No, Xayah and Rakan are Not OP Right Now
I keep seeing these "Omg they are so op" comments and really, they aren't. It seems like people play a few games against them, don't know how the champions work and don't know how to fight them, lose, and then complain that they are too strong.
I don't think people really see the weaknesses these 2 champs have, even though they are clearly defined. They are just new champs that people don't get how to fight yet. These Xayah/Rakan QQ comments get annoying after a while so I'm just making a thread to hopefully show people how to fight them.
Xayah is an adc that depends heavily on the feathers she throws into lane for damage. While she does damage with her autos too, these feathers are a big part of her kit and a lot of her damage comes from you not suspecting it.
Each ability cast gives her a couple feathers. Her E allows her to recall these feathers too her, ROOTING you if you are hit by at least 3 and allowing her to throw them out again. Early game her E has a 12-11 second cooldown.
Her W gives her a burst of attack speed and gives her extra damage on her auto attacks, while also granting feathers. Early this is on a 16-15 second cooldown. If she has Rakan with her, he also gets this bonus (but does not throw feathers obviously).
Her Q fires 2 feathers in a line towards a targeted direction, while like her other abilities also granting feathers. Targets hit after the first one taken 50% less damage. This is on a 10-9 second cooldown early.
Her ult makes her immune for a few seconds, and during this time she is able to move around. After those few seconds she throws a line of feathers on the ground in the direction she selected. This has a 140 second cooldown rank 1.
Her feathers pierce targets and will go through minions and champions.
**Countering **
Xayah has the POTENTIAL to chunk your health and do a lot of burst damage, but only if she plants her feathers well enough. Moving around in lane will greatly reduce her feather impact, while standing in 1 spot is just asking her to chunk you and root you to the ground. In lane you need to respect her feathers, ignoring them and not playing around them can result in damage you weren't expecting.
I've seen SO MANY PEOPLE try to stand there and auto attack me without moving in fights and it makes it SO EASY for me to E and get all my feathers on you. Do NOT run in a straight line towards me and try to move around.
Remember that her feathers ROOT you, not stun, so if you do get hit you can still cast abilities and fight until the root wears off.
I've seen some "she's immune 2 assassinz and it's not fair!11"
She is not immune to assassins. She's incredibly immobile. Her Ult makes her immune for a FEW SECONDS, and then she has flash. She has absolutely 0 abilities that will get her out of a fight besides her Ultimate. Otherwise, she relies heavily on her team to protect her.
Your botlane should make sure to put in chat when she uses her ult so you know what your window is for ganking, whether you are the midlaner of the jungler. Her ult cooldown at rank 1 is 140 seconds, that is a 2 minute and 33 second window for you to gank. Getting her to pop it defensively leaves her extremely vulnerable to ganking as she has no way to get out of the fight besides flash and relying on her support. During this time if she is CC'd and focused, she is dead.
If you are unsure if she's used her ult or not and nobody knows, ASSUME SHE HAS IT. Don't run in as Zed thinking "im gonna ult her" and then find out she has her ult to make yours completely useless. Don't try to dive her under tower as anyone if you're unsure if she has the ult, because then you're sitting under tower doing nothing and next thing you know you're rooted.
To be honest calling out when ults are used should be a thing people do already, but in her case knowing when her only ability escape is down is very helpful for successfully ganking her.
Once she has people in her face and her Ult is down, the birb has nothing else to do but flash or die.
Champions that are mobile will give her a tough time in lane as they can easily avoid her feathers. Slows work pretty well too, as she is already weak in the mobility department.
^ All good choices. I'm not entirely sure yet who is BAD against her, so far I've seen it come down to skill or countering.
Rakan as we all know is Xayah's boyfren so expect to see him down botlane with her some of the time. I've found him easier to counter than Xayah is, and he's actually doing worse right now.
Rakan is the support of the duo and works by becoming a distraction. Rushing into the enemy team, providing knockups and a charm, and then dashing back towards his beloved (or whoever is laning with him). He relies HEAVILY on his team (more than Xayah does) and will easily die in a fight if he's abandoned.
Rakan's passive periodically grants him a shield (which appears to be on a 40 second cooldown early according to the wiki but I may be wrong). This shield becomes stronger with level. The OTHER part of the passive is Lover's Leap, which allows him and Xayah to recall together no matter what part of the recall one of them is at. Hitting one of them disrupts BOTH recalls.
His Q allows him to throw a feather at a targeted direction. If he hits an enemy champion or epic monster, the feather comes back and grants him a heal that triggers after a few seconds or when he touches an ally. This has a 12 second cooldown early.
When he W's, he'll dash forward at a targeted direction and after a brief delay he'll knock anything up in the area around him (which is marked). This has an 18 second cooldown early.
His E gives him a dash towards an ally champion. Upon dashing to the ally he grants them a 3 second shield and this ability can be recast again in the next 5 seconds at no cost. He can use it on the same champion twice. If his target is Xayah, the range at which he can dash back to her is increased. This has a 20 second cooldown early.
Finally, his Ult grants him movement speed (50%, briefly being increased to 200% upon hitting the first champion and then decaying) and a charm. It lasts 4 seconds, and during this time any enemy champion he touches is charmed to him. Enemies cannot be charmed twice. 120 second cooldown on this rank 1.
Countering
Rakan is very mobile, however he runs into trouble when his enemy has a lot of zone control. People that make it hard for him to maneuver around lane give him problems.
He runs into more trouble early when he misses stuff. His abilities are on VERY high cooldowns early, with his primary source of engage being 18 seconds to cooldown and being a skillshot. If he misses, beat the SHIT out of him. Spank him around a bit. Make him regret it. He can't use it again to fight for another 18 seconds so harass him during this time.
His Q is his primary poke, and the range on it was actually shorter than I thought it'd be when I saw it. If you stay behind minions it's not too hard to dodge, but if he DOES get it and uses his E to bring it to his ally, then he has no way of shielding them and no escape for 20 seconds. So, once again, SPANK the SHIT out of him. Abuse the fact that his cooldowns are so high, but respect him when his abilities are up as he can easily jump in, knock up, and dash back to an ally for a shield. His W has a brief delay before knocking you up so it gives you a chance to avoid it.
If you're an adc and find his ult annoying, I've built this every game against him 
. Works like a charm (HAHAHAHAHAHA GET IT??? it's a joke. I made a pun). I pop dat shit when he ults me (or just whenever I need it in general) and continue on my way.
Some people that will work good against him
- Incredible zone control, if you build this 
and he engages he'll be sad.
- I've just found her to work good. Shield your ally when Rakan knocks them up, and then W him. You can use an empowered one of those for extra pizazz.
- Like Zyra, great zone control, bombs are scary.
I just feel like they won't work well (this is just my opinion though)
- While she has heals and poke, she really can't do anything if Rakan engages pre-6. And even after 6, once she pops the ult she has nothing left.
- Like Sona, doesn't have much pre-6 to stop him besides a stun every couple abilities. You could try to poke him down but that's really it.
Every single new rework/champion update I say
"If you ban them every game you won't learn how to fight them" <--talking about norms
They have clear cut weaknesses and strengths and I actually feel like they're more balanced than other freshly released champions. Part of this may be though that people are still learning how to play them, just as people are learning how to fight them.
It'll take practice on both sides, but they're really not op. Just take the time to learn how they work and you'll be able to fight them easier.
pokes better than him and they are tanks.
i can pretty much win my team every teamfight with the amount of nasty heals, shields, and a bit of dmg and 45% cooldown but i rarely get to that peak in games since losing lane for the most part means a 20-25min lost if every other lane sinks too. (I'm currently Plat 1 44lp atm)
