How do you play Rakhan?

Narvuntien·8/18/2017, 4:03:55 PM·1 votes·1,089 views

He is like a squishy mage that jumps into the middle of the enemy team and I just can't seem to stay alive.

6 rakhan games

1/11/4
1/12/16
0/8/5
1/8/26
0/6/10
0/10/11

What should I even be building?. which ? I have been switching between yellow and blue things trying to find something that works. For other items I have been going with the classic combo. He has a lot of sheilds but I am so so squishy. I just knock up the enemy team and die. Then who wins the game depends on who is already ahead.

Should I instead just build as a tank? take more defensive runes and masteries Should I be running something more like Thresh or Alistar than Morgana or Karma. I have APC runes atm.. and I have between switching between Heal/shield masteries and Tank masteries trying to get with something better.

16 Comments

Darkdemon6538/18/2017, 4:34:18 PM2 votes

You jump into the middle, R everyone, and then jump out. You're not supposed to stay in the middle.

Penns8/18/2017, 4:19:50 PM1 votes

item 3301 you can rush item 3504 with an adc that auto attacks a lot because its opieop but generally you want to get items like item 2302 item 3800 item 3190 and then item 3109 item 3050

also take http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/7.4.1/img/mastery/6262.png

Narvuntien8/18/2017, 4:26:36 PM1 votes

So much tankier build then. That is very smilar to my support tank builds.

Q or E max? I was maxing Q when I took spellthief and E with Coin

My current runes are Mpen, Armor, Magresist, AP. My Support tank runes are Armor, Hp, Magresist, Armor.

Support tank masteries are the ones that run courage.

Lost R8/18/2017, 4:44:02 PM1 votes

He's a counter-initiator. If someone gets jumped on or the enemy initiates, he can zip right in with his W and knock them all up into the air, and then use his E to pull back and/or shield his allies. His Q works best up close, since the enemy can't dodge it so well, and it can heal grouped-up allies. Use his ult as an initiator as well in combination with his W, pulling everyone together with the charm effect before crowd stunning them.

Zone of Endless8/18/2017, 5:11:17 PM1 votes

I would recommend maxing Q last on Rakan. The heal on it scale with champ level so it's fine to leave it at level 1. You can max either W or E first. W for extra damage or E for the shield. Maxing either W or E also reduces their CD significantly so that's very important. Rakan actually has one of the best engage potential as well as peeling potential in the game imo. RW combo is nearly unavoidable for instant CC and pressing R and standing on top of your ADC will make your adc be untouchable for a few seconds. So when it comes down to it you just have to know when to go in and when to get out. The mobility you get from E late game will help a lot with your survival as well as your teammates.

rtbf2216514128/18/2017, 5:12:56 PM1 votes

Relic shield is pointless on him. Coin is his main. item 3098 is rarely used on him because it requires him to be put into positions he doesn't want to be in at times, and he is all about positioning then diving. (However, can work well with his "Damaging an enemy champion with a basic attack or ability reduces the cooldown of Fey Feathers by 1 second per champion hit." [1] passive as well as make his passive shield stronger.)

The point of Rakan is W then E back to allies. W then Q then E also works. You are meant to take some damage (hence his AP scaling shield passive). Also his E scales off AP. Basically he is built like a bruiser and played like a CC assassin, but instead of it upping his damage, it ups his supportive abilities (mainly 80% AP E shield and 90% AP passive shield) and gives him more alive time for him to reset his cool downs.

Once you get better and can survive better with him, you can start building more AP based.

You want to max E, W, R, then Q.

However, you should have at least 1 point in all at level 6.

You don't aim for kills. You aim for massive assists.

[1] http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Rakan

MooooooooreDakka8/19/2017, 12:08:36 AM1 votes

I'm not sure if this is optimal since coin is good now but I tend to go with the spellthief line going into the eye item. You can proc the spellthief when you go in with w before going back out again with e and also by poking with q. I feel like it's good on him because once you complete the quest you can q someone and use the speedboost to close in faster and it makes your ult even faster when you hit things.

Run courage of colossus since the big shield when you go in helps you not get bursted before you can get back out.

For items my core is blue eye item, athene's (unless you have no adc for some reason), and knight's vow. Boots are merc treads for heavy cc, ninja tabi for high auto attack damage, or mobi's if I don't need one of the others. After my core items I either go with usual support stuff like locket, redemption, or tanks items {things like frozen heart, randuins, or abyssal mask) or I go with an ap heavy build which lets your engage chunk squishies using something like protobelt, ludens, or banshee's. The ap heavy build is pretty fun when they have a squishy backline and/or you don't have an adc so you can get away with building more damage though in general it's more for fun than for winning.

In teamfights you want to land your r w combo on as many as possible to initiate and use your e to weave in and out of the fight or you want to use your kit to peal for your adc by shielding/healing them and ccing the people trying to murder them. In general avoid being focused down because you're squishy.

Skill order for me is q level one unless there's an invade in which case I take w, w level 2 or e level 2 if I took w level 1 and can all in, and whatever skill I haven't leveled at level 3. Skill max is w then e then q while leveling ult whenever possible.

Narvuntien8/19/2017, 10:12:44 AM1 votes

Kind of contradictory info still guys :/. very similar to the contridictory info I got from guides.

SKT Wolf is playing Rakhan atm, I'll see what he builds.

Psyrix8/19/2017, 10:59:54 AM1 votes

Before coin was buffed, the spellthief's edge line was a better option (and i still pretty much always use it, feels like ur actually doing somehting with it lol) start q or w depending on how ur playstile is. Q for poke +heal , w if u have good synergy with ur adc and want to be extremely agressive early on. lvl 2-3 put a point in the other abilities. by level 5 u should have two points in both q and w, after this point u max w first, i generally max q second and save e for the last (not taking into acct the ult). and i'll generally take windspeakers.

Build ur sightstone item first then go into ardent immediately. After that, depending on the situation, the buildpath can change. Generally my full build will be Eye of the Watchers, Ardent, Redemption, Zekes, Merc treads (boots is subjective, base it on what the enemy team comp revolves around) and locket or an armor item (eg Deadman's for the extra speed or even just a liandry's for the extra AP and the increased burn from cc).

When you play Rakan it's about judgments, but u cannot remain passive on him, even if it's just to poke people with the q. Also, u need to keep in mind the range of his e and where ur adc is each time u intend to initiate with a w. Rakan is a good initiator, but he's much better at following up on an initiation. He can act as the main one but he absolutely requires follow up, if he gets caught out without the team he will pop like a balloon. He's a mixture of an enchanter and a playmaker, and has respectable (not great) scalings on his abilities so an APC runepage is good imo.

In lane he is weaker than other enchanters (karma and lulu) but he can still hold his own. Teamfights is where he shines. Ur job is to flit in and out staying long enough to maximize each of ur cc abilities before poking with q and dashing back to ur team to heal and shield them Besides that.... I'd have to see how u play him

Narvuntien8/19/2017, 1:58:11 PM1 votes

2/7/28 S-

:) improvement finally. Thanks for the help everyone

Still a lot of deaths but my CC score was 73. I ate a bunch of ultis.

SKT Wolf went with coin and then censor rush if you were wondering.

Eleana8/18/2017, 4:19:16 PM1 votes

Rakan is not a tank, however I still prefer taking Courage of the Colossus on him and I take my tank runes on him as he is still a melee champion who engages. It is very important to know when to engage as Rakan considering how squishy he is. Though, he has an easy escape if you remember to E to an Ally. You should be taking Coin and building Ardent Censer on him for sure. Coin gives you the most money of out all the support items. I like maxing Q for the sustain.

AbiwonKenabi8/19/2017, 2:46:26 PM1 votes

I know a lot of people have already given some great advice, but I'll give my two cents anyways.

I've been messing around with his builds since he came out. Still undecided on whether Courage of the Colossus or Windspeakers is better, and pros seem similarly divided. I'd say both are pretty solid on him. Lately I have been building Coin to start (just gives a lot of money and mana, very strong on most supports right now) then (Edit: Sightstone first! How could I forget?) Ardent Censor, Redemption, Locket; pretty standard support build atm. You can build him tanky, but since he can get out fights pretty easily, I find the support items better generally.

His lane phase is actually pretty weak. You don't have much poke and your engage doesn't get crazy until 6. A Rakan lane is great at counter engaging against someone like Nautilus or Thresh, and he is very helpful when the jungler ganks. His strength comes from his long range engage when your team starts grouping.

Typical Rakan rotation is:hang back and let an ally walk forward. Use E to them, use R and W in in quick succession. Using R first will charm anyone on the way in, and guarantee the knock up. Then E back out. This is all done in a few seconds. Hopefully your team was already grouped and ready to follow up on your engage. If not, probably need to retreat. If so, then use your W and shields as needed, either to chase or to peel for your carries, whatever is needed. Don't forget to use your active items like Redemption.

Be sure your team is ready for any engage. Rakan is also good at following up engages, like a Malphite ult or Gnar ult. Don't be afraid to use your ult for peel too; it has a pretty short cool down.

Hope that helps! Glad you are seeing some improvements. Rakan takes some practice, but he's really fun and very rewarding to play.