Hello, I’m an AP Rakan player, (I also play Taric jgl and AP Rengar) and today, I’m going to show you why AP Rakan is not just good, but absolutely insane.


(Quick side note about my threats for AP Rakan, don't think that you can't kill a Brand or Lulu because it’s a high threat. If I added that they are "squishy" that means you can kill them easily but just watch out for them before you engage. Also, if I didn't write "squishy" then either take them on with a team mate or when they are low. In addition AP Rakan is almost useless against tanks in the early game, and you're still pretty useless against tanks in late game but you CAN kill them. In addition I marked things as either 'Adc', 'Support' or 'Mid'. 'Adc' and 'Support' are for AP Rakan support and 'Mid' is for AP Rakan mid.).

The basics to play AP Rakan Support

During laning phase you play behind your adc but not to far, stay in E range at all possible times. Walk up to get Q poke and heal your adc. As AP Rakan you deal lots of dmg with your full combo but ever since the durability patch thats because alot harder so you need to stick with your adc almost at all times, they will be able to provide that extra dmg to finish off targets you can't. During team fight phase save W for any threat and R, W, Q them as soon as they walk up. Your job is to make the team fights a cake walk, save your abilites to either one shot or CC chain for a teammate to kill the strongest enemy in the team fight BUT play smart still, AP Rakan is a high risk high reward your deal/shield/heal more but you are very squishy compared to normal Rakan. That means if you miss W during a fight, you will die 99.999% of the time unless the enemy is dumb and doesnt CC the Rakan that just jumped in the center of them.

The basics to play AP Rakan Mid

As soon as laning phase starts at lvl 1 go for the W, if you hit the W proc electrocute. If you miss run away and hope they don't deal enough dmg to break shield, AP Rakan win's 90% of all matchups before lvl 3. At lvl 2 go in again and hit Q, keep autoing until you've lost a tiny amount of HP then back out. The Q will heal it back. Keep this process up until 6 and at 6 you can go for kills on lower hp targets and you can start to roam. Don't use W to farm unless the CS is under your tower. Focus on helping your jgler, roam to river when scuttle fight happens and invade with them when you can. DONT BE STUPID, although I say keep comboing until 6 watch out for CC and quick bursts. Play around their abilites.

It's all about what your playstyle is. AP Rakan is all about dealing massive dmg to the enemy team, then using your massive shields and heals to help your team win the team fight. Tank Rakan is all about trying to provide as much cc and shielding as possible. I prefer the AP playstyle because I like the extra dmg it provides to allow me to help out the adc in the early game. Plus, all of Rakan's abilities have AP scaling so his Q and E healing/shielding are insane and you can still tank for your team because your passive shield scales with AP, too.

AP Rakan's job is to target the enemy who will do the most dmg or whoever is the greatest threat. In laning phase, your job is to W the enemie’s adc and let your adc finish them off. Then, you E to them and heal them with Q's healing to stop the opposing support from killing them (If their support engages first, E your adc to stop the dmg then W their adc and E back to your adc). Your basic combos on AP Rakan are W,AA,Q and R,W,AA,Q these combos will both proc electrocute, and start your Q healing to allow you to E to a teammate and heal all the dmg you just took. (If you have ignite, then use it during your combo if needed). Rakan's R is his most powerful tool. It gives extra MS to engage or escape and if you W your R will charm them as you dash into them, guaranteeing that you land your W. Before you engage at all, you need to take into account if the enemy has any cc that they can use to stop your W because if you either miss or it gets cancelled then you will die or heavily lose the trade, so play your fights slow and wait until you can 100% hit W. (If you dont get cc'ed and you just miss your W, then attempt to Q, E to escape and heal back the dmg they will 100% do to you).

Nothing special, just basic combos and roams. Mostly refer to 'The Basics (Mid)' and ' Basic Mid Laning Knowledge' you can refer to support combat knowledge to know how to play teamfights better and fighting with jglers

No special about the laning phase in itself, just play around the enemys mistakes and engages BUT you are a high moblity support so roaming is a great thing to do (make sure your adc can fend for themselves before you do this, no reason to get your adc tilted for no reason) when you roam play around your jungler, try and invade with you jungler if the enemy is taking blue or roam up to scuttle crab to help your jungler secure it. Roaming into mid isn't a bad idea either but make sure that when you roam you'll get value from it, don't gank a cass or a veigar when they have cage/anti-dash poison up wait for the CC to be used to gank. Also be carful when engaging, only W when you know you can get out without dying. I do have people who flame me all the time for not engaging every fight, you are the mage, you engage after someone else engages. I just mute them and keep playing, AP Rakan is a very different playstyle from your standrad Rakan, just learn to play it and ignore the people who refuse to understand that you aren't a tanky engage anymore. However you can engage but you must watch out for CC and if you do combo the carry then run away.

In the mid lane there is 4 different playstyles.

1. Melee matchups - These include champs like Zed, Talon, and Panth. Into these take trades with more caution than normal, all these champs have a key abilite that wins them the trade (Zed W, Talon P, Panth W) you can either bait it out or not fight them. Once they use this abilite though you win the trade.

2. Ranged CC matchups - These champs include Lux, Syndra, and Annie. All these matchups will have a CC you MUST DODGE or bait out, against skill shot CC you can engage whenever if you are confident that you can dodge the CC or deal more dmg than they will, however against point and click CC you muct bait it out. You will lose if you engage point and click CC

3. Ranged Slow matchups - This includes Orianna, Asol, Azir. These matchups all have a powerful slow in their main kit, these champs will absolulty decimate you after you engage, they just slow you then poke and poke. all I do is W, Q, AA then run nothing else. However if their slow is quick and long range (like Asol) just wait for them to use it or just use W then run away. Against these champs dont W unless you can 100% hit it, they punish harder than anyone else

4. The Weirdos - These are all the other mid laners, most of these have a weird gimmick that you need to work around and is cery case dependant

When I think of who I am going to W, its 99% of the time going to be the person who does the most dmg in that fight. Your goal is to shut down the person that will **** up your team, (You're still a support champ) but sometimes in a fight, people become very stupid and if someone pushes up or flanks your team then wait for their dash and W then try and catch out any stragglers and make the fight a 4v5.

Remember that you still are a support champ, not an AP carry mid laner. After you full combo, you should have your Q heal ready so look out for the rest of the team during a fight and watch for any low health teammates then insta E to them, shielding and healing them. Hopefully, that should drive off any assassins. If you were able to full combo someone without using R then you can R, E and Hextech RocketBelt to get in someones face and charm them. But just use your Q and E for the team, don't use them selfishly.

If you are ahead and the enemy has no major threats, you can use your R for single targets. During teamfights, you can R and flash into the enemy and either get a 2-5 man W or assassinate the enemy backline then run away with your insane MS.

Play safe and don’t take fights without your adc. Wait for the enemy to fight you and your adc, then suprise them with your insane E shielding and suprise the other adc with your insane W,Q,AA dmg. Keep your adc alive at all costs, even if that means dying for them or saving W to use defensely. Don't take teamfights at all, wait for someone to leave their team to go farm a side lane and ambush them with your jungler or adc (You should always win the 2v1 with your cc). Wait for the enemy to take an objective, and get a massive R,W to win a fight (Only take 2v1's in the late game and you are behind. Avoid team fights until you get shutdown gold and catch up. If you lose hard in early game play safe and wait for the support to leave lane and 2v1 or wait for the enemy adc to mess up BAD).

Play around your team, leave lane and force fights with numbers advantage. If you can buy dark seal to snowball off of roams so you can win lane. However mainly use your abilites to the benefit of the team not yourself, attempt to feed your team kills with you CC and dmg

You should be able to one-shot or almost one-shot squishies in the mid to late game no matter what. Also, in laning phase, you don't have to full combo them everytime you W them. Save your Q to heal your adc later or save it so you dont KS on accident (I have accidently KS'ed from my duo so many times, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR DMG! But also, don’t think you can one-shot anyone and their mothers. Just play AP rakan a couple of games to get a feel for his dmg before you try to play comp with it).

AP rakan does have its drawbacks, but you CAN get rid of most of the cons if you stay focused while you play.

- If you are caught out without any teammates, you can't Q heal or E (This con means that if you dont have anyone nearby, you only have W and R to escape BUT this can be fixed by just always stay near your adc)

- You're dead if you get cc'ed during W (in teamfights if you get cc'ed mid W, then you get caught in the middle of the enemy team without any escape, but you can fix this by watching out for the oppenet's cd's and make sure that they don't have any CC to stop you when you engage)

- You can't protect your adc (This means that you can only help them with your spells. you dont have the HP or armor/MR. This con is unavoidable, but you have alot of dmg to stop the adc from fighting your adc in the first place)

Just remeber to play slow and dont get mad if you fail on your first couple of games. Ap rakan is a very good pick but it just takes practice.

I AM NOT A CHALLENGER OR A PRO, SO DON’T YELL AT ME IF I MISSED SOMETHING. Just kindly point it out in the comments/discussion, if you have any questions ill be happen to discuss as well. Also, this is my first guide so I don’t know how to do any of the commands, so sorry for just having normal text, but I will update this with colors and stuff when I learn it. Thanks for reading my guide and Take Care!