Talk:Soraka/@comment-170.235.0.110-20110315171418/@comment-143.206.81.109-20110405213712

Ok. Snowdrake. Soraka can burst you down. But say it's WW that's about to jump me. I'm in the middle of bot lane. (Yes, this happens quite often, and I laugh every time.) When he comes out of the river or bush to hit me (because anyone stupid enough to remain in range of the river or bush deserves to die) you silence him. >> Oh. Look. I probably got my silence off before you could ult me, WW. Rammus, taunt him into our tower so we can kill the puppy.

You know how you play Soraka so your team /doesn't/ die, you win about 90%-95% of your games (when you're premade, the chances of a sole queue knowing how to play with a Soraka are slim) and you stay alive? You take summoner heal and ghost and a 8/1/21 mastery tree. "But Soraka needs the defensive tree to survive!" If you need survivability, you're not agressive enough or your team sucks. You should always have a good tank that realizes that the longer you're alive, the longer they're alive. (Shen and Rammus work beautifully for this.) "Well, you don't have the increased damage from a 9/0/21 tree!" So what? You're there to heal and provide a 3 second silence and/or mana. Why are you trying to kill them? Your carry (Tryn, Kat, Karth, any good dpser or damage dealer) should be the one killing them. Go buy a pick if you want gold. >> Turn it into a DFG or something.

Then, after you do all your pretty masteries, runes are important. Early-game survival can be bought here if you need it, using armor runes. AP runes are pretty. Use them.

Items in-game. Morello's, DFG, Merc Treads or boots of mobility, Hat, LB/Hat/Rylai's, and a Arch Angel's Staff. There's damage for you there, a little bit of survivability, CC survival for when a champ does stun you, Mana, Mana regen so you don't have to infuse yourself as often and can infuse others, and a ton of AP. If your team yells at you for being useless, you can always come back with, "I can triple your health, buff your armor by 80 for 4 seconds every 6 seconds, silence Karth/Kat/other ability-dependent carry for 3 seconds every 9 seconds, and you still die. You suck anyway. Uninstall."

Another thing, if you're being targetted, learn to bait. If Yi, Ashe, or any other squish hasn't bought life steal or spell vamp yet, and they can't 1-shot you, you should be able to solo them. If you can't, you suck. Stop playing Soraka. Why? Because you're healing for half your health bar every 6 seconds from 1 heal.

If, with a Pick, you still need gold, then go assist fishing. With your R, it's not hard. If you're in a team fight, run in, hit Q. Silence the carry. Run out. Heal those who need it. You should get an assist from every kill. If too much time has passed since you hit Q last, run in, hit Q, possibly silence another champion, run out, return to healing those who need it. If you have LB, pick a champion who needs to die and auto-attack them.

Team fights go quickly because one side tends to curb-stomp the other relatively quickly. However, if your side is the side that would normally be curb-stomped because they don't have the survivability, then you just provided a couple extra seconds to the fight. You have 3 heals. Use them. And no, the summoner Heal ability does not halve Soraka's heals. (Some people comment on this and say so other wise.)

Tl, dr: If you're being hit, you aren't kiting properly and deserve to die. Get mana. Get mana regen. Buy some Merc Treads. When an assassin pops out of no where, hit them with E and run. Use ghost if you have to. Heal with the summoner ability before your W, it's easier to hit one key then try to heal yourself while running and/or hit alt+w. If your team dies with you tripling their life, buffing them, and silencing the enemy, they suck and should uninstall. And unless you're going up an amazingly op team or have a crappy team to protect you, you shouldn't die. Ever.