Guardian is the best keystone for Rakan at the moment, it's a strong shield, and extra movement speed - increasing Rakan's utility and mobility. While within 175 units of an ally, any damage taken gives you both a 70 - 150 (+0.25 AP + 12% bonus hp) shield, and 20% movement speed for 1.5s. This has very good synergy with your Battle Dance, and is very strong in teamfights. The only downside is it has a long cooldown during laning phase.

Demolish is the best rune to take in this column due to how fast the meta is currently. You want to take as many turret plates as you can before 14 minutes, and Demolish is the best way to do so.

Rakan wants to get in and out of a fight as fast as he can, and Bone Plating helps him survive a little more with his engages. He's technically a melee champion with a bit longer range, so in laning phase, reducing the extra poke damage with Bone Plating can be invaluable for staying alive.

Rakan's heal is actually quite weak in the early game, so an extra 5% boost is always helpful, increasing to 10% on allies below 40% health. Revitalize has good synergy with Fey Feathers, increasing your own passive shield as well. Unflinching is also a viable option in this column, enabling you to further your mobility and clutch escapes with an extra 15% tenacity and slow resist after casint a summoner spell. You tend to Flash all in with The Quickness, so very easy to proc.

Casting a summoner spell grants Ghost and up to 35% bonus movement speed for 2s. An absolute must have on Rakan, especially as it is always ready to use with your summoners. You want to be catching as many enemies as you can, and the bonus movement speed is a godsend for this.

By now, I'm sure you already know movement speed is key on Rakan, and that's exactly what Celerity provides us with. Enables your engages to become faster, and helps you get out even quicker. Another must have!

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Boots of Mobility > MOVEMENT SPEED Rakan can roam to other lanes, and catch people out, so having the bonus movement speed is invaluable. Movement speed is essential on Rakan, so these are the boots you'll most likely be picking up 90% of the time. Mercury's Treads > TENACITY/AP RESIST If the enemy team has a lot of CC, or a lot of AP damage, you can trade Mobi's out for these. They offer +25 magic resist, along with reducing the effect of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds and immobilizes by 30%, making it easier for you to disengage. Plated Steelcaps > ARMOR If the enemy team has a lot of physical damage threats, and you're the primary front line, or need some extra survivability, Ninja Tabi's are the way to go, offering 20 armor, and reducing incoming basic attacks by 12%.

Zeke's Convergence > SURVIVABILITY/CDR/MANA Zeke's is a fantastic item on Rakan as it offers armor, magic resist, ability haste and an extra 250 mana. When immobilize an enemy, they receive bonus magic damage from your chosen allies basic attacks on-hit and abilities - increasing damage output for quicker kills.

Redemption > CDR/HP+MANA REGEN/SUSTAIN Redemption offers an aoe heal in an area, adding another sustain for Rakan's allies, you won't always be able to hit your Gleaming Quill on every ally. It also offers HP and Mana regen, meaning you can stay in the fights longer, recall less, and you can help out even while dead. It also offers an extra 10% shielding power, which synergizes with your Battle Dance.

Shurelya's Battlesong > UTILITY/DAMAGE Shurelya's Battlesong is good with Rakan's kit and Mobility Boots, increasing your movement speed passively by 5%, and while active, you and your allies receive 40% bonus movement speed for 3s, as well as granting you and your nearby allies an additional 60 magic damage on the next attacks or ability hits against enemy champions. This is a fantastic tool for hard engaging on an enemy team, as well as providing your other legendary items with an extra 2.5% movement speed, increasing Rakan's long range engage potential.

Ardent Censer > DAMAGE/UTILITY If you have a team comp that relies heavily on fast auto attacks such as Vayne, Kindred, Quinn etc. Ardent Censer is a great pickup to maximize your carries damage output while shielding them, it also offers you a bit more burst, and mana sustain

Staff of Flowing Water > UTILITY If your team has many AP users, Staff of Flowing Water can be using for granting them up to 40 ability power, and bonus movement speed for 3 seconds after healing or shielding them. You also gain mana regen, ability power and heal and shield power.

Mikael's Crucible > SURVIVABILITY/CDR/UTILITY A good pick when facing an enemy team with hard CC that you need to Cleanse on allies, such as Impale, Death Sentence, Cocoon etc and grants them a small heal. Increases your Mana and HP regeneration, while granting you 40 magic resist, and 20% healing and shielding power - good synergy with Gleaming Quill.

Spellthief's Edge > DAMAGE Spellthief's Edge is taken mostly for the extra AP, giving your abilities a little extra "oomph" in laning phase, helping your sustain, and securing kills with a bit more damage. It can be quite hard to proc depending what lane you're against, and now with the new Relic Shield working on ranged, we're better off with Relic Shield.

Level 1 you will want to be levelling your Gleaming Quill for a bit of poke damage, and sustain in laning phase. If you're going to invade, or you're at risk of being invaded, you want to take Grand Entrance for a quick kill, or a clutch escape.

When you're in laning phase, you want to be there to protect your partner, offering disengage and peel.You can make an engage with Grand Entrance if you know you have a chance to make a kill, or your jungler comes for a gank.
Poke with Gleaming Quill for sustain.

If you're laning vs a Morgana and/or a Sivir, you'll want to bait their Black Shield and Spell Shield before you make an all in, they're on relatively long cooldowns at the lower levels (26s and 22s), so you can take advantage of this. Baiting can be achieved by any means, moving in an aggressive way, or if your ADC has baited using a spell such as Jhin's Deadly Flourish.

Level 6, you can make an attempt at an all-in with The Quickness and Grand Entrance, followed up with your Ignite, your CC should be long enough for your laning partner to kill the enemy, especially with the jungler if they come.

You want Control Wards around your bottom brushes to be aware of any impeding ganks coming, and to deny the enemies any vision of where your jungler or you, may be.

Once you get your first back, hopefully with at least one or two kills under your belt, you want to be getting your ward upgrade (you are still a support after all!), and looking to buy Mobility Boots for the roaming potential. You can set up kills for your midlaner and get them ahead, along with your ADC.
If you can't roam, you want to be maximizing gold for your ADC, and this includes taking tower plates after kills.


Outside of laning phase, you're going to want to be setting up a lot of wards around objectives, such as Baron Nashor and the drakes. If your team is ahead, and it is safe to do so, you can set up deep vision in the enemies jungle, allowing yourself and your team to get important picks, that allow you to take the previously mentioned objectives.

You mostly want to be around your team, and helping out your ADC to (hopefully) continue his lead. You can still set up kills for him, and you're a strong threat to think about for an enemy wanting to set up a gank, as it's very easy for the tides to turn in your favor.

During teamfights, Rakan is excellent at flanking enemies, and charming the entire enemy team. You're very squishy, so you want to be going in, cc'ing and getting out as soon as you can. You want to wait for your team to be ready for an engage, or follow up on someone elses. You can also be a counter engage, turning the fight in your favor.

Once you've managed to get your ultimate off, and got out safely, your main goal is to peel, shield and keep your allies safe, and topped up with items such as Redemption.

Control Ward's are a staple part of any support, both to deny your enemies vision, and to provide your team vision. You should make sure to buy one at least every time you back, preferably to have 2 in your inventory.

I hope you enjoyed, and learned enough from my Rakan guide, to play him as well as the pro's.

If you enjoyed my guide, you can check out my other guides here, in which I've covered more styles of supports, incase you want to branch out on supports such as traditional enchanters ( Janna, Lulu etc!).

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