Full transcript
0:00Soraka's E silence is one of the
0:02strongest support abilities in the
0:04entire game. If you use it properly, it
0:08makes you a genuine one V nine machine.
0:10Well, maybe more like a two V eight
0:12machine since you're playing support and
0:15your team will always find a way in
0:18regardless. But still, grab a drink, get
0:21comfortable, and by the end of this
0:23video, I promise that
0:25you will become the most annoying Soraka
0:29on the rift. So, why is Soraka E worth
0:31an entire video? On paper, it looks
0:34terrible. Low damage, long cool down,
0:37and it only snares enemies if they are
0:39unlucky enough to stand in it for more
0:41than a second. But, yes.
0:45The E silence.
0:47That is the part most players completely
0:50ignore. Once you understand everything
0:53your E breaks, you will never look at
0:55this ability the same way again. Let us
0:59start with the basics. How to actually
1:01get value out of E beyond just throwing
1:04it at the enemy and hoping that it will
1:06work. First, E is a good poke tool. It
1:09is very hard to miss and almost
1:12impossible for enemies [music] to dodge.
1:14It has also decent range. That's why
1:17it's great for taking down spell shields
1:19and canceling recalls. The catch is that
1:22your E is expensive. If you want to spam
1:25it for poke, you have to take mana flow
1:27band. Otherwise, you will run out of
1:30mana halfway through the laning phase.
1:33Also, take Aery and Scorch. Your E base
1:36damage is so low that these two nearly
1:39double it. Without Aery and Scorch,
1:41you're basically tickling your enemy.
1:44Second, E is one of the best disengage
1:47tools in the game and most players use
1:50it wrong. When someone is chasing you,
1:53do not throw the silence directly under
1:56the enemy. They just walk out
1:57immediately and nothing happens.
2:00Instead, place it in front of them. Now,
2:03they have a choice. Walk forward and get
2:05snared or walk all the way around and
2:08lose the chase entirely. Either way,
2:11it's a win-win situation and you create
2:14a lot of space. Third, whenever an enemy
2:18jumps directly onto you, the theory
2:20Nocturne, Briar, basically anything with
2:24a jump on top of your button, place the
2:27silence under yourself as they arrive.
2:30They land, they cannot cast anything,
2:32and they get snared trying to reach you.
2:35Very funny for you, very not funny for
2:38them. Now, what makes your E even
2:41stronger is combining it with your Q. If
2:44you land your Q first, the enemy gets
2:47slowed, which means they have a much
2:48harder time walking out of your E before
2:51it snares them. But you can also do it
2:53the other way around. Cast your E first
2:56and then throw your Q. The enemy now has
2:59to choose between standing still and
3:01getting snared by your E or moving and
3:03walking straight into your Q. Either
3:06choice gets them hit by something. By
3:08the way, if you want to go deeper into
3:10landing Q specifically, I have a
3:13separate guide on my channel for that.
3:15Lastly, land your E on top of the enemy
3:18whenever your ally stuns or snares them.
3:22It makes a guaranteed kill rather than
3:25an almost guaranteed one. Now, the good
3:28stuff. The silence is what makes Soraka
3:31genuinely terrifying to play against and
3:34most players barely scratch the surface
3:37of what it can do. Against engage
3:39supports, your E is basically a
3:41nightmare. Thresh walking up to grab you
3:44or your ADC? Throw E in front of him and
3:47watch him back off. He already grabbed
3:49your ADC? E him immediately so he cannot
3:53recast his hook. Leona jumps with her E?
3:56E her before she casts her Q and
3:58suddenly her whole engage just stops.
4:01Tahm Kench jumping at you? Use E so the
4:04jump never happens. Wouldn't you just
4:06smash your keyboard if you were this
4:09Tahm Kench? This is one of the reasons
4:11why Soraka is such a strong blind pick.
4:14You have an answer to almost every hook
4:17and engage support just built into your
4:20kit. But it gets even better. Your
4:22silence stops almost every channeling
4:25ability in the game. Katarina R,
4:28Fiddlesticks R, Nunu Q and R, Samira R,
4:31Jhin R, Vel'Koz R, Viego Q, Sion Q,
4:34Xerath Q and R. You know what? The list
4:37is too long. I will just say this. If an
4:40ability takes more than 1 second to
4:42cast, your E probably cancels it. Learn
4:45which champions on the enemy team have
4:47these abilities before the game starts
4:49and hold your E specifically for them.
4:53And beyond channelings, your silence
4:55interrupts combos, too. Riven dashes in
4:58and you silence her, she cannot chain
5:00the rest of her rotation. Zed jumps on
5:02you with his R? Throw E under yourself
5:05and he cannot follow up with his full
5:08combo. Naafiri lands on you? Same thing.
5:10They committed the hard part of their
5:12engage and your silence just deletes the
5:16rest of it. Incredibly annoying for
5:18them, incredibly funny for you. Finally,
5:21in team fights, whenever you see
5:23multiple enemies grouped together, just
5:26throw your E into the pile. Even if
5:29nobody gets snared, everyone inside your
5:31silence cannot cast anything for the
5:34duration. Silencing three or four
5:37enemies at once in a team fight is one
5:39of the most impactful things any support
5:42can do. And it comes completely free on
5:45your kit. Now that you know what the
5:47silence actually does, let me show you a
5:50few lobby examples so you know exactly
5:53who you are saving it for before the
5:55game even loads. In this one, we are
5:57facing Pyke, so we want to pick E first
6:00and hold it for almost all of his Qs.
6:03You are genuinely one of the worst
6:06matchups he can face because your E
6:08cancels his Q channeling entirely. Other
6:11enchanters have to just survive this
6:13matchup. You get to ruin his entire
6:16laning phase from minute one. In the
6:18next one, we want to keep it for enemy
6:21Tahm Kench jumps. So, we do have time to
6:23react and make his game a nightmare.
6:27Other ability that we can hold it for is
6:29Vel'Koz R. You do have to be aware,
6:32though, that in some cases, you will not
6:34be in range to cancel his R. Lastly, in
6:37this one, whenever enemy Aatrox flies
6:40onto your team with his Q, we can stop
6:43both his flying and reduce his damage
6:46output massively. Other than that, it's
6:49good to hold it for Zyra and Yone.
6:51Whenever they want to engage on our team
6:54with their ultimates. When it comes to
6:56Yone, just put E under him after he uses
6:58his R or E so that he can't press Q or
7:02return to his spirit. Also, if you are
7:04wondering, our silence doesn't stop
7:06Smolder's flying. Basically, the
7:09question you should ask yourself before
7:11every single game in champ select or in
7:13the loading screen, which champion or
7:16abilities on their team will I need to
7:18hold my silence for? In this clip, you
7:21can see me not holding my E for the
7:24enemy Malzahar ultimate. And because of
7:26it, my overfed Aphelios almost died. Not
7:31holding your silence for the right
7:32champion can sometimes cost you team
7:35fights and entire games. A few last
7:38things before we wrap up. I know that I
7:40might sound crazy, but you can put two
7:43points into E, but only if you're
7:47absolutely certain it denies the enemy
7:50ADC a huge amount of farm or secure a
7:53kill while they are low under tower. Do
7:56not make this a habit. It is a one or
7:59two games per hundred kind of decision.
8:01In this clip, by putting two points into
8:04E, I forced the enemy Jhin to recall and
8:06lose a lot of CS, and we also got a kill
8:09on the enemy support, which is huge.
8:12Lastly, if your ADC is level two with
8:15more than half of his health and the
8:17lane state allows aggression, putting
8:19the second point into E instead of W
8:22gives you real kill threat that most
8:24people do not expect from Soraka. Also,
8:28always put the second point into E
8:30against Tahm Kench support as he usually
8:32puts his second point into his jump,
8:35which your E cancels. Now that you know
8:38all of the things about when to cast
8:40your silence and when to hold it, I hope
8:43that you will become the biggest threat
8:45on the Summoner's Rift.
8:48Subscribe for more high-level support
8:50tips and check out my stream.
8:53I'll see you in the next one.