Hello mobafire, this is my first build ever here on mobafire, so I'm open for feedback!

Please, try this build before voting / commenting! I need the feedback in order to improve the guide! :)

Recent changes that buffed/nerfed Soraka

Infuse no longer gives soraka mana, it however gives more mana to a friendly champion.

(1.0.0.124)
Astral Blessing ap ratio halved, cd doubled - still viable.
Infuse no longer grants double mana on selfcast - still viable.
Starcall lowered cd and increased shred with lower max stacks - awesome spell now.
Wish ap ratio also cut in half, mana cost reduced - still a good ult.

Earlier changes
Gold/5 items such as Kage's Lucky pick is now unique passive, meaning you only take benefits of one of each type.

Pros

Has a awesome heal
Lifesaving ultimate
Hard to kill if correctly built. (and if you know what you are doing)

Cons
Squishy naturally without items.
Often targeted first.

These are the runes I am using when playing Soraka.

Marks

I choose this to increase her ability to farm/kill with infuse and starcall.

Seal
Greater Seal of Replenishment
I choose the regen seal, because her Infuse has been weakened from double-regaining, lowering her mana regen.

Glyph

What is Soraka without some ability power? I used per level glyphs instead of flat since Soraka is still somewhat a late-game champ.

Quintessence

Extra magic penetration!

Optional

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Extra MR
Greater Seal of Defense - Extra Armor
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Magic Resist - Extra MR

Core Items

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Rod of Ages
Rabadon's Deathcap

These are very important to having your AP and also your HP at a good level, while also being able to use your Infuse on your teammates / enemies and having a rather short cooldown on everything.

Recommended (in my opinion)

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - Offers you some well needed CDR.
Rod of Ages - High HP, Mana and AP, adds to overall tankyness.
Rabadon's Deathcap - Gives you the bulk in your AP, needed for getting good heals.
Frozen Heart - Very high armor, mana and high CDR, also grants a slowing aura.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter - High AP, HP, grants a slow.
Abyssal Mask - AP, MR and penetration that helps Starcall.

Situational

Randuin's Omen - High armor, hp, slow passive / active and minor cdr, overall nice item.

Zhonya's Hourglass - I haven't tested this yet in a game but it would certainly aid as well, considering you get some armor, huge ap and the invulnerability active that could save your life.

Archangel's Staff - If you are having mana problems take the staff, it will give you quite alot of ap either way.

Force of Nature - While this isn't the best item for soraka, it is very effective vs heavy ap teams, so it could be viable if so.

Will of the Ancients - Aura item, your ap mates will love you and it probably wont hurt you too bad either if you get it.

Mercury's Treads
In case you like to have some tenacity instead of capped CDR, take these, you will still have 25% CDR without the ionian boots. (+ some from masteries)

Shurelya's Battlesong grants health, regen and speed boost active, and some cdr.

Cost 35/40/45/50/55
Cooldown 2.5
Range 660
Damage 60/85/110/135/160
Ratios +40% Ability Power
Effect -8/-9/-10/-11/-12 Magic Resist for 8 seconds, stacks up to 10 times.

Your basic AOE damage skill, does ok damage with a very short cooldown, quite spammable, I take this in level 4 to be able to harass a bit, and also to be able to farm more effective.
Late game, this spell can devastate anyone you fight against in 1v1. - Note that if you are playing with the carry you should not use this to farm, rather avoid using it when your carry is with you, only use it when the carry recalled or something like that.


Cost 90/110/130/150/170
Cooldown 20
Range 750
Heal 70/140/210/280/350
Ratios +45% Ability Power
Effect Adds 25/50/75/100/125 Armor for 5 seconds.

This is your main reason to be summoned, this heal is amazingly strong, and also grants you a lot of armor! Taken at level 2 in order to be able to heal and help my laning partner. Even with the recent nerfs to soraka, this spell is still viable!


Cost 0
Cooldown 10
Range 725
Damage / Mana restore 50/100/150/200/250 Damage OR 25/50/75/100/125 Mana Restored
Ratios +75% Ability Power to Damage
Effect Restores Mana or Damages and Silences Target for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 Seconds.

Your no-oom-spell (or mana heal if you prefer) it restores your mana and also your partners mana. Can also be used offensively to silence the target and deal damage. Use it wisely! Taken at level 1 mostly, if there will be a ganking especially.


Cost 100/175/250
Cooldown 120/90/60
Range Global
Heal 200/320/440
Ratios +70% Ability Power
Effect Heals all allies.

Your Ultimate, MASSIVE healing, rather short cooldown and doesn't have a high mana cost, very very useful to gain assists when teammates are long from you and need help, good one to save a mates life from death with. Don't forget it!

Consecration
Effect +16 Magic Resist for all nearby allies.

A nice passive against any magic damage dealers.

My normal setup on summoner spells, lets you chase and espace, mostly escape as you shouldn't be alone out there! Also lets you check bushes for ganks etc.

Other useful spells could be:


Your last chance for survival if you take this one, if your ulti is on cooldown or your heal isn't enough.


Helps you do minion farm with the slow attack animation, helps your turrets survive pushing, you choose..


Can help you escape if running towards a tower in lane, flash is stronger for flashing over walls though.


Not a fan of this spell either, especially when you have infuse, but it could be viable if your teammates need mana quick and so do you.

Note that if you lane with a carry, leave out kills if they need it!

When it comes down to farming, you would want to stay in lane with someone who is mana-hungry, so that you can utilize your infuse for your laning partner, such as , and others.

I usually start with a or a for increased health, the crystal if I want a early Catalyst the protector.

For farming I suggest you try to farm as normal(unless being with a carry), and to have assists as much as you can. Rush a catalyst and buy .

Mind that you should use Infuse offensively if your laning partner doesn't need it.

Once you can afford to finish the , do it because it will help you so much with early mana and health problems, and after that you should finish the boots as I think that would be best, to lower your cooldowns quite early too.

Keep laning and take opportunities whenever they come and you should eventually afford a , which will be your major change in ap for the game. A deathcap alone will grant you over 200 ap from its passive along with the +140, which is great!

After Deathcap it's time to cap your cdr, Frozen Heart will do the job for you it gives same cdr but makes you so much tankier.

After frozen heart, I suggest you go for a Abyssal Mask for the magic resist, AP and the magic penetration aura.

If you get that far, your sixth item will be one of the situational items I've listed above, I use Rylai's Crystal Scepter for its hp, ap and slow. You can also work with the recommended items I listed because it grants so much tankyness.

You are team dependent, yes you heard right, TEAM DEPENDENT. This means that if your team sucks, you will also suck and you will lose the game most probably.

You can do damage, but you are not very effective at doing that with say, only 1 cast of Starcall, it should only be used if you are already in range of a target.

Astral Blessing Should be used on the person being focused, while having you ultimate on those injured.

Infuse their biggest threat and it will help your team quite a lot.

Wish should be used if someone is about to die and you cannot heal, preferably you should use it to heal every memeber that has been hurt a bit.

You can try to initiate if you wish but, I do not recommend it, even if you are tanky you can not hold out forever.