About Soraka:
Soraka, since her rework, is designed around one thing and one thing alone: keeping the team alive. Soraka is not designed for damage or kills. Soraka is designed for healing, for clutch escapes, and for utility. Soraka is not very effective on her own, and would not do well in a solo lane. As such, this build will be focusing on maximizing her utility as a mobile healing station.

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Pros and Cons:
Pros:
+Highly mobile towards low-health allies
+Global heal for clutch saves
+Very utility-oriented and appreciated by your team
+Non-carry attitude allows you to focus on performing various other activities to assist the team, such as providing and denying vision
+Can become tanky very easily
Cons:
-Low damage and attack speed, not very powerful
-Damaging abilities are skillshots and easy to escape
-Loses health quickly when performing massive heals, may require many pots or recalls.
-Squishy early game, hard to provide constant assistance.

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About the Author:
Flashie has been playing League since August 2013, but isn't super active. He has only recently reached level 30 and is currently unranked. Flashie started as an ADC main, but then moved to top and finally support. He has mained: Tristana, Janna, Heimerdinger, Soraka, Sona, and Teemo. He doesn't claim to know everything, but plays a mean Soraka.

Runes:I don't want you to think my rune suggestions are word-of-god by any means. The runes I have suggested above are really just what I personally prefer, but you should play around with whatever you like. Scaling or non-scaling is also entirely up to you, if you prefer late or early game. Soraka is rather squishy early game, so having more tanky stats then would be helpful.
Personally I suggest:
Do:
+Ability Power (all of your abilities scale)
+Magic Resist (always useful)
+Armor (always useful)
+Health (you will need a lot if you keep healing, and it will increase your regen and progress towards Warmog's)
+Movement Speed (synchronizes well with your passive)
+Revival (always useful)
+Gold (because you are a support)
+Experience (because you are a support)
Meh:
~Mana Regen (it will help your early game some)
~Health Regen (not as helpful once you get Warmog's going, but helps early game))
Don't:
-Cooldown Reduction (with your items, you should hit 40% every time)
-Any physical attack based runes (this is not an ADRaka guide)
-Spell Vamp (not doing enough damage to validate)
-Penetration (not doing enough damage to validate)

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Masteries:will help you. Gold, trinkets, biscuits, experience, movement speed, mana. Runic Affinity and Vampirism are of next to no use to you. Enhanced recall has some viability but overall isn't typically worth it. use the extra two points in defense to help keep you from dying.

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Summoner Spells:
Flash and Exhaust is basically the current meta. Exhaust is super useful for escapes or engages and helping your ADC secure he kill. Flash is useful for chases and escapes and is almost universally recommended. Your W makes Heal pretty useless (especially if your ADC takes Heal).
Keybindings/order matter not to me.

Starting Items:
Ancient Coin, a Stealth Ward, two Health Potions, and a Stealth Ward should be your first set of items in almost every situation. It gives you a fair mixture of early river vision/gank protection and health/mana recovery. Assuming you took Wealth in your masteries, you should have 5 gold left over after this buy.

• Ancient Coin: The gold. Dear Jarvan, III the gold. This is so useful to you as a champion who will, for the first 10 minutes of the game, do next to no damage. Even if your ADC can't last-hit, you get the gold. Even if you don't land a single Starcall, you get the gold. Combined with your masteries, you should be raking in a bunch of good gold for doing very little. The mana regen helps too, and the final build will benefit from a Talisman.
• Stealth Ward: Use this around 3 minutes in or so to ward river bush, just to protect from ganks until you can buy a Sightstone.
• Health Potion: With Culinary Master , you have biscuits that heal instantly for extra health and mana. It's very useful to downplay enemy harass and especially useful early game to regain after using Astral Infusion on your ADC.
• Stealth Ward: Use this to ward the lower bushes and keep vision on your enemy laners.

Alternatives that may work in other situations:
Ancient Coin, two Stealth Wards, and a Stealth Ward - if you want to maintain vision of the river for the whole time before you get a Sightstone, or if you want to ward two bushes.
Ancient Coin, four Health Potions, and a Stealth Ward - if you and your ADC aren't worried about vision before the Sightstone and want to focus on staying alive.

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The Crucial First Back:
Before anything else, acquire a Nomad's Medallion, Sightstone, and trade out your Stealth Ward for a Sweeping Lens.

• Nomad's Medallion: Health regen, more mana regen, movement speed, and a lot more gold. You want this one pretty quickly. It's vital to your success in-lane.
• Sightstone: This is arguably your most important item. Ward your tri-bush. Ward your river bush. Ward the lower bushes. Ward everything. This will save you a bunch of money by not having to buy wards individually and gives you more health to let you heal more and keep increasing your health regen.
• Sweeping Lens: Your Stealth Ward is basially useless now that you have a Sightstone, so chuck it. Use your new Sweeping Lens to deny the enemy team vision as much as you can.

Your buying order is up to you. I try not to back before I have 1,300 gold if I can help it, that way I can get it all at once. If I can stay in lane that long and get that far ahead, I'm feeling good about it. Go with your gut as to buying Nomad's Medallion or Sightstone first. I prefer to prioritize Sightstone myself, but Nomad's Medallion can be super beneficial if vision isn't as big a deal for you at the time.

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Absolute Musts:
Only four items are really "required" for your usage as a support: talisman of ascension, Ardent Censer, Ruby Sightstone, and Oracle's Lens.

• talisman of ascension: Talisman gives a good boost to your regen, movement speed, CDR, and gives you an amazing active that can either send you and your allies flying into battle or out of a team-fight-gone-wrong. It isn't as useful as other items, so you an build it later - but you do want to make this a key part of your build.
• Ardent Censer: Censer is your powerhouse as the team ambulance. It gives you more movement speed, your first big AP boost to help your healing, and a good amount of regen. Its greatest benefit, however, is the unique passive - attack speed and on-hit magic damage buff for anyone you heal or shield. Feel free to toss around heals to boost your ADC at key moments.
• Ruby Sightstone: The ruby upgrade is, frankly, no more beneficial to you for 99% of the game than a regular Sightstone. It gives you only one more ward and some health. It is, without a doubt, beneficial to you as a support. But it is terribly gold inefficient. This should be your last upgrade
• Oracle's Lens: The reduced cooldown and ability to walk around and see more traps outside the original range is well worth the 250 gold at level 9.

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The Final Three:
The final three slots each need to serve one of three purposes: increasing your AP, increasing your tanky attributes, or increasing your movement speed. Outside of that, unique attributes that make you more tenacious/give you team interactions/etc are icing on the cake. With that in mind, let's look at your options:

• Magic Resist: My primary recommendation is Banner of Command. It gives you good AP and the Aegis of the Legion aura, which is super super useful for keeping teammates alive. The Promote active is also very useful. Other options include Athene's Unholy Grail for mana regen and AP, Mikael's Blessing for mana regen and tenacity, Locket of the Iron Solari for health and shielding, Abyssal Mask for shredding enemy MR and building your own AP, and Moonflair Spellblade for armor/MR/AP/tenacity.
• Armor: My primary recommendation is Zeke's Harbinger. Its mix of armor/AP/mana is beneficial, and the unique passive binding to your ADC is very useful also. Zhonya's Hourglass is a good direction to take if you want a bit more AP and that precious passive, but I have found I use it less on Soraka. Thornmail is the perfect anti-ADC item. And, of course, Moonflair Spellblade is a good replacement here too.
• Health: Warmog's Armor is almost necessary. The massive regeneration boost - and I mean massive - is super useful and you will almost certainly hit it. With as much healing as you do, being able to regenerate it and all that extra health will help you more than you know. Turbo Chemtank and Guardian's Horn give other good boosts to health and regen and can help you charge in. Rod of Ages gives you more mana and health and AP the longer you go - so it may not help to get too late.
• Ability Power: I've mentioned Athene's Unholy Grail, Abyssal Mask, [zhonya's hourglass]], Moonflair Spellblade, and Rod of Ages. However, Twin Shadows and Luden's Tempest also help. Go for Twin Shadows only for the active ability. Go for Luden's Tempest for the movement speed boost.
• Movement Speed: Like I said, Guardian's Horn, Turbo Chemtank, and Luden's Tempest can all help you here. However, if you want to go boots, these are really your options: Mobility Boots, Boots of Swiftness, Ninja Tabi, and Mercury's Treads can all be helpful. Mobi's may be best overall for purposes of ambulancing. Tabi's or Merc's may help if you are having tank issues. Use Enchantment: Alacrity, Enchantment: Captain or Enchantment: Homeguard depending on the situation.

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Suggested Final Build:

• talisman of ascension
• Ardent Censer
• Ruby Sightstone
• Banner of Command
• Zeke's Harbinger
• Warmog's Armor
• Oracle's Lens

In purchase order:

• Ancient Coin
• Sightstone
• Sweeping Lens
• Nomad's Medallion
• Ardent Censer
• Zeke's Harbinger
• Oracle's Lens
• Banner of Command
• Warmog's Armor
• talisman of ascension
• Ruby Sightstone

Passive - Salvation:
Salvation is what lets you become an ambulance - you are the Salvation of your teammates! You run super fast when you get close to a teammate who is below 40% health. It comes with a friendly indicator to who all is low, and really empowers you to get to where you need to be to help your teammates.

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Q - Starcall:
Starcall is the brunt of your force. It is your self-healing ability (assuming you have a point in Astral Infusion). It is a delayed area-of-effect spell that can be easily seen an avoided, so try to place it where your enemies are going - not where they are. Use it to poke, harass, and keep yourself alive. You may steal kills with it if they are low. Don't be afraid to throw it around - its mana cost is enough to be cautious early on, but it's worth the risk if you can get the reward.

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W - Astral Infusion:
This spell is why you exist. It costs 10% of your health (and some mana), but lets you do lots of healing on your allies. Use it early game to help your ADC sustain. Use it late gain to help your team in fights, especially over Baron Nashor or the Dragon . I have used it to help an Aatrox battery/tank a nexus tower. It's super useful, but beware that it will drain you. You can't use it if you are below 5% health and it can't kill you itself, but, if you get that low, you are ripe for killing. If I plan on backing, I go ahead and throw it around as much as possible before heading out - but that can be dangerous if you don't have vision and know that you are safe.

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E - Equinox:
Equinox places, without a delay, a circle that silences everyone who enters it. Use it to stop your enemy ADC/Support from being able to accurately engage, escape, or fight back. If they stay in it when it closes, they become rooted temporarily. You will likely use this mainly to zone the enemy team and to prevent/delay them from pulling off a good hit. Or to stop that Katarina/ Miss Fortune ult. Its timing gets better the more points it has, but it isn't nearly as useful as Starcall or Astral Infusion, so leave it be.

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R - Wish:
Wish is your clutch play move. Halfway across the map while your team wants to go for Baron Nashor ? Use Wish as they are getting low to make sure they can finish him off and don't get picked off immediately afterward. You get a free Baron Nashor assist this way too. Middle of a team fight? Wish. Top lane and jungler are getting bruised pretty badly? wish. You are super low and can't land a Starcall but your ADC needs that heal now too? [wish.
Save Wish for when it's important - but if you honestly think to yourself "I may need to use Wish here," do it. You have a two-minute cooldown, so make it count - but it can only help you. Unless 4/5 of the team has full health. Then it's basically wasted.

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Ability Order and Reasoning:Focus on healing - so you're going to put everything into Astral Infusion as much as you can. Starcall can heal you and does most of your damage, so max that next. Equinox is mainly for zoning and not damage, so you can let it sit. Of course, always max your Wish whenever you can.

Your Duties:
As the ambulance, your job is four-fold:
1. Don't feed the enemy ADC
2. Keep your ADC alive. Peel and heal baby.
3. Ward and deny enemy vision
4. Don't take the minions/CS.
Every item you build and the abilities you use from there reinforce your power to do these things.

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Talk It Out:
Ping and use chat to regularly make sure you and your ADC are on the same page, assuming your aren't in a voice chat together. Communicate when you plan on warding certain bushes or when you see the enemy jungler or when the enemy laners are missing. Ensure that your Exhausts are on point and useful for your ADC to go in or get out. Follow their lead - you don't initiate the dives as Soraka. You hold back and make sure you can keep your ADC alive without dying yourself.

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How to React:
Be patient and be kind. Heal when they get low - don't spam heals or waste them. Throw out Starcalls when you think you can hit them - throw them in front of the enemy laners as they run away or dive in. Try to predict where they will be. Use Equinox to deny your enemies a prime attack or escape. Follow your ADC wherever they ask you to. If you disagree, tell them but go anyway and try to get them out of there when it goes South. Tank if you have to. Die for them if you have to. If your ADC is dead, take the minion wave but stay back towards the tower. Alternatively, roam a little and help out mid-lane, if you have the time. But make sure you talk to your ADC about it. Whatever you do, be confident in it.

Explaining The Above "Vs. Champions" Section:
These aren't exactly accurately labeled in terms of difficulty. I didn't include anyone except for supports and ADCs, and I didn't list anyone who Soraka does well against.
Honestly, Soraka does well against most people because she doesn't directly fight most people. Most of your interaction is with your team, not theirs. So I listed some champions who can shut her down with hard stuns, pulls, and spell shields. In the section below, I am including a list of ADCs who work especially well with Soraka. Soraka works with basically everyone, but she especially synchronizes, in my experience, with these champions.

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ADCs Soraka Synchronizes Very Well With:

• Jinx
• Tristana
• Sivir
• Miss Fortune
• Kog'Maw

How To Stay Useful After You Take First Tower:
Soraka is super useful at taking epic monsters, and roaming to take Dragon after first tower is often useful and fully viable. It is also fully viable to help push mid or top if you can. Soraka is perfectly fine to follow the ADC and just make sure the two of your don't die as they go wherever they want. Most of your utility is in helping the ADC early game, but you can follow around whoever you want as long as you don't go off on your own. Personally, I spend most of my time following the ADC unless the team specifically splits in different ways.

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Team-fighting Tips:
Stay in the back and throw in an Equinox and Starcall on the largest group of them you can. Heal up whoever you need to whenever they are getting low, or ask for a Wish to heal them all. Do not get involved in the middle of the fight. Use Exhaust on heavy damage dealers. Use talisman of ascension's active to escape when it goes badly.