Pros:
Still a decent healer.
Her heal makes her tanky.
She has a good debuff.
She's deals decent damage.
She denys alot.
She can force junglers back into lane.
She's a damn good farmer.
She gets **** done.
She can restore mana to allies.

Cons:
Focused alot.
Team dependant.
Squishy early on.
Her skills are costly, even with infuse.
You're playing several roles now, so you'll be using your spells VERY often.
Little to no Magic Resistance early on.

As you all know, Soraka was recently nerfed to Support Hell... or so it seemed. Her heal ratios were raped, and her W's CD was raised. This build is here to show you that this wasn't really a nerf so much as a buff which, well, for a lack of better words: ********. I know what you're thinking "But Aven, she's far less useful now." WRONG. Soraka's W now has an additional 25 armor, and as the patch notes video said, it's now about healing at the right time. In other words, it's now about healing while your team mate is taking hits and whooping ***. Her Q was buffed alot. It now deals amazing damage, and has a QQ worthy low-as-hell CD... oh and did I mention that the debuff on it stacks up to 10 times now, reducing MR up to a maximum of 120,which should make tanks quiver in fear of your team if you have even just one AP champion on your team. Yeah, I know, Soraka is boss.

As previously stated, Soraka underwent drastic changes. I for one, see this as a good thing, as she won't be a completely useless character who sits around in the back contributing absolutely absolutely nothing to the team other than a constant never ending stream of heals. Now She'll be a tanky offensive tank, with a few Debuffs and CCs. This build will make you useful to the team. Actually useful. I skimmed a few builds, but it seems like only a few have been updated for her recent changes, and not that many seem to care that she took a hefty hit to her heal ratios, making AP sort of useless, and making survivability, CDR, and true support more desirable. Let's go over a quick run over why the items I put in the purchase list are there.

Ionian boots: You need boots. This is a fact of LoL. Don't even try to deny it. You need speed to survive. These boots give 15% CDR, which will be useful.

Morello's Evil Tome: More Mana per 5 and CDR. You now have 45% CDR. 50% if you got the runes I listed. Your mana regen is nice now, and you shouldn't have too big of a problem with mana now. The item also gives a bit of AP, which is nice for a bit stronger heal, and a stronger Starcall.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter: This item gives health and AP, but that's really not why we're getting this magnificent item. We're getting this item so that your spells will slow enemy champions down. This item will make you even more useful to your team. Your offensive spells will now slow, netting your team kills, while denying your allies them. You might be Ashe, but you'll still be making enemies whine at how your starcall keeps them slowed (by 15%, but still. 35% if you use silence.)

Force of Nature: A great item on Soraka. It gives the MR which Soraka so desperately needs, while increasing your Movement speed, which should give you a slight advantage when chasing down enemy champions. If you have Rylai's, this could net your team a free kill.

Banshee's veil and Gaurdian angel: Both of these items cover up your one real weakness, which is AP. Not only will you block skills every now and then, but the damage you recieve from them will be reduced, and if you still manage to die, there's always the passive that Gaurdian Angel has. You know which one; the one that makes Soraka seem like Jesus. It's a middle finger to the enemy. It's a middle finger to people who focused you stupidly. But most important of all, it will deny the enemy even further. Overkill much? The only way you could make people QQ even more, is if you had Shen's ultimate, or a skill of equal BS.

Soraka pretty dependent on her laning partner. You should definitely go with a carry or someone who can dish out damage. If you can, play with a friend who you can rely on, otherwise he'll stay in battle because he thinks you can heal him forever, or run away during the your heal's buff, only to run back in afterwords. You want a bit of health here, so that you are tanky enough to support your team mate. You want to raise your heal a bit, but not too much, because you need Star cast to farm. Star cast is possibly one of your most useful abilities. You can really raise this whenever you like, and probably should, because it's ridiculously good and scares the **** out of anyone who doesn't know what denying is. You should always follow your Q up with a normal attack if there is an enemy champion who got hit what Starcast, mainly because there's no reason not to. Denying with Starcall and your Auto attack is a must. If Starcast is on it's ridiculously low CD, then just hit the enemy normally. you have godtier auto attack range. Keep close to your partner. Pop your W on him when he needs the armor to deal with the enemy, and Pop your R if either of you need the health to endure the fight. Make sure to use your Q in fights. Your Q has a MR debuff on it, which stacks up to 10 times. It should hit every enemy around you. If you rush a Rylai's it'll be even more devastating, especially combined with your E, Infuse, which acts as a silencer when used on an opponent. Oh.. one last thing: CAST INFUSE ON YOUR LANING PARTNER ALL DAY ERRYDAY. Casting on yourself no longer gives double the mana, so it's a waste. If said parnter actually uses mana, he shouldn't run out of mana too often with you around.

Soraka should have farmed, assisted and caused enough enemy rage by now to have gotten a few items. She should have Rylai's by now, and is definitely a good asset in team fights. People might try to focus you, having undoubtedly heard the QQs from their allies. This is a good yet bad idea for the enemy team. By focusing you, they allow your allies to focus their carrys. You should be happy. By focusing you, they're basically targeting a miniature tank. Of course.. ifg you die too fast, then your team might lose the team fight. Late game you should be helping your allies survive, while dishing out enough damage to be useful. If you need the money, farming and killing stuff in the jungle is great for money, but don't let it interfere with your job. Incase you forgot, it's your job as a support to support your friggen allies, so get your *** back into the fray.

I'm going to be perfectly honest here. I don't have enough IP to get all of the runes. I just don't use AP users enough. The rune build is based on getting Soraka the maximum amount of CDR, while helping her mana problems, and giving her some health for early survivability.

Do what you want. I don't give a damn. I use flash to prevent deaths/escapes, and I use teleport to get to places quick. just.. use what works best for you, man.

9/4/2011
I changed the seals, and removed Soul Shroud. It was replaced by Force of nature because of the problems I was noticing while using the builds, and because I had thought the CDR max was 50% (It's actually 40. Thanks, Halipupu)


If somebody finds something left over from a previous version of the build that I missed, please tell me in the comments box.

This guide was made Septermber 3rd, 2011. it was made for the drastic changes Soraka underwent when assist characters were revamped. It's my first guide, so please try not to be too mean. Leave comments and help me improve this guide. If I'm missing something, please tell me. Hopefully you find this guide to be useful.