Tips for Beginner Soraka

Soraka may have been a good starter in the past since she was pretty simple before her rework, but she's probably one of the more difficult supports to play now. Just thought I should note that.

AP and CDR are her most important stats. I suggest using positioning to defend yourself rather than pouring too much gold into selfish defensive stats, otherwise her healing ability will suffer. As a result, movement speed items are pretty nice on her. When getting AP, try getting AP items with supportive abilities attached like Twin Shadows. are some nice items on her, but if you really need to build some defense I recommend and maybe or . You can also consider on her since it synergizes pretty well with her theoretically, but don't take my word for it since I haven't had a chance to test it outside of URF. I prefer to get boots of swiftness on her rather than CDR boots since the extra MS is very helpful in combat, and CDR can be obtained from other sources (runes, , etc) Avoid building HP on her, but it's not the end of the world if you get a little HP from Sightstone or Banner of Command.

Use Equinox smartly. Knowing when to use it to block off paths, or when to use it to silence, is important. Simply placing it on top of people won't usually land the stun unless you're chaining it on top of someone else's CC. A smartly placed Equinox can determine the outcome of a battle.

Remember to use her ult to get assists from across the map (although try to also actually help people with it rather than just snatching assists), and also remember that it clears grievous wounds, which is extremely important when you're trying to save people and they get ignited or something.

Your E is the sexiest move in the game, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. With your E you can: Shut down zed. bait and trap a leona. stop a jungler from smiting an objective. and trap people under tower.

Zed is the fun one. always save your E when team fighting against zed. as soon as you see his ult go off, put it right behind his target (so that they're still a bit in it, but it's centered right where zed will land). he will be silenced on landing, can't use his abilities (including his escape) and will be rooted for 1.5 seconds before he can physically walk out (because you layed it early). Zeds will rage, it's wonderful.

Leona is very in the meta right now, and it's great for soraka. she's got the same thing as zed, a predictable engage. if that Sword of Light hits your ADC, put the E under them. when leona is pulled to the, she'll be instantly silenced and unable to finish her combo with the stun and slow. and your ADc might just pick up a free kill because of the root.

Junglers will hate you. once you learn about when they're going to smite, you'll know when to E them. chances are they're focused on the dragon/baron's health, and won't be moving their feet. This opens them up to be killed, and have their objectives taken. (at 6, smite does about 500-600 damage. at 18, it does exactly 1000. always be watching)

and trapping under tower. this ones big. if you're just getting back into lane, put the E between the person and the edge of tower range. if they panic, the move right back into it. thats 3 seconds of tower fire for free. it's lovely.

Finally, remember. your ult removes ignite. WATCH YOUR LANERS HEALTH. especially top. if they're low and slowly ticking, pop it. maybe you waste, maybe not. but nothing pisses off an opponent like a secured ignite kill that fails because of someone half the map away.

In terms of items, for the most part, I wouldn't go out of my way to build health on Soraka. Now, pretty much every support NEEDS a sightstone , so that's excusable, but for the most part you should look at an item as if it didn't give you any health.

Because Soraka's heal uses a percent of her maximum health, you can't really trust health alone to keep you alive in a fight. If you NEED defences, you might want to go for items like or , where they give good resistances (Armor and Magic Resistance) without providing health (Which, again, isn't a great stat for Soraka to have)

Generally, you want to try to get a few AP-utility items, like or maybe an : Not only does this make your heals more powerful, not only does it make the self-heal from your Q more powerful, BUT you don't have to cast your W as many times to full-health an ally, so you use up less of a percent of your health!

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I had some other stuff I wanted to go over, but it was kind of long winded. I'm not the best player in any way, shape, or form, but I'll try to answer whatever questions you have.

I disagree with most on their post. In my opinion you should build Sight stone first, then transition into warmogs. I usually also get a mejais because you shoulnd't be dying very much on soraka.

you should get warmogs because as long as you don't take damage you will regen a pretty heft amount of health per second which will help you get more heals off and stay in fights. You just want to stay in the back and come in and heal while staying out of an enemy's zone.

a few more tips

1. I start Q so i can apply some pressure at lvl 1, but it's preference
2. stay out of enemy zones so you don't die. Soraka is usually focuses since she can't heal herself.
3. Decide when you need to use your silence ( for example as a zed ults your teammate or fiddle is channeling his ult)
4. build tanky

Don't heal anyone with greater health % than you, if you're below 20% health.

Don't heal anyone who's not below 35% if you're below 50%.

As a general guideline for how not to overheal and get excecuted by minions.

Manage your positioning, and make sure to expose yourself as little as possible.

Hit your Qs, hit them good, they're not that hard to hit, even at max range it's possible, especially in teamfights where people have more stuff to pay attention to.

Your E is a zoning tool, use it for area denial when chasing/being chased or for disrupting casters. It's not impossible to snag people with the snare on it, but it's not usually something worth aiming for.

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I wanna start learning the support role and I've heard Soraka is a good starter. Any tips for a beginner on her?

Soraka's threat lies in her ability to disrupt the enemy's burst damage and CC while also providing appreciable damage from a distance. She is the only champion in the game with meaningful healing and probably the only support in the game who will become the focus in team fights.

Soraka requires AP, CDR and MoveSpeed to become more effective in battle. Since Soraka's heal is %Max HP, there is no good reason to stack HP. Stacking AP will increase her damage, healing output and self-sustain. By weaving Q's and W's in battle, she is able to maintain appreciable levels of health while also providing decent poke damage. In addition, if you look at her base damages, they are almost a little ridiculous if you are able to hit an enemy in the center of your Q or the root of your E.

However, Soraka cannot readily apply her CC and she cannot readily heal herself without an enemy champion. This means she requires supplementary CC and a durable front-line in order to remain effective in a balanced team fight or skirmish situation. With that said, even if she does not have readily accessible CC, many champions have predictable initiates which means landing her CC is simple once you are prepared to face them. One poster used Zed as an example earlier and most of the assassins can be easily dealt with as long as you and your team are informed of your ability to deal with them.