If you’ve noticed, in the past few patches of League of Legends, Riot Games has heavily buffed two support champions, Sona and Soraka. The purpose of this is to give these champions a more stable position in the meta and make them viable picks for Worlds 2021. However, these changes by Riot have inadvertently brought back the super “annoying” playstyle of two healing supports teaming up in the bot lane.
So why has this playstyle made a comeback recently? The answer largely lies in Sona’s rework, which requires the champion to stack her passive for a long time to become powerful. To achieve this safely, the lane partner with Sona must be able to protect her. Clearly, most marksmen lack the ability to shield allies, so the best partner for Sona in the bot lane will be another healing support.
Furthermore, marksmen and supports are roles that rarely build healing reduction items early. The reason is that marksmen need to quickly complete their Mythic items to ensure their damage output, making it hard for them to buy items like Executioner’s Calling early in the game. Naturally, support champions also don’t have much gold to buy healing reduction items early as they need to invest in Control Wards. Therefore, the healing ability from champions like Sona and Soraka is rarely countered in the bot lane.
Additionally, with the current meta, the team composition will not suffer from a lack of damage even if you use two healing supports in the bot lane. In the top lane, champions like Camille, Fiora, Irelia, or Jax can perform well in dealing damage. Champions like Xin Zhao and Lee Sin also have no shortage of damage in the early and mid-game. Meanwhile, in the mid lane, there are too many champions that deal high damage.
When deciding to adopt the strategy of two healing supports in the bot lane, players need to determine that they will try to hold the lane and allow Sona to stack her passive quickly. Then, as they enter the teamfight phase, Sona will shine with her healing abilities, continuously buffing the team’s damage. For Sona’s partners, Soraka or Seraphine are the most promising picks. If you prioritize lane performance, the Sona – Soraka duo will be a great choice. Meanwhile, Sona – Seraphine provides strong teamfight potential with their wide-area crowd control ultimates.
Regarding the runes and itemization for the two healing supports playstyle in the bot lane, it’s not too different from the usual build. Sona, Soraka, or Seraphine will still use the Aery rune to poke the opponents while healing themselves and allies better. Items like Moonstone Renewer, Staff of Flowing Water, and Chemtech Purifier remain the most suitable for these champions.
