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Rakan Build Guide by DasNerdwork

Support [11.14] Let's dance with DasNerdwork's Rakan Guide!

Support [11.14] Let's dance with DasNerdwork's Rakan Guide!

Updated on July 12, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author DasNerdwork Build Guide By DasNerdwork 2894 144 9,268,039 Views 235 Comments
2894 144 9,268,039 Views 235 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author DasNerdwork Rakan Build Guide By DasNerdwork Updated on July 12, 2021
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Rakan
    Utility & Mobility
  • LoL Champion: Rakan
    The Spank Tank
  • LoL Champion: Rakan
    Angry Bird (Poke & Angressive)
  • LoL Champion: Rakan
    Full AP Midlane Birb (WIP)
  • LoL Champion: Rakan
    ADC (Don't try this in ranked!)

Runes: Utility & Mobility Runes

Resolve
Guardian
Demolish
Bone Plating
Revitalize

Sorcery
Nimbus Cloak
Celerity
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None





For suggestions just write a comment. I'll get a mail and answer as soon as possible! Hope you guys like it. I'll update for patches and changes as soon as possible, you can find the latest news and updates in the changelog or the spoiler below this table of contents. Good luck with my guide on Rakan!

For every German reader: Ihr könnt mir ruhig auch auf Deutsch schreiben und Fragen stellen :)
Changelog



Hello there! My name is DasNerdwork but you can call me Flo. As soon as the dancer came out I started to main Rakan, and I simply fell in love with his mobility and coolness! Rakan is the support with the best mobility in League what makes him very unique. In this guide, I will tell you everything you need to know about! I will show you how to dance with your enemies! If you have any suggestions or feedback I'd appreciate it if you comment and discuss with me. I'll always have an eye on the comments. I'll also try to update this guide as often as I'm able to and give you the best advice to main Rakan. If you have any questions just comment or direct message me and i'll answer as soon as possible.

Next to League my main game is called Warframe. I'm officially partnered there since august 2020 and upload a ton of guides and advice videos for my german community on my youtube channel. If you haven't heard of the game before give it a try! It's a mix between collecting, farming, leveling and fighting as a ninja in space. As it's mostly PvE it is very calming and a good alternative besides often stressing or frustrating League of Legends. My personal advice for anyone that struggles with mental health or stress while playing League is to find such a game and use it to relax if needed.

I hope this guide helps you and you learn something new. If so I'll be very happy about an upvote or even a comment to support me, this guide and further updates. But please don't feel forced or begged for anything. Even your view solely already helps a lot. <3

Alright, let the dance begin!




Pros

+ Very high AP ratios
+ Over-the-wall jumps are possible
+ Great knockup & CC (Crowd-Control)
+ Smooth and clean engages/disengages
+ Extreme high and incredible mobility
Rakans possibilities feel endless. His unbelievable potentional in teamfights and all-in engages make lots of fun to play as well as the mobility to dodge every single skillshot the enemy team has. After some time playing Rakan I can promise you that it won't feel the same playing as any other champion. It's simply addictive!

Cons

- High cooldowns
- Depends on his abilities
- Most abilities "only" supportive
- Full potential only with Xayah
- Good CC timing can make him useless
With all his mobility and strength Rakan has some weaknesses too. Most of them will fall off in the late game or you're just tanky enough to compensate them, on the one hand an Event Horizon can fully stop your engage and lose the game. On the other hand a full-engage on 5 people can win you the game. Never underestimate your importance, especially with Rakan.

Click on an image to jump straight down to that ability!



Each ability is described in short with the exact value in brackets. If a stat changes by leveling up it's formatted as (level 1 value - level 18 value). Same goes for an Ability Power scaling indicated with this icon:.



Passive 1 - Fey Feathers

Every (40.0 - 14.5) seconds, Rakan gains a (33 - 254-+90%) Shield. Rakan's Attacks and Abilities against enemy champions reduce this Cooldown by 1 second.

Tips + Tricks


Passive 2 - Lover's Leap

Recall together and save some time. If either Rakan or Xayah is recalling, the other may move nearby and activate their own recall to join them. Both reach base at the time of which the initiator's recall ends.


[Q] Gleaming Quill

Rakan flings a magical feather that deals (70 - 250 +75%) magic damage to the first enemy hit.

If the feather hits a champion or epic jungle monster, restore (18 - 120-+70%) Health to Rakan and surrounding allies after 3 seconds or immediately if he touches an allied champion.

Tips + Tricks


[W] Grand entrance

Rakan dashes, then spirals into the air. All enemies in it's radius are Knocked Up for 1 second and dealt (70 - 290-+70%) magic damage.

Tips + Tricks


[E] Battle Dance

Rakan dashes to an allied champion, granting them (40 - 140-+80%) Shield for 3 seconds.

Rakan can Recast this Ability once within 5 seconds.

Tips + Tricks


[R] The Quickness

Gain 75% Move Speed for 4 seconds. Rakan deals (100 - 300-+50%) magic damage and Charms enemies for 1/1.25/1.5 second(s) the first time he touches them. The first champion touched grants Rakan 150% decaying Move Speed.

Tips + Tricks




Skill Order

> > >

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
1
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
16
2
3
6
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
1
3
4
5
6
7
9
11
14
15
16
17
18
1
2
3
4
5
7
8
9
10
12
13
14
15
17
18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

It's probably normal that the The Quickness is the most important thing because of it's great crowd control possibilities. But we want to max Grand Entrance. Why? Because it has a very good AP ratio, higher scaling damage than Gleaming Quill and very useful with a long CC duration. Also the heal of the quill doesn't scale with your skill points used for it, only with the current level. Therefore maxing the W is worth much more than maxing our Q, even though the poke possibilities are great and you get massive and annoying damage with a only slightly weaker AP ratio. Throwing some Gleaming Quills out of the bush can protect your ADC to be able to farm safely or poke the enemy lane. But you have to decide on your own wether to max Grand Entrance or Gleaming Quill, this is just more common and a suggestion. I prefer Grand Entrance because it gives a lower cooldown and deals damage. Also the shield of Battle Dance is not that strong and you often have to play risky if you focus on using that ability as
a shield. When your lane is behind you could try maxing out Battle Dance first! Another option is to max both simultaneously.


Example Rune Builds
- Utility / Poke
- Tanky / Supportive
- Aggressive / Supportive
Inspiration
- Keyrunes
- Runes
Resolve
- Keyrunes
- Runes
Sorcery
- Keyrunes
- Runes












[Situational]
Unsealed Spellbook:
The new Unsealed Spellbook can be swapped anywhere on the map as long as you're out of combat. Once you use the new summoner spell, it's back to your old one. The cooldown of your original summoner spell continues in the background while swapped out. This means you can use at least twice as much summoner spells as the enemy. Your first swap is available after 6 minutes in the game with a initial 300 seconds cooldown. Swapping reduces the swaps cooldown by 25 seconds each time you change to a summoner spell you haven't used yet. But you have to use 3 different summoner spells before returning to one you've already used. This usage of the Unsealed Spellbook offers a lot of possibilities. If you ever thought about having another Heal for your ADC, you want to engage with as fast as possible with Ghost and Flash or you just want to steal the enemy junglers buffs with Smite this is your keystone! Btw the minimum swap cooldown reachable is 150 seconds by swapping 6 times.

[Overall Good]
Glacial Augment:
Basic attacking a champion with Rakan slows them for 2 seconds. The slow increases by up to 30% - 40% over its duration. Slowing a champion with active items shoots a freeze ray through them, freezing the nearby ground for 5 seconds and slowing all units inside by 60%. And the best of it, those slow cooldowns are only 7 - 4 seconds per unit long! This keystone is perfect for Rakan, because he is able to come close to the enemy with Battle Dance and Grand Entrance so he can easily auto-attack them. Take into consideration to build Everfrost or Rylai's Crystal Scepter to make full use out of this item.

[Rather Not]
Prototype: Omnistone:
With the Omnistone we get periodically access to another random keystone. It is less effective for ranged units and Rakan counts as ranged because of his long attack range. Instead of 5-3 seconds cooldown between using a keystone and gaining the next one, we get 9-7 seconds. A lot of keystones are useful for us like Predator or Fleet Footwork, but others like Hail of Blades or Lethal Tempo don't offer a lot of gameplay options. Not recommended because it's not stable and worse for ranged units, but if you want your lane and engages to persist a little on luck you can still go for it.


[Perfect]
Hextech Flashtraption:
While Flash is on cool down it is replaced by Hextech Flashtraption, which allows you to channel for 2.5 seconds and after increasing your range in that time from 200 - 400 units you blink to a new location. It’s extremely useful for our combos like The Quickness + Flash + Grand Entrance, but because of the channeling it’s probably better to activate your ultimate after the Hextech Flashtraption. The great part about it is the 20 second cooldown, that even gets reduced to 10 seconds whilest in combat.


[Counterproductive]
Magical Footwear:
At 12 minutes (reduced by 45 seconds per Takedown), you gain Slightly Magical Boots for free.
Additionally, your boots gain 10 bonus movement speed. However, Boots of Speed are disabled and you cannot purchase tier-2 boots prior to obtaining Slightly Magical Boots. The thing here is the following: The earlier you finish your boots, the stronger they are. It's not always like that, but especially with Rakan having a great use of movement speed early boots are a good choice. You can always use this rune if you think it's helpful for your playstyle or you are safe enough in the early game and focus on the lategame, but in my opinion there are better inspiration runes like Hextech Flashtraption.

[90% useless]
Perfect timing:
Start the game with a Commencing Stopwatch that transforms into a Stopwatch after 14 minutes. The Stopwatch works like a one time use Zhonya's Hourglass. Every takedown reduces this timer by 2 minutes and it is less valueable than a normal stopwatch. Also the stasis effect leads to a lack of mobility. That is the exact opposite of what we want for Rakan. Of course it is situational, but still very unsafe and will more likely weaken your greatest strength, mobility.

[Pretty neat]
Future's Market:
You can enter debt after the first 2 minutes in game to buy items. The amount you can borrow starts by 145 and increases by 5 gold every minute. Also you have to pay 50 gold lending fee. Really useful rune if you need that last missing gold for Redemption or a Control Ward.

[Considerable choice]
Minion Dematerializer:
Works best with Relic Shield. Start the game with 3 Minion Dematerializers which will become available after 180 seconds. Those dematerializers can each absorb a minion that’ll increase your damage to that minion type by 6% and also 3% for every additional minion up to a maximum of 12% if all three are used on the same type. As long as you don’t want to farm with Rakan this rune is a little useless. But for midlane a considerable choice. Combined with Hextech Rocketbelt and this rune, midlane Rakans waveclear becomes way easier managable.

[Not really needed]
Biscuit Delivery:
Gain a Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will every 2 minutes, until the 6th minute. These will restore 10% of your missing health and mana over 5 seconds and increase the mana cap by 50 permanently. Those 50 manapoints are also instantly granted. Not bad but better and more useful in combination with Time Warp Tonic. We can also sell biscuits for 30 gold. This will also increase our mana pool.

[Always good]
Cosmic Insight:
Gain 18 summoner spell haste and 10 item haste. Always useful on any champion, especially with a lot of active items like Redemption or Shurelya's Battlesong.

[Movement Speed!]
Approach Velocity:
Did I hear movement speed? Gain 7.5% towards enemy champions that are movement impaired. Fine synergy with Grand Entrance or The Quickness. Also very useful in combination with Xayahs feather stun, Ashes arrow/s, Caitlyns traps etc. A lot of good synergies and wonderful if you want to full engage with others together, but the second half is rather useless. We get the doubled value of 15% movement speed towards enemy champions that we impair. As our only abilities to do so are Grand Entrance aswell as The Quickness we cannot make any good use out of it... unless we go with Glacial Augment and stuff like Everfrost or Rylai's Crystal Scepter to slow enemies from further range and enhance our followup engage.

[Wonderful rework]
Time Warp Tonic:
Consuming a potion or biscuit grants 50% of it's health and/or mana restoration immediately but prevents
that consumable from being used again until the effect ends. Health/mana per tick is then reduced by half for the effect's regular duration. You also get gain 5% movement speed while under the effect of a potion or biscuit. Very good for Rakan as the little health boost allows us to stay longer on our lane and immediately trade again after taking some damage. If you choose this rune do not forgot to take Biscuit Delivery too to get a little bonus out of it or if you play midlane you can consider using a Corrupting Potion.


[Nope]
Grasp of the Undying:
Entering combat generates one stack every second for the next 3 seconds. Additional stack can be generated by reentering combat after 2 seconds. At 4 stacks Rakans next basic attack withing 6 seconds on a champion will: Deal bonus magic damage equal to 2.4% of your max health, heal for 1.2% of your max health, and permanently increase health by 3. Because Rakan counts as ranged champion all those values are reduced and in comparison to a melee champ not worth it.

[Situational]
Aftershock:
After immobilizing an enemy champion, grant 35 (+ 80% bonus armor) bonus armor and 35 (+ 80% bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance for 2.5 seconds (this is capped at 80 - 150 (based on level)). After the duration you release a shockwave dealing 25 - 120 (+8% of your bonus health) magic damage to nearby enemies and monsters. All in all it's a good keystone if you decide to go for a lot of resistances and high value items like Thornmail.

[Overall Good]
Guardian:
Guard allies within 350 units of you and allies you target with spells for 3 seconds. While Guarding, if you or the ally would take 90 - 250 damage or lethal damage, both of you gain a 70 - 150 (+15% of your AP)(+9% of your bonus health) shield. The possibility for you to dash with Battle Dance to your allies makes this keystone incredibly strong. The mechanics of quick shielding and helping your teammates can be really good, especially for teamfights, chases, etc. The only sad thing about it is the 70 - 40 (based on level) seconds cooldown. Also it only triggers when you take at least 90 - 250 damage after calculating the armor and magic resistance in the last 2.5 seconds.


[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]
Demolish:
Charge up a powerful attack against a tower over 3 seconds while within 600 range of it with a cooldown of 45 seconds. The charged attack deals 100 (+35% of your max health) bonus physical damage. All in all not bad because of +1000 damage you are able to deal to a tower with a single hit if you have 3000+ health points.

[The Healer]
Font of Life:
Impairing the movement of an enemy champion marks them for 4 seconds. While marked ally champions who attack those enemies heal for 5 + 1% of your max health over 2 seconds. Again really strong with 3000+ healtpoints and an ADC that gets healed everytime he hits the target by at least 35. The more attack speed champions in your team like Master Yi, Yasuo, Udyr, etc. besides your adc, the more useful this rune can be.

[Offensive Shields!]
Shield Bash:
First while shielded you gain 1-10 (based on level) bonus armor and magic resist. Second whenever you gain a shield, your next basic attack against an enemy champion within 2 seconds of the shield expiring deals bonus adaptive damage, scaling with lvl, shield strength and bonus health. You could think that it works well with Battle Dance, but only your passive Fey Feathers works good with this rune. It's not bad in this case, but rather an option for midlane Rakan with resolve as second rune path. On the other hand your ADC could take this rune to make profit out of your Battle Dance.

[Only as Tank]
Conditioning:
After 12 minutes, gain +9 Armor, +9 Magic Resist and increase your total Armor and Magic Resist by 5%. Works best if you aim to build tanky with Dead Man's Plate and Force of Nature.

[Why?]
Second Wind:
After taking damage from an enemy champion, heal for 6 (+ 4% of your missing health) over 10 seconds. This can work on any champion pretty good, but why would you use this rune? Rakan has several healing possibilities with Redemption or Gleaming Quill so there is no real need for this rune. It works similar to pykes Ghostwater Dive.

[Stegosaurus]
Bone Plating:
Every 45 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion, for 1.5 seconds, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from the same enemy champion deal 30 - 60 (based on level) less damage. As this rune only blocks damage from the champion triggering it it's not really useful. When engaging Rakan will get focused by a lot of enemies and with Battle Dance you'll probably disengage way earlier. Possible full tank choice but rather not.

[ADC dependent]
Overgrowth:
Permanently gain 3 health for every 8 monsters or enemy minions that die near you. This rune will give you the possibility to have an incredible amount of health points, but only if you know your ADC is very good at farming and you help your jungler a bit. If you stay enough near minions it can be an easy way for you to get tanky. At 120 minion or monster deaths (15 Stacks) you'll also gain an additional 3.5% max health increase.

[Why not]
Revitalize:
Heals and shields you cast are 5% stronger and increased by an additional 10% when the target is below 40% health. Very good synergy with Fey Feathers and Gleaming Quill aswell as Battle Dance. Definetly important when focussing heal and shield power.

[Perfect]
Unflinching:
By choosing this rune you gain 10% Tenacity and Slow Resistance. You can additionally gain up to 30% Tenacity and Slow Resistance based on your missing health. The combos that are possible with Flash, Exhaust and a total engage with The Quickness
are unbelievable. Again a movement speed enhancing rune and therefore perfect for Rakan.


[Very useful]
Summon Aery:
Your attacks and abilities send Aery to a target, damaging enemies by 10-40 based on level (+ 15% bonus AD)(+ 10% AP) or shielding allies for 2 seconds by 35-80 based on level (+ 40% bonus AD)(+ 25% AP). Aery cannot be sent out again until she returns to you. Very useful for Rakan because of the extra aggressive damage and shield option. Therefore a great synergy for Gleaming Quill and Battle Dance.

[Situational]
Arcane Comet:
Damaging a champion with an ability hurls a comet dealing 30 - 100 damage based on level (+ 35% bonus AD)(+ 20% AP) at their location, or, if Arcane Comet is on cooldown, reduces it’s remaining cooldown. The cooldown gets reduced by 20% for single targets, 10% for the area of effect and 5% for damage over time. This keystone is really situational and depends on your own abilities to handle it. Can be very strong with quick Grand Entrance + Battle Dance en- and disengages or some well-timed Gleaming Quill hits. Not really strong against champions with a lot of dashes or dodge-abilities like Riven, Vladimir or Fizz.

[Only with attack speed]
Phase Rush:
Hitting an enemy with 3 attacks or seperate abilities within 4 seconds grants 25 - 40% movement speed based on level and 75% slow resistance for 3 seconds with a 15 seconds cooldown. Only recommended to use when your item build focusses on movement speed and kiting or you generally aim for high attack speed items.

[Unnecessary]
Nullifying Orb:
When you take magic damage that would reduce your health below 30% gain a shield that absorbs 40 - 120 magic damage based on level (+ 15% bonus AD)(+ 10% AP) for 4 seconds with a 60 seconds cooldown. Unnecessary/Not really needed because of Rakans high mobility.

[Need mana?]
Manaflow band:
Every 15 seconds you can hit an enemy champion with a spell and get 25 mana until a cap of 250. If you reach the cap it will restore 1% of Rakans missing mana every 5 seconds. Very useful because we can easily hit enemies with our abilities and profit a lot from the mana. There are other choices but if you want to focus your item build on less mana giving or regenerating items it's perfectly fine to use this rune.

[Must-have]
Nimbus Cloak:
Casting a summoner spell like Flash grants ghosting (ignoring unit collision) and 5% - 30% bonus movement speed for 2.5 seconds. The higher the cooldown of the summoner spell used, the higher the movement speed bonus. For example Flash would grant us around 35% bonus movement speed, but a short cooldown spell like Ignite would only boost it below 20%. Anyways this rune fits perfect for Rakan, is a wonderful choice and definetly a must-have rune.

[Useful!]
Transcendence:
Gain 5 ability haste at level 5 and 8. Also at level 11 all champion takedowns (kills or assists) reduce the remaining cooldown of our basic abilities by 20%. Useful and nice-to-have, but definetly not the absolute best choice.

[Very noice]
Celerity:
Amplify all of your movement speed bonuses by 7% and gain 1% more movement speed! While aiming for very high movement speed on Rakan this rune works perfect. Being able to dash a little faster with Battle Dance and running faster with The Quickness this runes purpose is perfectly suited for an aggressive or fast build for Rakan.

[Only as Tank]
Absolute Focus:
While above 70% health gain an adaptive bonus based on the level of 1.8-18 AD or 3-30 AP (based on level). The more health points the longer this damage bonus will remain, because it takes more time for the enemies to reduce your health points below 70%. In conclusion good for a tank build.

[Definitely not Brand]
Scorch:
Your next ability hit sets champions on fire, dealing some bonus magic damage based on level after 1 second with a 10 seconds cooldown. If you want to have Ignites little brother go for it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Watch jungle!]
Waterwalking:
Gain 25 Movement Speed and an adaptive bonus of up to 3-18 Attack Damage or 5-30 Ability Power (based on level) when in the river. Very good because we get movement speed and damage, but with using this rune you have to focus fights around the baron or drake as Rakan. Keep that in your mind!

[Holy Maccaroni]
Gathering Storm:
Every 10 minutes gain adaptive Ability Power or Attack Damage from +8AP or 4.8 AD in minute 10 to +80AP or 48 AD in minute 40 and even further. Unlimited times stackable and giving
you incredible amounts of damage the longer the game lasts. Always a very good rune to choose.


Flash: Of course you have high mobility on Rakan, but the cooldowns are your enemies. With taking Flash it gives you the opportunity to have something like a second Grand Entrance except the knockup!

Exhaust: It slows the target which helps your ADC (those are often very immobile) to keep up and kill them. Additionally it reduces the damage so you don't have to tank everything whilest engaging or to reduce all-ins of assassinlike champions.

Ghost: It's a good choice when focussing on team fights. Now it is also strong for lane fights because it gives you 24-48% movement speed instantly! It can help Rakan reach the enemies and makes it easier to catch each and everyone with your ult in teamfights. Exhaust is more focused on teamfights with slowing and debuffing the strongest enemy and reducing his damage. Take Ghost for strong teamfight engages and Exhaust if you think you are able to pick the highest damage dealer out of the fight and debuff him (which is often more worth in the end, but not always). Both have the same cooldown, but your ghost is way more useful against tankier teams, as the movement speed duration increases by 4-7 seconds after every takedown you participate in.

Ignite: Great for going Full AP or with having a very mobile ADC. For example Draven who can catch up with his Blood Rush. It's also very effective if there is a strong healer in the enemy team, especially something like Soraka or maybe even Sona or Nami. It can also help with annoying lifesteal champions or some that build Spirit Visage like Vladimir or Swain. Otherwise I would not recommend using it because you are not the one who has to get the kills. You ADC does! On the other hand you can play Rakan midlane and there it's a very good offensive choice.



Barrier: Shields your champion for 115 - 455 (based on level) for 2 seconds. It gives you a temporary shield and not permanent health like Heal, but if you take damage equal to the entire value of the shield barrier would be more effective. Great against burst damage enemies for example Syndra or LeBlanc. If you go on a lane together I'd still recommend Heal because it affects both of you instead of only you. But when you play Full AP Rakan or have to go Solo on a lane Barrier or especially Exhaust for Rakan






Cleanse: Removes all disables (excluding Suppression like Nether Grasp and Airborne, a unit that is made airborne is moved in a specified direction or to a specific point) and summoner spells debuffs affecting your champion, as well as granting 65% Tenacity for 3 seconds. The higher your ping, the worse cleanse is. Aside from that, it's not as obviously useful in all-in situations, it requires a good read on your opponent, if you don't have one, you'll cleanse CC that they wouldn't have followed up, or you'll cleanse late. It's much trickier to use which is the reason it's not picked as much, but in terms of raw power it's on par with Ignite, Heal or Barrier. Even though it's probably not as needed as other summoner spells because of your incredible mobility.

Smite: Smiting deals 390 - 1000 (based on level) true damage, based on champion level, to a monster or enemy minion. Don't play jungle with it, your high cooldowns would leave you way behind. Better usage on full tank supports that can secure their Relic Shield procs. Even though you can use the Hailblade as a little and weaker version of Exhaust to compensate the missing combat summoner spell. As Rakan you have high mobility and are able to escape junglers like Olaf or Master Yi easily. Your adc does not have these possibilites and with Exhaust you will not be able to protect them properly. If you know that your jungler is also very good (high elo or sth) and can sit you on botlane when you loose because of the missing combat spell it could really be a good choice to go. Not to forget the benefits of having a double smite for dragons or herold/nash. All in all you can help your jungler a lot with weakening your own lane intentionally.

Teleport: After channeling for 4 seconds, your champion teleports to target turret, minion or ward. If you play fine, you and your AD carry should be able to control the creep waves well enough to not fall behind in levels. Here's the thing, if you take Teleport and the other support takes Exhaust, you will pretty much lose all the early game trades, because they have a combat summoner over you. The reason why people take it is so they can gank other lanes, either because they don't need Exhaust/ Ignite to win their lane, or they know they won't win it even with those summoners. Instead, they take teleport to gank and win the other lanes.

Now, with that in mind, if you go teleport and gank another lane, you will leave your AD carry to 1v2 their bot lane, and either get zoned or killed. That is why the AD carry would quickly fall behind in levels and have to farm without their support with them. Even though it provides us with 30-50% multiplicative bonus movement speed on arrival for 3 seconds I'd only suggest using it as midlane Rakan.

Clarity: Only available on Howling Abyss Restores 50% maximum mana to you and 25% maximum mana to nearby allies. Clarity is good if you want to be very aggressive. Rakans high cooldowns make it less worth aswell as building a mana item in the beginning makes it useless for lategame. Other summoner spells don't have such problems, therefore not recommended and way more worth for supporters like Sona.



[Aggressiv & Poking]
Spellthief's Edge: It's base mana regeneration is very useful on Rakan and the ability power bonus synergizes with all of his abilities. You can earn every of it's stacks with one combo. This starting item is especially needed if you want to harass effectively in-lane whilest in early game. If you choose to use this item as a starting item I'd recommend to poke a lot with Gleaming Quill. The more you poke the faster you get your wards through Frostfang.

[Defensive & Supportive]
Relic Shield: The other possible way to go. It's a rather defensive choice. The Spoils of War passive grants us a charge every 45 seconds to execute low hp minions. The bad thing is that it's nerfed for ranged champions to 30% of their maximum health instead of 50%. Also instead of mana regeneration it provides us with half the amount but in base health regeneration. A way to go if you feel unsafe in your matchup or want to be a little more secure in lane.

[Not recommended]
Spectral Sickle: The other support item with the tribute passive is also a possible choice to go. The main difference is that we get attack damage instead of ability power like from Spellthief's Edge. Even when it's fully built to Black Mist Scythe we still don't need that attack damage. Rakan doesn't do as much autoattacks as other champions and we mainly play with our abilities. Especially because of our mobility, so there's no real reason to use it instead of Spellthief's Edge.

[Also not recommended]
Steel Shoulderguards: Attack damage, health and base health regeneration? We aren't as tanky or supportive to make a good use out of those stats. Attack damage is still not needed with our few auto attacks and neither health nor health renegeneration is worth it. Ability power should be the way to go with support items and the choice should mainly be between Spellthief's Edge and Relic Shield.




This section is sorted from A-Z (Abyssal Mask to Zhonyas Hourglass) with all mythical items first. Some are not always recommended but to show you on the first look which are the good choices and which aren't I colored their names from good choice to situational. All items I don't recommend to use are below this list in the the section "Don't Do It" and colored as not recommended.

Everfrost:
Everyfrost is a very offensive item designed to slow or even root enemies. It's mythic passive empowers all legendary items with some AP, which works in our case, but makes our build pretty damage focused. We can activate it's passive every 20 seconds and shoot a freeze cone forward. Enemies in a straight line rooted and every target inside the cone receives AP scaling magic damage and a 65% slow for 1.5 seconds. On it's own this seems very useful and it definetly has a lot of potential. But as soon as you think about Rakans abilities and the combination of this item with it you'll realize that it doesn't suit us. Grand Entrance can knock multiple people up. The Quickness can charm multiple people. Gleaming Quill can heal more than one champion and even Battle Dance isn't single target focused. Rakan is not a champion that takes one specific champion out of the fight light a Skarner with his ult. We rather engage in a group of people and as soon as you're right in the middle of them how will you shoot the freezing cone? At the ADC? Midlaner? Jgl? It's a pretty good mythic for playing aggressive, chasing or escaping in lane, but it's not suited for lategame or teamfights.

Frostfire Gauntlet:
A tank item mythic that has a support passive? Sounds useful. I'd immedtiately recommend this item to any tank Rakan player. Losing your lane and you go full defensive? Play against heavy poke lane and you have to get those resistance? This is a good option. It's immolate passive burns any nearby targets if you deal or receive damage, which can be useful but also frustrating in lane. Also kinda counters your mobility with Battle Dance. It's other passive snowbind creates a frostfield every 4 seconds that slows enemies within by 25% scaling with our own health points. Per 1000 maximum health the slow is increased by 4%. As we normally get around 2000-3000 healthpoints with standard items it's only really worth in combination with other tank items like Warmog's Armor, even if it's mythic passive enlarges our champion size and adds additional health points to every legendary. Btw, the aura increases in size if we ourselves increase in size. Keep an early Elixir of Iron in mind!

Hextech Rocketbelt:
The good old Rocketbelt. First of all this item is only suitable for midlane or full AP Rakan. It empowers all other items with magic penetration which is otherwise not needed and provides us with some tankiness, AP, ability haste and a nice mobility active. Every 40 seconds we can dash in a direction, although not through terrain, and shoot 7 rockets that deal some magic damage. Afterwards (and a lot of people tend to forget that) we get an additional 30% bonus movement speed towards enemy champions for 1.5 seconds! That means it's a very useful gap closer and engage enhancer. Definetly a viable choice for a full AP build.

Imperial Mandate:
This item is perfect for an offensive support build. If you start with Spellthief's Edge you should try it out! It enhances our poking potential by providing us with some AP, ability haste and mana regeneration, but also gives us some survivability with 200 health points. Every other legendary also becomes empowered with 15 ability power, making this item very aggressive nontheless. Although it's passive is perfect for any crowd controling supporter like Rakan. Abilities that immobilize enemies like Grand Entrance or The Quickness mark those targets and deals extra damage to them. If they are marked, allies can damage them to consume it and deal bonus magic aswell as triggering the effect to give us and themselves 20% bonus movement speed for 2 seconds. The wonderful thing on this? It only has a cooldown of 6 seconds. PER CHAMPION! Very good for laning, very good for aggressive playstyle and very good for Spellthief's Edge starters.

Liandry's Anguish:
This is a very very situational item and not generally recommended. It's ability haste and mythic ability haste bonus on all legendary items is perfect for Rakans high cooldowns. Also the ability power and mana gives us the opportunity to make good use of it. But it's passive is extremely enemy dependant. After dealing ability damage with Gleaming Quill, Grand Entrance or The Quickness they burn and take magic damage (DOT - Damage Over Time) scaling with our ability power and the targets maximum health. Thus meaning the higher their health the stronger the burn. Therefore it's a very good item when facing tanks. Especially if those tanks try to heal their health back with Conqueror, Spirit Visage or other healing sources, because the burn effect of Liandry's Torment stacks very well with Morellonomicon. Also Demonic Embrace works very well too with it. Against standard enemies, assassins, bruisers, marksmen, etc. other mythics like Hextech Rocketbelt are often a better and stronger choice.

Locket of the Iron Solari:
This supporter mythic is very useful in a defensive lane. If your ADC falls behind, you want to play safe or your whole team is on the losing side of the game. On it's own it provides us with defensive stats like health, resistances, but also some ability haste to improve our ability cast times. It's passive provides every near ally with 5 additional bonus armor and magic resist, stacking up by 2 for every legendary built. As we often play with Guardian and with our high mobility this runes fits like a glove. It's not only for a full tank build. It's active also creates a good shield on nearby allies that decays over 2.5 seconds. That way we can protect those against multi-target ults like Oriannas or Gangplanks and even stop execute ults like Feast if well-timed.

Luden's Tempest:
This is probably one of the best full AP mythic decisions next to Hextech Rocketbelt. We also get additional movement speed after triggering it's "echo" passive and a lot of ability power, ability haste aswell as a big mana pool for additional poke. On the other hand we get 6 magic penetration and every other legendary gets additional 5 magic penetration. The more AP we build, the more useful the magic penetration. Therefore it's real use is not as a support item, but as a midlane mythic.

Moonstone Renewer:
So you want to try out the full healing build right? The renewer is a perfect item in combination with everything surrounding healing. AP, ability haste and base mana regeneration lets us use our Gleaming Quill more often and more effective. We even get 200 additional health points to survive a little easier. Every other legendary item provides additional 10 healing to this items passive called 'Starlit Grace'. The healing combo relies in it though. Every time we affect an enemy we heal the next nearby ally with the most missing health by 60 points. And all of that only on a 2 second cooldown! Each second in combat increases this heal and every shield of us too by 4% up to 5 stacks with 20% total. This is wonderful for Rakan as we can easily engage with Grand Entrance, stay inside and deal some damage for a few seconds and disengage with Battle Dance to heal our adc by a very good amount. Stacked with other healing items like Redemption even better! This item is sort of a offensive-utility mythic and the middleway if you don't want to go full poke or AP.

Shurelya's Battlesong:
The good old Shurelya's. Not too defensive, not too offensive, focused on mobility. That's what we want right? The wonderful thing about Rakan is his nearly perfect use of movement speed. The higher it is, the more often we can engage, do combos, etc. Therefore a mythic providing us with additional 5 ability haste for every legendary we build is very nice! Affecting an allied champion (excluding ourselves) also grants us both 25% additional movement speed over 1.5 seconds. Very useful in combination with Battle Dance. Also it's active grants us a perfect engage boost, that gives us and our nearby allies 60% bonus movement speed decaying over 4 seconds. Enough time to do a full Battle Dance + Flash + The Quickness + Grand Entrance engage. Last but no least we get some ability haste, ability power and mana regeneration to use our moves more often and some health points to survive longer. Nothing to say against it.

Turbo Chemtank:
The Chemtank also has the immolate passive as Sunfire Aegis, but instead of empowering that even more, we empower our mobility! Thats right, we doesnt love a tank with incredibly high movement speed... With it's high resistances, additional health and some ability haste the Turbo Chemtank is definetly a tank item. Especially because the immolation gets stronger with our bonus health. Nontheless we receive 5 ability haste for every legendary built. Very useful if we play tank Rakan or have to go defensive against slowing enemies like Nasus, Karthus, Senna or even Glacial Augment. There is a fair amount of good opportunities when tenacity and slow resistance is useful. Additionally it's active works kinda like Shurelya's Battlesong and enhances our engage with additional 75% bonus movement speed for 4 seconds and ghosting (ignoring unit collision) while moving towards enemy turrest or visible champions. As soon as you are nearby an enemy with this active turned on or the 4 second timer runs out it'll emit a shockwave that slows in a small range 1.5 seconds long for 40%. Keep in mind that this has a high cooldown! Still it's a very good choice that fits Rakan pretty well. Probably one of the best options as full tank.

Abyssal Mask:
Generally a good option. We gain some health, a good amount of magic resistance and won't die as easy to enemy mages like Veigar or Brand. It also helps your all-in engage with The Quickness and Grand Entrance because both count as immobilizing (airborne/knock upped and charmed). As soon as you engage all damage the enemies take is increased by 10% from all sources! This works best if you adjust your CC and wait 4 seconds after Grand Entrance to activate The Quickness and vice versa, so you can achieve double the amount of debuff duration on the enemy! This item is a very defensive choice and those are generally not recommended as they interfere with our mobility. But if you fall behind against mages or decide to try out my "The Spank Tank" Rakan build you get a very helpful item.

Archangel's Staff:
During the game Rakan gets mana hungry. With high ability haste even more. Combined with a mythic mana item like Luden's Tempest the staff doesn't only provide us with a gigantic mana pool but also grants bonus ability power equal to 3% of our bonus mana. On it's own it results in 25.8 bonus ability power with a fully stacked Archangel's Staff. Upgraded to a Seraph's Embrace it easily reaches ~105 ability power on it's own but is not as cost effective as just building the AP with other items, especially if you want to build non-mana mythics. If you really want to use your abilities the whole time and spam them as there is no tomorrow you can consider this item as important for your build.

Ardent Censer:
Even after the big "Ardent Censer Meta" still recommended! The base mana regeneration and ability power is perfect for Rakan and you achieve nearly the same bonus as with the Staff of Flowing Water. The +10 percent bonus healing and shielding power is used by Battle Dance aswell as Gleaming Quill. Also every heal ( Gleaming Quill) and shield (every Battle Dance dash) of you gives your ADC bonus attack speed and a little bit on-hit damage. All in all your abilities get stronger, they get lower cooldowns and you can use them more often, you dash faster and your ADC gets buffs by your heals and dashes. A perfect synergy, especially for ADCs like Kog'Maw.

Banshee's Veil:
This item is a good choice when you play very aggressive and your team lacks with ap damage. After building this item you deal not very much but a decent amount of damage with your q which can help killing the enemy adc or apc. Besides it's ability power we also get some magic resistance to sustain against AP supporters like Brand or even fed midlaners like Syndra aswell as some ability haste. But the main reason to build Banshee's Veil roots in it's spellshield passive. This is a situational but MUST-HAVE item if you lane against very very heavy AP + CC supporters like Veigar and you still want to play aggressive, without getting caught and your mobility stopped.

Chemtech Putrifier:
Enemies have a lot of healing? Your team has too few Ignites? You lane against Soraka, Yuumi, Sona, Aatrox or a lot of the enemies have Conqueror equipped? This is the way to go. You can get your grievious wounds earlier with just building the Oblivion Orb and waiting for the rest to finish later or you rush the full item to use it's passive even better. As full item you inflict 60% grievious wounds on enemies as soon as you attack them after healing or shielding an ally. Your ally gets also the same effect for his next attack! The mana regeneration and ability haste also helps to use it more often, as we can use our abilities even more with it. Still a very offensive choice besides the other defensive possibility of a Thornmail.

Cosmic Drive:
An item that reduces Rakans enormous cooldowns, provides us with a lot of ability power AND movement speed?! This has to be a must-have right? Not exactly. For an AP Midlane version it's definetly a good option, but a control supporter doesn't profit as much. Most of the controlling items like Ardent Censer, Knight's Vow or Staff of Flowing Water allow us to empower or help another laner way better. This item on the other hand empowers only us and our abilities. Also the movement speed passive scales with 20% of our ability haste. Our item build often has a lot of haste, but triggering this effect is the problem. We have to deal damage FIRST before activating the bonus movement speed, which helps on some way while laning, but way less if we full engage in teamfights or go all-in.

Dead Man's Plate:
It's stats are pretty good if you decide to go more to a full tank. With the health and armor you have the ability to protect your ADC from upcoming damage and the passive gives you bonus movement speed so your dashes ca be quicker (or as i call it when having more movement speed on Rakan dashes to flashes... ha.. ha). Why is it not a green choice, a good one? Because this item has the following limitation: On ranged champions, it's passive won't slow when attacking an enemy. All in all this item provides movement speed, armor and health which is pretty good but not as strong as other supportive and controlling items for Rakan. We want that bonus movement speed but also lose it immediately if we engage into a fight. But luckily this isn't a problem for us as we have our Battle Dance dashes! This item fits rather to our "Spank Tank" item set than to the standard control supporter.

Demonic Embrace:
Ability power and health. What would we want more than a tanky AND damage dealing supporter? A controlling supporter. Rakan isn't designes as a midlaner or damage dealing supporter like Brand or Vel'Koz. He doesn't fit that role as good as others. Items that empower his support targets like his ADC or your Jungler are way better options (e.g. Ardent Censer). Also our mobility reduces the need of bonus resistances from it's passive. The only real reason I could ever imagine to build this item is when facing a double tank botlane or a fulltank as midlane Rakan, because Demonic Embrace scales with the enemies max health in damage and applies depending on it a burn damage. As this is magic damage and has burn damage I'd recommend to use it together with Morellonomicon if the tanks try to heal and to deny it, as it's grievious wounds will apply with every burn tick of Demonic Embrace.

Force of Nature:
By far the best defensive choice against ability power, ap-carries or ap heavy lanes. Besides the obvious tankiness from it's magic resistance and bonus health we also get 5% bonus movement speed as permanent passive aswell. If we take damage from enemy spells like Brands burn damage or we step onto Tormented Shadow from morgana it's main passive stacks up to five times. For every stack we get 4 bonus magic resistance and 6 bonus movement speed! This means that we do not only get tankiness and resistances, but also more mobility with up to 30 bonus movement speed. A very good choice if you start to lose your lane and especially against AP champs that deal damage over time with DOT abilities like Cassiopeia.

Frozen Heart:
Build this item if your team lacks on CC or if you can't stun the ADC to kill him aswell if the enemy team has more champions going full attack speed like Master Yi. It helps everyone in a small range to have more time before tanking too much damage and dying. It also makes you able to cast your abilities more often and protects you with a fair amount of armor. These armor stats synergize very well with a tanky support item and it's definetly worth it's costs. Still not a favorite choice because "too much" can easily be countered by one enemy going full lethality. If they don't have lethality builds nor a fed APC build this item if you choose to tank for your team! As a support champ and especially as Rakan we engage with Grand Entrance often right into the middle and can slow everyones attack speed accordingly. We still need enough resistances to survive this though. If the rest of our items are control and support items this just isn't worth to build. If you decided to play the tank version of Rakan I'd recommend this way more.

Gargoyle Stoneplate:
This item is best activated under similar circumstances to Zhonya's Hourglass as a means to mitigate the enemy's burst - and achieves little if activated when on the verge of death. Very great if activated directly after the charm of The Quicknessfaded out because they won't attack you while charmed. You can activate it with your ult together too to protect yourself of they try to burst you down before charming/reaching them. All in all this is a well-balanced and good late game item and works better the more health and resistances you have. Therefore a better choice as lategame or tank build item.

Horizon Focus:
If you think about buying this item ask yourself the following question: How often do I hit my Gleaming Quill at maximum range? Exactly. This item needs abilities with a range of at least 750 to be effective. Our Q is the only ability that has a range of 900 units to be precise, thus making it a possible reason to buy Horizon Focus. I'd still argue against it, as it's heavily focussing AP midlaners, not supporters and even on AP Rakan midlane there are better options. If you don't trust me try it out! Maybe it suits your playstyle? If you permanently hit max range Q's you get 10% increased damage for a follow-up engage with Grand Entrance or The Quickness.

Knight's Vow:
If your partner (in this case probably ADC) is your "Worthy Ally" and has less than 50% of their max health, you get 35% bonus movement speed towards them! Very useful for quick saves with battle dance or quick turns. Even better with Mobility Boots. The other part of the passive is redirecting 15% of their incoming damage to yourself, which is fine as you tank anyways as a support, but also has an auto stop mechanic if you fall below 30% of your own max health. All of this plus some very good health and health recovering stats plus ability haste makes this item very underrated (in my opinion). It still forces you to go a little tanky to compensate the redirection damage but all in all it's a good item, even if you are a utility supporter and not a tank.

Lich Bane:
Never build this except you play full AP Rakan (probably midlane). Ability power as source of damage and movement speed (wohooo!). We love movement speed. But what about the passive? The 150% base AD bonus damage reaches from 93 to ~182 damage during the game + 40% of all our AP. This can result in a lot of damage and we can use it with every Gleaming Quill cast or Grand Entrance engage/disengage. Even after each use of Battle Dance!

Mejai's Soulstealer:
Wonderful item as it provides us with a little health and ap bonus. If you are able to hold it at 10 stacks it also gives us 10% bonus movement speed! But keep in mind that every death reduces your AP by 50 and every assist gives us only 10 AP back. Kills 20 and the maximum is 125. If you combine it full stacked with Rabadon's Deathcap you can reach a total of ~358 AP. If you play well, are able to dodge properly and main Rakan feel free to try it out!

Mikael's Blessing:
An incredible strong item when facing an enemy team with a lot of CC or point and click CC. As they can stop your whole The Quickness engage combo with one single well-timed CC this item works perfect and even heals the target (yourself or your teammate) by a few hundred hp. Besides that the raw stats of the item synergize very well with Rakans kit and 20% heal and shield power is simply incredible. Definetly a must-have when facing a lot of or good CC enemies and even if this is not the case it's a very strong item that can always be bought. Enemy Morgana annoys with her Soul Shackles? Not anymore. Don't forget that a fair amount of value also lies in it's magic resistance, therefore making it more useful against AP damage and their CC.

Morellonomicon:
A wonderful aggressive item even though it provides us with health next to it's ap. Works very well with Gleaming Quill and DOT (damage over time) items like Demonic Embrace. I'd always advice to go for Morellonomicon as AP champ if you are facing strong healing enemies like Aatrox, Yuumi or even Draven, but if you play as a normal control supporter you should stick to a Chemtech Putrifier.

Nashor's Tooth:
Possible to build but I'd rather not recommend it. You don't build for autoattacks or attack speed. You don't need it. Even as full ap midlane there are better items to choose from than Nashor's Tooth. If you decide to go on-hit rakan it may be a viable choice, but the situations in which we can make good use of it are just a few.

Rabadon's Deathcap:
Do I have to say anything about it? It's literally the best item for an APC to buy. Not in the beginning but as 4th, 5th or even 6th item (Personally prefer it as 5th as we can fill two slots with Needlessly Large Rods). Enhances our ability power by 35% and makes Rakan unstoppable. 500 AP or even more? No problem with Rabadon's Deathcap. If you are losing you should stick to resistances though!


Randuin's Omen:
Randuin's Omen is a strong counter to crit and autoattacks, as it provides armor, health, an attack damage reduce and a movement speed slow; and the two actives mostly mitigate each other. Most effective against champions that are highly reliant on auto-attacks like Kog'Maw, Teemo, Tristana, Vayne or especially Yasuo and Yone. Watch out if they try to go for Blade of the Ruined King and build it as a possible counter if you have to survive and they kill you too fast. Even though it gives your ADC no direct "buff" and is not as good as other possible item choices, it's still useful. The more crit playing champs ( Tryndamere, Master Yi), the better it performs .

Redemption:
Perfect stats for Rakan, relatively cheap with only 2300 gold. Additional heal and shield power synergizes with your kit very well and it's active is wonderful. You get a lot of assists even with only healing your allies. Perfect for teamfights. Try to wait as long as possible to "surprise the enemie" while they went all in (it takes 2.5s until the area heals). With the perfect timing and positioning you can get the best out of it, even if you are dead! It's a bit more focused on utility supporters than the more tanky ones. Especially that makes it one of the best items for Rakan. Side note: The maximum amount you can heal when everyone is level 18 is 666 health points, if our item build has Ardent Censer, Mikael's Blessing, Redemption, Staff of Flowing Water, 2 x Forbidden Idol and Revitalize. This can further be amplified with the target is below 40% of their maximum health, so Revitalizes outgoing power gets stronger and if the target has Spirit Visage. That way we can reach up to 915.75 health points in one heal.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter:
Very aggressive item with 90 ability power. A pretty good item if you decide to go for the rune Glacial Augment. The short slow is not very strong but can help you and your team to catch up and get the kill. One of the only AP items that still provides you with a support-like buff.

Staff of Flowing Water:
This is basically just Ardent Censer with a different passive. Mana regen to poke more, AP to deal more damage with it and some heal and shield power which is much needed for Gleaming Quill and Battle Dance. The passive is different though. If we heal or shield someone, we grant both them and ourselves 20 ability haste, which is very nice for Rakan aswell as additional ability power for 3 seconds, depending on the targets level. So you're playing with an AP-carry? Ziggs for example? Or even someone that can make good use of it to combine it with on-hit effects? Like Kog'Maw? The 20 bonus ability haste makes it perfect for any lane, even with Xayah or champs that can't make use of that ap at all. Even if they don't, you can and will amplify your damage, shields and heals even more. Very good item and a very good choice.

Stirring Wardstone:
This one is kinda difficult. A lot of players tend to forget it or just don't buy it at all. We can easily stack the passive and place 20 wards to transform it into Watchful Wardstone. That way we don't only get 2 additional Control Ward slots in our inventory, but also 25 ability haste and the ability to place an additional Control Ward. To upgrade it further we have to buy the Vigilant Wardstone and get 15 additional ability haste, in sum that's 40 total and 10% movement speed. Both of this suits Rakan very well and compliments his abilities, but wards aren't always the solution. In some games and elos very helpful in others not so much.

Thornmail:
This is a particularly effective defensive option when facing down opponents whose damage is dealt primarily through basic attacks (see the explanation of Randuins Omen), or against opponents that utilize on-hit healing to survive fights (such as life steal). It gives us a possibility to reduce the opponents healing while shielding ourselves with the armor. All in all this item works way better if you use at least a second armor item like Randuin's Omen.

Void Staff:
Magic damage ignores 40% of the target's magic resistance; applies before magic penetration and this item gives us a lot of ability power too. But keep in mind that our magic damage dealt is increased, the higher the enemies magic resistance is. E.g. at 30 enemy magic resistance we deal 10% more magic damage. At 100 enemy magic resistance we deal 25% more magic damage and ongoing at 200 MR we deal 36% more damage. Champs like Yuumi, Aphelios and Orianna stay at very low amounts
of magic resistance while leveling up. You still shouldn't really bother buying it on it's own or early in the game. Better in the late game or against magic resist targets as already mentioned and still a choice for an AP build. Enemy Galio to strong and stacking MR -> a good choice.

Warmog's Armor:
With a health threshold of 3000 required it's making this item less effective for us. No armor nor magic resist as stats so you have to build these first as well as enough health points to receive the bonus passive. If you do so you have to go full tank too so this item can be useful if you decide to build Rakan full tank instead of a tanky-utility-controller or ability power and poke. Therefore only suitable for our spank tank item setup.

Zeke's Convergence:
It gives good defensive stats. This item is made for a duo bot lane (that is what we want with a Xayah and Rakan combo). It's passive is activated as soon as you immobilize an enemy with Grand Entrance or The Quickness. Afterwards for 8 seconds our ADC or allied target deals bonus on-hit damage that scales with our ability power aswell as our maximum health. Two stats that we will always build with every itemset on Rakan, If you want to roam and help your midlaner out, don't forget to use it's active and swap the conduit from your adc, otherwise the passive won't trigger and your engage may be weaker.


Zhonya's Hourglass:
Also an aggressive choice to go but still giving some armor. Costs 2500 gold which is not as cheap as other good items for Rakan. Not really needed because you can easily eascape with Battle Dance or Grand Entrance and you are not as sqishy and deal not as much damage as someone who could use this item more than you. But try it out yourself! Maybe it fits your playstyle and you like it. If you often want to build Zhonya's Hourglass you could try to fit the rune Stopwatch into your build, to ease the item transition and costs.





Guardian Angel:
This item can save Rakan. You can escape very easily after being revived, with Battle Dance if someone is still near, with Grand Entrance over walls or just to get a gap or a combo out of both abilities. It's attack damage is not really useful for us though aswell as our cooldowns are very high and often even after the statis not refreshed which makes the item except it's passive useless for Rakan. Not recommended.

Night Harvester:
This is an assassin item. 90 ability power is A LOT. Don't get fooled by the 300 additional health or anything else. We don't have to talk too much about it, as it's 40 seconds passive cooldown is way too high anyways. This is only really useful if you engage once and want to oneshot the enemy. Which we won't do. Not even as midlane full AP.

Riftmaker:
This item is like the immolate passive on some items or Bami's Cinder. The longer we stay in the fight or rather around enemy champions, the higher the damage we deal to them. This is perfect for Mordekaisers passive or maybe even Karthus, but definetly not for a trading and full engaging combo champ like Rakan.

Spirit Visage:
Spirit Visage's passive works well with any champion that has self-healing, spell vamp or life steal built into their kit. The passive will increase the effectiveness of an allied heal used on you (e.g. Starcall) but not any of your heals used on others. Even your Gleaming Quill heal that can simultaneously affect both yourself and others will be increased for you but not for any allies. This makes the item bad for any controller like Rakan, even in a tank build.


Sunfire Aegis:
Again it's immolate passive works against our mobility. We can't sustain while being inside the enemies for long. You could use it on a tank build, but even for that case there are better mythics. I'd not recommend it unless thats the case and even then it's not that great. You should try some other mythics, this is not the way.



Boots of Mobility: Those are the best ones probably. Only five seconds doing nothing and you already get +115 bonus movement speed besides the always give 25 flat movement speed. This is an insane amount and the highest possible of all boots. As we know Rakan profits a lot through bonus movement speed so this is the best choice to go!

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Also a choice to go if you decide to build Rakan more as a tank or APC. The ability haste is very welcoming to cast your abilities and summoner spells more often but remind that you have easier dodgeable engages. Because of having very low cooldowns in late game already I won't really recommend those.

Boots of Swiftness: You are the supporter. They won't focus you with their slows and Exhausts. Therefore this item gives you constant movement speed but is more or less not really worth it.

Mercury's Treads: The same applies here as already mentioned above. Only really has a high usability against a fed APC or constantly you focussing CC champions.

Ninja Tabi: All in all it gives a little bit of armor, +45 movement speed and reduces the incoming damage of auto attacks. Very strong item and probably the strongest available. Other guides also chose the Ninja Tabi to be built on Rakan, but I have to disagree. They are strong, but movement speed is way more worth for you than any damage reduction. Also you don't have to tank as much as other players because you engage and instantly disengage with Battle Dance or Grand Entrance. Try it yourself if you want to find out which suits you more, maybe it's still your best choice if it fits your playstyle.

Sorcerer's Shoes: If you go full AP build them. The strongest choice to deal high amounts of magic damage and even burst damage. Keep in mind that with going full AP you also have very low health and can die immediately!

Berserker's Greaves: Pls... just don't... At least not in my ranked games.



To show you some of the most important things to mention for Rakan like his movement speed synergy or Gleaming Quill heal radius I cutted this little video. In there are a lot of things together and the rest of combos for laning and teamfighting right underneath. Hope you like it! :)


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This combo below starts with shielding you partner. You stay behind, jump to him with Battle Dance and instantly focus with Grand Entrance your enemy. Even if you fail the knockup you closed a giant gap and are now able to aim and hit your opponent with Gleaming Quill. If possible try to get some autos and back off with Battle Dance again as soon as your heal activates.


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This one is nearly the same as the above. The only real difference is that you do not have to use Battle Dance and can still escape if something goes wrong. You have to train and be quick to be able to replicate the video in your matches. You can also force your ADC to engage because if they step to you they will touch your Gleaming Quill heal. Otherwise you just jump back with Battle Dance and heal them that way.


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This is the absolute all in engage. You can use Gleaming Quill too of course. The only thing you need for this one are at least 1-2 allys in front of you and some enemies they are chasing. This case occurs very often and you only have to be there to secure the kill. But watch out though, after engaging with using both Battle Dance dashes and Grand Entrance you have no escape execpt Flashing maybe.


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A little different version of the above one here. You can engage and disengage safely but the gap you are able to close is also way tinier. This combo is very useful to protect someone of your team if they are running away from some enemies. You can engage on the enemies, charm then and jump back to your partner. This can be a suicide move to prevent your ADC or APC from dieing or if your teammate, you try to safe, runs too far away and out of your Battle Dance range.



  • 20.04.2017 - Adding Summoner Spell Section, Rakan's Dancemoves and Ability Sequences, Adding Ability and Combo Videos
  • 21.04.2017 - Adding Changelog Section and switching from relic shield to spellthiefs edge
  • 22.04.2017 - Adding Righteous Glory and Dead Man's Plate because of it's movement Speed, Rakan Lvl 6 achieved!
  • 23.04.2017 - Level 7 on Rakan achieved! Combo Section edited.
  • 24.04.2017 - Start Items section added, Startet working on Items section, Combo Videos gonna be changed soon!
  • 25.04.2017 - Finished Startitem section, added Items fron A-G
  • 26.04.2017 - Searched and found some spelling mistakes ^^
  • 27.04.2017 - Couldn't do anything, wasn't at home ._.
  • 28.04.2017 - Close to finishing Item section, yay! Edited Combo videos
  • 28.04.2017 - Nothing yet...
  • 29.05.2017 - Reactivated and edited for 7.10
  • 30.05.2017 - Added Gargoyle Stoneplate, Adaptive Helm, (new) Guardian Angel, Iceborn Gauntlet, Knight's Vow, Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Crucible, Ohmwrecker, Randuin's Omen, Redemption, Righteous Glory, Rod of Ages, Rylais Crystal Scepter, Spirit Visage, Sterak's Gage, Sunfire Cape, Thornmail, Warmog's Armor, Zeke's Convergence, Zhonya's Hourglass and Zz'Rot Portal to the item section.
  • 31.05.2017 - Finished the combo section and with it the guide so far. Probably goin' to add several things throughout it's existing. Hope you like it :)
  • 01.06.2017 - Changed Abyssal Scepter to Abyssal Mask
  • 03.06.2017 - Added some Matchups, detailed Matchup section WIP
  • 10.06.2017 - Added boots in the item section
  • 13.06.2017 - Added the why YOU should play Rakan video at the beginning
  • 15.06.2017 - Fully updated for Patch 7.12 ! :D
  • 28.06.2017 - Fully updated for Patch 7.13 and say hi to the new honor system <3
  • 20.07.2017 - Added the "Ghost" spell in the summoner spell section
  • 21.07.2017 - Added the "Fullbuild Rakan Engage" Video
  • 23.07.2017 - 500.000 views achieved!
  • 25.07.2017 - Update for patch 7.15, no important changes for Rakan
  • 31.07.2017 - Edited the description for Banshee's Veil and Adaptive Helm and added adaptive helm as a defensive magic resist choice in the item build section (as suggested by supersupporter)
  • 16.08.2017 - Was on holiday in norway! Updated for patch 7.16 (NERF: Ancient Coins mana coins now restore 10% of missing mana instead of 15%.
  • 23.08.2017 - Already updated for Patch 7.17 (Ardent Nerf for Lategame)
  • 31.08.2017 - Changed Redemption with Ardent some times
  • 13.09.2017 - Unnecessary Rakan nerfs! Patch 7.18 made the "Full Movement Speed Rakan" -build less effective. Probably only because of the upcoming chamionship, so we can probably expect them to buff him afterwards.
  • 27.09.2017 - Tiny changes: Ardent Censer is now more worth later in the game and not as the first item, because it scales with the level since this patch. Turbo Chemtank got nerfed (costs 150 gold more) so you have to build it later. We already build this item pretty late, so it's not that bad. Zeke's Convergence got changed too. It now activates it's passive as soon as the slow activates. The rest of the patch does not affect Rakan.
  • 11.10.2017 - Removed Sterak's Gage, updated for 7.20.
  • 17.10.2017 - 1.000.000 views achieved! Thank you very much guys <3
  • 25.10.2017 - Updated for the 7.21 Ardent Censer nerfs.
  • 6.11.2017 - Updated for the 7.22 as far as possible
  • 7.11.2017 - Changed and visually upgraded part of the guide
  • 8.11.2017 - Changed and visually upgraded nearly everything now
  • 9.11.2017 - All YouTube Videos will now get replaced with WebM, finished section for inspiration and resolve runes. Rest of the WebM's and the sorcery runes will be ready tomorrow!
  • 10.11.2017 - Added Sorcery to the runes and keystones, fixed the Table of Content anchors, fixed some text issues
  • 11.11.2017 - Finished the Runes Reforged section completely with a seperate table of contents and examples. Will add "back to top" buttons tomorrow :)
  • 13.11.2017 - Wrote and edited half of the matchups.
  • 15.11.2017 - Finished the matchups for all support champions.
  • 17.11.2017 - Reedited some of the matchups.
  • 18.11.2017 - Added the different rune and item options to the top part of the guide. (e.g. Angry Bird (Poke & Aggressive)
  • 19.11.2017 - Edited the magical footwear rune to have the correct description and added the YouTube spoilers with the links to YouTube videos on case the WebMs don't load.
  • 21.11.2017 - Updated for patch 7.23
  • 26.11.2017 - Fixed some spelling mistakes
  • 04.12.2017 - Added a tutorial video for Hextech Flashtraption, sorry for the few updates, I'm in my final exams atm and it's a little stressy.
  • 06.12.2017 - Happy St. Nikolaus day to all my readers! Updated and refreshed for Patch 7.24.
  • 10.12.2017 - Added little "Back to Top"- Rakans and seperate ones for the Runes Reforged section :)
  • 15.12.2017 - Some more changes because of the 7.24b patch
  • 22.12.2017 - Removed the WebMs and replaced all of them with youtube videos as a lot of them seem not to work properly. Also there is not a single webpage to upload WebMs without having massive struggles, therefore the changes from 9.11. and 19.11. got revoked.
  • 23.12.2017 - Edited the summoner spells section and added a detailed description for every single spell that exists (excluding the snowball mark) as that one's self explaining, also fixed some spacers and hyphens.
  • 25.12.2017 - Merry christmas to all readers <3
  • 24.01.2018 - Updated for Patch 8.2 and removed Sightstone
  • 25.01.2018 - We achieved 2 million views! Thank you very much guys <3
  • 07.02.2018 - Updated for patch 8.3
  • 22.02.2018 - Updated for patch 8.4, going to include the AP items into the item section over the weekend (played a lot of AP Rakan Midlane in the last time)
  • 25.02.2018 - Changed up some designs and removed several pixel mistakes
  • 01.03.2018 - Updated a lot for the AP Rakan part (the 4th build)
  • 13.03.2018 - Added a little spoiler with the latest changes
  • 14.03.2018 - Added a Rakan ADC build. Yes, ADC. I mean.. i had fun with it <.<
  • 15.03.2018 - Edited the new runes Bone Plating and Time Warp Tonic. Changed the description of the starting items, updated the example rune builds and a direct "jump to the ability" picture in the "abilities"-section
  • 16.03.2018 - Added Frozen Mallet, Liandry's Torment, Everfrost, Hextech Gunblade, Hextech Rocketbelt, Morellonomicon, Wit's End, Lich Bane, Luden's Tempest, Mejai's Soulstealer, Nashor's Tooth, Rabadon's Deathcap, Archangel's Staff, Spellbinder, Twin Shadows and Void Staff to the item list and sorted them alphabetically.
  • 20.03.2018 - Changed some match-up texts e.g. for Trundle. Going to add a "Match-Up"-Section in april.
  • 21.03.2018 - Updated for patch 8.6, buffs for Rakan <3 higher ap ratios and 100 units more range for Battle Dance without the bonus of Xayah (total is unchanged), a stronger slightly aggressive version of Turbo Chemtank called Shurelya's Battlesong (check it out here), nerfs for Abyssal Mask and Seraph's Embraces shield. Changes for the trigger of Dead Man's Plate passive. Also added the new rune Chrysalis, updated Bone Plating and removed Iron Skin and Mirror Shell.
  • 04.04.2018 - Updated for patch 8.7, moved Locket of the Iron Solari to the not recommended (>Explanation<), edited Ninja Tabi with their nerf, added even more arguments against Relic Shield, updated the description of Manaflow Band and changed some numbers, e.g. Approach Velocitys ones.
  • 18.04.2018 - Updated for patch 8.8, edited the description for Archangel's Staff and the use of Oracle Lens. Also I wrote half of my final exams now, gonna add something big at the end of this month!
  • 20.04.2018 - Congratulations guys! This guide is now a whole year old. I hope it could help you and I will work on it even more. Let's hope for some nice future updates for Rakan and Mobafire.
  • 28.04.2018 - Added a description for the whole AP Rakan part of the guide. Every item is now explained in detail. You can view the description if you change to the "AP Midlane Birb" Tab.
  • 02.05.2018 - Changed the description of Luden's Tempest, Mejai's Soulstealer, Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Spellbinder, Twin Shadows and Everfrost as they all got buffed. Also wrote the whole description of Unsealed Spellbook new as it got changed completely.
  • 04.05.2018 - 3.000.000 views achieved! Thank you very much guys :D
  • 16.05.2018 - Updated for patch 8.10, no changes for Rakan or any items, only some adjustments for Perfect Timing, Demolish, Chrysalis, Bone Plating and Phase Rush.
  • 30.05.2018 - Changed the Runes for the Midlane Rakan part as Electrocute works easier as Arcane Comet in my testings
  • 31.05.2018 - 8.11: Slight nerfs for Rakans heal and shield scalings. Also some changes to Shurelya's Battlesong, Banner of Command and Guardian Angel. The rune The Ultimate Hat got removed, Minion Dematerializer has a higher initial delay but a wonderful and must-have rune called Nimbus Cloak entered the rift.
  • 01.06.2018 - Updated the example runes for the current patch.
  • 13.06.2018 - Updated for Patch 8.12, no shield nerfs for Rakan, still some nerfs to the heal and shield power of Mikael's Blessing, Redemption and Ardent Censer aswell as a damage buff on Athene's Unholy Grail. Also the sorcery rune Celerity got some changes to be way more aggressive. Half of the bonus movement speed for double the AP damage results in a better rune for an aggressive Rakan build.
  • 21.06.2018 - Just finished my final exams! Got an Abitur with a score of 2.4 :) Gonna study System- and Softwaredevelopment in october.
  • 21.07.2018 - Slight Nerfs for Rakan: Q cooldown increased late by 2 seconds. R cooldown increased by 10 seconds.
  • 25.07.2018 - We achieved over 4 million views and 500 votes! Thank you guys for your support and constructive help to improve the guide! <3
  • 30.07.2018 - Added a "Don't Do This" Chapter and made way more in-depth descriptions with some hints for the abilities! Check the new update out!
  • 01.08.2018 - Updated for Patch 8.15: Cost of starting support items increased by 50, resulting in no possibility to start with Refillable Potion or Faerie Charm :( Combine cost later reduced by 50 so the total cost is unchanged. Also increased the time of activation for Perfect Timing by 2 minutes from 8 to 10 minutes.
  • 15.08.2018 - Slight Rakan nerfs coming with patch 8.16 (health decreased by 30 and armor by 3). Also damage decrease for Summon Aery and base shielding increase both at early levels. Celerity's damage conversion got reduced by a lot aswell as a strong nerf for Scorch. All in all not a good patch for Rakan :(
  • 11.09.2018 - Fully updated for Patch 8.18 !
  • 12.10.2018 - Still no big changes within Patch 8.19 and 8.20!
  • 21.11.2018 - Fully updated for the PreSeason! (Patch 8.23) with changes to Celerity, Demolish, Overgrowth, Bone Plating, the removel of our beloved rune Chrysalis but the welcoming of the new rune Shield Bash and little tweaks to Kleptomancy and Teleport.
  • 04.12.2018 - Thank you guys for over 5 million views <3 You are the best!
  • 06.12.2018 - Fully updated for Patch 8.24!
  • 01.01.2019 - Happy New Year <3
  • 10.01.2019 - Fully updated for Patch 9.1! Edited the description of Celerity aswell as Shield Bash.
  • 21.03.2019 - Updated the Full Guide for Patch 9.6 and the ones before that. E.g. Minion Dematerializer.
  • 31.07.2019 - Updated the Full Guide for Patch 9.15 and the ones before that. Fixed several grammar mistakes, updates a lot of numbers, changed some links, put Locket of the Iron Solari back to the normal item list and out of not recommended, added every single ADC into the synergy list, added and edited some counters like Pyke or Yuumi.
  • 03.02.2020 - Updated all missing information about Season 10, fixed some item descriptions like Shurelya's Battlesong or keystone descriptions like the new Prototype: Omnistone. Also updated all patch-tied images.
  • 04.03.2020 - Updated for Patch 10.5 (minor changes)
  • 15.04.2020 - Updated for Patch 10.8 (few grammar changes)
  • 14.06.2020 - Updated for Patch 10.12 (Updated Approach Velocity, Guardian, Unflinching and Ghost)
  • 14.06.2020 - Patch 10.13 brings us new Rakan buffs for our Grand Entrance, aswell as some Guardian nerfs.
  • 07.08.2020 - Updated the whole guide, read through every description from the beginning to the end. Changed the wording here and there, corrected some numbers, wrote a few new paragraphs, updated some images, removed outdated info and polished the whole guide all in all.
  • 23.01.2021 - Updated the whole guide over the past few weeks for patch 11.2, a lot of changes, new mythic items, reworked some banners, a new bbcoded ability area, new item builds, better descriptions, more explanations when hovering the (i)s in the ability build order, etc. (too much to list everything here) Enjoy!
  • 15.04.2021 - Updated for Patch 11.8!

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