Boards›Gameplay

Constructive critisim reguarding the Rakan changes on PBE

Raven Redeemed·4/17/2019, 9:18:44 PM·3 votes·1,136 views

Update: Just as I finished writing this, a new PBE update came out with much less drastic changes. I'll still post this for insight.

  • charm duration increased from 1/1.25/1.5 to 1.5/1.75/2
  • movement speed during ultimate increased from 50% to 100%
  • bonus movespeed from hitting a champion increased from 150% to 200%
  • movement speed duration lowered from 4s to 3 seconds
  • "Rakan can no longer use his W or his E during his ultimate."
  • "No longer limited to 1 champion hit for the bonus MS (refreshes the MS, doesn't add onto it)"

I have to say it felt like a punch to the gut when I saw this on PBE. I've been one tricking Rakan in ranked soon after he came out. He is without a doubt my favorite thing in Leauge. Rather than rant however, I'd like to discuss why I think these changes are bad for Rakan.

Nerfed ability to suport Let's start with the most impuricaly important reason. Rakan is a support and this change will make him worse at his job; specifically when it comes to peeling. If a hypothetical Zed ever dives onto my adc when I am ulting I just run back and use E, potentially charming Zed, shielding my adc, and positioning myself to W and Q. With the change I'll be locked out of using Rakan most supportive spells if I ever ult. I'll no longer be able to ult to catch up to a fight (to get in range for an E) and I won't have the option to reactively E or W the moment I ult, making peeling options limited. Imagine playing Lulu and not being able to use her shield and poly if you ult.

The reason to pick Rakan is removed The primary reason to pick Rakan over a different support is his ability to quickly start a fight. No matter how fast he goes with this change, it will never be as fast as a dash and he is too squishy to be any slower for a 5v5 meaning his ability to start a late game fight will be all but removed. Plus he will be much much more suseptable to slows (since he won't be able to dash). It feels pretty bad to have your champ's primary strength completely removed and as far as I can remember that has never been Riot's policy outside of a full VGU. Imagine if Malz no longer suppressed his ult targets.

His personal CC chain is removed The apex Rakan play and the way I've won many games is ult a full team (often by flashing over a wall) and then knocking them all up as they have been grouped up by the charm. Though less extravagant, this is also the best way to peel off one diver; layering your abilities for maximum hard CC duration. A half second longer charm is nice, but not as nice as his removed R+W chain. And we can't just say "but you'll be able to W after the ult" as if that has the same value. First, the W alone be dogged by walking out or by using one of the many movement abilities in League meaning there's no guarantee it'll land; and second, chaining CC is more valuable as it gives your team more time to react (like bursting the diving assassin) and the enemy less time to react (like flashing away).

He will be less fun This is very important to me and I think it should be to Riot too. I love how agile Rakan is, sweeping in, out, and around fights. He supports his team by forcing the enemy to continually revealuate him as a target and threat as he enters and exits every part of the fight from the team's backline to enemy's backline. Taking away both his dashes when he ults will just drain that fun away. Watering down his kit just for solo que winrate sake goes against what his fan base loves (high skill cap, play making support).

I'm trying to keep it short so I'll leave it at that.

3 Comments

Silly Neeko4/17/2019, 9:36:23 PM3 votes

I whole heartedly agree.

Honestly you have hit the nail on the head of a post I was going to be making as well.... which is that he will become near useless if he ulties without being in the middle of the enemy team (yes, you can W in, knock up. And then ulti for the same duration.... but then you are literally useless to your team for the rest of the duration of the ulti)..... and if you try ulting BEFORE going in (without flash) then anything with a decent slow (Nasus. Zilean.) Or bind (lux. Morgana.) Makes him useless.

In all honesty..... I do think they had a good reason to remove the RW combo. It was pretty substantial in terms of a full team CC and only half of it was able to be cleansed. However with how bad it feels to use Rakan in general trying to W in (due to near literally any hard cc nullifies his knock) this just makes it worse.

It makes him COMPLETELY reliant on flash being up, which pretty much locks him into needing the inspiration tree and Boots of Lucidity to lessen that 5 minute cooldown.

However, what they can do is to allow him to AT LEAST E while ulting.

I was also talking to a friend of mine and they had mentioned another thing is that his W could still do the dash, but not apply the knock if the R is going. A step further for that could be a 25% reduced cooldown for his W possibly if that happens.

To be honest, that would still be a nerf.... but it would not make him literally unplayable if the conditions are not completely right.

Sonic Adventure4/17/2019, 9:21:05 PM2 votes

I feel bad but you posted this after they reverted these changes = )

https://twitter.com/Squad5lol/status/1118570509174620160