[4.1a] Rakan Guide - [GM] AP Rakan Support Guide S7/8
[GM] AP Rakan Support Guide S7/8
Pros
- Lots of CC
- Large shield and heal for you and allies
- Slippery playstyle makes you hard to catch
- Great against dive/assassin champions
- Good disengage and engage
- Great teamfight capability and pick potential
Cons
- Hard CC completely negates him
- Die easily if you get caught
- Lack of synergy in solo-q teams makes him difficult
- Can't be played as the only tank/engage
- High cooldowns early game
Rakan Build
Best Build Guide for Rakan
Item Build Description
Additional information on the items
STARTING ITEMS
For support item I always go Relic Shield , I used to go sickle but there's just no point now since its
A) much easier to stack now for every support.
B) more gold, faster.
C) Rakan got hit with the nerf hammer and now his CD is too long to poke whatsoever.
BOOTS/BOOT ENCHANTS
For boots you have three choices, Ionian Boots of Lucidity , Plated Steelcaps , or Mercury's Treads . Of course this depends on the team comp, more crowd control? Choose merc treads. More armor? Plated steelcaps. You can go lucidity if you have a really good early game and can afford to go without the extra protection from boots.
For boot enchants you also have three options. I rarely use locket myself but if their team has say an AP Malphite or hard hitting AP champs like Katarina or Akali it's good to pick up. For your other options you have redemption and meteor. Meteor is for when you want to do more damage and feel secure in your team like you can get in CC and get out, dropping the meteor while the enemy is CC'd does some good combo damage. Redemption is for when the enemy has a lot of champions that want to jump on you (mostly AD assassins like Rengar , Zed ) or bruisers/tanks like Jarvan Iv , Riven , Alistar , the list goes on.
CORE ITEMS
When it comes to core items I think the only absolute core item is Rod of Ages . Combined with the Conditioning rune this is a great scaling item for AP Rakan, allowing him to go in and out without dying to skills immediately. Beside that I feel like Imperial Mandate is an alright support core item for Rakan depending if you want to play enchanter Rakan or burst Rakan. Rabadons is a no brainer, you won't heal as much as a Soraka but the difference this item makes on your heals and shields is amazing. It'll save you a lot of close call battles.
BURST/DAMAGE ITEMS
Damage items are few for Rakan because if you play him in a mage-burst play style you want to be able to kill in one combo and then immediately get out. So you have to go with the hard hitting item combo of Luden's Echo > Infinity Orb > Rabadon's Deathcap > Void Staff
You can go ludens after RoA or forgo RoA altogether though you'll have a rougher time as a new Rakan player if you skip RoA. I tend to mix damage and enchanter items together like a void staff late game for the even juicier shields and heals. Though if you have a great time in lane and get ahead you can go pure damage after RoA and you will practically one-shot any squishy mages ( Annie , Veigar , etc) or supports ( Yuumi , Lulu , etc). If you play burst Rakan you basically play like an AP assassin.
SITUATIONAL ITEMS
Typically if I play enchanter Rakan I will only go imperial mandate, HOWEVER. If your team has a hypercarry like Jax, Jinx, Caitlyn, Veigar, or one of your teammates just gets incredibly ahead and you want to boost them even more these are the items I suggest:
- Staff of Flowing Waters (for ad/ap champs unreliant on auto attacks; Miss Fortune , Veigar , [Aatrox], [Kayn], Akali , etc.)
- Ardent Censer (for champs reliant on auto attacks; Jinx , Jax , Ashe , Caitlyn , Gwen , Irelia , Yone , Yasuo , mostly adcs, etc)
Other enchanter items just don't fit as well as these two typical choices. I used to play unholy grail with Rakan but it was removed unfortunately.
For other situational items you have:
- Crystalline Reflector (You're taking too much AD damage, this will help you survive for longer in those teamfights)
- Banshee's Veil (Too much poke or champions who's initiation relies on one skill like Leona's [leona:3] and Solar Flare or Alistar's Headbutt , or ultimates like Veigar's Primordial Burst and Fizz's Chum The Waters . Also provides some nice extra MR)
- Morellonomicon (Obviously of course vs champions who heal a lot, which will practically be every game. Aatrox, Irelia, Samira , Yuumi and anyone she's attached to, the list goes on.)
DEFENSE ITEMS
Now, this is something I wasn't really into before because tank Rakan has always felt useless to me. Above are listed the situational defense items I'd suggest after a Rod of Ages and possible Imperial Mandate . Late game amaranth twinguard is also great for that bonus tenacity for Rakan.
Rakan Runes
Best Runes for Rakan
Here is the current AP support build I run in pretty much every single one of my games only going between Electrocute and Aftershock depending on who we go versus in lane. Aftershock is better vs any heavy poke and combined with Bone Plating it really helps in the early game to negate a lot of that damage if you don't prefer the scaling of the conditioning rune.
NEW: Due to second wind update in the recent patch, it's good into heavy poke enemy lane. Bone plating/hunter titan/conditioning are all still good options.
Skill Order
How to distribute skill points
Summoner Spells
When to take which summoners
Combos
Learn how to maximize the champions potential
Quick poke trade combo, you can cast battle dance to an ally to cover distance and then grand entrance into gleaming quill. You can then recast battle dance to heal your ally as well.
Again, to cover distance (if need be) you can cast battle dance on the ally currently engaged in a skirmish/teamfight then Battle Dance into The Quickness for quick CC combo. If its just one or two enemies you can space out your activation of the quickness to see if you can get their flashes or hold them in place for a bit longer. Naturally you should be able to pull off this combo before the recast timer on battle dance ends or you can be caught with no way to return to safety.
Once again, battle dance into an ally currently engaging in combat into the quickness then a grand entrance is an extremely long crowd control chain that can hold enemies in place just long enough for burst champions to do their work. This combo works greatest when there is a champion that has already engaged for you like a Malphite, Diana, basically anyone with an AOE crowd control skill. Even a well placed Event Horizon from Veigar can work wonders with this combo.
You can activate your ultimate the quickness before going in to immediately crowd control any champion that you touch followed up by battle dance if you need to close distance or grand entrance to lengthen the control time.
This isn't a combo but I wanted to elaborate on the use of Gleaming Quill in a separate spot. Due to its nerf in a patch or two ago its use as a poke tool is basically none. You can't heal allies or poke from a safe distance like you used to. Basically try to use the quill every time you hit someone with grand entrance to be able to guarantee a heal hits, there isn't really any other use from this skill now.
Rakan Matchups & Counters
Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters
Lux is awful to face in lane if she's even halfway decent at landing skillshots. Her bind Light Binding can stop you in place, possibly wasting your ult or ruining your engage with Grand Entrance as it still casts even when she is knocked up. Be wary of her adc's follow up if she is supporting as she can full combo with Light Binding + Lucent Singularity + Final Spark and if she manages to bind both you and your adc she can kill you both in this one combo.
Her bind has a slow cast and you can dodge it with a quick side-step or using battle dance to jump to an ally. Remember this one hint: Lux is defenseless without her bind. Wait for her to waste it before going in.
TEAM SYNERGY
While Rakan has a a few hard counters, did you know that these same counters actually synergize well with Rakan? He loves and hates hard CC champs. Here are some champions he synergizes well with both in and out of lane.
- Amumu has great CC with his ultimate Curse Of The Sad Mummy which Rakan can follow up on using his own Grand Entrance + The Quickness
- Ashe is nice only in the fact her passive Frost Shot allows you to hit your Grand Entrance easier in lane. Otherwise she doesn't really have the damage to capitalize on the time Rakan gives her to kill an enemy.
- Caitlyn is great because of her traps Yordle Snap Trap which she can place under the allies you knock-up/charm, this lets her hit consecutive headshots and is definitely one of the better adcs to partner with Rakan.
- Darius is just fine on his own especially if he gets fed, but paired with a Rakan that can peel for him in the form of heals, shields, etc, he can be unstoppable as it lets him hit the sweet spot on his Decimate . Also you can get a sweet CC chain if he manages to grab several people with his Apprehend .
- Diana is one of the few mages I love to support as a Rakan. If she's jungling or midlane you can set up amazing ganks for her with Grand Entrance + The Quickness into her Moonfall which is almost always a guaranteed kill or a few.
- Draven is another adc I love to lane with. His enhanced autos with Spinning Axe give him a large advantage in lane and with Rakan he has more of a chance of cashing his League Of Draven stacks. This combo really powerspikes at level two when Rakan can have Grand Entrance and Battle Dance to safely engage and disengage.
- Ekko can be an interesting synergy, but he has to be able to stun targets with his Parallel Convergence before you can go in. You can also engage while enemies are in his circle to guarantee he gets the stun off.
- Ezreal is a special case because I honestly don't know what supports even work best with him with how he plays. Rakan is fine though, and what's the most fun is the surprise initiation the two of you can have with Ezreal's Essence Flux and Rakan's Battle Dance because you can gap close very quickly.
- Fizz is not the best but if he's one of the only one of your allies doing well, sticking with him can solo carry a game. The pick potential the two of you will have is amazing as Fizz's ult Chum The Waters has a low cooldown after early game.
- Galio is one of my favorite midlaners to play with. His ultimate Hero's Entrance is much easier to land when ulting on Rakan while The Quickness is active. You can also combo well with his Shield Of Durand + Justice Punch .
- Gwen doesn't do much of anything in terms of CC, but if you can peel for her it sets her up extremely nicely.
- Irelia is the same as Gwen, but she has CC. Irelia suffers worst against hard CC so if you can soak it up for her and shield/her her simultaneously then a 0/5 Irelia can go from that to being 12/5.
- Jarvan Iv wants people to stay in his ultimate Cataclysm which with how mobile most of the champions are these days, is a bit hard. Rakan makes it a lot easier for him. Pair these two with decent burst champions such as Katarina and it's quite a deadly combo.
- Jax is similar to Irelia, and with having 600hp heals full build + a similar shield you'll do wonders in protecting him so he'll more than likely never die. A force to be reckoned with. However, you should see a Jax with a Lulu and Veil Enchant combo.
- Jhin is fine. His passive Whisper fourth shot can really catch people off guard in the early game and change the tide of close call skirmishes. This is how you'll press your early game advantage. Rakan's CC sets up for his Deadly Flourish as well. Jhin loves any support than can engage and disengage for him so Rakan is naturally great with him.
- Kai'sa is an alright pairing in the duo lane. I see her working better with enchanters like Lulu , Nami , or Yuumi . But Rakan also works, because he can hold them in place for Kai'sa to get her Second Skin going + land Icathian Rain on isolated targets.
- Katarina is a bit hard to work with, because she's always jumping everywhere. However, if you can time your ult + grand entrance with her ultimate Death Lotus , she can get a ton of damage in and possibly kills for her resets.
- Kennen is a great set-up for Rakan with his ultimate Slicing Maelstrom . Combo your CC with yours and it alone can win teamfights especially since Kennen's ult cannot be cancelled.
- Lucian works great with any number of supports because he's just broken (though he works best with Nami because of her Tidecaller's Blessing ) and Rakan can hold enemies in place long enough for him to get a load of damage in with his passive Lightslinger .
- Lux is an alright combo with Rakan, his cc makes it easier for her to land her Final Spark and Light Binding .
- Malphite is only good at one thing and that is hitting his ultimate Unstoppable Force which is an AOE CC skill, pairing this with your CC is just as good as playing with an Amumu.
- Master Yi works better with other enchanter supports such as Lulu but Rakan can definitely hold enemies down long enough with his skills for a decent Master Yi to decimate enemies.
- Nautilus is great for Rakan, he can set up for Rakan with his ultimate Depth Charge or even use it after Rakan's initation.
- Orianna can place her ball on Rakan using Command: Protect to set off her ultimate Command: Shockwave in tandem with his initiation for a great CC chain.
- Pantheon 's point and click stun on his Comet Spear has great pick potential with Rakan's combo. His ultimate Grand Starfall is also great initiation for Rakan.
- Rammus , I think you get the point by now that pretty much every CC heavy tank champion combos extremely well with Rakan. The turtle's ultimate Soaring Slam is a great teamfight initiation skill.
- Samira loves engage supports. They keep enemies in place for her ultimate Inferno Trigger + works with her passive Daredevil Impulse .
- Seraphine is similar to Rakan in how she can affect teamfights with a single skill, comboing or setting up for her allows for both her and Rakan to land their CC a lot easier.
- If Sett or Shen can disrupt multiple enemies using their skills Facebreaker and Shadow Dash then they're also good combinations for Rakan. Shen can also use his ultimate Stand United on Rakan when he goes in for an easier time hitting his Shadow Dash .
- Shyvana also has a bit of a hard time being the teams only engage with her ultimate Dragon's Descent unless she's ahead. Having an ally with another CC loaded set makes her life a lot easier.
- Sion can land his Q Decimating Smash a lot easier if Rakan sets up for him leading to a veryyyy long CC chain.
- Tristana is a burst marksman who can make great use of the time Rakan gives her with his CC combo.
- Twisted Fate also has great pick potential with Rakan with his yellow card from Pick A Card .
- Varus 's ultimate Chain Of Corruption works great with Rakan especially if it can spread in the time Rakan has locked down the enemies, which can root more than one champion.
- Veigar only works well with Rakan if he can get a good Event Horizon off or use it after Rakan's skills so the enemy is forced to flash or die.
- Vi has great initation with her Q Vault Breaker and ultimate Assault And Battery . Together Vi and Rakan are great teamfight interrupters with their CC, and with how Vi's ult works they can easily focus down the enemy's carries.
- Warwick can land his ultimate Infinite Duress easier on a stunned target.
- Wukong is 100% my favorite teammate to have. His ultimate Cyclone combined with Rakan's grand entrance and ultimate is incredibly good. This is one of the best teammates for Rakan because of how well they can set up for each other and the rest of their teammates.
- Xayah is Rakan's lover, how can they not work well together? Playing with Xayah mains makes Rakan feel so much more fluid with their passives in Fey Feathers , Battle Dance (longer dash distance if aimed at Xayah), and Deadly Plumage which allows the two to shred turret platings with ease. It's also easier for Xayah to land her Bladecaller on stunned enemies and vice versa.
- Yasuo adc with Rakan is an absolute menace. His ultimate triggers on any airborne/knock-up ability which includes Rakan's Grand Entrance . Paired with Yasuo's Wind Wall he can also stop Rakan from getting poked out. Together they can initiate extremely well for their team. Seriously, I played with a Yasuo one trick in ranked in bot lane and he was 14/0 by game end.
- Yone is trickier to work with compared to his brother because he can easily close distance with Soul Unbound , Fate Sealed , and Mortal Steel , making it hard for Rakan to initiate with him. If Rakan goes in before him it can work out but its hard to do that in solo-q.
POWERSPIKE
- Rakan's first and most important powerspike his his level two when he can start safely initiating using Grand Entrance + Battle Dance .
- Second is when he gets his ultimate or Rod of Ages , as its when he can really start pulling off his combos.
Most of Rakan's powerspikes feel situational. Be aware of your adcs powerspikes as well because Rakan cannot do anything alone like he used to pre-Q ( Gleaming Quill ) nerf where it had a longer range, allowing you to safely heal. Not only do you have to understand your adc but your other teammates as well, for instance a Rakan should not initiate on his own when his allied Amumu doesn't have his ultimate to follow up with.
WHEN TO PICK
Never pick Rakan into heavy CC comps because they can make Rakan irrelevant pretty quickly. Rakan works best with burst adcs like Tristana or Jhin , he can also work with the later game adcs like Jinx who want to have a safe early game. Picking him with Yasuos with whom you are confident in can be an amazing and usually, free, game as well.
Basically, you want a lot a good initator on your team while having next to no hard counters on the enemy side.