How do you play against Soraka in bot lane?

MarhsallLee67·7/4/2015, 9:10:31 AM·1 votes·2,065 views

I played a game as adc recently. I was Jinx with Annie support, the enemy had vayne and soraka. My support and I both quickly became frustrated at the fact that, no matter how much damage we did to vayne and/or soraka in trades, soraka would have both of them healed up to practically full within what felt like no time at all. We had multiple large skirmishes bot lane- the earliest of which were lost because, although we could get vayne and whoever else showed up fairly low, soraka's heals were enough to prevent us from getting the kills. And focusing soraka so that she can't help her team was not much of an option in a 4v4 in bot lane when there's a Jarvan ulting on top of you. We gained the upper hand in some fights, but overall, Soraka's ability to negate virtually all the damage we did helped the enemy lurch ahead in kills and carry the game for their victory.

I didn't feel like I was getting outplayed. I didn't feel like I was getting out-farmed.

I felt like we were losing simply because Soraka had mana and knew how to press R and click on vayne every time she took damage.

What do you do against Soraka? How do you make one with more than half a brain actually lose trades in lane?

13 Comments

Jamaree7/4/2015, 9:16:58 AM5 votes

Attack Soraka, she can't heal herself.

IcyPepper7/4/2015, 8:37:47 PM2 votes

Hard engage, support taking ignite instead of exhaust, etc.

You want to beat Soraka in lane before level 6, but despite that it has a long-ass cooldown. First, you want to focus Soraka. Pre-6, she can't heal herself if you don't get hit by her relatively easy to dodge Q. If you want to make this easier, keep your distance so the missile speed is slowed. Make sure to poke the adc a bit to ensure Soraka will heal them (costing her own health) and continue to focus her. Don't bunch together with your support, otherwise Equinox can hit you both.

If you can do this, you'll win lane. Soraka will not rush warmogs pre-6, she needs her sightstone for safety and her main support item and/or boots.

NorthernDruid7/4/2015, 10:44:38 AM2 votes

Dodge them Qs.

Focus Soraka enough to scare her away.

Bring Grievous wounds (doesn't help with her ult, but it helps with all her other healing as long as it's applied).

Accept the fact that if the team peels well for their squishy healer so she can do her job you got outplayed by the team.

Or try and get picks instead of huge teamfights. Soraka works really well in teamfigths because there's more people to land Qs on, people are to busy wth being trapped in J4 ult to dodge her Qs and with good positioning she can avoid getting hit most of the time.

Speaking of good positioning, Soraka needs it. Punish her whenever she's out of position.

Leu077/4/2015, 10:32:16 AM2 votes

I would recommend that your support takes summoner 14, someone in the team should buy item 3165 too. Also, there are some counterpicks to Raka, MissFortune is a nice option due to her W active AS steriod which also aplies Grievous wounds, reducing her healing to a 50%, same with ignite. A mobil adc like Vayne and Lucian can avoid Soraka's Q, making her lose mana at trying to heal herself and do poke damage, giving you a nice advantage to wither Soraka down. I hope this helps you!

Pegasus1777/5/2015, 5:28:28 AM1 votes

Soraka is a pest sup to face. However her heals work on teammates and not so much on her pre lvl 6. I presume your playing in a duo.. Viable options are to poke them down and harrass as much as possible to force roka out of mana then go in for the kill. Or.. Hard engage and CC on roka when her adc is low to prevent the heal.

vayne can be good here cause if you can condemn roka to a wall and take her out quickly then the adc is vunerable.. or you can get between them and separate them

ShuffledPancake7/4/2015, 9:15:45 AM1 votes

Ignite. morello's on annie, tristana has grievous wounds in her kit... all healing stoppers.

3tyson7/5/2015, 5:13:07 PM1 votes

trow nidalee spear right in soraka face wich takes away 90% of her hp from her on you can 1 shot her with an aa

Aeolian Melodies7/4/2015, 3:55:01 PM1 votes

ignite + morello on annie, stun and focus the raka, gg lol

junglerboy167/4/2015, 8:33:45 PM1 votes

Hard engage and burst is a nightmare for Soraka, notably champs like Draven Graves Lucian and Alistar Leona Thresh Blitzcrank will ruin her passive poke+sustain pattern. You just have to ensure that you don't wait too long between trades or she will out-sustain you.

Level 0 Magikarp7/5/2015, 2:37:51 AM1 votes

Like what most people have said already, poke Soraka down and dodge her Qs (which should be easy to predict/see). If you poke her down to at least half health, she'll have to think twice about healing people since it chunks her health even more. Just be patient with the poking though, since rakas normally tend to heal up with pots. But when she runs out of pots... poke and engage