Soraka, the potassium dispenser (a detailed look)

This team-dependant goat has been through many, MANY changes along the years but her essence remains: Direct-healing with a touch of short but effective CC. I know many of you can play her but I want to emphasize and prove the point that she has ALWAYS been and still is one of the very best supports for ANY game. (I'm sorry for any "formatting" issues in advance, I'm kind of new to posting on reddit but bear with me if you're interested in climbing the elo ladder as a Support player + any formatting tips will be more than welcome)

Let's talk stat-wise:

With a base health of 529 and +78 HP per level (maxing at 1855), she has a higher base health and health growth than most squishy supports (Sona has 482, Janna has 487). Starts with 23.4 armor and has the usual 30 mr at lv1, (still beating Sona, Janna and Nami for example when it comes to armor). Her 351 mana pool isn't special but her low mana costs won't make it a problem (e.g. Sona has huge mana costs and a lower mana pool).

When it comes to abilities, surprisingly, the highest ap scaling goes to her W (60% AP) followed by her ult (55% AP). Although that isn't very important since the healing + shielding items became a priority in her build but there is more to it other than rushing ardent censer into mikael's crucible/redemption.

Her damaging/CC abilities are obviously Q and E. E being extremely strong in pretty much any situation when done right. You create a silencing zone (with quite a considerable area of effect and cast range of 925) for 1.5 seconds, then it roots any enemy champions inside for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds. Its mana cost is 70 across all levels and its cooldown goes 24/22/20/18/16 seconds.

The key feature to this spell's strength (E) is how its cast speed is pretty much instantaneous, it's not a projectile so it just pops up where you cast it AND the lack of counterplay in ideal circunstances, by this I mean that if you hit it and predict the enemy's movements then they will not be able to do anything about it other than auto-attack and remain in a reduced zone or try to move away (making them easy targets) and then getting rooted, but the most important thing is the silence which cannot be cleansed and only Morgana's shield or Olaf's Ragnarok can tank through it (other spell shields like Sivir's, Edge of Night, Nocturne's and Banshee's Veil will get triggered but the silence will continue to affect them and the root will still take place if they remain on it); Fiora's Riposte is an exception if she predicts your E but it will force her to remain stationary and she will still be silenced afterwards because the silence zone remains for longer than Riposte and she will most likely get rooted if she doesn't have a lot of movement speed or someone saves her like Tahm Kench.

Another very interesting fact about silences in general is that, for example, when you're silenced you can't take Thresh's lantern, Kalista can't attack with her jump passive, it interrupts any channeled ability like Malzahar's ult, Anivia's ult, Aurelion Sol's W and so on. This makes it a very safe ability with 925 target range + the other half of the area of effect (since AOE skills are cast by its centre, meaning you have your max skill range but half of the area of effect still goes past that range) just like her Q.

What I find most useful and powerful about her E is forcing enemies into vulnerable positions by placing it either just behind them or next to them.

BUT it excels at protecting yourself or your allies from assassins or anyone who engages physically. Let's say Fizz ults your teammate and E's or Q's into them, your zone (if put well) will, most of the times, save your ally and secure a kill although there are exceptions because you won't be playing against bots. At 45% CDR, it has a cooldown of 7.2 seconds which is still a fair amount and it forces you to be VERY thoughtful of when to use it because one bad use and it could mean the death of one of your carries or yourself (I cannot emphasize this enough). Always remember its potential for it can pretty much guarantee a clean kill at any stage of the game.

Now, let's talk about her Q. Her Q is pretty basic and it has an even wider area of effect than your E but it has a smaller range at 800. Its cooldown doesn't go down when you add points to it and it maxes out at a 2.25 second cooldown with 45% CDR. Letting you spam it like crazy at the cost of 40 mana at rank 1 (40/45/50/55/60 mana cost). It takes longer to hit when it's cast farther, meaning if you cast it right on your feet it will hit the ground almost immediately but when cast at max range it will take about 1 second to hit which is the average human reaction time meaning, if you surprise/predict a player's movements, the player will very easily get hit. It has quite the substantial damage at lv1 for its cooldown and its range/aoe starting at 70/110/150/190/230 but you should always max it second. It slows by 30% for 2 seconds and grants you Rejuvenation for 4 seconds granting you 7/8/9/10/11 health per half second AND you gain 10% movement speed when moving away from enemy champions no matter how close they are as long as they're behind you (Note: This effect does NOT stack no matter how many champions you hit), the movement speed effect also works if no enemy champion is "near" (I would give more details than just "near" but let's say it's about as long as bot lane's length between you and the next closest champion). Another great feature is the fact that you can use it to check bushes, but beware because the vision it grants is limited to roughly its area of effect and a couple of pixels around it. So, if you Q your bot lane bush and it takes up about half of the bush, you won't be able to see the other half or anyone there.

Her W, her signature skill for all these years. It starts out at an 8 second cooldown, which is quite a lot when you think about it, and it limits your early game healing. Its cost of 10% maximum health across all ranks is its most prominent caveat imo. It goes 8/6.5/5/3.5/2 seconds cooldown, the healing goes 80/110/140/170/200 per heal, pretty much forcing you to max it first if you're playing support. That's not a problem because your Q and your E are more than enough to push through your first levels with its amount of utility. If you cast W on an ally while you have Rejuvenation on you (after hitting an enemy with your Q), they will receive the same effects for 3/3.5/4/4.5/5 seconds (lasting even longer than on yourself at rank 4 and 5).

Her ultimate is pretty self-explanatory, and the easiest skill to "hit" but not use, it has a huge impact on the game, making your race to 6 a very important factor. It's a global skill which heals yourself and your allies, even UNTARGETABLE allies (this means you can heal allies in zhonya's, bard's ult, Fizz in his E, Vlad in his W, etc. It costs 100 mana, 160/145/130 second cooldown going 72/65/58 second cooldown with 45% CDR and it heals for 150/250/350 health.

Its other special feature is very important, allies (including yourself) under 40% max health will be healed for the skill's heal amount (not its base amonut) + 50% value. Meaning you will heal for 150 + 75, 250 + 125, 350 + 175 without adding the healing percentage items and your ability power.

So, let's talk late game values, imagine you only have 60 AP from ardent censer + 40% healing power from the 3 items and you heal an ally under 40% max health: Your ult will heal for 383 (350 base heal + 55% AP, which is 33) + 191.5 (+50% value) + 40% healing power adding up to roughly 804,3 Heal value.

Your W will heal for 236 (200 base heal + 60% AP, which is 36) + 40% healing power adding up to roughly 330,4 Heal value.

These values are further enhanced by Visage and Runic Armor (mastery) but I will not post its values for the same reason why I put "roughly" behind the other values, League hasn't really stated how stacking percentages work and I don't have time to study that (not sure if healing power stacks with AP percentage or with Visage and Runic Armor or if it all stacks together at the same time). But I have gotten values as high as 530 heals from my W on teammates with Visage and, assumingly, Runic Armor as well.

When it comes to gameplay, as I previously said, your first levels will have to be pretty safe against some match-ups, especially Mages like Brand or Zyra and All up in your face champs like Blitz and Braum.

You can counter combos like Thresh's, Alistar's, Leona's, etc. with your E but you have to cast it well, obviously.

Before I go into more gameplay details I want to emphasize Mikael's Crucible, everyone builds it on her but I see it way too many times being built as the last healing item which is many times a grave mistake.

It's a QSS, it gives the ally slow immunity for 2 seconds and, if you cleanse an effect, the ally also gains +40% movement speed (it has won me more fights than I can count), it has the highest healing percentage of all 3 items at +20% healing power, it gives you a decent 40 MR and it has a passsive: "Gain +25% base health regeneration for every additional 25% base mana regeneration", which is the only downside of buying it as the first healing item because you won't get much profit from it. Plus, it's cheaper than Ardent Censer by 200 Gold and the same price as Redemption. (I usually build Redemption last).

So, let's shortly talk about Runes and Masteries:

This comes down to your own personal preference, there is no right way. But my own choice is: 3 movement speed quints, 9 armor yellows, 9 armor reds, 6 CDR blues and 3 scaling or normal MR blues. Coming down to +4.5% movement speed, +17.2 armor, +5% CDR and +4 MR or +9 MR at lv18.

Even against AP Mages, I haven't found too much difficulty, you just have to be extra careful and you will be rewarded, building Mikael's Crucible first polishes out the rough edges too.

Masteries come down to the same point, your own personal preference, even though there isn't much room to go around when it comes to a healing build. I use Wanderer, biscuits and Dangerous Game on Cunning. Then I use Explorer on Resolve. These are pretty much the ones you can really opt to NOT choose since the others are pretty much elementary to healing if that's what you want.

This build grants me 15% CDR at lv1 with Ancient Coin and 20% CDR with the upgraded version, making your first back get you to 20% CDR. I usually build the upgraded version and then I go straight to Forbidden Idol. This may variate quite a lot, sightstone is a very important buy but it depends from game to game and how comfortable you are with your decision making in case you get ganked or how well you predict if you will get ganked in a certain period of time or not.

Full build looks like this: Supp item, Mikael's Crucible, Ardent Censer, Redemption (optional), Warmog's, boots in no linear order across every game (it comes down to your own personal preference AND the enemy team comp/kill distribution, meaning you might opt for Tabi's if they have a fed Yi or Merc's if they have too much CC penetrating the front lines and reaching you. I never advise CDR boots or any other kind since Tabi's and Merc's have such great stats and passives).

When it comes to Redemption being optional, I say this because Redemption (out of the 3) is the least impactful item in my own gameplay style even though I build it 80% of my games but some games I rather go for a Visage or a Dead Man's Plate in its place for obvious reasons.

Warmog's is a must buy for it gives you the potential to heal indefinitely but remember you can't buy it before you build Redemption or any other health item for your base maximum health, at lv 18, caps out at 1855 and Warmog's only gives you 800 health, you need at least 2750 health to activate Warmog's passive. I used to have a rune page with 9 scaling health yellows instead of armor so I could ignore the need to get another health item, so I just bought Warmog's and I had the passive. But that sacrifices quite a lot from your early game armor stats and that rune page is very situational; it requires some test games if you want to make sure you win your Rankeds.

Now, my gameplay advice and rules:

Communication IS key. No matter what champ you play, what role you're on, it just is. When it comes to Soraka, there a few caveats such as letting your mid lane or your top lane know that you have your eye on them and your ult is up (just ping "on my way" or target the enemy champion and/or ping your ult). Same goes to your laning phase, so your teammate knows you're stronger now (mostly it comes down to letting him know your W cooldown is lower but you can just target the enemy laner(s) to let him know you want to fight).

Be wary of your W's cooldown early on and let your adc know (if you're not challenger) because, trust me, most of them have no idea and once they receive a heal they think "Nice, I can engage and she'll keep healing me every second of it". If you're over 90% health, your adc isn't full health and you know that he won't be able to recover that health through lifesteal, then ALWAYS heal him as a general rule and recover your own health with your Q. Exceptions do apply if you predict that the enemy will tunnel vision you in the next fight and that next fight is imminent OR your mana is too low to use other skills after you heal him and you could use your Q or E or R to prevent damage or secure a kill without any of your teammates dying instead of using W.

Don't waste your E to "poke" (it doesn't deal enough damage anyway), your E is your most powerful offensive/defensive skill especially when it's paired with your Q to guarantee a root and pretty much your only "engage", its cooldown is too high in early and even mid game to waste it. Your placement in fights should NEVER be 2 miles away from it, you are a support and thus meaning you excel at SUPPORTING your team but that doesn't mean you should tank damage unnecessarily; you should always predict your teammates movements as well as enemy's, making yourself a force to be reckoned with.

This goes without saying but always keep track of every single enemy champion in mid-late game (early game counts too but it's different), especially on champions who rely on skills and/or engage your team, because your E can start fights, close fights, save allies, shutdown enemies even if they're really fed, just be sure you have your priority straight because of its cooldown; one wrong move and you might of wasted it and let your teammate die/enemy get away.

Your Q is amazing for kiting as well as chasing down enemies, it is also a good way to keep enemy champions in check during fights by spamming it into them since it's an aoe slow and it's fairly easy to hit + it grants you Rejuvenation for yourself and your W heals.

Your ult is even more amazing since level 6 and you should ALWAYS take a look at other lanes (including your jungler) to predict if you might need to use it so, not only getting a cheeky assist, but many times denying the enemy team a kill and granting your team a bigger lead. Your ult can turn an ally top/mid lane's or jungler's death into a save and/or a kill, an assist and maybe a tower kill and/or Herald or it can also mean Baron, Drake, etc.

You may ask me: "How can Soraka be one of the very best support picks in 'ANY' game? Are you saying a squishy healer is better than a tank or a damage mage in any team comp or against any team comp?"

Yes and no. What I'm saying is: Soraka always has tremendous potential and she can be pretty safe. I climbed from Silver 5 to Plat 5 last season, Soraka only and that's because my computer got fried. I got another computer about a month ago and got placed Gold 3 couple weeks ago, haven't played past the placement matches because I'm very busy but when I do, I will update this post and link my profile.