League of Legends (Old)

[Hinduragi]

The best thing to do when you've got a support like Blitzcrank, Taric, Leona, or Alistar, is bait a heal. Put some auto's on their carry, a secondary spell like Graves' dash, not Buckshot. Let your support know what's going on. Let the heal go down on them. Then blow Soraka sky fucking high. Use the pull, stun/shatter, any of those combo's, and blow everything on her, with ignite being the first or second. Blitzcrank: If you can't land the pull then, you will land it plenty of other times. The way Blitzcrank works is as if he was specifically designed to pull Soraka lanes and win them singlehandedly.

[hitogoroshi]

Lanes like Taric/Graves and Leona/Varus are the ones that kill the pony. Also probably anyone/MF.

[ToastyToast]

well, blitzcrank is like the bane of all supports that rely more on sustain and have little escape (probably my archenemy since I main supports. HE IS EVIL). Varus is a great AD carry to counter soraka with (dat range), MF for the heal reduction is pretty good, and leona/blitz for the aggressive pulls and CC

[mykonian]

RF, you might want to ISO ankamius his posts here. I'm pretty sure he wrote quite a few words about it. And he knows the answer better then me. (but if I recall correctly, bursty damage and trying to attack when heal is on cooldown.)

[JDodge]

soraka is countered in lane by burst and things that make her heals less worthwhile (ignites, mf/varus/trist); the armor buff nerfs have really badly harmed her ability to lane vs bursty lanes as well since it now goes force heal>wait 3 seconds>CHAAAAERG. blitz is a good pick due to burst potential, leona is also a good one, as is taric

taric is probably the scariest lane after blitz (although blitz is more a scary lane for everyone - he outright hard counters sona and is terrifying for most of them with the possible exceptions of taric/leona) since it forces you to play more backwards - a lot of soraka's strength comes from her ability to silence/banana the shit out of people if she can get a good position on them; taric removes this advantage since you being that far forward generally means you end up stunned to death

leona is worrisome but there just aren't many good leona players to worry about anyways

counterplay to this as soraka is to try to force a passive farm lane with an ad carry that can do so safely

nunu is also strong vs soraka since the slow + soraka's lack of escapes means that if he has an AD carry that's good at following up on that sort of thing (such as ashe) permaslow means a dead soraka if you're not right at your tower/your ad carry has no way of getting them off of you; there is nothing sadder than playing soraka and watching yourself slowly die due to iceball/frostshot permaslow

[Andrius]

K. I have a couple support questions.
First off- as Soraka, do you start W or E? (Zito needs not say anything. >________>)

Secondly, what's a better build for *generic support here*: items that build from Gp10s (Shurelyas, Locket, DFG) or Aura items (Aegis, Zeke's) assuming that you already have gp10 items.
I used to buy all the press-button items that built from gp10s, then got tired of having 4 different buttons to press in fights, so I jumped to Aegis/Zeke's and that works fine.

Just curious how other people build supports.

[quadz08]

I vote for heal in every circumstance except for Level One Teamfights.

[Kcdaspot]

i'm getting better

[DeathRowKitty]

After gp10s (and boots), I almost always go for Shurelya's, Zeke's, or aegis. I usually go Shurelya's first. If I feel like I need to be tankier for some reason or if I feel like my team really needs to be tankier and that running really fast won't help, aegis. If the AD carry is getting fed and we our success depends fully on their success or if we have 3 people that use attack speed well, I'm more likely to get Zeke's first.

If the game goes long enough, my build usually looks something like Shurelya's + Zeke's + (Aegis if jungler didn't get it) + boots (mercs if I feel I want mercs or if I'm getting enough cdr from other items; boots of lucidity otherwise) + (Randuins if jungler didn't get it; locket otherwise) + empty slot for wards

If I don't get all of those (usually because of someone else getting that item), I'll usually replace it with DFG, abyssal, wota, or dcap.

So the (rather unexciting) tl;dr is: build situationally.

[JDodge]

K. I have a couple support questions.
First off- as Soraka, do you start W or E? (Zito needs not say anything. >________>)

Secondly, what's a better build for *generic support here*: items that build from Gp10s (Shurelyas, Locket, DFG) or Aura items (Aegis, Zeke's) assuming that you already have gp10 items.
I used to buy all the press-button items that built from gp10s, then got tired of having 4 different buttons to press in fights, so I jumped to Aegis/Zeke's and that works fine.

Just curious how other people build supports.

Soraka-wise, I tend to take heal unless they have something strong level 1 shut down by silence; I level W unless we're massively winning the lane in which case I put more points in E in order to better force the enemy AD off of farm.

My general build goes philo>pick>hog if you can get it by around the 17 min mark, else boots. Once I have boots, I try to always have oracles (die with it, buy another; the map control it gives you is huge) and then go for CDR boots 80% of the time (unless they have massive amounts of cc that will mess my day up, in which case I go for mercs). My next thing is a kindlegem. If I have 3 gp10 I'll rush that into a shurelia's; this should put you close to CDR cap while also giving you one of the best item actives in the game (only one that comes close is hourglass IMO). If not, I'll go right into aegis in order to use the boosted gold income from the double for as long as possible and then go shurelia's. Either way, those should be your first two.

From there if game isn't over it's kind of situational; locket isn't particularly great, most supports won't be in a good position to use randuin's, DFG is kind of nice but not great, morello's is good if your team is lacking an ignite for whatever reason (or you have more things that you need the healing reduc on than you have healing reducs) but the CDR is kind of a waste (if you get a morello's, sell cdr boots for sorcs or mercs) with boots+shurelia's. Zeke's is alright I guess; wota can be a nice boost if your AP carry would theoretically benefit from a double wota but you don't have one already. Generally once you get that far into a game where you'll have all these items, the game's essentially over at that point anyways.

Always have wards, always make your teammates help support your ward usage by buying some of their own. Yell at them.

[JDodge]

Note that an obvious exception to the oracles thing is if your jungler/whoever else decides to buy one, in which case stop spending all your money on it and let them absorb some of the risk.

[ToastyToast]

@Andy: Heal first everytime. Not having E right away isn't going to be a big deal. If your AD carry has wasted all their mana before you reach level 2, its their fault, not yours. Also get heal to level 3 as quickly as possible and put one point in Q before you get the ult. E silence is useful but having that heal is just...better.

For builds, it all depends on what is happening. I will always get shurelya's and aegis, but everything else varies. For example, I usually get a heart of gold but, if I'm playing support nunu or orianna or lux, I'd get a lucky pick. If you want ap rather than survivability, its a good early game item. Also not really worth getting shurelya's if two other people get it. I generally like getting auras, and base it off how I see the performance going. If the ap mid needs help, i may pick up an abyssal or wota. If my carry needs help, then I'll pick up zeke's early. Zeke's is also a must have for supports like kayle or lulu, who can have much better harrass with the extra speed.

My most common build looks something like this:
Philo stone>boots of speed>heart of gold>ionian/mercs>aegis>that other shield>shurelya's>Zeke's>Abyssal. I like leaving last slot open for wards and other stuff

If I'm getting fed for some reason (lulu/sona are very good at picking up kills accidentally) or doing nunu support, I pick up more AP items and CDR

PEDIT: You have to be careful with oracle's. If you are dying a lot, its not worth it. I also don't think its worth it early game, unless you have a lead and can roam a lot. Don't waste much needed gold unless you are confident you can survive or know its going to be a ward game. Also, if anyone has stealth, invest in some vision wards of course

[ToastyToast]

I've also like randuin's/frozen heart, but its very situational.

[DeathRowKitty]

put one point in Q before you get the ult.

I thought you were supposed to wait until level 18 and then put 5 points into your q....

[Staeg]

@Andy: Heal first everytime. Not having E right away isn't going to be a big deal. If your AD carry has wasted all their mana before you reach level 2, its their fault, not yours. Also get heal to level 3 as quickly as possible and put one point in Q before you get the ult. E silence is useful but having that heal is just...better.

ಠ_ಠ

[Andrius]

First off I'd like to say that Scummers are the only people who demand Heal first. Every SoloQueue game I always ask and I'm most always told to start E. "I won't need it." etc.
Getting Shurelya's before say, Aegis, is suddenly a great idea for max CDR.
I'll generally do Aegis first, then Zeke's. (The ONLY exception here is Zilean: always get Max CDR then rush GA like no other.-Your ult does your team no good if you use it on yourself and/or are dead.)
Completely forgot about WotA. Need to get back to buying that.

Early Oracles are AMAZING if the other support doesn't notice you have it and/or wards heavily before you get it. Also opens your lane for better ganks. Furthermore you can bait a fight if they think you're only going out to kill a ward.

[Hinduragi]

As Soraka, you should be doing what goes for every single champ in the game: You shouldn't level anything until you have to. Level 1 bot lane ganks from a level 2 jungler like Alistar are the reason. Unless you're someone like Tristana where no other skill is viable, not even remotely, at level 1, except for W.

[TheButtonmen]

I take mana first 80% of the time and the scummers I play with normally demand the mana first so that our lane has mana sustain for their harass spells / I can poke with it to establish lane control.

[ToastyToast]

put one point in Q before you get the ult.

I thought you were supposed to wait until level 18 and then put 5 points into your q....

I put one in Q so if there is ever a team fight i can actually do something once I burn my other spells. Q is still a decent move for support, especially if you stack it. but yeah, i put the other 4 points in it last.

[ToastyToast]

Early Oracles are AMAZING if the other support doesn't notice you have it and/or wards heavily before you get it. Also opens your lane for better ganks. Furthermore you can bait a fight if they think you're only going out to kill a ward.

Again, this is fine unless you are dying. Then its useless. Also, I see a lot of supports get an early oracles and stop warding. I would rather have a well warded bot lane than an oracles.

[DeathRowKitty]

Starcall is mostly useless in lane. Your carry will hate you if you use it for harass and you're probably dead if you're trying to stack it in lane fights. Not worth it to take a point in it until you expect team fights to break out.

[RayFrost]

I pretty much only level q when I have to. The value of a longer silence / stronger heal outweighs the very light dps of starcall at level one. And it also promotes being out of position more than it does teamfighting properly, imo. If you're standing in the middle of the enemy team you're either about to get killed or winning the fight so hard your q isn't even relevant. In the case that you

can

stay in a position to use it without it being dumb, you're still probably a bit further away from your carry than you want to be, and the 60 damage in an aoe before mr that you get is really negligible vs an extra bit of silence / armor that can keep your carry / other persons out of the dead zone.

Edit: Whether to get w or e first is very reliant on what the lane is down on bot / what you're doing level one. Into a blitzcrank or other high aggro lane, I tend to prefer opening heal, while if I'm against something like janna vayne or anticipating an invade from the enemy team (or my team is going for one) I'll open silence. Silence is my more common opening due to the fact I like walking out of a brush to silence auto someone before walking back in like la dee da. I also tend to have winning lanes,which means I'm maxing silence over heal too.

Edit edit: I also played sona for the first time in a long time. My god she shits on a soraka lane so hard. Just constant q harass poking kog / sora down until six and then ashe arrow sona ult nautilus gank combo even under enemy tower leads to double kill. Soraka heal too long of a cd to keep up in harass.

[InflatablePie]

won my first ranked game in days after being sent to sub-1100, was Leona and went 0/13/24

#getcarried

[Hinduragi]

Go in Solo queue. Support Alistar. I pick Tristana. "Why go Tristana" "What?" "I don't like such weak champions on my team"

Game ends. 14/0 Tristana. Friend request from Alistar afterwards. Fucking solo queue.

[InflatablePie]

yay I'm above 1100 now thanks to my go-to support, Taric

also I much prefer Voli top than jungle (also whee, bear)