Soraka – League of Stories

Season Three Was B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

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It’s been a long road, and technically Season Three isn’t over yet, but it may as well be for me. I achieved what I set out to do. I am omitting some of the games that I played in this Promotion Series because I don’t want to build up stress or tension for anyone else. Instead I’ll just focus on the good times and show you happy players in happy Platinum.

By this point everyone on both teams is in Platinum. Well, everyone except me.

Our mid laner decided to play as AP Janna. I checked his history and ranked stats and he had never played Janna in Season Three. That’s no big deal, it’s still a solid strategy against a Twisted Fate. If you just push TF into his turret he can’t roam around and get kills in other lanes. This Janna executed that perfectly. We ended up dominating in this game. Fiora became a wonderful target for my healing, and we won one team fight and the game was over.

In my last Promotion Series game I ended up picking Soraka again. The lanes I would have played were picked already and I respected the pick order. I grabbed Soraka. We had a Vladimir, a Garen, and a Jarvan IV, so someone suggested that HnGia play Ashe or Varus instead of Corki. I wanted Corki so bad! Corki and Soraka?? That’s a bot lane made in heaven! I give you endless mana, you spam your endless mana! All the damages! Oh well, endless mana is still cool on Ashe I guess.

Our bot lane was just about irrelevant. By the time we got out of laning phase Garen was sprinting the outer wall of the enemy team’s base, just slaughtering their entire team. I don’t think his chat was working, because when we moved on an objective or tried to organize a team fight he wouldn’t really cooperate. I’ve had worse team mates, because at least this guy was winning lane.

Then Vladimir got out of hand. The fine print on Vladimir’s E says that “Soraka’s heals become bananas.” I was healing that ugly vampire for ~500 health with each W. With that extra armor buff Ezreal, Riven, and Shyvana couldn’t touch him, especially through the amount he was spell vamping.

We had a solid team, and I’m pretty sure we crushed their Nexus with bananas before they could surrender.

I was pretty thrilled to see this!

Lucky Queue

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I was queuing with Obscene Tangerin and I ran into someone else from my friend’s list on our team. Obscene was blown away. He said that has never happened to him. I just let him know that it’s happened to me multiple times in the past. I told him that most of the people on my friend’s list are people who were around the same elo as I was so it makes sense for me to get matched up with them in games.

The person I ran into was scottnasty, who I used to queue with back in Season Two. However, I stopped queuing with him and I dropped to ~1550 and he went up to ~2100. Five of his top seven most-played champions in Season Two were supports, which is a great testament to his level of team play. Also, he was in queue with a sexy chick, or SexyChickqT, who he described as his brother. We got a Skype call going and had four of our five team members on Skype in a blind pick Normal! What an advantage! Now I’m sure we’re going to do well.

Obscene Tangerin decided to play Sivir, but I don’t remember why. I have nothing against Sivir, she was just the best counter for the lane we were going up against, so that was another spot of luck in our already lucky game. Jarvan and Leona in bot lane. It’s the dumbest parlor trick I’ve ever heard of. It’s a kill lane with two ridiculously tanky champs that can’t be harassed out of lane. Super frustrating! I could throw hundreds of bananas, zero effect. It was not a good time in bot lane.

However, we need to address the elephant in the room. Master Yi was the ONLY person on our team who wasn’t in our Skype call. So what did he build? Did he play a traditional AD Yi to wait for the end game and split-push potential? Nope. Did he go the slightly accepted method of AP Yi that dominates lane and can get some slick kills later in the game? Nope. Did he go on-hit Yi which has never been done by anyone ever? Yup. Did he also build a Void Staff? Uh huh. Let’s move through his items one at a time so that my brain has time to puke this out without exploding.

First item: Berserker’s Greaves. This is a VERY traditional item on AD Master Yi, at least until he gets his third Phantom Dancer and sells his boots.

Second item: Malady. This is a fairly standard item in on-hit builds because it lets the magic damage done by the items do more damage. It makes sense. For on-hit.

Third item: Madred’s Bloodrazers. Again, this item was very popular back in the day of on-hit Teemo builds. However, it’s very expensive and gets negated easily due to magic resist, unless someone buys a…

Fourth item: Void Staff. Yup, he did it. In the interest of having the highest amount of magic resist shred possible he built a Void Staff AND Malady. This guy is serious about his magic pen.

Fifth item: Bloodthirster. We made a build almost entirely based around magic damage and then he build a life steal and attack damage item. Brilliant. Why not?

The reason I had to break these items down was because of Yi’s insane number of kills. I don’t know if this guy is just a Master Yi master, or if he just wanted to try something so people would get mad at him, but the enemy team was chanting “YI MVP!” in all-chat when he managed a Quadra kill while fighting 1v4. His Alpha Strike did surprising damage with that much magic pen, and his autos definitely hurt. Meanwhile, his meditiate still gave him a 4.0 AP ratio (which is unrivaled in the League). He was a glass cannon of on-hit, magical, and physical damage. You couldn’t build magic resist to counter him and armor would do very little for you. Our random fifth actually turned out to be one of the luckiest picks for our team!

As a side note, that Lee Sin saved us in bot lane. Once he showed up and shut down Jarvan and Leona to put him on a rampage we were able to stabilize in the lane, force Leona or Jarvan to blow ult and then turn and fight and win. Good times in the solo queue!

Season Two Was B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

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But literally, I threw SO many bananas in Season Two. Does the number 251,535 mean anything to you? No? Well that’s the total physical damage dealt as Soraka in Season Two. That means that I threw roughly 3,350 bananas in Season Two! Let’s take a quick look at what happens when that many bananas get thrown!

This is just an overview of my season with Soraka. Sure, I didn’t have the most glorious K/D, but Soraka was my most-played champion in Season Two, and with a whopping 70.2% win percentage that’s nothing to shake a banana at. I felt like my death’s were relatively low considering Soraka’s extreme lack of mobility. The only thing she has going for her are those goat legs, but those got changed mid season!

I wouldn’t do a post about Soraka without at least giving you a lovely Ranked game to look at while we discuss her!

I can’t remember the last time that I had a gank come this early in a game. Amumu wanted a smiteless blue, so Kog and I stayed behind to help DPS it down. We got to the lane when there were only three minions left from the first wave. Kog went running over to them. We were expecting to see a lovely Sivir and support Orianna lane, but all of a sudden a Jax and Shyvana come screaming out of the bushes at us. Kog gets ignited, but I throw my heal down on him anyway. I’d rather have him sitting on bonus armor near full health than to wait for the ignite to wear off. I’m glad I did. Kog escaped with less than 100 HP, but Shyvana was the brave soul who decided to tank the turret. If you know anything about dragons (How To Train Your Dragon) you will know that “a downed dragon is a dead dragon.” Knowing that Shyvana didn’t have Flash I threw my Exhaust down on her. I started auto-attacking Jax so that Kog could finish off the Shyvana which he cleverly did. Jax escaped with just a few banana lashings, but now Kog had red buff. Koggie-poos of the world, if you have a level one red buff and unlimited sustain from a Soraka and full vision of the whole lane, please please please attack the enemy. If nothing more get the red buff tick on them. Don’t worry about using mana to harass people out of lane. What should have been a steam-roll (red buff team vs support-less sustain-less team) ended up being an even trade as Sivir was able to farm aptly in bot lane. She should have been drinking pots until she was out of money! Instead I was forced to try to step forward and harass Sivir and Jax without boots. I would get a banana in the air and silence on either Sivir or Jax and eat so much retaliation that I would expect Kog to at least right-click on them. Sadly, his vision was somehow extremely limited to only seeing creeps.

We survived the laning phase and got right into team-fighting. I don’t really have a role in team fights, so luckily I got a phone call to miss that whole part of the game. I was probably only on the phone for three minutes, but it was really fun to watch as I tried to click my abilities. I take full responsibility for one of Irelia’s deaths. I was standing right there, had heal off cooldown, just couldn’t click from my heal to her fast enough while on the phone! I probably ruined his Season Two stats!

Once each person on the other team had gotten a kill I was casually strolling past Baron and I said “gg” and the other team said “gg” and then the surrender vote passed. It also just happened to be exactly at the 20 minute mark.

Fun Fact: Five different boot options were sported by the other team! Talk about wide representation of the shoe shop! Gee gee Season Two. You will be missed.

Goats and Trolls

Box of Chocolates OF DOOM!

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I knew this day would come. Blind Pick is like a box of chocolates. This box of chocolates had multiple threats that I was afraid of facing. Nocturne hurts Teemo because Teemo lacks a method of getting outside of his tether range. Vlad can really hurt a Teemo because his sustain is something Teemo is jealous of but can’t have. Darius is the largest threat because Teemo must get into attack range in order to lane against a Darius and if Darius pulls once Teemo dies. I actually started joking with my team and said “$5 says I’m first blood.”

I actually managed to get first blood on Darius as he tried to last hit the wave that I had pushed. Right after that I backed off, afraid of where Nocturne would be. However, my jungler pointed out that he was being counter-jungled at the moment; Nocturne was at our Elder Lizard buff. I bunny-hopped down there to see the little minions resetting. Our poor Rammus was right, Nocturne was taking the jungle, no regrets. However, I found a 200 HP Nocturne taking our Wraiths. Goody! Free red buff for Teemo!

At this point Darius gives up. He sees me with first blood (and second blood) and a red buff. However, it’s shortly after this that I make my first mistake. I push Darius out of lane with red buff. He’s forced to take harass and try to last hit with his Q. I freeze the lane and take a lot of CS that Darius can’t reach. I go back, buy wards and health pots and come back to lane. I ward the river, and leave a couple Easter Eggs down there as well, and walk back to lane. Before I can step out of river bush Darius goes balls to the wall on me. I’m confused because I’m so far ahead that he’s not a threat. Then Nocturne is standing next to me. Level 5 Nocturne. How did Nocturne get next to me, you ask? I have no idea. It’s my mistake, somehow pre-ult Nocturne had managed to stealth into my lane and catch me at the mouth of river. I was standing in the bush so I knew he wasn’t in there. I had a ward at the opening to blue and 10,000 mushrooms in the bush behind. Yet, I knew I was dead.

I have my long walk of shame back to the lane. Now Darius is really going to pay. I abuse Darius so hard that he rages in all-chat and then swaps for mid. I actually suggest the change so they won’t surrender right away. Vlad comes top. I go to auto attack into a Q and another auto attack, but Vlad just pools after my first auto, so he loses 20% of almost his full health pool to his escape spell. As soon as he shows himself again I commit. I know his W is down, I get my ignite on early to stop his initial lifesteal from his Q. I flash to secure the kill and stay with him. He disappears off the screen trying desperately to heal off something, but nothing can save him now. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait fooooooooor iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Killing spree.

I push lane, take turret and steal blue. Now I have complete control. With blue buff I can abuse their jungle and put shrooms all over the place! Now the fun starts!

I literally had a 1v4 fight that I managed to prolong with mushrooms. First it was Nocturne and Soraka. Soraka baited me out and then Nocturne ulted with her vision. I was surrounded by shrooms, so Nocturne was already hurting by the time he got to me. I dropped Soraka and saw that I had enough damage to kill Nocturne once the fear wore off. That means that I have double buffs! I start working my way back up my lane because I’m down to just a few hundred HP. Vlad shows up. He wards the tri-bush that’s up and to the left of blue-side’s blue buff. I’m not in it, but a present is waiting for him in there. He steps on it, bringing him critically low. I don’t know if he has pool, but I wait for him to use it before I take a step in to secure the kill. Then Darius, desperate to exact his revenge, he comes crawling through a minefield of shrooms, losing all of his HP before reaching me. However, I’m equally low after battling the rest of his team. I run up the lane, taking time to put a ward at the mouth of river and right between the two bushes of top lane. Darius just wants to get me in range. If he can land his pull he can press R and kill me. He knows it. I know it. I’m dancing just outside of his reach, so I throw him a bone. I step in towards Darius, dancing on the furthest range of his pull. He tries for it. No dice. I auto attack with poison and red buff and Q him and start to recall. He’s slowed by my buff, I’m outside of his range, and his pull is on cooldown. Sion appears out of the river and finishes off Darius as I finish my recall. Sometimes I just like to rub it in.

After my last purchase I was able to pick off Soraka in top jungle again (I have no idea what she was doing there) and then I heard the lovely sound of “Legendary!” being screamed by the announcer lady. I almost got away, just died to a Nocturne ultimate. I think he finally timed his spell shield to block my blind instead of my DFG. Once they killed me, they promptly surrendered. I received no “Honorable Opponent” credits from the other team that game, but thoroughly enjoyed myself against champions that I thought would give me a lot of trouble.