THANK YOU!!!
I gotta say, I was SUPER excited to play Rakan, because he looked fun as hell. Which, to be fair, he is still a lot of fun, but without Xayah, he's just barely a viable option. I think he needs a good buff next patch so that he can solo queue, which honestly, wouldn't be that difficult, I think.
We kinda have the same gripes with him:
-
His range.
The fact is, he's not a tank, he's a super mobile rogue support... but his cooldowns are so drastically long that he actually isn't as mobile as I think Riot intended him to be? His range forces him to be front line, and those cooldowns leave him vulnerable far too long.
-
His cooldowns.
I'm not too concerned about the Q cooldown (though, since it heals so little and only IF it actually connects with a champ, I think it could be buffed a bit). His E battle dance is understandable, since it is an initiating spell, it shouldn't be able to be spammed and it's pretty mobile to boot. The shield cooldown is WAY out of line. I know Riot had intended it to scale with W since they synchronize well, but in doing so I feel like they forgot that he's a support first! As a support, he needs to rely on those shields to actually be useful, no other support champ has to wait ~20secs between their shields. With the long cooldown, you're punishing Rakan for saving his lane partner since he no longer can effectively use his W (he'll be stuck in the middle of the fight with no escape).
-
His Q.
I love the idea about this ability, but it has a few problems (range I already mentioned). The one that really bothers me is that ONLY champions proc the heal. Rakan should also be able to proc the ability for large monsters, otherwise he's quite underwhelming when trying to take dragon or baron. Seriously, people will just ask him to go distract the enemy by sacrificing himself instead lol. Plus, by allowing it to proc off large monsters, you give people the opportunity to jungle with him more effectively. Part of the fun with champions is being able to take them to other positions than just ONE SINGLE THING.
-
His W.
Rakan is unjustifiably punished when not with Xayah. I understand what Riot was trying to do with this, give him an additional boost when laning with his partner, but I think they chose the wrong buff. The range he has with Xayah for his E is NECESSARY. Without the range, since the distance is the same for his E and W, if Rakan Es to the enemy and his lane partner backs off just a step, he's stranded with no exit strategy and we already discussed he's not a tank; he's dead. Additionally, the short range means he's practically worthless for peel. If his lane partner is running away and he Es to save them, again, they're gone and he dies for nothing. The enemy will likely just flash and get a double kill anyway.
Riot should have went with a different buff for the W, like give Xayah and Rakan a damage reduction for like 4s whenever Rakan shields her. Or maybe they each heal for like 5% of Rakan's max health (prob op, but still a better idea than the range punishment).
-
His R.
Wonderful concept, very underwhelming. I absolutely loved the idea behind this, and was very excited to play.... but it's never helped me. In fact, I almost want to forget about it altogether. Whenever it's up, I keep looking for ways that it can be helpful, but it's not. The charm lasts only long enough for the enemy to take one step towards Rakan, and if he's trying to collect all of the enemy team, the 1st enemy is often going to be taking a step in a direction Rakan doesn't actually want. It's not very good for zoning, barely any good for peeling, doesn't do any damage. If you want to give your team an opening to attack, his battle dance is more effective. The charm ABSOLUTELY needs to last longer, I mean c'mon, this is an ULTIMATE, even Ahri's charm lasts longer (which the player has better control of where they want the enemy to go) and it's a normal ability!
I also hate how many people keep saying that "Well, Rakan isn't a fighter, so it makes sense that he can't do anything without Xayah. She fights for the cause, and he fights for her." No. That's BS. Remember, Rakan was a legend in his own right BEFORE he met Xayah, he just had no reason to use his talents until he met her. He wasn't just a performer before he met Xayah, he was a TRAINED BATTLEDANCER. This is why Xayah fell in love with him. He WASN'T just any pompous entertainer, he was a fighter, he was more than what people saw at face value. He won her over by being able to fight and keep up with her, and he made it seem effortless & beautiful. Do you really think Xayah would just fall in love with a no talent hack? Do you really think Xayah would have been happy babysitting a boy and teaching him how to fight? No way, Rakan PROVED he could meet her expectations.
And in the lore, Xayah and Rakan FREQUENTLY split up, where he is able to hold his own ALONE... His kit doesn't match his lore, he can't do anything alone at this point.
and 
fixes the issue and they are a great team anyway