The Ultimate League of Legends Rakan Guide

The Charmer enters the stage, captivating the eyes of all that witness his grand entrance. As one half of the League of Legends’ lovers duo, Rakan is known as a support that sticks to his partner and makes them feel reassured with his presence. This Rakan guide will help players understand the fundamentals of playing this champion in the game as a support whether they’re playing with Xayah or an entirely difference champion down in the bottom lane.

Dance of The Charmer

When the mortal world’s quick development began to endanger the welfare of the Vastayan Tribe, Rakan – a Lothlan battledance – wanted to find a way to save his people. It was only when he met Xayah that he finally learned of a rebellion against mortals. During their time together, the two fell in love and swore that they’d make their dream of protecting their homelands from the mortals come true, even if the two have opposite personalities and entirely different approaches to things.

Rakan and Xayah were the first officially confirmed couple in League of Legends. Because of the nature of their release, they were essentially made for each other in more ways than one. The two champions work best (in-game) when they’re paired together but it’s not necessary that a player should pick Xayah if the other picks Rakan or vice versa. While there are moments this champion is chosen as a solo laner, we’ll be focusing more on his potential as a support pick in this Rakan Guide.

Rakan General Gameplay

In this Rakan Guide, we’ll be looking at this champions capabilities as a support whether you’re playing with Xayah or not. He is one of the most aggressive engage champions that likes to jump into the middle of the fight to disrupt enemies and immediately retreat to his allies when his job is done. He is also capable of protecting allies and peeling them away from any threats that try to engage onto them. This champion requires the player to have killer instincts and a wide perspective of every fight.

Rakan Guide – Skills and Abilities

First up on our Rakan Guide, we’ll be looking at this champion’s abilities in the game and how a player can take advantage of these abilities to help their teammates secure every advantage that they can get. His abilities are all mobility-based, which will include a lot of dashing from one place to another. His playstyle will completely change if he’s paired with Xayah in the lane.

Passive: Fey Feathers

Innate – Rakan periodically generates a shield based on his level that lasts until it is broken. If the shield survives being damaged, it will be restored to its maximum value after 5 seconds of being out of combat. Rakan’s basic attacks and abilities hit on an enemy champion reduce the cooldown on this ability by 1 second.

Innate: Lover’s Leap – If either Rakan or Xayah is channeling a recall, the other may move towards the recall circle and channels it alongside them but not interrupting the initial cast. Both champions will arrive at the Fountain at the same time.

Fey Feathers is a great ability for Rakan because he always likes to engage in and out of a battle frequently. If you’re playing Rakan, don’t be afraid to attempt engages or harass shots on the enemy since your shield will absorb the damage. Always wait for your shield to be up before trying to make a play. Lover’s Leap gives Xayah an incredible advantage during the laning phase because it allows her to recall quickly by letting Rakan recall in advance while she clears the remaining minions on a wave.

Q: Gleaming Quill

Active – Rakan shoots out an enchanted feather in a direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemy that it hits. If the target was a champion or monster, an area is marked around Rakan. Entering the mark will heal both Rakan and surrounding allied champions.

This ability is a great tool to harass enemies and give you and your ally some sustain. Try to sling this ability at the enemy bottom lane as often as possible so that you can get the mark on yourself. Once you are marked, walk towards an ally so that you can heal yourself and your ally. This will allow you to enter more skirmishes and fight against the enemy champion more often, slowly chipping away at their health while you and your ADC gain an advantage with more health.

W: Grand Entrance

Active – Rakan dashes towards a target location. After a short delay upon his arrival, he leaps upwards, dealing magic damage to surrounding enemies and knocking them up for 1 second.

This is Rakan’s primary engage during the laning phase that closes the distance between him and the enemy and providing a knockup that can disrupt the enemy. Use this often when you have Fey Feathers available and instantly follow it up with Gleaming Quill for an easy shot while the enemy is mid-air. Be aggressive when using this ability and don’t immediately retreat if you think you and your allies have a chance at winning a prolonged fight but retreat if your only intention is to harass.

E: Battle Dance

Active – Rakan shields a target ally for 3 seconds and then dashes towards them and dances around them briefly. Rakan can recast this ability again within 5 seconds with the same effects.

If this ability is used on Xayah, the range is increased.

Battle Dance is a great defensive tool and an even better utility skill to disengage from a fight. Usually, players will use this after knocking up an enemy with Grand Entrance so that the allied AD Carry can deal damage while they’re mid-air and not get any damage in return since both Rakan and his allies will be in a safe distance. During teamfights, it’s a good idea to use this ability to shield multiple allies or block an incoming skillshot from an enemy so that your main damage dealers won’t be in a perilous position.

R: The Quickness

Active – Rakan starts to run gracefully, captivating enemies with his movements. Enemies that pass by Rakan take magic damage and are charmed for a duration, slowing them by 75% movement speed. Colliding with an enemy champion will extend the duration of The Quickness by 0.25 seconds. The effects of this ability can only be activated once per champion.

The Quickness is a powerful engage ability that can immobilize all of the enemy champions at the same time. This ability is used immediately after landing Grand Entrance when trying to engage onto the enemy team. Try to run to as many champions as you can while this ability is active and don’t be afraid of taking damage, until you reach the backline of the enemy team. You can use this ability to engage or, in rare circumstances, disengage if you feel like you are in danger.

Rakan Guide – Items and Builds

Next up on our Rakan guide, we’ll be talking about this champion’s items and builds. He is an extremely mobile support that likes to run into fights but isn’t necessarily a tank so health and a combination of utility-focused items are on his inventory list.

Starting Items

Relic Shield – Great for supports that like to engage a lot in the early game since it provides a little bit of survivability to the champion with the added health and regeneration. Maximize this item by using this Starting Item on cannon minions and melee minions so that you and your ally will get the highest amount of gold possible during the laning phase.

Core Items

Shurelya’s Reverie (Mythic) – Rakan likes to dash into fights quickly but that’s all wasted if his allies can’t keep up. This item allows his allies to jump into a fight with him by granting them bonus movement speed. This can also be helpful when using The Quickness since it allies Rakan to tag more enemies and escape quickly while trying to immobilize his enemies on the way in and out.

Zeke’s Convergence – This item is perfect for Rakan because he likes to activate his ultimate ability frequently and immobilize enemies in the process. Since Rakan doesn’t really stray away from his carries that often in the game, they can both benefit from the effect on this item.

Recommended Items

Redemption – The primary function of this ability on Rakan is to increase Rakan’s heals and shields. Two of his basic abilities provide heals and shields so this item will really help making those abilities more potent. The additional AoE heal will also be really helpful during extended teamfights so don’t forget to activate it.

Watchful Wardstone – This is the upgrade for the relic shield so there’s really no choice in this matter. Just remember to upgrade your Relic Shield as fast as possible and start placing out wards all around the map to improve your macro points that will benefit your team a lot.

Chemtech Putrifier – Allows your ADC to benefit from applying Grievous Wounds without the need to buy an item that would waste their gold and slot. It also has a really high AP ratio that will give your abilities more damage even if it’s just a little bit.

Ardent Censer – As mentioned before, Rakan has a lot of healing and shielding so the added +10% power will be really beneficial. However, the true charm that this item has is that it gives your allied AD Carry additional damage when they’re auto-attacking.

Staff of Flowing Water – Only choose this item when your allied AD Carry benefits from hybrid damage or you have two or more AP carries in your team. Otherwise, it’s a waste of an item slot and only really benefits one or no champions at all. You don’t need to deal a lot of damage since you’re not a carry.

Rakan Guide – Runes

Primary: Resolve

Keystone: Guardian – This rune makes Rakan the ultimate sentinel since he’s able to protect his allies against all situations, making it difficult to kill the duo during short skirmishes. Abuse this rune by using it in combination with Battle Dance and use it during the retreat so even if they pursue you, the damage is irrelevant.

Shield Bash – Really valuable during the laning phase because your harass becomes more potent whenever your passive is up. Dealing damage is important during the laning phase since it secures that you take priority in the lane and push your enemy duo into a gold deficit.

Conditioning – Since Rakan won’t be building a lot of tank items in the later stages of the game. Having these tank runes will definitely help in all stages of the game.

Revitalize – Another source of increase for your healing and shielding power to make you and your ally almost unkillable in the game.

Secondary: Domination

Zombie Ward – This rune is great since it allows the player to gain more vision. Make sure that you get the Sweeping Lens as your trinket and buy a lot of Vision Wards to clear enemy wards.

Relentless Hunter – Movement speed is really helpful for Rakan since he likes to get into the enemy team and run around them. Whether it’s chasing the enemy or running away from a fight, extra movement speed will never do you any wrong no matter what the situation is. Just make sure to participate in fights by roaming or being aggressive in your lane.

Rakan General Overview

Rakan is a champion that requires players not to doubt themselves when going in for an engage. Movement speed is your best resource so the route you take will always matter when you want to impact a fight. This champion will take quite a while to master and the first few games you play might end up you jumping into your death. Don’t be discouraged about this and continue practicing this champion and read up further on some more Rakan guides until you master it.