy CDR as well as Summoner Spell CDR, very early in the game. If you're versus a very heavily AD team, or struggling with a scary AD laner, then feel free to pick up Ninja Tabi instead. You'll always buy either Zhonya's Hourglass or Abyssal Mask second, depending on your lane matchup and the game as a whole. Zhonyas is a way better purchase since the active allows you to make a flashy play (like flash R->W into a bunch of people) and then pop the active to survive while your team follows up. With capped CDR you can almost Grand Entrance in -> Zhonya's Hourglass -> Grand Entrance out, which is pretty gnarly for sure.

Versus Heavy AD

If the enemy team is all AD, you're going to buy the Zhonya's and go into either a support item like Redemption, or buy AP/Armor depending on how fed you are. Good options are things like Sunfire, Haunting Guise/ Liandry's Torment, or even Luden's Tempest if you have a really big lead. All of those help to shore up your waveclear issues somewhat whilst providing extra tankiness/shields/healing/damage.

Versus Heavy AP

Unlike the all AD enemy team (where you won't buy abyssal), you're going to buy Zhonyas most games even if the enemy team has one or zero AD threats. After Protobelt/Abyssal you can choose between Locket of the Iron Solari (immediate MR and active shield for the team) and Zhonyas. Build which ever one you skipped after that, and then go into either Redemption or even Ardent Censer if your ADC/ADC is/are popping off. Ardent is really good since you can utilize every bit of AP, and apply heals and shields to multiple people in teamfights.

You're going to max W every game. It's your strongest basic ability by far, reducing it's cooldown alone is worth it, but it also does a substantial amount of damage at max rank. Q range, mana cost, and damage aren't impressive, but maxing it second is the only viable option as a solo laner, and it makes your burst a bit higher than if you had put those points into E. Always put points into your ultimate when available, as usual.

You need to be the hero your team deserves. Although it can be tempting to explain to your flaming mid the intricacies of his potato heritage, the best way to make him quiet down is to carry the game. Always look for chances to save your teammates, whether it's shielding them from the fatal tics of ignite, or counter engaging a winnable fight when they get caught. Don't be afraid of the flashy team-fight engage, but make sure it's a good one.

Since Rakan can cast abilities during his ultimate, it's possible to force opponents to stay in your W with the charm. You can R->W->Q->Protobelt a key target, or flash to give the same combo a much bigger range of threat. You can also E to an ally (your jungler or tanky support in most cases) and follow up on their engage. A lot of times, you're going to burst whoever you engage on, and if you get that initial burst+cc onto the 1-2 key targets of the enemy team, you've won the fight. Zhonyas is especially helpful when you're the first to engage, so you can use it while your teammates follow-up and avoid getting butt blasted. Be creative - if you have a vision advantage it's possible to engage with your W over a wall and flash your ultimate onto the highest priority target of the enemy team. After you're done with burst, try to hit as many extra targets with your ultimate as possible, since it'll disable their ability to assist whoever you just bamboozled with your explosive swagger bomb.