This my second build, featuring possibly THE most underrated champion in League of Legends. Like my first build, I want you all to see this as a GUIDE only. Every game is different and no build should EVER be set in stone. You're just asking for a spanking!
Part of this guide is me theory-crafting the other is game play experience. If you down-rate because you don't like this champion then what is wrong with you?

Personally I love this set-up because when you buy the Ruby Crystal you start the game with 666 health. A demonic half-goat with 666 health? BETTER GTFO.

Rest your weary soul while Soraka cures what ails ya!

The general layout of this guide will be the same as my Mundo guide. Pros/Cons, summoner skills, masteries, skill selection, runes, items, play style and any other topics I can think of.

PROS

I know it's in my Mundo build aswell but Soraka too has...

UNLIMITED LANE TIME
Global heal
Effective farming ability (Tis True!)
In this build NOT that squishy
3 forms of healing and 1 of mana regen. AMAZING


CONS

You WILL be the first target in team fights (If the enemy is smart)
Having a bad team can mean you are useless
Sometimes you will find that your team simply does not have enough damage to win. What ends up happening is a slow decline into defeat =(

Soraka Toolbox

When I first wrote this I assumed a bit much. (Thanks to a Aikage for pointing this out) So now I'm here to teach you some tricks every Soraka must know.

1. To heal yourself with your second skill use Alt+W, this prevents you from accidently targeting a minion (You'd be surprised how often this happens)
2. On the left side of the screen in-game you can see character portraits of your team mates. If you want to heal someone close to you click W and then the portrait. Again this saves you from accidentally targeting a minion. Also works for E spell.
3. It is a good idea to keep an eye on the portraits on the left to know when the best time to use your ultimate is.
4. Not sure of the range of your Q spell? Hover your mouse over the spell and you will see a radius of it's range.
5. It pays to tell your lane partner what your first spell will be, incase they expect you to be covering their arses. Thanks to Ruby Death for this input.

If you think of anymore for this toolbox let me know!

Summoner Skills


"Ahhhhh! What a noob! Hey! Enemy team! Our Soraka got Heal! GG!" Etc, etc. That won't be complaining when you triple heal them and save them from certain doom. ALSO, take note that using this spell applies a debuff to you, reducing your incoming healing by 50%!! This must be the LAST spell you use in a combo and ONLY as a last resort OR to save an ally. (Thanks to JunSupport for pointing this out)


"There goes our inhibitor turret..." NEVER FEAR, SORAKA'S HERE! The three main reasons I grab this even though it has a MASSIVE cooldown is A) For the global map defensive which Soraka excels at, B) The passive gives your last hitting a bit of breathing room and C) You can bait enemies into attacking you when all three forms of your heal are off cooldown and lead them into a turret, activate , , and if you need to . Free kill for you!


All these are well and good except running away is the first sign of a rout! Never show the enemy FEAR.

It would definitely be a good idea to grab an escape spell but I normally turret hug or stick in a group of team mates and don't find it so necessary.

Masteries

Alright, the main complaint people have about Soraka is that she is so f***ing squishy! Defensive masteries mean she has the average amount of health as everyone else. This is extremely important EARLY game when it's 2 hits and you're dead. I decided to go for the offensive 9 aswell but it would definitely work in the utility 9. The spell penetration in offense works with , and .


Skill selection

Now, if anything this is the most versatile and changeable aspect of Soraka. Imagine you are laning normally and your partner decides to go gank. In fact the whole bottom lane decides to go gank, you gonna follow them?
MAYBE.
Is Wish off cooldown?
YES, then don't go (but keep on eye on your teams general health), you need to farm!
NO, go help them.
If the enemy are foolish and leave you to farm by yourself then grab more points in then your other skills. If your team is doing a lot of ganking/ getting ganked then grab your support skills and .
The skill selection at the top of the page is probably the best way to go. After having a look at what did (at ALL ranks) I realised it "shreded" enemies magic resistance! Can stack up to 20 TIMES and the amount shredded is the same at all levels, so you want to get 1 point in it early to help when your jungler ganks your lane.


Runes

I'm sorry I've revamped this a bit and decided my Soraka needed to do MORE in team fights. The way she's built now allows her to do some actual damage and still heal her team a f-load. I'll leave me explanation about MP and AP here for reference.

Magic Pen. and Ability Power

Let me explain why Magic Pen. is not the way to go (in this case), this could also help you in deciding which way to go for your champs!

Magic Penetration is for champs that have a BAD ability power to skill ratio but a GOOD base damage. For example: Fiddlesticks. Stacking Ability Power on Fiddle is not at all effective. Whereas magic penetration ensures that the BASE damage for his skills does the damage.

Ability Power is for champs that are the OPPOSITE. Which means they have a GOOD ability power to skill ratio and a BAD base damage.

Items

Start the game with a which you can build into or if the enemies are smart and focus you then go for if not then don't worry and grab .

ALSO Soraka is a support, but! Your team mates can decide how much you help them. It's true! For a measly 1250 gold your team can boost the healing you do to them by 20%!! Make sure EVERYONE on your team gets at one stage in the game. I can't stress this enough, a global heal, your AP from runes AND items + Spirit Visage on EVERY. SINGLE. TEAM MATE. IS AMAZING.
For the rest of the items...
I changed from Mobility boots because the CDR was too good IMO to pass up. Feel free to keep using the other boots if you feel you need the speed.
Rod of Ages takes the squishy out of Soraka and actually makes her useful!
and let you have a better part in team fights and early game farming. (Thanks to Chaotic Bliss for getting my onto DFG). After these you can choose to run some; aura items, survivability items, AP items or just keep stocking up on wards for your team.

SITUATIONAL ITEMS

If enemies are packing then rush for . ALSO, make sure your team mates do this or they'll be blaming you for not healing them.
If the enemies are packing CC's then either or even both if you want to never die haha.
Another item with amazing potential is , it is amazingly easy to gain stacks as healing a team mate that gets a kill earns you a stack. Of course it is also extremely easy to get destroyed in a team fight.

Side note: If you do get Mejai's don't play like a wuss, help your team mates even if it means you might die!

Here is the typical order of items I get

Catalyst the protector kage's lucky pick THE NEW ZHONYA'S??



Play style

Soraka lanes well with anyone ESPECIALLY champs with no mana pool because you can save the mana spell for yourself, doubling it's benefits and using heal on your partner. It is HARD to keep both yours and a team mates mana pool up early game. She also lanes especially well AGAINST casters. Why? Silence fool! That's why. Casters are essentially sacks of meat when up against a silence spell, making them good food for hungry little carries.
Also, every time, every single time that is up you want to use it. Whether on yourself, your team mate or simply harassing the enemy. It costs no mana and it makes mana regen items obsolete on Soraka.
Anyway, you basically want to discover Soraka's optimum "last hit" damage. A problem I had when I started with Soraka was the travel time of her auto attack. It is long and will take some time to master. All the while taking priority to top up your partners health/mana in case of gank attempts by you or by the enemy. Now I have, if not perfected, at least gotten used to, her last hitting and I had more minion kills then a LeBlanc who has an extremely fast auto attack.
At level 6 it might be a good idea to give your team mates a global heal just to possibly gain some assists for yourself and to give your team optimum lane time.
Another way to play is to take Mid or a 2v1 lane. Don't worry about whether or not you can carry the team in the general sense (Doing the most damage) because you can carry the team in the opposite way by undoing the enemies damage. The sooner you get to level 6 the sooner your map control will tighten and the enemies will have to deal with a healer that can be anywhere.

Mid-Late game

1. Don't go off by yourself. Just don't. You are a support yet you will be next to useless if caught without your retinue.
2. Don't be afraid to leave your team to go buy an item as long as your spell is off cooldown.
3. You also really need to make sure you don't get left behind when fleeing. The instant you are between your team mates and the enemy the instant you are dead. Even with the survivability found every where in this guide you will fall eventually.

THEORY CRAFT

Ok, this is just an idea off the top of my head. Let me create a scenario for you:
Imagine you are laning against Annie. What makes Annie an effective farmer? Her spell, which effectively allows her to keep her mana up and farm all day. SO an idea I had was to use your spell on a minion when you knew that Annie was going to last hit that minion, wasting her mana and crippling her farming ability.

Here's another: Versing a Karthus? How about making his Ultimate obsolete? All you have to do is save your until he uses his ultimate. This will ensure he doesn't get any easy-mode kills and makes him rely on skill.


For those who don't know certain terms.

DPS = Damage per Second, referring basically to champions who lower your health in a frenzy.
CC = Crowd Control, referring to stuns, slows, taunts, etc.
Carry = Champions who can basically solo an enemy team late game, usually only good when fed.
Tank = Basically a meat shield champion, one who can take hits.
Blue Pill = Means "recall".
Gank = Gang Kill, basically uneven team fights.
Jungling = Instead of fighting minions in a lane, going into the areas with the lizards/golems/wolves and fighting them.
MIA = Missing In Action. If you don't know where an enemy is tell your teammates it could potentially save them from a gank.
Auto Attacks = Your normal "right-click" attack.
Last hit = Hitting a minion when it is on low health instead of constantly attacking it. This grants you the gold and also lowers the amount of harassment enemies can do to you.
AS = Attack speed.
AP = Ability power.
AD = You guessed it! Attack damage.
ArP = Armour penetration
HP5 and MP5 = Health per 5 seconds and Mana per 5 seconds respectively.

Here are some of the scores you can achieve!

I will be adding to this GUIDE as I gain knowledge and experience. I hope you all enjoy playing Soraka!

I'd also like to credit the build "Soraka Support Style" for giving me something to start with as Soraka and Chaotic Bliss for items and ideas. Thanks go to everyone who gives constructive criticism and helps me expand on this!

(unknown embed type)