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Recommended Items
Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Salvation (PASSIVE)
Soraka Passive Ability
Introduction
Before, I guess when I first started playing League, Soraka was a character that wasn't necessarily wanted. Some other guides even recognize that people berated others for choosing her, and some still think, to this day, that she is a bad character. However, I cannot tell how many times I've been cheered as being the best Soraka someone has ever played with, or even their best support. I feel I should take screen caps of the chat box after game as evidence of so many colon-D faces made, but for now I'll just make a guide here to hopefully let others be praised for being one awesome support.
But enough of that...
Having



Other possible spells
Ignite. It's not recommended by me, but the pressure this spell has in lane cannot go unspoken for. At or around level 3 the true damage this spell does can easily force back an attack or even secure a kill. Poke the enemy to about 70% of their health, give the carry a wink and a nod and go in, silencing them first then igniting them, following up with damage. If they are pushed up enough the ignite damage would have gone through getting the enemy low, and then the carry can ignite them. 260 (Lvl 4) to 540 (Lvl 11) free damage over a few seconds almost always means a kill. If not, the enemy loses Creep Score.
Runes




Standard flat Armor and Magic Resistance, with Health Quints for more Effective Health and synergy with

Other possible rune sets
In replacement of health,








- In Defense, I take
Block and
Unyielding to reduce damage early on. Matched with the runes' armor bonus, this helps greatly with dealing with early-game ADCs.
- Also in Defense,
Veteran's Scars boosts starting health bonuses to 114, and
Juggernaut takes all that and adds 3% to it, allowing even more Effective Health.
-
Recovery is useful for staying around even when low on health. Because heals go to teammates almost exclusively, any health gain helps.
- Onto Utility, I take
Fleet of Foot and
Wanderer to be able to get there faster. With character speed being 340/365/385/445, 6.5% is like taking a second pair of boots, and if
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed are selected, that's 11% increase!
-
Meditation helps for not running out of mana as quickly early on, helping up to the point when
Athene's Unholy Grail is purchased.
-
Summoner's Insight is taken to allow
Heal to be used more often, shaving off 30 seconds between uses. Also,
Exhaust can be used more often to ensure a kill or escape early on, and any CDR on
Flash is nice.
-
Greed is taken to gain more gold, totaling 3 gold per 20 seconds, but more importantly it leads up to
Scavenger , which, when combined with
Nomad's Medallion gets 5g per nearby creep kill. Combined further with
Bandit and some harassing, this adds up to be a mountain's worth of gold later on.
-
Wealth is taken to allow the purchase of two
Stealth Wards at the start of the game.
-
Expanded Mind gives a larger mana pool to help not run out, and with Mana Font from
Chalice of Harmony, or for synergy with
Archangel's Staff, mana shouldn't ever be a problem.
- I take
Inspiration to help in catching up with levels later on. This is for when I am just under my carry or when team fighting, since the other lanes are often a higher level. The sooner abilities are maxed, the better, and this helps especially mid-game.
Other Mastery Choices
Instead of putting two in





Really, though, these two are the only two I'd say to change if any changes are to happen, giving 5 points to spend anywhere else. Perhaps try



Additionally, Taking both the points out of

For the item builds there are three (3) main branches:
- If 3 or more enemies are magic users...
- If 3 or more enemies are non-magic users...
- If the team is mixed well but it's easy to spot the real damage dealers...

The General Build above shows the optimal ability selection for the laning phase of the game and moving into the end game. Taking







If 3 or more enemies are magic users
... then it should be inherently obvious to build magic resist, especially if early on magic damage is hurting.










If 3 or more enemies are damage-based
... Continuing the General Build ( Talisman of Ascension), armor product should be built.









If the enemy team seems balanced...
... but it's clear who the real heavy-hitters are, inspection of their item choices is needed to determine which aspect should be built. Considering the team is balanced, I'd go with




Soraka is a support
She is not a casual heal a bit here and CC there, a bit of warding this. No. Being a support, the player controlling her should have the mindset of a support. When I'm playing her I'm focused almost entirely on the well-being of my lane partner and team. All heals go to them almost exclusively, even if I only have 6% HP and they have 78%, they still get the heal (except in late-game team fights and I'm the focus, where-in the longer it takes to kill me the longer the enemies are bombarded with my team's assault). (I hope to get a video up of how I do it, since visual representation is the best way to see how it's done.)
Early game supporting
At the start of the game it's all about the carry. As mentioned above, the healing goes almost exclusively to them and is only used on Soraka if the carry's health is 90% or higher and mana isn't below 200, AND the enemies aren't close to the turret.







When
Wish is obtained
don't be afraid to use it to save the carry if the chances of saving them are nearly 100%. The ult does take some time to come back up, though hopefully reduced by at least 20% by now, and shouldn't be used so lightly, but one less death is one less kill for the enemy team and a whole lot of CS and turret health maintained. Now that this ability has been unlocked, it's time to start watching the other lanes as well. Clicking on the mini map to see how top lane is doing in a fight (assuming the hero icons are very close) or mid and making the call to heal them if they need it or heal them for the sake of the assist, though try not to do only that since there are plenty of ways to get assists later on that doesn't involve wasting an ult. Another way to watch the other lanes is to look at their health under their icons on the left side of the screen. When team health is below about 70% each character be wary of a death that could be potentially averted from using 
When laning is over...
... and team-fighting is beginning, STAY WITH THE TEAM. This seems an obvious thing to do, but what I mean by it is to literally stay with them even if low on health. The presence of an extra person close by plays mind games on the enemy team,








During team fights
- Always wait a second when conflict begins, then heal the focused team mate with
Astral Blessing. Odds are they'll still be the focus, so
Wish while running up to
Heal if their heal drops below 60% (so the
Wish can most likely heal other friendly's instead of just being used on one person {even though sometimes it's the best thing to do}). Triple heal is powerful, but quadruple heal if
Mikael's Blessing was purchased is unbelievable.
- If the team as a whole drops below an average of 80% health, so 4 people are missing 1/5 of their health or 3 people are missing a little more than that, use
Wish immediately, then proceed to use
Astral Blessing on the person who has the lowest health afterwards, because they're the one being focused. The Armor gain from it is phenominal in team fights, and the lower the health the more is healed, but be wary of any
Morellonomicons or
Igniters out there. Even
Tristana or
Miss Fortune's abilities can hurt, so watch above the focused's head.
- Make it rain with
Starcall as often as possible. The stacking MR drop on the enemies means the heavier the storm the more damage Starcall and teammate's attacks does/do. Also, it shaves off seconds from
Astral Blessing's cool down, so the focused player can be healed again to ensure they survive and get their kills/ dismantle enemy team.
- Don't forget that
Exhaust is an awesome tool at reducing incoming damage. I typically use this on the person focusing my tank/ADC or simply their ADC when they are present (which is nearly all the time late-game). Otherwise,
Exhaust is used when chasing enemies to slow them down and ensure a kill (assist).
- Usually when one or two people die, the team begins to retreat. Talisman of Ascension should be used if the team decides to chase after the other, whether that's the friendly team chasing or retreating. If
Soraka is ahead of her team mates, stop, go back a bit, then apply the boost so there isn't any more deaths then what occurred. Using
Exhaust to slow the enemy approaching fastest and speeding the team up ensures more survivors nearly every time, and if chasing, slowing the person closest and speeding up the team gets kills/assists.
- Don't be afraid to charge in. If the team is being a bunch of little girls (or boys since children in general are
cowardlyscared) take the charge if they are close enough to quickly head in. I recommend only doing this if armor and MR is high enough and all heals are up and ready to use, becauseSoraka IS going to be focused.
Zhonya's Hourglass helps in the situation as it usually means enemy ults and abilities are wasted while invincible.
Above all, the best support knows when her time has come to step up to the plate in order to save her team, even if it costs her her very own life. 1 kill is better than 2 or 3, and the other team mates are the ones who need fed, so the longer they live to kill creeps the better. If it's coming down to a team wipe,



Then accept Death's cold embrace, knowing that your sacrifice saved the lives of many others.
To heal... and protect.
And if nobody was saved /surrender. Idiots.
That was some dramatic stuffs, but really, it's a last-ditch effort thing; don't go throwing Soraka out towards the enemies all the time (the intended deaths per game is below 5, keep this in mind).
Jinx





Ashe





Vayne




Annie



























- I am archiving this build until I have thoroughly tested the many, many, many changes that the last few patches have made. I will unarchive and update the build(s) when I'm done testing out of the new item changes a plethora of times.
(Pre- 4.4 Patch)
3/5/'14
- Pretty much gutted the build. After the recent patch I went back and started building a better route, and I noticed that Athene's wasn't actually needed to keep Mana up, so I reworked it all, because the whole thing was centered around that item. This set-up has worked well so far. I also deleted the main section to make it shorter. Abilities were the big deal but not anymore; since Star Call was a major issue in CS, I took it out. Waiting to see reaction(s). Also, added MF to the carry experiences.
2/9/'14
- Changed spells around and the explanation given below the general build to better reflect the way I'm using her now. Changed General Build's abilities to reflect a more-seen theme to how I progress, while noting how Starcall can be dangerous. Changed the Runes of the build for better balanced defenses and explained change. Removed two Items from the build because they have since fallen out of use. Changed the item progression to be specific on the purchasing order. Deleted an entire chapter (for now). Added an entry into the Personal Experience with Carries chapter— Sivir.
1/28/'14
- Added my personal build to the builds list. Jumbled personalized item pallet and all. Changed the chapter from "Why no Flash" to something with a bit of alliteration, seeing as how I have since started using Flash every game to see what the buzz is about. It's okay. Maybe saves me once or twice a match (Draft-Pick games) or up to 4 times in Free-Pick. Elaborated more on my choice of Runes. Added a bit about Masteries on the bottom. Got a bit more realistic about the examples of success thing, since playing without my team and playing solo Draft-Pick have since shown me that the real average is 12-17 APG, if the enemies know when to surrender. Added Malphite to the list of carries I've been with, even though he's not really a carry.
Bonus: Oddly enough, Fleet of Foot under "Masteries Explanation" is noted as an ability of Sivir.
1/23/'14
- Began a social experiment on the guide. I'll see how this works. Also noticed, and fixed, a few sentences that seemed to be missing. (I guess I was in a Normal play mood when I typed them.)
1/21/'14
- Added final statement to introduction, removed an item from Core Items selection to reflect stats accurately, added a part under 'The Way to Play' chapter about using the global healing ultimate, wished there was actual criticism pertaining to the effectiveness of the build and not theory, realized one thing that was pointed out about the abilities selection (though that build isn't what I use or talk about, so that shows if people are reading it), updated the picture (which still isn't an image) and stats mentioned, and added some entries to the also added 'Personal Experiences with Carries' chapter.
1/16/'14
- Published guide. Things I need to add are: Notes on the limited Warding, Summary, and personal experience with carries. Also, the image fails to load. Not sure why. I'll just put up the link to it instead for now. Upon final inspection, the image had a weird repeat thing, so I edited that out.
1/13/'14
- Began working on Guide.
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