This build is for you, soraka players, who want more than just hop around placing wards and heal your allies (although that is a pretty good thing to do).

First of all, i will explain the basic purpose of jungling and what the jungler should try to accomplish.

Next, i will show how a jungling soraka can fit into that role and what exacly she should do to fit well.

And the last part is about items, skills, the boring stuff that you just look at and try it out. Of course there will be explanations with each chapter, but who reads those walls of text anyway, right?

What's a jungler?
Contrary popular belief, jungler is not here to ravage the forest and butcher all creeps he can find in there. Yes, he has to kill forest creeps, but his goal is different - helping his allies.

How do junglers help?
Most junglers help their allies by ganking. They make sure that their enemies cannot push without getting scared of a gank, they make sure that overextended enemies get punished. That way, the laners can live in relative peace and perhabs gain an advantage if the gank is succesfull.

Ideal example
If you are for instance a shaco and you manage to gank the enemy top champion 3 times and kill him twice, your top player will be able to completely dominate the lane unless the enemy gets some serious help. By using your time wisely and ganking 3 times, you helped to win one of three lanes for the rest of the game.

What is the jungler really for here
Of course this is the ideal scenario - the enemy team has a jungler as well and he will be likely to gank other lanes or try to help his top buddy after your first gank. But the point is clear - as a jungler, you are here to give advantage to your lanes. And to do that properly, you have to farm your jungle to get levels and items.

But healer has no ganks!
But soraka has no ganks, she sucks in the forest! Now imagine shivanna, her ganks are also pretty bad, yet people play her - and it's good. Why? Because she counter-jungles a lot, she makes sure that the enemy jungler cannot get levels and gold to gank efficiently, which in turn makes sure his ganks will suck too. And if his ganks suck, the lanes will not be under pressure, which will help them. Still following? :)

How to help your allies?
Now back to soraka. How can you help your lanes? You can heal them and give them mana. Sounds stupid and bad? Imagine this. There is a level 1 fight on mid. Both guys get very hurt and are cautious. You have already killed your golem, wolves and now are going for wraiths, but.. you stop by at mid and heal for 70 hp. That is one damaging spell more the enemy has to throw to kill your midder - and it's damn nice to have that kind of advantage early on as a midding champion.

Leveling your skills
Before you get to top, you have a choise - do i pick level 2 heal, level 1 infuse, or level 2 starcall? It's simple, look at the top lane and imagine what would help him most. If nothing (he's fine), get the starcall.

Moving around
You can clear the jungle with pretty much any spells as long as you start with the starcall. Level your spells depending on your allies status - are they high on hp and low on mana? Get them the infuse or level stars. Are they getting butchered? Level heal as a priority. Every time you run by a lane, stop by to heal and infuse.

How to gank?
There is one way to gank, and it's quite potent. If a laner gets low and you manage to have red buff, stop by and heal him. Then go after the enemy champion and banana him to oblivion :)

How to help properly
Now seriously, your goal here is to stay in lane, try to zone the enemy from xp if possible, heal your ally while trying to zone yourself from his xp. If the enemy loses his nerves and goes after your ally anyway, you have your redbuff, heal, possibly wish and summoner heal. That is an insane amount of healing which should keep anyone alive, allowing you to push the enemy back of the lane or kill him. After your ally is healthy and happy again, leave for other adventures.

Don't push with starcall
Be sure to restrain yourself from using starcall on minions - your allies won't thank you for pushing their lane. When there are minions nearby, avoid using starcall unless a battle with the enemy champion occurs, never for harrasment with minion nearby.

Don't farm the lane you are supposed to hold
If your ally dies or recalls and you are holding his lane, then if by any means possible, delay the enemy minions from getting to his tower. Delay the enemy minions from dying for as long as possible. Remember - if you keep a juicy minion farm for your ally, he will get more xp and gold than his counterpart and you won't have to visit this lane as often.

Preserving the minions
If there is no enemy champion around and your ally is only half way to his tower, while the enemy minions approach their certain death from your turret, stall them. Walk near them and stand still. I know you wanna QQQQQQ the hell outta them, but don't. Your ally will appreciate the farm when he comes back.

Help other lanes.
Heal, replenish mana.
Don't kill minions on lane, save them for your allies.
Don't let the enemy minions suicide on towers, stall them and prepare a nice meal for your allies.
With this build, donate your blue buffs (except the first one), since your mana will be high.
Find any other way of being usefull to your team and go for it (like spellvamp from WotA)

Now the boring part. For runes, i used what i had - so it might not be the best setup ever. Be creative. I use:
Greater Mark of Attack Damage for a better start in the jungle, there are definitely better picks here.
Greater Seal of Armor for armor, good one.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration for mana regen, which really helps throughout all game stages.
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Mana Regeneration for even more mana regen which is a complete overkill. You might wanna use Greater Quintessence of Ability Power instead.

Defensive with spell penetration. If you feel like switching things up, do it. Be creative, as long as you get the masteries for less minion damage, you should be ok.

I rush philosopher's stone and Boots. After that, i have some mana sustain from philo + Infuse. I continue with Ionian Boots of Lucidity, since i'm usually running all over the place and the cooldowns are really nifty with soraka.

I continue with kage's lucky pick for more gold sustain, plus it will be build into a DFG later on.

Next, i still have some mana issues. Soraka's spells cost a zilion mana each, so the mana pool from Tear of the Goddess is really helpfull, as well as the regeneration.

After the tear, it's time to get some AP. Buy yourself a Will of the Ancients both for ap and to provide utility to your allies. Your midder will love you after that.

Now the enemy team will start getting some serious damage and you will be prone to instagibs. Get a Giant's Belt and build it into Rylai's Crystal Scepter. That should keep you alive, plus the slow is just epic.

As your last items, get Deathfire Grasp, which will synergize well with your spellvamp, then finish Archangel's Staff and sell the philo stone for a Banshee's Veil.

You definitely want summoner heal. It is just so awesome to be able to heal while disabled, words just aren't enough to express how awesome it is. Plus you can invade the enemy jungle on level 1 if your team is up for it - the starcall is really strong early on, and so is summone heal.

To summarize this: I found a fun way to play soraka in the forest. I explained some basic jungle mechanics. I await criticism - of which i will probably get a lot (cause soraka is a support, hrrdydrr!).

This thing will probably not work on really high elo, not without much more thought, but it's an interesting and working concept, so i wanted to share.