MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

Rakan Build Guide by

9Lives' Master Tier Rakan Guide to 900+ Heals/Shields

32 4

99,202 Views

11 Comments

Rakan Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (11) More Rakan Guides

Runes:

Sorcery

Summon Aery

The Ultimate Hat

Transcendence

Gathering Storm

Resolve

Revitalize

Bone Plating

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Items

Start

Upgrade your Stuff

BUY THESE

Early/Mid Game

Mid Game

Late Game Full Build

Elixer

Ability Order

Rakan Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Shen

Extreme

Shen can straight up 1v2 lol

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hello and Welcome to my Rakan Guide!

I'm Quikk (Now 9Lives), a support main since season 4. I've been playing League since season 2 and just recently in season 8 hit masters for the first time. I've been playing Rakan since his release and just started one-tricking him at the start of season 8.

I play with a build that I've found works best with my playstyle for Rakan. Full build, it lets me reach about 400 AP; an insane amount of a pure support build (More analysis in later sections). I personally enjoy it a lot more than other Rakan builds but will not recommend it unless you are already comfortable with the champion. If you are new to Rakan, I suggest you stick to a standard tank build until you really get the hang of him.

Some extra links:
My OP.GG: http://na.op.gg/summoner/champions/userName=9Lives
My Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/celeress
Rakan Mains Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RakanMains/

Now let's get into it.

Why play Rakan?

Rakan is a highly mobile support with amazing AP ratios and a very reliable CC combo ( > ) that, if used right, is almost impossible to dodge.

It is possible to single-handedly win a team fight with . On the other hand, you can also easily have your engage stopped by good players or quickly killed if you mess it up. Because of this, Rakan has a small skill floor that you need to get over in order to comfortably use the champion.

Compared to other supports, Rakan can be one of the best healers because of 's absurd AP ratio on an AoE heal. He is arguably the best shielder because 's also absurd AP ratio and 3.3 second downtime late game. Rakan can also engage better than tank supports because his CC combo is much more reliable. He is a perfect combo between playmaking and protecting so, in the right hands, Rakan can be one massively disruptive force. Saving carries, making picks and winning fights all in one.

He's also incredibly fun to play so that's a big plus!

Pros / Cons

======Pros:

- Very high mobility
- Very high support AP ratios (heals, shields)
- Reliable CC combo
- A good can win the game
- has a knockup which can cancel dashes
- Has for extra survivability

======Cons:

- Has very long CD's early game
- Needs all spells off cooldown
- Overall short range
- can be interrupted
- Allies can sometimes not let you dash
- Reliant on or other CC to land in some scenarios

Runes

The most common runes I run with this build are with Primary and now Secondary

TEXT	TEXT	TEXT
	Sorcery
	I opt-in for Aery because it's the best Keystone on Sorcery for Rakan. Aery will make your poke stronger, your heals/shields stronger and scales well with all the AP that you will have from this build. It also helps give you a little more kill pressure.
	Rakan is very reliant on his ult and more so with this build because he is very squishy. This will give you a bonus 15% CDR towards your ult, dropping the CD to as low as 32 seconds!
	The more CDR Rakan has, the better. This rune also makes it so you're not wasting stats by buying 6 CDR items. This rune will be a big source of a lot of your AP.
	Rakan scales very well into the late game. This rune just adds to it. Most games will go for about 30 minutes anyways which will mean this rune on average gives you +48 AP.

TEXT	TEXT	TEXT
	Resolve
	A great defensive option that pairs nicely with your passive Fey Feathers to help minimize damage taken when you engage/go for trades. Bone plating works best in all-in scenarios so you can make use of the 3 stacks vs. poke scenarios, use this to your advantage as a hard engage champion.
	A must for all the shields and heals built into your kit. This coupled with all the heal/shield power + AP really helps maximize the effectiveness of all your utility.

Spells

The Summoner Spells I always run are:

TEXT	TEXT	TEXT
	There isn't a reason for you not to take Flash on Rakan. It's the standard Summoner Spell for almost every champion. It also helps you make plays with The Quickness and ...... Grand Entrance
	Rakan is a lane bully. His all-ins can be deadly so ignite is mandatory. It also gives him much more kill pressure throughout the game. You could argue Exhaust but I don't think Rakan needs it at all between his near-instant CC combo and all the heals/shields he has to offer. Better to take an offensive option especially if you have such a strong all-in and pick potential.

Skill Sequence

Level 1

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

You always want to start level 1. Rakan's level 1 is very strong so if you look for aggressive 's early, you can make the enemies blow their sums or even kill them.

Levels 2-3

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

== OR ==

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

You usually want to take level 2. Sometimes is ok. If you engaged level 1 and won, then take level 2 so you can continue to look for engages while now also having an escape. If the engage didn't go too hot level 1 or you just got out traded/poked out, take level 2 and start trying to sustain you and your ADC back up. You always want to get whichever ability you haven't skilled yet for level 3.

Levels 4-18

Option 1

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

== OR ==

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

At this point, regardless of how you skilled your first 3 levels, you'll now want to max followed by and last. Put a 2nd and 3rd point in at levels 11 and 16 respectively. When finished, your skill order will look like 1 of the 2 pictured above.

Option 2

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

== OR ==

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

There are a few scenarios where I don't max first. If the game is going rough and you don't have as much lane/map control as you should, then after you get your ult at level 6, begin maxing . This means your skill order changes from > > to 3 points in followed by max, max then max. Your skill order will look like one of the two pictured above depending on how you skilled your first 3 levels.

Items

WORK IN PROGRESS, STILL NEEDS TO BE UPDATED

Next up is your build path.

1.
First Buy

Item Sequence

You want to start the game with , 3 's and a

Sometimes there are scenarios where you'd want to take 1 instead of 3 and pick up a . If you know the enemy jungler will invade your buffs because your jungle is weak early while the enemy jungle is strong early, then place a either on the buff your jungle didn't start or at a jungle entrance.

This will make your first buy look like this:

Item Sequence

2.
First Back

Item Sequence

You want to upgrade to as soon as possible.

This usually shouldn't be a problem unless you died early in lane. If you have leftover gold after , you want to start buying components for your .

When building your first item, , I opt-in for AP over Mana Regen early so if you have the gold for an over a couple 's, get the . Basically, > for component build order.

Item Sequence

3.
Finish Ardent Censer and start buying either Athene's Unholy Grail or Redemption.

Item Sequence

By the time you finish , Magical Footwear should have kicked in and given you . Make sure to swap your trinket to or if you're level 9 since you also should have finished your quest by now and gotten . You don't have to upgrade or yet so you can leave those as is.

Now you either want to start building or . If early team fights are already breaking out, then start building . first. If no fights are breaking out and the game is going slow, then start building . first only if you can buy the whole component at once, otherwise build first.

You can also get over first if you're against a high AP damage comp.

and components overlap to an extent so you might be able to switch which you're building next if you have to. However, do not go out of your way to do this. Your build will start to look like one of these depending on which item you're going next.

Item Sequence

== OR ==

Item Sequence

4.
Finish Athene's Unholy Grail/ Redemption, upgrade your other items

Item Sequence

Your build should start to look like this. Your inventory will start to run out of space so if you back and have the choice of buying a component item or a few 's, buy the 's. Vision wins games and this is mid/late-game by now so you need to control vision around objectives (Baron/Dragons).

5.
Buy an entire Mikael's Blessing last

Item Sequence

Your last item should be and your elixer should be

It's late game now so do not buy the components for . You need to have 's in your inventory so don't get a until you have enough gold to buy the entire thing at once. At full build, will be your last purchase.

6.
A few notes about build order:

For the most part, I will not stray from this build path. I already mentioned building vs however, there's another scenario where I might have to get a little sooner. If you're against a team comp with very high CC, buy a after . This can help secure your win in scenarios where the enemy team comp is winning fights because your carry gets CC'd.

This does not mean you can buy a in a game you're losing and expect to win. This means, if your team is ahead and doing well but a well-aimed CC from the enemy team on your carry can cost you a fight, can prevent it.

If you do find yourself in a situation where you've built after , you can continue with the build path as noted above. Your last two items will be / so still choose which of the two you think you'll need more. In most cases, it will be over but you never know.

Use your own judgment. In this situation it varies per game

Build Analysis

WORK IN PROGRESS, STILL NEEDS TO BE UPDATED

Now, I told you to build all these items but I didn't explain WHY these items. Much like the title says, this is a High AP Support Rakan build made up of nothing but support items.

Here's how it works:

+20 AP from Sorcery Tree
+60 AP from Ardent Censer
+30 AP from Athene's Unholy Grail
+10/20/35 AP from Spellthief line
+8/24/48/80 AP and counting from Gathering Storm
+60 AP from Transcendence (75% CDR at full build)
+90 AP from Athene's Passive (+5 AP per 25% bonus mana regen which is 450% at full build)
+50 AP from

Full build will put you at:

425 AP at 40 minutes OR 393 AP at 30 minutes
465 AP at 40 minutes OR 433 AP at 30 minutes (with Baron Buff)
458 AP at 40 minutes OR 424.44 AP at 30 minutes (with 1 Infernal Dragon)

Basically, it's a lot of AP on a support, especially one with 70/80/90% AP ratios. So how big will those heals/shields be? For these calculations, I'm going to use 400 AP as a baseline, assume level 18 and include the +40% Heal/Shield power from the build. Keep in mind, all these values could potentially be a lot higher at the 40-minute mark for plus an Infernal or two and Baron.

will heal for 350, fully stacked
will shield for 252 or damage for 80
will heal for 602 or 952 with a fully stacked every 3.3 seconds
will shield for 658 or 910 with , twice, every 6.6 seconds
will shield for 614

I believe these values are absolutely insane for a support that can proc it all so often and still have such a powerful CC combo. This build will make all of Rakan's abilities very effective, not just his CC while still having a and active for bonus utility.

Playstyle Tips

So you'll be healing and shielding your team for almost 1000, but when do you go in? How do you survive fights? The only downside to this build is that it makes Rakan very squishy. If you mess up your combo or don't position right in a fight, you will die. It's very noticeable how much more damage you'll be taking and how easily you can get chunked.

You can not play this build like you would a normal tanky Rakan build. You will not succeed. Here are some tips that might help with this sort of Rakan playstyle:

Be patient with your engages; pick good fights.

You can't force fights as easily with this build so you have to be patient. It helps to learn Rakan's max engage range and when you do go in, you have to be fast with your combo. The goal is to leave as little time for your enemy to react. You also don't want to get this amazing combo only to get one-shot and get no kills out of it because your team wasn't in a position to follow up.

You also need to make sure you have allies close enough so when you do engage, you can back to them and get out. You need to get in and out of fights FAST and when is down, turn into a shield bot for your carries.

Don't die for poke.

If one of your carries just ate a skillshot and you want to heal them, don't just walk up looking for these aggressive 's so you can heal them. Yes you have good poke but you're not a poke champion. Your range is still very short and if you're in range to hit , you're probably in range to get engaged on. I'm not saying to never go for Q's but just be careful about it.

Sometimes it's better not to shield.

Rakan's shield always puts him on the far end of his target. This means if an ally is running towards you, enemies are chasing them and you them, you will be placed in between your ally and the enemies. This might be what you want if you're trying to eat a skillshot for them but that's not your job, you're squishy. That's the job of but if using your shields puts you in danger of dying, just don't use it. You can't be a meatshield for your team.

However, knowing this, you can reposition yourself in relation to your ally so that when you do shield them and are placed opposite of your target, you won't be in immediate danger. This is something very important that you need to practice so that you can give your team massive shields and not die in the process.

Your ideal flash combo should be > >

This way, when you > on the enemy, you'll hit them with . This means they'll be charmed and unable to get out of 's range, guaranteeing the knockup. It's very important that the enemy is charmed first, then knocked up. This leaves little to no room for the enemy to react in time and dodge the combo.

If you can, I'd also wait for to be up when you engage, it helps a lot and can soak some decent damage for you.

Do not spam your abilities.

I know it's fun to constantly spam but you're maxing it second and using it a lot. Its mana cost can get pretty high (100 at max rank with a 6.6 second CD) and if you run out of mana mid-fight, you're useless. Rakan is very reliant on having his abilities off-cooldown and very reliant on his abilities period which means you need to have mana for them. A full rotation with ult will cost you about 300 mana. Unlike other supports, Rakan needs to use all 4 of his abilities in quick succession as part of his combo which means you need to have that 300 mana ready.

You can use on Baron/Dragon/Herald for free heals.

Just a neat little tip. I don't go out of my way to do it but sometimes it comes in handy. You can also throw over the Baron/Dragon pit walls and get the heal without even going in the river. If you're deep warding and pass by the pits, it might help to grab a quick heal on the way back to lane.

Abuse .

regenerates fairly quickly when out of combat. This build will also make at early levels big enough to absorb an auto and not get popped. Use this to your advantage. If you're going for poke and take an auto, back off so can fully regenerate. This way the enemy is literally not touching your health bar, only damaging a shield. It swings trades in your favor since if you land , you're damaging the enemy, healing you/your ADC and not even taking damage because they didn't pop your shield.

This also means you're a whole lot more vulnerable to damage when is down. Just things to keep in mind as "windows of opportunity".

To Wrap Things Up

That's all I've got on this build for now. I will be coming back to update this build periodically and add any extra details that I think I've left out. There is a lot of info here though so, in the meantime, please make sure to try the build out and let me know what you think! Rate the guide if you like it, leave a comment if you have a question or issue about something and if you're looking for more info you can check out my stream where I'll be playing a lot of this build live at High Elo!

Here are the links again:
My OP.GG: http://na.op.gg/summoner/champions/userName=9Lives
My Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/celeress
Rakan Mains Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RakanMains/

Thanks!

.