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Playing Soraka For Fun
Build Guide By Tauricus2017
153
8
415,048
Views
48
Comments
153
8
415,048
Views
48
Comments
Soraka Build Guide By Tauricus2017
415,048
Views
48
Comments
Soraka Build Guide By Tauricus2017
x
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Runes: Value Soraka
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Inspiration
Sorcery
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist
Spells:
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3
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11
Defensive
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![LoL Summoner Spell: Barrier]()
![LoL Summoner Spell: Flash]()
Barrier
Flash
Items
Game
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Starting Items
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Not a support?
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Warding
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Item Pool
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MYTHIC OPTIONS
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Defense / Utility
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Attack Damage / Attack Speed
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Some Full Build Examples
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#1 Support Your ADCs
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#2 Unload Your Abilities
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#3 Become The Predator
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#4 Chain The Destruction
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#5 Feel The Rush
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#6 Be The Shield In The Dark
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#7 Nullify Their Magics
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#8 Resonate The Disharmony
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#9 Actions With Purpose
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#10 Become The Fire
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#11 Warmog Rush
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#12 Create Your Own Path!
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Threats & Synergies
Threats
Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
Show All
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Soraka
You are your biggest thread. Don't let toxic players ruin your day and stay always focused on the game. If YOU do a mistake don't rage and rather chill and try again.
Vayne
Vayne is a strong late game champion that needs time to grow just like you. You can provide her an easy laning phase by healing her wounds from poke and once the late game arrives you both will crush the enemy team.
Synergies
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Vayne
Vayne is a strong late game champion that needs time to grow just like you. You can provide her an easy laning phase by healing her wounds from poke and once the late game arrives you both will crush the enemy team.
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x Special Thanks x Changelog x Conclusion x Waterwalking x Support Triangle x Time Warp x Alert System x IRL Health x Last Hitting x Jungle Plants x Synergies x How To Have Fun? x FAQ x Vocabulary
x Pros / Cons x Abilities x Combos x Stats x Tips & Tricks x Recent News x Lore x Skin To Win x Soraka ADC x Useful Links You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing... |
x Runes ---// Shards x Item Sets x Pre-Game Basics x Securing role x Ban Phase x Champion Select Tips x Settings You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing... You saw nothing...
---// Starting Item? ---// Boots x Unsealed Spellbook x Ability Order x Playstyle ---// Early Game ---// Mid Game ---// Late Game x Roaming x Kiting x Warding x Kill For Kill x Freezing x Wallwarding You saw nothing... |
this guide in a nutshell
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Greetings summoner. My name is Tauricus. I am a League of Legends player and guide writer since the very end of season 6. This guide is aimed at a bit less orthodox and more fun builds on Soraka. Healing/shielding Support champions were always problematic. Most of their runes and items force them to just spam click their point and click healing abilities leaving very little skill to be used. Think about it: When you have Electrocute, you are able to play around the 'hit them with 3 abilities to get bonus' type of thing. When you have Predator you have to play around a cooldown. When you have a Aftershock, you are empowered to hit your stun, If you do - you are treated well; If you don't - then you are punished for it, leaving space for skill and improvement. But what exactly is so skill expressive on runes like Summon Aery, Revitalize or Cosmic Insight??And how about Support items? All of them empower that 1 point and click ability and the only skill requiring thing about them is that at the end of the game you have a bunch of activatable items that you can not even use all because your fingers are not break dancers. What I am trying to say is that you do not have to keep playing Supports like this. You can evolve and try something new, something skill expressive, rewarding and fun. Yeah maybe those builds are not the most Meta things ever but they in my opinion make you play a completely different game. A game where fun is harvested from successful plays and where you have plenty of options what to do. #Playdifferent
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Price:
450 BE / 260 RP
Secondary Bar:
Mana
Release Date:
2009-02-21
Secondary Attributes:
Ranged
Style:
Enchanter
Difficulty:
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450 BE / 260 RP
Secondary Bar:
Mana
Release Date:
2009-02-21
Secondary Attributes:
Ranged
Style:
Enchanter
Difficulty:
///// ///// /////
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Health: Health regeneration: Mana: Mana regeneration: Range: |
529-1855 2.5-11 350.8-1370.8 11.5-18.3 550 |
Attack damage: Attack speed: Armor: Magic resistance: Movement speed: |
50–101 0.625 (+ 0–36.4%) 32–96.6 30–38.5 325 |
In League of Legends Draft game modes there is one thing called autofill. Autofill means that roles you selected in lobby are currently very wanted and to shorten the time in queue the game has to give you a different role then roles you selected. Since you are playing on a support role, which is very unpopular, there is very low chance of that happening to you (like 0.2-0.5% I guess) so you don't have to fear this very much. But you should definitely fear getting pushed to your secondary position as there are other unpopular roles in the game. To avoid this I recommend you to select your secondary position midlane as it is by far the most popular role in the game, you can also select toplane but it is a bit worse choice. Definitely avoid selecting a jungler or marksmen as your secondary position - those are almost as unpopular as support.
support role, which is very unpopular, there is very low chance of that happening to you (like 0.2-0.5% I guess) so you don't have to fear this very much. But you should definitely fear getting pushed to your secondary position as there are other unpopular roles in the game. To avoid this I recommend you to select your secondary position midlane as it is by far the most popular role in the game, you can also select toplane but it is a bit worse choice. Definitely avoid selecting a jungler or marksmen as your secondary position - those are almost as unpopular as support.RECOMMENDED
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That is a very complicated topic to talk about. Usually people BAN champions that:
Xerath. Xerath is always playing from afar making it hard for you to get in range. His damage is high and his poke is deadly If you don't dodge his abilities properly. He isn't very strong and Soraka can still win this matchup but it is just way too stressful.
An example of a champion that is very strong at the current meta as for time I was writing this is Bard. He is holding a 52.75% winrate and his playrate is only growing up. He is powerful, popular and very effective at this time.
An example of a champion that counters Soraka is really hard to say because Soraka doesn't have many real counters, just champions she is worse into. So let's look into Leona instead. Leona's biggest counter by far is Morgana. Her Black Shield can block all 3 stuns in Leona's kit and her Dark Binding is very easy to land since Zenith Blade teleports Leona to a fixed distance. So Leona players have hard time picking her into Morgana.
But If you really don't have a champion to BAN, then here are my personal recommendations:
- Are stressful to play against
- Are very strong in the current meta
- Counter a champion they want to play
Xerath. Xerath is always playing from afar making it hard for you to get in range. His damage is high and his poke is deadly If you don't dodge his abilities properly. He isn't very strong and Soraka can still win this matchup but it is just way too stressful.An example of a champion that is very strong at the current meta as for time I was writing this is
Bard. He is holding a 52.75% winrate and his playrate is only growing up. He is powerful, popular and very effective at this time.An example of a champion that counters
Soraka is really hard to say because Soraka doesn't have many real counters, just champions she is worse into. So let's look into Leona instead. Leona's biggest counter by far is Morgana. Her Black Shield can block all 3 stuns in Leona's kit and her Dark Binding is very easy to land since Zenith Blade teleports Leona to a fixed distance. So Leona players have hard time picking her into Morgana.But If you really don't have a champion to BAN, then here are my personal recommendations:
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When selecting a champion there are many things you need to know to maximize your effectiveness before the game even starts. First of all, most people know this fact that the order your enemies BAN champions can tell you when they are selecting their champions. Here at image 1, you can see that they banned Tristana first, then Aatrox, then Leona, Shaco and Yasuo. And now since most of the players BAN champions that can threaten them in their own respective lanes, you can guess when will your lane opponent pick. So Tristana is a champion played mostly on marksmen role, meaning that the player that BANned her is probably also on marksmen role and it is selecting first. That means that whatever champion he picks, he will be your lane opponent on marksmen role. Now take a look at champions they picked in image 2. Usually it would be hard to determine Who is their jungle champion and who is their toplaner, as both Teemo and Urgot can be played on both of those roles. However you see that Urgot banned Shaco and Shaco is a jungler champion, meaning that Urgot is most likely a jungler. Also Teemo banned Aatrox, which is a toplaner. This way you can tell who is playing at which role and you can counterpick your opponent options a lot easier.
Now that I told you about this strategy I should also tell you How to counter it and confuse your opponents or make them select wrong counterpicks to your choices. You can make an appointment with your team and BAN champions which other people want to be BANNED, meaning you switch your BAN champion choice with for example your midlaner. Now what you can do to make this even more intense you can pretend that a champion you want to pick is some midlane-only champion like Zed, Katarina or Talon, wait a while and make sure your opponent see that champion. Then select a champion you really want to play and confirm it. This will make enemy midlaner think that he is probably playing against Soraka (or any other champion you selected) and he will adjust his runes and starting item to counter Soraka but not your real midlaner. Of course sometimes your enemies will just ignore the bait and won't believe you that you are Soraka mid. To make this more realistic consider picking a champion that can be played at both roles, mid and support like Vel'Koz or Lux. This might seem pretty stupid to you but I have already baited my enemies into picking Shield mini rune against Lux, Nullifying Orb against Talon, etc. Try it out, it is worth doing as you won't lose anything by performing this technique :)
Tristana first, then Aatrox, then Leona, Shaco and Yasuo. And now since most of the players BAN champions that can threaten them in their own respective lanes, you can guess when will your lane opponent pick. So Tristana is a champion played mostly on marksmen role, meaning that the player that BANned her is probably also on marksmen role and it is selecting first. That means that whatever champion he picks, he will be your lane opponent on marksmen role. Now take a look at champions they picked in image 2. Usually it would be hard to determine Who is their jungle champion and who is their toplaner, as both Teemo and Urgot can be played on both of those roles. However you see that Urgot banned Shaco and Shaco is a jungler champion, meaning that Urgot is most likely a jungler. Also Teemo banned Aatrox, which is a toplaner. This way you can tell who is playing at which role and you can counterpick your opponent options a lot easier.Now that I told you about this strategy I should also tell you How to counter it and confuse your opponents or make them select wrong counterpicks to your choices. You can make an appointment with your team and BAN champions which other people want to be BANNED, meaning you switch your BAN champion choice with for example your midlaner. Now what you can do to make this even more intense you can pretend that a champion you want to pick is some midlane-only champion like
Zed, Katarina or Talon, wait a while and make sure your opponent see that champion. Then select a champion you really want to play and confirm it. This will make enemy midlaner think that he is probably playing against Soraka (or any other champion you selected) and he will adjust his runes and starting item to counter Soraka but not your real midlaner. Of course sometimes your enemies will just ignore the bait and won't believe you that you are Soraka mid. To make this more realistic consider picking a champion that can be played at both roles, mid and support like Vel'Koz or Lux. This might seem pretty stupid to you but I have already baited my enemies into picking Shield mini rune against Lux, Nullifying Orb against Talon, etc. Try it out, it is worth doing as you won't lose anything by performing this technique :)
IMAGE 1
IMAGE 2
UNSEALED SPELLBOOK
Spoiler: Click to view
PHASE RUSH
Spoiler: Click to view
PREDATOR
Spoiler: Click to view
HAIL OF BLADES
Spoiler: Click to view
PROTOTYPE: OMNISTONE
Spoiler: Click to view
GLACIAL AUGMENT
Spoiler: Click to view
LETHAL TEMPO
Spoiler: Click to view
FLEET FOOTWORK
Spoiler: Click to view|
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Attack Speed is the king of shards in most Soraka builds. People often ignore this rune on enchanters like Soraka, but I consider the bonus attack speed much more relevant then more AP. It helps you clear wards, destroy turrets or proc Phase Rush much easier. The only situation in which Adaptive Force is better is in Hail of Blades Umbral Glaive builds, where you don't need the attack speed all that much. Ability Haste is a really bad rune, that is almost always pretty bad. In very long games with Transcendence and Gathering Storm it might have a chance, but even then I would consider other options better.
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Adaptive Force is (almost) always a right choice. It just brings you so much more value then Tenacity and Slow Resist or Shield could ever provide. Even against full AD team compositions, you would still probably go for Adaptive Force rather then Shield. Against full AP compositions I guess Tenacity and Slow Resist could be selected as it gives you more MR then Shield gives Armor, but even then, Adaptive Force would be a selectable and completely viable option.
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Since Flat Health is extremely bad rune for you, as Astral Infusion cost scales higher the more HP you have. Always choose Tenacity and Slow Resist or Shield depending on which champions are you facing on your lane. If the botlane is double AD ( Pyke + Jhin for example), always go for Shield. If there is a high poke mage on botlane ( Xerath, Brand, etc.) or If the marksmen is AP champion ( Viktor, Ziggs, etc.), go for Tenacity and Slow Resist. If the damage of the enemy botlane is somehow equal ( Sona + Ashe), choose between Shield or Tenacity and Slow Resist, depending on other champions you will often see in game like a jungler or enemy midlaner.
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PROS
+ Ranged champion + Nice amount of CC + Extremely helpful + Team champion + Good Sustain + Amazing mobility with this build + Easy to learn + Versatile summoner spells Soraka can be very effective throughout all stages of the game. Her abilities can hit hard while also supporting her marksmen with powerful heals. She can easily adapt to any stage of the game and she shines bright during every teamfight. She can outsustain most of the DPS your enemies do and she is able to shut down low health targets as her damage is very solid. |
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CONS
- Squishy - Requires good mana management - Useless horn - Easy to counter - No big form of Crowd Control - Skill shot reliant - Expensive items - Requires good ADC synergy Soraka has very hard time surviving aggressive engages. She is often the main focus of her enemies and often time she dies first If you won't position well. Her healthbar is low and her mana does not last forever as well. She gets countered really hard by grievous wounds. She also needs to constantly land her Starcalls or her presence in the fight won't last very long. |
SURVIVE, HEAL & SCALE
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#1.
Wish 6 / 11 / 16 #2. Astral Infusion 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 #3. Starcall 1 / 9 / 10 / 12 / 13 #4. Equinox 2 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18 |
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Starcall as it provides the strongest potential out of all 3 basic abilities. If you achieved level 2 before your enemies, put one point in Equinox and go for aggressive trade. If you achieved level 2 after your enemies, put a point into Astral Infusion. At level 3 put a point into whatever basic ability you don't have yet. From now on, always level up your Wish whenever you can. Level up your Astral Infusions first to provide as much safety for your allies as possible. Then focus on your Starcall as it can empower your Astral Infusions even more and it increases your poke by quite a lot. Level up Equinox last as you don't have other options left.This setup is recommended in most late game/farm based games for support Soraka, when you want to focus on survival rather then poke. It is not recommended for Soraka on ADC role as it makes your farming really really hard.
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FARM, POKE & KILL
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#1.
Wish 6 / 11 / 16 #2. Starcall 1 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 #3. Equinox 2 / 9 / 10 / 12 / 13 #4. Astral Infusion 3 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18 |
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Starcall as it provides the strongest potential out of all 3 basic abilities. If you achieved level 2 before your enemies, put one point in Equinox and go for aggressive trade. If you achieved level 2 after your enemies, put a point into Astral Infusion. At level 3 put a point into whatever basic ability you don't have yet. From now on, always level up your Wish whenever you can. Level up your Starcall first to control the minion waves more easily and sustain yourself throughout the early game. Then focus on your Equinox as it can deal a ton of damage with right follow up from your support. Level up Astral Infusion last as you don't have other options left.This setup is recommended in most aggressive Soraka-on-ADC-role games. It is very good when your support has enough CC to lock your enemy in the Equinox. This setup is really under-performing on support Soraka as it maxes Astral Infusion too late
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FARM & SURVIVE /// POKE
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#1.
Wish 6 / 11 / 16 #2. Starcall 1 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 #3. Astral Infusion 3 / 9 / 10 / 12 / 13 #4. equinox 2 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18 |
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Starcall as it provides the strongest potential out of all 3 basic abilities. If you achieved level 2 before your enemies, put one point in Equinox and go for aggressive trade. If you achieved level 2 after your enemies, put a point into Astral Infusion. At level 3 put a point into whatever basic ability you don't have yet. From now on, always level up your Wish whenever you can. Level up your Starcall first to control the minion waves more easily and sustain yourself throughout the early game (=If you are an ADC) or poke your enemies out of the lane and try to abuse your strong early game (=If you are a Support). Then focus on your Astral Infusion and keep your allies alive. Level up Equinox last as you don't have other options left.This setup is recommended in most passive Soraka-on-ADC-role games. It is very good when you need to just survive and scale up so you can abuse your late game. This setup is also very strong in aggressive support Soraka games. It can deal a lot of damage in the early game thanks to very early maxed Starcalls.
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Engage/Disengage (35% Nimbus Cloak) Flash provides Soraka great disengage ability. A Zhonya's Hourglass + Flash + Nimbus Cloak, saves you from ANY trouble. Flash can be used as a finisher to shut down low health squishes when paired with Equinox. Flash can also be used as a clutch saver when paired with Astral Infusion. It can be used to tank or dodge certain dangerous skill shots like Dark Binding.
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Self protection (20% Nimbus Cloak) Barrier provides you a solid defence against quick and burst champions and provides the most safety out of all secondary summoner spells. It provides quite low teamfight potential which can be easily fixed with Unsealed Spellbook. Barrier can also be used as a way to tank a turret shot for your ADC when tower diving or to proc Shield Bash If you are an absolute madman.
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Your ADC doesn't want Heal (20% Nimbus Cloak) There are many reason why your ADC didn't choose to pick heal, maybe it doesn't know how to use it properly, maybe it wants to go for Barrier or Ignite instead. After all you get a lot more value from Heal then your ADC does, since it can get boosted by + Healing and shielding items like Redemption or to proc after healing effects like Ardent Censer. Heal provides a solid outplay potential and the movement speed bonus is very valuable as well.
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Engage/Anti-healing (20% Nimbus Cloak) Ignite is a solid aggressive summoner spell that can counter healing based team compositions featuring champions like Dr. Mundo, Vladimir, Draven, Aatrox and more. It can be also used as a way to deal with too late game bot duos, that would outscale you and your ADC when left save. You can purposely switch to a very aggressive playstyle and try to snowball with your ADC before it gets too late.
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Universal (20% Nimbus Cloak) Exhaust is just like Flash a very universal summoner spell. It can be used as a way to lockdown high DPS champions like Cassiopeia, Vayne or Riven. It can be used as a way to lower damage of assassin champions like Katarina or Talon when used before their combo activates. It can also be used on enemy jungler while ganking you to prevent them from engaging properly. But it can also be used as a way to slow down your prey making it easier to chase down or to protect your ADC from enemy ADC. Overall it has a lot of uses and is a very universal summoner spell.
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Jungle presence (5% Nimbus Cloak) Smite can be used in many different situations, most notably as a way to steal jungle objectives. Often times you see enemies shutting down your jungler which usually makes all the hopes for sweet dragon lost. When there are 2 players with Smite though, you can still maintain that chance. It can also be used as a self healing ability on some smaller monsters while roaming, it can be great as a way to secure the canon minion when paired with Relic Shield. The downside is it's low teamfight presence.
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Anti-CC (20% Nimbus Cloak) Cleanse is a solid summoner spell that can save you from situation where Exhaust and/or Barrier are completely useless, most notably heavy CC abilities that can lock you in place making you a vulnerable prey. It offers bad teamfight potential and is hard to use but can be crucial If you want to survive constant CC engages from champions like Sejuani or Morgana
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Roaming (35% Nimbus Cloak) Teleport is amazing teamfights turnaround ability. It can be used to quickly get back to your lane or to save an ally in a galaxy far far away. It can be also used as a way to escape engages when paired with Bushes or Alcoves. It has high cooldown but is very useful.
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Semi-Flash (20% Nimbus Cloak) Important thing that you should know is that Flash is one of the least value providing summoner spells in the entire game. It literally moves you just 2 cm in chosen direction and then it charges another 6 minutes. Ghost on the other hand provides an enormous boost in movement speed that pairs well with Boots of Swiftness/ Mobility Boots, Celerity, Time Warp Tonic, Nimbus Cloak, Waterwalking, Shurelya's Battlesong, etc. It can be used as an effective disengage option or as a massive teamfight automatic positioner that resets the duration after scoring a takedown. It also has a 90 second lower cooldown then Flash. Go for Ghost in not flashy matchups or in games when movement speed and positioning will be important.
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Soraka gains 70% movement speed when moving towards allied champions below 40% of their maximum health who are outside of Astral Infusion's range. Range: 2500 |
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Soraka calls down a star at a target location. Enemies standing at the point of impact take 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 / 225 (+35% of ability power) magic damage and are slowed by 30% for 2 seconds. If Soraka hits at least one enemy champion, she is also granted Rejuvenation for 2.5 seconds, which restores 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 (+30% of ability power) health and grants her a decaying 15 / 17.5 / 20 / 22.5 / 25% movement speed buff over its duration.While Soraka is Rejuvenated she can Rejuvenate other allies with Astral Infusion, granting them the same effects for the same duration.Range: 800 Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 |
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Soraka blesses a friendly champion, restoring 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+60% of ability power) of its health. The health cost will be reduced by 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100% if the ability is cast while Rejuvenated. Astral Infusion cannot be self-cast, nor can it be cast if Soraka is below 5% of her maximum health. Range: 550 Cooldown: 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 |
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Soraka creates a zone at a target location for 1.5 seconds. Enemy champions standing in the zone take 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+40% of ability power) magic damage and are silenced until they leave. At the end of the zone's duration, all enemy champions inside are rooted for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds and take 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+40% of ability power) additional magic damage. Range: 925 Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 |
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Soraka calls upon the stars, restoring 150 / 250 / 350 (+55% of ability power) health to all allied champions across the field. Wish can affect untargetable allies. Wish has a 50% increased heal on allied champions below 40% of their maximum health. Cooldown: 160 / 145 / 130 Cost: 1000 |
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STARTING ITEM?? As a support you have a lot of items you can buy at the start of the game, that will generate money for you throughout the whole game. Here are ones you should be focusing on, reasons why they are so good and in which situations you should take them. |
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SPELLTHIEF'S EDGE Spellthief's Edge is best in aggressive lanes where you plan on harassing enemy marksmen and support whenever they come in distance of your autoattacks or Starcall. This item can upgrade itself very quickly in those situations and it will allow you to kind off snowball. Stats are probably the best ones out of all starting support items as it provides you the most AP from all those choices and solid mana regeneration.
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RELIC SHIELD Relic Shield shines in passive situations. Sometimes you can't afford to get close to the enemy as they would shut you down with ease. This item focuses on staying at the backline and waiting for your time to come. It levels quite slowly but that is absolutely fine. Just wait for the right situation and play passively until the situation arrives. Don't forget to focus on cannon minions as they provide you the most gold. Make sure you ping them first to make sure your marksmen won't steal them. Stats of this item are a bit worse as you don't need that much health but that is acceptable.
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SPECTRAL SICKLE Spectral Sickle is best in aggressive Hail of Blades builds. Hail of Blades allows you to get the money out of this item really quickly and really easily. Also thanks to the fact that it gives you AD it also turns all your Adaptive Forces into AD which is amazing for the laning phase. Stats are really valuable in Hail of Blades builds as you should be able to auto attack a lot throughout the whole game.
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DORAN'S RING Doran's Ring is your go to item in case you are not playing on support role. Great stats provide safe and comfortable early game, while also making CSing a bit easier. Check the Last hitting chapter for some brief overview on how many Starcalls and basic attacks it takes to kill a minion with this item.
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GENERAL
PREDATOR |
LETHAL TEMPO
PHASE RUSH |
MAGIC RESIST
ARMOR |
Ionian Boots of Lucidity are probably the strongest boots in the market as for season 11. They provide a very neccessary Ability haste as a lot of support items lost this stat. Mobility Boots provide you absolutely insane out of combat movement speed which is super efficient in roaming Predator builds. Boots of Swiftness are very good in combat movement speed builds with Phase Rush and Cosmic Drive. There also are Berserker's Greaves that are amazing in Lethal Tempo auto attack orinted builds with Kraken Slayer. Last of all you can go for Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps to protect yourself against one sided damage type teams.
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MYTHIC ITEMS
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Aggressive Early Game Amazing item when you have an aggressive early game ADC in your team. Champions like Caitlyn or Jhin are able to follow up on your Starcall really easily, which is great when you need to quickly snowball and close out the game.
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More CC/Roaming/Glacial Augment Great item when your team just needs the extra CC to throw out their spells. This item works really well with your Equinox, allowing you to easily double rott the enemy. This is especially useful when you are roaming to mid lane. Everfrost also pairs really well with Glacial Augment.
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More Healing I am not going to lie, buying this item feels bad because of high Grievous Wounds effects, your enemies will buy against you. However it provides the best Mythic stat bonus per each legendary item you have out of all available mythic items in the game. Pairs especially well with Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Water.
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Rally Your Allies Great item that provides your team a good engage against squishy targets or disengage against mellee bruisers that need to get close to your allies in order to be effective. Superb item that heavily depends on teamcomposition of both teams in order to deliver the most out of it's ability. |
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Protect your allies Great teamfight heavy item that provides a huge AOE shield buff to all nearby allies. Great when enemy team is full of deadly assassins that want to ruin your day while your team has no other way to protect yourself. very effective defensive item. |
LEGENDARY ITEMS
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Support your ADC Pretty great item that can greatly increase the effectiveness of auto-attack focused champions in your team. If you have at least 2 of those champions in your team you should definitely take this item into considiration. |
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Teamfight Boost Redemption is the most healing oriented legendary item in the game. It grants you nice stats and upon activation, you heal everything in an area (even after death). It pairs well with Ardent Censer or Staff of Flowing Water as it can spread it's buff across the long distances in large area of effect.
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The Greatest Defense Item A very defensive oriented item that helps Soraka to survive pretty much everything. Stats are great as a way to boost your damage/healing as well as to defend yourself from AD champions. Works really well in most builds as an anti assassin item option.
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Strike & Run A very powerful item with highest available CDR from all AP items in the game. Great when you plan on spamming spells often or when you plan on move around the battlefield very quickly. |
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Scatter the Weak A very damage/raw healing focused item. The power it grants you is extremely powerful but expensive. Don't buy this item when there is no time to waste. It can be used as a general finisher when the enemy team doesn't have many ways to lock you down. It is great against squishy champions that can get poked out of the lane. |
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CC Cleanser A very great item when used correctly. It can cleanse almost any form of CC from you or your ally (note that it doesn't work against Nether Grasp or Impale). The trick comes in reacting to the CC very quickly. If you will be too slow this item won't bring you almost any value so you need to time everything right. This item also provides you some nice bonus healing and magic resistance stats. It is great against heavy CC abilities like Dark Binding or Enchanted Crystal Arrow.
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Against Heavy AA/AD/Crit A bit less orthodox item that can shut down the damage from critical hit building champions like Yasuo, Tryndamere, Master Yi, Jinx, etc. Don't build this item when there is just one of them. This item finds the real value only when there are 2/3+ of them. The active effect is also great as it can get rid of those champions when they are focusing you.
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Are You Already Ahead? This item is very risky but can provide you a huge spike in damage & healing If built in a right situation. That is, When you are already ahead and you need to push your power quickly forward. Keep in mind that building this item has consequences. If you die, you lose A LOT power, enemies will be more likely to focus you, you will have to play really really safe and you will have to sell this item after fullbuild to obtain something more reliable. |
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Anti-healing A great item when enemies have a lot of over the top healing options. Pay great attention when you buy this item and ask yourself If it is really that neccessary as often times there might be three more allies building those ant-healing item and having way too many of them is very inneficient. |
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Support Your Mages Great item when you have a lot of AP Carries that you'd like to support throughout the game. Battlemages like Vladimir or Karthus will love this item. You can also buy it in a movement speed focused Phase Rush build for even more mobility
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Light AP Protection Great item when enemy team has some annoying AP carries that keep ruining your day. Great against stand alone engaging spells like Sleepy Trouble Bubble or Unstoppable Force or Chum the Waters. Solid light defense item.
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Against Heavy AP Solid item when enemy team is full of annoying APCarries, AP assassins and burst mages. Works really nicely with healing you receive from Starcall, Wish but also with your Redemption and Heal. Great item in rare situations.
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Unsealed Spellbook provides you with a lot of different summoner spells throughout the game. The best one you can possibly get is Teleport. By the time you recall for the first time, you should already have your Unsealed Spellbook ready to use, allowing you to get instantly back to the lane. In the mid to late game you can use this summoner spell to splitpush with your toplaner, quickly join teamfights or play around objectives. Your next pretty nice choices are Exhaust and Ignite, both of those are pretty good as they provide great safety/kill secure in the early game and great proactive value in the mid to late game. When it comes to Ghost, it is a great proactive summoner spell that provides you with an insane value over all stages of the game. Smite is great for stealing objectives and when used correctly, good Smites can win you the game. A bit worse rune is Barrier as it is a reactive summoner spell that you use to survive unexpected attacks, but there is a 5 second delay before you can use a summoner spell you selected, making this rune good only as a pre-set. Heal can be solid in the early game but in late game it provides almost nothing as your healing from Astral Infusion, Wish and Redemption greatly outclasses Heal. The worst runes possible are Clarity that is just so unnecessary since If you have mana problems in lane you should probably go for runes like Manaflow Band or Biscuit Delivery but most importantly Soraka's mana bar is insane already and If you have problems keeping it under control you should probably be less wasteful with your resources. Then there is Cleanse. The absolutely full reactive summoner spell that has same problem as Barrier, but it is generally just worse as it is very very situational and hard to use right.
Another important factor is to know, When to use which summoner spells and How to generally maneuver with
Unsealed Spellbook so:
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ARE YOU PLAYING FOR
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VS
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Does your team have a better chance to win in the early game? Is your ADC an aggressive lane bully like Lucian or Miss Fortune? Is the enemy ADC a scaling hypercarry that needs to farm properly to crush you at the end of the game like Vayne, Kai'Sa or Kog'Maw? Then you should play for the early game. Go for Spellthief's Edge and focus on constant harassing and poke. Do your best to scare enemy ADC from canon minions and force it to recall early. Play aggressive, try to push if possible and If it is save. Don't be afraid to put 1 or 2 point into your Starcall or Equinox If necessary. Recommended summoner spells are usually Ignite for early kills and/or Exhaust to reduce the DPS of strong hypercaries. Force early objectives, collect money from plates and make your team snowball hard. Do not waste your time, play quick, fast and deadly. |
Does your team have a better chance to win in the late game? Is your ADC a scaling hypercarry that needs to farm properly to crush the enemy team at the end of the game like Vayne, Ashe or Kai'Sa? Is the enemy ADC an aggressive lane bully that wants to kill you fast to snowball? Then you should fight for the late game. Go for Relic Shield and focus on survival, warding and lane control. Do your best to heal as much wounds your ADC takes as possible, provide it an easy lane, where it can peacefully farm and scale. Play passive, don't be afraid to damage the minion wave so you won't get completely outpushed. Don't do risky moves and do your best to stay alive. Recommended summoner spells are Barrier, Exhaust or Heal to keep the lane nice and save. Take your time, play slowly and wait until your time comes. |
When it comes to a deciding factor between countering your opponent or getting countered by him, something called a support triangle takes place. Support triangle is a logical key to guess how good/bad of a matchup you are in. It is split into 3 categories SUSTAIN, KILL and POKE and it works as following. If you are a SUSTAIN based champion like Sona for example, you can heal most of the damage a POKE champion might do to you and thus win your lane easier as your enemies have no way to deal with you. If you are a POKE based champion like Lulu for example, you can easily deal with KILL champions as you will periodically hit them with your spells and keep them too low on health for them to engage on you at all. And If you are KILL based champion like Leona you can easily deal with SUSTAIN champions like Soraka for example, you can all in her easily and you don't care about her healing because you destroy her in 1 mighty attack leaving no place for long term healing.
Of course, this triangle is not 100% precise. Since most of the champions have abilities that make them stand out from the triangle like Lux's Prismatic Barrier that is good against POKE as it can mitigate a lot of damage this way. The main purpose of Support triangle is 1) To give you general information about If you counter your opponent or not 2) To actually counter your opponent via runes and items. That's because runes are also part of the triangle. There are POKE runes like Scorch or Manaflow Band, SUSTAIN runes like Second Wind or Taste of Blood and KILL runes like Coup de Grace or Electrocute. What the important thing is that you want to slightly move from one side of the triangle to the other thanks to those runes and so When you are facing a bad matchup, you alter your playstyle a bit and make it a bit more favorable this way.
Example: I am facing Xerath. Xerath is a POKE champion. To defeat him I must be as much SUSTAIN as possible and I should avoid being a KILL champion. So I will focus mainly on SUSTAIN runes and items. I pick Second Wind and every time he hits me with a spell I get some health back in return, making his POKE weaker then usual. In a KILL matchup, Second Wind would be almost useless as I either survive or die instantly and no healing over long period of time could ever change that. I altered my playstyle around the Support triangle to counter my opponent >>> I reduced the efficiency of my opponent >>> I increased my chance of winning against the opponent.
Sona for example, you can heal most of the damage a POKE champion might do to you and thus win your lane easier as your enemies have no way to deal with you. If you are a POKE based champion like Lulu for example, you can easily deal with KILL champions as you will periodically hit them with your spells and keep them too low on health for them to engage on you at all. And If you are KILL based champion like Leona you can easily deal with SUSTAIN champions like Soraka for example, you can all in her easily and you don't care about her healing because you destroy her in 1 mighty attack leaving no place for long term healing.Of course, this triangle is not 100% precise. Since most of the champions have abilities that make them stand out from the triangle like
Lux's Prismatic Barrier that is good against POKE as it can mitigate a lot of damage this way. The main purpose of Support triangle is 1) To give you general information about If you counter your opponent or not 2) To actually counter your opponent via runes and items. That's because runes are also part of the triangle. There are POKE runes like Scorch or Manaflow Band, SUSTAIN runes like Second Wind or Taste of Blood and KILL runes like Coup de Grace or Electrocute. What the important thing is that you want to slightly move from one side of the triangle to the other thanks to those runes and so When you are facing a bad matchup, you alter your playstyle a bit and make it a bit more favorable this way.Example: I am facing
Xerath. Xerath is a POKE champion. To defeat him I must be as much SUSTAIN as possible and I should avoid being a KILL champion. So I will focus mainly on SUSTAIN runes and items. I pick Second Wind and every time he hits me with a spell I get some health back in return, making his POKE weaker then usual. In a KILL matchup, Second Wind would be almost useless as I either survive or die instantly and no healing over long period of time could ever change that. I altered my playstyle around the Support triangle to counter my opponent >>> I reduced the efficiency of my opponent >>> I increased my chance of winning against the opponent.
Heal Ally
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- Requires 85 mana (+5 mana for every additional point in Astral Infusion or Starcall)
- This combo allows you to heal your partner in lane or teamfight without a fear of falling down on health. It generally isn't recommended to use only Astral Infusion when unnecessary.
Standard Trade
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+ AA
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+ AA
- Requires 115 mana (+5 mana for every additional point in Equinox or Starcall)
- This combo is great for basic trades.
- It offers good damage, some sutain, it is pretty easy to do and procs Phase Rush or Electrocute
Hail of Blades Trade
+ AA + AA + AA
+ AA + AA + AA
- Requires 45 mana (+5 mana for every additional point in Starcall)
- This combo is great while using Hail of Blades for short trades.
- It offers good damage when paired with Spectral Sickle and 2x Adaptive Force, is easy to do and quite fast.
Disable Carry
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- Requires 70 mana (+5 mana for every additional point in Equinox)
- This combo is very hard to pull of If you don't have an Unsealed Spellbook that allows you to have Flash
- You can also pull this combo off while having no Ignite or Exhaust in the preset. By simply using Unsealed Spellbook to acquire 1 summoner spell and then waiting ~2 minutes for Unsealed Spellbook to recharge so you could acquire the second one as well.
- This combo is mostly effective when used on enemy carries like Cassiopeia, Ryze, Riven, Aatrox, etc. Silencing them, reducing their damage and healing and then eventually rooting them can leave them useless for few seconds, allowing your team to follow up safely.
Secure Kill
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- Requires 70 mana (+5 mana for every additional point in Equinox)
- This combo is great for securing squishy champions that are low on HP. This combo is extremely fast and nobody will ever be able to react to this If you will make it look unexpected.
- When you feel like the opportunity for this combo is coming close, put a point or two into Equinox. This way the combo will be a lot deadlier.
Quick Save
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- Requires 140 mana (+5 mana for every additional point in Astral Infusion)
- This combo works well when you need to quickly save an ally in danger. Use Flash to cancel the animation of Wish and get into a range of Astral Infusion
- This combo shouldn't be used when the target ally is under Grievous wounds effect (reduces incoming healing by 45%) but it gets stronger foe every heal amplifying item like Redemption or Ardent Censer.
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Time Warp is a name for my secret Soraka technique, that I use to reduce the cooldown of Wish by up to 70 seconds! To perform this technique, you first have to recall. Second of all, sell your items that provide no CDR or low healing stats like Boots of Swiftness, Zhonya's Hourglass or Locket of the Iron Solari. Now quickly buy items with cooldown reduction/Healing power/High AP like Forbidden Idol, Everfrost, Ardent Censer, Rabadon's Deathcap, Fiendish Codex, etc. Now cast your Wish - it will be empowered by all AP, CDR and +Heal power items you just bought. Last of all, spam click Undo button in the shop to get all your necessary items back. I learned this trick from r/Shenmains and used it quite often in my games since then. It requires very good timing and wasting too much time in the shop can be crucial for your lane presence. Sidenote: Don't worry about the Undo button graying out and blocking itself, there isn't a time limit in which you should Time warp, the only problem is that If you will spend too much time in the shop, you will arrive at your lane late. |
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Waterwalking rune is a very effective tool for roaming and/or establishing jungle presence for your team as support Soraka. Not that many people know though, that Waterwalking can also be utilized outside of the river. When ocean drake takes over the map and summoner's rift visual changes, small water puddles are being formed across the jungle, they are formed at all jungle camps except Ancient Krug and Gromp. They are also formed around new honeyfruit plants and so there are 3 new spots for Waterwalking at each quarter of the map. Staying in those puddles during some small fights can be extremely rewarding as you can get the bonus movement speed and quite a lot of AP. You can also just pass through them to get the bonus movement speed and get to your final destination a little bit quicker.|
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Jungle plants may seem like an unnecessary, stupid or even useless topic to teach yourself. After all red flower goes boom, blue flower goes fííí and green flower goes squish. Most players consider Jungle plants so innocent and expectable that they won't even waste their time learning all their secrets. But flowers can't have any secrets, right?.... right?
Another great and unknown tip about Jungle flowers is that when they are used they leave a peals on the ground for 30 seconds before completely disappearing. This way, If you see a petal on the ground on place where jungle plant is usually located, you can guess that someone (most likely enemy jungler visited that place in last 30 seconds and assess If you are in danger or not.
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Blast Cone Escaping, Distrupting, Engaging Blasting Cone allows you to jump over walls, escape your enemies or engage right into dragon pit, it's uses are however much greater. You can fire a basic attack while in the blast cone radius and before the attack hits the flower you can just use Zhonya's Hourglass to prevent yourself from knockbacing - this way you launch away everyone except yourself. If your Zhonya's Hourglass is on cooldown, don't worry, you can still position yourself right on top of the flower to not get knocked back but to get knocked up. This might be really hard to do because right click executes attack command before movement command but with right usage of H (=this key stops your player from moving) you can still do this. You can also cleanse the Blast cone with Quicksilver Sash. This way you won't stop the knockback but you unlock your summoner spells items and abilities during the knockback - meaning that you can cast Zhonya's Hourglass, Wish or Smite while flying. This way you can unlock Flash and possibly redirect the knockback to an unpredictable place. You can also use Blast cone as a way to proc Last Breath or Ravenous Flock of your allies. Blast Cone can also give you an assist for an enemy kill.
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Honeyfruit Sustaining, Distrupting, Surviving Honeyfruits allow you to sustain yourself throughout the game. Even though you won't get to them very often as they are more of a jungler's thing, you can still eat some while warding the river. Honeyfruit tasty pieces apply slow when eaten, this can be particularly useful as a disruption tool to outrun your opponent. If there is rift scuttler nearby, she immediately dashes to the closest fruit and starts eating it. You can use her as a creep block for your opponent to even more disrupt it's movement. Once rift scuttler starts eating the fruit piece, you have exactly 10 seconds to stop her by few basic attacks that will scare her away. If you won't stop her in time, the fruit piece gets lost. Also keep in mind that Boots of Swiftness grant you important advantage as it greatly reduces the effectiveness of slow effect.
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Scryer's Bloom Vision Expanding, Ward Destroying, Tracking Scryer's Blooms are usually used to reveal some part of the map but usually without second thought. It is important to position yourself right around the flower so you will be able to see as many objectives as possible. It is ALWAYS possible to reveal 2 jungle camps. Sure it is much easier on blue quarters of the map then the red ones where getting those raptors as well as red brambleback require really really good positioning but it is possible. You can also use it on ward lucrative places in order to deny a lot of vision. Works well with Umbral Glaive and Oracle Lens or allies that require good vision like Caitlyn, Xerath or Jhin to land their spells.
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Another great and unknown tip about Jungle flowers is that when they are used they leave a peals on the ground for 30 seconds before completely disappearing. This way, If you see a petal on the ground on place where jungle plant is usually located, you can guess that someone (most likely enemy
jungler visited that place in last 30 seconds and assess If you are in danger or not.
As Soraka doesn't have any deceitful ability like Hallucinate or Inherent Glamour in her kit or any powerful win-lose ability like Rocket Grab, her options to bait enemies are very limited. There still are few tricks that you can perform though. First one is unpredictable Flashing. To perform this ability you need to stay right next to a wall with Flash ready to be used. But you don't want to flash over a wall, you want to flash to nearby bush. This way your enemies might use their gap closing ability or even their own Flash to get over a wall and get ya, but at that time it will be far too late, because you are on the other side of long wall with recall ready to be used and escape. Note that this trick has a lot of requirements. You obviously have to have your Flash ready, your enemies also have to have their gap closing ability like Leap or Flash ready, otherwise they will just ignore you and might even go through your bush! You also have to make sure your enemies don't have vision behind that wall and you also have to look like a prey that's worth Flashing for. If all those conditions are met, this trick still remains risky but extremely hilarious If you pull it off
Another cool trick is ward-baiting. You basically place a Stealth Ward in a place where you know your enemies can see it and destroy it AKA under enemy turret or next to enemy Control Ward. Your enemies will instinctively try to destroy it, often times stepping out of their safe zone right into your team ready to kill them. You can also use Control Ward for this technique as Control Ward is always visible for your enemies so you can place it just next to bush with your teammate, it doesn't even have to be under turret to work!
Last trick I'd like to teach you is the simplest of baiting tricks. You simply set your HP to very low, wait for your fish (enemy) to catch the bait (you) and now just run to your teammates, hidden in the bush ready to setup a deadly ambush.
Soraka doesn't have any deceitful ability like Hallucinate or Inherent Glamour in her kit or any powerful win-lose ability like Rocket Grab, her options to bait enemies are very limited. There still are few tricks that you can perform though. First one is unpredictable Flashing. To perform this ability you need to stay right next to a wall with Flash ready to be used. But you don't want to flash over a wall, you want to flash to nearby bush. This way your enemies might use their gap closing ability or even their own Flash to get over a wall and get ya, but at that time it will be far too late, because you are on the other side of long wall with recall ready to be used and escape. Note that this trick has a lot of requirements. You obviously have to have your Flash ready, your enemies also have to have their gap closing ability like Leap or Flash ready, otherwise they will just ignore you and might even go through your bush! You also have to make sure your enemies don't have vision behind that wall and you also have to look like a prey that's worth Flashing for. If all those conditions are met, this trick still remains risky but extremely hilarious If you pull it off|
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Another cool trick is ward-baiting. You basically place a
Stealth Ward in a place where you know your enemies can see it and destroy it AKA under enemy turret or next to enemy Control Ward. Your enemies will instinctively try to destroy it, often times stepping out of their safe zone right into your team ready to kill them. You can also use Control Ward for this technique as Control Ward is always visible for your enemies so you can place it just next to bush with your teammate, it doesn't even have to be under turret to work!|
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Last trick I'd like to teach you is the simplest of baiting tricks. You simply set your HP to very low, wait for your fish (enemy) to catch the bait (you) and now just run to your teammates, hidden in the bush ready to setup a deadly ambush.
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Kiting is a technique performed mostly by marksman players to maintain the distance between the target while still applying solid DPS to them. The way kiting works is fairly simple, you want to right click your target with auto attack and then immediately reposition yourself. Then you right click your target again and once again you reposition yourself...., so you will basically auto attack your enemy while moving. This technique guarantees you maximum safety as you will be able to dodge skill-shots while staying in safe distance and dealing damage. Note that as Soraka player, you will most likely not utilize this technique in any build outside of Lethal Tempo attack speed build as any other build doesn't focus on auto attack damage all that much. Also keep in mind that kiting is very skill-expressive, you need to move immediately after you fire the projectile from your auto attack. The longer the gap between that projectile and your timing will be, the more DPS you lose. Kiting requires a lot of practise to master and you definitely won't learn it in a day but with enough practise, everything is possible :)
marksman players to maintain the distance between the target while still applying solid DPS to them. The way kiting works is fairly simple, you want to right click your target with auto attack and then immediately reposition yourself. Then you right click your target again and once again you reposition yourself...., so you will basically auto attack your enemy while moving. This technique guarantees you maximum safety as you will be able to dodge skill-shots while staying in safe distance and dealing damage. Note that as Soraka player, you will most likely not utilize this technique in any build outside of Lethal Tempo attack speed build as any other build doesn't focus on auto attack damage all that much. Also keep in mind that kiting is very skill-expressive, you need to move immediately after you fire the projectile from your auto attack. The longer the gap between that projectile and your timing will be, the more DPS you lose. Kiting requires a lot of practise to master and you definitely won't learn it in a day but with enough practise, everything is possible :)|
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Having fun in League is not as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of reasons that prevent you from having fun and just enjoying game. Take a look at my notes on What is blocking you from fun nirvana:
- YOU ALLOW OTHER PLAYERS TO TAKE YOU DOWN - Seriously, don't listen to other people. All they usually want is to win or just make you feel terrible. Whether they are overpinging you for mistakes, flame you or just want to report you - don't listen to them. Mute all players, mute all pings and focus on yourself.
- YOU ARE FOCUSING TOO MUCH ON OTHERS - This is basically an opposite version of last point. When you keep watching other players and you flame them, ping them or 'guide them' (=meaning you keep telling them What to do and How to play the game - players hate that, don't do it!). You are going to have fun much less frequently. Don't center your mind around others - leave them alone and focus on yourself.
- YOU ARE PLAYING TOO MUCH RANKED GAMES - Alright, ranked games are basically normal games but centered around competition. Competition might be fine for winning and pushing your game knowledge further but it really is not good for having fun. Play normal games instead. In normal games there is nothing you can win and nothing you can lose.
- YOU CENTER FUN AROUND WINNING - Probably the most important point of them all and hardest to overcome. All people enjoy winning, that sweet taste of victory on your tongue is amazing - I know it - But is it correct to have fun only when you are winning while falling down when you are losing? If you teach yourself that winning X losing are just 2 words with very small meaning, you will not center your excitement around state of the game. The only real difference between having and not having fun should be you. You should be able to decide yourself If you are/aren't having fun and not center it around other's gameplay.
- YOU ARE AFRAID OF EXPERIMENTING - Experimenting is great, trying new strategies, builds, rune setups, champions, etc. can keep the game fresh and unique. Don't stick to just one build. Open your mind to new options, Is there something so crazy what you have always wanted to try out? Go for it! Test it! Who cares that it might be bad If it makes you have fun.
- You can use Blast Cone as a way to throw your enemy into Equinox
- You can also auto attack the blast cone and then immediately use Zhonya's Hourglass to prevent yourself from being knocked back.
- When having Smite. You are most likely few levels behind from your enemy jungler, making his Smite stronger then yours. If you will combine your Smite with Starcall and you will make hit them at the same time, you can greatly nullify this disadvantage.
- In order to proc Phase Rush you don't need to use just your auto attacks and abilities. You can also use active items and summoner spells as well.
- If you wish to use both of your summoner spells to escape and you have Nimbus Cloak, consider waiting few seconds after you cast the first summoner spell so you get the most value out of Nimbus Cloak
- In order to get the most out of Fleet Footwork, consider procing it on champions as the heal bonus is 5 times as big (really). Also don't remain on one place - keep moving to charge this rune faster
- Tell your marksmen to consider taking Overheal as your healing abilities, summoner spells and items will be more effective that way.
- Tell your tank toplaner to consider taking Spirit Visage sometime in the game. This will empower your Wish, Redemption and/or Astral Infusion on this target by 30%
- Biscuit Delivery grants you more HP and mana based on how much HP and mana you are missing - save this rune when getting low and don't waste this when you don't have to.
- You can combine Minion Dematerializer with Relic Shield as a great way to control the minion waves and secure the most gold efficient minions.
- Watch out your rune cooldowns. You can see them ticking on top of your summoner spells in GUI. Sometimes it is better to engage with your Taste of Blood or Cheap Shot then without them.
- Right now it is still better for you to have Heal then your marksmen, since you have all your bonus healing and shielding power items in your disposal. Consider talking with your ADC about it.
- If your ally bought Elixir of Iron, follow the gray path behind them for bonus movement speed.
- When you hit level 6, ping your allies that you have Wish ready to be used
- When destroying a turret or when you are going to clear wards, use Astral Infusion to proc Ardent Censer attack speed on yourself and your marksmen. This way you will destroy a turret much quicker and clearing wards will be a lot easier.
- When leaving the fountain don't be afraid to leave a bit earlier with some health/mana not entirely restored. Don't worry, it will restore on your way back to lane and you saved yourself a little bit of time.
- Use Glacial Augmented auto attacks to make it easier for Starcall & Equinox to land.
- Glacial Augment freeze ray passes always in a direction of item projectile. If you wish to make your rays as effective as possible, position yourself around the enemy before using Everfrost.
- You can use Starcall to safely gain vision in certain area (for example bushes or jungle monsters)
- On the bottom lane, you can use Hextech Flashtraption to teleport from one alcove bush to the other one without being seen that you are passing through them. This can save you a life or it can allow you to setup unpredictable engage
- If you don't have Stealth Wards at the moment, you can at least "pretend" that you are placing it. This can apply a pressure on enemy botlaners, scare their junglers or bait out their Oracle Lens If used correctly.
- To get the most value out of Salvation, sometimes it is better to leave an ally low on health so you could maneuver around the battlefield a lot quicker.
- Sometimes it is best to keep your Equinox as a way to instantly cancel strong channeling abilities like Curtain Call or Requiem
- Keep an eye on allies affected by Grievous Wounds from items like Morellonomicon or Thornmail. If their health is not in critical state, it is usually worth waiting for Grievous wounds to go off before healing them.
- Your Salvation can easily indicate you which champions take more healing from Wish
- Many people think that Scryer's bloom (vision flower in the jungle) reveals the area from the point your auto attack came from. That is not true at all - Scryer's bloom reveals the area from your position you are currently in, meaning that to get the most precise and quick reveals, it is better to stay still until your auto attack hits the flower or position yourself around the flower with this trick in mind
- You can cast Astral Infusion effectively through thin walls. This can keep you absolutely save and hidden but it requires good coordination with your allies as one step from the wall by either you or an ally can make your Astral Infusion range too short to heal them anymore
- You don't have to use Redemption only as a massive healing tool. In though situation, you can use it to gain vision over important areas of the map
- You can cast Astral Infusion on decoys created by your allies like Mirror Image or Hallucinate to even further mind trick your enemies.
- Nimbus Cloak provides different movement speed boost depending on summoner spell cooldown. Check the Summoner Spells chapter for exact numbers.
- Nimbus Cloak provides ghosting, allowing you to pass through units and not get minion blocked.
- You can cast Astral Infusion on one of your allies just to get the assists from current fight, the Astral Infusion doesn't have to be even necessary nor empowered by Starcall, use it just to get a quick assist.
Pings are very important for you to understand and use them. Using pings you can immediately respond to a situation you are in and help other players with incoming threads. To ping your allies simply hold "ping hotkey" and hold primary click, and choose a ping you want to use in the current situation. The most useful ping in the set is ENEMY CHAMPIONS ARE MISSING. Every time your lane opponent leaves the map for at least ~5 seconds, use this ping in your own lane to notify other laners about possible incoming thread. Your jungler can now check the dragon, because maybe it is contested now. Your midlaner can now slowly let the minion wave to his own turret to stay save and your marksmen can now adjust his playstyle to a bit more aggressive one. Another important ping is ENEMY HAS VISION HERE. This ping is hidden under a different key then other pings (S) and it doesn't require you to hold anything, just press S where you want this ping to be located. This ping is great for calling Oracle Lens users to clear some Stealth Wards there. It can also be used as a way to tell your allies: "Don't contest this dragon, enemies see us." or to tell your jungler that he has been spotted in a bush and his gank would not be effective this way. Another important ping is ASSIST ME. This ping is usually used as a way to quickly ask your jungler for gank but it doesn't have many other uses outside of that. Then there is ON MY WAY. This ping is not very important but it has it's uses. You usually want to use it to notify others to wait for you, so they won't start a 4v5 teamfight. You can also use it to notify your ally to not waste Flash or Heal because you are on the way and you can take care of him. Then we have got a DANGER and ATTENTION pings. Both signalise pretty much the same thing (danger) but the ATTENTION is a bit less urgent and necessary. So When you see the whole enemy team hoping into 1 bush waiting for an ambush (pun intended) you use DANGER, but when you see your ally hoping into an unwarded area, you use ATTENTION. You can also ping some GUI stuff like respawn timers, cooldowns, levels, bounties, mana bar, items and much more. Use them for obvious reasons, to tell your allies that you can't engage yet because you are 58% from level 6 and your Wish is on 12 second cooldown. You don't want to play aggressive because your bounty is worth 700G. You couldn't save your marksmen last teamfight because your mana bar was on 2%. You don't want to recall yet because you are 174G from Ardent Censer. Be creative and use pings to quickly notify other players about everything that is happening on the map.
Learn more about pings here.
jungler can now check the dragon, because maybe it is contested now. Your midlaner can now slowly let the minion wave to his own turret to stay save and your marksmen can now adjust his playstyle to a bit more aggressive one. Another important ping is ENEMY HAS VISION HERE. This ping is hidden under a different key then other pings (S) and it doesn't require you to hold anything, just press S where you want this ping to be located. This ping is great for calling Oracle Lens users to clear some Stealth Wards there. It can also be used as a way to tell your allies: "Don't contest this dragon, enemies see us." or to tell your jungler that he has been spotted in a bush and his gank would not be effective this way. Another important ping is ASSIST ME. This ping is usually used as a way to quickly ask your jungler for gank but it doesn't have many other uses outside of that. Then there is ON MY WAY. This ping is not very important but it has it's uses. You usually want to use it to notify others to wait for you, so they won't start a 4v5 teamfight. You can also use it to notify your ally to not waste Flash or Heal because you are on the way and you can take care of him. Then we have got a DANGER and ATTENTION pings. Both signalise pretty much the same thing (danger) but the ATTENTION is a bit less urgent and necessary. So When you see the whole enemy team hoping into 1 bush waiting for an ambush (pun intended) you use DANGER, but when you see your ally hoping into an unwarded area, you use ATTENTION. You can also ping some GUI stuff like respawn timers, cooldowns, levels, bounties, mana bar, items and much more. Use them for obvious reasons, to tell your allies that you can't engage yet because you are 58% from level 6 and your Wish is on 12 second cooldown. You don't want to play aggressive because your bounty is worth 700G. You couldn't save your marksmen last teamfight because your mana bar was on 2%. You don't want to recall yet because you are 174G from Ardent Censer. Be creative and use pings to quickly notify other players about everything that is happening on the map.Learn more about pings here.
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Before the game begins, it is important to establish your strategy throughout the game. Including rune setup & summoner spell setup. When it comes to your rune setup it is important to have runes you have most fun using (=If you want to have fun) or runes that work best with your marksmen and against enemy support & marksmen (=If you want to win). If the enemy support is melee and/or enemy marksmen is short range/late game/low punish based, I usually go rather for Phase Rush to have very safe trades, Hail of Blades to have good early game and aggressive trades or Glacial Augment to have quite good trades and a bit better mid-late game. All of those runes are easy to proc and/or get value of when picked against easy to poke enemies. The deciding factor between them are questions, Is Hail of Blades enough to poke my enemies out of the lane quickly? Is Phase Rush really gonna be that necessary in this matchup? Can my allies get value from Glacial Augment? Usually the question I can answer the easiest wins. If the enemy team has long range based support and/or long range/bully/early game based marksmen I usually decide between Unsealed Spellbook and Predator. Here it depends on a bit different factors. Usually If my midlaner can get a lot out of my roams, snowball and carry the game quickly I go for Predator. At any other case I go for Unsealed Spellbook. Note that Unsealed Spellbook is probably the most universal rune out of all of them and you can never go wrong with it. When It comes to summoner spells to keep it short and simple: Ignite for the early game snowball, Exhaust as universal defensive option, Heal when my marksmen doesn't want it, Barrier If you feel like you need more defense. For more information check the summoner spell chapter or summoner spell notes on top of this guide. |
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When the game begins, first thing you need to do is leash for your jungler If he is on your side of the jungle. Some junglers like Shaco do not need leash as they can kill the buff fairly easily and quickly. On the other hand If your jungler is fighting the buff on the other side of the jungle, don't help him to kill it, instead put a Stealth Ward somewhere next to the buff on your side so your jungler will be more easily able to determine the location of enemy jungler, making ganks more effective as a result. Don't fear wasting a Stealth Ward, unless the enemy jungler wants fast level 2 ganks like Xin Zhao you should be fine and not ganked before your Stealth Ward recharges.
jungler If he is on your side of the jungle. Some junglers like Shaco do not need leash as they can kill the buff fairly easily and quickly. On the other hand If your jungler is fighting the buff on the other side of the jungle, don't help him to kill it, instead put a Stealth Ward somewhere next to the buff on your side so your jungler will be more easily able to determine the location of enemy jungler, making ganks more effective as a result. Don't fear wasting a Stealth Ward, unless the enemy jungler wants fast level 2 ganks like Xin Zhao you should be fine and not ganked before your Stealth Ward recharges.
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As the laning phase begins, you should focus on 1) punishing your lane opponents 2) Keeping your marksmen alive 3) Warding to some degree. Punishing your opponent usually means throwing Starcalls and auto attacks on whoever you can, whenever you can. Keep in mind that you can most easily hit your Starcall by watching the health bars of your minions. When you see them getting low, enemy marksmen will most likely come and last hit it, making your Starcall a decision between Taking damage and gaining gold/Not taking damage but losing gold. And since none of those choices have a right answer, enemy marksmen will always be in a bit bad position. Keeping your marksmen alive represents a Starcall + Astral Infusion combo whenever your marksmen takes some medium damage, by keeping yourself and your partner alive, you will be able to remain in a lane longer and collect more gold. You should also put Stealth Ward here and there so you will avoid future ganks. Don't fear putting your wards a bit deeper in the enemy jungle so you can react to his position more easily and maybe even notify your midlaner that something is going on near him. Also do not put your wards in the middle of the bush. That is the most stupid thing I have ever seen XD. Put them in a further corners so your vision area will be a bit greater (for more information check the video under this chapter. Also make sure you are stacking your Spellthief's Edge// Relic Shield so you get the wards as soon as possible, buy Control Wards and try to get through this early game without any casualties.
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As the early game ends new era begins. You should already have the Wish ability and some decent items. Your job now is to stop using the Stealth Wards to keep your lane save but use it to keep objectives under control. Watch your minimap to deliver Wishes across the map. Deny vision of your enemies, try to provide your team a vision advantage. When your team is able to see a dragon and near area around, while enemy team can't, you can easily secure this objective for your team. Upgrade your Stealth Ward into Oracle Lens or Farsight Alteration as your support item evolves. Play safe and avoid aggressive or reckless operations. Make sure you are always protected by your team and your team is protected by you. Find enemies that are low and setup ambushes with your allies across the map. Depending on team-compositions of both teams try to end the game quick or make it last as long as possible. Play safe during teamfights. If you die, your allies will most likely die as well since your teamfight presence is absolutely insane. Make sure that you can deliver your allies as much healing as possible, hitting Starcalls is crucial. Save Equinox to shut down the damage of enemy mages or bruisers. Save Ignite on enemies with most healing or with least HP. Don't walk alone around the map, at this point you are very very easy to kill and your death can result in loss of objective. |
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At this point of the game your main job is to keep warding and not mess things up. One little mistake from you or your ally and your enemies can force a very valuable fight for themselves. The same goes for you though. If one enemy champion falls down, try to force an objective. It should be very easy to secure it as your team has a champion advantage. When it comes to focusing objectives it is best to focus the nearest one, but in situations when it does not matter: Securing or denying Dragon soul is the strongest objective to focus on, then there is elder drake and baron nashor and the worst objectives are turrets and inhibitors. elder drake is very important as it can increase your teamfight potential, and when you have teamfight potential you can fight around other objectives much easier. Picture a situation like this: Enemy jungler is dead and you can choose between baron nashor and elder drake. If you kill baron nashor first you get a great bonus to siege power allowing you to push lanes a lot better, but If you kill elder drake first, you should be powerful enough to win a 5v5 around baron nashor as well and collecting 2 objectives in 1. Of course not always it is like this, sometimes you don't have enough wards and you lose the second objectives due to low vision but usually elder drake is better then baron nashor. Of course keep the vision up, keep warding all big objectives in the game so you can kill them later on. When your fullbuild is up, keep buying Elixir of Sorcery as it does not need a space in your inventory. Also sell your less valuable items like Mejai's Soulstealer and build some more reliable ones instead. Try to close out the game and keep a pressure on your enemies to win the game.
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In the game there are many types of wards and/or warding related items that you should know about. When it comes to your trinkets located in key 4 - You have 3 options: Stealth Ward, Oracle Lens and Farsight Alteration. Each of them have their pros and cons and situation when they shine the best. The most important one, Stealth Ward is necessary throughout the whole early game as you need to keep the vision up for your lane to stay safe. However once your Spellthief's Edge/ Relic Shield/ Spectral Sickle upgrade into Frostfang/ Targon's Buckler/ Harrowing Crescent and they start to provide you Stealth Wards for the rest of the game, the Stealth Wards in your 4 key become almost useless as there can't be more then 3 Stealth Wards on the map anyway. And so when your support item evolves it is recommended to obtain Oracle Lens or Farsight Alteration. Oracle Lens are generally a better option in most of the situations as denying vision of your enemies is extremely effective strategy. Oracle Lens are also a great way to deal with trap abilities like Noxious Trap or Jack In The Box and has much lower cooldown then Farsight Alteration. Farsight Alteration is on the other hand a bit more situational trinket type as it has long cooldown and is very easy to spot & destroy. On the other hand Farsight Alteration can provide super safe warding as it has absolutely insane range. It is very effective when paired with long range marksmen abilities like Ace in the Hole or Curtain Call. It works very well when enemy team absolutely outpushed your turrets and the map is dangerous and hidden in fog of war, allowing you to quickly gather important information about objectives with a safe distance. Farsight Alteration also doesn't have a ward limit allowing you to ward as much as you want. Then there are Control Wards. To obtain those, you have to buy them first for 75G and you can have up to 2 in your inventory. Control Wards are very effective throughout the whole game as they share the attributes of both Stealth Ward and Oracle Lens. Use them to clear enemy Stealth Wards, keep vision up and to disable traps. Make sure you buy some of them every time you recall home so you are always prepared to enhance your vision on the map while also reducing vision of your enemies. |
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Roaming is a powerful technique mostly used by midlaners and supports to keep the pressure over multiple lanes. It may sound complicated and hard but it is actually pretty easy. Simply just walk from bottom lane to mid lane. Yeah. That's it. Well, not really. The most important thing about roaming is knowing When to roam. Generally you should start roaming When:
jungler can easily eliminate you and enemy midlaner can easily react to you by hiding under turret or setting up an ambush on you. That's why roaming is more effective with tools like Oracle Lens, Control Wards and evolved support item. Soraka lacks a good CC ability so her roams are generally not very effective, but she can easily follow up on CC from your midlaner or recover wounds your midlaner has taken so he/she could remain on lane longer.
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Freezing is probably the only minion management technique you should know about. Every other strategy either can't be affected by you because you can't farm minions as a support or isn't useful on botlane in general.
The way you freeze is that when enemy botlane cleared all your minions, you tank minion aggro from enemy minions and you won't let them come to your tower. Once your second minion wave arrives, you stop and you let it attack your minions. This way, your ADC can easily farm those minions without losing on CS because of turret shots, your turret will have more health and your enemies will have to overextend If they want to stop you, which would be risky.
If the situation allows you to, you can also use bushes for this technique. Simply enter a bush to stop minions from attacking you and then leave the bush. Repeat to keep your healthbar nice and full while freezing.
support or isn't useful on botlane in general.The way you freeze is that when enemy botlane cleared all your minions, you tank minion aggro from enemy minions and you won't let them come to your tower. Once your second minion wave arrives, you stop and you let it attack your minions. This way, your ADC can easily farm those minions without losing on CS because of turret shots, your turret will have more health and your enemies will have to overextend If they want to stop you, which would be risky.
If the situation allows you to, you can also use bushes for this technique. Simply enter a bush to stop minions from attacking you and then leave the bush. Repeat to keep your healthbar nice and full while freezing.
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When it comes to Soraka being played on marksmen role, most people will just consider this a troll-pick or they will immediately think that you are going to build Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer. None of this is true - well - at least not entirely true. The best performing marksmen Soraka builds are after all just a regular Soraka builds featuring items like Ardent Censer or Redemption. Don't think that since you are on ADC role, you have to become an ADC. Think about it as a way to get a different set of teammates on your lane. Instead of Caitlyn, Xayah or Lucian you will be paired up with Pyke, Nami or Thresh. As for the time I was writing this there was only 0.38% drop in winrate when you picked Soraka on ADC role instead of support role. The one and only real difference in those roles is that you have to farm minions to gain gold and remain efficient throughout the game. For this reason you must ALWAYS max Starcall first. If you won't - you will have hard time controlling your lane and you will either get outpushed or you will lose on CS. Of course you can still try some more AD focused builds, just don't feel like you are forced to play them - I personally find it more enjoyable when I am playing marksmen Soraka my own way.
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Patch 10.21
Quite an interesting balance change that doesn't hit movement speed based Soraka all that much. Your Flash will now give you more effective MS boost but it will last for shorter period of time - that's definitely a small buff as when you cast Flash, you sure value quality over quantity. However your secondary summoner spells ( Barrier, Heal, Ignite, etc.) will be nerfed quite hard as there won't be any buff to compensate for -0.5 s nerf. Overall it is a tiny buff for your Flash but a normal nerf for any other summoner spell.
Patch 10.16
Nerf to one of Soraka's biggest counters is very very nice as it is currently more worth to ban Caitlyn If your ADC doesn't want to pick her him/herself. On the other hand nerf to Nimbus Cloak is very big and even though I still consider this rune good as Manaflow Band is unnecessary and Nullifying Orb is just bad, Nimbus Cloak will feel a bit worse most of the time. Quite a bad patch for Soraka, it is not the end of the world but it hits her movement speed oriented builds.
Patch 10.15
The buff to Spellthief's Edge is very nice as Soraka wants to build it in 40% of all games (50% now I'd say). Nerf to Unsealed Spellbook is very very big but I think that Unsealed Spellbook is so powerful that it will still remain as a viable option with great mid to late game potential. Overall quite a mediocre patch for Soraka as buffs are not very big and nerf is avoidable.
Patch 10.14
Buff to Predator is quite minor but still pretty nice for Roam based Soraka builds. On the other hand buff to Ghost is very very good. Ghost already was a nice considerable summoner spell to run on Soraka and with those nice changes, Soraka can look up for this summoner spell a lot more often in pretty much every build.
- Nimbus Cloak
- BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED 10%/20%/30% (summoner spell cooldown 0/100/250 seconds) ⇒ 5%/20%/35% (summoner spell cooldown 0/100/250 seconds)
- MOVEMENT BUFF DURATION 2.5 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds
Quite an interesting balance change that doesn't hit movement speed based
Soraka all that much. Your Flash will now give you more effective MS boost but it will last for shorter period of time - that's definitely a small buff as when you cast Flash, you sure value quality over quantity. However your secondary summoner spells ( Barrier, Heal, Ignite, etc.) will be nerfed quite hard as there won't be any buff to compensate for -0.5 s nerf. Overall it is a tiny buff for your Flash but a normal nerf for any other summoner spell.Patch 10.16
- Nautilus
- SHIELD 60/70/80/90/100 ⇒ 45/55/65/75/85
- Nimbus Cloak
- BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED 15%/25%/35% (summoner spell cooldown 0/100/250 seconds) ⇒ 10%/20%/30% (summoner spell cooldown 0/100/250 seconds)
Nerf to one of
Soraka's biggest counters is very very nice as it is currently more worth to ban Caitlyn If your ADC doesn't want to pick her him/herself. On the other hand nerf to Nimbus Cloak is very big and even though I still consider this rune good as Manaflow Band is unnecessary and Nullifying Orb is just bad, Nimbus Cloak will feel a bit worse most of the time. Quite a bad patch for Soraka, it is not the end of the world but it hits her movement speed oriented builds.Patch 10.15
- Spellthief's Edge
- BASE MANA REGEN: 25% ⇒ 50%
- Frostfang
- BASE MANA REGEN: 50% ⇒ 75%
- Shard of True Ice
- DAMAGE: 45 ability power ⇒ 50 ability power
- Unsealed Spellbook
- INITIAL COOLDOWN: 240 seconds ⇒ 300 seconds
- MAXIMUM COOLDOWN CAP: 120 seconds ⇒ 150 seconds
- COOLDOWN REDUCTION PER SWAP: 20 seconds with each unique Summoner Spell ⇒ 25 seconds with each unique Summoner Spell
The buff to
Spellthief's Edge is very nice as Soraka wants to build it in 40% of all games (50% now I'd say). Nerf to Unsealed Spellbook is very very big but I think that Unsealed Spellbook is so powerful that it will still remain as a viable option with great mid to late game potential. Overall quite a mediocre patch for Soraka as buffs are not very big and nerf is avoidable.Patch 10.14
- Predator
- DAMAGE GROWTH: 30-90 (levels 1-18) ⇒ 40-120 (levels 1-18)
- COOLDOWN: 100-70 seconds (levels 1-18) ⇒ 90-60 seconds (levels 1-18)
- Ghost
- BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED: 20-40% (levels 1-18) ⇒ 24-48% (levels 1-18)
Buff to
Predator is quite minor but still pretty nice for Roam based Soraka builds. On the other hand buff to Ghost is very very good. Ghost already was a nice considerable summoner spell to run on Soraka and with those nice changes, Soraka can look up for this summoner spell a lot more often in pretty much every build.|
Do not waste your time by typing into chat useless information. Do not type that you are just extremely unlucky, you were in alpha, your Ignite didn't cast, your allies are monkeys, jg diff, mid diff, top diff, ez, 1v1 me bro, nice babysit, your champion is not balanced, nice feed Yasuo, WTF Zed 0/2/1??, WTF is your hitbox, your mom gay, etc. By the time you were writing this you could notice Shaco quickly passing through your Stealth Ward and you could ping your midlaner that enemy jungler is prepared to ambush him/her. By the time you were typing this you could hit a really easy Starcall because your enemy mispositioned. You could ward a dragon or analyse the best itemization for this game, but you didn't because you just had to type some random nonsense no one else cares about at all. Keep your chat serious & don't complain and watch your winrate growing like a beautiful orchidea :) |
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It is important for you to understand Why are you selecting runes that you are selecting and Why are you building items that you are building? I could just tell you to build this and that and do this and that. But you would never learn How to create something interesting yourself. The way to understand this is pretty easy. Ask yourself What do I expect for my champion to do? Now your job is to realize your expectation.
EXAMPLE: I really want my Soraka to be great roamer. I do not care If it won't be meta, I just want to fulfil this expectation as much as possible. Well roaming champions typically need a lot of movement speed to be able to roam quickly. The strongest movement enhancing runes in the game are Predator, Celerity and Relentless Hunter. Also, as I will move from one place to the other, I will need to deny enemy vision to not get spotted on the way. So we will take Zombie Ward. The rest of the runes doesn't actually help us all that much in those synergies.
At this point you want to create and enhance your synergies, nullify your weaknesses or make a counter decisions. Enhancing you synergies would mean selecting Cheap Shot, as it can be easily proced by Starcall - synergy. Nullifying your weaknesses would mean selecting Nimbus Cloak as a way to provide an immobile champion like Soraka a good movement speed escape. Making counter decisions would mean selecting Taste of Blood to constantly heal from enemy Xerath's poke damage. You have to decide yourself on which is more important to you but keep in mind that too much of something but not enough of something else is not good! All of this applies to items as well. You can build Zhonya's Hourglass to provide a defenseless champion a great defense ability, you can build Redemption because it will boost all your healing abilities and Heal as summoner spell, or you can buy Mikael's Blessing to counter Morgana's Dark Binding.
Here are some basic synergies. There are a lot of mistakes but it's gotta do the trick for now.Note that some runes directly synergies with others. It is important to forge synergies that help your champion and you can build other synergies out of it. For example Overgrowth synergieses with Demolish as the bonus max health increases Demolish damage. But there is nothing else to build from it and Soraka doesn't need max health as her Astral Infusion cost doesn't get lowered by it. On the other hand Time Warp Tonic is great as it synergieses both with Biscuit Delivery and Celerity and we also have a space for it in Inspiration tree making it a lot better choice.
EXAMPLE: I really want my
Soraka to be great roamer. I do not care If it won't be meta, I just want to fulfil this expectation as much as possible. Well roaming champions typically need a lot of movement speed to be able to roam quickly. The strongest movement enhancing runes in the game are Predator, Celerity and Relentless Hunter. Also, as I will move from one place to the other, I will need to deny enemy vision to not get spotted on the way. So we will take Zombie Ward. The rest of the runes doesn't actually help us all that much in those synergies.At this point you want to create and enhance your synergies, nullify your weaknesses or make a counter decisions. Enhancing you synergies would mean selecting
Cheap Shot, as it can be easily proced by Starcall - synergy. Nullifying your weaknesses would mean selecting Nimbus Cloak as a way to provide an immobile champion like Soraka a good movement speed escape. Making counter decisions would mean selecting Taste of Blood to constantly heal from enemy Xerath's poke damage. You have to decide yourself on which is more important to you but keep in mind that too much of something but not enough of something else is not good! All of this applies to items as well. You can build Zhonya's Hourglass to provide a defenseless champion a great defense ability, you can build Redemption because it will boost all your healing abilities and Heal as summoner spell, or you can buy Mikael's Blessing to counter Morgana's Dark Binding.Here are some basic synergies. There are a lot of mistakes but it's gotta do the trick for now.
Note that some runes directly synergies with others. It is important to forge synergies that help your champion and you can build other synergies out of it. For example Overgrowth synergieses with Demolish as the bonus max health increases Demolish damage. But there is nothing else to build from it and Soraka doesn't need max health as her Astral Infusion cost doesn't get lowered by it. On the other hand Time Warp Tonic is great as it synergieses both with Biscuit Delivery and Celerity and we also have a space for it in Inspiration tree making it a lot better choice.
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In League of Legends the ideology of dying and killing others is very very important. As you are a support champion it is generally not worth to score a kill but dying while doing so, as any other role in the game can utilize additional gold much better. That is why you should always give a kill to your marksmen and not keeping it for yourself in the laning phase. While you would only be able to buy a few Faerie Charms your ADC will be able to get B. F. Sword much faster then its opponent and that will give you a massive advantage in the lane. Keep in mind that the stronger your marksmen is, the more attack speed and DPS it has and the more useful your game presence is. When it comes to scoring a kill for kill against enemy support, the math is a bit different. Usually Soraka can utilize kill gold better then most tank supports like Leona or Alistar but against aggressive heavy damage supports like Brand, Pyke or Vel'Koz dying can become a crucial mistake. Another aspect that takes place while calculating If it is/is not worth to kill for kill is bounty level. If you die with high bounty level, almost your entire gold advantage gets lost (even worse when you die against carry champions like Katarina, Illaoi or Tryndamere), and the same is applied when YOU kill a champion with bounty level.
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NOTE: You can see your bounty level in tab above champion K/D/A.
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Skins are not only useful as a vanity upgrade. As some skins have smaller or less visible VFX, it can make it harder for your opponent to notice it. An extreme example of such an occurrence can be
Arclight Varus
whose ultimate looks a lot more transparent and thin then the ultimate of Varus with any other/none skin. There is also
High Noon Thresh
that shares the animation of casting Death Sentence by recalling himself, allowing him to sometimes bait Flashes or other escape abilities from his opponents or there also is
Pengu Cosplay Tristana
that has much better and clearer indicator of her Explosive Charge. Don't get yourself fooled, Soraka also has skins that give her advantage over her opponents. First one is called
Reaper Soraka
. All her abilities look really dark-blue which matches the river color scheme extremely well, making it generally harder for enemies to spot a dark blue Equinox then pink/purple Equinox. Other skins that are worth noting are
Celestine Soraka
. She on the other hand has yellow color scheme which is a tiny bit harder to spot in lane on light-brown terrain. The last skin(s) worth noting is
Dawnbringer Soraka
and
Nightbringer Soraka
. Equinox of both of those skins have a little crystal in the middle and If you cast your Starcall in the center of Equinox, it will take a little longer for your enemy to notice that you basically cast 2 abilities and not just one. Also both of those skins have a critical strike animation, allowing you to guess a bit sooner If you strike a crit and react to it accordingly. Of course it is unlikely you will ever use this, it is definitely worth mentioning. |
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Guys, I know that this might be a topic you hate hearing about, but hear me out - I will do my best to make it as appealing for you as possible. You should follow some rules to not end up with glasses/rehabilitation or any other physical handicap. Usually you should make a pause from PC/Phone screen every 2 hours for at least 15 minutes to not mess up your eyes. However I know for sure that nobody will follow this rule so I came up with a bit less efficient but still very good solution to this. LISTEN. TO. MUSIC. I know almost for sure that you love music. So every here and now it would be great If you would just stand from your screen and listen to a music for a while. Just one song you love the most and then back to game. Trust me that this trick alone helps a lot. It might not be the 100% safe 10/10 doctors approved method but it does the trick pretty well and gives your eyes a bit more energy. When it comes to sitting, it would be great If there would be a 90 degree angle between you and your mouse/keyboard hands. This trick can save you so much time. Just spend 3 minutes by setting your chair height and you will experience a lot less painful moments for your wrist If you had them before. For me, I can't play at all when my wrists start to hurt. My hands need approximately 2 hours before they can start working again. Now that my chair is well set up, I have more time for love of my life, Soraka <3
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Last thing I should mention is that having a laptop placed on your
Long Sword and 2 Oblivion Orbs can reduce the chance you will have Zoes, in your life. That is because Oblivion Orbs prefer Glacial Augment temperatures and your laptop is probably pretty Ignited already. So use a table and a chair If you want your Summon Aerys to work correctly. ;)- God I had a blast writing this :DDD
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Having well set settings is important for every player. It makes you more flexible in game and your game-play can be a lot more fluid this way. The most important part of settings is graphic. If you have a below average or just basically not good enough FPS in your games, it is probably the right time to adjust the visual look of things to your will. The game might look a bit awkward at first as a lot of details will disappear from your map but once you get used to it, you won't even notice that some flowers are gone now. You basically just trade the beauty of the game for easier skillshots. To even further improve your FPS you can also set your League of Legends client to close itself once you start playing on the rift. Yes, it will take more time for your PC to reload the client after the game and you won't be able to message anyone during loading screen, but this rapidly increases your in game FPS by quite a large amount. Next setting you should keep in check is camera mode. It is generally recommended to have your camera unlocked as you can always see only the most necessary parts of your map and your reactions will be slightly better for the rest of your LoL life. It is very, very hard to get used to it If you are used to locked camera. I played for 3 years with locked camera and it took me like 40 games before I finally mastered the unlocked camera, but let me tell you that it was absolutely worth it! |
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Another setting that is better to adjust is the size of your HUD (The place where you see all your abilities, summoner spells, stats & items in). Keeping your HUD small and clear makes your vision less limited and your reactions to states of the game a bit quicker.
Then there are a bit less meaningful changes you can do in in-game settings. You can disable automatic attacks to make it easier for you to not steal minions of your
marksmen. You can make the mana costs of your abilities visible so your combo calculations will be a bit easier to execute. You can also adjust the shortcuts for item uses, summoner spells, etc. to make them closer to your fingers If you are not comfortable with them. Take some time and look through all the options you have. Edit them to your likes so your gameplay will be a lot less clunky and un-intuitive.
AD - Attack Damage. A stat that increases damage on your basic attacks and abilities with attack damage scaling. Items that provide attack damage are for example B. F. Sword, Long Sword or Pickaxe.
AP - Ability Power. A stat that increases damage on your abilities with ability power scaling. Items that provide ability power are for example Amplifying Tome, Needlessly Large Rod or Blasting Wand.
MS - Movement Speed. A stat that indicates your speed you can move around the map with. Items/rune that increase movement speed are for example Boots, Shurelya's Battlesong or Celerity.
AA - Auto Attack. Your attack when you right click enemy minions/champions, monsters or jungle flowers. It deals your Attack Damage stat as a damage and it gets increased by 100% with Critical Chance.
CC - Crowd Control. A negative effect that limits actions of the target hit like moving/casting spells/attack speed/etc. An example of CC can be Dark Binding, Equinox, Wither, Exhaust, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, etc.
Snowball - The ability of a character to constantly get stronger and stronger, like a rolling snowball. The extreme example of a snowball can be Katarina with Mejai's Soulstealer, with every kill she gets more AP and gold and even though she is weak at first, she can get unstoppable If she won't get focused.
CS - Creep Score. The amount of minions and neutral monsters a champion has killed.
LoL - League of Legends. The game this guide is about.
OP - Overpowered. A too strong champion or strategy that is just way too oppressive and lacks counterplay.
AoE - Area of Effect. Also referred as "Splash damage" is an effect/damage that is applied by abilities in a larger area. An example of AoE is Tormented Shadow, Starcall, Explosive Charge, Tempered Fate
For more words visit this website.
B. F. Sword, Long Sword or Pickaxe.AP - Ability Power. A stat that increases damage on your abilities with ability power scaling. Items that provide ability power are for example
Amplifying Tome, Needlessly Large Rod or Blasting Wand.MS - Movement Speed. A stat that indicates your speed you can move around the map with. Items/rune that increase movement speed are for example
Boots, Shurelya's Battlesong or Celerity.AA - Auto Attack. Your attack when you right click enemy minions/champions, monsters or jungle flowers. It deals your Attack Damage stat as a damage and it gets increased by 100% with Critical Chance.
CC - Crowd Control. A negative effect that limits actions of the target hit like moving/casting spells/attack speed/etc. An example of CC can be
Dark Binding, Equinox, Wither, Exhaust, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, etc.Snowball - The ability of a character to constantly get stronger and stronger, like a rolling snowball. The extreme example of a snowball can be
Katarina with Mejai's Soulstealer, with every kill she gets more AP and gold and even though she is weak at first, she can get unstoppable If she won't get focused.CS - Creep Score. The amount of minions and neutral monsters a champion has killed.
LoL - League of Legends. The game this guide is about.
OP - Overpowered. A too strong champion or strategy that is just way too oppressive and lacks counterplay.
AoE - Area of Effect. Also referred as "Splash damage" is an effect/damage that is applied by abilities in a larger area. An example of AoE is
Tormented Shadow, Starcall, Explosive Charge, Tempered FateFor more words visit this website.
Even though I told you a lot about Soraka, there are still things you can learn from sources other then this guide. Check out following websites and youtube channels to learn even more about Soraka or just your games in general. It is always important to collect information from multiple sources to really see things objectively.
Soraka, there are still things you can learn from sources other then this guide. Check out following websites and youtube channels to learn even more about Soraka or just your games in general. It is always important to collect information from multiple sources to really see things objectively.|
Soraka like runes, winrate, summoner spells, ability order, matchups, threats, duos, etc. but it also allows you to review your own games or it can also help you with a game you are currently in. This includes runes of your opponents, their ELO, winrate and If they are autofilled to bad role. You can also check their tierlists of champions for current patch o know what is META. |
Guardian so good. Also quite a lot of their features require payment like combos or their 'Year in review'.*InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* |
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Soraka players. You can find a lot of fun content here, beautiful artworks, breathtaking plays and much more. You can ask any question you have regarding Soraka and the community usually gives you a helping hand. You can find some cool tricks here and there too.*InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* |
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Soraka. Even though you will see her, here and there, their content is not focused on her. Also just like in u.gg case, they teach you how to win, not really how to have fun. *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* |
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Soraka doesn't have one.*InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* *InViSiBlE sOrAkA nOiSeS* |
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Q:
Why didn't you tell me Where exactly to place wards? |
A: Well, I could easily just post an image here with millions of red dots symbolising Control Wards and yellow dots for Stealth Wards, but ask yourself Are you seriously going to re-check this guide in the middle of the game just to see an e x a c t location of ward placement? Outside of that, I told you general locations to focus on at different stages of the game. Usually it doesn't matter all that much If the ward is in this bush or a bush right next to it.
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Q:
WTF? Don't you know that Soraka now builds Guardian and Athene's Unholy Grail instead of *insert one of this guide's keystone runes here* with Ardent Censer? |
A: Sure I know it but I stated in the introduction of this guide, that my guide focuses on fun, off meta builds and rewarding plays, meaning that by building Guardian, you don't have nor a fun to play effect and nor a rewarding skill expressive play effect. But with Unsealed Spellbook you need to learn so many things to fully master it and when you just do that cool backdoor Teleport you are both rewarded for cool play and you also picked a very interactive and fun to use rune. When it comes to Ardent Censer, I just consider it more interesting and funnier to use then Athene's Unholy Grail, as the bonus attack speed can be used in very unorthodox ways and it can make overall a bigger difference.
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Q:
Why would you ever BAN *insert a matchup champion here*??? He/She is so ez to play against just *some random strategy*. |
A: Matchups are very player depending topic. It doesn't just come to the fact that this champion is good against other champion. Everything depends only on a player. I for example have hard time dodging skillshots so I ban Blitzcrank. You are possibly very good at dodging skillshots so you don't have to ban him at all, but I have to. I on the other hand shine at punishing my opponents for last hitting, meaning there is no reason for me to ever ban Vayne, you might have bigger problems with her. So what I am trying to say here is: All the matchups depend only on you, I am here just to give you general overview, nothing more, nothing less...
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Q:
Should I pick Soraka into *insert champion name*? |
A: Y E S. The only way to know Who to pick Soraka into, is to actually play into them first. You will never know if Draven is a tough opponent unless you actually pick Soraka into him at the first place. As the game ends, you will know If that match-up was or wasn't easy for you.
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Q:
Why talking about Waterwalking or kiting? You will never utilize those techniques. |
A: Well, I want to teach you EVERYTHING I know about the game that is at least tiny bit related to Soraka. Even If there is only 0.05% chance that you will use it in your games. I myself utilized the Waterwalking technique once, and it helped my team win the teamfight. Sure it was just once but still - this trick was +1 win for me, and If I can give at least some of you +1 win as well, then the quest was completed for me.
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Q:
Does Minion Dematerializer make the farming easier for ADC Soraka? |
A: Even though Minion Dematerializer can help you take down the siege minions If you are afraid of missing them in the laning phase, this item won't really help you 'farm'. For an example even If you use all 3 charges of Minion Dematerializer on caster minions, you will still need 1x Starcall and 1x auto attack to finish them off with Ardent Censer just like If you would not have Minion Dematerializer at all. It can allow you to achieve those sweet spots few minutes faster (for example half way through the full item), but that is generally inefficient.
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Q:
How to know more? |
A: Great question! The best way to collect information is to have more sources. By spamming one champion on one lane and doing nothing else, you can't possibly improve all that much. Read more guides, reddit posts, informative videos, play different champions on different lanes, spend some time in practise tool... For example I learned how to kite by playing ADC, I learned how to freeze by playing on top lane, I learned how to use Jungle flowers from jungle role, I learned the Time Warp technique by visiting r/Shenmains and performing their tricks with different champion, I learned the Waterwalking trick from League of Legends fandom wiki. There are so many undiscovered strategies and interactions in this world so step outside of your comfort zone and explore 'em all!!
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Jhoijhoi's Making A Guide Soraka Statisticks xHS - Warding through walls video LoL Analyst - Vision Tips video Vocabulary Game Words Katasandra - Coding help (Interactive banners and table of content) |
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Thanks for reading my guide. I hope you learned something new and interesting. If you like my guide consider an upvote, it helps me a lot. If you have any question, feel free to ask in the discussion or just PM me directly (I don't mind). If you would have any ideas how to make this guide better, express them in the discussion of this guide, I am doing my best to keep the guide to your likes. Also I am updating this guide pretty much every day now, If you feel like you don't like my guide, consider revisiting in near future, maybe I'll be able to change your mind ;) Good luck in future games and have a ravishing day <3
Tauricus2017
Soraka Guide
Playing Soraka For Fun
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