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Soraka and sight stone. Convince me !

iluvalar·10/14/2014, 6:18:02 PM·2 votes·1,485 views

So I pay for 400g of health but since I plan to use my regen/starcall/potions properly, I plan to use about 15 heals per back. Which will cost me 150% of that health. So at the end of the day, the sightstone worth -200g of stats because it hinder my regeneration more then it help.

Another way to look at this. Each time I heal with the sightstone, it cost me 15HP. which is about 3.5g worth of potion. Not much but it stack up each time I cast heal until the end of the game.

Don't get mad at me, I know the wards cost more money still and eventualy it will worth it. But where on a normal support it's a 10 mnutes investment, on Soraka it takes up to 25 minutes before you break EVEN with the sightstone.

Comparatively, if I buy a blasting wand now, I'll produce about 5.5gp worth in HP everytime i'll heal and about 6gp each time i'll hit starcall. Assuming I use perfectly the 3 wards it would take about 6 backs to compensate that. And this still disregard the eclipse, wish and starcall damage (and I'm not saying a blasting wand is even a decent choice on soraka) . It would take the entire game length just to break even. At this point, the sightstone is not even slot efficient anymore...

tl;dr : The extra hp on the sightstone make soraka pay more for each heal she do. It will take 40 minutes of game before she START to see the benefit from the sightstone.

Am I missing something, Can't I just buy wards when needed instead ? Better yet... couldn't her teamates who saves a ton of gold in potions could buy a few wards once in a while with that extra gold ?

16 Comments

OhBoyItsaMegaman10/16/2014, 12:29:46 AM3 votes

You raise an interesting point and you've done your homework backing it up with math. But here is the point that I believe you missed.

You are confusing the value of health with the value of max health, and you're forgetting that max health gives you more health.

A Ruby Crystal costs 400g and raises your max health by +150, increasing the health cost of Astral Infusion by 15. After casting W 15 times, you will lose 225 more health than you would have without that Ruby Crystal. But your max health is not literally decreased by 225, so put that "-200g" value tag away. All that's happening is that you've lost 225 more health than you would have lost otherwise, and you're arriving in lane with a 150 health head start over the Soraka who didn't buy a Ruby Crystal. In reality, you're only 75 health lower than you would be otherwise—half a potion. 17.5 gold.

In conclusion, if you use W 15 times between recalls, and buy a 35g health potion every other shopping trip, you've fully offset the negative component of having a Ruby Crystal on Soraka. While still realizing all of the normal benefits of having +150 max health. (And of course, the normal benefits of having a Sightstone instead of wards.)

The negative impact of extra max health is further diminished by the fact that hitting max health "resets the counter", so to speak. Imagine that you and I are each playing separate games at the same time, and we're both playing Soraka with 800 health but I've bought a Ruby Crystal to bring me up to 950 and you haven't. Shortly after arriving to lane, we both cast W twice. It costs you 160 health leaving you with 640/800, and costs me 190 health leaving me with 760/950. "Ah ha," you think. "Only 8 more casts each, and the benefit of your Ruby Crystal will be gone. Every cast after that puts me in the lead healthwise." But then the opponent isn't able to harass either of us. Through a few Starcalls and natural regen, we both reach max health. You reach it first because you're missing less health, but I also max out. The counter is now reset. We will both need to cast another 10 Ws starting from this point before you can justify your low-health build. To put it another way, the only way I even fall behind enough to need half a potion per recall is if I don't get back to max health at any point while I'm hanging out in the lane.

God Mode Enabled10/19/2014, 2:21:14 PM3 votes

any support not buying sightstone regardless of the champ and build should be shot in the face

CrispCrustacean10/15/2014, 1:47:58 AM2 votes

Vision wins games- the amount of wards you will have to buy(Plus the item slot you need to keep them on hand) is well worth more than 200g along with the gold you don't loose from suffering from ganks and loosing dragon

LightBae10/16/2014, 7:32:31 PM2 votes

I think a lot of this soraka math only makes sense in lane. In mid-late game skirmishes, you are at a disadvantage where your are lower health and taking larger chunks of health (essentially, scaling true damage against yourself). Soraka is simply more efficient with a GA's (deters initial focusing), resistances and as much AP as she can possibly get to scale her heals. Not sure if it matters at the end of the day whether or not you have a sightstone- unless the cost of wards outscales her ability to buy more important stats.

RadiantWings10/14/2014, 6:54:01 PM1 votes

It keeps you from being spiked easily. You're screwed if you get all-inned as a squishy support. Ignite Leona for example preps all her needed spells so she isn't affected by your self targeted silence and initiates with her ult.

Also, on demand wards allow your team to play more aggressively once dragon fights start up

iluvalar10/23/2014, 4:30:11 AM1 votes

So you didnt tried the new raka, you think 300hp is irrelevant and you seem the kind who think I'm gonna explode if I don't place a ward quota on my support...

All this tend to convince me I can't have a rational conversation with you anyway.

You'll be happy to learn that I tested the quill coat on my support just now. seem like a better source of ward to me. 1 ward per 180 seconds for 300gp without the ruby negative effect. I'll try it when my ADC stay healthy and i can't heal him. Maybe I could clear a few wolf camps...

12tales10/15/2014, 1:52:04 AM1 votes

tl;dr : The extra hp on the sightstone make soraka pay more for each heal she do. It will take 40 minutes of game before she START to see the benefit from the sightstone.

After every heal, a Soraka with Sighstone will have more HP than a Soraka with Blasting Wand. It functions as a percentile increase to HP at any point in the series of heals. You will never have less health with Sighstone than without it.

You'll see the benefit of Sighstone immediately on purchase. And you will see the downside of not purchasing it in the match history screen, when it turns out that the enemy Support placed twice as many wards as you.

MasticatingGrill10/17/2014, 8:53:06 PM1 votes

I hardly ever buy a sightstone as support. Usually mid and jg are warding and calling missing pretty well. I have a trinket, the ADC has a trinket. We do not over extend and we do not feed.

If we get a bad ADC, you can buy wards and issue pings and they'll still go too far. And at least one of the two of you will die. And they will swear at you in chat. More often I would rather have Twin Shadows on my AP support before I would ever build a Sightstone, period. RUBY sightstone, don't even get me started on that useless gold pit. It should give a GP10 per active ward.

I agree with a GA on the bondage vampire tho, it's even more compelling than it used to be as a tank item.

Done2510/19/2014, 12:51:52 PM1 votes

Ruby Sightstone is a newbie trap on Soraka. Given how far back she stands in a team.fight you should never be getting hit. And if Talon flash jumps to get at you, that puny Ruby isn't going to do anything to save you anyways.

Instead, AP lets you squeeze more juice out of your heals and makes your Q heal you for more. Which means you can use W more often. Not to mention, a 600 AP R can win entire team fights on its own when you sudden give Tristana 1000 hp from.across the map!