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Is it me, or is Rakan's early laning phase weak?

Berserker177·5/17/2017, 6:58:39 PM·4 votes·1,538 views

Ever since his release, Rakan has been sitting at a** 44% winrate **for the weeks on end, being barely applicable than support Miss Fortune. Rakan support is all that I've mained in the past 3 weeks, and I feel like his early laning phase is quite pale in comparison to other supports.

His playstyle relies on being a get-in/get-out disruptor, sort of like a Alistar/Braum combination. The problem with this is that his base stats are negligible to allow him to sustain enough damage from the opposition when he's going in via Grand Entrance (W). His Gleaming Quill (Q) is a narrow skillshot that can damage & heal but can only be proc'd on champions, is hard to hit and relies on building AP, so build spellthiefs is somewhat core to build than tailsmen.

His E is only useful with Xayah on your team, other than that, it's almost quite useless with how little range you get. Plus, his shield proc from his Battle Dance (E) is more useful in instances for shielding your Adc or allies in teamfights, than active heals from your Q. I find no issues with his R, but their are some drawbacks with it.

I'm probably gonna get downvoted from this thread being a general complaint about his weak early laning phase, as I've seen multiple threads this issues, but it's an issue that people generally don't care about as much because, "Rakan's BROKEN BRO, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ON ABOUT?"

Even with patch 7.10 on its merry way, a small 100 range increase to his Q, along with a small damage boost to his W in latter ranks won't really solidify his already present issues with his early game. I just feel a bump to his base stats & low AP ratios would be a nice touch for my boy Rakan

4 Comments

UnboundHades5/17/2017, 7:00:32 PM1 votes

for support rakan yes he has a weak early game before he gets some items for ap rakan mid which I main currently he has an amazing mid and early game while falling off a bit late game in terms of damage but he still has his charm knock and sheilds

PhantomGG5/17/2017, 7:08:42 PM1 votes

tried to OTP rakan support for a while and I must say, he is most defiantly a roamer support. that being said, unlike other roamer supports, his lane phase is so weak, that you never get the chance to roam.

roamer support: someone who likes bot lane to be pushed, so their adc can back while they go to gank mid or top

rtbf2216514125/17/2017, 7:14:56 PM1 votes

He get's better at level 6 then snowballs hard. Before that, he's kinda useless, trying to W + E to retreat harass. His Q range gives me cancer. It should be longer. You should note that op.gg says he does well against MF and I doubt everyone has the IP for him yet. Also, he spiked in winrate (48.5%) before going back down. If you play him the way people are saying to play him (Pure Tank) you are playing him wrong imo.

Partholonian5/17/2017, 10:24:29 PM1 votes

His E is only useful with Xayah on your team

I think this is his biggest issue. With anyone other than Xayah he turns into a squishy Leona - one way in, no ways out. But he doesn't have the kit to survive doing that.

The range difference is just too huge. Especially given that his shield isn't just a way to protect an ally or deliver his Q heal, it's a crucial tool to not die.

It feels like he's not getting a cool little bonus for playing with Xayah, he's getting a penalty for not playing with Xayah -- and a pretty huge penalty at that.

Give him his full E range all the time, and something like reduced CD or increased shield strength when using it on Xayah, that won't be excessively punishing to him in situations where he has to do without it, he'll just benefit his ally a little less than if it had been Xayah.

P.S. He's a terrible spellthief user, since even with all his CDs he basically can't trade without it potentially becoming an involuntary all in -- the AP is the only attractive thing about it. And he's even worse with Targon's than Thresh is (in the tiny category of "outranged by practically everyone but still can't execute minions"). That leaves coin as his only option, and while I'm not as pessimistic about coin as some people, if it really is weak, then it's dragging him down too.