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I need tips for Soraka (and support in general)

Jexsil·4/11/2015, 3:50:50 AM·1 votes·2,004 views

Hello. I'm relatively still new to league and even more so to the support role. Out of all the support champs i've tried, Soraka is my favorite, as she is primarily a healer and theres not a lot of pressure on her to make plays. I could use some tips though when it comes to using her, as i feel im not using her to her fullest potential. To start, I'm kinda confused with how to build her (or any support champ). Typically I build my ancient coin first and follow that up with sightstone. I then upgrade the gold income item throughout the match and also pick up boots around this time. I either get Movement boots or cooldown boots and get Captain enchantment (later on). Now for the other 3 items, im kinda stuck. Ive been building Warmog's and Visage for the health. The final item i pick is either a Zhonya's for the AP, armor and passive, or the crystal scepter for the health and AP. How is this build? Should i try to get more AP in there? Or should i go for more tankiness such as Omen or frozen heart ? I have also considered the locket and banner as further supporting items.

How are these ideas and are they viable on Soraka? Can someone possibly explain to me the importance of AP on her? Is it really important or negligible?

When it comes to runes, whats more effective? Ability Power runes, or defensive runes? Hp runes, or mana runes?

And finally, what are some general tips i should keep in mind when using her? I usually stay in the back, spam starcall, ward and heal allies when needed. Is that soraka in a nutshell or is there more to her? Is there any tips that would make me a more efficient support in general. Sorry for the long questions and i appreciate any help provided, Thanks.

31 Comments

Fashion Mage4/11/2015, 9:38:21 AM4 votes

AP is about as important on her as AD is for marksmen or as AP is for mages. If you build tanky you're not going to save anything with her heal or even sustain as well as she could with AP. Building her AP, positioning is very important for her (as it is for anything glassy), and it should be her main self-defense. However, depending on the situation, defensive stats can be a good idea on her.

As for general tips, the most basic part to Soraka is just landing Q's and healing. Be sure to place Equinox properly. Often times you'll need to decide whether to use it to block off someone's path with it or to silence them. Landing the root with it won't work if you just place it on top of them (unless you're chaining it with other CC). A well placed Equinox can pretty much decide a team fight. Finally, keep an eye out for low HP allies on the map that need to be healed with her ult. Also remember that her ult removes grievous wounds, which will often be the deciding factor between saving an ally from death or out-healing the enemy's damage and landing your ally a kill.

The Chin4/11/2015, 5:43:38 AM4 votes

Build as little HP as possible on soraka. Since her W costs a % of her max health, the more HP you have the more you'll chunk yourself healing people and the harder it'll be to regen.

item 3110 item 3026 item 3512 are the best tank items to get on soraka. You won't have much HP but you'll be durable as hell. Not to mention if you get a 3rd or 4th item GA people won't really target you anyways.

so a normal build would be item 3069 item 2049 item 3271 item 3110 item 3026 item 3512 item 3341

Theoretically the best rune page for soraka would be HP regen, flat resistances and hybrid pen. Problem is an HP regen page is ONLY going to be useful on soraka

iluvalar4/11/2015, 10:30:19 PM2 votes

Main soraka here as well... Don't listen at all those jokers they are badies lol.

First you need those hp5 runes. I use a mix of scaling and non scaling. To dominate early game.

Then item 3083 is her main core item. It allows you to heal 6% of you health per 5 on the champion of you choice sustainably. It's HUGE. And since you have a warmog, it probably equate to 10% of their health. With the ability to postpone the first 200% of their health. The secret here is that any health you buy will reduce your healing capacity. So the only way to build the piece of the warmog without going into negative heals (more cost then benefits) is to first rush a item 1026 . This way, you cancel the negative effect of the giant belt.

The warmog generate about the value of a potion every 5 seconds and it scale even more after the purchase. At this point it even beat the ward generation of a item 2049 . If you really are a ward maniac, you are better straight buying wards anyway and invest into the warmog, then to first built a sightstone. The warmog is just that huge of a power spike on soraka.

Once item 3083 is built, you unlock the capacity to buy freely any more health item you'd like. item 3027 item 3116 item 3065 . I suggest you actually abuse of that. Everyone suggesting you should by an hp item, including item 2049 , before the warmog is good for the asylum AND probably very bad at math.

Prior to her hp5 nerf, it was possible to build regen on her and exceed the 3% hp5 from the warmog (making the wamog dilute her power more then helping it). Like item 3512 . Now it's just wasted gold. Really.

item 3065 is in between... it improve your regen but you pay for useless hp5.

Ahri Body Pillow4/12/2015, 10:30:24 PM1 votes

item 3069 item 3117 item 2045 item 3504 item 3222 item 3110 Is my usual build

Drackolus4/14/2015, 6:08:22 AM1 votes

I didn't realize there were so many other Soraka mains! Well, I personally switch out summoner 3 for summoner 7 (on raka ONLY) because it lets you continue to be useful without getting in harm's way, and since your heal costs health, gives you a little more to play with.

Right now, I'm going 9/0/21 and running armor marks, flat mp5 seals, ap/lvl glyphs, and flat ap quints (considering switching out the glyphs for flat). When I still had trouble with starcalls, I was running 7/2/21 for the health regen in defense and just getting the ap/level in offense, and ran armor marks, hp5/level seals, ap/level glyphs, and flat hp/5 quints.

I usually grab item 2049 asap, never upgrading my gold income first even if I go back with only 500g (though I think it's better to just have the gold then buy the item 1028 ). Also, you should be buying item 2043 and always having one on the field at all points of the game. This is the case for every support (minus skipping ruby crystal, and I'm not even absolutely sure that's the right thing to do. Pretty sure, but not absolutely) Don't remember the exact math nor how I found it, but I've found that the regen on item 3083 with my regen build was absolutely not worth it, since your % healing only goes up by .2% within 8 seconds of getting hit (which is when you need it the most). item 3065 maaaaay be worth it, but my gut tells me you'd get more usefulness out of ap. I did actually try them to be sure, and found I was harder to kill, but also a pointless target since my heals were so worthless. What I do instead is first rush item 3069 and item 3504 , since the mp5, ap, cdr, and movespeed make this item very useful even if you only have 1 attack speed champion on your team. These two items should be all you need for mana in conjunction with masteries, so now I just finish up the cdr and start focusing ap - my next item is item 3023 , since movespeed is always great on supports, especially since you're squishy AND have to be in combat, not to mention running around warding. Also, somewhere around that I reach level 9, and immediately upgrade to item 3364 . (always always ALWAYS upgrade your trinket at 9, no matter who or what you're playing! Do nothing but this! If you only have exactly enough for your I.E., stay for 250g to buy that!) This is also a good time to think about boot upgrades if you haven't already - item 3270 if you're defending base a lot, item 3271 if your teammates are having a hard time escaping fights you're not in often, and item 3274 to help you position even more, in roughly that order of importance. At that point, I have enough ap to warrant a item 3089 . If I'm getting focused very often, I'll grab a item 3157 , but remember that while you're in it you stop healing yourself and everyone else, so it's really only a good grab if they have too many assassins to reasonably avoid. Then, I top off my sighstone and buy item 2138 , since all you really get from sorcery is the ap. Not that you'll likely ever get to this point! This gives me a full build of item 2045 item 3069 item 3271 item 3504 item 3023 item 3089 item 3364

My end point, however, would be to not just copy one person's guide. Try a lot of different things, then gradually make individual changes and testing them throughout several games until you come to your own style. That's how you really achieve mastery of a champion - how you play Soraka may not be the same way I do, even if we both get to diamond maining her =)

BlazinHot64/14/2015, 11:39:21 AM1 votes

I'll give you a tip you wont find in any guide: Soraka is a hard counter to Draven . When Draven uses his spinning axe ability, you know where he is going to be, so you can land an easy Q. Most Dravens will purposefully eat it too cuz muh damage. Another tip is the silence on Soraka's Q will stop his spinning axe ability as well as interupt the player when they are about to do their typical burst combo. I could go on but, you'll see.

M4nTiCoR34/14/2015, 1:10:37 PM1 votes

In my experience if you want non combat sustain, a better option than Warmogs or Spirit Visage is to go some combination of the following...

HPp5 Seals HPp5 Quints All regen buffs in Defensive mastery Elixir, Buscit, mana regen buffs in Support mastery Buy Elixir and buscits early and often TEAR OF THE GODDESS

This will give you lots of sustain at the cost of being more fragile to burst damage. However with safe play and a good farming ADC, you can stay in lane for a very very long time with little worry of ever being low on mana or health. Also, if you do decide to go tear into Seraph...your mana pool also grants HPp5 with the mastery and you eventually gain a shield for those pesky assassin dives. Items like Frozen Heart also gain more value due to the synergy with mana granting both HPp5 and AP.

Good luck, and may you make all your allies Horny and your enemies fearing the banana.

iluvalar4/23/2015, 9:31:57 PM1 votes

This is a very interesting topic. Lot of nice opinions. I realized i didnt game my full build. It might interest some.

item 3301 item 1026 item 3361 item 3083 item 3027 item 3110 item 3040 ( item 3089 or item 3060 or item 3065 or item 3512 or item 3075 )

The regeneration from item 3301 is noticeable.

item 1026 first is mandatory if you want to build the health from item 3083

I know people will prefer item 2049 but as said earlier, the item 2003 generation of the warmog is far better then the item 2044 generation of . The item 3361 at level 9 at least is 3 wards so you dont even lose that much vision past that point. You just need to buy a few ward before level 9

item 3083 powerspike!!, 10% of anyone hp bar every 5 seconds. one life saved every 50 seconds. Someone said he did the math, i suggest he do it again now that the hp5 of raka was nerfed at different levels because the warmog scale well with level gains as well.

item 3027 Nothing stop us now that we have a warmog.

item 3110 armor cdr.

item 3003 scale with item 3027 and item 3110 . Allows you to squeeze a item 3070 somewhere in the earlier build (as soon as you have spare gold ( item 1004 + item 1027 )) which is awesome for the mana

Last item depend on the enemy team comp and how much you are ahead. Might build it at any stage if the situation request it.

Skia Asteri4/11/2015, 2:22:51 PM1 votes

I would only get item 3083 if you need to top off your team to mitigate poke from long ranged attacks, as its regeneration does not help much if you are spamming heal off cool down to keep people alive in an all out brawl. Out side of that, either build AP/CDR items or items that provide utility your team needs. Most utility items come with CDR, so it is not hard to get if you go that route.

As for supporting in general, here is a guide that has a lot about warding about half way down the page: http://www.lolking.net/guides/246584

Besides warding the things to learn is when to get various utility items like item 3222 , and when to use summoner 3 .

Duke Anax4/11/2015, 5:40:32 PM1 votes

Soraka Main here. I usually count on a combination of CDR, AP and escape.

Masteries: 9/0/21 - 10% CDR, movement, Mana, Gold , AP.

Runes: 9x Hybrid Pen Mark, 9x Scaling Armor Seal, 6x Scaling MR Glyph, 3x Scaling CDR Glyph, 3x flat AP Quint

Abbilities: R>E>Q>W Equinox has the best cdr , utility and damage scaling, but no mana scaling. The heal scales badly and with AP you don't really need it.

items: item 3301 and item 3303 are both good choices depending on your opponents, i generally prefer Spellthief because Soraka has a mad poke early. I also grab a item 2043 and item 2004 First back is usually item 2041 , lots of health regain early, then obviously item 2049 item 3117 are good mobility becasue cheap, but I prefer item 3281 for escaping. item 3041 is almost always a good choice if you play save, Soraka gets a lot of Assists. item 3060 is my favourity item cause it got everything she needs. item 3157 for obviousl reasons.

Some other items depending on the game: item 3504 item 3025 item 3065