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Soraka Build Guide by ecl1p3e

Support ecl1p3e's way to Soraka | S11 (WIP)

Support ecl1p3e's way to Soraka | S11 (WIP)

Updated on September 30, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author ecl1p3e Build Guide By ecl1p3e 21 3 37,510 Views 3 Comments
21 3 37,510 Views 3 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author ecl1p3e Soraka Build Guide By ecl1p3e Updated on September 30, 2021
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1
PsiGuard (1495) | February 5, 2021 5:46pm
Hey, here's the review you requested. I'll get my criticism out of the way first and leave you with my overall impression at the end.

Cheatsheet
  1. Rune pages could use some Notes. At a glance, the options are a little overwhelming. It's good that you've set one as "Standard" though.

  2. Barrier is the standard option for Soraka. I think it should be displayed first. The other spells are still good, but they require specific circumstances to be optimal.

  3. I'm confused what the Blasting Wand is supposed to build into. Do you just sit on Blasting Wand if you start winning? Dark Seal or just rushing your first item seems like a better way to accelerate a lead.

  4. I'd like a better visual distinction between Ionian Boots of Lucidity (your main boot option) and the situational boots. People who don't read the notes might just think they should build whatever they feel like.

  5. If you're rushing your mythic, put the mythic items first (before Core Items).

  6. I have a few concerns with the skill orders:
    • First skill order is fine.

    • Q>E>W is (to my knowledge) not done at all. By level 13 we're waaaay past laning phase and you'll be team fighting. There's no way maxing W last is the best thing for your team.

    • Your third skill order has a second point in Q at level 8, but maxes E second. I don't see any justification for this weird delay on maxing E either. The second point in Q at level 8 doesn't really do anything here. You might as well be maxing E 1 level earlier.

    • For the third skill order, I don't play enough Soraka to know if maxing E 2nd is worth it, but taking W level 1 vs something like Draven + Nautilus is not a great idea. Ranged supports generally have stronger level 1s than melee supports (even the ones with hooks). It's safer to actually bully the Draven + Nautilus lane at level 1 with Q, rather than taking W and playing back. As long as you're not getting hooked into their minion wave, you're a lot more useful than Nautilus (or Thresh or Leona or whoever). Level 2 is only a wave and a half away as well, so if your ADC really needs healing you can get W at 2.

    • I'm surprised not to see a skill order with 2-3 points in Q and then maxing W>Q>E. This is a pretty common split for champions with an early harass skill that they want for lane power (Q), but a core team fighting skill they want to max by mid-game. 2 points in Q lets you max W at level 9 as normal, while 3 points in Q delays your W max till level 10, in exchange for some more laning power pre-6.

  7. I don't want to nitpick ('cause extra detail is nice), but I feel like a lot of the matchups you have in the cheatsheet are kind of irrelevant. I can understand including some big threats like Rengar and Kha'Zix if you think they're especially scary, but a lot of these champions have very little interaction with Soraka. Top laners like Fiora and Darius are not hard-counters to Soraka. Likewise, I'm not sure what the point is in including stuff like Annie, Dr. Mundo or Kayle, since they have very little direct interaction with Soraka.

    In short, including matchups from other roles is fine if there's a specific interaction (like Soraka R making it hard for Karthus to get ult kills) that you want to highlight, but don't just throw in every champion you play against. It makes it hard to find the actual lane matchups people are looking for.

  8. The synergies are honestly really questionable. Soraka does not synergize at all with Dr. Mundo, for example, as he can heal himself and the enemy is doubly rewarded for building healing reduction. She also doesn't synergize with Fiora, who will be side laning. I'd focus on bot lane champs she synergizes with, since that's what people are going to be looking for if they're duoing with a bot laner and want to pick a strong lane, or if they see their ally lock a certain ADC in draft and want to complement them.


Presentation
Presentation is decent overall. You have some fairly simple coding templates but they do their job. I'll make a few suggestions for easy things to improve.

  1. Space the paragraphs in your introduction.

  2. For your abilities section, you need either need something to distinguish the tooltip info from your commentary, or you can simply cut the tooltip out. I prefer cutting the tooltip, since people can always hover the icon if they're unfamiliar with the ability. If you really want to have it in there, separate and alter the two sections so they're visually distinct. That way experienced readers can get straight to your commentary while new players can still read the full tooltip if they want.

  3. Your runes format works fine when you have only a few sentences, but it doesn't work for longer chunks of text. You'd be better off with a horizontal alignment to give you more space to write. You can't really get away with 4 columns when the descriptions are an entire screen in length, it just looks bad and it's really hard to read when each line of text is only like 4-5 words. Either aim for a description length that makes the shape roughly square (like Magical Footwear's description), or if you want more freedom to write lengthier descriptions, reduce the number of columns (or use a horizontal format).

  4. It seems kind of unnecessary to have an entire new chapter to show the reduced summoner spell cooldown times. You could slip them in the initial descriptions and juse use icons to save space. I'd also either go with 1 time format (like 3:30 or 240s) OR if you really want multiple formats, keep it to two, and reduce the number of columns so you can get the info across on one line. It's really messy when the cooldowns are spread across 3 lines. You can also easily remove the name of the spell (like Ghost) since you already have both the icon and the spell name above it.

  5. A few of your chapters are text walls. This happens to most authors, but keep in mind this is a good area to add useful visuals if you can figure out something to add. I'm a big fan of gameplay gifs, but images can work well too. If you don't have any gameplay stuff to use yet, subtitles to break up a multi-paragraph chapter can also be useful. For example, your first Teamfighting paragraph talks aboukt your goals in a team fight, so you could have a slightly larger-than-normal-text subtitle (that's maybe bolded or colored) saying Goals. You'd be surprised how a small thing like that makes a big difference for the reader.

  6. Your warding chapters are okay, but imo the white underline from the standard [rule] is really ugly. A while back I got the devs to make a subtler one called [rule2], so you could try that (they're the lines I have under each section of this review). You can also make custom-colored lines using table code, though that's a little more complicated. Check the BBCode Guide for the format on that, under Formatting Techniques -> Line Dividers/Separators/Rules.

  7. Your matchup format looks great, though you have an empty "Supportive Items" section at the bottom of each chapter. Either delete that if you're not going to use it, or if you're adding them in over time, you need something to prop up the title so it lines up with your Suggested Runes and Spells. You can do this by making empty cells with explicit dimensions (make them the same height/width as your icons), then add in the actual icons later when you've decided what items to put there.


Abilities
  1. Starcall: Telling players to use Q when the enemy goes for a last-hit or a trade would be a good tip to add here. It's the easiest way to land basically any skillshot in lane.

  2. Astral Infusion: Describe the situations you're talking about. It doesn't have to be super detailed, but something like, "if the enemy is all-inning, you'll need to spam W without waiting for Q" would be fine.

  3. Wish: Maybe highlight the fact that it's a global ability, and you should therefore be paying attention to other lanes in case you can swing a 1v1 or something.

  4. Ult Usage: I feel like if you're going to have a dedicated chapter for this, it should probably be longer. You mention a few things to avoid wasting your ult, but I think you could add more depth here. For example, spotting incoming dives (on other lanes) is a good way to find strong ults, since it's extremely hard to dive someone when they have a Soraka who can ult them. You might get like 2 assists out of it instead of your top laner dying for free. I'd say that's worth it even if your top laner isn't a carry.


Pros/Cons
I'd change "No mobility" to "No escapes". She does have mobility from her passive and Q, even if they aren't enough to completely disengage from someone diving you.


Runes
  1. Arcane Comet: This doesn't have a lower cooldown than Summon Aery. It definitely does not take 20 seconds for aery to come back after you use it. You can also tell whether you hit Q by the buff it gives you, so I don't know why you mention using Comet to check bushes. Unless you mean you're checking with E? That seems a lot riskier, given the long cooldown for E.

  2. Glacial Augment: Pretty sure this rune is completely useless since the preseason item changes hit. Not sure why it's still included. Also Garen can remove slows with Q, so it's not even good against him.

  3. Manaflow Band: This should probably have been in the Presentation section, but it's at this point that I'm finding the tooltips annoying. 90% of this description is just the tooltip for Manaflow band. You only have one sentence giving your thoughts on it. If explicitly listing each rune's effects is important to you, I think you need to find a different format and differentiate the tooltip from your commentary, like I suggested for your Abilities section.

    Also, What I really want to know regarding Manaflow is whether you need it or not. If you do need the rune, how do you know when it's necessary? You have pages with this rune as a secondary and pages without, so it's really important that you give people an idea of when this rune is useful.

  4. Scorch: I think an important point to go over is the small amount of early game damage adds up as you harass over time, but it's pretty negligible if you're against a bot lane with sustain.

  5. Second Wind: This isn't a strictly stronger laning rune than Bone Plating. If you're going to offer this as an option, give the actual situation where it'd be useful (e.g. against Caitlyn or something). If you're against Draven + Nautilus, Second Wind isn't going to do anything at all.

  6. Taste of Blood: This description needs work. You mention a situation where it might be helpful, then immediately retract that advice since you can't easily poke someone like Lux who outranges you. I think a better use case for this rune is for tough lane matchups, since it's the only one that helps you early game while the other Domination options are scaling runes.

  7. Future's Market: This shouldn't be listed if you don't recommend taking it. It's not an ARAM guide and you already have a ton of options for runes.

Despite the length of this section, the actual details are lacking. You explain roughly how good you think the different runes are, but there isn't much in the way of actually figuring out when to use them. The few times you suggest situations to use the rune, it's generally "for hard lanes / as a last resort," which still leaves us with several options for 1 situation.

You could consider doing a more holistic breakdown of your rune options in chunks instead of rune-by-rune. You could offer full rune pages and examples of when to use different pages, or you could pair secondary runes together and show what they can be used for (e.g. Manaflow Band + Scorch for bullying). I can sorta figure out these pairings myself, but a lot of the people reading your guide are not going to be able to put 2 and 2 together when there are so many options suggested. You need to spell it out for them a bit more. That, or you could reduce the number of options you give and just focus on 1 or 2 setups that are really strong in most situations.


Summoner Spells
  1. Barrier: "Only take this if you can react in time, there's no use trying to pop after you're dead."
    The player's reaction time is pretty irrelevant here. You can use Barrier through most types of CC, and it's pretty easy to just use it when someone jumps on you. The other spells here aren't any more forgiving. If you have time to use any of the other spells before you die, you have time to use Barrier.

  2. Exhaust: Way too much of this description is spent on explaining Pyke's ult. Mentioning that it doesn't help much vs him is fine, but do it fast. You could use that space to list actual examples of champions that are countered by Exhaust, like Katarina.

  3. Heal: I don't even know why this is here, since you don't seem to recommend taking it at all. I was expecting to see a situation where your ADC takes something else (like Cleanse) and you pick up Heal instead of them. Heal is also stronger when used by enchanters, since they buy items that increase healing power (plus Revitalize if you have it). If you actually never take Heal, don't mention it. If you do, you should tell people when to take it.

  4. Ignite: This is not a scaling spell to counter Dr. Mundo. You can easily build Chemtech Putrifier to deal with them (plus all of your teammates have access to healing reduction items). If you ever go Ignite on Soraka, it's 100% for your lane matchup, and you also probably need to take into account other threats to you from the enemy team, since you're sacrificing a defensive spell.


Starter Items/Laning Phase
  1. Spellthief's Edge and Relic Shield should actually be explored here, instead of telling readers to get one of them. People come to guides because they don't know what to do, so you need to tell them which one to get, and when. I know this is in the cheatsheet notes, but the guide should be more detailed than the cheatsheet, not less.

  2. You don't really need to help your teammates take towers as Soraka. Maybe a better angle for this idea would be your goal is to keep your teammates safe? If your ADC and/or jungle is getting tower plates and there are no enemies to contest, you should recall or roam to put vision down instead of staying and taking the gold.

  3. Placing your first ward as the game starts in tri/river is not a good idea. You can use your ward at level 1 to guard against invades, but if you use it that early, it's not going to help you against ganks. A better timing to ward against ganks would be around 2:30 (in the river).

  4. Telling people not to hit CS with Q is okay I guess (for really inexperienced players), since they might mess up the last-hits or overpush the wave, but in general, supports should definitely be pushing the wave when appropriate. Hitting an enemy champion with an ability AND hitting the wave at the same time is the best way to get the push advantage as well. If you expand this section, I'd like to see some advice on wave management.

  5. I'm surprised to see no breakdown of situational, or even core items. You mention the starting items and explain the mythics, but that's it. Since you just listed all the situationals in the cheatsheet without any explanation, I was expecting to see some in the guide. Filling out your items section should probably be your top priority.


Gameplay
I find it kinda strange you spend so much time on target priority on a champion that deals very little damage in team fights. Maybe some more specific examples of champions to save E for would be better here. The part about playing around your strong teammates was good though.


Matchups
To be honest, I'm skimming this section since it's really long and also a little verbose (could probably trim these descriptions and hone in on what to do as Soraka in the matchup). I'm also not a big Soraka player so I haven't played these matchups much. I'll try to point out anything that stands out to me though.
  1. Annie: I would recommend Barrier (or possibly Cleanse if they have chain CC) against her, not Exhaust. She can stun you with R from slightly outside Exhaust range (since her R's AoE extends beyond the listed range), or she can stun your carry from outside of your range. It's pretty hard to reliably exhaust Annie since you have almost no time to react to her using her combo. Barrier is safer since you can always heal your ADC, but you can't heal yourself if you get caught, so your job is to not die.

  2. Most of these matchups should include Barrier, not Exhaust. You need a good reason to run Exhaust over Barrier (often an enemy champion that isn't in your lane), since Barrier lets you play a lot more aggressive in lane.

  3. "Suggested Runes" Could probably show the keystone + secondary runes, rather than just the 2 rune paths. You could even put the whole rune page in there if you really want, since you have the horizontal space.

  4. Caitlyn: I mentioned that you're overusing Exhaust already, but for Caitlyn you literally can't get in range to use it on her basically ever. Barrier or Heal (if your ADC isn't running it) would work a lot better vs her. Even Cleanse would be better if they're going to CC chain you with a support's CC into trap.

  5. Camille: I'm getting confused. At first I thought, "it must be Camille support since it's in the matchups section" but then you say to deny her farm. Are you facing Camille carry players in bot? Also she's not a tank.

  6. Diana: Okay, this is getting pretty crazy. You should never be laning against a Diana unless you're playing Soraka mid. This is just taking up space in the guide and making it harder for readers to find actual useful matchups that they'll encounter in their games.

  7. Evelynn: You recommend Barrier against her, but the spells in the bottom of the chapter are Exhaust + Flash.


Conclusion & Overall Impression
This guide is really a mixed bag. Presentation-wise, some chapters look great (like the matchups) while others are neglected. You're obviously missing a lot of content still (like a full items section), and I realize the title says WIP, but something as important as items should take precedence over matchups against champions in other roles, or ones you'll rarely encounter bot.

Aside from adding more stuff to your guide to fill out some chapters that need it, I think the main suggestion I have for you would be to try and really focus your writing on what the reader needs to know to succeed as the champion. Some of that information is here, but it's buried among a lot of "describing", where you're either writing out tooltips or explaining what a champion, rune or ability does.

I think you have enough potential to make this guide really good, so I hope you keep at it. You've clearly put a bunch of effort into writing this already, so I think if you focus on "guiding" your readers, you'll end up with pretty good results. Good luck with the guide!
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