Few things about Soraka

So as a soraka main with over 200k+ mastery (not bragging), i feel like i need to share few things with the community. I'll try my best to make this short.

First of all and foremost, in soloq it is much better for raka to have and the adc . One, because raka sacrifices 10% max health to heal you and two, because raka wants to avoid all forms of damage and stay as far behind as possible. Think of her life bar as her mana. She won't be able to heal (do her job) if her health goes too low just like how a mage becomes useless as its mana is depleted. I know pros take exhasut on soraka but you have to acknowledge the fact that all of their picks are well thought counter picks and have a great team composition. In soloq it is different and as a raka main i know how much protection she herself needs as a squishy support without any reliable cc to escape. Therefore heal on raka in soloq is not something you shouldn't expect but rather, it could be more beneficial for you the longer raka stays alive and for those who didn't know the %healing items also boost summoner heal. Leave the burden of managing your health bar on her shoulders and do as much damage as possible to compensate for the lack of damage she has.

Secondly, i know people hate laning against raka but that's usually because you choose poke mages or supports that love dealing poke damage into raka. This is a bad idea as soraka's sustain is way too good in lane since she can easily throw those Q's to sustain in lane where things happen much more slowly as in compared to team fights.

Another thing i want to mention is that, raka works really well with early game champs like jhin, cait, draven as she herself has a very weak early laning phase that the adc can compensate for. The more poke the adc has the better for you as you'll easily be able to out-sustain the enemy and then dive them when they are low on hp. She is not too good at dealing with ganks as the slow and snare on her Q and E are not very reliable especially since the mobility creep is so damn bad now. So an adc with a dash can also work well with her. If you go someone like vayne with raka then you must play safe in the lane early on as you both are late gamers. Nonetheless, the trick to laning with her is to learn to poke and farm as an adc and out-sustain your enemies in lane.

Why i think raka is a late gamer eventhough she is really dominant in lane, in most match-ups. Her W cooldown reduces significantly from level 1-5 and the fact that support items are just wayy too good right now makes her a late game champ. Not to mention her ult is just fab in team fights.

You should also know that raka has a very hard time dealing with thresh, leona, alistar and blitz that can hook or have non-stop cc, especially in soloq where you don't have much coordination and team work with your adc. Her sustain against these champs does not work so well because they love to dive in and cc your adc until the enemy adc can get a kill. Usually you'll heal and exhaust your own life bar fast enough to regenerate from your constant Q's against these match ups. Even against other sustain supports like nami and sona, raka has a very hard time dealing with them because of them having poke damage, cc in combination with sustain. Nami is actually a good counter pick on soraka in pro play as her Q followed up by the enemy adc's damage can really be lethal and raka won't be able to sustain the adc fast enough. You'll be in trouble if raka gets Q'd since she regenerates her health much more slowly (with Q's) than she can heal her adc, so avoid damage as much as possible.

The point i am trying to get across is that as much as you guys like to believe that raka is cancer because of her healing, she has clear weaknesses and counter play. She is frustrating to play against if you go poke champs against her but that's because sustain counters poke and burst counters sustain. Now the difference between raka and other tanks and sustain supports is that raka's whole kit focuses on heals incomparison to sona and nami that have sustain and cc/damage or janna with her really good cc and sustain.

There are things that really hinder raka that people do not notice. Firstly, no one cares or even knows the burden that raka has by healing you and sacrificing 10% of her max health. This means that if she goes tank raka that 10% max health means alot and this is also the reason why buying hp items on raka is not recommended. The math below will explain why.

if raka buys and she gains 400 extra hp. At level 18 she has 1855 hp (without adding in runes and masteries). With 400hp extra she has 2255hp at level 18. Depending on items she usually has 70 AP (counting 10 AP from runes), and about 30% extra healing from items and mastery. With those stats she'll heal for about 315hp at level 18 (taking into account all items and masteries).

Therefore at level 18 she'll sacrifice 10% of 2255 max hp (225) to heal for 315hp. If she didn't have the 400 extra hp she would have sacrificed 185 hp to heal 315hp, which as you can see is much more beneficial. Since her healing costs 10% MAX health, she can stack as much hp as she wants but she'll still only be able to heal the same amount. Therefore spending money on AP or %healing item, or MR/Armor is much better for her than pure hp. Although redemeption and Eye of oasis are a must on her so you got to live with what you have. Some of you may want to buy on her but that'll usually be your 5-6th item and you'll activate the passive at around level 15+. I can't remember the last game i had where i got all 6 items, not to mention the passive deactivates upon taking damage and the 800hp extra on warmogs really hurts raka's healing potential.

As you see, raka is literally healing (315-225 = 105hp) extra for 70 mana without sacrificing any of her health for it. Now compare this to nami's W that can heal upto maximum of 3 targets. With 30% healing from items (same as raka) and she usually goes ( or ) that'll give her minimum of 35AP more. Therefore with 30%healing and about 100AP minimum, nami's W will heal maximum of 3 allies for 215HP ( i know it bounces off enemies as well). The point is that she has to sacrifice 0 health to heal for 215hp on max 3 allies or minimum 1 ally and damage 2 enemies, whereas soraka heals for 105hp after taking into account the amount of health she loses in return. Sona would heal multiple allies for 145+hp ( and the shield) and she usually goes athenes whos's passive works wonders with her passive and boosts her healing and shield. Then again with no personal health cost.

To sum it all up, all other enchanters either have sustain + damage or sustain + peel or damage + peel compared to soraka who has literally no damage but a really good sustain. She becomes a stupid heal BOT later on in the game as you can literally spam her W but you must know that it costs her 10% MAX health and that she'll go oom soon. If you check stats then sona, nami , janna are all good picks against her and obviously leona, thresh, alistar and blitz. Her winrate and pickrate has gone down and she sees much less pro play than before. More people have realized that counters her and some mages counter her without even knowing it . Soon will have GW on it as well and don't forget . In addition abilities like ult and coupled with can apply GW on multiple targets at once. There goes her whole team on GW without any effort from the enemy and now raka is healing for -40% ( 315 x 0.6 = 189hp) and her ult also suffers as its so easy to apply GW now. So now raka is healing for 189hp and sacrificing 225hp at level 18! She is suppose to be a late gamer but right now because of GW she is not. First i thought "lets avoid healing those who have GW applied on them" but clearly now i have realized that my whole team has GW in team fights and there is no indicator as well. She is really bad at peeling whatsoever, is a squishy support that has a restricted build path, thanks to her 10% max health sacrifice and her kit predominantly focuses on heals.

So those who have read through this all, how is GW not hurting her more than it is hurting other supports? can be bought so early on and are a perfectly fine build paths for adc's and mages. How is it that you are countering raka without even having to do anything? Nami, sona and janna can live with this as they have alot of other stuff in their kits but raka is really suffering. If you think she heals alot, because she does but with a juicy cost on it, then tell riot to give her more damage or peel and cut her healing down. She has clear identifiable weaknesses, her whole kit shouldn't be destroyed with items that are perfectly normal for intended class to build, which are not just cheap but the enemy doesn't have to compensate anything to build them i.e. . If anyone can suggest a rework or changes to GW that can help soraka then please share it with me and maybe just maybe riot will listen.