I play Soraka quite a bit and this guide is devoted for people, who have decided to play or at least try to support as Soraka.
Every support hero has its own weak and strong sides, but trying most of them, I have concluded that I like Soraka the most. She has heal, mana regen for lane partner, global heal and a poke ability.
So if you have decided to test her or play, hope this guide will help you at least for a bit.
This guide is for support Soraka, which means most likely you will go bottom lane with your adc partner.

Pros:
- Global ultimate can save your teammates in other lanes
- Very annoying in a lane
- Can silence enemies
- Spammable starcall with the debuff

Cons:
- Squishy
- Long Cooldowns
- No escape abilities
- Often focused by enemy team

Best runes I find to use are:

Greater Mark of Armor x9
The basic fact is that you are going bottom lane and it means most likely you will face ranged adc, so armor comes here in handy.


greater seal of vitality x9
In the most cases for Soraka I go for a tons of HP. It also helps a lot if you are a begginer and through the game you will be attacked with all kinds of damage.


Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction x9
Soraka's spells has a long cooldowns and this is how to make them shorter.

greater quintessence of vitality x3
You can never have too much health. This let's you survive enemy damage through the game.

Other options:
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
Greater Seal of Gold
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction
Greater Quintessence of Health

Greater Quintessence of Gold - as You will not farm creeps, a way how you can save up a penny for items.

masteries that I use

Masteries that I dont't use, but can be taken in place of other ones. It's up to You how you better feel with:

Good Hands - I never max it out as your goal is not to die at all. But sometimes those seconds can save someone's life, when you are dead and waiting to spawn and cast a Wish

Wealth - I just don't feel like those 2 points are worth it. But maybe they are.

Scout - can be taken instead of Awareness .

Items much depends from the team setup that you got.There are several options. Mostly my build looks like:

Aegis of the Legion
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Shurelya's Battlesong
Frozen Heart
Locket of the Iron Solari
zeke's herald
Oracle's Elixir

Other options:
-Sometimes other partners will build items like Frozen Heart, then I go for Soul Shroud.

-Also you can make a kage's lucky pick before you make Aegis of the Legion and sell it late game.

-If enemy team has a lot of CC and magic damage, then I go for Banshee's Veil, so if you get caught by a snare or stun, it is still not game over for you.

-If you need armor other option instead of Banshee's Veil is Randuin's Omen.

-From boots I mostly make Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Other good option is Mobility Boots, especially if you are being chased by enemy, also it gives you extra speed to run around fast to place sight ward.

- Wish is global heal, what else to say? Saves lives and gives assists.

- Astral Blessing is your bread and butter, you max it first after ultimate. Heal+armor. what else an ADC carry needs?

- Infuse restores mana and silences an enemy, remember that in team battles it is more important to interrupt Aoe ultimates like Absolute Zero than restore mana to you teammates

Starcall- the thing you max as last. It gives u a little bit of dps and a debuff to enemies but if trying to poke enemy with it, you go too far, you probably will get executed.

The summoner spells that I mostly use are :

Flash- It's a must. It gives you a chance to survive if you get caught in a jungle warding or in a battle. Soraka has no escapes abilities like a stun. If you get caught in jungle and have no flash, most likely you will die.
Exhaust- the offensive summoner that I use as most likely your lane partner will have a Ignite.
Heal- summoner that sometimes I use instead of Exhaust, if its taken by lane partner.

In a lane I find it better, if partner has Heal, because he can control when to use it in a lane fight, but if you have a Heal, he can't be sure when or whether you will use it at all.

As for a team fight late or mid game, it benefits much more if you have Heal, not adc carry, because most likely he will use it to heal only himself, not for a purpose of a whole team. I'm not saying it will always be like that, that's just my view, in a battle adc have to think how to kill enemy hero's not to Heal his wounded teammates.

Other options:
Clairvoyance- Can be taken, but I don't feel it is worth it. You have sight ward for that purpose.

-So it is Flash and Exhaust or Heal. Up to you.

- Soraka is a support champion in this guide. It means a lot will depend from you team partners.

- If your teammates sucks, you won't be able to do much yourself alone even if you play good. Fed Jarvan IV, Tristana, or Ahri or Karthus can carry the whole team to victory if they are fed and play good. As support Soraka you will not be able to, much like every other support hero. By using Wish in right moments and placing sight ward in right places can make you teammates play better, but you will not be the game-deciding factor.

- Early game in a lane phase a lot depends from your lane partner. Some of them will play defensive, others will be very agressive. You must adapt to their playstyle and have to be ready to use Exhaust or Heal, when parter is going for the kill.

- Some peope imply that Soraka is not only passive player but can be agressive as well. My point of view is that it all depends from your lane partner, he is the key factor, not you. You can try to poke with Infuse or autohit, but if your partner stands all time behind creeps, it is not you wanna do, running in front.

- One of worst things you can have is a really bad lane partner. If he goes for a kill that he can't get, he will die and in many cases I die as well trying to save him.

Some lane partners I find best to be in a lane with:

Kog'Maw- cool range and cool damage, let's You keep range and farm safely and poke aswell.
Graves- also good option, but at the same time I feel that with Taric he suits better.
Tristana- not the best option, but at the same time you have to be carefull. If your lane getting ganked, she can just Rocket Jump and leave u as a prey. Also she is not that mana hungry and You really gotta catch that moment if any of enemy is low HP and Trist is going in for the kill.
Ezreal- one of the hero's i have laned most with, works fine, but can be same as with Tristana in a case of gank. If he is decent, he can poke enemies pretty good and Your Infuse keeps his mana up
Ashe- also very popular champion, but she doesn't have such offensive ablities like Graves or Ezreal. She is more like safe lane farmer.
Sivir- Not a bad choice, thought not played that much. Can farm and also harass pretty ok, but in this combo I find luck of CC.
Urgot- This champion is not played often, but he is not bad if he can keep his skillshots up and so You can his mana.

- When in a lane it is not only important to follow your lane partner, but also your whole team, so you can use Wish in a proper moment to save your teammates and get an assist.

- Don't forget to use Locket of the Iron Solari or Shurelya's Battlesong in a teamfight or when it is needed.

- In a teamfight use Infuse to interrupt Nunu & Willump or Katarina ultimate.

- Lane champion Graves or Caitlyn or Ashe are not the deciding factor, players are.

Here are some screenshots of my Soraka games. Starting older ones till ones played recently.
I post here only ranked games as normal ones I really don't make in count.
Hope this will help you. Good luck in game. I'm playing now on EU east server, before I was on US, so don't get confused as there will be two different names.
Not very skilled with this, but will try my best. :)
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