So, opposed to the other guide I had here on Mobafire is, that I have A TON more experience with in ranked and playing field period. I've learned a lot and now I need to make some revisions.

A must have for any and every champion is, an escape spell. I choose Flash over Ghost because as a support your'e always in the back and a QUICK escape is what you need.

I also go with Exhaust because occasionally you find yourself getting ganked by the fed AD Carry and need it to get away or midigate the damage enough for you to get away, heal, or get help. It's also better than any other Summoner Spell because when you are the ADC or APC, your focus is to kill, not midigate damage. As that is the tanks and supports job.

For a support, you must start with a Faerie Charm, and Sight Ward x2, and Mana Potion x4. Next, I get a Philosopher's Stone for the Gold Per 5 and the regens. Next, I get the Heart of Gold for the Gold Per 5 as well as the Kage's Lucky Pick. After I get all 3 of those I get my Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Next is the Abyssal Mask then the Aegis of the Legion. The Aegis is for the armor, health, magic resistance and attack damage for your team. And the Abyssal is for the light AP boost it gives for higher heals and harassment and the reduces he magic resistance of the other team to give your team a damage increase. I then upgrade my Philosopher's Stone into a Shurelya's Battlesong for the cooldown reduction and that buff for your teams kill, gank, or get away. After I finish that, I upgrade my Heart of Gold into a Locket of the Iron Solari for the activate shield and the health regen for your team. Then, I finish my build off by upgrading my Kage's Lucky Pick into a Morello's Evil Tome for the cooldown reduction, mana regen, and that debuff you can put on the other teams tank and ad carry that just lifesteals too much for you to kill off.

To start off, you can make any change you'd like, but these seem to work best for me. Summoner's Insight x1 to reduce your Flash cooldown by 15 seconds. Expanded Mind x3 for increased mana early and late game. Improved Recall x1 for a quicker recall to get an escape or less time away from a fight or tower. Swiftness x4 for the increased movespeed to escape bad situations and prolong the need for boots. Meditation x3 for increased mana regen since this build lacks the mana regen early game. Scout x1 to make wards more efficient since you will be buying them all game. Greed x4 for increased gold gains because you dont get many kills or minion farm. Wealth x2 to get more pots or wards begin game. Awarness x4 for increased exp as you dont get many kills for the extra exp. Sage x1 for the exra experience earned with assists. Strength of Spirit x2 for a little bit of extra health regen to stay laning longer. Intelligence x3 extra cooldown reduction for more heals. Mastermind x1 to increase the amount of Flash's and Exhaust's you are capable of having each game. I chose the health regen over the Good Hand's because you don't really spend much time dead as a support. The other team doesn't focus you, they focus the ADC/APC.

Soraka is a very versatile champion. Unlike most heals in Leagues, her heal is HUGE, at the expense of a longer cooldown than Taric's or Alistar's. But her heal does much more than the average heal as well, it adds a hefty armor + magic resistance buff for a short duration; creating an easy hole for a tower dive lessening the damage intake. Soraka also has has her Infuse, which can either create the opening for a kill on an APC, or shut down the high damage from them. It also gives friendlys mana for free on a mediocre cooldown. Sorakas main damage comes from her Starcall. It isn't a HUGE burst damage like say Leblanc. But it gives a debuff that lowers the magic resistance on each champion hit, in turn, gets your team more kills or a winning team fight. Soraka's ultimate ability Wish is one of the few remaining global ultimates now. As that being said, i'm going to put out there that it isn't a big heal. It is on an average ultimate cooldown timer and does a mediocre amount of healing. But it goes onto ALL of your teammates across the WHOLE map! Life saver right? Well, if you are low on money at that moment too and nobody seems to be dieing, then you can pop it while you are at the base and your team is picking up and easy gank on one or two people to pick up those assists.

Farming with soraka used to be much easier. But, 1 or 2 patchs ago, they nerfed her. Harder than needed to be honest. Her Infuse can no longer be cast on herself for mana. So, her farm is reduced as she is OOM much more ofen. Her AoE does do enough damage to kill an entire group of minions in 2-3 casts at lvl 18.

Soraka is more than what you bargain for if you let her get her full build. In a team fight, if you use your cooldowns correctly, she can keep her entire team alive. With this build, she can get an escape, eat a big aoe hit with her shield, shut down a tank or ADC with her grevious wounds debuff, heal the whole group, directly heal the other teams target, and shut down a APC with he silence.
She has her downfalls though. If the soraka you are facing is really doing good, time her heals cooldown with your big damage spells. Her heal has a large cooldown and in turn, will easily get her team aced if your team can react correctly. Beginning game she is squishy and can be ganked easily if she doesnt have wards up. Nobody likes soraka, no one. Targetted alot if the other team can not panick and target her first and burst her down.
PROS
Can sink kills/escapes
Great harrasser
Multiple heals
Can deal damage while supporting team

CONS
Squishy
Targeted ALOT
Easily ganked

I like to go with the mana regen runes mixed with some cooldown reduction and gold per 5.

This build is a little more team oriented than any others i've tried. This build has ALOT more survivability for your whole team and ALOT of gold so you can max your build quicker.

For items, the situation is what calls for the timing. As for the Abyssal Mask, you can interchange it with the Zhonya's Hourglass if the team you are facing is heavy AD or the AD got fed or you are targetted often.