Yup. You heard that right, and theres no Xayah to save us where we're going. But first, some history. I understand that the 'shock' value of this is played up a bit, as Rakan has seen play in mid for a little bit, but he's certainly fallen out of favor over the years. However, we're going to try to bring him back into the limelight. For those of you hearing about this for the first time or wanting to give it a first try, this is the guide for you, but you may learn something even regardless. In this guide, we focus on his high AP ratios to guarentee insane damage in quick bursts.

Rakan is a mobility support, known for several things throughout the community:

• Mobility (surprise) and follow up potential.
• Peeling for allies with your shield.
• Wide-scale AOE CC with his Grand Entrance and The Quickness.
• Having significant AP Ratios on his abilities and Fey Feathers.

For the uninitiated, midlane AP Rakan has an in-and-out strategy emphasized by high, quick, surprising engage burst that builds quickly. He is surprisingly adept in early fights, especially when utilizing Ignite, and can take out strong duelists after a low number of rotations in the early levels of laning phase, usually between levels 1-3.

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PROS + Uncommon Matchup + Very high mobility + Good AOE setup potential + Quick roams and jungler peeling + Wonderful AP Ratios + Good health sustainability Most players you run into will be unaware of the range or damage of Grand Entrance before you use it, which you can use to get a free strong trade early on. If you aren't using your abilities for getting last hits, you should be using it to trade whenever possible, should you be in range to do so. Gleaming Quill is a substantial boon for your sustain, so try to avoid spending all your mana on the wave and try to keep poking to get the other laner away from the lane if they step up for it.

CONS - squishy without shield - may rely on jungler in several matchups - long cooldowns in early laning - Deadweight Battle Dance in solo lane Rakan can have difficulty into matchups with large amounts of CC or difficult CC to avoid, such as Lux, and can suffer from being poked early by champions that don't need to walk up, such as ranged champs or champs that can avoid CC, such as Sivir, Malzahar, and Zoe. Avoid putting yourself close to champions that can poke you out of lane before you get good trades in, and wait for them to push the wave toward you to collect your CS. If a champion does well at blocking off your escape after an engage, make sure your jungler is close by for a Battle Dance jump if you need an escape button. Rakan's matchups can be difficult, but patience is rewarding!

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PASSIVE ABILITY

Fey Feathers ✦ Every 40 - 14.5 seconds, Rakan gains 30 - 225 (+95% of ability power) Shield. Rakan's Attacks and Abilities against enemy champions reduce this Cooldown by 1 second.

PASSIVE ABILITY

Lover's Leap ✦If Rakan and Xayah are on the same team, they can recall together by moving nearby when one of them is recalling.

Q

Gleaming Quill ✦ Rakan flings a magical feather that deals 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+70% of ability power) magic damage to the first enemy hit. If the feather hits a champion or epic jungle monster, Rakan restores 30 - 115 (depending on level) (+55% of ability power) health to himself and nearby allies after 3 seconds or when he touches an allied champion.

W

Grand Entrance ✦ Rakan dashes, then spirals into the air, knocking up for 1 second and dealing 70 / 125 / 180 / 235 / 290 (+80% of ability power) magic damage.

E

Battle Dance ✦ Rakan dashes to an allied champion, granting them 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+70% of ability power) shield for 3 seconds. Rakan can recast this ability once within 5 seconds.

R

The Quickness ✦ Rakan gains 75% bonus movement speed for the next 4 seconds, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to each enemy he touches and charming them for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds. Enemies can only be affected once. The first champion charmed grants Rakan 150% decaying movement speed.

Generally speaking, this is the path you'll go most of your games, following R>W>Q>E. You may decide to put your level 3 into Battle Dance to assist your jungler when the first Rift Scuttler spawns, but otherwise this is the path you should take. If your team composition requires more shielding, you can choose to level up your Battle Dance before Gleaming Quill, but this may impact your damage for earlier fights, so choose carefully.

SUMMONER SPELLS - FLASH: Flash is an incredibly useful tool in lane, as you are probably well aware. Flashing before Grand Entrance can catch opponents off guard, and flashing afterward in the opposite direction can cancel your animation, putting you in a safer place faster, or back over a wall. IGNITE: While Rakan has fantastic AP ratios, his damage isn't the most incredible in the early game. Ignite adds some padding to your early lane damage, potentially netting you a kill earlier than you would have been able to. More than 90% of your games, you will run ignite. SMITE: Smite is a peculiar choice that you'll want to avoid most of the time, but the value it can grant to your jungler is substantial. Also, if you're a corrupted individual like myself, sometimes you thrive off the joy of taking your enemy's early camps OR confirming cannons in a difficult ranged matchup. Usually, you'll want to take Ignite.

EYEBALL COLLECTION ✦ Eyeball Collection While there are several reasons for why you may either want to pick up this or Ghost Poro, it tends to be up to personal preference. However, I would recommend you stick with Eyeball Collection while you're learning how to play Rakan mid, as getting credit in takedowns aligns with his playstyle.

ATTACK SPEED ✦ Attack Speed Your first rune shard should almost always be attack speed. Rakan benefits greatly from this attack speed bonus for his trades and his attempts at CS'ing effectively. This is not something you should go without.

GATHERING STORM ✦ Gathering Storm This is one of the best runes you can run for a game you know will go late, in a game where your teammates are aiming to scale, or literally any opportunity you can. If you are running sorcery, there is practically no reason you should not have this, as extra AP is just an all around boon for your entire kit.

BIG BURST KEYSTONE Electrocute: Rakan benefits greatly from electrocute, as most burst champions do, adding a good bonus to your damage on top of your typical engage combo can make or break a trade in lane. Play around your cooldown, and try W>Q>AA to activate it on most of your engages. If you miss Q, do another AA before disengaging. MOBILITY KEYSTONE Predator: Some people will be inclined to run predator, giving even more mobility in his roaming potential and letting you stick your engage more easily. I recommend using Ultimate Hunter whenever you take this, so you can stack your movement speed from The Quickness for a faster engage. IN-AND-OUT KEYSTONE Phase Rush: I won't be going into detail about Rakan's usage of Phase Rush in this guide, mostly because I don't use it, but it can be a powerful tool at your disposal for the experienced duelists who enjoy a bit of extra mobility. Just know it is an option.

Every item suggested is in favor of magic damage, shredding magic resist, increasing burst damage, or (in Malignance's case) doing most everything you need. The only significant game-changer is with Lich Bane making your auto's more relevant to your combo. I would usually recommend getting it, due to both the ease of getting an auto or two into each of your combos, as well as aiding the occasional loose minion.

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Sorcerer's Shoes > MAGIC PENETRATION This item is great for any builds where you don't need extra ability speed, most likely because your other items do it for you, or if you're ahead by a lot. Increasing the damage of your abilities a noticeable amount for a relatively cheap price. Ionian Boots of Lucidity > ABILITY HASTE For any builds you aren't going for that juicy extra magic pen, you'll be going ability haste. While Rakan's abilities don't have very long cooldowns later in the game, they do get in the way of using abilities multiple times a fight, which can be necessary. If you don't get enough ability haste from your other items, take these.

Hey all, thanks for reading through my guide. I am inexperienced in the way of making guides, so criticism is appreciated. I am a fairly casual player, but I've gotten a lot of information and different perspectives from experience and others who have tried similar things. I tend to play midlane and jungle mages with mobility, and I've had an absolute blast playing Rakan. Even if you don't end up using this guide much, I hope it made you think about AP Rakan and his potential. I'm not the first, but I am proud if it helped just one person. Thanks! Chao.