Hubba Hubba. I'm MissMaw, a mod here on MOBAFire, and I've been playing League for a few years now. I've been a support main for the majority of this time and when Rakan was announced I was excited to try him out. He turned out to be the perfect support for me as he had everything I loved: CC, gap closers, Xayah, great engage and a sexy personality and lore. So once he and Xayah went live on patch 7.8, a friend and I got to work spamming the pair over and over and within two days I got mastery level 5 on him, and 7 a couple days after. Hasn't been that long since but considering my pre-Rakan support knowledge, my decent rating (platinum) and my love of writing guides; I thought, why not? So welcome.

Pros & Cons Masteries Runes Summoner Spells Abilities

Ability Sequence Item Build Wave Control Laning Phase Mid Game

Late Game Warding ADC Lane Mate Match-Ups Conclusion

+ High Mobility + Strong Engage + Slippery af + Shielder and Healer

- Squishy - Risky Playstyle - Low damage output - Low AA range = No poke

Rakan is one of the most mobile champions in league; he effectively has . . .3 gap closers, high base movement speed (improved upon by movement speed boots and items, masteries) and then his .ultimate as well gives him 50% increased movement speed. This makes him hard to catch (slippery) and makes him hard to escape from. The mobility, coupled with his . .hard CC, make him a superb engager. And the CC also makes him a great peeler. He's great at keeping his ADCs alive, both in teamfights with his peeling, and in lane with his constant shielding and his .low mana cost heal.

What hinders him from ascending godhood is the fact that, in spite of being an engager with a pretty risky playstyle (think .Leona, .Alistar) Rakan is quite squishy (think .Lulu, .Janna). Having a way out is handy, however for prolonged fights or when caught out, don't be surprised if your health bar goes 100 to 0 really fast. His incredibly low AA range means you will not be able to efficiently poke your enemy laners, which is also a con, but outside of that Rakan doesn't really do a lot of damage anyway except in very early game.

MARKS

Your abilities do a lot of damage in early game so mpen would up your damage a lot in laning phase. That said, there are a lot of other viable options such as AD marks, to increase your AA damage, or armour marks, to make you tankier.

SEALS

Armour and Health seals are the best and since you are taking armour in your quints, we take health seals. The health from these seals helps out a lot in early game since you will be engaging a lot.

GLYPHS

Most commonly the enemy support will be a magic damage dealer so these runes come in handy to defend against that, or against the fed enemy mid laner later on at least.

QUINTS

Super helpful stat when playing support since you'll always be facing an AD bot lane. Lately it's common to see enemy teams consisting almost entirely of AD, so armour has become a very valuable stat.

.Wanderer doesn't give you a crazy boost, but it's definitely better than increased minion/monster damage.

.Swaps health potions for biscuits, which are a slightly improved version of the potion.

.Meditation is good because Rakan can be sorta mana hungry. But also .Merciless is just useless on supports so.

.A usual choice for supports here is .Bandit, however, because Rakan is considered a ranged champion, you only gain 3 gold for AAing a champion, which will be very rare outside of fights as your range is the lowest in the game (300).

.Health regen is a useful stat for Rakan since it boosts your survivabilty in lane. It's good against pokey enemy bot lanes especially.

.Tough Skin is basically armour, which like I've said is very useful for you as a bot laner.

.I prefer Vet's Scars because I think health is a really good stat for an engager like Rakan. .Runic Armour amplifies your heal, but only by 8% and since we only put one rank in heal, it scales with level and we don't buy AP, the heal is going to be weak with or without this mastery. Note that Runic Armor does NOT improve your passive shield.

.Insight is a great mastery as it makes your Ignite or Exhaust up more often and these can be pivotal in bot lane fights.

.Tenacity is simply a good stat for an engager.

.Courage of the colossus activates upon use of hard CC. Rakan has a knock-up and a charm so using either his W or R will grant him a shield and this has good synergy with him since he's really squishy but uses W and R to engage.

Flash is flash. Everyone takes it. No need to be special. Do note that you can flash to get in range for W and especially R though.

Exhaust and Ignite are up to personal preference in my opinion. Exhaust can be extremely helpful during both early and late game, as it has the potential to completely shut down . assassins, . low mobility champions or just .any high damage dealers.

Ignite on the other hand is more useful in laning phase than late game, though it does work wonders on .sustain champions late game. However it might be worth swapping Exhaust out because of the increased kill potential you gain with ignite, especially at level 2 and 6. Any kill bot lane can give you a large advantage in lane and later on in the game.

Rakan periodically generates a 33-254 (+90% of ability power) shield with a cooldown of 40-16 seconds (based on level). Damaging an enemy champion with a basic attack or ability reduces Fey Feathers cooldown by 1 second. Lover's Leap: 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. Fey Feathers is just a free shield you get every few seconds. You can lower the CD by one by attacking enemy champions, but since you have such low range, you won't be able to take advantage of that much. The shield is pretty nifty as it'll negate some poke early on and it can pop up even during fights which means it could save your life if it emerges at the right time. During very early game when you're not very tanky at all, it's probably best to engage only when your shield is up or when it will be soon if you are able to, as that will make it a lot safer for you to engage and up your chances of winning the trade. The second passive, Lover's Leap, only works with a .Xayah on your team. It can make for a quick escape in some tight situations, but the best use of it is for Xayah more than for you yourself. You can sit in a bush and start your recall and allow her to finish pushing the wave bot lane, then she can join you at 2-3 seconds left and be back in base faster; and ergo back in lane faster without losing farm. If you're recalling in plain sight, you can have Xayah recall and you defend her from any interruptions (enemy skillshots) and then join her at the last second to TP back safely.

Rakan slings an enchanted feather forward, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to the first enemy hit. If that enemy was a champion or epic monster, a small circular area is marked around Rakan. After a short period of time or if an ally champion comes into contact with the marked area, Rakan heals himself and surrounding allies by 23-150 (based on level) (+70% of ability power). Gleaming Quill is easily Rakan's weakest ability. You get one rank in it at level 3 and then not for a long time. It's a skillshot, medium-short ranged without a very generous hitbox and so it's not super easy to hit. When it does hit, it doesn't really do much damage, so it's not a good poking tool even though it's your only ability for poking technically. What you use it for instead is the heal. The heal however is pretty underwhelming; it scales with AP (which we do not really get), and by level. So by investing points into your Q, you do not improve the heal - all you do is lower the CD. The mana cost, at all ranks, is pretty agreeable so it's still not a bad ability as you can use it pretty often when you need it. If you're below half health (or your ADC is) you can usually pretty safely walk up to an enemy and Q them (the closer you get, the easier it is to hit) and then E back to your ally so you're not in danger. A more helpful way to use it is mid fights. There's a combo I enjoy using; W Q E. Using your W gets you in melee range of your enemy, meaning you cannot miss your Q, then you can stay within that range and commit to a fight, and, once your ADC starts getting low, you can safely E back onto your ADC and thus not only shield but also heal him mid-fight.

Rakan dashes forward, landing stylishly at his destination. After a dramatic pause, he leaps into the air, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+50% of ability power) magic damage and knocking up surrounding enemies for 1 second. On par with your ult, Grand Entrance is your main engage tool. It's got a pretty generous range, but the slight delay gives your enemies a chance to escape its radius. This is why it's best used from brush, where they won't see you coming. Another tricky way of using it is by hiding out of sight and using your E on your ally (works best with Xayah), and having them bait by getting in a bad position close to the enemy. This way you can E and instantly W off of your ally and surprise the enemy. I call this the "ew combo", because it's a pretty dirty trick that works pretty often. Outside of that, it's also worth noting that W is a great escape tool since it's capable of jumping terrain. Using it as an escape, you can think of W as a flash with a 15 second CD. Play Video

Rakan leaps to an ally champion, shielding them for 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+80% of ability power) for 3 seconds. Battle Dance can be re-cast for 5 seconds at no cost. When re-cast, Rakan may select the same target again. If Xayah is the target, Battle Dance is able to be cast from an increased range. Battle Dance is my favourite ability in the history of League, maybe ever. It's used for both rescue and escape. Basically it grants you two gap closers to use within 5 seconds, and it gives allies a pretty big shield (when you get some ranks in it) or one ally potentially two+ during one fight. Most favourably you have a Xayah with you, as with her your E range practically doubles and you can jump half a screen to your Xayah. This makes escaping incredibly easy as rarely who can catch up to you when you go that far; especially since it's possible to jump over walls too. The shield like I said is pretty potent since we're maxing E first. The best part about it though is that you can use it twice during a fight, effectively making it doubly as effective. During a 2v2 fight bot lane, you'll be within auto-attack range of eachother and so feel free to jump to your Xayah and shield her, as it can very well save her or win you the trade. The worst thing you can do is forget entirely that it exists and not use it in skirmishes or trades. Successful trades win bot lane, and with Rakan's heal and these two shields, trading is usually in your favour. Another thing to remember is that by jumping to your ADC, you can intercept various projectives that were meant to hit them - for example, Thresh's hook, Blitzcrank's grab, Lee Sin's Q, Caitlyn's ultimate. Note that your E does NOT shield you, only your ally. It can also heal your ally; not your E itself but your Q. By using your Q and having the heal on you, and jumping to your ally with E, you can transfer the heal to them; or yourself, without waiting for the delay. However in spite of it not shielding you, it's a very valuable ability for you as you will be relying on it to get you out of a lot of bad situations. You can dodge skillshots and hop walls with your E, as long as your allies remember to stay within your range. Play Video

Rakan enchants his coat with a captivating sheen for the next 4 seconds, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 (+50% of ability power) magic damage and charming each enemy he touches for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds. Enemies can only be affected once. Rakan benefits from 50% bonus movement speed for the duration, which is briefly increased to 200% upon first damaging an enemy champion before decaying back down to 50%. Rakan's ultimate is a great engage/escape tool. It's sort of like a mini Gnar ult, but with added damage and CC. There are a lot of cool combos with which you can make some sick engages. My favourite is popping the ultimate and then W-ing onto an enemy. By landing on top of them, you'll not only knock them up but also charm them due to your ult. This CC chain will either kill them or leave you without any other way of catching up to them if they happen to Flash away or escape somehow. So unless you're sure you can kill them it is better to save your W for after they're charmed. The movement speed can often be enough to catch up to them after you've popped your ult anyway, but you can also flash to close the gap. Keep in mind that by using your Flash, W, ult etc you CAN catch up to a very faraway enemy and engage a fight, but your allies will usually lag behind due to now having as much mobility. This can potentially put you in a bad position since you'll be alone, with little damage, with all your CDs and without an ally nearby. This especially happens bot lane, since a lot of ADCs lack mobility. The CC is good not only for engagement, but also disengagement. You can charm everyone on the enemy team which leaves them wandering and slow for a second, and that can give your team(mate) a chance to escape. So if you're in a tight spot with an ally, consider ulting into the enemy team (and E/W-ing out after that) although it seems reckless. Play Video

#1 Priority is the Quickness, your ultimate. You put a point in it at rank 6, 11 and 16 like with every other ultimate.

Toss up between your W and E, but I prefer E max for now. I just feel like the increased shield strength, and the fact that you can utilise the shield twice in a fight, is incredibly useful in laning phase for your ADC.

The lower CD gives you the chance to engage more often. The damage increase is also noticeable early game, but I think it's still less useful than what your shields could potentially do.

Finally we have Gleaming Quill, for which we designate only one point early game and the nothing until very late game. I've said before it's your weakest ability and it doesn't increase the heal value with ranks in it, thus no reason to invest points in it before you finish everything else.

I prefer to take Battle Dance at level 1 since it can help negate some poke off your ADC at level 1. Aside from that, it's a good help to your jungle when you're assisting him pre-lane, as you can give him one or two shields and negate round 100 damage. At level 2 Grand Entrance is undeniably the best choice. Rakan's level 2 can easily land you a kill (with Ignite especially) or at least burn some summoners off of the enemy support/ADC unless you've been poked down or are in a very unfavourable match-up. Play Video

IMO Rakan's best support starting item. As Rakan is considered a ranged champion, he has a hard time last hitting minions with .Relic Shield. He also has a hard time poking with such low range, and prefers to hard engage. This means that .Spelltheif's isn't too good on him either.

Warding Totem is the one you'll buy when you spawn as before you acquire .Sightstone it'll be your only source of wards.

After getting .Sightstone, or maybe one back afterwards, feel free to swap our your Totem for this trinket. Having Lens will allow you to remove enemy wards and thus it'll be easier for your jungler to gank for you. It'll also be easier for you to engage from a bush if they don't see you in there. At level 9 buy .Oracle's Lens.

Aim to have at least 800 gold on your first back so you can insta-buy Sightstone. If you're forced back early or if you die, settle for a .Ruby Crystal and some pots instead.

Depending on how much spare cash you have after that, you can buy a few things. .Boots are a good early purchase since movement speed is so good on Rakan, .faerie charm(s) are necessary for .Nomads and .Redemption later, and of course you can supply yourself with .Control Wards for lane control and pots for sustain.

Pretty good early upgrade as it gives you some nice sustain with Coin's upgraded passive (restoring 10 hp for each enemy minion killed nearby).

Boots of swiftness are good on Rakan, as it gives him a nice way to get into engage range. Rakan can be CC'd during his ultimate, so reducing the effectiveness of slows is pretty good for him. Additionally, Rakan benefits from 50% bonus movement speed for the duration of his ultimate, increasing to 200% upon first enemy hit. This makes swiftness boots pretty good with him.

Get these vs 2 or more Auto attack based champions as it lowers basic attack damage by 12%.

If you need the tenacity and magic resist.

The best support item in the game (next to sightstone). It can cast an AOE heal at 5500 range that heals for 65 - 490 (based on target's level). It also deals 10% max health true damage to any enemy champions caught in the AOE. Along with the baseline stats of this item being very effective, and the passive which makes your healing and shields 10% stronger, I believe that this item is a must have. You can even use the item after you have died in a teamfight, thus supporting your team even from your grave.

talisman of ascension

Great syngery with Rakan's .Ultimate, allows for a good engage or disengage with the movement speed and can actually be vital in an attempt to engage a fight.

This item works well with Rakan's kit. He has a heal and 2 shields, and paired with a .Redemption, this can proc in an AOE increasing the attack speed of all of your allies! It also gives some movement speed which is one of the best stats for Rakan. This item ALSO gives 10% increased healing and shielding power, which makes its synergy with .Redemption even better!

One of the best items you can get on support in terms of helping your team in a teamfight. It grants a pretty significant AOE shield at a fairly long range. Also has some good stats for the price invested.

Mostly good vs low mobility champions, or when you need to peel for your team. The slow is nice as it is AOE and can be used in tandem with your .ult and .knock-up, ensuring the enemies have a hard time escaping.

Since you're getting talisman of ascension.Ascension, this is your only valid .Sightstone upgrade. Improves the stats and also lowers the CD of your talisman of ascension.other active items.

eye of the oasis

This item is an alternative to getting .Ruby and talisman of ascension.Talisman. I don't recommend it because I think talisman of ascension.Ascension is amazing on Rakan, but it does have good stats and it will allow for an extra item slot.

Good vs high CC teams. Allows you to cleanse one hard CC, preferably from one of your carries.

The new (patch 7.9) Banshee's Veil is a very great pick for Rakan. It offers a bit of MR and a free spellshield every 40 seconds. The spellshield acts as a safeguard in case someone tries to stop your engages. It also grants a lot of AP which is a nice boost for your abilities' damage and shield strength.

Good utility armor item, Works well if your ADC is getting destroyed and needs some damage reduction. Probably not the best choice since you are squishy yourself however.

Good vs AA-based teams. Also gives nice armor, and gives you some CDR which you might want/need; but keep in my mind that you might be capped if you have all the other CDR items, in which case this isn't a recommendable purchase.

When it comes to the support role, there's more to it than just playing the champion. You need to be a great communicator, you need to know where and when to ward and you need to understand wave management. So to start off the gameplay chapter which will also include details about laning phase, roaming, teamfighting, trading, combos and god knows what else, I will talk about wave management.

Managing the minion wave ensures that your ADC gets as much farm as he can. This is important because farming = money and money = good items which in turn = strong ADC. And as the old proverb goes, happy ADC = happy life.

In bot lane you'll get level 2 after 9 minions die (so mid second wave, 6 melee and 3 ranged minions in total). By helping your ADC during the first wave, you can get an edge and get level 2 before your enemy laners do. You do this by simply auto-attacking the minions down to low HP (so that the ADC needs only to last-hit it). If you start attacking a minion that's already half HP or less, you risk ruining it for the ADC (AKA it might die before the ADC has a chance to last hit) so you have to be careful not to make your ADC lose out on gold for nothing. Whichever side's 9 minions die first is the side that will get level 2, which is why you want to accelerate the process by auto-attacking. Once you get level 2, you'll have higher stats and an ability extra and that might be enough to land you a level 2 kill.

Although as a support you won't need to last-hit minions almost ever, it's still important for you to help your ADC do it. Especially under towers. Tower shots will kill a full health melee minion in 3 hits, and a ranged minion in 2. After 2 hits, the melee minion will have but a sliver of health, and thus it'd only take one AA from your ADC to kill it. If the minion is full HP, don't interfere here. For ranged minions though, the tower will hit it once and leave it at around 30%, and an ADC (pre first back) won't be able to kill it with one shot, and won't have time to kill it with two. This is where you come in to AA it once. That's about it. When they're not at full HP, you just have to wing it. You'll get good at it with practice.

If you're in lane and your ADC isn't, you can hold the minion wave for him so that the minions don't die to the tower. You do this by simply standing in the way of the minions and making yourself their target. If your minions are around, you can hold the wave by only last-hitting minions (so they don't go to waste), but don't attack them or you'll push the wave/kill most of the minions and your ADC won't get anything out of that. If you're low level, don't tank the minions for too long because they can pack a punch and you don't want to get too low and then not be able to engage or fight the enemy laners. If there are enemy champions nearby you should be careful as well.

You generally push the wave with your ADC when the enemy bot laners aren't there (AKA they died or just recalled). This is done by continously auto-attacking (but making sure not to ruin the last-hits) the minions and you can also cast your W and Q on them of course. Once they all die, your minions can journey onwards to the enemy turret and die. This way the enemy bot laners will lose out on the gold & exp they'd normally get from killing that wave. If the wave is too close to your tower or in the middle of the lane, you won't be able to push it all the way to their tower before they're back so it's best to freeze it in that position and recall yourselves. If you do push it anyway, there's a good chance they'll arrive in time and freeze the minion wave near their tower thus forcing you to be nearby their tower so your ADC can CS, leaving you vulnerable to ganks.

League of Legends is a team game and it requires good rapport between you and your fellow teammates. But bot lane especially is the lane which requires the most trust & communication, since you are two people working together towards the same goal, like the symbiotic relationship between some fishies and sea anemones. You keep your ADC safe, farmed and happy and they'll reward you with a nice victory screen.

Of course in order to achieve this you need to have good synergy with your ADC and good communication. Synergy can be hard to come by, and it's usually best for you to adjust your playstyle slightly depending on the ADC (both champion and person). If they're playing passively, rushing in on risky fights might result in some chicken dinner for the enemy. This is why a lot of people play DuoQ bot lane, since then they are always aware of the limits of their partner.

When you are playing solo though, you'll need to rely on the chat and the pings. Chatting in the middle of the game is probably ill-advised, as it's not a particularly slow moving game, especially in laning phase, this is why you will have to learn to use your pings properly. The help ping when you are trying to escape (it'll notify your ADC to come to you so you can E off him or counter-engage), the danger ping or retreat ping when you notice a foreigner near bot lane. Most importantly you'll want to notify your ADC about the cooldowns of your spells and abilities (alt+click on ability/spell). If you notify your ADC that your exhaust isn't up for another 20 seconds, they'll know to patiently wait before an engage, or to play safe.



When it comes to games like these, you will occasionally get frustrated. Perhaps at yourself, more often at your ADC. I won't tell people how to play their games, but I will advise against flaming either way. Disregarding the fact that it's real people behind these screens, controlling those champions, with real feelings and all, flaming is unconstructive and will lead to more mistakes, possibly AFK situations or intentional feeding from a disgruntled teammate. Instead, be nice. ADC got a kill? "Wow nice" "damn, good job" "wp". Short, sweet, to the point, doesn't even need to be true. Positive comments makes people feel good and play good :)




Rakan in general doesn't have the strongest laning phase, because he has no way of poking and he's pretty squishy.

I've mentioned before that you play Rakan as you would an aggressive melee support. By this I mean, his strength is in engaging and chain CC-ing the enemy. I say melee as well because his AA range is the shortest in the game and the only other means of poking that he has is his .Q, which deals very little damage and is a fairly slow and shortish range skillshot. Similarly then to Leona, for example, he doesn't really have a way to poke, he's also vulnerable to being poked. If he gets poked too much he won't be able to engage (as he'd have too low health to ensure a won trade).

In order to negate this, be sure to chill around brush for the most part; this way you cannot be harassed by the enemy ADC or support. This also gives you a chance to utilize your .Greenfather's Gift when you finally do emerge from the bush. Buy pots when you are able and make use of your .Q when you and your ADC are missing health. Do not attempt to trade with the ranged enemy support because they will always have an edge with trading.

So tl;dr of the past two paragraphs, you cannot effectively poke and you have to do your best to avoid getting poked, lest you are rendered unable to engage fights from having too little HP.

Of course I do not mean to imply that Rakan is too weak to fight, which it might sound like at the moment. When you're full health or when you're ahead, you can win fights easily as Rakan is a very good 2v2er.

His base stats and base damage on his abilities are pretty high, and that coupled with (assuming you have either) Ignite and AD marks, make him have very good kill potential early game. And although he can't shield himself, Battle Dance improves your trades a lot as well since your ADC will have an extra ~100 (later more of course) health due to your shields.

A typical engage involves you jumping on the enemy ADC/support. Generally it's best to kill the enemy ADC because that'll mean he'll lose out on gold/exp for having died and thus send him behind. However if you're playing against a squishy support it can be beneficial to target them as they're more likely to die. Besides that, killing the enemy support will force the enemy ADC to play safer (e.g. farm under tower or die to you if he doesn't) or recall so he doesn't die as well. If on the other hand you kill the enemy ADC in a 2v2, the enemy support should also be easy pickings since they usually can't continue fighting without their ADC.


There are more interesting combos to utilize however; my favourite is the E-W combo that I showcased in the abilities section before but also here in case you skipped to gameplay. Hide in brush or in the fog of war, .E onto your ADC then smoothly .W onto the enemy ADC before they have a chance to understand what's going on. This is a more effective combo as it'll allow you to shield your ADC at the start of the fight and be in range of the enemy ADC to harass with your AAs and Ignite, and still give you a chance to shield your ADC once more or retreat if things don't go well somehow.


At level 6 you get a few more cool combos, most notably you are able to ult in to engage a fight. This isn't the only use of your ultimate however. You can use it to retreat unfavourable fights, you can use the grant entrance.hard CC on it (the charm) to disorient the enemy and allow your ADC to escape or you can use it to chain CC the enemy when you pair it with your grant entrance.W. You can either use your ulti and then W onto the enemy ADC or you can use .your ulti and walk up to the enemy ADC or flash into them, and save your grant entrance.W for when the charm wears off. Both are pretty effective.

So tl;dr your pre-6 combos:




And your post-6 combos:





One thing to mention during laning phase is interference from other laners or junglers. Junglers have a duty to gank your lane, both the enemy one and your own. But it's also pretty common for your mid laner or even top laner to drop by and try to land some kills.

When your top laner ganks, it's usually via teleport. What's important here is that you have a deep ward for your top laner to gank from. If you manage to, it's good to ward the enemy side's brush and as close to their tower as possible; and that way your top laner can TP from behind and cut off their escape route.

Mid laners generally haven't got TP and they roam from the river. It's important to keep track of where the enemy support has warded, because if your mid laner shows up and you can't make a gank happen due to the enemy having had vision of your mid laner the whole time, it'll be a waste of time for your mid who will have lost exp and gold trying to help.

Your jungler has various entrances to bot lane depending on which side of the map you're on. On blue side they can come from the tri-brush or from the river. If they're a very mobile jungler and the enemy bot lane has pushed to your tower, it's also possible to pull off a lane gank. If you're on the red team, they can also take advantage of the Blast Cone plant and jump into the bush nearby bot lane, which is less commonly warded than the usual paths.

If you are the one getting ganked by the enemy, things can get a little messy. The good thing about Rakan is that he's pretty difficult to gank due to his many gap-closers.

The most important thing is to stay calm and calculate your moves. When I was starting out, I would always panic when I got ganked and this would cause me to make a lot of rushed decisions which ended up getting me killed or my ADC killed.

This is why first and foremost you need to learn never to panic and also to have good map awareness. Without good map awareness, or good ward coverage, you will not be able to see a gank coming; and then when it does happen, it'll be quick, sudden and a bit panic-inducing. There are a few tells the enemy will give when they are about to get a gank.

1) The enemy support might start behaving more aggressively. This is in particular alarming when they haven't displayed such aggression so far, or when they are behind. They usually do this to instigate a fight, in which their jungler/mid laner will join a few seconds later. So if you see the enemy behaving funny all of a sudden and you don't know where the enemy mid laner or jungler is; back off. 2) The enemy support suddenly places a control ward in their lane brush or uses a Sweeping Lens on it. They will do this to make sure you do not have vision of their brush, so their jungler can sneak in and engage from there. 3) The enemy support places a ward far into your side of the lane, especially if they do it abruptly without even being on that side of the map. I.e., they are at their tower and suddenly he wanders off near your side of the lane to ward. This is probably a teleport ward in prep. 4) The enemy bot laners randomly engage, even when it seems like it's unfavourable for them. E.g. in the middle of a minion wave or when they are pushed in or behind in terms of items.

Of course they could be completely sneaky and you could not get any hints from them at all, but I find that this seldom happens. In either case, the biggest indicator of an incoming gank should be your wards. But I'll talk about warding later on in the guide :)

Anyway so when you get ganked, the biggest priority is (sadly) going to be your ADC. You don't want him to lose exp or gold more than he has to. If only one of you is getting out, it should be him. Your ult is a very powerful tool when you are getting ganked. You can use it to run out (if you're alone or your ADC is safe), you can use it to temporarily CC every enemy in the lane (then W/E out safely) and you can use it to counter-engage, if you are ahead and you feel there is a chance you could turn the gank into a favourable trade.





I think mid game is Rakan's strongest point. This is because:

1) People aren't quite strong enough that they blow you up:

Rakan's biggest drawback is arguably his squishiness. This is slightly annoying during teamfights when instead of being an enduring sponge you are more of a little cotton ball and in and out really fast. In mid game though, if you're lucky, the enemy won't quite be at their most fed and you won't need to worry as much about your positioning or engagements. Later on you have to be far more careful because one slip of the mouse will lead you to being blown up by their mid laner.

2) Rakan has incredible catch potential:

Catching people out means catching an enemy in a bad position and punishing them for it. By which I of course mean, killing them. Rakan's quick engages make him great at this, so long as you don't attempt to catch people out all on your without any teammates around.

3) He's a great teamfighter:

You might have a handful of teamfights during laning phase but generally once the game slides along into mid game is when teamfighting begins to occur more regularly. And this is where you shine.

There are many roles that are played in a teamfight, Rakan will usually be either the initiator or the peeler. Peeling is keeping sticky enemies off of your carries; usually your ADC as they are the most sought out and most vulnerable.

So far as the combos go, Rakan's combos from laning phase serve the same purpose here. Your ultimate is your primary engage tool, it servers to disorient the enemy team and it can easily, in a teamfight, subdue all 5 enemies for a second. This doesn't sound like much, but in a teamfight it can be a huge difference. It can be a setup for many other AoE abilities such as Final Spark, Bullet Time or Shockwave.

It's a perfect tool for disengage as well as they will be slowed when they are charmed, and this will give your team a chance to escape, albeit not the safest route for you yourself.

A better question would be when to engage a teamfight? Now for the most part, I would advise that you leave your tank to engage for you, should you have one. Why? Well, they're less likely to get killed, and that'd give you a chance to save your CC for later or for peeling your ADC. I've probably mentioned a couple times by now that Rakan is squishy. I've also mentioned that he cannot sponge up damage like other engagers. So what you want to do is follow up the primary engager in your team, thus CC locking the enemy together with him and the rest of your team. You want to get in (W/R), disrupt the enemy team (W/R) and get out before you get too low.


























And that's about it; for now. Rakan's only been out for a little while so I'll definitely be editing this guide as changes emerge or as my understanding of him grows.

Special thanks go to my friend Shea for being my Xayah, helping me with the build, theorycrafting and writing. Special thanks also to Zenox for playing many games with me as various ADCs (actually basically just Lucian, but he's a lit Lucian)! MOBAFire admins for giving me Rakan in their giveaway and all my friends who told me I should make this guide!

Warm thanks to everyone who has gotten this far! If you have any questions, feel free to comment or send me PM or you can add me ingame (N7 Legion, EUW). If you enjoyed my guide, upvotes and comments are very appreciated :) And if you're interested in reading my other guides, click on the pictures below!