✔️ Soraka is The Most Beautiful Counter Pick on Pyke OTPs ✔️
Build Guide By PykEugeo
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Soraka Build Guide By PykEugeo
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![LoL Champion: Soraka]()
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![LoL Champion: Soraka]()
Recommended Items
Runes: Soraka #1 World
1
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Sorcery
Resolve
+8 Ability Haste
+2% Movement Speed
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist
Spells:
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Always to have
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Flash
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Champion Build Guide
Welcome to my guide! I'm PykEugeo, an Italian Pyke OTP — and in this guide, I’ll be sharing all of my experiences with Soraka.You might be wondering: why would a Pyke OTP write a guide about Soraka? Well, that’s exactly what makes this story interesting.When I first started maining Pyke, I focused heavily on learning matchups. After thousands of games, one opponent stood out as a particularly difficult counter: Soraka. No matter how well I played, my chances of winning lane against her were consistently low. That’s when I asked myself — what if I tried playing her instead, especially in games where Pyke isn’t the right pick?That small experiment turned into something much bigger. I began using Soraka not only as a counter-pick to Pyke, but also when I needed a strong scaling enchanter to support hypercarries — a situation where Pyke often struggles. Over time, I discovered just how powerful and game-changing Soraka can be. As of now, she’s arguably the strongest enchanter in the game, and perhaps even the strongest support overall.So this guide isn’t just for Soraka mains or enchanter players — it’s also for people who, like me, typically prefer aggressive playstyles or roam-heavy champions, but need to adapt when the draft calls for it. Whether your favorite pick is banned, countered, or just doesn’t fit your comp, having Soraka in your champion pool gives you a reliable, high-impact alternative.As someone who learned Pyke primarily through draft mode — over 90% of my 6000+ games were there — I know the importance of adaptability. I eventually climbed to Platinum 2 in solo queue with a 70–80% win rate on Pyke, and reached Diamond 4 while duoing with an ADC friend (from his Platinum 2), consistently facing high-Elo matchups up to Emerald 1 MMR. That journey, all documented through my Twitch streams and YouTube uploads, helped me understand the value of having the right pick for the right situation.In fact, some of my most memorable performances have come from stepping outside of my comfort zone. I’ve shut down a Master-ranked Soraka with 3.1 million mastery points, brought a 1800 LP Corki ADC to his knees in lane — but I’ve also learned from Soraka players, and grown stronger because of it.This guide is the result of that growth. Whether you're an enchanter enjoyer, a Pyke main looking for a solid backup, or someone who wants to climb with a support that scales hard into late game, you're in the right place.I’ve also started uploading gameplay and commentary on YouTube, so feel free to check out my content, leave a like, and subscribe if you find it helpful. Let’s get into it!
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Laning Phase:
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The itemization for Soraka revolves around amplifying her healing, granting utility to her team, and enhancing her ability to stay safe while enabling extended teamfights. Her core strength lies in her sustained healing through Astral Infusion and global presence with Wish, making her a cornerstone of team durability and survivability.
Boots of Swiftness are ideal for Soraka, giving her the movement speed necessary to reposition quickly during skirmishes and avoid enemy threats. Since she lacks mobility and is a prime target in teamfights, this extra speed is essential for dodging engages and staying in range to heal allies with Astral Infusion.As a support item, Celestial Opposition offers valuable early-game sustain and utility. Its passive grants bonus resistances to allies after immobilization effects, which pairs well with Soraka’s constant presence in the backline, helping her team survive burst damage and skirmishes. Moonstone Renewer is the core of Soraka’s healing identity. Its passive effect empowers her ability to heal consistently during extended fights, especially when she casts Astral Infusion and Equinox. The longer the fight goes, the more powerful the healing becomes, allowing Soraka to outscale most poke and burst compositions with sheer sustain. Redemption complements this by offering massive AoE healing and utility during teamfights, even if Soraka is zoned out or temporarily out of position. With smart timing, it can reset a losing fight or secure clutch victories around objectives like Baron Nashor or Atakhan. Dawncore significantly boosts Soraka’s healing output, reinforcing her power during critical moments. This item passively amplifies her healing and shielding effects, and when paired with Moonstone Renewer, creates an unstoppable wave of sustain during teamfights, allowing her team to press forward with confidence. Shurelya's Battlesong adds a final layer of utility. It grants Soraka and her team a burst of movement speed, perfect for repositioning, disengaging from bad fights, or engaging aggressively when her team has the advantage. This also gives her a proactive tool to empower initiations or help allies escape dangerous situations.Together, these items form a cohesive build that maximizes Soraka’s healing potential, safety, and utility. She becomes a late-game powerhouse in teamfights, providing endless sustain as long as she remains protected. This build rewards smart positioning, awareness, and decision-making—turning Soraka into a reliable anchor for her team throughout every stage of the game.
When playing Soraka support, the choice of boots can significantly impact her performance and effectiveness in different scenarios. Here’s a breakdown of when to build each type of boots:
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Soraka player, you can leverage vision to set up deadly plays and secure crucial picks. Soraka:
Soraka, utilizing the red trinket ( Oracle Lens) is a game-changer in this regard. As a support, denying enemy vision is one of your primary responsibilities, and the Oracle Lens allows you to do it with unparalleled efficiency.
In the realm of League of Legends, vision control reigns supreme, and as a skilled support player piloting Soraka, you possess the power to turn the tide of battle through strategic warding. To further elevate your vision control game, this section delves into the importance of visual aid when it comes to placing wards effectively.
Securing Strategic Vision on the Blue Side:  Spoiler: Click to viewGaining Deep Vision Against Invisible Junglers: Warding against invisible junglers like Evelynn, Shaco, Rengar, Talon is crucial for staying one step ahead in the game. With their ability to sneak around undetected, having deep vision becomes your greatest ally in keeping track of their movements and thwarting their surprise attacks.
Spoiler: Click to viewBy diligently maintaining deep vision with well-placed wards and utilizing Control Ward to unmask invisible threats, you can neutralize the advantage of stealthy junglers. This proactive approach to vision control will not only protect you and your teammates from ambushes but also empower your team to exploit the weaknesses of these elusive opponents, leading your team to victory in the Summoner's Rift.
Securing Strategic Vision on the Red Side: Spoiler: Click to viewWarding against invisible junglers remains crucial on the Red Side, just as it is on the Blue Side. With stealthy champions like Evelynn, Rengar, Talon and Shaco sneaking around undetected, having deep vision becomes even more critical to track their movements and thwart their surprise attacks.Spoiler: Click to viewBy upholding diligent deep vision with well-placed wards and making strategic use of Control Ward, you can neutralize the advantage of stealthy junglers, regardless of the side you play on. This proactive approach to vision control will protect you and your teammates from ambushes and empower your team to capitalize on the weaknesses of these elusive opponents, leading to success in the Summoner's Rift.
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Talking of wave management, Soraka wields strategic prowess as a support. With her versatile toolkit, she navigates the delicate balance of controlling minion waves to gain advantages for her team. From orchestrating fast pushes to orchestrating freezes, each technique serves a distinct purpose in her quest to secure lane dominance and pave the path to victory.
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Soraka is a quintessential enchanter support, celebrated for her exceptional sustain and ability to keep allies alive through prolonged fights. Her kit focuses on constant healing and protection, enabling her team to endure aggressive engages and extended skirmishes. However, mastering Soraka goes beyond simply healing — it requires adopting the advanced positioning, spacing, and game sense typical of a true playmaker. Learning to move smartly and keep ideal distance from threats is essential to maximize your healing impact and survive in fights, skills often developed by high-level playmakers. To carry as Soraka, you must balance staying safe with being in the perfect spot to land clutch heals, silences from Equinox, and game-changing global ultimates with Wish. Your timing and awareness can turn the tide of teamfights, disrupting enemy aggression and ensuring your carries survive to deal damage. This playstyle demands mechanical precision and strategic thinking, making Soraka a vital backbone for her team.This chapter will explore how Soraka excels in lane through safe poke and sustain, as well as how her utility and positioning in teamfights allow her to protect allies and control the battlefield. Understanding these nuances will enable you to maximize Soraka’s unique combination of healing power and playmaking potential to lead your team to victory.
SURVIVAL & SUSTAIN
In the early game, Soraka’s primary strength lies in her exceptional sustain and defensive utility, allowing her and her ADC to weather the enemy’s aggression and maintain lane presence. While she may lack strong engage or hard crowd control, her healing with Astral Infusion keeps her ADC healthy through poke and skirmishes, making it difficult for opponents to force kills or secure lane dominance.The early phase for Soraka is largely about resilience and careful positioning. Surviving poke and skillshots is crucial, as she is quite squishy and vulnerable to hooks, all-ins, or coordinated dives. Using her Starcall to safely harass and restore some health, while managing her mana carefully, helps maintain lane control without overextending. Patience and smart movement allow Soraka to mitigate pressure, preventing the lane from snowballing against her.Vision control and communication with the ADC are essential to avoid ganks and unfavorable fights. Soraka players should focus on warding key river entrances and controlling vision around the bot lane to buy time and reduce risk, especially when facing aggressive supports or junglers. Staying behind minion waves and using Equinox smartly to silence enemy engages can provide clutch moments of safety during dangerous trades.The goal in the early game is to stay alive, consistently heal and sustain through poke, and avoid risky fights until key items are completed. Once Soraka reaches her power spikes—such as obtaining her support item and levels in Wish—her true impact begins. She then becomes a team’s backbone, providing massive heals and clutch global ultimates that can swing teamfights.By surviving and scaling through the laning phase, Soraka sets the stage for the mid and late game, where her healing and utility can carry teamfights and objectives. Playing smart, respecting enemy aggression, and focusing on sustaining through the early game are the keys to unlocking Soraka’s full potential and leading the team to victory.
TEAMFIGHTING & OBJECTIVES
In the mid and late game, Soraka reaches her peak potential with her core healing items — Moonstone Renewer, Redemption, and Dawncore — which greatly amplify her healing power and sustain for her team. These items enable her to continuously spam heals through Astral Infusion, keeping allies alive in prolonged engagements.Using Redemption effectively is crucial: activating it at the right moment provides a large instant area heal that can turn the tide of teamfights, especially when combined with the steady healing from Moonstone Renewer’s passive and the protective shield from Dawncore. These effects stack with Soraka’s innate healing to maximize her impact.Positioning remains absolutely vital for Soraka. She must stay safely in the backline, protected by her team’s frontline, to avoid becoming the first target for enemy assassins and divers. Getting caught out early can be disastrous, as losing Soraka means losing the team’s main source of sustained healing and support.Her healing output scales tremendously with long fights: the longer a teamfight lasts, the more value Soraka generates through her healing and crowd control. Proper spacing and timing of her abilities like Equinox for zoning and silence, combined with well-timed Wish to save multiple allies globally, are key to controlling the fight and enabling her team to win through attrition.When it comes to securing major objectives like Atakhan, Baron Nashor, Dragon (including Elder), Soraka plays a vital supportive role that can determine the outcome of these fights.Her powerful sustain through Astral Infusion and healing amplification from Moonstone Renewer, Redemption, and Dawncore allow her team to outlast enemies in extended objective fights. Keeping your frontline healthy while applying constant healing pressure can give your team the edge needed to win crucial skirmishes around these areas.Positioning is critical: stay safe and keep a good line of sight to heal your carries and frontline without getting caught by enemy engages or crowd control. Use Equinox strategically to zone enemies away or interrupt crucial enemy abilities during the objective contest.Timing Redemption on objectives like Baron Nashor or Dragon can swing fights dramatically, healing multiple teammates even if they are out of direct line of sight. Meanwhile, saving Wish for clutch heals can turn the tide in close fights or help your team survive enemy bursts and resets.
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Drafting with Purpose – When to Pick Soraka
Understanding draft dynamics is crucial for any support player, especially when navigating between aggressive engage picks and more scaling-focused enchanters like Soraka. While champions like Pyke, Leona, or Rell shine in the early-to-mid game with proactive playmaking, Soraka offers a different kind of power: late-game teamfighting, infinite sustain, and anti-dive utility.This section will help you recognize when Soraka is the right choice, not just because your favorite engage picks were taken or countered, but because she’s the best tool for the job in that specific game state.We’ll break down common team comp archetypes (enemy and allied) — from split-pushing to front-to-back 5v5s, from heavy burst to drawn-out poke — and explain how Soraka interacts with them. We'll also consider ally synergy, lane matchups, and how to balance your personal champion pool in draft, especially if you're transitioning from an engage identity to a more reactive, late-scaling one.By mastering this flexible approach, you can:
Pyke, baited into a tank lane, or facing overwhelming AOE threat, you’ll learn when to lock in Soraka — not just as a fallback, but as a winning condition.
Why I Pick Her – From an OTP Pyke Perspective
As a dedicated Pyke OTP with a deep playmaker pool — including champions like Leona, Nautilus, and Rell — my instinct is always to go in, look for picks, and pressure lanes early. I play for tempo, for roam windows, and to snowball leads. That’s how I climb, how I impact the map — and how I win.But some games don't follow that script. Sometimes, your ADC isn’t an early game lane bully. Maybe you’re paired with a scaling monster like Jinx or Kog'Maw — someone who just wants to survive lane and scale into a late-game menace. In those cases, Pyke might be the wrong answer. He’s not a babysitter. He’s not there to play weakside. That’s where Soraka enters my pool — not as a default, but as a strategic counterbalance to my engage-heavy identity.I don't pick Soraka to win lane — I pick her not to lose it. She’s a neutralizer, a safety valve, a late-game insurance policy. If the enemy wants to play fast and punish early, Soraka lets me slow the game down, stabilize, and then outscale. Her healing turns skirmishes, her ult denies assassinations, and her silence shuts down predictable engages.She’s also the perfect answer to certain draft problems I face as a playmaker main. For example, if the enemy blind picks Braum, most of my engage pool struggles into him — he peels, interrupts, and negates burst. But Soraka? She doesn't care. She plays past him. She doesn’t interact — she outlasts. She outheals his CC and scales better in 5v5s. Same with other peelers like Taric, Tahm Kench, or Alistar — the more defensive the enemy comp, the stronger my Soraka becomes.This paragraph exists to explore the why behind the pick, especially for players like me who usually prefer aggression and tempo. Soraka is not just a fallback — she’s a deliberate counterpick, a tool for specific game states where patience and scaling beat brute force. And in a draft where you get countered or your comfort picks are stolen? She might just be your smartest answer.
When Soraka Becomes the Right Draft Pick
I don't blindly lock in Soraka — she shines under very specific conditions. First, if my ADC is a hypercarry like Jinx, Aphelios, or Kog'Maw, I already know I won’t need to play for early pressure. These champions scale harder than the lane, and they just need time, protection, and sustain. That’s when Soraka becomes not just viable, but optimal — she enables them to reach their power spikes safely.Second, I look at the enemy draft. If they’re stacking heavy engage with predictable patterns — like Leona, Rakan, Hecarim, or Malphite — Soraka can stall and deny those engages with her healing, silence, and ultimate. If they’re going for front-to-back teamfights, I know I’ll have time and positioning to heal uninterrupted, making me a late-game monster.She also acts as a soft counter into low-burst comps, AOE setups, or enemy supports that don’t threaten kill pressure in lane — like Braum or Tahm Kench. If I can't out-engage them, I outscale them.Finally, I consider my own pool. If my main picks are taken — let’s say someone locks in Pyke or bans Nautilus — I don’t tilt or force another engager. Instead, I pivot. Soraka lets me fill a completely different role and still be impactful, especially if my team lacks peel or sustain.
Understanding Team Comps and Drafting Soraka Accordingly
Drafting Soraka effectively means understanding how team compositions interact — not just who’s in your lane, but how all ten champions will function together. Below are the most common types of comps you’ll face in ranked or Clash, and how Soraka fits into each scenario.🏹 Splitpush Compositions Split comps rely on side lane pressure and strong 1v1/1v2 champions like Fiora, Camille, Jax, or Tryndamere. These comps want to avoid 5v5 teamfights and force your team to answer their pressure.When Soraka works: She’s not ideal into pure split comps unless your team has strong waveclear and can stall. However, if your comp has TP flankers or global tools (like Shen or Twisted Fate), Soraka becomes valuable in 4v4 skirmishes where she keeps the core grouped alive.Tips:
💥 Single-Target Burst Comps These comps revolve around deleting one carry instantly — think Zed, Qiyana, Elise, LeBlanc, or Kha'Zix. Their win condition is catching squishies and creating chaos in a few seconds.When Soraka works: Perfectly. Soraka’s R can cancel a one-shot instantly, especially if she pre-heals or pre-shields with Q+W. She’s a direct counter to pick-based snowball comps when she’s positioned well. Tips:
🌊 AOE Wombo Combo Comps These comps want to layer CC and AOE spells for huge teamfight impact. Think Malphite+ Yasuo, Orianna+ Jarvan IV, Wukong, Amumu, or Miss Fortune.When Soraka works: She can work, but it's risky. If you position correctly and don't get caught in the combo, your healing can completely neutralize the engage. If you die first, your team crumbles. Tips:
🎯 Poke/Disengage Comps These teams play slow and whittle you down with long-range abilities. Examples include Ziggs, Ezreal, Jayce, Lux, Varus poke builds, and Xerath.When Soraka works: Absolutely. These comps don’t have strong all-in threat, so Soraka gets to heal safely. She acts like a fountain between fights, completely denying poke pressure when protected. Tips:
⏳ Scaling/Protect-the-Carry Comps These are teams that play for late, with strong hypercarries like Jinx, Aphelios, or Kog'Maw and enchanters or tanks built around protecting them.When Soraka works: She’s at her strongest in this context. She thrives in long fights where she can keep her backline alive forever. If the enemy has no reliable dive or backline access, Soraka becomes unkillable value. Tips:
🛡️ Front-to-Back Teamfighting Comps These are standard comps with tanks in front, DPS behind, and a clean line of defense — Ornn/ Sejuani + Jinx/ Viktor/ Kai'Sa type of team.When Soraka works: Very well. Front-to-back fights are predictable and stable, which is exactly what Soraka wants. She can stand just behind the line, heal without disruption, and keep fights going for 10+ seconds. Tips:
⚠️ Situations to Avoid: There are some comps where Soraka is difficult to pull off:
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As a playmaker support, Soraka stands as a beacon of strategic influence on the Summoner's Rift. With her ability to initiate and dictate the flow of team engagements, she transcends the traditional role of a support, becoming a pivotal figure in orchestrating macro-level plays. Whether it's leading the charge in coordinated jungle invasions, facilitating mid lane ganks with her crowd control prowess, or spearheading objective control with her disruptive presence, Soraka embodies the essence of a playmaker support. In the hands of a skilled player, her strategic acumen and decisive actions can tilt the scales of battle in favor of her team, securing victories through calculated macro plays and unparalleled map control.
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When playing Soraka, understanding your lane opponents is just as crucial as syncing with your ADC. While Soraka thrives in sustained trades and excels at keeping teammates alive, her lack of hard engage, mobility, and defensive tools makes her vulnerable to certain support archetypes.In this chapter, we’ll break down how Soraka fares against various categories of supports – Playmakers, Enchanters, Poke Mages, and Tank Engagers – with a focus on how to adapt your laning, positioning, and spell usage accordingly. Matchups are not just about counters; they're about identifying win conditions and leveraging Soraka’s strengths at the right moments.
Enchanter Champions – Patience, Tempo & Long-Term Value
Facing fellow enchanters means you're often in a war of sustain and tempo. These matchups are usually slower and revolve around wave control, mana efficiency, and how well you manage cooldowns and trades. Your goal as Soraka is to out-value them over time by out-healing their poke and making better map decisions. Lulu: She offers strong peel and polymorph pressure. Avoid wasting E unless she commits to a trade or tries to polymorph your ADC. You’ll outscale in healing, so play slow and don’t fight her directly. Milio: His AoE healing and movement speed can feel oppressive, especially in extended fights. However, Soraka's Q and W allow for better sustained lane pressure. Try to poke early before he builds items, and save E for his ADC’s all-ins. Sona: She has higher poke and scaling, but is squishier and more immobile. Abuse her early cooldowns and punish her with Q and E. She wins in mana efficiency, but you outscale in clutch healing with R. Seraphine: Be wary of wave push and AoE poke. Use E reactively to interrupt her empowered notes or ultimate setups. Play off the wave – avoid standing near your ADC to reduce AoE value. Nami: The matchup is skill-based. Nami has better early trades with her E-empowered autos and sustain burst, but Soraka outscales. Use brush control and Q zoning to force her to step up, then counter-trade with E. Karma: One of the more difficult matchups. Her poke is constant, and her mantra Q can chunk hard. Stay behind minions, don’t overextend for Qs, and play purely to sustain through early pressure. Once you hit mid-game, you’ll be more impactful in teamfights. Janna: She nullifies aggression but doesn’t out-sustain. Try not to waste E if you see her channel Q, and keep trading with Q+autos. Your healing is better post-laning; don’t force plays. Yuumi: The lane becomes mostly about poking the ADC. Try to harass when she detaches, and use E when the enemy ADC goes in. While Yuumi scales well, Soraka offers more teamwide utility and actual presence in fights through better silence, healing, and skirmish control.
Playmaker Champions – Survive, Space, and Deny
Playing Soraka into aggressive, all-in supports – commonly referred to as Playmakers – is one of her biggest challenges. These champions thrive on forcing fights, punishing poor positioning, and bursting squishy targets like Soraka. Your job here is to survive the early lane, space properly, and punish their failed engages with counter-healing and silences.While these lanes can feel oppressive, they’re winnable with good warding, jungle tracking, and perfect use of E. Once the laning phase is over, Soraka often becomes more impactful than these champions in teamfights. Pyke: One of the Easiest matchups (sometimes Skill-Matchup if your Adc is REALLY bad against a Strong/Otp Pyke). His hook, E, and ultimate can all punish you quickly but if you play far back, hide behind minions, and use E the moment he dashes in or channels his hook. Bait out his tools before stepping forward. Play for late game and it's a GG. Thresh: Highly versatile and dangerous. His hook + Flay combo can isolate you fast. Stand behind minions at all times, and silence him mid-lantern to prevent follow-up engages. Vision denial near brushes is key. Blitzcrank: Extremely binary but lethal if he lands a hook. Positioning is everything. Hug your ADC and play behind minions. If he whiffs hook, punish with Q poke and lane control. E can interrupt his engage post-hook. Rakan: Very slippery, but more manageable than other playmakers. Wait for him to dash in, then silence his W or cancel his R combo with E. Avoid grouping close with your ADC to reduce multi-knockup value. Nautilus: Tanky and dangerous at level 2. Like Blitz, he’s predictable. Save E for his engage or autos (to disrupt his passive), and kite back. Focus on just sustaining through early trades. Alistar: Respect his W+Q combo at all levels. He’s weak in extended fights, so don’t panic. Zone him with Q, and E when he goes in to prevent follow-up. Your healing will outlast his engage window. Leona: Her CC chain is deadly, especially with ADC follow-up. Don’t trade early unless her abilities are down. Use E on her after she engages to prevent second stuns or stop further aggression. Play very defensively until your jungler can pressure.In these matchups, your silence (E) is your best defensive spell, not your healing. Focus on wave management, jungle tracking, and vision control. If they fail early snowballing, Soraka becomes a game-changer with her map-wide healing and utility.
Poke-Burst Mage Champions – Sustain and Spell Shield Mindgames
Facing poke and burst mage supports as Soraka is a test of both mental resilience and mechanical discipline. These champions aim to dominate lane with long-range harassment and sudden bursts, looking to either chunk you out or force recalls. Unlike playmakers, they don’t rely on all-ins, but rather pressure and attrition. Soraka thrives in these matchups if she can weather the early storm. With smart positioning and healing uptime, she can outscale their pressure and provide overwhelming sustain. The key lies in managing your mana, spacing out of ability ranges, and using E to deny aggressive windows. Lux: High poke and burst from afar. Stand behind minions to block Q and sidestep E to reduce damage. She’s predictable; punish her cooldowns with heals and zoning. Use E to deny her follow-up burst or disengage her R. Vel'Koz: Outranges most supports and applies constant pressure. Avoid staying in straight lines and play around his long cooldowns. If he misses E, you can step forward briefly. Use E to silence or cancel his ultimate. Zyra: Extremely oppressive in early lane with poke + plants. Avoid standing near plant zones and behind minions for Q + E setups. After her initial burst, heal up and look to disengage or outlast her mana. Morgana: Very safe poke and hard CC. Play behind your wave to block Q, and avoid her W zones. While she’s harder to punish, she's not as bursty. E can interrupt her ultimate channel or stall her team’s follow-up. Brand: One of the most threatening in lane. His bouncing W and E can shred through both of you if you're close. Avoid grouping, play slow, and heal after trades. If he wastes a combo, punish the cooldown window. LeBlanc (Support): Aggressive early-game threat. Her Q+W combo or Q+R+W or Q+W+R hurts, but is predictable. Wait for her to overextend or miss her chain. Use E to cancel her second dash or disrupt her burst pattern. Elise (Support): Rare but dangerous pick with strong burst and cocoon engage. Always stay behind minions, and silence after she goes in. She falls off if she can’t get kills early. Be cautious post-6 near turret dives. Zilean: Annoying more than dangerous. Dodge his double bomb and don’t cluster with your ADC. If he uses too much mana or walks up, punish with zoning. Use E pre-6 to silence his approach, post-6 to stall his ult usage.Against poke and burst mages, your goal isn't to out-trade—it’s to outlast. Don’t try to win lane; try to not lose it. With healing uptime, rune sustain (like Second Wind), and proper wave positioning, Soraka can deny kill pressure and transition into a powerful mid-game enabler. Items like Redemption and Dawncore help mitigate AoE burst and further empower your healing during extended fights.
Peeler-Tank Champions – Positioning and Playing the Long Game
When facing Peeler-Tank supports like Alistar, Braum, Leona, Taric, Tahm Kench, and Thresh, Soraka finds herself in lanes where one mistake can cost you everything, but patience and wave control can win the war. These champions thrive on hard engage or protective counter-engage, and they often want to force all-ins or absorb pressure until a jungler intervenes.While they are tanky, their engage patterns are usually predictable and exploitable. Soraka’s strength in these lanes lies in spacing, fast reaction times, and denying follow-up damage with well-timed E and Q's. You won’t out-trade them directly—but you out-sustain and outlast them. Alistar: One of the scariest if he ever reaches you. Stay at max range, abuse his long cooldowns, and silence him mid-combo when possible. His engage is strong, but his laning presence without W+Q is low. After 6, respect his tankiness and peel during dives. Braum: Powerful if paired with aggressive ADCs. Avoid letting him apply Passive stacks—step back when he jumps in. His Q is dodgeable, and without it, his pressure drops. Kite well, and heal off any small trades. Leona: Extremely dangerous early. Her full combo locks down targets. Keep track of her E cooldown, and don’t stand near minions. E her mid-engage to disrupt combos or deny post-6 follow-up. Once behind, she becomes manageable. Taric: Difficult to trade with due to sustain and stun. Avoid short-range fights where he can auto-reset stuns. Don’t clump up pre-6. Post-6, try to zone him and delay his R timing with silence. Avoid committing to fights when his ult is up. Tahm Kench: Mostly defensive early. Poke him when he uses Q or trades autos, and don’t let him stack Passive. His W post-6 makes picks harder. Use E to stop his re-engage or save allies just before he devours. Thresh: Respect the hook and flay combo. Always play behind minions, and punish his missed Q with poke. E him when he tries to all-in or throw lanterns. His engage windows are punishable if anticipated.Against Peeler-Tanks, Soraka plays the long game—you can’t stop the engage entirely, but you can soften it, punish cooldowns, and sustain through trades. Use your E as a zoning tool, not just for silence. Proper spacing and awareness of enemy patterns let you thrive in matchups that seem oppressive. If they can’t snowball early, your healing eventually overwhelms their presence.
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Soraka isn't your typical engage or "roaming" support — her strength lies in sustain, positioning, and teamfight healing. Because of this, synergy with ADCs isn't always about aggressive all-ins or kill pressure, but rather about amplifying carry potential through lane survivability, trades drawn out over time, and scaling advantages. In this section, we'll explore how Soraka synergizes with different classes of ADCs, helping you adapt your playstyle depending on who you're paired with. Understanding these nuances allows you to maximize lane efficiency, prevent bad trades, and prepare for your strongest power spikes as a duo.
Snowballing ADCs – Enabling Aggression Through Sustain
When playing Soraka alongside snowball-heavy ADCs, your role isn’t to match their aggression with your own, but to be the anchor that allows them to play on the edge without constantly backing or fearing trades. These ADCs thrive when they get early leads, but they often put themselves at risk to do so — and that’s where Soraka comes in: turning risky aggression into calculated dominance through consistent healing and lane control.With Jhin, you support his poke and zoning playstyle by keeping him healthy after each trade, allowing him to hold pressure with his 4-shot cadence and W root threat. Kalista loves extended skirmishes, and your sustain helps her stay in fights longer, weaving autos and Qs without fear of getting chipped down. Draven is a classic high-risk, high-reward laner. If he snowballs, he takes over the game. Soraka gives him the sustain to stay in lane longer, secure plates, and cash in on Adoration stacks — all while minimizing his downtime. Tristana, with her all-in explosive potential, benefits immensely from your post-trade healing. She can jump in with E and exhaust her full combo, knowing you’ll stabilize her after. Samira is more of a delayed threat. Early on, your job is to keep her alive until she reaches level 6. From there, your healing allows her to stick in the middle of fights and fully commit to her AoE combo without instantly dying. You act as a buffer that gives her the confidence to go deep.With Lucian, the lane is about tempo — short trades, dashes, and constant pressure. Your healing helps him win those frequent micro-skirmishes, forcing the enemy out through war of attrition. Lastly, Twitch may not seem like a snowballer, but with an early lead, he becomes lethal. Your presence ensures he survives early poke, sneaky engages, and burst attempts, letting him scale safely into a stealthy hypercarry.In all of these cases, Soraka doesn’t initiate — she enables. You rely on their high damage and aggression, while you silently guarantee they can keep fighting without fear. If you position well and manage your cooldowns wisely, these ADCs can snowball out of control — and you’ll be the unseen reason behind their momentum.
Long Range Hypercarries – Scaling Protection and Frontline Healing
When paired with hypercarries, Soraka takes on the role of guardian and enabler, ensuring these late-game monsters reach their peak safely. These ADCs often require extended laning, peel, and uptime in fights, and Soraka is one of the few supports who can offer all of that through healing, silences, and clutch ultimates. Zeri thrives in prolonged skirmishes and teamfights where she can kite and stack her passive. Your heals let her stay in fights longer while your silence zone keeps divers off of her. Aphelios is a complex but vulnerable laner — he deals insane damage if left untouched. With your sustain, he can weather poke lanes and scale, and once ahead, your healing helps him stand his ground during extended trades with Severum or Crescendum. Vayne is notoriously weak in early levels, but devastating later. Your job is to keep her alive pre-6, using healing and good spacing to get her through the lane safely. Once she hits her item spikes, you support her by sticking close during tumbles and chasing fights, ensuring she has the backup to chase or kite freely. Jinx wants to shove, farm, and occasionally look for aggressive all-ins once her items start coming in. With Soraka at her side, she can keep high tempo in lane, push constantly, and recover from bad trades without backing. In teamfights, your ultimate ensures she survives engages and continues resetting with her passive. Sivir excels in waveclear and mid-game teamfight setup. You allow her to play aggressively in lane, maintaining pressure through your healing, and keep her topped off for teamfights where she acts as a backline spell-slinging machine. You’ll often use your ult reactively when her R is popped, turning skirmishes into full retreats or aggressive chases. Kog'Maw is a glass cannon that needs constant protection. Soraka perfectly fits this role: heal him through poke, peel with E and Q slow, and make sure he doesn’t get bursted before he dishes out his absurd damage. Against dive comps, you’re his best insurance. Smolder needs time to scale through Q stacks and a relatively safe lane. With your sustain and passive poke through Qs, you create a calm environment for him to stack safely and reach his late-game flame potential. Later, you act as the stabilizer that allows him to throw out empowered Qs with confidence, knowing you're nearby to heal or ult if needed.In all these cases, Soraka isn’t just a support — she’s a lifeline. You turn fragile carries into unstoppable late-game forces by removing the downtime between fights and shielding them from chip damage or poke. With proper positioning and cooldown tracking, you make sure these ADCs can keep autoing — because as long as they’re alive, the enemy team isn’t.
Poke/High Range AD Carries – Sustain, Tempo & Lane Dominance
When laning with poke or long-range ADCs, Soraka becomes the anchor of lane pressure, allowing these champions to harass relentlessly without risking all-ins or losing tempo due to chip damage. Your healing sustains their aggression, while your Q and E help trade back or zone when the enemy tries to engage. Ashe offers strong utility and slow-based poke with her W, often winning trades over time. With Soraka beside her, she can spam volleys and control waves, while your sustain nullifies any attempt to punish her short range. When she hits level 6, your follow-up with silence or ult can turn her arrow into a guaranteed kill. Caitlyn thrives on lane dominance and trap control. Soraka enhances this by removing the need to back after poke trades and letting her keep up constant pressure. You help her maintain priority, poke under tower, and create lethal zone control with silence zones near her traps. Varus can play as both a poke or lethality-based ADC. In either case, he wants to chip down enemies before committing. Soraka ensures he has the uptime to keep casting Qs, and you can help hold the wave with Q spam while healing him through retaliation damage. Your presence allows him to skip lifesteal early and fully lean into his harass-heavy style. Miss Fortune thrives in poke lanes with E spam and Q bounces. Your sustain lets her play aggressively without needing to run defensive runes or builds. In teamfights, your silence can interrupt divers mid-rotation, giving her the time and space to channel Bullet Time safely — turning fights instantly. Ezreal has a relatively safe laning phase but can get punished if he misses Qs or plays too forward without cooldowns. Soraka complements his playstyle by keeping him healthy between trades and letting him continue poking with his Qs without losing lane control. You don’t need to force engages — just sustain, slow the enemy with Q, and let him win the attrition war.Across all of these ADCs, Soraka plays a tempo-preserving role, allowing aggressive or poke-heavy marksmen to skip lifesteal, maintain control, and slowly bleed out the enemy laners. Your kit enables them to exhaust their mana pool on harass rather than sustain, keeping the pressure high and forcing enemies to either all-in or bleed out — a fight you’re always prepared to win.
Short Range All-In ADCs – Survival, Timing & Fight Extension
Playing with short-range, all-in ADCs means Soraka must shift from passive sustain to clutch timing and proactive healing. These ADCs often dive in or commit heavily to fights, making your positioning and cooldown management essential to their survival and success. Kai'Sa is a hybrid burst-damage ADC who excels in follow-up all-ins or dive scenarios. Your role as Soraka is to keep her topped off pre-fight and, more importantly, to provide immediate healing and silence during her engages. Your R becomes a lifeline when she ults aggressively or gets burst down in dives. Nilah thrives in extended fights thanks to her AoE autos and built-in sustain. With Soraka at her side, she becomes even more oppressive, as your healing stacks with her passive to create nearly unstoppable skirmishing potential. Your Q zoning and E silence prevent enemies from peeling or interrupting her DPS. Xayah is a self-peeling ADC who wants to commit safely and punish overcommits with her feathers. Soraka empowers this by removing the risk of chip damage pre-fight and ensuring that Xayah can stay in range long enough to hit critical feather combos. Your silence also plays a key role in stopping dive threats mid-channel or during flanks.Other short-range all-in ADCs like Samira, Vayne, or even Aphelios (with close-range weapons) benefit from the same dynamic — you help them survive the window between committing and executing. Your silence and R deny enemy counterplay, and your consistent Q healing keeps them topped off before and after each skirmish.Ultimately, Soraka enables these ADCs to commit harder and more confidently, turning what would be risky engages into winnable fights by extending their life span and punishing enemy misplays. Your job isn't just to sustain — it's to amplify their tempo and momentum with perfect healing and well-timed disengage tools.
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Thank you for reading my guide up to this point, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you liked it, leave a +vote and a comment if you want to ask me something. Stay updated because my next guides will be: Nautilus support, Lulu support, Rakan support.
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✔️ Soraka is The Most Beautiful Counter Pick on Pyke OTPs ✔️
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