Hello, im an average LoL player that enjoys looking closely the way champions mechanics work and how to get the most of them. For me, to feel comfortably playing champion, is not enough to just follow blindly the stereotypes, i need to understand them and even find my own way of doing things.
I do play supports, not only by a common demand, but because i also like the role of the team player.
Soraka is one of the supports i have in my arsenal and she had a major rework recently. While it is possible to play her the old fashionable support way, her new self suggests a different playstyle, which can prove a lot better. She is now different and unique, a lot more appealing to play for me.

Pros

• Provides great health sustain for her allies
• Her performance scales as the battle escalates(greater mobility reaching low hp allies and stronger heals)
• Her ultimate- a game breaking spell if used in the right moment; not affected by the usual healers counter- grievous wounds
• High range on certain abilities
• Short cooldowns on certain abilities
• Palette of CCs- slow, silence, root

Cons

• Most effective when close to the frontline of the battlefield
• Very skillshot reliable
• The nature of Astral Infusion suggests high health regeneration and avoiding stacking much hp- a hard to accomplish task with the present items choices and support ones in particular
• Relatively squishy

Duo to Astral Infusion cost based on maximum health, health regeneration is highly valued stat on Soraka, while stacking health becomes unappealing. Unfortunately Most items providing health regeneration give hp as well, so this pretty much nullifies some pros/cons of using those items. Health regeneration could be achieved by some runes and masteries, a flat health regeneration is preferable, as we are not stacking high hp and hp reg based on max health will be inferior.



As an utility champion, nothing is better, but the use of your spells as much as possible. Cooldown is an easy to find stats, aim for meeting the cap(40%) and avoid going much over it, that would only mean u are stacking CDR thats not of use, in trade of a more useful stat.



You need to be close to the frontline for maximum effectiveness, yet you dont want to stack much HP, that means you need a good chunk of armor and magic resistance.



All your spells scales with ability power, so its a stat you dont want to avoid



You are the one, who will often be roaming unprotected to ward the map. You gotta be on time for every battle and jump between your allies so everyone feel your love. Duo to the nature of your passive Salvation, which gives percents bonus MS, you want your boots to provide you a maximum amount of flat MS, for a greater sinergy.



Since a lot of Sorakas casts cost is paid by her hp, managing your mana is not a big problem, a mediocre bonus to mana reg will do just fine, unless you are always involved in fights.



As explained, stacking health will lead your Astral Infusion cost more, which will lead the same amount of hp healed on an ally, cost more health to you. It will also make it harder for you to recovering your own HP via Astral Infusion passive and other heals and it will lower the effect of flat health regeneration. The only way to negate the negatives of stacking health is by stacking ability power, to strengthen your self healing abilities and get health regeneration based on percents(which is hard to achieve).

The following runes choice is made while taking into consideration several factors, like what stats scales better on Soraka, what stats the current items and masteries choices offer, what stats are necessary on your lane and what you need later in game.

I put health regeneration over armor, as armor is stat you have the chance to get by several other sources. Scaling is preferred over regular, since you dont need so much of it early game, especially while in lane, where you can recover your hp just fine by the synergy of Starcall with Astral Infusion

Duo to the less use of items with magic resistance in this build, having some extra by the runes is great, You want it scaling, cus most likely it will be of more use later in game

Mark are heavy offense oriented runes and there is not much option on what you pick here. Because you will be facing an ADC, its important to have some armor early on, untill you have the funds to get items with it.

From all the possible utility quintessences, i prefer having the scaling hp reg ones, as thats the stat hardest to get from any other sources.

Soraka is a support that is squishy, yet needs to be near the middle of the battlefield and will get a lot of attention. This prevailed in my choice of a mastery tree and i picked the defensive one. There you can find a lot of protective masteries that go well on the way she is played, some of which are Block , Unyielding , both flat and percent based hp recovery, armor and magic resistance, utility ones like Oppression , Swiftness and Tenacious . We reach into offense tree for Expose Weakness by getting some CDR on the way. In utility tree we pick mana regeneration to help us early on.

Your passive provides you a great speed boost when heading heavy injured teammates. It has a very wide radius. The bonus movement speed is in percents, so having high flat MS from boots is preferred. Allies that are bellow 40% health have an indicator above their head

A long range damaging spell, which main uses are slow(if aimed correctly) and recovering your own hp in correlation with Astral Infusion. Its hit radius is not small, but other factors makes this skillshot not so easy to aim precise. First only enemies found in the middle of the hit radius will get slowed(and take extra damage) and second, the further you cast it, the longer the time before impact, so its harder to time it when trying to reach enemies further away, while is instant when cast nearby

Your signature spell. A short range, short cooldown Heal. Its health cost forces you to change the whole model on which you choose items for this support. Monitor your own HP when healing allies and replenish it with Starcall, so you dont OOH(run out of health). It can be used to heal allied minions, especially useful on stronger minions that tank a turret, or it could lead the enemy carry loose a last hit on a minion. Max Astral Infusion first, to top allies faster, make the most use of your hp and recover faster via the passive, which lets you get healed by each enemy hit with your Starcall, quite important as thats your only natural way of recovering your HP apart from your ultimate.

Another hard to time skillshot with complicated mechanics. It has two CC factors- Silence and Root, as well as damage. Its your best friend to help you escape ganks and bad trades and duo its medium cd, use it wisely. Enemies will try avoid standing in it, so put this on the way of an approaching enemy jungler, to make him take a longer path to reach you. Cast it on key areas where your enemies will supposingly use their abilities, like over champion which Katarina is about to jump, over ally ultimated by Zed, Warwick, or shut down champions hoping to escape via mobility tools, like Zed, Fizz, Ezreal. Equinox roots enemies stuck in it at the end of its duration, so you can time it when an enemy is using Teleport in your vicinity, or with other allies binding CCs, like Warwick ultimate, Blitzcrank whos grabbing a target and is about to punch it, or over an enemy binded on the ground by Morgana, Lux. The uses and combinations of this skill are endless, its a subject of personal experience to find more situations

One of the most game breaking spells, if not the most. Not only a strong team heal, but also a tool to remove grievous wounds- the enemy of every healer. An indicator appears over allies heads bellow 40% HP, which means the healing effect is 50% stronger, so dont use it when your team is lightly injured, unless somethings tells you should.

Ancient Coin gives you mana and hp reg to sustain your lane, as well as some gold profit. The rest of our funds are enough for hp pot and a ward, we pick Stealth Ward as a starting trinket for extra vision. On our first returning to the vendor, depending on how much gold we have, we buy Sightstone and change our trinket with Sweeping Lens, or upgrade to Nomad's Medallion and get an extra ward. When we have all the previous things purchased, get Boots. Keep on some Health Potion's with you till you make sure you can manage your HP without them

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Consider going for Oracle's Lens against champions like Kha'Zix, Vayne, Teemo and Greater Vision Totem against Rengar, Twitch, Evelynn and such

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talisman of ascension As a support its inevitable to get a gold income item and you are especially lucky, talisman of ascension fits you so well. Apart of the extra gold, you get MS, CDR, Mana reg and ofc the use effect. This is the only item that provides Hp reg without including health, a stat we avoid

This boots paired with Salvation lets you fly over the battlefield to reach heavy injured allies. Its your best mate when roaming the map placing wards. Consider the other boots options like Boots of Swiftness to counter slows, Ninja Tabi vs team with more than one champion relying on autohit damage and Mercury's Treads for additional CC prevention.

The high armor and cooldown reduction makes this item fit you perfectly, both raising your defense and effectiveness. The debuff aura is an additional protection for your team

Unlike many other supports, that would want to pull attention to themselves most of the time, instead of having their teammates focused, you want to avoid being focused yourself, yet stay in the battle vicinity. Guardian Angel gives you this treat and provides you with a lot of defense. You will often have to go rly low on health, even whileonly healing your allies without taking any damage and this item is an insurance you dont get assassinated.

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This item provides a chunk of few valuable to you stats, but thats just a fraction of what it does on you. The passive, which applies attack speed buff on all your heals, prolly makes this item fits the most on you of all the other supports, it literally turns your ultimate into a team frenzy.

Its advised to buy this item when your team is facing high AP damage and especially if its area of effect.

Mikael's Blessing will make you forget about your mana at all and will provide you a strong on use effect, that can heal an ally in danger and free it of any disables. Pick this if you face alot of CC, which shuts down your team carries.

Provides you a high AP bonus, which strengthens all your abilities and gives you another emergency button, when you are pulling alot of attention of your enemies.

Very good decision against strong ADCs and AD assassins relying a lot on normal attacks, it will also lower the chance they focus you

It gives you several good for you stats. It also applies an extra damage and slow aoe effect to your attacks after you use spells and you spam them alot, so it can come into heavy use