A week after release, Xayah is looking a bit OP but Rakan is just too squishy

Upcoming patches probably won't yield many changes for the lovebirds.

When a new champion is released they’re typically either too strong or too weak—they need tuning in one direction or the other in the patches following release.

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When Ivern was released, he was buffed several times over the course of the next couple of updates because he was more like a twig than a tree. Rek’sai, on the other hand, was busy three-shotting carries with her Q after building two items, and she needed nerfs. After paying close attention to the two following last week’s release, Xayah and Rakan fall somewhere in the middle of that scale.

Xayah

The rebel seems to be in a relatively healthy state, possibly leaning more towards OP than weak, but not quite there right now. Her maneuverability and high damage are only countered by her inane squishiness and lack of reliable survivability. Xayah is at her weakest point when a support isn’t nearby to lend a hand in the crowd control department, as she performs best when someone can distract an enemy team while she dances around the outside and sets up her feathers.

It’s relatively easy to isolate her since her positioning is so tricky, and for that, she doesn’t seem that strong despite her consistently high AoE damage. It is strange that her kit seems like a more-effective version of Kalista’s though. She’s more mobile in general, and her mobility isn’t inconvenient to use, unlike Kalista’s passive. Xayah is definitely up there in terms of difficulty, but when you master her and you position yourself correctly, her power really shines through.

Her win-rate is pretty meager right now, sitting at 48 percent according to Champion.gg, a League stats website. Take that at little value, though, since she’s only been out for a bit and there are so many people flocking to learn how to play her. It will take a couple more weeks for her win-rate to reflect more accurately, but for now, it doesn’t seem like Xayah needs any work done.

Related: Rakan and Xayah likely won’t see changes until after the Midseason Update.

Rakan

Where Xayah leans more towards being a bit too strong, Rakan has the opposite problem. He isn’t exactly weak, but he’s closer to that than being OP. His win-rate is a measly 44 percent, which is very low even for new champions, and in fact, he’s the second-lowest winning support champion in the game, behind Miss Fortune at 43 percent. His problem? He’s so squishy.

His abilities promote being a diving disruption tank, but his E allows him to get out of danger quickly so he doesn’t get blown up too easily due to his naturally low health and resistances. The thing is, though, his E’s range is very short if he isn’t using it on Xayah, and since she gets banned in almost 10 percent of games, he suffers often for it. If anything happens to Rakan in an upcoming patch, it’ll likely be a little bit of range on his E, or higher natural resistances to compensate.

Other than his squishiness, Rakan is in a decent spot. His lane harass is alright, his crowd control is great, and the heal on his Q provides his lane with decent survivability.

Xayah is a little on the strong side, and Rakan is a little on the weak side, but it probably isn’t enough to warrant any buffs or nerfs in the near future. If any changes head their way, it’ll likely be some bug fixes and minor tweaks.


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Author
Aaron Mickunas
Esports and gaming journalist for Dot Esports, featured at Lolesports.com, Polygon, IGN, and Ginx.tv.