This is my first guide, so formatting errors may occur :P

Soraka is a nice support character, is a little squishy and everyone relies on her just for the imba heal, but i got bored playing her as a healbot (a very good one, dont get me wrong) so i decided to give starcall a go and play a little more agressive with her.

It is a build mainly for getting an dominance in your lane, but if you cant do that it is easily tradeable with a more common build.

The skill and item order depicted here is only what i have more fun playing lately, but as the title says, its a very versatile build as you can change almost everything and still be a very good hero.

This build relies on her not being so squishy while having a good AP, so you can focus on helping the team instead of trying to save yourself. You wont have much AP compared to a pure AP build, but you will at least survive a CC or two meaning you will stay on the fight longer if they focus you.

This guide is a work in progress, but i posted it anyways to get some feedback, so give them and comment on what you find lacking to have on the guide.

I hope you guys like it.

17/04:
- Changed usual Skill Order due to experience gained during ranked play.
- Updated Skill Sequence and Gamplay sections.
- Updated Laning Tricks.

04/05:
- Results section updated

03/24:
- Changed the Masteries and Summoner Spells for what im using now.
- Masteries section updated.
- Items section updated.
- New results section.

Pros :
- Very versatile, can harrass or babysit a teammate.
- Good AP ratio on her heals.
- Silence and mana generator.
- A good debuff.

Cons :
- Sorta weak when alone.
- Squishy early game, good map awareness is a must.
- No escape mechanism.
- Teammates just suicides because you are Soraka The Healbot, and if he dies he will say its your fault because you didnt healed him.
- This build overextends the lane a bit.

I use AP/level runes mainly because i dont get heal early on, so the extra AP helps a lot at times you really need the W heal.

The Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed is good because sometimes she needs that extra MS for healing a teammate or evading a possible gank, but you can change that with Greater Quintessence of Ability Power as it helps a lot with the early game heal too.

I dont recommend MPen Runes or Quints mainly because Astral Blessing doesn't get benefits from MPen.

Balanced: go 0/15/15, a little extra survivability and more MS.

Aggressive: go 9/0/21 with Improved Ignite (more AP) instead of Archaic Knowledge . If you really want the 15% MPen, drop Ignite or go 10/0/20

Defensive: go 9/21/0 or 0/21/9

Lately im using the defensive 9/21/0 with improved Ignite.

Basically, anything goes.

From my experience i really recommend as it helps in escaping/chasing and staying near a teammate.

is good if you get Improved Ignite as it gives an extra 10 AP.

+ is a good combo for survivability too.

if your team needs it.

to be there when your team needs you.

After playing some ranked games, the most used Skill sequence for me is to get 3 ranks of Astral Blessing early and then getting 3 ranks of Starcall shortly after with 1 or 2 ranks on Infuse inbetween. At level 9 i'm usually with Starcall 3, Astral Blessing 3, Infuse 2 and Wish 1. With this, you can do some healing and can hold a lane by yourself if your lane partner dies or goes to roam/gank.

In my opinion, Starcall is really underrated, its has low cooldown, you dont even have to aim it and removes MR, maxing it early is nice to get easier last hits (at level 9 you can do 2 Starcalls and kill the ranged minions) and stronger harrassing, you can even hold a lane at your tower and not let them destroy it if you lane partner strays away longer than expected because the damage stacks up quickly and you clear the minion wave faster than they expect.

Start with a Doran's Ring as it gives Health + AP + Mana Regen.

In your first trip to base, try to bring Boots and the Sight Ward, the ward is really important here to be more agressive and shut down the opponents laning.

My only fixed item to get is the Rod of Ages.

Its pretty much freestyle after the first ROA. It all depends on your playstile and flow of the game.

I like to get a Blasting Wand before Ionian Boots of Lucidity because i think the 40 AP helps more than having 15% CDR, but i buy a Kindlegem afer Ionian.

Soul Shroud can be swapped in favor of Morello's Evil Tome too if you dont need that much HP.

You can build Soul Shroud before Rylai's Crysal Scepter, depends if you like more Life and an Aura or a good AOE slow with Starcall.

You can drop Rylai's Crysal Scepter in favor of another Rod of Ages (if you can get at 25 min or earlier) , a Banshee's Veil, or even a Rabaddon's Deathcap.

Get a lane partner, then proceed to any of the side lanes BUT dont get any skills till you know what is happening. Go with Astral Blessing first and support your lanemate.

One thing that happens a lot when someone plays Soraka is: after some time, your lanemate goes to do some ganks and you are alone in your lane, then an enemy pushes the minions into your tower and you can't do nothing, because you dont do damage, so they take the tower and kill you after that.

BUT!

With the Skill Sequence i'm using, its pretty simple to hold the lane against other champs because the time they will get to your tower if everything is going fine, is around lvl 8/9 but with Starcall at rank 3 you can kill the minions pretty fast and when the minion numbers start going down, they usually go back to safety. If they decide to ignore the tower and dive you, just heal and try to kite them around the tower, hopefully your team will come to help.

If you decided to get Starcall first due to your lane enemies being easily harrassable (pretty unlikely in ranked play), then tell your lane partner to NOT SUICIDE as you wont heal him, it makes things easier, they can lane without Soraka in other games, why not play the same way as without her?

With Starcall you harrass and deny easy minion kills to the opponents, this is particularly good if you get a only mellee lane. If everything goes well you will involuntarly hit their minions and farm well so your lane will push a little stronger, so you get the wards as fast as you can to prevent ganks because of a little overextending.

Try to stay in the lane as much as possible.

When you overextend your minions until their tower, stop Starcalling a bit and try to zone them instead, so you will get a upper hand in terms of levels.

At level 6, get the Ult and stay alert into the minimap to heal your team if they need it. Communication is very important.

After that, its pretty much normal Soraka game, but with Starcall maxed out, you can be a pusher/farmer while using your ult to help your team from long range.

At teamfights, wait for the battle to start then walk in, your priority should be healing and silencing enemies, but dont forget you have starcall maxed too, so you walk around the enemies spamming Starcalls and paying atention for the rest of your team.

Again, if everything goes well, you will have a nice HP pool ~20 / 25 min mark, so you are not so squishy anymore, you most likely will survive if the other team focuses you first and the rest of your team will have a good time. You can even solo some heroes if the do not respect you, better if they are mellee because you can kite them while starcalling and healing.

If they do not focus you, you will have heals for the rest of your team to save then while debuffing and silencing enemies and will not worry too much about taking some damage.

Before late game, you will be healing for 500+ , do not die so easily so you dont waste spells on yourself and help with some damage.

There are some tricks in the laning phase, if the enemy likes to enter the brushes, you can tag them without facechecking, just spam Starcall while walking near the brushes, but beware of what the opponents heroes can do before doing this.

Another one is to exploit the misconception that Soraka is not good at damage dealing, it happened to me more than once: You are alone in the lane with one opponent, so you walk into the brush and wait for him to get almost inside because you are Soraka and they dont fear you, then you Starcall -> Infuse -> Ignite -> Starcall and Healing when you can, it gives a good damage into the early stages of the game and if the enemy thinks he can solo you, most of the times you end up winning and sending him back to his base.

One of the most hated champs in laning phase is no other than Zelian, his bombs harrass are pretty stupid and all. Usually if you get a Zil against you in your lane, get infuse to prevent him to double bomb you and harrass him, with Astral Blessing on rank 2 and Infuse rank 2, every time Zil goes towards you or your lanemate just infuse him, 1 bomb is easily mitigated by Astral Blessing.

Now nearing 1600 ELO: