Neeko vs Soraka Counter Pick

Sustain beats poke in this pairing, and the numbers say so plainly: Neeko records 43.2% from 417 games on patch 16.13.1. Both champions sit at 550 attack range, share a magic-only damage profile and a mana bar, and Soraka is the slower of the two at 325 move speed against 340 — none of which matters once Astral Infusion converts her own health into an ally’s and Starcall returns health every time it clips a champion. Chip damage from Blooming Burst is repaid before it accumulates into a kill threshold.

The second problem is Equinox, a zone that silences everything inside it and roots whoever remains when it expires. Neeko’s whole pattern — the disguise from Inherent Glamour, the clone from Shapesplitter, the delayed leap of Pop Blossom — depends on casting freely, and a silence dropped over the preparation window cancels the payoff. Soraka is squishier in absolute terms, 605 health rising to only 2,101, but her armor is better, 32 at level one against 21 and 117 at eighteen against 109.4, so burst has to arrive in one window rather than in stages. A difficulty rating of 3 against 5 means the defending side also has less to execute. Forcing Wish before a fight starts is the one lever Neeko has, since Soraka without it heals one target at a time.