Hello! I'm Sepiriz, an EUW Toplane/Support main and long-time believer in the power of the offmeta over gaming as a whole. Although I'm new to League, I still hope to put my weird ideas out in the world and hope someone does something with them! I stream my escapades over on twitch.tv/Sepiriz if you want to hang out and chat about my extreme stupidity.

Since playing League, I've loved the support role, but like a lot of support players I would prefer if there wasn't an ADC there. So, by taking my favourite champs like Rakan, Leona and Bard into places they really shouldn't have gone, I've worked out my favourite way to enjoy them. Rakan is quite possibly the best of these, for several reasons that we'll get into in the next section.

Rakan works by having frankly irresponsible AP ratios on all of his buttons, including his passive. Although even in the Support role Rakan does build a small amount of AP, running him in lane or in jungle allows him to invest heavily into it. By the late game, you can expect your Q and W to be dealing over 700 damage per hit against unprepared opponents, and your passive to be giving you a silly amount of shield. Just like Rakan Support, he excels at entering into a fight and getting out without being able to be punished by a single target, and jungle allows you to really abuse this one fact by proccing Electrocute on an unsuspecting midlane mage and dashing back to your midlaner for safety, healing both of you on the way!

- Huge burst damage options mid-late game.
- Some of the best AP scaling in the game
- Self-sustain off of Rift Herald/Baron Nashor/Drakes with Gleaming Quill
- Extra passive bonuses when playing with a Xayah
- Adaptive build paths
- Lots of escape options

- Weak early clear
- Lack of damage without cooldowns
- No self sustain without a champion/epic monster
- Weak to CC
- You'll get flamed

Chilling Smite is so useful on Rakan, as it allows him to gank more easily due to the lack of movespeed that you can guarantee will come in handy after hitting Grand Entrance. It's important to remember, of course, that if you're planning on ganking with The Quickness to use it after the charm. Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes is the only real option for AP Rakan. It gives him more burst and a healthier clear.

Where to even start with this beauty of an item? Hextech Rocketbelt gives you more health, more AP, more clear, and even gives you a stronger combo that scales with your AP. A must have for every bird this season. It even works as an escape option and a last ditch shove to hit your Grand Entrance.

This is your AP. This is your AP on Rabadon's Deathcap. Any questions? But seriously, Rabadon's Deathcap's 120 flat AP is nice, but where it really comes in handy is that 40% increase overall. This is what cranks your burst into "obscene" territory. This also increases the damage that your Hextech Rocketbelt and Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes do. Crazy.

Is the movespeed from The Quickness not enough for you? Feeling like your damage numbers are just too low? Is your team just not recognizing how amazing your cloak looks? Mejai's Soulstealer is the risk-reward item for you! Obviously, if you can't stack it, you'll really want to sell it for something else, but the movespeed is still useful on Rakan full stop.

Lich Bane is the item for you if you feel like you're just not doing quite enough damage on your main combo. It converts 50% of your AP into essentially AD, letting your AAs mid combo come into their own. It's the only real option for AP Rakan to deal any meaningful auto attack damage, and of course, the 7% movespeed buff is always helpful. Don't buy it before Rabadon's Deathcap though.

It's literally just what you build if your opponents are building Magic Resist. Morellonomicon is unfortunately pretty useless on Rakan with his and run playstyle not really making much use of the Grievous Wounds passive, but hey, Void Staff gives even more AP!

If the enemy team has a Zed, Yone, or anything similar, Zhonya's Hourglass will always be a useful item for an AP champion. The stasis effect of the item comes in clutch so much, and the armour isn't too bad either.

You don't want to build it if you're not also going Lich Bane, but Nashor's Tooth means that you can now AA even more in combos, sometimes getting away with two or even 3 for even more damage than before. Really though, without Lich Bane it's not a good item.

If you're inting and playing badly, grabbing an Ardent Censer at least means you can make your carry a bit stronger. And, of course, if you're running a two pronged approach you can also buff yourself up with it. It's a useful thing to remember, but not something you'll build every game.

Basically just go Mercury's Treads if you're playing against a lot of CC on the enemy team. Sorcerer's Shoes will be the best option if you're unsure.

Early game is where the bird is most certainly not the word. You have a weak early clear, and sometimes taking down your first buff can be hard if your laner doesn't want to leash. However, you're pretty hard to invade as you can knock up with Grand Entrance, or use it to run. Here are the first jungle paths I'd recommend taking for pure safety.

Blue Side:
- Red Brambleback
- Krugs ( Smite)
- Blue Sentinel ( Smite if needed)
- Gromp (Smite if needed)
- Rift Scuttler (Don't bother contesting if you can't guarantee it)
- Gank

Red Side:
- Blue Sentinel
- Gromp (Smite)
- Red Brambleback ( Smite if needed)
- Krugs ( Smite if needed)
- Rift Scuttler (Don't bother contesting if you can't guarantee it)
- Gank

Both Wolves and Raptors are actually super hard for you to deal with early, and it's not a terrible loss to ignore them if you're going to play aggressive on the ganks until you get hold of Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes.

As soon as this bird gets strapped and you pick up Hextech Revolver you should start playing much more aggressive, and remembering to hit your AAs in between your Grand Entrance and Gleaming Quill.

Hopefully, you can get a kill off your gank. Getting an early lead on Rakan is super important. If you see a lane you can camp or a huge amount of opportunities, Dark Seal is a good buy as it is on all AP heavy junglers.

Mid game is where Rakan stops being Rakan't. Your damage should start stacking high now, and the new damage from Hextech Rocketbelt should be a huge help. Your Rabadon's Deathcap should let you splitpush insanely well, especially if you've been stacking Dark Seal. Now is the time to truly go on the offensive. Whichever lane has the lowest Magic Resist is your target. Remember that Gleaming Quill is now a HUGE burst health spell, and can save your laners from being out of position, being ganked, or whatever else your laners have done to get themselves on low health. The combination of Gleaming Quill and Battle Dance should keep them up no matter what stupidity they want to do.

Smart use of The Quickness is also important. It's very much a jack-of-all-trades spell in jungle, as it can be used to initiate a gank, force a gank to continue, counter gank and get people off your laners, and run away as fast as possible. It's really something you'll only get through experience, but knowledge from support obviously works.

Neutral objectives are obviously super important now, but you can't do them solo unless you're super duper fed. Gank to either kill or at least chase nearby laners off and hope that your team wants to repay the favour by picking up a Drake or a Rift Herald.

By now you should be a bird with a fancy belt, a pretty hat, and another shiny object or two, and you'll probably have noticed that you can now blow people up if they're out of position. However, you're not all conquering. Rakan is by no means a late game jungler, and you will need to stick with your team and play around them. A lot of the info that would go here is in the tips and tricks category, so be sure to read that if you're new to playing AP Rakan.

Grand Entrance> Gleaming Quill
Grand Entrance>AA> Gleaming Quill
Grand Entrance> Chilling Smite>AA> Gleaming Quill
Grand Entrance>AA> Hextech Rocketbelt>AA> Gleaming Quill
The Quickness (setup)> Grand Entrance>AA> Hextech Rocketbelt>AA> Gleaming Quill
The Quickness>AA> Gleaming Quill> Battle Dance (proc heal)> Grand Entrance>AA> Hextech Rocketbelt>AA> Gleaming Quill> Battle Dance 2

- Your Battle Dance can be used to move incredibly quickly between groups of enemies, allowing you to hit a lot with The Quickness without using Grand Entrance.
- Fey Feathers will still refresh after the cooldown ends if any damage is taken to it, however the cooldown timer will only show when it is completely removed.
- Gleaming Quill will instantly proc if hit while an ally is within the radius.
- Grand Entrance works similarly to Flash, and will gain extra distance over walls.