Board Thread:League of Legends discussion/@comment-2112140-20140211084940/@comment-1330314-20140211095310

The issue with Soraka right now is pretty much her theme as a healer. Healing is good when it mitigates the damage from poke, and it's good that her kit got changed to reward her for healing in combat, but her heals are so strong that they negate damage completely: the opposing laner might try making a play to chunk your carry for a good amount of their health, at a cost in mana and potentially health, but Soraka's massive mana pool means the cost on her side will almost invariably be less than the cost on your side.

Soraka's rarely seen in low level games because people playing her underestimate the strength of her heals and the tankiness they give, and too often get caught and die due to her weak CC and poor mobility, and is rarely picked in high level games because high-level bot lanes are generally farm races: Soraka's designed to counter poke and harass, and if neither of the two are happening she doesn't have the tools to adequately harass the enemy laners herself.

People consider her to be a troll pick because she's only really good at one thing, and that's healing. She has sub-par CC and no truly visible utility, so a lot of people think she's weak (and she is, to a certain extent). It's because of her perceived weakness that people try out troll builds on her, like AD Carry Soraka or Siv HD's Stack Sister Soraka in which you stack both a and a  by using your ultimate to accumulate assists.

If you want to build Soraka properly, get her utility and tanky items. In every situation you're going to start with an and rush it into a  for the 20% CDR, massive gold generation and fight-turning active. If you're against an easy lane, go 9/0/21 for the 10% CDR and additional fighting power and build a after your Talisman, maxing out on your cooldown reduction. If you're against a more difficult lane, go 0/9/21 for the better tankiness and sustain and rush after your Talisman to quickly max out on your cooldown reduction. From then, take to ward,  for the mana regen, additional healing and ally cleanse, and  for the health and CC it gives (the AP's good, too). If you took Locket, get either or  depending on their comp (Tabi against heavy AD, Treads against heavy AP or heavy CC), and if you took CDR boots go for a  for extra tankiness.

Healing reduction counters Soraka pretty hard, as does any form of all-in, burst or heavy CC comp. Soraka's mobility is terrible, and any champion with a gapcloser can destroy her and her laner. She performs terribly against most melee champions, particularly if they're high-mobility and/or high-CC, and cannot do much against sustained damage. If you're against her in lane, the best option is to either hard engage on her whenever you can (if she's laning with a hypercarry), or play ultra-passively (if she's laning with a normal carry). Soraka can't poke too hard, and her weak CC means she can't initiate fights. Pre-6, her healing is single-target only, so she and her laner are extremely vulnerable to ganks.

People usually prefer burst supports because they're capable of making plays by themselves, something Soraka can't do. "Core" supports like Soraka and also got a little undertuned when they got reworked, and the new gold flow meant magey supports like  and  could output far more damage. Now the situation's a lot better, but people on average generally prefer supports with lots of CC over supports with scaling utility. This doesn't mean all core supports are weak, though, they just play differently to mages and bruisers.

Soraka does best with marksmen with a weak laning phase, which usually means hypercarries like, , and. These champions need to farm a lot early on and thus end up being very vulnerable to enemy harass, which is where you come in to heal them.

Soraka mid still works decently if you're against a low-mobility champion or a champion without too much burst. For these reasons she does exceptionally well against, , , , and.

Soraka's strength is her healing, which can potentially reverse the outcome of teamfights. It's also the main thing she brings to her team, which is why you need to fill up on other utility items. She does have MR reduction and a strong silence, but both of these are best used defensively (which is why you also need to build her tanky). Unfortunately, this is also her biggest weakness: her healing is the only real utility she brings. While every other support has at least one strong CC ability, she has none. Her single-target peel is sub-par compared to most other supports, and the clutch plays she makes don't have the same impact as with other supports.

Soraka can still be a decent mid, since her offensive strength comes from her cost-free poke, but she cannot do well in top lane, since most top laners are designed to have lots of mobility and good all-in potential, both of which she's helpless against. Her sustain can keep her in lane for a very long time, but most top laners also have inbuilt sustain, with the added advantage that they can usually shrug off her damage.

If you get ganked as Soraka, the best thing you can do is to actually hold off on your heal until the very last moment: move and spam Qs as you do so, and use your E to silence the most dangerous target in range (basically whoever has a strong CC or burst damage ability that they can use). If they start dealing damage, determine who's taking the brunt of it: typically, it should be you, as you should sacrifice yourself for your marksman, but if they focus your carry wait until your ally's at about 40% health and heal them. This should heal them for a lot more than if you healed them a high health, and the armor bonus should allow them to escape with relative safety. If you're the one taking the most damage, do the same to yourself instead.

To make Soraka on par with other supports you just get lots of utility on her through items, whereupon she gets the potential to make clutch plays as well as heal priority targets. Make her tanky, and you can also use your Q and E to severely disrupt the enemy team while protecting your own.

Soraka's contribution to her team can be measured in several ways: first, if she's good, her marksman should have a lot of farm (assuming of course they're decent players themselves and know how to CS). Second, in the mid to late game she should be able to prevent the amount of deaths on her team. The less deaths on your side, the more successful you are as Soraka. Obviously, this also relies on the assumption that your teammates aren't bad ("Oh look! The enemy team just went all in on me and Soraka just burned all her heals to let me escape at 15% health! Better go back in!"). This also means that if you manage to keep your teammates alive for long enough in a teamfight, you've done well.

Best of luck with your Soraka spree!