300 is practically melee. I feel like this only happened so he is forced into using coin because nobody wants to use it. I would so much rather use relic shield on Rakan since he is kind of an engagement champion.
Rexxiee18 votesBecause he isnt supposed to build or want to start that.
They dont want him to be a super mobile tank, hes supposed to be squishy as a weakness for all his mobility and cc, which is why hes a very low, but ranged champion.
Miror B3 votesFor me, there could be a compromise to both sides. What if they took off 5 of his base armor/mr in exchange for the melee auto? He'd be even squishier and be forced to either run runes/an extra item to "make up" for that, but in return would be able to build the shield item.
Wolfe KuPo1 votestell that to Thresh then [slayer-jinx-catface]
dunder kill17 votes250 is much too high for a normal melee attack range
CasterGilgamesh1 votesthats a juggernaut range 
Knoyle4 votesisn't his range 175?
CasterGilgamesh3 votesi might be thinking of 
or someone else
THE RlVER KlNG2 votesit used to be 200 but they nerfed it
Moonfall Saber1 votesThere are a bunch of melee champions with 250 attack range.
EndlessSorcerer21 votesThe only melee champion with an attack range above 175 for their unmodified basic attacks is an unmounted Kled.
Everyone other melee champion's autoattack range is less than or equal to 175 with the exception of abilities that modify their autoattack range (i.e. Darius' Crippling Strike, Wukong's Crushing Blow, Aatrox's Massacre).
Wimbledofy2 voteswho said he's normal though? He literally uses part of his body to attack and I don't think any ranged champs in the game do that.
ForeverLaxx1 votesThresh, if you consider the chain he's holding to be "part of his body."
Wimbledofy2 votesthat's a weapon, rakan uses his wing. I don't see how you could consider a chain which he is holding to be part of his body.
ForeverLaxx1 votesHe's the first champion with a ranged auto-attack that's just an extension of his character model, which is as close to what you described as League is likely to get.
Wimbledofy1 votesBut I used the word literally and I didn't use it in a way that means figuratively (nor would I use it like that.)
THE RlVER KlNG2 votesRakan is balanced around being a squishy support, like a melee enchanter.
If he got to use Relic Shield he would be getting the best of both worlds. Not fair. He should remain as he is.
Moonfall Saber2 voteshes not balanced though lol. Hes a squishy assassin-like support, he goes in and gets out. However if he cant get out (becasue the range on his e is so small) he dies.
THE RlVER KlNG1 votesYeah because with 3 dashes and a movement speed amp it's SOOOOOO hard for him to get out
you can't just have your cake and eat it to. Rakan is supposed to be squishy to make up for all his mobility and CC
Moonfall Saber2 votes46% win rate and dropping says so as well
THE RlVER KlNG1 votesWow almost like he's new and has a ton of people playing him
With a massive ban rate too
Quit while you're behind
Moonfall Saber2 votes"and dropping" If he was balanced riot would'nt be buffing him next patch.
http://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html
THE RlVER KlNG2 votesyou mean rebalanced?
his shielding is getting nerfed
Çhåryzård2 votesMy boyfriend still takes Relic on him for the new shield quest thingy, which also stacks onto his passive shield.
He just has to be good at last hitting with him.
Rakan has the lowest auto range out of every champ that commonly supports (that I've seen) with Thresh and Janna beating him by around 150-175 range points. Nobody else comes close to 300, or below 400 actually (unless they are melee).
He's only 50 points above the melee limit, he doesn't auto attack much to harass because the the range he has still puts him kinda close to the enemy, might as well drop 50 points and make him melee so he can get the execute on Relic.
Moonfall Saber1 votesExactly. Even if they made him melee with 300 range it's not like it should matter because he's a support anyway. His animation is melee as well.
Chembaron Yamada1 votesI think that would kinda contradict what he is supposed to be, especially after the changes to Relic Shield.
Rakan (at least in my opinion) is a combination of assassin and enchanter. He jumps in the enemy team, does fancy stuff and then escapes from their middle. His engagements are meant to be risky, but rewarding. Unlike an assassin, his CC doesn't need damage stats to function. But he shouldn't be built like a tank in my opinion. His kit has WAY too much safety to allow that, it would be the same like tank Fizz and tank Ekko (and everyone was/is complaining about that, it is pretty frustrating to kill someone building tank while having the escapes of an assassin).
So, he should be encouraged to build AP, like they try to do with his AP ratios for his shields and healings. His engagements should be punishable if he doesn't execute them properly, don't you think?
CasterGilgamesh2 voteshes only good tank what makes him an assassin? his burst is horrible unless you build a ton of ap
Chembaron Yamada2 votesMost builds I find right now for him mostly focus on AP, not tank stats. And when I said assassin, I didn't mean that he is just killing with burst.
I already explained: his playstyle is close to be an assassin. You jump in with mobility, do your stuff (traditional assassin: killing the carry, Rakan: CCing the whole enemy team) and then he immediately escapes from the middle of their team, again, with mobility. Assassins have the same pattern. Jump in, do your stuff, jump out, while being fairly squishy.
Battlecast Sona3 votesRakan is a disruptor, but he is not a tank, which is why people are getting so wigged out by him.
Calling him an assassin is disingenuous because he's not going to oneshot anyone by himself, but he's very good at setting up people to get rekt by his team and causing chaos in the enemy backline before jumping out himself. I think the Q range increases will open up his laning phases (it has +100 range on PBE right now) and people will actually get to later stages of the game more successfully as him.
The only issue I have right now with Rakan's kit is that his heal actually doesn't scale with the level of his Q but rather with his character level, which is nice if you're not maxing it but gives you no option to increase your sustain, a kind of crappy place to be as an enchanter/disruptor without hefty tank stats or survivability.
Chembaron Yamada2 votesDisruptor is part of his identity, admitted. But I still stay to my comment that he has assassin mixed in. The play pattern is just way to similar to it. Just because he isn't deleting someone with damage doesn't mean that he can't have the playstyle of an assassin.
So he actually is a mix of all 3. He has the shield and healing of an enchanter, the lockdown and area denial of a disruptor and the mobility of an assassin.
To show what I mean: Here is the definition of a disruptor given by Riot themselves.
We initially called this subclass ‘control mages’ but realized that could be expanded to the entire group (that and ‘Utility Mage’ wasn’t a very good Class name). Disruptors specialize in locking down opponents or, in some cases, entire battlefields by creating intense zones of threat that only foolish enemies would dare wade through. Although not as reliant on their friends as Enchanters, the fragile and immobile Disruptors greatly benefit from allied presence - both to deter incoming danger and to help capitalize on targets they’ve locked down.
His ability to escape alot of situations with his mobility qualifies him for me as partly assassin. And let's not forget his reveal. Riot themselves stated that he is much like an assassin.
Much like an assassin, Rakan waits for the perfect moment to explode on the scene and charm the pants off the enemy team. [...] Again, like assassins, Rakan's in for a bad time if the bad guys manage to collar him with hard crowd control.
So to deny that he has assassin mixed in when even Riot themselves state all the similarities.....
SpecterVonBaren1 votesNo, he's not an assassin, he's Yasuo if he was a support.
Chembaron Yamada1 votesAny reasoning for this? I mean, I even showed that Riot is comparing him to assassins in his reveal post. I thought that just makes it very obvious that he is partly assassin.
Why do you think he has traits of skirmishers? Yasuo is not even close to Rakans ability to get out of the middle of a fight.
Lucky Moniker2 votesThe problem is that the new coin is shit on him. The lack of health regen means he gets poked out of the lane at level 3, and his range is too short to poke for the Spellblade so the gold generation is too slow. Honestly all the support gold items just really suck on him right now.
Rexxiee2 votes[{quoted}](name=Lucky Moniker,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=M37ucwlz,comment-id=00000001,timestamp=2017-05-05T16:45:25.608+0000)
The problem is that the new coin is shit on him. The lack of health regen means he gets poked out of the lane at level 3, and his range is too short to poke for the Spellblade so the gold generation is too slow. Honestly all the support gold items just really suck on him right now.
Thats not a problem with rakan, its a problem with the item hes supposed to start itself.
Battlecast Sona1 votesI don't understand all the hate for coin, but I will say that his Q range is increased by 100 on PBE right now which should hopefully make fang a more attractive/useable start on him, since I think it synergizes better with his kit (mspeed on proc seems really nice for his playstyle).
Lucky Moniker1 votesThat's what I'm holding on to, but it's CD is long enough he can't maximize the good generation
Moonfall Saber5 votesNo other support champion is forced into coin like Rakan though. Rakan has no poke so spellthief sucks on him. Also Rakan is not melee so he cannot use relic shield. Unlike thresh Rakan has no attack damage boost like thresh does with flay so executing minions with Rakan amd a relic shield is extremely hard. Coin now does not give health so Rakan cam just sit in lane with a coin and hope for the best.
It's actually really stupid because Rakan is an engage support.
Rexxiee1 votes[{quoted}](name=Moonfall Saber,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=M37ucwlz,comment-id=0000000100000001,timestamp=2017-05-05T17:21:51.289+0000)
No other support champion is forced into coin like Rakan though. Rakan has no poke so spellthief sucks on him. Also Rakan is not melee so he cannot use relic shield. Unlike thresh Rakan has no attack damage boost like thresh does with flay so executing minions with Rakan amd a relic shield is extremely hard. Coin now does not give health so Rakan cam just sit in lane with a coin and hope for the best.
It's actually really stupid because Rakan is an engage support.
Janna and soraka are pretty bad at using the other items too.
Janna has no way to actual poke in lane as her Q is unreliable/costs too much mana and she has a very low AA range for a ranged champ.
Moonfall Saber2 votesAs a support main I always use spellthief on soraka and Janna. It's actually amazing on soraka and on Janna you just shield yourself and auto attack.
Chembaron Yamada2 votesWell, Rakan can collect the coins pretty easily, though. He can use his mobility to do so. I know, it sounds unattractive to use cooldowns to get the gold.
But in the end: Spellthief requires you to use cooldowns too. And I actually think that this is what Riot wants from players.
When people started to state that Janna will get hurt by this change alot because she is squishy and can't go in to collect the coins, one of Riots answers was "she can create a safe window for herself by shielding and then go for the coin". They want you to use cooldowns to get the gold and they want you to take some risk for it.
Lucky Moniker1 votesIf you are using your skills to collect coins you are doing nothing for your adc So you may as well not even be supporting them. You can't trade which is exactly what he does well.
Arsenic Sulfur1 votesStanding back and giving the ADC a shield every minute or two ain't exactly support either. Someone with old coin was only there for morale because the stats are awful for poke and the champs that bought it weren't exactly beefy either.
FooDang1 votesThey intended for Rakan to use coin when he was released, give him a crappy hard to hit heal and is top 5 champions with the lowest HP regen in the game at level 1 and 18. Then nerf coin health regen...RITO logic.
His AA range needs to be bumped up to 325 not lowered btw
Moonfall Saber5 votesI don't care of it goes up or down honestly. If it goes up then yay he can auto attack and if it goes down then yay I can use relic shield. 300 is just damn awkward
FooDang5 votesIKR if you miss W then you can't AA because the ADC will be out of range by the time you are able to do anything. Maybe you can hit Q and E back you your ADC and twiddle you thumbs while you wait for cooldowns.
Trying to harass with autos feels like I'm a 2nd grader playing tag with the big kids, they just run away and laugh at you while slapping you in the face with their superior range and you just run back to your bush crying and eating some biscuits to make yourself feel better...
Sukishoo1 votes250?! That's still not Melee. Melee is 175 or lower. Only Melee with 250 is Kled (Unmounted).
Starboyˇ2 votesYou say that melee is 175 is lower while in the same sentence saying that kled has 250 range when unmounted. Nice logic
DarkRitual3 votesPoppy's buckler is melee, even at max range.
TotalJerk2 votesHe also has an extremely slow windup on his autos and can't kite at all while unmounted due to his gimped movement speed.
Sukishoo1 votesIt's a unique exception but for Kled there's a lot of draw backs. As TotalJerk said he cannot kite like that, so that makes it much weaker with that kind of range. Rakan on the other hand, is ranged and has 300, plus the kit is meant for high engaging so making him Melee would actually require more changes then just range change.
Wimbledofy2 votesrakan's range already has a lot of drawbacks. What difference would there really be if his autos were instead considered melee? It's not like he's gonna start building tiamat items.