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Rakan Build Guide by

*Support Rakan (7.9)

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Rakan Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (2) More Rakan Guides

Spells:

Exhaust

Flash

Items

Standard Starting Items

Aggressive Starting Items

Prioritize These

Sample Full Build 1

Sample Full Build 2

Sample Full Build 3

Other Notable Items

Ability Order

Rakan Passive Ability

More Rakan Counters

How to play Support Rakan

Introduction

is a tank peal support with excellent mobility, one of the best shields in the game, disruptive tools, and a decent bit of healing. He excels at protecting carries in long, kitey, drawn-out scraps, although he can also be played as a pseudo-initiation champion, and can run alongside dive champions if necessary.

In lane, rarely wants to all-in fights, and relies on his carry for most of the damage output of the lane. Though he's technically a ranged champion, his attack range is very short, coming it at 300 range, and as such, shouldn't be looked to for pressure and harass in most lanes. Instead, abuse his double cast to allow your carry to win trades. His generic combo is as follows: Counter-engage with first cast, and onto the higher threat target or easier burst-kill target. Drop onto the target and trade with autos briefly. Right before and/or expire, or if needing to disengage sooner, jump back to your carry with , and trade with autos or kite back as necessary. can be used as a catching or chasing tool to extend engagements and scraps, to disrupt entire enemy teams if diving in, or to lock up enemy dive champions and assassins that attempt to engage on your carry.

Summoner Spells

There's just about no reason not to take . It provides incredible mobility and safety in lane, increased initiation and kill threat range, and is generally your best play-making tool out of all the summoner spells. Not taking will often draw the enemy jungler and mid lane to your lane more frequently, as they'll read it as an opportunity for easy kills.

is 's bread and butter. It allows him to further stall out engagements and facilitate his drawn-out kitey playstyle. It also enables him to shut down assassins and dive champions even further.

If you're expecting little dive-pressure from an enemy lane, and they're not stacked with assassin threats, is a decent secondary choice. It'll provide additional kill-threat in lane, particularly if you decide to go the route of skilling extra points in early, and/or running . It will hurt your post-laning however.

Masteries

Most of the time, 's strength comes from his rapid abuse of shields. further amplifies the strength of these shields (as well as his shield, and provides shielded allies with additional resistance stats. It is the best option for a peal-focused playstyle, which is currently 's primary strength.

If you plan to play as a dive-support rather than peal-support, opt for . It will provide him with additional durability when engaging. Combine with , optional early points in , and an optional early for further engage threat. This is not 's ideal role, but he can fill it to a degree if desired.

Itemization

Support should prioritize standard utilty items, tank stats, CDR, and due to the nature of , he can opt for a small bit of attack speed in runes if desired.

Starting Items

typically plays with a peal focus and avoids unnecessary hard engagement. He has plenty of mobility tools, and doesn't get caught out very easily. He also excels with early Cooldown Reduction, and as such, is usually the optimal starting item choice. It will also provide substantial gold, and essentially unlimited mana.

In the rare case that you choose to favor an all-in play-style, opt for . The item will hurt your sustain and ability cooldowns early, but will buff the potency of all abilities in laning phase. When upgraded, it also provides a slight increase to mobility.

Early Core

Regardless of what build path you aim to go, these will be your early priority items.

is your rush priority, providing lane brush and map control.

are usually next, built into if brawling it out in lane, if pressuring the map, or in rare cases, , for earlier Cooldown Reduction spikes, and build flexibility. has higher mobility than many supports, and as such, are proportionally more acceptable to purchase on him. This is further encouraged by his role as short-range peal/scrap off-tank support, his innate shield, and his heavy preference towards sticking with another champion as frequently as possible.

is your priority for high tier items, as fights in Extended engagements, focusing around team mates. Drop it when you or your team engages or is engaged upon. The health and CDR are excellent stats early, and the regeneration is appreciated.

Once you have completed, provides great synergy, both in adding resistances to back up the health of , but also in providing a shield to help people survive until the active drops. You can easily turn fights with this combo, and it should make you considerably tanky for the mid-game.

Utilize s in key locations later in laning phase, and through most of the rest of the game to help control key locations. Upon reaching level 9, pick up to further help control vision around the map.

Core Build Paths

Path 1:

+ >Eye of the Oasis

This build path combines and into Eye of the Oasis. You'll have 20% (+5%) Cooldown Reduction, a lot of health, and a fair bit of magic resist at this point, as well as two open item slots. I usually try to get a fair bit of armor and at least 10% Cooldown Reduction with those slots, but they're fairly flexible. This build path allows more options for utility, durability, and flexibility, but lacks the utility frequency provided by build path 2.

Path 2:

>Talisman of Ascension& >

This build path upgrades into Talisman of Ascension, and into . It has even more health and armor than the previous build path, and has lots of utility via the actives and active Cooldown Reduction, but sometimes still has to solve utility, Cooldown Reduction, and resistance issues, in just a single item slot. It's generally stronger against caster teams, or if snowballing and rotating frequently.

Path 3:

+ >

This build path mimics build path 1, but exchanges health for Ability Power early, and possible gold gen. Only go this route if building early for lane pressure. Alternately, sell late game for an item slot, and upgrade to eventually.

Luxury Items

has several strong luxury item options late game. Ideally, you want 40% Cooldown Reduction, but sometimes settling for 30% in favor of more utility or durability can net better results.

20% CDR Options

If more armor is needed, and you're against an attack speed heavy comp, is an excellent luxury pick-up.

Though not Ideal on , if you really want 20% CDR, and want to be a minor threat, or help peal run-down champions harder, is an acceptable option.

10% CDR Options

is an excellent item on . The ability power boosts all of his abilities in potency, and the passive can be rapidly re-applied to allied targets with .

If playing with a dive comp, is a surprisingly strong build option on . It allows him to neutralize defenses, facilitating late game dives, and also provides significant health and armor.

provides an excellent mix of budget armor and AP, and allows you to spike the DPS of your carry and yourself, periodically in fights and scraps.

An armor/MR hybrid option. Decent if your team is grouping a lot, and you want proxy pressure.

Sometimes you just need more health. Particularly good against poke and AoE, as a hyper-late luxury item.

should be built against certain target taunt and stun spells, if they're proving to be deadly to your carry.

Other Luxury Items

is an absolutely excellent item on . It doesn't provide any CDR, but the armor is appreciated, and the passive has excellent synergy with his kitey pealing playstyle. His carry can sustain him, and he can soak some of the damage that soaks through his shields, in place of his carry.

is excellent if you need a mixture of resistances, and/or your team needs help with or against siege.

is excellent if you need budget armor in conjunction with all the effective health you innately have in the build.

If you're playing around a dive comp, provides a strong mix of resistances, and allows you to dive in with your team, as deep as possible, with the ability to soak huge amounts of burst damage. It's essentially the new tank version of .

Boots Options

are ideal if you're generally stick with and babysitting your carry, and scraps are coming to you. In many cases, these are your best bet.

are ideal for pressuring the map, and providing gank support mid-game.

aren't ideal, but are worth considering if you're pressuring hard, and want to spike off early cooldown reduction.

aren't anywhere near ideal, but if you're up against a comp with really heavy CC, and you're getting split from your carry by it, they can be considered.