nubville asked: I've been trying to broaden my champion base, but I can't seem to find a decent build for Soraka. What items do you suggest?
Just basic support items really. Soraka is one of the most boring supports in the game during lane. The neft sort of changed it so you have to manage your mana, but it’s still just sit in the bush and throw out heals/mana when necessary and lets your carry spam skills even more (Great for Graves/Sivir types who have huge damage skills and mana issues).
I start with fairie charm, a regrowth bead, and a ward when I play most supports (I have masteries for increased start gold) The fairie charm builds into philo stone and the regrowth bead eventually builds into locket of the iron solari. If I trust the person I’m supporting and the enemy jungler isn’t a jungler who usually does early ganks I sometimes start with one of each potion instead of a ward and we just play safe in lane.
I have GP/10 runes which helps me build up gold faster but go back when you can get philo stone and some wards & potions. If you can wait get gold for boots too but if not don’t worry about it.
Next trip back get a heart of gold because you’re pretty squishy and that’ll help while giving you more GP/10 and get tier two boots as soon as you can after that.
Keep buying wards but at this point you probably shouldn’t need potions. If your team is doing well you can buy Mejai’s since you can ult anytime your team is about to get a kill and get an assist for it. If you do get Mejai’s make sure to be even more careful than usual with positioning so that you don’t lose stacks. You CAN get Kage’s pick but by this time in the game you probably won’t get much gold benefit from it so unless I expect the game to go another 20 minutes+ this is where I start building auras.
I really can’t say what Auras to build because it depends on your team. If they’re AD/auto attack heavy build Zeke’s Herald, if they’re AP heavy build Soul Shroud or even Abyssal Scepter or WotA if you think it’s necessary.(WotA is rarely a good choice for Soraka) If your team needs some more defense and isn’t building any defensive items you can buy an Aegis of the Legion which is amazing stats for the money when you total up how much it gives your entire team with the aura as well as gives you some more survivability AND it gives a small amount AD in an aura. Seriously a great item, just make sure nobody else on your team has one. You can stack two auras of the same kind but in general getting other auras before doubling up on others is best. Finish your locket after your first aura depending on what item you need. If you don’t need tenacity much go for the Reverie. You could finish it earlier but I like to hold onto my GP/10s as long as possible. Unless the enemy team has no AD/auto attackers you can build Heart of Gold into Randuin’s Omen for some extra tankyness and a nice active aura. When you’re done building a support you should have six or seven skills instead of four because of all the active effect auras you have. Unless you’re shen. Then just build pure tank support.
Okay. Basically the answer is that most supports are extremely situational past the standard GP/10 + wards build.
For boots on Soraka Don’t get CDR boots because runes + masteries + the items you’ll usually build will almost always put you over 40% anyways.
This is just for support supports like Soraka, Janna, Sona, etc. Not tank supports like Shen, Alistar, Leona, etc.
Almost forgot, Soraka pro tip: Throw bananas at everything.
