Hello there, my name is Zeekar and personally I have never been good at formal introductions... Luckily this is a guide for how to play an off meta pick that gets me flamed in champ select every 3/5 games, not a job interview. So lets keep it brief.

I started playing in season 8, I've hit challenger a couple of times in my dreams, I have 600k+ points on Rakan, and I have gotten S+ on him mid so many times I have lost count. That's a fine resume, right? Oh, also - I've been actively theorycrafting about Rakan Mid, and Rakan builds in general, since around 2020 when i picked him up for the first time. And also I had the previously most liked Rakan build on here.

But enough about my huge brain and my small ego, lets get into what you came here for.

Yes. I don't know why so much of the community seems to share the mentality that Rakan outside of support is trolling. Rakan Mid is like if Zed was able to shield and heal his allies. Like Sylas, if his W healed those around him. Rakan has SO much power packed into his Q, W and R that it doesn't even matter that he can't use his E in lane unless you get a gank. So yes. It's viable. It's really good, even. His AP ratios are completely bonkers, and he has as very good build for the current meta.

As a summary:

The PROS:

- Your damage becomes BIG after 2 items (absurdly strong scalings for a main role support champion)
- Due to your CC and potential to follow up, you will always be at least somewhat relevant
- Your peel becomes insane: CC, 500 hp heals, 600 hp shields x2, and hefty damage
- Fine laning against most champions
- For some reason Rakan has solo laner base AD so last hitting is easy
- Your roams are incredible and your jungler will love you
- Rakan is incredibly survivable in the right hands
- Through farm and takedowns you will be able to actually afford the items to make you scale well.

The CONS:

- You are extremely AP reliant to do more than just CC
- Against lane bully champs like Syndra and Orianna you will suffer
- Your passive has a trillion second cooldown earlygame (riot pls buff 🥺🥺)
- You are a bad first engager. Having a 900 hp passive shield unfortunately does not change that a taliyah E removes you from the game
- you look SO stupid if you miss your W

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I personally don't think that Rakan has a lot of explicit weaknesses. And he feels great to play! Of course this changes depending on what is meta, but his kit is very versatile and you can serve many different purposes. Additionally, his skill ceiling is very high, and you have a lot of room to grow with him.

Go ignite and flash. Ignite helps with that little bit of extra damage against beefier targets which you cannot oneshot. And it especially helps with kill pressure earlygame, letting you pick up some cheesy level 2 or 3 kills.

Wawa go electrocute cause damage much higher than comet despite comet being aoe, only proccing on one hit, and having lower cooldown

If electrocute's damage is ever nerfed significantly, I will return to insisting that comet is the superior rune. But as it stands right now the damage of electrocute is just too bonkers to avoid.

Ok but seriously why are no one going malignence on Rakan? It's literally perfect on him. Your ability to oneshot is commonly reliant on your R, and if not your ability to oneshot, then your ability to reliably engage. And outside of it providing you ultimate haste, it also provides you a burn zone under and reduced magic resist on targets you hit with your R, WHICH YOU WILL because your whole engage revolves around your W and R. If you R then W on top of someone, you are going to immediately hit them with R, and it, and the ENTIRE rest of your combo will benefit from 10 magic pen. It's bonkers brother, my sibling in satan!

Stormsurge then second as it just provides Rakan with pretty much exactly what he wants - Hefty burst damage and movement speed after an engage.

Then comes the big boy, the big chungus!! Thank you for the award kind redditor. The big hat, harry potter, ooooh yes. Rabadons deathcap! Heheh yessss, yes much ap. So very much ap. That is exactly what you want. You are already able to oneshot at 2 items, but once you finish rabadons you are absolutely set. You can even get tanks to 30% HP with a full combo, it's bonkers how good Rakan's AP ratios are.

And then it just kinda becomes what you need past that. Mejais if you're cracked, zhonyas if against AD, Banshees if struggling to first engage, void staff against tanks, etc.

During laning phase you want to be looking for kills. Engage on your enemy laner if they use important spells, hitting W Q and an AA to proc electrocute. The heal from Q alongside your passive, usually assures you that it becomes a good trade.

Do your best to manage the wave, and roam to help your allies if they need it. Past level 4 you are a menace in skirmishes, especially around objectives if the enemy has no upfront CC.

Mid game you will want to either splitpush or group with your team to fight. The amount of AP you get, alongside your relatively fast waveclear (when not interrupted by enemies) makes you a pretty good sidelane threat.

Lategame you are a teamfighting champion. As in, like, the complimentary term. Like "absolute legend mate! You're a bloody champion!" Though you are also a teamfighting champion, as in the league of legends champion! You are not a very good first engage unless you have something like banshees, or enemies are split apart. Once you have 3 items, your engage is basically lethal to anything it touches. But don't get cocky, cause despite your beefy passive, you are still very squishy if caught. Try to look for flank angles if possible, or peel for other carries on your team. You can make your teams adc virtually unkillable with how much you can heal and shield.

After the game, make sure to add every single person on the enemy team and send them all kissing face emojis. This is a mandatory step in the guide if you truly wish to become the charmer.

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If you're looking for like, combo guides or something there certainly are other better resources out there for that. I could totally make combo guides