Hey guys, my name is Seattlegrunge, I play on EUNE since the Sejuani patch and I want to share with you my knowledge about Soraka the Starchild, it was my first champion I have ever purchased, I was always used to play the healer back in World of warcraft, and in many other games so here it is, I hope you will learn something useful <3

PROS + great heal, even when you don't buy AP + amazing synergy with mana hungry ad carries + really really cool ultimate, when used correctly + your lane opponents won't even try to poke your carry

CONS - no hard CC - really long cooldown on your heal - REVIVE RALLY JUNGLE SORAKA is not possible now QQ (see here :D )

My favorite

• Flash was always a good pick for almost every champion- from escaping bad situation to securing kills it's really universal
• Clairvoyance I personally prefer this over Exhaust here are some examples to demonstrate how good it is:
  • you can see enemy team's starting items
  • you don't have to facecheck bushes anymore
  • you can check important objectives (Baron, Dragon, Blue buff ...)
  • you can spot enemy jungler
  and the best thing ? You can use it every minute
  note: if you have Ashe with you it loses its importance so it might be better to pick something else
  
• Exhaust is also pretty good choice good for chasing or escaping
  GOD SAVES THE QUEEN
• Heal your ADC won't almost never die...really what can beat triple (!!) heal ? :P (yea, I know Ignite, Death Lotus, Impure Shots and more :[ )
  R.I.P. KURT COBAIN
• Ignite pretty decent choice against mirror Soraka, apply during ganks or when you think you will get the kill

I run 0/9/21 most of the times and I must say it is much better than

9/0/21 with 9/0/21 you are simply too squishy even with Astral Blessing an defensive runes

Explaining my masteries choices:

• Durability scaling health, somewhat good, but not that important
• Hardiness 5 armor really nice to the early game[worth 100g]
• Resistance 2 MR not really making that much difference but once in 300 games it will save your life =D [worth 40g]
• Veteran's Scars pretty important early game help pick in 100% of your games [worth 79g]
• Summoner's Insight really awesome Clairvoyance upgrade and CDR on Flash will help sometimes
• Wanderer not bad not good, you can't do or recieve any damage for 5 seconds to get this boost
• Meditation free Faerie Charm ? YES PLEASE [worth 180gold]
• Expanded Mind sometimes helps to cast that last Starcall for the kill but generally not that important
• Greed half the bonus of kage's luck pretty important [worth 111gold mathematicaly]
• Biscuiteer your only potion use it when you don't want to leave your lane yet
• Explorer nice for preventing lvl1 invades [worth 60gold]
• Wealth let you start with the basic items i reccomended a must have
• inteligence 6% CDR is a lot ex. for your ultimate it is 7.2 seconds witch is not bad
• Pickpocket mz favorite mastery of all time defines your playstyle in lane:waiting in bush sometimes attacking enemy champion who gets too close
• Nimble most effective mastery of the utility tree 3%MS for 1mastery point is really really good ^^
  
  

Who has a good synergy with our fabulous unicorn ? It is:

• Ezreal he is pretty mana hungry early game so consider putting some more early points into your Infuse
  HEY THERE
• Graves he is already pretty tanky thanks to his True Grit and with help of Consecration, Astral Blessing and Quickdraw he will escape some pretty nasty situations, also he can spam Buckshot all day long for some decent harrasment
  CAN'T SEE ME
• Some more champions that are good thanks to their unlimited harrasment are : Sivir , Varus, Caitlyn and Urgot
  
  Who counters our favorite banana dealer ? Mainly champions with healing reduction such as Tristana, Varus or Miss Fortune it might be better to pick Janna because her Eye of the Storm won't lose the protection,
  some more specific champions are :
  • Nocturne, when he ganks other lane using his Paranoia Soraka won't be able to heal her ally (SoloQ only)
    HUE HUE HUE HUE
  • Ashe after lvl 6 she might be able to burst your adc down thanks to her Enchanted Crystal Arrow
    I LOVE YOU RANDOM READER
  • Blitzcrank he will pull you nad burst you down together with his ADC
    I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES
    other burst lane compositons will probably win if you don't play it safe
  
  Champions countered by Soraka :
  listening to smashing pumpkins atm =O
  Pretty much every poke-based adc such as Ezreal or Sivir
  • Karthus pretty obvious counter his Requiem won't do any damage thanks to your glorious Wish
    what should I write here ? QQ
  • Katarina, Malzahar, Nunu & Willump and other champions with channeled ultimates Soraka can easily stop them thanks to Infuse

Items to begin with
Faerie Charm and Rejuvenation Bead grant you some early game sustain and both enable you to purchase Philosopher's Stone pretty early of course wards are 100% needed

About potions
I don't find Mana Potion or even Health Potion really useful mainly because she will only use Astral Blessing and she already has some mana regeneration, but if you don't feel confident you can pick some instead of Rejuvenation Bead

core items
]

• Philosopher's Stone you can choose to run Kage's Lucky Pick instead if you want to harras with Starcall but beware of stealing your adc's farm !!
• Ruby Sightstone WARD WARD WARD, be sure not to use only those 3 wards, but to buy some Vision Wards too
• 
  Mobility Boots those will get you to your ward places faster, Sorcerer's Shoes are pretty bad on Soraka because you will shred enemy's magic resist with Starcall

End build

• Shurelya's Battlesong my favorite support item, it will save many lives if used correctly
• Runic Bulwark nice defensive bonus in teamfights ^^
• Locket of the Iron Solari very good against AoE ultimates, use when you see ally is about to die
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter Perma slow thanks to your Starcall nice bonus to your efficiency in teamfights
  

note: make sure your toplaner/jungler isn't going for either Runic Bulwark or Locket of the Iron Solari

When you feel like doing damage
Mobility Boots, Ruby Sightstone, Shurelya's Battlesong are really really important so don't change those

• Morellonomicon is nice with 20% CDR and healing reduction
• Abyssal Mask very useful item when your Starcall MR shred is just not enough to pick up some kills
• Liandry's Torment is also very nice thanks to its synergy with Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Optional items

• Frozen Heart really good counter to full AD team
• Mikael's Blessing pick when their team looks like this :
• Oracle's Elixir best way to counter Teemo or Evelynn
• zeke's herald decent choice for full AD team

8
Really good passive against AP junglers and ADs with some magic damage eg. Ezreal with Essence Flux

Starcall
-In teamfights you just want to spam this all day long
- 20mana per cast on rank1 is really nice, try to poke enemy champions a little
-good for defending a base against huge waves of minions

Astral Blessing
-very good healing ability
-when you are being ganked use it early for the armor boost
- never underestimate the armor boost 105 at rank5 is really nice
-can sometimes deny 1 CS (!!!) to your opponents adc when used on a minion- use this to look cool B| when leaving lane and your adc's life is full

Infuse
-tell your adc to spam his abilities a lot you will give him his mana back
- use for a little harras, when your adc's mana is full- it doesn't cost anything
- can be used to prevent enemy champion from Flashing

Wish
-takes some practice to master
- best way is to play full pre-made and call on raidcall, teamspeak or something for the most efective use of this

I wanted to make some images of where to ward and stuff but
this guy already made an AMAZING video about it if you watch this untill the end you will become much better player in general, trust me ! :D (some info is outdated though QQ)
btw. You can check his stream here : http://www.twitch.tv/ciderhelm
(not getting payd just his fan :P )

I hope someone will learn something useful in this guide <3
Be sure to let me know about all the mistakes I have made so I can improve
Criticism is more then welcome

So what are you waiting for ? Go to the Summoner's rift and bring and unleash the full power of this lovely champion !

29.6.2013 Guide has been released! YAY