How do you gauge your performance as a Soraka support?

Elindiir·Aug 7, 2015·4 votes·1,582 views

Lately, I have been playing support, particularly Soraka support, and I have found that I have a hard time telling how well I did... As most of you may know, how well your numbers are for being a 'raka is directly dependent on how the person you support is. If your bot laner gets steamrolled and you are trying to help him stay alive, a Soraka WILL get steamrolled too. Is it better for me to not help when its real rough or in a rather vulnerable position, or is letting your ally die a sign of a bad healer?

20 Comments

TusutakiAug 7, 20154 votes

Soraka is great for supporting duelists. Lucian, and Graves is perhaps one of the best champs to support for. But to do well with Soraka, well, keep your allies alive. Heal your jungler when he's fighting the frog and after ganking for you. Always keep your adc 100% health. You're the back line of the back line. Q only when you need to recover your health. She has her counters. One of her biggest counters I found would be Blitz. Against anybody else you should be fine.

A good soraka can carry the game. If your team is winning/snowballing then your job is to keep them snowballing.

Also, AP > HP.

ElindiirAug 7, 20152 votes

That first point you made is something so unexpected but so true... Soraka is best at allowing people with an 11 on their dial keep it up... So heavy sustain types with a squishy downside work REALLY well... I have done really well with Riven and with Jinx. on the other hand, People that poke or bait don't work well with Soraka, such as Heimer and Twitch.... Poke and runs don't really have much use of a heal and baiters are best paired with a good root.

ElindiirAug 8, 20152 votes

I actually am finding that grabby isn't that bad... I can usually stay out of range.... its the damn stealthies and gankers that are my hard counter...

Like I have said before, Soraka has a sign on her that says GANK ME!!!

MarkedOfKaneAug 7, 20153 votes

I had a Soraka who would run to me while I was taking Krugs to heal me up to full HP so I could keep jungling/ganking.

I thought she was pretty good.

5000000000000000Aug 7, 20152 votes

I do this all the time. I often start with W (since Q is a high mana cost-low damage poke without ranks in W, and E is just an unreliable snare at level 1), and heal the jungler. When the jungler goes to their buff, they're almost at full health. You almost always start with ancient coin, which gives you some sustain early.

DarkPhoenix2420Aug 7, 20153 votes

I like to look at the amount of healing at the end of the match. You want that number to be as high as possible. Like adc want their cs the highest. The healing will translate into tons of assists if your team is good. If u have tons of healing but bad ratios, then it is most likely not ur fault. A soraka can only heal and deal minimal damage. So ur team shouldn't expect u to have carry status.

Try to get your healing to 20k. That is a good healer

IcyPepperAug 7, 20152 votes

Are you keeping your laner at a reasonable health level (top them off too much and they might get too cocky and use you as a health pot, don't heal them enough and they can get instagibbed)?

Are able to land enough Q's at a distance to keep your health at reasonable levels and/or show the enemy you mean business and zone them off poking your adc so your heals stick?

Do you know where to throw your E in what situation as to get the most out of the zoning potential, and do you know how to chain it with other cc as to actually land the stun?

Are you able to keep an eye on your entire team's health levels to either ult for someone across the map about to die, or during teamfights to heal at the right time to boost its healing instead of wasting it too early?

PartholonianAug 7, 20151 votes

E can't stun, it can only snare. But good points otherwise.

ElindiirAug 7, 20152 votes

Usually, when I die, its because i get nailed trying to save my laner. or if my laner bites more than he can chew. Chances are, If we lose, we lose before we can even get IN a team fight. As for landing spells, I do well enough, and can usually give them rock and hard place situations to either land something or make them really back off. Other problem is I am a gank magnet.... I may as well carry a sign that says GANK ME because I fit ALL of the list of when to gank requirements... Low health; Support; Low damage; Laner busy; No solid roots....

ScryerAug 7, 20152 votes

0-0-24 = GREAT 0-6-24 = GOOD 0-8-5 = BAD 0-23-2 = AWFUL Judge by the ratio of deaths to assists.

Leaf of the lakeAug 12, 20151 votes

{quoted}

0-0-24 = GREAT 0-6-24 = GOOD 0-8-5 = BAD 0-23-2 = AWFUL Judge by the ratio of deaths to assists.

Also healing done in the end of match details. If you healed more damage than anyone else dealt (to champs), you're doing it right.

Nameless VoiceAug 7, 20152 votes

Personally, I'd go for trying to keep your deaths (and those of your allies) as low as possible. Not dying at all is ideal. Not letting your ADC die at all is ideal.

ElindiirAug 7, 20152 votes

Damage Healed

0.2k

2.2k

20.5k YAY

3.3k

1.2k

1.0k

0.4k

5.5k

1.3k

1.5k

joebobby1412Aug 7, 20151 votes

One guy already got a good summary of things specific to Soraka to be trying to do.

The last part though, the question at the end... this is hard to answer because the answer is that it depends on the situation, literally every time. You need to learn how to judge a situation when an ally is in danger, or get's caught, or wants to dive and decide if it is worth you helping. Let's say you aren't in lane, you are walking through river with your ADC and he get's caught by 2 enemies. You may decide, there is nothing you can do and run away, or you may decide that you can turn the fight and try to help. Hopefully, you make the right decision, but it takes practice and experience.

Now, in lane, it is similar, but different. If you notice your ADC getting pulled by a blitz and there is nothing you can do, leave him, try to live. If you notice you and your ADC are behind in lane, stay and try to help. Protect your ADC when you can and avoid dying yourself, abandoning your ADC in this situation is the worst thing you can do as a support.

ElindiirAug 8, 20151 votes

After playing against Soraka for the first time, I realized just how squishy she REALLY is! Which is very! I am surviving better than I thought.... Which is sad....

Also.... Is 41k healing good for a 50 minute fight?

JayenKeiAug 12, 20151 votes

I actually play soraka very differently especially in laning phase My mentality is if my adc drops below 50% heal him/her Many people believe q doesn't do much but I personally think that's wrong I actually max q then e then w XD To be honest a well placed silence will turn a fight. The global heal is great in team fights and your q does enough damage to sustain you but this is just me xD

ElindiirAug 13, 20151 votes

How you build and play a 'raka is HUGELY based on conditions.... If the lane has bursty types, healing at 50% wont do much good as they might die within a second of that 50% mark, but against sustain and pokers, its a good rule to go by. also, if your opponents are pokers, building up the heal isn't as big a deal. However, upgrading the heal ACTUALLY also upgrades her poke to give more health upon hitting. Also, all of this is dependent on who you pair with! If you are with someone that explodes all over an enemy, that CC is a big deal.

AMYS GRAVEAug 13, 20151 votes

Did you heal your allies for more HP than their ADC dealt? Doing your job right.

ElindiirAug 14, 20151 votes

Considering that unless the team does REALLY badly, I usually get at LEAST 20k healing, but up to 50k at times in hour long epics.

ZmuecatAug 13, 20151 votes

I get Q at levels 1,3, and 5 and poke with it as often as possible and then after 6, max her heal as soon as possible. She can sustain herself and her ADC well with rank one heal if you guys aren't eating every initiate or heavy poke. This let's her poke, which it seems around my skill level people don't expect, which make it fairly easy for me to push them out. I only heal my ADC if he has less HP than me and I'm not below 40%ish (unless I'm about to back).

I gauge how well I've done by how much my ADC has a CS lead by the end of lane, and how many times I've been harrassed in all chat for cockblocking the enemy team. After the game, I aim to out heal one of the enemy damage dealers and if I didn't accomplish that than I didn't do as well I would have wanted (on top of warding the most, assist count, how much I died, basic stuff).

I will let an ally die without a second though if they are taking way too much harass or initiates when I feel like they normally would have if I wasn't Soraka. I'll fix mistakes, but if it seems like they are going hard because LOLHEALERCAN'TDIE then I'll heal when I have full HP and spend more of my time and mana harassing. I don't like putting myself, especially with a 10% max HP cost, in a position that will get me killed at the cost of people who should and could be avoiding things. If I die, I don't get XP, I don't get gold, and I can't help people with a global ult when it could change the game.