Hello ★

My name is Yuzu, I'm 25 years old and I am actually pretty new to League.
After playing for a few months and getting some great results on Soraka (Mastery 6, working on Mastery 7), I thought I could write a beginner friendly guide.

I just started at the beginning of season 10 and a moba, such as League, can be really overwhelming for beginners. Even if you played many videogames in the past, starting on such a knowledge heavy game can be super stressful.
So you like to play Support? You like Sorakas design and want to learn her?
I present you: Not the best guide, but one that'll get you through the beginning stages and some games (with the basics and maybe a vocabulary that is a little bit easier, when you are new to the game). I try to focus on things that confused me at the beginning. For this guide I also asked friends, that just started with League, some that have been playing since the beta came out and the r/SorakaMains Subreddit. (Thank you all for the help!)

This guide is not a 100% finished. On the bottom you can see the extra things I still want to add. If you have any extra ideas or wishes, let me know!

How to start as Soraka, when I am completely new to League, just past lvl 10?
Take the first runes I showed you on top (pre make a Rune page in your collection), at the beginning of the match take Relic Shield, 2 health pots and the yellow vision trinket that's for free ( Stealth Ward). Have fun! It's all about practicing and having fun, don't be ashamed at the beginning!!
You can use the practice tool to look at the different builds and her abilities.

If you already did your first matches and want to know more about runes, Items and your role as a Support, keep on reading!

Pros

★ Heavy Heals
★ scales good in mid end end game (esp. team fights)
★ Global heal ultimate (R)
★ Works with most ADCs (Attack Damage Carry, the person you support)
★ Her E (esp. the silence of it)

Cons:

★ Squishy
★ immobility
★ She is the main focus in team fights
★ Can poke some lanes, but has to play safely on most lanes, especially when you are new and are not used to position well (this is why I really like Relic Shield as a beginner item, when you are just starting out as Soraka)

PASSIVE ABILITY

Salvation (Passive): Sorakas passive is quite nice. She gains 70% movement speed, when moving towards an allied champion that is below 40% of their maximum health. This gives her at least a little bit of movement in sticky situations, since she is not the best at roaming and moving around the map efficiantly. So buying boots early, is not bad.

The Q ability is Starcall. It is a damage dealing spell, with a short cast time. The spell focuses an area on the floor, damages the enemies in that area, heals you a bit (if you hit a champion) and slows them a little. Great for poking the enemies in lane, to get a little bit life back, to kite others and so on. I like to put one point in Q when we arrive at the lane, to get some sustain, but I'll max out W first.

The W is one of the most important abilities, if you want to play heal Soraka and this is what I usually want to level first. You heal a team mate and give up a percentage of your own life. You should build Items with cooldown reduction, so you can spam this ability in end game team fights. You can't use this spell on yourself, you have to use Q/items/plants/recalls to get your health back. This spell can change team fights completely and gets super strong in mid to late game.

The E should get it's first skill point when you reach level 3. It is a strong silencing spell, that casts an area on the floor which silences your enemies. They get a little bit of damage and if they stay in this area for, longer than 1,5 seconds, they get rooted for 2 seconds. On this spell, not the root is the important aspect, but the silence. It has a rather long cooldown, compared to her other spells, so use it wisely. Don't use it to poke in lane (even though the range is better than Starcalls range). Use it to silence follow ups, when the enemy team engages, in team fights and even to cancel quite a few ults (R abilities like the one of Miss Fortune). When I started, I used this spell without a thought and poked with it, I got punished really quickly for that. So learn from my mistakes.

The R is your ultimate/ult and should get a skill point whenever it is possible. Another spell where you have to build cooldown reducting items for, because it is super important and strong. (Don't forget that 40% cooldown reduction is max) This Spell heals your entire team (including yourself), so you can help your teammates fighting on the other side of the map. It even has a 50% heal increase, when the allied champions are below 40% health. So sometimes, it's even worth to wait an extra second. BUT: Use it wisely. If a single person on the other side of the map will lose the fight, no matter what, don't waste it. You always have to keep the cooldown in mind and if it's worth it.

Super Noob Beginner Tipp 1: keep the 3 middle fingers of your left hand on Q,W and E. Adjust to use R (Ult), D and F (Summoner Spells). Those are the most important keys and you'll get used on pressing them without thinking after a while. I personally like to have all spells on quick cast. Just build a custom game, press escape, look at the key options there and try everytging on minions and maybe even bots. I watched friends have some problems at the beginning, when they weren't used to gaming on a PC too much or even when they were just new to a moba.

FLASH: Just always stick to Flash as your first choice. It'll safe you in not winnable fights. Just flash away, when you see no other option. But use it wisely! The cooldown is quite long.

EXHAUST: Exhaust is a very safe, very supportive option as a second spell. It reduces targeted enemy champions attack by 40% and movement speed by 30%. Very nice to get out of ganks, to use at their damage dealer. Also good to secure a kill, when they almost got away, or to help in a big team fight, where the enemy damage dealer would be a big problem otherwise.

IGNITE: You can use this one in 2 situation. 1. Situation: You play an aggresive lane, with lot's of poking and your ADC likes to engage. With ignite you can play a lot more aggresive. (It works against some matchups, but slow laning is much better with Soraka) 2. Situation: Yuumi and co! If the enemy team also has an healer, like Yuumi or Nami, you can bring ignite, since it does not only deal damage over time, but also reduces all healing received and regeneration rates by 40%. It does not scale as well in late game. So I would personally still go with exhaust most of the time (except for Yuumi. I hate Yuumi!)

BARRIER: Shields your champion for 95 + (20 per level) for 2 seconds. It has a shorter cooldown, so you get a lot of sustain with it and can hold ground on your lane and in team fights better. Some love it, I think it's useful, but I still prefer exhaust most of the time.

Super Noob Beginner Tipp 2: On top you see several "rune builds". I was super confused at the beginning and it's fine if you are, too! Just hover over the runes and read their description, choose one build that sounds good for you, and build it. For that you go into your collection in the League Client, and there you can pre make your rune pages. You can name them and choose them before a game. It'll make it super easy to pick the right runes without being pressured by the champion select timer.


My favorite build for starting as Soraka is:

KEYSTONE Summon Aery: This is going to be your key rune. It provides extra damage when you poke and a shield when you heal. So it's an overall stable rune for Soraka, especially in the early laning phase. Manaflow Band: Hitting enemy champions with a spell grants 25 maximum mana, up to 250 mana. When you stacked 250 extra mana, Manaflow Band restores 1% of your missing mana every 5 seconds. Especially nice after a few levels of poking a little and in mid and end game. Transcendence: With this one, you can rush the 40% cooldown reduction. You get 10% CDR at level 10. When you reach the 40% reduction max., you get AP (Ability Power) for any extra CDR. It is nice for beginners, who can't farm as good with their support items yet and build items slowly. If you think you can reach the CDR you need without it, you can use Celerity. This will allow you to gain more movement, which Soraka lacks, to roam and to run from dangerous situations. Gathering Storm: Another good beginner rune, since it gives you AP (Ability Power) over time. It scales better in mid and late game. When you get more comfortable with her, like to poke more and increase your general damage on champions, you can also choose Scorch, which sets champions on fire for 15-35 bonus magic damage based on level with a 10 second cooldown. Bone Plating: This will make Soraka a little bit less squishy. After taking damage from an enemy champion, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from them deal 30-60 less damage. It has a cooldown of 45 seconds. This rune helps a lot in laning phase, when the enemy champions engage you. Revitalize: Outgoing and incoming heals and shields are 5% stronger and increased by an additional 10% on targets below 40% health. This is great on Soraka, since she heals and provides shields with Summon Aery. For the last stats, you can choose Adaptive Power twice and Shield, which grands you Armor, or magic resist, instead of armor. On the top you can click through other rune options, you can try out. Just read through the runes and try to find out if you like some and fit to your play style. You can slowly learn the differences and find out in which match ups which runes are good. But first, find a good basic rune page (like the one I just showed you) to start playing and learning the basics.

This can be confusing for new players, but you'll get used to it.
In game is a shop, right at your base where you also start.
Over the course of a match, you buy things that make you stronger, tankier, better at healing or items you can even use (active items).
I'll show you a few item options for Soraka, and I'll also talk about some stable items which are always nice to have. Building different "builds" for different matchups is something you have to learn over time. So at the beginning, focus on a few items you know and slowly build your knowledge.

CDR

HEAL & SHIELD +

ACTIVE ITEMS

On top and here I showed you quite many items and you don't have to know all of them from the beginning. You will learn which ones to build in which situations, over time. But now you at least have a list and can research them whenever you want.



I'll now give you some Options, for a steady beginning build:

1. Starting Items:
They help you collect gold, you level them by earning gold and later use them to ward for vision ( Stealth Ward)

SPELLTHIEF's EDGE

VS

RELIC SHIELD

I would personally go Relic Shield the first few matches and not poke the enemies too much. But this starting Item is actually really nice for Soraka, since it grands you AP (Ability Power) and mana regeneration. You get gold, every time you hit an enemy champion with a spell or an auto attack. I often use this one and really like it, but I also believe that the shield option is also a great one for Soraka, when you play a very safe lane.

Relic Shield is the item I used, when I started with Soraka and still use, when I'm really unsure if I can handle poking in a difficult lane. Because this one gives you 80 extra health and health regeneration, which makes you survive easier and is nice for your W. With this Item you earn money by last hitting minions and share it with your ADC. BUT: Look if the Shield has "stacks" up, you can see that as a little symbol over your abilities. You don't want to steal last hits from your ADC, but you also should always use the stacks, to level your item and earn gold. It's helpful to help push the wave when your ADC wants to. I always try to use my stacks on cannon minions or at least meele ones.

2. Core Items:

FORBIDDEN IDOL I often pick this Item up, when I recall for the first time. The forbidden Idol is the core item for some nice first Items you can build. Here are some examples:

REDEMPTION This is a very safe, first item to build. It gives you many nice stats like cooldown reduction (don't forget to try to get the 40% CDR), 200 health, health and mana regeneration. It also is an active item, which you can use to create an area in which you heal your team and do a little damage on enemies. You can even use this one, when you are dead and throw it in a team fight to still help.

ARDENT CENSER This is one I often build, depending on the situation. You have an ADC that scales super good with attack damage? Build it! Ask if you are unsure about it. But this Item gives everyone you cast your heal spells on 10-30% attack speed. It also grands you 10% stronger heals and shields, ability power, CDR, movement speed and mana regeneration. Sounds nice on paper and I do believe that it often pushes my heals a lot.

MIKAEL's CRUCIBLE An item I don't build that often (since I forget to use its active ability a lot) and only build for the magic resistance sometimes. But I've seen it on some great Sorakas. Read through the item descpription and decide if it fits your playstyle. If you want to build armor and not magic resist, build Zhonya's Hourglass and try to learn to use the active ability of it. It can change entire team fights and is super strong!

If you want to go Athene's Unholy Grail first...:
...you can also start with a Fiendish Codex

3. Boots:
I often get the core of the boots ( Boots) while finishing my first big item like Redemption, and then I finish my boots and build the second item. But it is up to the situation how fast you rush your boots or your items. You'll get a feeling for it over time. I used Ionian Boots of Lucidity for a long time only (to rush my CDR of 40%), but recently switched to Boots of Swiftness now and then and I really like it.

IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY

VS

BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS

This will help you rush your cooldown reduction and let's u spam heal much earlier in game. It's a very good pick and as soon as you play Transcendence, it's okay if you get more than 40% CDR. If you feel like you don't need it, I have another option for you ->

I started using this option when I started playing Senna a lot. She doesn't have a lot of movement speed and our Starchild Soraka has even less, which makes roaming around the map, getting vision for the team and arriving to team fights a lot harder. This option will defenetly help you with that! Look at your CDR after a few matches and think about which boots will help you more.

Mobility Boots are also a great option for roaming!!!

Look at the other options I linked on top and try to think about which item could be helpful in which situation. This way I learned to be flexible with my build.
Zhonya's Hourglass gives you armor and the active effect is super strong, Twin Shadows is great for extra crownd control and Shurelya's Battlesong can give you and your team extra movement for sticky situations. There are so many great items, some more and some less useful. You'll get used to the big item pool, I promise!

If you have any examples, ideas or want to add something, please let me know!

Starchild Ambulance We have recently seen Rekkles play Soraka, who is known for playing ADCs. She get's used on the top lane, sometimes even mid. A friend tried jungling with her and it worked! (and I was done playing for the day in shock) But I want to focus on her impressive healing abilities, because that's where she really shines. As support in general, your job at the beginning is making sure your ADC can farm and to help with engages (on both sides). You should also pick up Stealth Ward for free in the shop at the beginning and switch it out to Oracle Lens, as soon as you leveled your starter item up (since you can use those to ward then). With Oracle Lens you can find enemy wards and destroy them. It's important to have a lot of vision and deny the vision of the enemy team, and as a support you help with that a lot. At the beginning you ward the jungle entrances to your bot lane, to see if the enemy jungler comes down. You can also ward the dragon, as soon as he comes up, so your team can see if an enemy engages the dragon. (it's in the round pit in the river on the lower half of the jungle) Also buy and use Control Wards! Our Starchild does not have the best movement speed, so when roaming around the map, you have to ask yourself for what, if it's worth it and if it's safe enough to go there. Getting vision and finding out where to help in mid game, are your key points as a support. Especially in team fights, when contesting a dragon or Baron, you can shine with your spam healing and your silences. Soraka is not the best at split pushing a lane since: As a healer she is too weak to efficiantly clear waves, she has barely any movement to get away, when enemies engage and she is not strong enough to fight alone either. So always think about sticking to someone else and only roam alone, when you know you are safe enough and do it for a good reason.

It's not bad to have a small champion pool and learn some other champions than Soraka.
When I started expanding my support champion pool, I started with something that seemed similar to her and chose Nami. She is an enchanter that also has heal power but more CC and poking abilities, which make her great in laning phase.
Sona is also a good enchanter.
Switching up the type of support would be great though.
Senna for example is also one of my all time favorites. She can be played as ADC or Support and is super fun and has an easy entry level. With her, poking is the most fun and super rewarding.
Other champions I tried and liked so far were Zyra and Leona, one mage and one engage champion. Both are fun but very different than something like Soraka.
It really is up to you, which playstyles you prefer. I would slowly check out a few support options and stick with the ones that are the most fun.
Having around 3 champions, which you can play safely, are more than enough for the beginning.

You'll be hated or loved, no inbetween!

Playing Soraka can be super fun and feel extremely rewarding.
It feels like you can actually change something.
Deciding a team fight with your heals, helping top lane win a fight with your R, while helping your ADC to farm at the same time, silencing your enemies when your team is escaping. I had so many moments that felt super exciting!
But this is a guide for beginners and maybe someone in a lower elo and there is something you have to learn early on:
Playing a normal match is for fun and practice! It is a game and you should prioritize the fun you have with the game. If your low elo ADC thinks Soraka is not viable (really happened to me) or if he/she can't adjust to a slower lane and blames you for it, mute them!
Pings are enough to communicate in these type of games and you can concentrate on getting better with the champion you actually like!
Just focus on little things and learn one thing after another. Maybe poking in one week, then practicing roaming and so on. When I first started mid, right at the beginning, my main focus for weeks was simply last hitting minions.

/muteall is something that people will tell you over and over again. The toxicity in league is really extreme and it's important to always put your health first.
But if you can work past that, this game can be so much fun and it's at least worth trying.
Good luck!!!

If you have any reccomandations, find any mistakes, have something you'd like me to add, just comment. I'm thankful for every critique and discussion about my favorite Starchild!

NEXT: Work on Synergies and Threats (Help would always be appreciated)

★ Adding Header
★ Describing early/mid/late game priotities
★ Vision guide: How to roam and ward
★ extra infos about support role in general
★ Thinking about giving extra info for the other rune pages (would it be too much?)

★ Version 1 online: 24.06.2020
★ Changed some items and fixed the Relic Shield mistake (24.06.2020)
★ Some more item and rune page fixes (24.06.2020)
★ Added more Threats and Synergies (26.06.2020)
★ Fixed a bug in the item section (27.06.2020)