Hello everyone!

this is one of my few guides because i think people on here are way better at making them than i am but here it goes.

ive been playing Soraka for almost....a long ****ing time so hopefully ive learned a thing or two!

Pros:
Amazing sustain

a well timed Infuse can destroy enemy ap carries late game.

Decent map presence after lvl 6 with her Wish (counters Requiem! lol)

Cons:
having her will most likely not earn your lane many kills

pretty squishy

Starcall isnt very relevant unless you have a ton of ap

Runes are pretty easy to pick on soraka considering shes support to make sure the ad cary gets some farm in

I always grab Greater Quintessence of Gold and Seal of Armor on my support champs just to start

since soraka is pretty squishy i usually grab Mark of Armor but really any defensive runes will do, i just prefer armor since your opponents will most likely not have a ton of magic damage.

now for the other imprtant early game element Masteries!

[skills]

to really get the best out of Soraka's amazing sustain abilities you abstolutely should not get any ranks in her Starcall until you cant level her other abiities.

Summoner spells are really easy on Soraka since you basically have some combination of Flash, Exhaust, and/or Heal.

with very few exeptions i use Flash and Exhaust in most lanes, using Flash for defense mostly and Exhaust to get my carry kills in lane and for peeling tanky-dps champs off my carry late game.

i throw Heal in there because ill admit that "triple heal soraka" is pretty fun!

as with all supports, your early game item choices can help win your lane and possibly the game (regardless of how irrelevant you seem).

i find myself starting with Crystalline Flask and at least one sight ward in just about every lane now, even more so on support as Crystalline Flask will save you money in the long run.

when i have enough money, i always go back to get philosopher's stone ASAP. then depending on how my lane is doing i either get kage's lucky pick or Boots.

after that its pretty much up to you, i usually rush Aegis of the Legion into Runic Bulwark right after i get tier 2 boots (usually Ionian Boots of Lucidity) depending on enemy team composition.

this is about the point you want to at least get Sightstone if not go straight for Ruby Sightstone because of how much money you save on wards using these (feel free to build this before Aegis of the Legion as you can then use all your money for Runic Bulwark without having to worry about buying sight wards.

After that i go for Mikael's Blessing to help my carry do his job or Shard of True Ice to help the tank initiate.

finish off strong with Shurelya's Battlesong for great inititation or to help your team escape (feel free to get this item at any pointin the game as it is just too amazing on a support champ to NOT get.

Soraka works well with basically any ad carry, although if you play her with an Ezreal you can basically allow him to farm every creep in the entire lane for the first 15 minutes of the game.

in team fights NEVER underestimate how much you can do, if the enemies decide they want to initiate on one of your friends you can use Astral Blessing to heal him and increase his armor enough to keep him alive long enough for the rest of your team to get there.

also Infuse can be surprisingly powerful in team fights, you just have to make sure to use it on someone who uses a lot of spell casts ( Vladimir / Ahri / or even save it for Katarina to interupt her Death Lotus ).

Soraka is just really good at helping out her team, whether its using Astral Blessing on the Swain who gets caught, to turning around a teamfight by using Infuse on Akali so your team can jump on her and burst her down. the one thing i always remember when playing Soraka is that timing is everything!