I’m starting this column as a way to help newer players, and those who want to boost their ELO, learn to play against some of the more popular team comps and champions.

Today’s Pro Tip covers some strategy for playing against and beating Soraka. As it stands, Soraka is the best healer in game and often one of the first bans. She’s also the character many players turn to as the key to victory when she’s in a game. Soraka is beatable, though, and while she does bring nice heals to her team, she also doesn’t bring very much damage, which can give your team the upper hand in a team fight.

The most important part of beating Soraka is picking against her. You need to have characters with a good mix of CC and preferably an anti-healer like Katarina and Tristana or a silencer, like Cho’Gath, Malzahar, and Garen. Soraka is also a weak AOE healer – once she blows Wish, all of her teammates but one are left to their own devices. Combinations of Malphite, Amumu, Fiddlesticks, Annie, and Anivia bring a lot of pain to a team. You should also consider taking characters with dashes and jumps that can help you get past the front lines and on to the DPS or Soraka herself. If you don’t have a dash, consider taking Flash against Soraka so you can surprise her with a stun or heavy nukes. Durability is also an option since a Soraka team is short a damage dealer. They will have trouble bringing down more durable teams, but make sure you still have enough DPS to get through her heals.

While most people think Soraka is hard to lane against, she can’t do much more than heal. Soraka relies on her lanemate and creep waves to provide the damage to keep you at bay while she farms. If you can separate her from the creep wave by zoning, you have a very favorable situation. Pick toons with strong lane harass/durability and preferably some range to force her to constantly heal herself. Kat and Tristana are obviously strong against Soraka in lane, but toons like Corki, Ashe, Garen, and Mundo can also do well. Spend your lane time ducking in and out of brush to harass and last hit minions. DO NOT PUSH. Pushing Soraka to her tower means she gets to free farm and level those heals you hate so much. Focus on sending her to base at least once before she hits level five.

In teamfights you either have to burn her down or drop big AOE damage on the opposing team. If you can’t do either of those, wait for an opportunity in which you can. Soraka doesn’t bring much DPS to the table, so you should be able to head off into the woods and round up the buffs, hopefully baiting your enemies into the tighter confines of the forest. Jungle fights are best against Soraka because it forces her to be close to you. In case you need to focus her, make sure your dashing/blinking champions are with you. They can get to her and get the CC started while your team gets set to take down the rest of the enemy team.

Above all, stay focused. Soraka capitalizes on teams that overextend by dropping heals at the last instant to alter the course of a battle. Focus your targets, use anti-healing wisely, and you should be able to bring her down without much trouble.