I recently started playing support, and really enjoyed what you could do. The first champion I tried support was Soraka because she was recommended, cheap and I had seen other people play her well(I am aware she is now also free-to-play). I saw some guides on here but none like how I play her. I prefer a support early but building into a AP towards the end.

Pros

Multiple healing abilities
Mana restore for allies
Good supportive passive

Cons

Squishy
No strong CC (Only silence) or ways to escape
Low damage at start of game

Why These Masteries?

I go heavily down the defense route because Soraka is quite squishy and this eliminates that slightly. There is no masteries in the offence route as you wont be targeting dealing damage much anyway (You know...playing support and all). Even though, I have gone mostly defence and a little utiliy the reverse is also viable for playing Soraka.

Why These Runes?

The 'Greater Mark of Mana' and 'Greater Seal of Mana Regen' and chosen because as Soraka a small amount of additional mana is need to not keep running out and becoming useless or be forced to recall. The 'Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction' is vital so you can keep healing the Adc along side you without having to wait. Finally 'The Greater Quintessence of Gold' is a must for anyone playing support as it is a little addition to the gold earned since you wont be killing minions.

Final Build Explained


Mercury's Treads Provide much movement speed as well as magic resistance so you are not easily harassed by the other support. Ruby Sightstone is a vital item for anyone playing support, so you are not constantly wasting all your money on wards. Will of the Ancients allows you to start building in the AP side of Soraka, as well as providing a useful aura to help out your allies. However is you have very few AP champions on your team I would suggest building a Shureyla's Reverie. Liandry's Anguish Provides health end game so Soraka is less squishy and can survive in team fights, and more ability power because you need your ult to heal as much as possible. Abyssal Mask and Zhonya's Hourglass both provide large amounts of ability power end game, allowing you to start dealing more magic damage and heal more.

My Recommendations

Flash Is vital for escaping with most champions and is needed even more with Soraka as she has not strong CC attacks.
I choose Exhaust as it allows your adc to chase an opponent down easier and secure a kill. Soraka also lacks CC (apart from silence) which makes it even more useful.

Other Viable Options

Teleport is useful for most champions in allowing map control or quickly returning to save and turret or joining a team fight.
Heal is useful for the support aspect of Soraka as it allows you to heal your teams adc even more and make sure they can collect as much feed as possible and don't die.
Barrier can be used to attempt to prevent death in a situation, such as being ganked.

Ghost can be used instead of flash if you have not unlocked flash yet.

I would not recommend using any other summoner spells.

In conclusion, Soraka is a very good support especially good for less experienced players as she is easy to play. Her only real weakness which is possessed by all supports is the lack of a strong CC, but as long as you are care, ward well and the adc alongside you have decent CC you should be okay.
This guide is quite poor and may be updated soon, if I get around to it.

Thanks for reading my first guide, if down voting please give a reason as a comment as I would love some feedback on what you thought of my first guide.