Soraka does not like Akali. A good Akali always seems to make it her business to mount Soraka heads on her wall. She comes after me with a single-mindedness that borders on OCD. And it only takes her a flick of her eyelid to put me in a shallow grave and then move on to the rest of the team.
Similar champs with gap closers: Irelia, Master Yi, Nidalee, Pantheon, Xin Zhao, Jax, Lee Sin, Poppy, Kassadin (Fiddlesticks and Nocturne with their ults). But for some reason, Akali is the one who most wants to come around the back of my team to snatch me up first. The others are often real carries and end up doing their fighting up front with the other people on my team besides me.
Soraka does not like Veigar. The tiny master of evil has it in for all AP champs, and Soraka is easily murdered by his combo in an instant. If he ever gets in range, it's curtains for Soraka. Even if he catches someone else, it's usually too much burst for any heals to save a teammate, which really makes Soraka a useless member of the team.
Similar champs who burst too fast: Master Yi, Annie, Cho'Gath, Fiddlesticks, Kassadin, Katarina, LeBlanc (sometimes), Ryze, Tryndamere.
Soraka does not like Warwick. Does anyone? The amount of time that you're suppressed is always enough for Warwick's friends to end your life, and there's literally nothing you can do about it.
Similar champs who disable for too long: Malzahar, Fiddlesticks, Blitzcrank, Veigar.
The champions Soraka does have an advantage over:
- Soraka is good against Karthus. His global ult is generally defeated by my global ult - I've played entire games where Karthus ult killed precisely no one on my team.
- Soraka is good against Nunu and Katarina, who channel their ults from the middle of the enemy team. They are easy to silence with a single click and then they're vulnerable to the vengeance of my teammates. Miss Fortune is always a bit farther away, and Fiddlesticks channels before Crowstorm, where you can't see him, so they are not nearly as easy to silence.
- Soraka is good against poke champions like Gragas and Caitlyn. With enough AP, Soraka fixes poke damage instantly. If the enemy team can't burst multiple people to death in under 5 seconds, you can bet that no one is going to die this game.
- Soraka is good against melee champions like Garen and Amumu. When they wade in, silence stops them from executing their combos and limits them to just auto attack for a moment. Ranged champions are harder to reach with silence.
I hope you've learned something about Soraka today. Yes, there are times when Soraka is absolutely abysmal, and you can usually tell what kind of game it's going to be from the get-go based on champion select. Blind pick can be a little tough on Soraka, but now you know when to pick her in ranked.
