Hello everyone, my name is Wounds! Thanks for checking out my guide for Rakan, who in my opinion is the most fun support in the game. The reason why I am making this guide is because I want to be able to unpack all of the intricacies of this champion for both you and me. I decided to make this guide as in-depth as possible because it is something that would have helped me out a long time ago when learning Rakan and the role of support as a whole, and I want to be able to share what I learned while climbing with him. In Season 9, I hit Grandmaster 200 LP playing almost exclusively Rakan, so I hope you can find this guide to be very helpful. If you learn something new from this guide, likes and comments are appreciated!

Pros

• Engage can win games
• Good peel against assassins
• Securing vision is easy
• Adapts to the flow of the game well
• Hard to kill
• High skill high reward

Rakan is a great pick in solo queue because he has a lot of outplay potential, a strong engage, and the flexibility to adapt to how each game goes. He synergizes well with teamfight comps that have plenty of AoE to follow up his engage. Champions like Yasuo, Malphite, and Orianna are big indicators that you should lock in Rakan. If played correctly, he is incredible at catching the opponent off guard due to his high mobility. He is very strong at getting vision for your team alone, since he can use his W to jump over walls and escape quickly. Rakan is also an incredible pick against assassins like Zed, Rengar, and Ekko, thanks to his ultimate. To top it all off, Rakan requires good mechanics, as his kit relies on how quick you can pull off your combos. However, he is incredibly rewarding once you get the rhythm of his playstyle.

Cons

• Gets hard countered
• Weak laning phase
• Engage relies on teammates
• Gets shut down by hard CC
• Very squishy for an engage champion
• High basic cooldowns

Rakan can be countered pretty easily by champions like Morgana, Cassiopeia, and Poppy, who make his kit basically nonexistent. He is also a weak laner until he reaches level 6, and gets pushed in very easily. On top of this, Rakan’s engage relies heavily on his teammates’ positioning because of the delay on his ultimate. The way Rakan peels for his teammates can sometimes mislead them to believe that he wants to fight, so communicating with the team is very important. Lastly, Rakan is a pretty squishy champion who has to dive into the enemy team to engage. If he gets CC’ed while engaging, he is probably dead.

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Passive 1 - Fey Feathers

• Rakan gains a 33-254 (+90% of ability power) shield. After the shield is broken, Fey Feathers will go on cooldown for 40-16 seconds (based on level). Damaging an enemy champion with a basic attack or ability reduces its cooldown by 1 second.

Passive 2 - 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.

Q - Gleaming Quill

• Rakan slings an enchanted feather forward, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to the first enemy hit.
  
• If Gleaming Quill hits an enemy champion, baron, or dragon, a small circular area is marked around Rakan. If an ally champion comes into contact with the marked area, Rakan heals himself and surrounding allies by 18-120 (based on level) (+70% of ability power). If Rakan does not come into contact with an ally, he will heal himself after a short period of time.
  
• Gleaming Quill is Rakan's main source of poke and sustain in lane. It has a short range, so landing it can be very difficult. Being able to read your opponents' juke patterns is the key to hitting Gleaming Quill and staying healthy.
  
• After hitting an opponent with Grand Entrance, hitting them with Gleaming Quill is very free because they are still CC'ed.

W - Grand Entrance

• Rakan dashes forward, landing stylishly at his destination. After a 0.35s pause, he leaps into the air, dealing 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and knocking up surrounding enemies for 1 second.
  
• Grand Entrance is essential to Rakan's engage. It has a pretty short range, but using Battle Dance on a teammate can close the gap easily.
  
• Grand Entrance is also a great way to escape opponents by dashing over walls.

E - Battle Dance

• Rakan leaps to an ally champion, shielding them for 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+80% of ability power] for 3 seconds. Battle Dance can be re-cast for 5 seconds at no cost.
• If Xayah is the target, Battle Dance's range is increased by 300.
• Understanding the different situations where Battle Dancecan be utilized is essential to playing Rakan well.
• When Rakan uses The Quickness, he has a delay to use Grand Entrance, but not Battle Dance. To get around this delay, you can instantly use Grand Entrance after you Battle Dance to a teammate.
• Having your Battle Dance available allows you to distract a chasing opponent from your teammate. A lot of the time, I run in a weird direction and confuse the enemy. This buys time for my teammate to walk away, and then I just Battle Dance back to my teammate for free.
• Always make sure you have your second charge of Battle Dance after you engage so that you can get out quickly. Otherwise, your squishy self will die in the middle of their whole team.

R - The Quickness

• Rakan gains 50% bonus movement speed for the next 4 seconds, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 (+50% of ability power) magic damage to each enemy he touches and charming them for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds. Enemies can only be affected once. The first champion charmed grants Rakan 150% decaying movement speed.
• The Quickness is a very flexible ability and can be used to both peel and engage.
• If you get caught out of position and think you might die, running through the enemy with The Quickness can sometimes give you enough movement speed to escape.

>

• This is one of the most important things you need to know when you are playing Rakan.
• Knowing the exact distance that will be covered can win or lose a fight.
• Using Flash and Grand Entrance can be situationally added to the combos below.

> > > >

• This combo can be used to engage or to peel.
• There are a lot of components in it that happen quickly, so my advice is to practice this combo in practice tool until you can do it without thinking.

> > >

• This combo is used to peel for your teammate. It buys time for your teammate to run away while also shielding and healing them.
• Because you have a couple seconds before Battle Dance's second charge goes on cooldown, you can try distracting the opponent for a few seconds by auto attacking them before going back to your teammate.
• This is also always your main trading tool during laning phase.
• If you intend to be trading a lot, max Battle Dance and Grand Entrance before Gleaming Quill.
• Even at Grandmaster, ADCs don't understand how easy it is to pull off this combo on the enemy for free. It is important to communicate with your ADC in order to get this to work.

> > >

• This combo is used to engage on targets with no escape options like Flash, Ezreal's Arcane Shift, or Lucian's Relentless Pursuit.
• Against immobile targets, it is better than the first engage option I introduced you to. This is because it makes the enemy CC'ed for 2/2.25/2.5 seconds compared to CC'ing the enemy for 1.5 seconds .

Overview

• Rakan’s laning phase is weak compared to most supports in the meta, but that doesn't mean he can't win lane. Your main goal in laning phase is to survive and not let the enemy walk all over your team. If you do a good job early, Rakan will shine outside of laning phase. This section is more focused on macro gameplay than individual matchups. I cover what to do against other champions in the Threats/Synergies section.

Level 1

• In most cases you will want your starting support item to be Relic Shield because it allows you to get your quest gold and wards safely. One thing to keep in mind when using Relic Shield is that Rakan is considered ranged, so his auto attacks don’t execute minions at the same hp that melee champions do. You want to use your charges on melee and cannons because they give more gold than caster minions.
• Laning phase at level 1 is all about the level two power spike. You want to be auto attacking minions as much as possible so that you and your ADC hit level 2 first. If you hit level two first, you pressure your opponent to back off because they have one less ability than you. Pressuring your opponent gives you lane priority . This allows you to help out your jungler in the river, get vision in the enemy jungler, and roam without losing much.

Trading

• Always look to poke your opponent with Gleaming Quill when it is available.
• Take note of the enemy bot lane compared to yours. Ask yourself questions like when are my ADC and I strongest in lane? When are my opponents weak? Do we have a summoner spell advantage? Use those answers to decide whether it is a good time to trade.
• Always be aware of where the jungler was last seen before trying to fight. There's nothing worse than getting baited by your opponent.
• From level 2 onwards, your main trading pattern will be > > > . Tell your ADC to stand in front and trade auto attacks with the enemy ADC as bait. If the enemy ADC decides to attack yours, quickly pull of this combo. It will leave their ADC more hesitant to poke with autos.

When and How to Roam

• It is important to know when the right time to roam is because roaming correctly will give your team an advantage in one way or another.
• The best times to roam are after you shove a wave into the enemy tower or after you go back to buy items.
  • This is because you lose as little experience as possible.
  • On top of this, if the enemy support wants to match your roam, they will fall behind because they will miss out on the exp of the minions crashing at their tower.
• Roaming does not always mean you have to gank mid or top.
  • Because Rakan is so good at getting vision on his own, I like to go into the enemy jungle and get vision in there. This gives your team a huge advantage because due to the process of elimination, you can figure out where their jungler is. Knowing where the jungler is allows your jungler to make plays. Your jungler has the option to countergank, invade, gank, or secure an objective when they know where the enemy jungler is.
  • If you are on blue side, you can hit the enemy jungle's Scryer's Bloom and look figure out where their jungler is.
• If the enemy mid laner is an immobile champion like Orianna, you can look to gank mid.
  • The best time to gank mid is if you are coming from base. Many times, people think you are walking back to your own lane when you are actually ganking mid lane.
  • Bring a Control Ward or buy an Oracle Lens to make sure the enemy does not spot you.
  • You can either come from behind or tell your mid laner to stand near the bush you are in. This way, you can use Battle Dance into Grand Entrance to get onto the enemy mid.
  • If you don't kill mid, that's okay. They most likely burn Flash. If you don't burn their Flash, that's okay, at least you got some damage on them. They will still be tilted that you came and will be scared that you will come again. This gives your mid laner more room to work with.
  • To increase the odds of your gank working, you can ping your jungler to come too.

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Many people forget that The Quickness will charm your opponent if you are passing through them with Battle Dance or Grand Entrance.

As a support, your job is make it as easy as possible for your team to succeed. I have explained in detail how to do so through roaming, warding, and engaging. Fortunately, Rakan excels in all three. wip