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Champion reveal: The Charmer and the Rebel

Riot have outdone themselves this time. Our next “champion” is actually a pair of champions instead, complete with their own unique interactions. Rakan, the Charmer, is a wily scoundrel who loves the spotlight and can quite easily grab it with his flashy support plays. Meanwhile, Xayah, the Rebel, is a moody warrior who relies heavily on her feather minigame to dish out damage in the ADC role.

 

Abilities

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As you might have guessed, Rakan and Xayah are an ADC/support duo. While there are bonuses for having both on the same team, each has their own reasons to be picked and can function alone if necessary.

Rakan’s kit has a variety of different tools that he can use to set up plays. Gleaming Quill and Battle Dance let Rakan heal and shield his allies, keeping them safe from harm, while Grand Entrance allows the Charmer to set up ganks or all-in trades with its AoE knockup. Once Rakan hits six, his ultimate - The Quickness - gives him the potential to charm entire teams, forcing them to stare after him helplessly as his allies turn them into mincemeat.

However, Rakan’s abilities emphasize being in the thick of the fight, forcing him to rely heavily on his high mobility to stay alive. A squishy support can’t survive long under focus fire - even with the shields granted by his passive - and Rakan literally has to run at the enemy team if he wants his ultimate to do anything. Following up on an initiation is where Rakan will shine, as he can chain The Quickness to the tank’s CC before dashing to safety with Battle Dance. 

While Rakan darts around freely in fights, Xayah is a lot more grounded. She can deal significant amounts of AoE damage in teamfights by properly managing her passive, Clean Cuts - which essentially gives her a mini-Twitch ult every time she uses an ability. Xayah also has a reasonable amount of self-peel thanks to Bladecaller’s root, though she’ll have to be careful about where her feathers have landed.

The feather minigame is the core of Xayah’s kit, and she’ll want to pay careful attention to where they’ve landed before attempting to make plays. Double Daggers and Featherdance give Xayah a way to get feathers on the battlefield quickly, though stacking them with her passive is a more reliable way to do so in teamfights. Her damage output seems fairly high on paper, but it remains to be seen if that’s the case in-game.

 

Playstyle

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Xayah and Rakan are interesting in that they have abilities that exclusively affect each other. Rakan’s Battle Dance has double the usual range if it targets Xayah, and Xayah’s Deadly Plumage bonuses will apply to Rakan if she casts it while near him. On top of that, the lovers can sync to each other’s recalls, effectively accelerating the amount of time it takes to get back to base. One thing’s for sure - if you don’t pick both of these champions in the same draft phase, you probably won’t get one or the other.

Drafting them together is a fairly effectivey strategy, as the pair complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Rakan can help keep his immobile carry by shielding and healing her, while Xayah can lay down enough damage for the both of them thanks to Clean Cuts. Drafting either one of them alone isn’t a bad thing though - Rakan functions fairly effectively as a hybrid disruptor/enchanter in teamfights, while Xayah can DPS with the likes of Caitlyn or Jinx.

As it stands however, Rakan is the most likely one of the two to see professional play. His kit contributes a little of everything to fights, and he functions quite well in both protect-the-carry and teamfight comps.

 

Thematics

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We don’t know much about the lovers yet, but there’s at least a little that we can extrapolate from the info we have. Rakan and Xayah are lovers, and apparently are part of some kind of rebellion. Who or what they’re rebelling against is unclear, but we can hazard a guess that they’re upset with the Ionian government, given that their brief stories mention killing an Ionian soldier. Discrimination against vastaya seems a likely candidate, but this IS Ionia we’re talking about. The nation is unlikely to be outwardly hostile towards anyone without good reason.

Honestly, for this writer the worst part of Rakan and Xayah is their voiceovers. The former sounds like an arrogant trash-talking jock from high school, while the latter is a moody teenager who’s trying to be edgier than Shadow the Hedgehog. How the two ever came to be friends, let alone lovers, is beyond me - I wanted to hit the mute button the second I heard Xayah’s voice.

At any rate, I look forward to seeing more of their backstory and finding out what rebellion they’re a part of. I just hope that it doesn’t involve listening to them.

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