I first started playing jungle Rakan by thinking that it was a troll pick, surprisingly in that game I managed to get an S+ by going 7/1/16. Since then I have been playing Rakan jungle quite frequently and have even managed to go on a 12 S+/S/S- streak. I figured that if I managed to get on this big of a streak, i might as well make a guide for it.

Farming in the jungle is one of the downsides of Rakan jungle. His first clear is complete garbage and you often almost get executed by your second buff. However there is one way to get around his 10 second cooldown skills. You need to rush cinderhulk to make sure that you don't get executed. After you get cinderhulk you can easily farm krugs and raptors, the camps that would kill him the fastest. When you play him though, you need to make sure that the enemy team's jungler doesn't take your blue buff. Blue buff gives you constant mana regeneration and 10% cooldown reduction. The cooldown reduction makes his clear faster and the mana regeneration is good is because his abilities take a good amount of mana to use.

Ganking as Rakan is quite easy, however it does require the help from the teammate that you are ganking. His E lets him dash to his teammates, that dash also gives them a brief shield , it may remind you of lee sin, however Rakan can re-dash to his teammate again, giving them another shield. It is one of the gap closing moves which is good to preform if you are ganking melee champions. His main ganking power comes from his W, he dashes to a target location and then knocks them up. If combined with his E, it gives him super good ganks. He is able to go from the middle of raptors to the middle of midlane in an instant. You could also use your ultimate before dashing to your teammate, so if you are ganking a melee champion, they will immediately charmed. Or you could use your ultimate before using your W, so when you W through enemies, you will charm them as well as knock them up. Note with the build that I suggest you end up having 4000 health with extreme resistances, allowing you to peel for your allies without dying. You could also land your Q and heal your teammates I guess.

I don't know if this should be a separate chapter or not but i'm making this anyways. Stealing drake and baron is really easy on Rakan. You can steal them without using flash (as long as the bomb plants are up). It's really simple, you use the bomb plant to get into the pit and then smite the objective and then W out. I've managed to steal infernal a couple of times without even taking any damage. It is a really good maneuver.

Early game you are more powerful than later. Your abilities have a fairly good base damage max rank ( at 250 dmg for your W and Q). Which means you can instantly half health somebody with a W Q Smite combo. Letting you pick off many midlaners and botlaners. People also do not expect Rakan to do good dmg. They often end up backing in a bush with half health, little do they know that you can oneshot them. Allowing you to pick off low health peoples.

Late game you need to rely on your teammates. With your full combo you could probably 1/4 the health of midlaners and botlaners. But your knockup is godly. All you do late game is set up plays for the rest of your team to engage on.

Pros:
-He has good ganking ability
-He has good CC
-Stealing potential
-Tanky as a mother f-
-Good peel
Cons
-Bad clear
-No late game damage

I would say this guy is a pretty good jungler all in all.