(Please, note the fact that this guide can absolutely be improved, don't hesitate to submit the things that you think would be better, I'm open to any serious idea or concept.)

Hey there.

I'm a dude who's been playing League for like 6 years now, and I'm on my way to find some new and interesting ways of playing.

So I'm here today to share one of theses ways.

If you wanna know a bit more about me, I'm basicly bad at videogames. I started playing on season 4, managed to hit bronze 5 for around 2 years, then I climbed up to gold 5. I started seriously playing Soraka on season 6, managed to hit plat 2 at that moment (playing her support), then I kind of stopped playing. Now I'm back on a brand new account.
Actually platinum 4, only Soraka, only on toplane, with that actual build.

And yes, playing Soraka is fun. This actual build is for every Soraka main who are done with losing bot because of silly feeding adc, and wanna become an independant healer.

Soraka has a lot of hidden powers.

And I'm not just talking about the champion's lore.

Pros

• Strong laning phase - Soraka's Q is a great poking spell. It makes you able to kite, regen, push, and grants extra heals on W.
• Strong heals for everybody, anywhere on the map - Soraka's R is just the most broken spell you can dream about. Instantly healing the whole team means being able to save fights on botlane, from toplane.
• Support items, damn they're cheap - Redemption costs 2100 golds. Graal as well. 2 items at 15 mins guaranteed.
• Underrated pick - Peoples are not aware (JCVD on t'aime). Nobody knows what Soraka can do. They're constantly disrespecting because she's considered as a weak pick, but that's just a cover. Soraka's early damages are decent, her Q's regen is insane, her R's heal is surprising and Redemption on first item makes her basicly undivable. Soraka is a huge bait.
• Completing last point, Soraka is ranged.
• No matter how many times you're getting ganked or you die, you're still going to be useful. This is Soraka. Your true potential isn't to kill peoples, it's to save them. You could basicly just build Redemption and Graal then stop building items and still do an awesome job.
• Soraka goes well with any champion on the league. Everybody love healings.
• She throws bananas. That's basicly the funniest thing in the league.

Cons

• You're definitely going to have troubles with your mates. If enemies underestimate Soraka top, your allies won't miss a chance to blame the loss on you because they'll think you're useless (even if you healed 4 times their whole health in a 10 seconds fight).
• You will have hard times with CS after the 20th minute (more like the 15th to be honest).
• Hard time against champions with heavy early damages. If they can snowball hard and roam easily (Rengar, Talon, Quinn...), your team could be too much behind to win the game.
• Heavily team dependant. Some games won't be winnable because your mates are seriously behind, or just grieffing/giving up the game.

I tried a lot of rune builds before deciding to get on this specific one. I think it mostly depends on your own preference, but I think this one is the best you can actually use.

• Unsealed Spellbook

Unsealed Spellbook is the way to hold your lane easily. Since Soraka isn't made for duelling like Fiora or Jax are, your job on laning phase will be to hold your lane. Being able to swap teleport for a heal or even an exhaust helps a lot and can be surprising.
Time Warp Tonic allows a slight healing burst on yourself with the corrupting pot, which helps a lot in trades as well (I can't count how many times this rune saved me tbh).

Picking Resolve as secondary helps a lot with Bone Plating (damage mitigation) and Revitalize which is THE mastery to absolutely get on Soraka. It increases all the heals you cast and receive (including your own regeneration with Q, R heals and corrupting pot/cookies). That's basicly the same effect than the Forbidden Idol, in a lot more powerful way (since it's increased by 10%, up to 15% total bonus healing, on targets under 40% HP, including yourself).

I think you understood how Soraka trades in laning phase just with that last rune : reach Q and you won the trade.

There are many possible builds, but they're most likely always made for the team.
First of all, avoid thoses trollbuilds such as AD crit Soraka, or full AP... And even more on this tank ******** I've been given to see with Frozen Gauntlet and Spirit Visage. Spirit Visage could work, if it wasn't this expensive, and trust me you won't have enough gold or time to farm to build this. There are higher priorities than being tank.

But first things first, let's talk about the starter item. That's when it starts being interesting.
There actually are 2 (in fact there are 3) ways to start the game as Soraka on toplane. The first one is to get the corrupting pot. The second one is to get the Dark Seal and refillable potion, then upgrading for corrupting pot at your first b.
The 3rd and last starter item is.. The Spellthief's Edge.
The only requierment is to get an hypercarry jungler. Since preseason's start, Spellthief's Edge has changed a bit : if you get some cs, it doesn't disable the gold generation anymore. Instead, you're getting less golds from minions, depending on the amount of cs you've got at specific timers in the game. But it's ok : when you'll start earning less golds... Set your lane up for some ganks, and call your jungler. He's the one who's gonna farm. We will talk about this later anyway.

Let's get back where we left. Your first item will be the Redemption. That's an absolute need to trade on early, it gives you so much things you want/need to be effective. It's a strong weapon for trades (great AOE heal, decent AOE true damages), and grants regens on both health and mana.
I didn't mention it, but of course, get your boots ASAP. Try to avoid the expensive ones (I hate expensive things, damn) unless they're hardly needed (heavy CC comps, Gnar, Lucian top...).
Your next item will have to be the Graal. Since you have to max Q to be able to hold the lane, your W will have aproximately 7-8s cooldown when the laning phase will be over. It's not enough in fights, so you need heavy heals to compensate for this. That's why you get the Graal as second item. It makes you efficient and strong from the start.
From this moment, your build will depend on the game itself. If you don't know what to build, just get the generic Nobody-will-die-today build : Iron Solari, Crucible, Knight's Vow. It overcaps 10% cdr, but that's not such a problem, the peeling is too huge to be avoided.
Think about Iron Solari if you see enemies with Grievous Wounds (executioner's, morello, Katarina...). Shield's are not reduced by Grievous Wounds, so it's another way to protect your allies.

As Soraka, your primary role will obviously be to support your allies. Soraka is the best healing champion in the entiere league. She was litteraly designed for this.
But she is actually a decent solo laner as well, and a great Soraka player can barely handle any matchup on toplane. Over all, she has that unique playstyle which makes her the best choice to help your jungler with invades, or basicly your mates.

Laning phase

Your primary objective on laning phase is to hold your lane. Most of your matchups will be melee, tanks or bruisers. Most of theses guys have dashes, jumps, hooks, and that's what you have to care about. As Soraka, you want to stay far from your opponents, kiting them, poking them down. Hitting Q gives you a movespeed buff when you're fleeing enemy champions, and a regen buff. Over this, it slows enemy targets, so you can kite easily. Trust me, the Q's regen is surprisingly strong.
If you have some troubles with dodging spells or kiting, rush rank 2 boots (that's why I love swiftness boots, cheap and fast, just perfect for a fighting Soraka).

Your keystone will help a lot as well. The Spellbook allows you to get different summoner spells during the laning phase. When you used TP to get back to lane, after you went B or you died, you can swap for a heal or an exhaust to make sure your opponent don't get to kill you again. Most peoples don't pay attention to this, and as long as you're a Soraka, they'll try to dive you, almost always disrespectfully. Exhausting someone who's diving you is just the best way to win. Same for the heal, combined with Redemption or even just the ultimate.

Remember that you can't really be losing your lane as long as you don't die too much. Stay safe, abuse your opponent with your range, focus on farming, and rush Redemption so you can trade barely any champion. Try to keep your ult to help on fights around botlane, or even midlane if your mid is in a bad situation.
Dying once or twice isn't such a problem (at least on lower elos), but try not dying too much, especially against champions who can just 1v9 at mid game (such as Irelia, Fiora, Akali or Darius).

Please note that it doesn't mean that dying isn't a problem. It's just not as much a problem as if you were playing a champion that can get behind. Soraka is just never behind. Your job is to heal peoples, and to do that, your only absolute needs are Redemption and Graal. That's enough for a Soraka's job in fights. Your next items are just here to help a bit more. To make it short : don't be a *****. Soraka can fight (and kill) any toplaner. You'd be surprised to see how easy it is to kite a melee champion when you hit Q.
But even if you can't be behind, your opponent can be ahead. Sometimes, just ONE kill is enough. Sometimes they don't even need a single kill (hello Mundo).

At the start of the game, don't hesitate to ask your jungler to try avoid toplane ganks. You don't really need them, so there's no time to waste on toplane. Of course, getting granted some free kills can be great, but that's even better if they're for botlane or midlane. Over this, your ult can get you free assists, so ganking Soraka isn't such a great idea. Oh that's not a bad thing, that's just... not the best.

Your second objective on laning phase is to care about your allies. You will need to watch your map a lot. It's ok to miss some minions for paying attention to your mates. Help your jungler whenever he needs. If your midlaner is pushing, he might get ganked : prepare the R button, or even start moving from top so you can go for a WEEWOOWEEWOO-run to heal your mate. That's even better if you already have Redemption : you can use it from the top of the river (or tribush, depending on your side) directly on the midlane.
Care about your allies's health bar. If botlane is on a decisive fight, step back under your tower, and watch the fight to see if they need your ult. If you have a doubt, press R : as Taliyah says, "Better safe than sorry".
If your jungler is near with half HP, ask him if he needs some healing (if he tells you no, that means he's going to B, so he won't be around and you'll have to start playing safe if you don't have enough vision around).

Laning phase is over. What now ?

Basicly, you can consider joining your mates when you have both Redemption and Graal (or at least Chalice of Harmony). They're cheap as hell, so you will get them really fast. Your main job will, of course, to heal your allies. You can as well cancel/avoid enemy's strong combos (such as Ryze, Katarina, Cassiopeia..) or channellings (like Karthus ult or Rammus rolling toward your allies (yes, that's a channelling)) with your E.

Remember that Soraka isn't made to duel peoples. Don't waste time in trying to face a splitpushing champion. Throw Q's on minions if you need to waveclear, but remember that it won't be your job. You should stay with your team.

Use the Spellbook as long as one of your summoner spell is down. It's better to use it over TP tho, but if your flash is on cd for 5 mins, then just replace it for some no-target summs (try not to get ignite or exhaust over flash : you need a champion target to use them and get your flash back).
Keep smite available for important objectives (Nashor, 4th drake, Elder dragon) or early dragons. Don't ever use it to farm unless you picked it instead of TP on champselect, like for this build, by Gwndimi.

Alternative laning phase

Let's talk about the alternative way of playing Soraka on toplane. Like we saw on the previous part about Items, you can as well start with the support item, the Spellthief's Edge. The main reason to do this is when you have an hypercarrying jungler with a huge lategame, such as Master Yi, Twitch or any thing like this. It works with snowballing champions as well.
Note that it would be better to be duoQing with the jungler if you want to do this.

The lane will basicly be the exact same than for the other start item, but your jungler will have to come gank a bit more. If he comes, let him get the minions (and if you're not premade, tell him to take everything in the chat). You don't need them as much as you would have if you didn't have the support item. When you unlock wards, think about warding around your toplane and in the enemy jungle. This will allow your own jungler and your team to have more infos about the enemy jungler (and that's a second warding item, come one, that's great !).

Ok so that part marks the end of the guide.
Please note theses important things :

• My actual elo is Platinum 4. That means I've mostly been facing peoples around my rank, or lower. I DONT know if this build actually works in higher elos. All I know is that it perfectly works on lower ones. I climbed from bronze 1 (after placements) to platinum 4 by only playing Soraka on toplane (or Garen or Warwick when Soraka was picked or banned, which means 11 games out of over 150), with ~70% winrate.

• This build (and guide) is my own creation. By this, I mean that it might not be perfect at all. As long as I'm not the best player in the league, it's even more probable. Knowing this, feel free to come in the Discussion section or to private message me if you have any objection about anything on the build, I'll be glad to talk about this with you.

• This build was made out of a mistake. Just a small stupid mistake. I tagged Support/Midlane on my main account, planning to play Soraka, so I picked Soraka. Then peoples started insulting me, and then I realize that I was autofilled on toplane. Luckily, I'm a creative person, and I was into trying new things as well. I decided to still play the game, ended up facing a Garen, and it went really well for the laning phase. The next parts of the game were just me doing the Soraka thing, healing peoples, saying "I'm the only one deciding if you're allowed to die, and you're not" to all my mates, and we won.

• I will update some parts of this guide, such as the threats and synergies, since they take soooo much time to write because of the insane amount of matchups on toplane.

Finally, I'll just give you one more tip : have fun.
Playing a game is not interesting if it's not fun. So, please, have fun.

Thanks for reading this guide, I hope it made you want to at least try it.

As long as it was my first guide, don't hesitate to give me some feedbacks on the Discussion section.

Cya !