Bye bye rakan. It's been fun playing as you.

OHminus·Apr 17, 2019·4 votes·1,685 views

4/16 PBE Update: Trials Summoner Icons, Emotes & More

Rakan: Can no longer cast W or E during his ult

Well, that's one way to kneecap a champion. No amount of compensation can fix how clunky he's going to feel. R is going to be a useless ability and he's no longer going to be any fun to play.

Thanks Riot, really like how you guys balance champs. Riven/Vayne are untouched yet Riot feels the need to utterly gut a 48% winrate champion that's not even picked in pro play.

24 Comments

14daysuspensionkApr 17, 20195 votes

After Rakan left the factory farm, his body was found in this state

https://images.mummypages.ie/images/4302/215/10/7_5/Slow-cooked+chicken.jpg

D3m37r1Apr 17, 20192 votes

tpn in a nutshell

IlovemobasApr 17, 20194 votes

It seems only pyke is allowed to have strong mobility for a support. Edit: downvote happy today are we?

D3m37r1Apr 17, 20191 votes

Just wait.

boricCentaur1Apr 17, 20195 votes

But rakan still has more mobility then pyke and it is not really going down since he gets more ms when hitting a champion.

OHminusApr 17, 20192 votes

R is basically a silence now. You can hit multiple champions with R but the charm will last 1.5 seconds, while R lasts 4 seconds. What will Rakan do in the last 2.5 seconds? He's basically a sitting duck waiting to be killed.

boricCentaur1Apr 17, 20191 votes

Yeah the change is shit and should not happen but rakan will still have more mobility then pyke and that is my point.

14daysuspensionkApr 17, 20191 votes

{quoted}

It seems only pyke is allowed to have strong mobility for a support.

His only real mobility is his dash and his Evelynn passive.

JaspersApr 17, 20193 votes

They do appear to have added back in some of his movement speed to his R, nothing is more painful than pressing his R and not be able to catch someone to get the additional movement because his movement was nerfed so much you can't even catch an ADC with boots and 1 zeal item.

Maybe if you can't use W and E anymore, they can add in back his old W timing, as the changes made to it a little while ago to it's animation and timing always felt bad.

MoonscourgeApr 17, 20193 votes

It's for TESTING and his combo is fucking broken. An unavoidable super charm + knockup is impossible to play against. Stop trashing the balance team for introducing counterplay to champions and combos that have absolutely none. If this goes through he will be compensated enough. Plus using W and then ulting is probably still extremely strong.

TobykachuApr 17, 20193 votes

If you genuinely want your champion to be strong again then you need to accept that this was a necessary change. If this change goes through then he's almost definitely going to get power put into other, weaker parts of his kit. The current iteration of Rakan has one of the most reliably, highest range engages in the entire game and also have the safety to get back out. If you saw how strong he was last year in pro play whilst in the hands of the best Rakan players in the world, where he was able to act as the primary engage, disengage, counter engage all at once.

I am positive that if this change goes through, then he'll be given additional power to the rest of his kit. For example - his Q heal might be more potent/deal more damage, his W may become more reliable in lane and without ult, his shield might be stronger.

OHminusApr 17, 20192 votes

I don't WANT rakan to be strong. My favorite part of Rakan was dashing everywhere in his ult, charming people left and right. Now after the changes charming multiple people is only possible if the enemy team is a bunch of morons and all grouped up praying that a malphite ult hits them

ThingamajigApr 17, 20191 votes

this is pbe not live

OHminusApr 17, 20191 votes

Most changes on PBE go through to live, if not on this patch, then the next. It's pretty safe to say that these Rakan changes are final - at least, the part where he won't get to cast any other ability other than Q during R.

TobykachuApr 17, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Most changes on PBE go through to live, if not on this patch, then the next. It's pretty safe to say that these Rakan changes are final - at least, the part where he won't get to cast any other ability other than Q during R.

Recently Riot have been putting a lot of potential changes on the PBE that haven't made it through. The recent Blitzcrank changes and the Teemo changes that feel like they've been on there forever for starters. There is every possibility that these changes don't go through.

AbiwonKenabiApr 17, 20191 votes

You're usually right, but I'm praying its like the Morgana changes last PBE cycle, where they basically said "these prob aren't going to live" and then took them off PBE the next day. I doubt it, but there's got to be better changes than this.

ThingamajigApr 17, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Most changes on PBE go through to live, if not on this patch, then the next. It's pretty safe to say that these Rakan changes are final - at least, the part where he won't get to cast any other ability other than Q during R.

most not all this is the start of the patch

teemos changes have been going through 4+ patches now

chill out

B0akApr 17, 20191 votes

I mean... summoner 4 is still a thing... and they are giving him even more movement speed in his ult and the speed now refreshes each time he hits someone... Let's not forget how they increased his charm duration by .5 seconds too. If you play it right this actually increases the total time you can lock someone down for. If you need to get out you can use this speed to run back towards your team after you charm. If these changes turn out to suck as much as people are saying then it might not even make it off the PBE.

OHminusApr 17, 20191 votes

if you need to get out you can use this speed to run to an ally to E out

Thing is, you can't E out until ult finishes. Since the ult lasts for 4 seconds, you're most likely dead if you want to escape via E.

B0akApr 17, 20191 votes

Yeah I realized this earlier, I won't deny that this part of the change is obnoxious. That's why I changed it to "run back towards your team" I am seeing the new combo as W, Q, R, Run away screaming like a banshee but still taking the time to run through enemy champions if they are in your path.

OHminusApr 17, 20191 votes

I don't even mind if they remove R-W. Not being able to dash BACK to your teammates when you cast R is annoying and clunky. I expect Rakan's playrate and winrate to plummet, possibly reaching 30% because he won't even be a champion anymore after these changes.

AbiwonKenabiApr 17, 20191 votes

I think the worst thing about this is that they are taking a lot of the skill out of Rakan. Weaving Rakan's mobility with his ultimate and not getting blown up instantly (since he's so squishy) is what masters of Rakan are good at. Bad Rakans will go in and die, or go in and not charm anybody. Now all you do is run around. Not only is it not very skillful, its not fun either.

He gets a refreshed ms bonus now, but there's only 5 Champs he can proc it on, and a decent Rakan engage is probably already charming like 2 or 3 people at once, meaning you don't get the optimal duration most times.

They are making it so you can potentially just kite him around like a juggernaut, but he's NOT designed like a juggernaut who can deal with that somewhat. I like how he can still cast Q, like anyone is going to stop long enough to cast Q and waste time when they're already being kited around.

I understand that he's strong in pro play, but there has to be a better change than taking a dump all over the most fun and skillful parts of his kit. Maybe only gimp the R>W combo, since that's the strongest part of his engage. Make it so he has to W in first THEN ult, lock them out of the charm during W or something, but don't completely take away his mobility during ult.