Soraka Mid

Hi, I'm Soraka Mid and my favorite champion mid is Soraka! In this thread, I'd like to address a few things regarding Soraka, hoping to get a response from a Rioter! This will be a small guide on how I like to play Soraka in the mid lane, but also some questions for Rioters/suggestions to increase viability but maintain a healthy playstyle. Here are the topics:

• Introduction
• Pro's/Con's
• Playstyle
• Recent Buffs/Nerfs
• My Suggestions

Introduction

I like to play Soraka as a utility mage, such as Lulu, Morgana, Zyra, Zilean, and Orianna. These champions offer more than just damage, which is typically less than an assassin or burst mage, such as Ahri, Katarina, Syndra, Talon, Zed, Akali, etc. I would argue the viability of utility mages generally is more niche regarding their team and the other team itself, unlike assassins and burst mages which seem to be viable no matter the team composition. No, I am not trying to take a dig at the more solo queue dominating champions. Rather, I believe utility mages can be more viable in certain situations and less viable in others, leading to more potential if chosen right. For example, Orianna is often chosen in coordination with champions like Jarvan IV, Malphite, Wukong, Vi, and even Zac because of her ability to use her follow up crowd-control in an overwhelming manner if played correctly. We've all seen videos like this one: http://goo.gl/4whkTw and I personally believe Soraka can do similar plays, understandingly less effective for Soraka has many spread out strengths. So, let's move on to the actual information.

Abilities:

Passive: Salvation - Soraka gains 70% movement speed when moving towards allied champions below 40% of their maximum health who are outside of Astral Infusion's range.

Q: Starcall - Soraka calls down a star which lands after a 0.25 - 1 second delay depending on how close the target location is to her position. Enemies standing within the impact zone take magic damage. Enemies standing in the center take 50% increased damage and are slowed for 2 seconds.

W: Astral Infusion - Passive: Each enemy champion hit by Starcall heals Soraka, increased by 1% for every 1% of Soraka's missing health. Active: Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring its health. Astral Infusion cannot be self-cast, and nor can it be cast if Soraka is below 5% of her max health.

E: Equinox - Soraka creates a zone at a target location for 1.5 seconds, enemy champions standing in the zone take magic damage and are silenced for as long as they remain on it. At the end of the zone's duration, all enemy champions inside are rooted for a few seconds and take additional magic damage.

R: Wish - Soraka calls upon the stars, first removing Grievous Wounds and then restoring health to all allied champions on the field, including untargetable allies. Wish’s healing is increased by 50% on allied champions who are below 40% of their maximum health.

Pro’s/Con’s

Pro’s:

• Strong poke in lane and throughout the game
• Capable of very strong bullying if ahead of lane opponent
• Heals are quite overwhelming when not being targeted
• Teamfights are quite strong with AOE CC and full-team heals
• Capable of kiting for long periods of time
• Counters any champions that channel abilities
• Effective fed or not
• Global presence with ultimate

Con’s:

• Very squishy, susceptible to being bursted
• Lacks any direct escape ability (gap-closer, dash, etc.)
• Crowd-control is not assured
• Falls behind easily
• Long cooldowns on damage abilities and ultimate
• Cannot heal herself directly
• Relies heavily on teammates to make plays/carry
• Countered by ignite to an extent

Playstyle

You've just chosen Soraka to play mid lane, but you're not exactly sure how to play her. Should I be really aggressive? What are my goals in lane? How do ganks go with my own jungler and against the other? Well, let's see if we can answer some of these questions.

Soraka is generally a safe pick in lane, however she has some distinct counters you should be aware of:

• Any champions with the ability to sustain should be noted/avoided. ~ Note: Morgana, Gragas, Akali, Kha’zix, Kayle, Ahri ~ Avoid: Swain, Vladimir, and Nidalee

• Any long-ranged champions should be noted/avoided. ~ Note: Lissandra, Xerath, Ziggs ~ Avoid: Heimerdinger, Lux, Orianna, Syndra, Azir

• Any high-burst champions should be noted/avoided. ~ Note: Fizz, Veigar, Zed, Annie, Ahri ~ Avoid: Syndra, LeBlanc

If any of the following champions are picked, don’t pick Soraka; it usually does not work out well:

• Swain
• Vladimir
• Nidalee
• Heimerdinger
• Lux
• Orianna
• Syndra
• Azir
• LeBlanc

Soraka does counter some other champions which also should be present in your mind:

• Any champion that requires a channel for their kit to succeed. ~ Fiddlesticks, Katarina, Janna, Malzahar, Warwick, Galio, Karthus, Shen, Twisted Fate

• Any champion that is melee. While this is a general trend, it makes it a lot easier to poke when they go to last hit. Also, when enemies are closer to you, your Starcall falls faster. ~ Fizz, Zed, Galio, Katarina, Akali, Diana, Fiora, Yasuo

Early Game: Your primary objective is to either a.) Get first blood, or b.) Not get killed.

Your all-in level 2 engage is insane if they try to kill you by diving into your minions or with low hp. For example, Fizz dashes into you, but before he can jump out, you quickly use starcall, slowing him, following up instantly with your aoe silence/snare. If he successfully is snared, which more often than not will happen for they know little of your potential, then you can typically finish him off. Q + E + E double proc will often leave them at 1/2-1/3 HP by itself, but when followed up with minion damage and auto attacks and ignite, you have yourself a kill.

But what if I’m not able to secure first blood because they are playing safe or poking me out? Try to farm your best but most importantly do not die. Dying on its own causes you to

1. lose farm,
2. lose experience, and
3. lose time/pressure on the game and mid lane specifically.

If worst comes to worst, just take a step back and try to last hit with Starcall. A strong combo for wave clear would be hitting all 3 back minions in the center of your Starcall followed up with 1-2 auto attacks.

Now, the junglers are starting to gank, and you should explain to your jungler Soraka is not the best at following up on 2v1 ganks, however is insanely strong at 2v2 against the enemy mid and jungle. Soraka is capable of sustaining the jungler through all of their damage quite easily and can pull off some crazy plays. Your jungler should only gank if there is a clear opportunity, if you are being ganked, or if multiple people are mid. When the other jungler comes in for a gank, you need to weigh your options. Heal baits and 1v2s are not out of the question, especially with the self-heal from Soraka’s Q+W. Generally, you will want to try to get out asap, but if a minion wave prevents skillshots from hitting, try to juke about and go for a kill(s) if you can.

Mid Game: Soraka is strong at this point in the game. Teams are starting to group up, and Soraka’s damage should be hitting around its peak point, capable of 100-0ing the ADC and often the support or mid laner if played correctly (Q-E-E-Ignite).

You should be aggressive with poking, but not to the extent of being in danger. Soraka strives when she isn’t being focused, capable of healing a target for a long period of time. I do not play TF2 much, only once or twice before, but I would compare Soraka to the Medic. Soraka is strong at keeping up a single target but if being focused, really struggles. In teamfights, try to follow up on your engager’s CC while peeling for your ADC. The double utility team composition (Soraka + Support) excels at keeping up specific team members such as the ADC and Tank, but can also lack damage. To help out with this issue, try to be poking with your Q and zoning an enemy if possible. This will remove some of the enemy’s damage by zoning, and will also establish a zone around your ADC, giving them some space to feel and be safe.

Your ultimate can potentially heal everyone on your team from 40% to 100% if you are fed enough. Only use your ultimate if you truly think you can save someone. Using it just to save one person isn’t preferred as you and the other three members of your team do not benefit from it. Stick with the team, and try to last hit minions the best you can, but it’s going to be a lot harder than earlier because other champions can do it very easily. You’re already reaching your peak in the game so don’t worry if your CS number plateau’s.

End Game: Soraka no longer can kill priority targets very well so focus all of your energy on keeping your team up. You should have enough damage at this point to make up for your lost damage. Play the same as the Mid Game, but you might want to transition to a support item or two. In particular, I’m very fond of Ardent Censer when your team composition features many AD champions. Mikael’s Crucible accentuates your healing potential by offering a cleanse and an additional heal.

Recent Buffs/Nerfs

| - - = Nerf | | ++ = Buff | | ~~ = Not sure |

V4.21: Stats:

• • Base health regen reduced to 2.5 from 4.675
• • Health regen growth stat reduced to 0.5 from 0.7

Astral Infusion: ++ Ability power ratio range is now 0.4 ability power to 0.8 ability power from 0.2 ability power to 0.4 ability power

V4.20: Stats:

• • Base attack damage reduced to 50.04 from 56.04.

Starcall: ~~ Drop time no longer varies based on how close the target is to Soraka.

Astral Infusion: ++ Range increased to 550 from 450.

Equinox

• • Cooldown increased to 24 / 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 seconds from 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14.

Worst Nerfs:

• The attack damage nerf was more significant than it would seem. It effectively made it a lot harder to last hit minions. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it, but I tend to last hit when I see a minion health bar reach a certain point. The point was shifted with this change, causing an extra auto attack to be needed to last hit caster minions now. It just overall takes a lot more focusing to know when to last hit now.
• The health regeneration was also killer for Soraka because now you have to consistently hit your Starcall to heal up, when before you could heal by yourself and get an added bonus if you hit the Starcall.

Best Buffs:

• The range increase on Astral Infusion was actually a very large buff, for Soraka can now effectively heal over many pieces of terrain. Before, she had to reposition or even run around terrain to heal, but now she can just reach over enough to heal most allies.
• The AP ratio buff on Astral Infusion helps to increase her healing potential as you gather more and more ability power. It’s just a heal buff, transitioning more of her power to healing rather than damage.

~ I am not sure if the drop time on Starcall was indeed changed or not. If so, I have not noticed a significant difference from before.

My Suggestions

This is more pertained to any Rioter who reads this post, but this is what I feel needs to be done to allow Soraka to be just a bit more viable in mid. Note, I am not asking for Soraka to become a mid laner, I am asking for a few small buffs which could be played around with just to tweak Soraka’s power in mid.

• Small Buff: Increase Soraka’s auto attack damage back up a bit. Before, it was extremely overpowered, maxing out at an insanely high number, which I believe was around 120. However, the early game health of the minions and the current attack damage number for Soraka do not work together, typically leaving 1-2 hp on a minion after Starcall + 1 aa.

• Large Buff (can be tweaked): Allow for Equinox to damage minions in some shape or form. Soraka largely struggles with wave clearing the minions when enemies push and even late game when minion health skyrockets. While I would not suggest allowing for the full damage of Equinox to hit minions, even 50% or 25% would be enough for Soraka to get better wave clear without affecting support Soraka’s playstyle and power much at all.

• Small Nerf: The mana cost of Astral Infusion should be increased from 20/25/30/35/40 to either 40/40/40/40/40 or 20/30/40/50/60. The mana cost is basically ignored, and I think it would add a bit more of an interesting turn into Soraka’s playstyle, having to choose how to spend her mana late game.

• Question: Why was Soraka’s Starcall drop time changed (if it all)?

• Question: What plans do you have for Soraka’s balance in the mid lane, if any?

I will try to answer any responses that arise to this thread, and I hope to have a healthy discussion :)