@Jai Well, Liandry's synergizes extremely well with 
Starcall's MR shred and low CD. You can constantly reset the passive for more and more damage. It's always been really good on her, but now you have the income to buy it without feeling guilty.
Ignite is for kill potential in lane, if you play her right you shouldn't need Exhaust anyways. Soraka is extremely dominant early game (levels 1-4 especially) which makes taking ignite pretty important besides. I killed Corki by myself at level 3 because I had Ignite, which I wouldn't have been able to do without it.
@Psi yes, that
Starcall's MR shred and low CD. You can constantly reset the passive for more and more damage. It's always been really good on her, but now you have the income to buy it without feeling guilty. Ignite is for kill potential in lane, if you play her right you shouldn't need Exhaust anyways. Soraka is extremely dominant early game (levels 1-4 especially) which makes taking ignite pretty important besides. I killed Corki by myself at level 3 because I had Ignite, which I wouldn't have been able to do without it.@Psi yes, that
In terms of items, I was more questioning the Spirit Visage which seemed to be an entirely selfish buy (will you really be healing yourself that often to make use of it the unique passive? If you're going for cheap CDR, surely there are other items, like Boots of Lucidity? If you're going for the health, why not a Ruby Sight Stone, which provides utility to your team?). And the Ninja Tabi with so much enemy magic damage (though against that team I guess the tenacity would be useless). Also, the lack of Sight Stone, which I found odd; is there a reason why you wouldn't buy it on Soraka? With regard to Ignite, I'd pick Exhaust on Soraka due to it's extreme utility for teamfights and shutting down opponents.
Just the whole thing would be extremely different to what I'd build/play; you mention Starcall synergising with Liandry's - I don't level Starcall until I'm forced to. In terms of times, especially with the low amount of hard cc on your team, I would have went Rylai's to be tankier and help out with an AoE slow.
Just the whole thing would be extremely different to what I'd build/play; you mention Starcall synergising with Liandry's - I don't level Starcall until I'm forced to. In terms of times, especially with the low amount of hard cc on your team, I would have went Rylai's to be tankier and help out with an AoE slow.
jhoijhoi wrote:
In terms of items, I was more questioning the Spirit Visage which seemed to be an entirely selfish buy (will you really be healing yourself that often to make use of it the unique passive? If you're going for cheap CDR, surely there are other items, like Boots of Lucidity? If you're going for the health, why not a Ruby Sight Stone, which provides utility to your team?).
Sorcerer's Shoes are a million times better - Magic pen is ridiculous on Soraka.
Spirit Visage is sort of a selfish buy but it's one of the very few defensive items with a strong offensive stat. The heal yourself thing simply works on Wish and well if you need to heal yourself, why not more? It synergises greatly with Salvation and thus is really cost-efficient.jhoijhoi wrote:
Also, the lack of Sight Stone, which I found odd; is there a reason why you wouldn't buy it on Soraka? With regard to Ignite, I'd pick Exhaust on Soraka due to it's extreme utility for teamfights and shutting down opponents.
Sightstone is not efficient as a health item and the utility it provides can be also be achieved by simply buying wards, which you can easily afford next to a normal item build. Exhaust is strong but definitely not necessary in a lot of cases. Infuse's silence can shut down casters like Kha'Zix just as well as Exhaust can, even better. Also Exhaust got a nerf due to bot lane being double threat instead of single threat.jhoijhoi wrote:
Just the whole thing would be extremely different to what I'd build/play; you mention Starcall synergising with Liandry's - I don't level Starcall until I'm forced to. In terms of times, especially with the low amount of hard cc on your team, I would have went Rylai's to be tankier and help out with an AoE slow.
Starcall must be gotten at level 1 and maxed to make Soraka the threat she has the potential to be. If you play her as a heal/sustain bot then you might as well opt for Sona or Nami with W max. Not leveling Starcall on Soraka is like not taking your ultimate on Nocturne - it's shooting yourself in the foot. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a great pickup on Soraka especially combined with Liandry's Torment (and Void Staff).In general I think your problem is thinking too much like S3 or even S2, when supports were chosen for their utility only -
Soraka can do incredible damage and that should be exploited.
Nick: I can agree with most of your points. I haven't tried "max Q first" Soraka, as I have mainly been concerned with keeping my ally alive and topped up with mana/health; rarely does bot lane die if I'm playing Soraka, but at the same time, I'm not running Ignite and maxing Q. Passive playstyle, perhaps.
Psi: Exactly. It was weird to me, to think of Soraka as such an aggressive support that Ignite would be a good pick. Perhaps I'm still stuck in S3 mode, where Soraka was a sustain utility support. But like you, I've seen Soraka's just keep their lane alive forever, which allows the ADC to just pretty much farm safely. I almost feel that if you choose Soraka to be aggressive, well, dunno. Hard to articulate what I want to say, but if aggressive Soraka with Ignite, SV, Liandry's works, why not try it.
Astrolia: Would like to try that mid lane, actually. Followed with Rylai's.
Psi: Exactly. It was weird to me, to think of Soraka as such an aggressive support that Ignite would be a good pick. Perhaps I'm still stuck in S3 mode, where Soraka was a sustain utility support. But like you, I've seen Soraka's just keep their lane alive forever, which allows the ADC to just pretty much farm safely. I almost feel that if you choose Soraka to be aggressive, well, dunno. Hard to articulate what I want to say, but if aggressive Soraka with Ignite, SV, Liandry's works, why not try it.
Astrolia: Would like to try that mid lane, actually. Followed with Rylai's.
jhoijhoi wrote:
In terms of items, I was more questioning the Spirit Visage which seemed to be an entirely selfish buy (will you really be healing yourself that often to make use of it the unique passive? If you're going for cheap CDR, surely there are other items, like Boots of Lucidity? If you're going for the health, why not a Ruby Sight Stone, which provides utility to your team?). And the Ninja Tabi with so much enemy magic damage (though against that team I guess the tenacity would be useless). Also, the lack of Sight Stone, which I found odd; is there a reason why you wouldn't buy it on Soraka? With regard to Ignite, I'd pick Exhaust on Soraka due to it's extreme utility for teamfights and shutting down opponents.
Just the whole thing would be extremely different to what I'd build/play; you mention Starcall synergising with Liandry's - I don't level Starcall until I'm forced to. In terms of times, especially with the low amount of hard cc on your team, I would have went Rylai's to be tankier and help out with an AoE slow.
most of what I'd say has already been said by other people, but I would like to mention specific points:
1. Even if you still want to max
Astral Blessing first (which is still alright, but not as good as Starcall first), you should be maxing Starcall second now because it indirectly decreases the CD of Astral Blessing. Maxing Infuse second is largely outdated and has been since before the preseason to be entirely honest, but it's terrible now because it costs mana to give allies mana AND does a lot less damage than Starcall does.2. I had
Ninja Tabi because I was taking a lot of physical damage in lane. They're cheap and they dealt with my problem.To be honest they've just given Soraka the income to continue doing what she's been better at doing for quite a while.
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