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I haven't ran the math, but based on gameplay experience since the patch the duo XP change alters these level breakpoints: Old: 2 - all 3 melees from 2nd wave 3 - all 3 melees from 4th wave New: 2 - 2 melees and 1 of any minion from 2nd wave 3 - 2 melees from 4th wave

Knight's Vow is currently being built by basically every tank I have in any of my games (I'd say around at least a 65% presence across all tanks in my games). As for Helia, I still find it's a really nice item on Rakan... I tend to play him a bit different than most people though as I do not play him as a primary engage so I don't need a tank item as my first item. With the 2 stack requirement, his double-cast E, Q, and Font of Life once again proccing Helia letting even Rakan's W proc it, you can churn out a lot of procs very quickly (6 stacks within around a couple seconds is not uncommon for me). It also has a bit of health on it, so you're not entirely without the ability to tank some chip damage. I've also found going into Wardstone after Helia to be very strong since the two together give quite a bit of health, resists, and ability haste. I don't immediately start dumping pinks everywhere because that's just too expensive, but knowing you can place a 4th ward or 2nd pink without removing another one can be situationally very useful in saving you gold as well. This season has made me rethink how I play Rakan quite a lot, especially from a rune/itemization perspective. So far I've been having the most success with a build like this: Runes: - Glacial whenever I can for scaling (see items below), Guardian if I'm afraid. - Cosmic Insight (flash CD primarily, also reduces Solstice's proc CD). - Font of Life (this is very important due to the interaction with Helia mentioned above, it gives you a 4th method of proccing it while also building stacks - W). - Revitalize (good scaling, also increases Glacial slow by 4.5%). - Pick your favourites from the other Inspiration and Resolve runes (I've been enjoying Cash Back - RIP Future's Market and Ingenious Hunter, my favourite runes - and Biscuit, Second Wind, or Bone Plating to help get through early game a bit. Once nice thing about Bone Plating on Rakan is that small chip damage won't waste it, it only procs after your passive shield is gone). - Stat runes are whatever you like, Rakan works well with literally any of them so play what's appropriate for the situation or fits your style. The one caveat is if you are considering the tenacity rune, that might be a sign a champion like Rell is a better pick that game. Rakan wants to avoid being locked down altogether, not get out after being locked down. That's not a hard rule though. Always-Items (in a varying order depending on what the game state is): - Solstice Sleigh (when you W in you will proc this, Font of Life, Helia, gain 1 stack on Helia afterwards, Glacial, and trigger Moonstone for all of that if you have it). - The new recall boots (ESPECIALLY with Xayah... You can gain SO MUCH tempo for your lane very early since that empowered recall transfers to her as well). - Helia (AP, health, haste, and he can proc it better than almost every enchanter I can think of minus maybe Sona. You can proc 4 stacks effectively instantly with him, up to 4 more really quickly afterwards). - Wardstone (The defensive stats on this scale really nicely with Rakan's passive and the health Helia/Moonstone gives you all while not "wasting a slot" on a tank support item in the later portions of games that go longer). If the game goes longer then I always see if I can reasonably buy these, I only buy something else if the situation REALLY calls for it: - Moonstone (Rakan makes very good use of the AP, HP, haste, and heal/shield procs) - Dawncore (if bought after two mana regen items your Glacial slow reaches approximately 60% for 4-5 seconds depending what you proc it with, and your E and Q each give ~450 shields/HP per cast in addition to buffing Solstice, Font of Life, and Helia procs by a total of around 30%) Optional things instead of Moonstone/Dawncore: - Mandate for wombo-combo teams. - Locket if you need general durability. I don't like going Zeke's on Rakan as I'm never standing in range long enough to make use of the proc. The locket shield also scales with the rest of the build. - Crucible when you need a cleanse on support. - Knight's Vow or Abyssal when you need specific damage type durability or their relevant utility (protect-the-carry or "wait why did 0 of us pick a physical damage champion?"). - Staff or Censer to maximize carry DPS. Staff has a niche pick option as selfish move speed for Rakan, but I find I don't really need it. - Redemption: I usually prefer Locket over Redemption most of the time for durability, however Redemption does scale better, lets you affect things you're far away from, if you're dead, and has some niche counter uses when timed well (executes, etc.). I think of this somewhat as a "slightly worse scaling but safer" version of Moonstone when bought on Rakan. Notes: Games very rarely go past the "Always Items" for me, usually ending when I have the mini wardstone. I sometimes go Kindlegem into Wardstone when I need more tankiness as my quest tends to finish around the perfect timing for that. This build gives around 200 AP and 3.5k HP along with some buffer resistances, which makes you bulky enough if you are not the primary engage or vs 18 assassins who only want to hunt you; you should be diving in and out very often. Note Note: Just my 2 cents as someone who loves Rakan but is not coming from a challenger/competitive-play level. I really don't like building him pure tank as I'd just rather play Rell if I'm going to do that. Making use of his enchanter qualities while being bulky enough to play like a psycho is very important to me in expressing my play style with him.

thanks again for this video coach, you are really helpful !

Nice video, Idk who that scary looking guy who replaced Cupcake is though

I dont see how Knights Vow being bought by junglers/toplaners means its overtuned.. Its just a tank item which is priced primarky for supports but jungle and top tanks can get it too as it gives them stats and an ability they may want. Happy to be corrected. Just got to your bit on ghost - champs who liked extended fights in 14.9 will still like them in 14.10. As an Ashe/Jinx/Trist playa, I think I might switch to barrier when I think the shield will make a big difference. Ghost was simply overpowered and mobility on 325 base move speed champs is very enticing.

Do you think swifties, dark seal, warmogs, Knight vow is a good core for alistar support now?

Great informative video thanks a lot =)

can I one trick pyke from silver? thanks for the contet.

cool guide. what makes rakan the best scaling engager?

Great video

I've been a janna main since then with almost 950k masteries and yet willing to learn new styles and build. 🤭🥰

Braum is the new janna ! Lesgo

this is something all players should hear!! really good advice

I've been worried about not getting enough minion xp and gold share by spending too much time with unsuccessful roams in the post-first base early game. Is this not a concern?

Do you always go this item or if not how do u choose which one u take?

I know I'm late, but thank you so much for this video. It is exactly what I needed right now and I like how it gives a playful way to learn and encourages you to actively think and internalize the information.

Have you tried Echoes of Helia on Milio? The item builds stacks whenever an Ally triggers his passive so you can proc it quite often

can you explain why bard scales well? my guess is that he's ult is game changing. anything other than that? ps. your guides are god tier

Thank you for this.

Amazing guide, I feel like a criminal for watching this for free. By the way, since I've been toying with the occasional Ashe Support, what are your thoughts on Malignance on her? Usually I'd build Umbral Glaive => Axiom Arc on her, but her R seems to synergize really well with the burning ground passive of the item Regardless if you answer thank you!

I believe I just played an aram against you. I would have played better if I knew you would be there. I was playing Janna on adcNanny. And you were carrying the game on Pyke.

I have found that ZazZaks works good on Renata the e cooldown is around the same as ZazZaks.

I don't think dark seal is worth on Janna in like gold elo. You could've gotten way more mana regen with faerie charm. That seems like it's more guaranteed damage that's not kill reliant, no?

any chance of an updated guide?

brotha playing Janna eww brotha!

all this mistake never happen in silver to punish

He's in CBLOL semifinals now!

Playing against engage supports is a nightmare always

The simple fact is that low elo roaming is trash because low elo supps are trash. Most of you are so fucking bad even up to gold and above that you have no idea how lane presssure works and just assume adcs are able to hold freezes 2v1. You're not good enough to get roams and ganks mid and you'll then blame the adc and wonder why this strat isnt working for you. You need to keep it simple and stop doing too much. I can't tell you the sheer amount of games even up to mid gold where you absolute fucking oxygen thieves are actually solo losing the lane by roaming for 6 minutes out of the first 15. In short, fucking get better with the basics. and stop trying to emulate shit you saw high elo players do. You aren't them.

Are all of his links not working for anyone else? The discord and the SOS links aren’t working

Still applicable for season 14?

I missed an opportunity for a kill today and I was kicking myself afterwards. Could have ulted a Jinx on Ashe and didn't go for it. I died a minute later as she got a good engage with her Alistar. Really annoying.

I think low elo supports argue this point because they do better just being in lane than failing roams time after time again, they have to learn how to roam before it's actually useful, but like you said, they blame their adc when it fails (and they also love to roam while the adc is against stuff they can't just play safe against like Jhin/nautilus or Xerath/Varus. if you're alone against that you just die under tower to them diving with ult off cooldown)

Why would you go by cupcake. WTF is this gay sh1t. No wonder everyone laughs at league players

I had a similar idea as well and I think I identified the main problem with people complaining that their ADC is dying. When they roam, most of them are not roaming on good timers. This means pushing out the wave and resetting with your laner to secure a solid timer. (or push and insta roam) Also realizing why you are roaming is important. Are we playing for grubs because we have a trundle/illaoi? Are we trying to help our azir scale into late game? I feel like a lot of lower elo players issues (mine included) is identifying the win con of the game and figuring out how you fit into that role with your champ. Also in your next video you should go over wave states. I feel like you mention it a few times, but I don't know if newer players will pick up what each one means. Maybe explain why you choose to move to mid based on the wave state (IE: mid is frozen on our side, their mid has to break it and walk up) ect. Good video overall man, cheers

My brother in christ you have a higher apm coaching than I have playing 😅

Like what everyone else is saying, it doesn't make any sense being the person actually playing this game here. You aren't proving your point other than a high elo support can roam against low elo people. As an ADC main, it's not that I don't think roaming can't yield good results, it's just that when it doesn't go well, you are both putting yourself AND your laner behind. Most Emerald supports have no real understanding of roam timers and will just grief both the bot lane AND the solo lanes more times than not. It's a hard skill to learn and can easily lose you a game.

Roams being good or not depends a lot on what your champ is good at vs what the enemy champ is good at. If you're an Ahri and you're not perma-roaming, you're trolling. If you're a Xerath and you don't have good vision, aren't tracking the enemy jungler, and don't have your R, and you're roaming at all, you're trolling. If you're Vlad and the enemy champ is an Ahri, you're going to struggle a lot to find good roam opportunities.

Great video, thanks Cupcake. I have extremely limited experience of very low elo, I got into Gold very easily so don't have much personal experience applicable to this video. I agree that you debunked this myth.

What is the best way to play when you are an engage support, the team is behind, yet they refuse to make initiative safe plays/objectives (like pushing lanes) and are just constantly reacting to whatever plays the enemy team makes (I mean this is obviously necessary, but it seems like sometimes they get into this trance after a play is finished, wait for the enemy to make the next play (even if they succesfully defended a siege or won a tf/objective!) losing precious tempo. Too often I find myself reacting taking over a task that shouldn’t be mine (like waveclearing a pushed in lane, because the teammate who should is either dead, chasing fights, basing inappropriate, etc). This is especially awful on a support that has terrible waveclear (tank or enchanter). I do prioritize warding objectives, clearing wards or making plays with the team member with the most dmg. What else can you do in a situation like this? Is it perhaps better to just not push a lane at all so that another teammember must respond to the dead inhib that will otherwise result and hope the team will group for it and continue on a more cohesive teamplay pattern from there? Or perhaps is it more important to assess how responsive teammates are too your pings and calls and if they are not it is just better to mostly follow around the potential carry around the map and have them make the majority of the decisions, even if these are mediocre you can try to keep them alive more? This video was quite useful, I was always paranoid I am missing out on too much exp due to roams, but seeing this made it seem very worthwhile. The support role is not about maxing out exp, but creating win conditions helping other roles win theirs by applying your unique utility, plus unsettling the enemy team with fog of war like you demonstrated. Also any exp you miss, your adc will get more, and you can still share a wave with a mid laner after a successful gank as well. I think this ties in with my mild ocd over missed exp/gold. I get triggered when I see a mid or adc just wasting time and not catching a wave or a lane not being properly pushed. This is not such an issue when I play a mage with decent waveclear, you can shortly catch a wave solo as a support occasionally in the mid game, but I really need to get rid of that habit.

Just ignore the part of the community who refuses to learn. Its always the same "i cant climb cause i dont have damage!" "warding is usseless cause people at my elo dont watch the map!" "i cant roam cause my adc is going to die!" just trying to justify why they are not doing their work. Dont want to sound rude but man, its a pain in the ass cause that attitude gives a lot of false info to new players who actually want to get better. You want to climb? embrace your identity as a support of whatever class you are and do your chores.

he means the JIG is up a gig is a part time job

Thank you so much going into greater depth on this topic! I really do appreciate your varied examples. In another video you made I commented about the prospects roaming in lower ranks and you requested replays, but I had unfortunately none to share since I haven't been playing for awhile. I don't think many content creators talk about specifics as much as this so it's very refreshing to see.

you should probably get a bronze player to play and get them to roam rather than smurfing and ruining it for the other 9 players

Hi, I am a new League player. I got to Gold 3 in my first 3 months or so by playing Morgana only, then this season I started off badly due to mental (probably because I had a lot of university and was unsatisfied with my level of play in the evenings), I played this season Morgana > Seraphine > Leona > Ahri supports in order of games played and got from abyssmal Bronze 3 back to Gold 3 in 3 weeks. Over 300 games or so played I have realized few things for myself: 1. It does seem that people think you should roam or not roam at all, when I have watched some higher elo streamers, I stumbled across some Tarzaned and Doanel videos where they compare some roaming support (Janna in particular lately) to enemy support and saying that roaming is OP and their support is braindead for not roaming. It's unfair to compare something like Bard, Janna, Leona (with swifties or mobis) to other more basic supports 2. I have realised very often you can counter-gank mid. I had a lot of success that felt impactful just by warding enemy jg camps (krugs or raptors) then hovering mid against enemy jungle when my lane is safe or when enemy jg is around mid. I have also learnt to ward better on river (banana brush or raptors) to spot enemy sup roams, so I can impact mid without even being there - if my mid sees my pings and sees enemy sup on ward they play way better. Basically if enemy sup roams I try to help my team through wards or hovering myself if they are in fog, or I just straight up go and do play on mid before them if they are in fog - I feel that reactive League is usually bad 3. Personally I don't roam to Grubs @5 if I don't have T2 boots, but I play Morgana and Leona with swifties so far so when I do have T2 it feels better. I have played some Dota and Dota has Tranquil boots that give you movespeed out of combat so I told myself whatever, I will just play it like Dota and I often take Swifties and consider Mobis on engagers if Ill play them. I like Relentless hunter too instead of cookies secondary because I play long range with on-demand poke and want to just learn the game right now holistically My goal this season is to get to Platinum-Emerald by doing the same things as I do. I have also noticed supports are afraid to go Relentless hunter or Celerity/Waterwalking but then roam all game. If you plan to just dump bot and focus on roams only you can as well go movespeed build, but people don't get Swifties/Mobis on Leona and Alistar and then complain that permaroaming doesn't work due to team

Love the video and content I think your conclusions are spot on besides I think your underestimating adc miss playing/tilting even with proper communication on our part. That being said roaming op

imo there is no discution, roaming is efective in every game as support. the thing is as support you need to know your windows to roam and you need to know when you are on advantage as support to spread your lead to your teammates. the thing is bronce supports usually dont know their windows that's why some players think roaming is bad becouse they usually fucked it up and give up EXP and gold from their own lanes, and it's totally understandable becouse knowing those windows is usually a thing you start learning in much high elo like gold-plat. but if you know how to do a good roaming and your windows to do it, you can speedrun low elo. actually im just comming back to lol from a +3 year break from the game and i have 90% wr just for roaming and working with my junglers i started arround iron something and now im bronze 1 in just 10 games. so yeah, roaming is a very good strat to learn.

Good to see some examples and tips to improve roaming in low elo Coach Cupcake, much appreciated :).

I mean you're still challenger player with challenger understanding of the game and mechanics. With all due respect, I don't think this proves much... maybe if you coached someone in real time to tell them when and where to go, and have them execute the plays mechanically? Not sure, it would still be a bit iffy but a much more accurate representation.

That was some really good Janna gameplay in the early levels. Would be scary to lane against you!