Hello, my name is RandomMoped. I'm a Silver league player (I'm not too big on ranked) but I play this game almost every single day. Well today, I'm here for a more serious champ/role, Soraka in the support role. She received massive changes in the 6.5 patch so I figured I'd update my guide.

Soraka can be played both offensively and defensively, but changes from season 6 have made a slightly tweaked offensive path far more viable than purely offensive/defensive, and as such the guide has been reduced to one general cheatsheet.

Pros

+ Great Early + Mid Game + Lots of AOE utility + Best Healer in the game + Easy to Play + Not many bad matchups

Soraka excels in the early - mid game do to the fact that she can not only outsustain most botlanes, but she also has feasable poke and CC to go along with it. She isn't picked or banned that often and can guarantee that your team will always stay healthy.

Cons

- Mana Hungry - Low Damage - Skillshot Reliant - Squishy - %Health costing heal

Soraka does have some notable weaknesses. Her percent health costing heal means you're punished for building health. She's squishy, meaning that she has a hard time dealing with all-ins if her E isn't up. She also has the lowest damage out of any support aside from Janna, but that's never stopped anyone from being top tier before :)

In the early game, your playstyle will depend on whether you pick Defensive Soraka or Agressive Soraka. While both defensive and aggressive Soraka have extremely similar full builds and do the exact same thing outside of the laning phase, they both have different playstyles in the laning phase and use different masteries and max orders. Keep in mind that both run the same runes and they both go for 21 points in the Utility tree, shown in the cheat sheet.

Offensive Soraka
My favorite way to play Soraka. As offensive Soraka, you're going to function as an agressive poke champion in lane in order to harvest your Spellthiefs Edge stacks. Because of this, you may want to max Starcall first, You won't be healing your ADC as often, but you'll still have really good sustain. If you fall behind with starcall max however, coming back will be hard. Aim for early all ins using exhaust/ignite and Equinox. You'll get more early poking power because of all of your offensive items. Remember that if you end up purchasing Mejai's Soulstealer that you can use Wish to gain cross maps assists :D Just remember that unless you itemize a lot of AP (which is generally a bad idea) after laning phase your poke won't hurt as much, but by that point you'll have more points in your Astral Infusion so that you can keep your heals. This playstyle is similar to that of a champion like Sona.

Defensive Soraka
If you're in a lane where you're in an unfavorable matchup or your ADC isn't that great/weak early game, you can opt for Defensive Soraka. As Defensive Soraka, your job is to keep you and your ADC sustained in lane as much as possible, which is especailly good against a lane that has better poke than you, like if you were fighting a Caitlyn. Because your Starcall won't be doing as much damage, you'll want to save using it until after you lose some health because your heal on Starcall scales off of the rank of Astral Infusion. You'll want to save your Equinox and your Exhaust for if the enemy all ins you, unless your jungler is coming and and you want to set up your own all in. You'll be able to stay in lane longer because the 9 points in the defensive tree will make you a bit beefier in order to survive the enemy. You'll also scale into the mid game quicker because you'll have Astral Infusion maxed sooner. This playstyle is similar to a champion like Janna.

Soraka after the Laning Phase
After the laning phase is over, your job is to provide utility to your team. This includes healing everyone, placing wards, and peeling when fights come around. Remember that in small skirmirshes you can initiate fights with your Talisman of ascension. Once teamfights come around, remember to save your Equinox in order to ruin anyones combo who dives into your team, unless you're chasing.

*coming soon!*

Vayne, the Night Hunter Synergy: 10/10 Ideal Playstyle: Preference Explanation: Vayne is a late game scaling marksman who loses a lot of trades in the early game. Thankfully, you can make sure that she comes out of those trades like nothing happened with your sustain. Keep her protected throughout the laning phase and she'll become a mid/late game monster. What makes her the best partner for Soraka is that if she lands her Condemn into a wall, you can CC combo it with Starcall and Equinox, allowing for an excellent CC combo and an almost guaranteed kill.

Jinx, The Loose Cannon Synergy: 9/10 Ideal Playstyle: Offensive Explanation: While Jinx doesn't scale as well into the late game as someone like Vayne, she makes up for this with her excellent early/mid game, while still having above average late game DPS. During the laning phase, you can both set up eachother's skillshots. Flame chompers work excellently for hitting Starcall and Equinox, which in turn allow her to land her Zap with ease

Ashe, the Frost Archer Synergy: 8/10 Ideal Playstyle: Offensive Explanation: Ashe may not have as much damage as some of her hypercarrying friends, but she still has average damage. There are 2 things that make her a good partner for Soraka. First off, Ashe has a ton of CC that can combo well with your relatively hard to hit skillshots. Second, and most importantly, Ashe has no escape. The peel that you provide her with makes up for this and turns her into a huge utiltiy DPS machine!

Kog'Maw, the Mouth of the Abyss Synergy: 8/10 Ideal Playstyle: Defensive Explanation: Kog'Maw is a great laning partner for Soraka in the same way Vayne is: He's an excellent late game teamfight monster, but has a weak early laning phase that can be solved be Soraka's ubsurd sustain. Unlike Vayne, Kog'Maw is completely immobile, which means that he'll benefit highly from your healing and peeling. He only gets an 8/10 however because you can't pull of the same cool CC combos that you can with Vayne or Jinx

*thank you Joxuu for the cool looking champion synergy pages

2015/06/06- Creation of Guide
2015/06/08- Added some matchups
2015/06/16- Added more snowball items
2015/06/18- Fixed an error in the champion matchups
2015/07/01- Changed the builds a bit, also holy **** 30k view what the hell thanks guys
2015/07/12- Added Spirit Visage, also another thanks, not only has this guide reached a whopping 50K views and is the #1 Soraka guide on Mobafire :D Thank you everyone!
2015/08/07- Added more matchups, and what the **** 100k views? I never thought i'd've reached this tbh. In celebration, i'll (try) and work on a dedicated item chapters soon!
2015/07/11- Changed the masteries in Defensive Soraka
2015/10/19- Added section for Zeke's and Ardent
2016/03/11- Decided to update this dinosaur following Soraka changes. Lots of changes!