Hi, my name's Stormquake. I'm a low gold player that mains mid-lane and support. Soraka is my favorite support to play because her mix of high-risk/reward healing and her ability to have a global healing presence with her ult makes her very satisfying.

If you want to help your team out by keeping them alive with potent heals and have a constant presence throughout the game due to powerful poke paired with surprising crowd control, then Soraka is the champion for you!

Here's a quick rundown of the things Soraka gives and takes from your team.


Pros:
* Absurd amounts of healing
* Respectable self-sustain
* Strong secondary Crowd Control
* Global healing ult
* Makes her ADC very hard to kill in lane
* Is cute

Cons:
* Immobile
* CC is hard to utilize without the CC of others
* Squishy without items
* Kind of item reliant

Play Video
[THE NUMERICAL VALUES AND SKILL ICONS IN THIS VIDEO ARE OUTDATED, HOVER OVER THE SKILL ICONS IN THIS SECTION FOR THE CURRENT VALUES]

Passive - Salvation: Like a good ambulance, Soraka runs faster toward low-health teammates. This helps Soraka get back into fights to save her friends, but it also helps her run away with her team when the going gets tough.

Q - Starcall: Starcall is Soraka's main poke ability. It starts off with a cooldown of 7 seconds, and ends at 5 seconds at rank 5. With max Cooldown Reduction, the cooldown will become 3 seconds, making this move quite a reliable source of poke or waveclear. The star counts as a projectile, meaning it will be blocked by and . Aiming the ability closer to yourself will cause the star to hit the ground faster. Hitting opponents in the center of the star's wake will deal substantially more damage to them, but this is harder to accomplish the farther the opponent is from you.

W - Astral Infusion: This ability is what makes Soraka who she is, reliable heals on a short cooldown. Now, don't ignore that 10% maximum health cost. While it may seem tempting to use your W whenever you can to help out your lane partner, this will come at the cost of putting you in an unfavorable position. Lucky for you, this move also comes with a passive that makes your restore health if it hits champions, giving you a way to sustain yourself while you keep your carry alive. This heal is per enemy champion so hitting 2 champions would double the heal. Be careful as this ability can still heal minions, leading to frustration and pointless damage done to yourself on a mis-click.

E - Equinox: This is Soraka's hardest CC in her kit, and it really is quite a doozy. An AoE silence that morphs into a snare gives a scary amount of potential to Soraka both in lane and in teamfights. In lane, use this ability to stop a getaway when your jungler comes to help or use it when the enemy lane tries to engage on you as an attempt to stop some of their burst. In teamfights, a well-placed Equinox will allow you to lock-down enemy carries or create an area of safety for your own. Whenever you use it, make sure it counts. That cooldown is nothing to joke about, even when you have 40% Cooldown Reduction later on.

R - Wish - Your global lifesaver. Mid-lane's about to die to ignite? Make a Wish. Top-lane needs just a bit more health to win that trade? Make a Wish. A gank went the wrong way and you suddenly find yourself fleeing from the enemy bot lane as well as their jungler and mid? Make a Wish. Does your team need that momentum to get back into a teamfight after the burst of the opposing team? Make a Wish. Really this ability has about as many uses as you'd think a global heal would have. Use it at the most opportune time and you can turn almost any play around, even those not in your own lane. Also... get yourself some global assist gold when you succeed!

In this section I will explain the 6 items which you'll find your build composed of in most games, the trinket choice, and what the purpose of this build is.

Trinket: -OR- - I personally prefer getting the Pink Ward as it furthers the vision control I can have over the map. If you constantly have an inventory spot open (which you won't in late game), then feel free to Oracle's Lens.

- Run fast! These will help you get back to lane and to your team. Make sure to slap home-guards on them to get back into the game even faster.

- If you don't get this, you'll be denying your team the vision it needs. Upgrading it to isn't important early on, but make sure you get this and your as soon as possible.

- A lot of people don't seem to like this item on Soraka. However, with how much Soraka ends up firing stars at people in teamfights and lane, not having this item will lead to you running out of mana, even if you purchased mana regen items instead. Also, this item will allow you to acquire quite a lot of AP with minimal gold investment. With Soraka's base stats and the items you purchase on this build, Seraph's Embrace will give you about 145 AP and will be over 200% gold efficient. Lastly, with Soraka sometimes becoming the focus in late-game teamfights, the shield that provides will give you quite a respectable bit of survivability, giving you a chance to gain back your health with and in order to keep dealing out heals to your team.

- This thing is so gold efficient and it also gives you a lot of cooldown reduction! You can settle for just getting a early and upgrading it after purchasing your other items if you don't need a super amount of armor early on. You can also go for an instead, but that will give you much less armor and cost more in exchange for more mana (more AP from ) and more damage.

- Spirit Visage gives Soraka a lot of what she wants. CDR, magic resist, health regen, and a passive that improves her self-healing and helps a lot with the passive on . If the enemy mid-lane is AP and spiraling out of control, I'd recommend going for this as your first finished item, or grabbing an .

- Banner is amazing this season! With AP, CDR, MR, and Health Regen, this item serves Soraka well. feigns in comparison as it gives Soraka more health and less AP, leading to her self-sustain and healing being far less efficient.

- More AP = Better heals and more damage. No other Elixir will help Soraka as much.

Why these items?

This build was created to serve many purposes, the main ones being

*Provide a good amount of Armor and MR to Soraka

*Keep health and AP at a balance where Soraka will be moderately tanky and have heals that give 100 more health than they take from her

*Achieve 40% CDR at a reasonable time

At full build, without elixir, you will have just over 2,850 health, 250 AP, 125 MR, 200 Armor, and 40% CDR. This means that your W will drain 285 health from you and provide 390 health to your target, overall granting 105 health to your team. Your will also heal you between 198 and 396 depending on your health. Below 50% health, you will get more health back from landing a on a SINGULAR champion than you will lose from using . Elixir being active will obviously make your healing more efficient as it provides AP and no health.

Now it's all well and good to discuss how the build works, but of course you also need to know how to play Soraka in order to fully utilize it.

In this section I'll go over some quick tips and tricks that will help you come to terms with Soraka easier.


* Keep yourself positioned behind minions when you can. You can poke anyone so long as you're in range, no matter what's in your way. Not every support or ADC has that luxury.


* Soraka is incredibly immobile and can't heal herself as well or as frequently as she can heal others. While I don't endorse doing this frequently, it's better to have your ADC take the brunt of a trade in lane than it is to have you take it. As long as they don't die, you'll heal them up in a jiffy and landing a few s will have you feeling great in no time as well.


* is very strong poke at early levels, dealing 105 damage in the center at its first rank. The fact that it heals you also allows you to use it to bully your opponents for greater benefit and win small trades.


* Keep an eye on the health bars of your allies if you have up! Really it's a good habit to look at them all the time, but that's besides the point. A well-timed wish can save a teammate and even allow them to finish off an opponent, granting you some assist gold for your awareness.


* Hold on to your until you really need it. When it's not up, an engage will be harder to stop and could cost you more health than you'd like from both you and your carry.


* If you're at full health and the ADC has some slight dents, try to land a . There's a delay in healing if a champion is hit, so as soon as it hits a champion, use and then receive your self-heal. It looks stylish, and it also gives a more immediate boost of health to your lane as opposed to using and then trying to heal yourself afterwards.


* Keep track of your teammates in fights and make decisions on who to stick to for heals. You don't always need to be right by your ADC. If you have a fed bruiser or mid that requires constant health maintenance, stick to them instead. Remember that your heals do more for your team in a fight when given to those with the most damage potential.


* It's best to stay in the midst of your team rather than far in the back with the carries. This makes it so that you can't be easily caught, but also allows you to maneuver easier to provide heals to the front and back line in fights.

[COMING SOON; This section will go over what other champions go well with Soraka as well as general team compositions to play her in.]

Until this is done, thank you guys for reading my build so far! I hope this helps you out there on the Rift. Soraka has always been one of my go-to champions through thick and thin and maybe this will make her one of yours as well!

"Every step; a new journey." -