03/07/2011

SINCE PATCH V1.0.0.120 THIS BUILD IS USELESS. GOLD/5 NO LONGER STACKS. I'LL WAIT A FEW DAYS AND THEN ARCHIVE IT.

10/05/2011

Since this build is not getting any good rate, I'll not use my time to update it, the idea is there, and anyone willing to use it can mail or comment and I'll do update. Thanks those who read it and then up voted ;)

20/04/2011

Added a short note on Late Game.

18/04/2011

Added Mid and Late Game sections.
Added Conclusions section.
Added Warding section.

16/04/2011

Added Soraka Abilities section.
Added Randuin's Omen to the aura discussion.
Added Pros / Cons section.
Added Early Game section.

14/04/2011

Created the build with some basic info.

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Hello all, I'm Seppe and this is my first build, don't be hard ;). First of all, sorry for my poor english, I'll repeat many words and do some eye-hurting mistakes, so srry. Second, I don't claim to be a good player nor understanding all the metagame, I just enjoy every game, and I've never found a build published or played like this on Soraka, so I wrote mine. Hope you enjoy, comment and rate.

That being sayd... Why Soraka? Well I've been playing LoL since season one started and as a cheap and recommended champ I bought her since the pretty start. I loved her playstyle, she does not need important skill to play, but she excels when you know what you're doing. So I keept using her as my main, untill Sona camed out. Sona has the solo abilities that Soraka lacks, and she's way better for solo qeue, so I adopted she as my solo champ. With that I mean, if you don't have people with whom play, you need insane amounts of patience to play solo Soraka and if you use this build, even more...

Ok, for those who read so far and are still here despite the 3 Philosopher's Stone and the Greater Quintessence of Gold, thanks =) I've been playing this Soraka for about a month or two, both in normal and ranked, both solo and premade, in it works. She's meant to play like a roaming aura-giver, high mobility and no farm at all, this way all the creep kills can go for the carries, and you can leave your lane without being underweared. All she needs is: 3 Philosopher's Stone and Mobility Boots. Done this, we can start building auras and warding the whole map.

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This comment is the perfect introduction to this build, if you wanna try it you have to play like he says, completly team oriented. (Ty again clickrush ^^)

Pros

3 solo lanes if you got jungler.
All the creep kills go for your carries.
Increased surviviability and stats for all your team.

Cons

Requires some advanced knowledge about the game.
Highly team-dependant.

Consecration Consecration
(Innate): Increases surrounding allies' magic resistance by 16.

Range: 1,000

Great supporter passive, it really shines in early game. Your laning mate will farm very much safer against mages. With Aegis of the Legion your team will get 15 + 16 = 31 magic resistance, wich comes pretty well in teamfights.



Starcall
(Active): A shower of stars falls from the sky, striking all nearby enemy units for magic damage and reduces their Magic Resistance by 8 for 8 seconds This effect stacks up to 20 times.

Cooldown: 3 seconds
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 mana
Magic Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.25 per ability power)
Range: 630

With this build we're going to use this one mainly for the debuff. At 20 stacks, it can reduce magic resistance by 160. You will never hit the max, but, maybe with Nashor, you can go up to 10-15, and that helps. In teamfights you can hit with it arround 3-5 times, wich means (8*3=24/8*5=45) 24/45 magic resistance reduction, and that's always usefull. If your forced to push, or clear a wave of creeps, you need this one.


Astral Blessing
(Active): Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring health and granting bonus armor for 4 seconds.

Cooldown: 10 seconds
Cost: 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 / 170 mana
Heal: 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300 (+0.9 per ability power)
Bonus Armor: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80
Range: 650

Some people say Soraka is the worst support, that her heal is just ridiculous, that Sona's Aria of Perseverance can heal more, that Taric's Imbue does more too... Come on guys, let's read the descriptions...
Some notes about this one:
Always keep in mind the armor buff, a tank starting a fight with +65/80 armor will stay in it for a bit more.
At lvl 1 heals 90, that can seam like nothing, but can counter some harassments and keep your partner filled.
If your target is burning with Ignite or any other healing reduction, try to wait untill it goes off. This seams obvius, but sometimes you just don't have the time to think, and you'll want to master this.



Infuse
(Active): Restores mana when used on Soraka. If cast on an allied champion, restores half that mana to them and half to Soraka. If cast on an enemy champion, silences them for a few seconds and deals magic damage.

Cooldown: 15 seconds
Mana Restored: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250
Magic Damage: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 (+0.6 per ability power)
Silence Duration: 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds
Range: 725

This is the reason of the great support Soraka can bring. The only ability that restores mana free and with range. With both Infuse and Astral Blessing we are like instant potions-givers to our team, and everybody loves potions.
Main offensive source of Soraka, it can be used to harass while not needed. And that silence is a great point too, it stops ultimates and grants kills to our team while chasing champs that jump all over the map. Always care when casted on low health enemies, and on teamfights, sometimes you'll steal with that...



Wish
(Active): Soraka fills her allies with hope, instantly restoring health to all allied champions.

Cost: 250 / 350 / 450 mana
Cooldown: 120 / 110 / 100 seconds
Heal: 200 / 320 / 440 (+1.3 per ability power)

The nemesis of abilities such as Requiem, Paranoia, Ace in the Hole, etc... When you see that some global spell is being cast, use it, don't waste time searching for the target, or calculating hp and damage, just cast it. Sometimes it will give us arround 3 or 4 aids mid game, cast it when some enemy is about to die, but only do it if things are calmed, an aid is not worth a dead from our team. Never cast it for a single player if he'll not get away, just use when you think it'll help him get away.
It works pretty well as a double heal with Astral Blessing. With good timing, it can turn a gank from them to a gank for us.
*

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NOTE You get aids for healing and, since patch 1.0.0.115, restoring mana to champs that dealt damage in the fight, but only a short ago.

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Our summoner spells will always change depending on your team picks:
There are 2 groups of Summoner Spells: spells for the team, and spells for yourself.

Team Spells:

Clairvoyance had proved usefull in many matches; map awereness turns a perfect gank in a source of flamming for the other team, or an "I'm not sure about that gank" in a perfect gank. For all this, we'll try to stick at it, anyway, it can be changed to fill the team needs. Always remember to cast it arround 13 seconds after the game starts, this way you can see we're they go.
If your team has something like Anivia Ashe, or any mana shredder, as good altruistic supporters, we'll pick Clarity and leave it always on cd, giving that Ashe a chance to spam her scout (as sayd before, map awareness wins games), and that Anivia will harass pretty much with a long duration Glacial Storm.
The other team has Tryndamere, Warwick even Sona, healing champs etc.. and yours did not take enought Ignite? Then it's our job to take one and keep that heals halved.

You got Shen, Pantheon, Evelynn, or any other teleporter/ganker who uses to be anyway but his own lane? Then picking Fortify may be a nice way to keep lanes safe untill they end the gank, push, etc...
Melee dps like Xin Zhao will love you if you take Exhaust; that will improve the gank chances on a team with not enought CC, and grant us some more aids. It can save the live of your mates casted on a chasing enemy.
Even Rally can be an option to consider, it helps pushing that tower, when cast on a teamfight gives 1 or 2 seconds of ad boost, and gets the attention of 2 or 3 of the other players, sometimes helps get first blood too.
Heal is another option, allthought I don't like it, it can improve our team survivability. Anyway, for me, it is the worst option: when a greedy player gets saved again and again, he grows greedier, and we don't want that.

Egocentric Spells:

This is what you will pick when you got a strong team. They don't really need any of the spells listed before, so we can use Teleport to go were we're need, protect a tower, grant a few more hits to a tower casting Teleport on a creep being targeted, etc... It's important that we place some of our wards isolated and in a bush, so we can teleport to it and be ready to support our team.
NOTE: You can cancel teleport. Really, i've seen enought people teleporting to a lost tower, and dying, just because they forget/don't know Teleport can be canceled. It can be used to bait/frighten casted and canceled properly too (IE: You're in a teamfight mid lane, and an annoying Twisted Fate is Backdooring a tower, sometimes he will run away if he sees the teleport, then we cancel it and all done).
We are not cowards, we don't run from fights. If your team dies, you die with them, if someone is chasing your carry and you, and the escape is anything but sure, you turn and give the carry a chance to live; and if you need to escape from a gank, then you were in the wrong place, we don't solo. Got enought movement to roam, so we don't need it as a substitute to teleport. And, of course, we don't chase.
Same. We don't flee, we don't chase, we're allways with our team.

Same. if they focus us in a team fight, our team will take care. A CC casted on a good Soraka who knows were to be is a wasted CC.
I'll not use the typical "You are not meant to die" sentence, let's not deceive ourselfs, we are going to die, but before that, the teamfight will be ended, if you died first, and you did your job, your team will just end all of them, if you died last, then they won the fight. In any of both cases being ready is just innecessary.
We are not jungling, we don't need creep kills, we got gold from our Philosopher's Stone and runes/maestries. Why would you pick this?

The maestries must be 8/0/22, no attack, no defense, so all to utility.
We really need the extra gold from Greed , speed from Quickness and the cooldown reduction from Sorcery and Intelligence ; this way we can roam and go werever a supporter can be used (wich tends to be anywere). We don't really need the extra mana, so we can afford getting Spatial Accuracy , Cripple, Insight and Mystical Vision in every game, this way we'll never forget to change them. But if you're the kind of player that checks all twice before start, change the ones you don't use for Good Hands or Expanded Mind . By the way, never pick Utility Mastery nor blue buff, our cdr is caped, and the mana filled; always help and remember your casters to get blue, but never get it.

Let's take a closer look to all of them:

Marks:

Magic penetration. Ok with this we do more damage with Q and E, great! This way we can steal kills and last-hit creeps...
Flat mana. We're arround 40 mana regeneration per 5, and every E cast grants us 25/50/75/100/125 mana. We're supplied.
Greater Mark of Replenishment Mana regeneration per 5. Same as flat mana.
Greater Mark of Knowledge Per level mana. Same.
Flat ability power. Well, the controversial point, should Soraka stack ap, or play support? As I see it, there is no controversity, we're supporters, and we allready heal 60/120/180/240 plus 250/350/440. In a balanced team thats more than enought heal to keep your guys filled.
Per level ability power. Same as flat ap.
Flat health. Well, the casters out there use to stack hp from runes, I think it just don't fit our playstyle, we don't stand on range, and we know how to avoid ganks, we don't need hp.
Flat armor. Same as health.
Flat magic resist. Although some of you can think "Hey what about Requiem and other global/huge range spells?" we can avoid that kind of things just healing, and if we already saved from that Requiem a mate, and it's on cd, well... they got that kill. We will not determine our runes just because we're afraid of diyng.
Greater Mark of Vitality Health per level. Same.
Flat Cooldown reduction. Here we go, the only left choice ergo the only viable. With flat cdr we become usefull at early mid game, and we really enjoy being usefull, don't we? =3

Seals:

Same as Marks except for the dodge ones, and we are not ninja students. So take the flat cdr ones .

Glyphs:

Here comes another controversial point, shall we get cdr per level? The answser is "nope we shall not". With flat cdr and maestries, we're arround 20 % (a bit less, nothing worthy of our attention), add the Kindlegem, and an Elixir of Brilliance and we're arround 40%. So flat cdr .

Quintessences:

Respaw time reduction. Same as Revive.
+2% of Experience. Despite the fact that we will lose pretty much xp from laning, we will still be usefull with a difference of 2 or 3 lvls, so we can afford the loss.
+1,5% Movement Speed. I'll admit it, i never tryed them, but with 445 of movement I can be were they need me way too fast. And the 60% of the times, your team will help you know were your needed, so you can go there in time and even hide.
+1 gold every 10 seconds. The base of our build along Philosopher's Stone and Greed . Let's take a closer look:
We're supporters, that's a fact. We just enhance all of the virtues of our team, and conceal some of their defects. We don't excel at nothing at all, we don't kill, we don't push, sometimes even the carry gets more aids than we do... But when we do our job, the team works, and they appreciate it. A bad team with a supporter becomes an even worse team; but a good team gets better with a good supporter. To achive this, one of our priorities is to let our lane mates last hit ALL the creeps. This way they overfarm the opponents and we're closer to win. That makes our gold pool desperately low. How we fix this? Picking gold per second. Logical.
Flat Cooldown Reduction. That's the most logical choice, but we really need the gold from Greater Quintessence of Gold.

The skill sequence never goes the same, sometimes you need max heal, sometimes max mana, and sometimes you have to clear the lanes.
Maxing heal:
We will max heal when laning with greedy players ( Xin Zhao, Jax, etc...), or against them, and with squishy mates (although you should avoid laning with the really squishy ones).Maxing mana:
Maxing mana comes with spamming people like casters and so ( Anivia, Maokai,etc...).
Sometimes your team is starting to push 3 in a lane and so, then you probably like to keep pushing the other lanes. I highgly recommend swapping with one of those three, you'll help way more near other people than alone; if they don't listen, try getting Starcall and push that lane.

Anyway, with the experience comes the understanding, and you'll be picking spells circunstantiality. If you feel like you need Q then take it, the magic resistance reduction can be pretty sick with a pair of ap dealers. Sometimes I even priorize W or E over R. Just try all and play accordingly to your playstyle.

The items choice is pretty simple, build 3 Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone and a Boots of Mobility, the only thing that needs some experience and understanding of all the champs is the aura part. Let's take an indeep look:

We'll start always with a pair of Faerie Charm, a Sight Wardward, and a blue pot.
Our priority is to rush 2 Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone, this way we can start getting gold from them since minute 12-15. So if picked Teleport, when you got 1240 gold, go back, and buy those Stones. If not, then wait untill 1590 and get a Boots of Speed, or just wait for 2240 and go straight to Boots of Mobility. This way you can go back fast to lane, or go help if you think your needed.
Probably at this time everything is starting to get chaotic: ganks, dragon, pushing lanes, etc... So start helping at all those things, and helping against all those things. The next 800 gold we got, will be spent on the third Philosopher's StonePhilosopher's Stone.
If things dont progress, then build a Kindlegem, the cd cap at mid game helps pretty well. And it can be build into two usefull aura items.
Remember: everytime you're back, spend some money in 2 o 3 Sight WardSight Wards, and a Blue elixir. If the other team is placing wards too, always get Vision Wards or Oracle's Elixir with you.
Right now we're arround 20 minutes, and our build looks this way:


----> ----> /Sight Ward ----> Philosopher's Stone ----> Philosopher's Stone ----> Philosopher's Stone

Time to mention another pro of this build, as supporters we are to ward map. Placing 5 Sight Ward every 3 minutes is pretty expensive, and i've seen noone "supporter" doing it.
Well, 5 Sight Ward means (5*75) 375 gold every 3 minutes. Our build grants us 19 gold every 10 seconds. (19*6) 114 gold per minute (114*3) 342 gold every 3 minutes (the wards long for 3 minutes) (342/75) 4,56 wards every 3 minutes. So our Philosopher's Stone are granting us enought regeneration to keep us alive and forget about autotargeting ourselfs and enought money to keep the map warded.

And now, if they did not surrender, we'll start to make fun. Let's get an hipotetical team:
Ashe, Swain, Amumu, Renekton and Soraka
Pretty nice picks, but let's say we're even at play skill. Noone fed, noone feeding, all ok. Now we will start to get useless, we're not stacking ap, so we heal the same in mid game and in late game. But, even building ap, we grow useless as the game goes one; almost all the other champs scale way better than us. So if we buy auras for our team, they'll scale even better.
Ashe and Renekton are carrying the game, so we want them to outstand the opposite carrys, best way to do so, we buy a Zeke's Harbinger. Maybe we're underfarmed, and we lose teamfights, then we buy an Aegis of the Legion and give our team what they need: some survivability. Swain is getting hardly focused? Buy him a Will of the Ancients, he'll enjoy the SpellVamp.
That along with warding the map, will be our job in late game, look at the game, how it's going, what's need, and twist things.

NOTE With this build you'll regret having only 6 item slots, and being forced to sell our beloved Philosopher's Stones for some wards or auras. So, when you'r going to sell one of them, wait untill you respaw, this way you minimize the gold production lost. Kinda obvius, but, again, every help is usefull.

So let's discuss all the aura items:

Offensive Auras:

Abyssal Scepter. Buy it for champs like Fiddlesticks, LeBlanc, etc... The extra ap helps too.

Defensive Auras:

Emblem of ValourEmblem of Valour. Good for laning with those melee dps like Xin Zhao and builds fast into our beloved Zeke's Harbinger.
Frozen Heart. You'll get this against dps and attack speed champs as Twitch or Tryndamere.
Mana Manipulator. Same as Emblem of Valour but works on casters as Swain, etc...
Soul Shroud. Great evolution from Kindlegem and every caster loves the additional cdr.

Both Offensive and Defensive Auras:

Aegis of the Legion. This and Zeke's Harbinger are the most used auras; defense plus attack, low cost, affects creeps. Take it with 2 or more tanks or with just offtanks on the team.
Stark's Fervor. Take it if you got an ad carry, or 2 melee champs. And try to make them buy another one, doubled Stark is pretty chetting.
Will of the Ancients. Enhanced ap carrying and surivibiality when they get focused. Always buy it with 2 or more ap like Vladimir, Swain, Fiddlesticks,...

Special Mentions:

Those are not auras, being strict, but they give bonus and debuff with aoe, so they are like auras.

Shurelya's Reverie. Take this when your team is getting ganked, or losing teamfights. It works the same way when team-chasing. Usefull too if you are getting oom. And remember, it consumes a Philosopher's Stone so add 800 gold to the recipe cost on the shop.
Randuin's Omen. It gives speeds debuff in aoe, and that's a great support for any team. You'll use it in a very few games, because of its cost, and relative useless, but it can change those few games. Sometimes the other team is annoyingly lucked and escapes our ganks with 10 hp. So what we do? We can rage, flame the /all chat, or buy a Randuin's Omen and get them. It also works for your team, it's like the opposite of Shurelya's Battlesong, instead of giving us speed, reduces enemies one. The attack speed reduction can be used as a substitute of Frozen Heart. Again, not a very recomended item, but deserves a mention and some uses.

There are two important decisions to be made early game: with who I lane and were do we lane.
The first one will determine the entire lane phase. You'll try to roam as much as you can, and pump up the three lanes, but you don't want to start this without one or two Philosopher's Stones and a pair of boots, and that will come arround minute 10. So we'll be laning 5 or 6 levels, and we want to be usefull in this time too, so look for who needs you more. You should go with any spammer ( Cho'Gath, Jax,etc...), if not, the most pusher of your mates will enjoy the extra health. Of course, champs that don't use mana ( Vladimir, Akali, Renekton,etc...) are not a good choice.
If you got Clairvoyance, you surely know were they are going, and counter it. So lead your mates were they'll perform best. Try to take the lane with the harassers, or the one with the casters, so you can counter they playstyle healing, or silencing. You should avoid strong CCs, in low levels you're pretty squishy, and susceptible of getting first blooded.
Remember, your lane can not do first blood, so don't go into the bushes. The only exception may be getting Rally and being premade with your mate. It can be done, but I don't recommend trying.
So, we're placed, creeps are there and all is ready. If there's a melee opposite char in your lane, autoattack him every time he gets at range. This way we will zone him a bit, and our partner will be free to last hit the creeps. Sometimes that melee guy will rage a bit, and get greedy, don't panic, just stay away from their skill shoots (specialy from Cryptic Gaze, Audacious Charge, Bandage Toss and Rocket Grab). If they go too greedy, our partner will score a kill almost every time. If the opponents are all ranged, just stay away from them, and keep filled your mate. Every time you can, low the minions hp, but never last hit. Sometimes you'll have to remember your partner to last hit the creeps.

In mid game our core build is finished, and the lane phase is over, so right now the teamfights and consequent pushes are starting. The most important thing you'll be doing mid game is warding; Wards will give us gank opportunities, security when pushing and awareness. So let's keep 3-5 wards on map every time.
In teamfights, our objective is to bait the enemy carries to ours. All carries will go straight into a "free"-kill and we look like one. So get greedy and wait for two or three of them to focus you, it's ok if you die, your team will be free to end them all. If the other team use theyr brains, just keep healing those who need it and buffing the tanks armor with Astral Blessing. Always keep the casters or important skill users silenced when you can, but don't do it if there's a chance to steal.
A good thing to master too is the ability to bait enemies to get ganked. Most of the ganks are like this: X and Y hide in a bush, Z goes arround, Soraka eventualy happens to be there, free kill for Z, Soraka flees trought the bushes, X and Y slain Z. Sometimes A and B are there to help Z, but we got Clarivoyance and we can avoid their gank.
Right now we had won a team fight, and we're pushing. Pump your team mates, and go for that tower. Remember, healing creeps being targeted by a tower mean some more shoots to that tower, specialy when healing tank minions.
Another good thing to do after a won teamfight is stealing the opposite buffs, killing dragon and farming. Lead your casters to the blue buff, your carries to the red one, all your team to dragon or mark the lanes to be pushed a bit.

Ok so we're past 20:00 and they're still willing to fight, let's end this.
In late game we'll start to boost our carries stats with auras, so just buy them, and stick close to your mates. Always ward the map, use some Vision Wards or Elixir of Oracle if they're warding too. I can't thing on anything to note in late game play, just that, use the Aura description in Items and go with your team.
As I already sayd, you can push the lanes, but I don't recommend it. Just leave it to your team, they need the gold.

Note: In late game you'll start to sell the Philosopher's Stones and you'll become more team-dependant, no more regeneration, no more gold, just auras and wards, so care when spaming Astral Blessing and Infuse.

Here is a map of the interesting places to ward. I'll not discuss them all, because of the insane amount of pics that would be.
Those are the zones that one wants to have controled and the gank ways. The lanes can be warded too, but I use Clairvoyance on them. By the way, this map works too for interesting ways to cast Clairvoyance.
If some one needs explanation, comment it.

Were to ward:

From my point of view, a supporter fits in every good team and Soraka is the most pure-support champ in LoL. And with this build she just gets more and more supportish.
If you've took your time to read the entire build, congratulations and thank you. I really want to know all the opinions of those who can read it despite the Philosopher's Stones, and comment, maybe we can make of LoL a place with more supporters ^^

I'll keep updating all that crosses my mind, so check for new content.