Hello summoners, my name is Qione and I main Mid/Support/ADC in LoL. This is the second guide I made in MobaFire, the first one is about Annie. You can check it out if you want :3
In this guide, I will be sharing my experience with Soraka as a support.
I feel that you can also Support with AP items for better heals and poke, but it depends on how you want to play her. If you wish to follow the support guide, just buy the items, runes, etc. here will do (If you think that this guide helps). If you want to have more AP but your role is a support, feel free to get some AP items, runes and masteries. You can also PM me if you don't know what to buy for an AP Soraka.

I hope I can help you by at least a bit after you finish reading this guide, but remember this: Whatever I write here is my OWN playing style. Every one has a different style, so the items, runes, masteries, etc. I chose may not fit your playing style. Still, I hope you would read finish this guide and vote/comment please! ♥

About Soraka Ranged, Support (Secondary: Mage) Soraka is a champion who heals, heals, and heals. She is known as the passive type and can heal you a LOT (Which is really A LOT) with her W Astral Blessing, and also the global heal Wish which heals everyone in the team. Soraka can also donate Mana to you, with her E Infuse. Soraka is somehow a "hated" champion during the laning phase as a support, because her heal is really too much. The con to her heals is that the cooldown is really long, and it costs much mana. Soraka is also not your popular and number one support pick. Why? Because Soraka's kit is mainly healing. Nothing much, her only CC is Infuse, which silence enemy. She has no escape spells, no stuns, no snares, no slows, whatever like most supports. (Heavy CC Supports like: Janna, Lulu, Blitzcrank, Thresh, Leona, etc are more popular.) Despite all her cons, I still love using Soraka as a support because of the large amount of heals she can provide you with.

talisman of ascension

Things to Note

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1. Soraka is not the best support you ever seen, because her kit is designed to only heal and poke with Starcall. If your jungler wants to gank your lane, you can't help much in his ganking other than Infuse the enemy and healing, poking.

2. Soraka can be easily countered by champions with high CC. Soraka works better when it comes to laning with your ADC, and not countering other champions. She doesn't counter any champions hard, she's the one getting countered mostly ;n;

3. Soraka has low mobility, so once you get caught, just focus on HEALING yourself to escape. Flash helps Soraka greatly in her escape. (Well, if you have your ADC caught too, just heal your ADC. If you don't you most likely would get flamed for not saving your ADC.)

4. Soraka wouldn't be your number 1 suppot pick. Consider using other champions when you are laning with a high CC support. But don't be afraid to play her though, she's really fun and strong when it comes to healing!

Pros

+ OP heals + Ability to donate Mana to allies + High sustain in lane + Shreds Magic Resist with her Q + Global heal with Wish + Good poke in the early games

To be honest, why I like Soraka is because of her really OP heals, it can save you and your teammates many times. Soraka have high sustain in lane with Astral Blessing, but if used too many times she will have no mana left soon. She can shred magic resist off enemies with her Starcall, which is really nice when you have 2-3 AP in your team (Including you). Her global heal Wish can be used to save teammates at the top/mid lane during the laning phase if they are dying. It is also really useful in teamfights, if a few is dying, Wish and ta-daaaaaa~ Soraka has a good poke in the early games with Starcall, but in late game Starcall does little damage.

Cons

- Mana hungry in early games - Easily countered - Weak to high CC - Only CC is silence ( Infuse) - Extremely long cooldown heals - Not a first pick support

Soraka is really mana hungry in the early games due to the mana cost of her Astral Blessing. She can also be easily countered by other champions, and to save herself and her teammates she can only heal and silence. She is weak to high CC because her kit is designed to heal and not to have large CC. Soraka heals have extremely high cooldown, which is the downside of her fabulous heals. She is also not your first pick support, because of her kit like mentioned above. Soraka doesn't have any built-in CC other than Infuse, so getting items with little CC would help her a lot.

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DEFENSE TREE Block : Reduce the damage taken by enemy's ADC during early game and also other enemies. Recovery : Since Soraka is really squishy, more health reg would definitely help her out. Unyielding : Even though the amount is small, but this would reduce the damage you take in. Veteran Scars : Giving Soraka more health would help her in the laning phase when she has to get close to the enemy ADC and Starcall them. Juggernaut : Another health mastery, because the Soraka in this guide will be having quite a lot of health boost.

UTILITY TREE Fleet of Foot: Gives Soraka more speed in getting back to lane or running away. Even though the amount is small, but it still helps. Meditation : Provides Soraka with more mana regen, allowing even higher sustain in lane because of her mana (Which allows her to heal more). Summoner's Insight : Lower Summoner Spells cooldown, which is really useful on Soraka. It enables her to use more of her Exhaust and Flash (Her only escape spell). Alchemist : Increases the duration of Soraka's Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation or Mana Potion allowing her higher sustain. Greed : More gold for you to buy your items, since supports are literally not allowed to take farms. Culinary Master : Stacks with Alchemist , turns Health Potion into Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation. Scavenger : Even though you will have Ancient Coin (Or upgraded), but this mastery would help you a lot during the laning phase when your ADC farms. Wealth : Allows you to buy one extra Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation so that you would not need to use your heal every time your health is low. Expanded Mind : Even though this is only at Rank 1, but a 2% increased max mana will help Soraka in her Infuse, and also decrease her mana problems. Bandit : Since you will be poking your enemies a lot, this will help you get more gold. Intelligence : Soraka's heals have long cooldowns, so this mastery would help her by decreasing the cooldown of her spells and items. It is really useful for Soraka! NOTE: You can have the 21st point in Expanded Mind instead of Wanderer if you want to have the bonus mana.

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RUNES #1

• Greater Quintessence of Armor: Reduce the amount of damage you take in by their ADC and also some other AD champions with high damage.
  
• greater mark of hybrid penetration: This rune provides you with both AD and AP penetration, allowing you to harass better with Starcall and your AAs.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: During the laning phase, if their support is AP they might be poking you a lot with their spells. This decreases the poke damage from them.
  
• Greater Seal of Health: After the nerf of Greater Seal of Armor, this became a popular pick for some champions. Since you already have armor as your quint, getting a health seal will give you higher defense.

RUNES #2

• Greater Quintessence of Health: For higher sustain and defense so that you will not be dying a lot. (There are exceptions though...)
  
• Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health: Scaling health gives you more health when you are at level 10. Same explanation as Greater Quintessence of Health. But we take scaling health because most likely you would pass level 10 and it gives you more health. (I suppose you SHOULD pass level 10)
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Though you are not an APC, but magic penetration is still important for you. It gives you stronger poke with Starcall, which also shreds off magic resist. These 2 works well together.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: During the laning phase, if their support is AP they might be poking you a lot with their spells. This decreases the poke damage from them.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: This seal reduces damage you take in from the enemy's ADC, so that you will not be forced to recall every time they harass you a lot. You can also heal yourself / your ADC :)

NOTE: You can have a mix in the runes I mentioned above, or if you want you can add in your own personal favorite runes.

Exhaust is a great summoner spell on supports because it slows enemy down by a lot and also decrease their attack speed and damage. Most supports take Exhaust because when someone from your team/enemy ganks, you can Exhaust the enemy and your team can kill him/her or escape from the gank. Soraka also lacks the CC to help out in the team, so Exhaust would work really well in Soraka.

This is a must get for Soraka because she lacks escape spells. I believe you take Flash for most champions you play, because this is really a good spell. It can be used both defensively and offensively - repositioning yourself, or to escape from someone wanting to kill you. Flash also allows you to pass through walls.

Take Ignite if you are laning against another Soraka (Your twinnie~) or other healer champions because of its healing reduction. It also allows you to deal more damage than you can.

Please only take this spell if you have not unlocked Flash yet. Otherwise, Flash would be a better choice for Soraka.

Skills Sequence.

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Always have your ulti Wish maxed first, because its your ulti. (Dumb reason LOL) Well, like most champions I suppose you have to max your ulti first whenever you can (6, 11, 16). Max your Starcall or Astral Blessing second depending on how well you do in your lane. If you are doing bad or a draw, max Astral Blessing first. If you are doing really well, get your Starcall maxed first. Always max Infuse last, because the duration of the silence is already enough, though the mana donated is quite less.


NOTE: You can add Astral Blessing at level 1 for better and safer trades for you or your ADC.



Skills Explanation.

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Soraka's health and mana restoring abilities are 1% more effective for each 2% health or mana the target is missing.

• Always aim the person with the least health. Of course, I believe you won't always have the time to look at everyone and think who to heal first. Glance at your teammates health for just one time, then heal someone whose health seems to be lower than the others.
• This passive really brings out Soraka's OP heals, use it wisely during early game when your teammates gank.

Strikes nearby enemy units for 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+40% of ability power) magic damage and reduces their Magic Resistance by 6 (+1% of ability power) per stack for 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 10 times. If Starcall hits an enemy champion, Astral Blessing's cooldown is reduced by 5 / 6.25 / 7.5 / 8.75 / 10 %.

• Try to harass your enemy a lot with Starcall, because you can reduce your Astral Blessing cooldown by quite a lot.
• When your teammates gank, just spam your Q to shred off their Magic Resist so that it would be easier to gank.
• Always Q when you see your enemy near you, it has a nice poke.

Restores 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+35% of ability power) health and grants 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 (+15% ability power) bonus armor for 2 seconds.

• Use this wisely, as it costs a lot of your mana.
• The bonus armor given is crazy, you can consider casting this on your ADC/APC (Any carrier) so that they can take a lot reduced damage from the enemy's AD champions.
• The heal is OP, but the cooldown is really long. Like I said, use it wisely. Don't heal your ADC when they have like 13/15 health during laning phase. Instead, wait their health drop to around 10/15 then heal.

If cast on an allied champion, gives 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 and donates 5% of Soraka's maximum mana. Cannot be self-cast. If cast on an enemy champion, silences them for 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 second(s) and deals 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+5% of Soraka's max mana.) (+40% of ability power) magic damage.

• During laning phase when your ADC is trying to harass the enemy/farm, they should be using quite some mana and you can donate some to them every time the cool down refreshes. You can also use this to poke the enemy without having to close the gap for Starcall.
• Even when you have no mana, you can still use this to donate mana or silence enemy. (From what I know, you don't need to have a minimum to use this spell.)
• Think before you use this - Silence or donate mana? If you ADC is the "mana hungry type", try to use this on them every time unless there are ganks.

Instantly restores 150 / 250 / 350 (+55% of ability power) health to all allied champions.

• This is a really useful spell, so don't use it whenever its up - Use it to save teammates you can't reach for your Astral Blessing or during a teamfight for the "bonus" health.
• If you are ganked during laning phase and you and your ADC are dying, use your Astral Blessing on your ADC and Wish (If its available).

Extra & Useful Tips:

♥ If you are caught, just Astral Blessing yourself, Infuse the enemy and spam your Starcall while walking away from them. Why? Like I said, Soraka has no escape spells so why not harass them as much as you can before you die? (Well, you won't always die~) Most likely they will back off because your poke is too strong. If they didn't give up, just Starcall all the way and Infuse them whenever its up. Same goes for Astral Blessing. That's what I usually do, and I survived a lot of ganks together with my ADC.

♥ Since Soraka has no escape spells, make use of your Flash! When you are caught, I don't think you can do anything other than heal and harass. Try to Flash out of their "group", then slowly heal yourself. If someone is going to catch you, don't panic and just walk to where you see your teammates are. Try to heal yourself as much as possible too.





first spawn:

Since I suppose you will not be taking the farms, Ancient Coin would help you to get some extra gold while your ADC farms. Frost Queen's Claim would be another option, but you have to be sure that you can poke/harass the enemy a lot for the gold.

"It's the support's job to ward." No. It's everybody job to ward, but in the early game you have to buy some wards while your ADC farms/fight. Some ADC might buy wards too, so that you don't have to always recall and buy new wards. Having Stealth Ward in the early game is good, to prevent ganks.

Because of your Culinary Master , your Health Potion is transformed into Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation. This potion also help you to restore some mana other than health, so it is good on Soraka, who is always mana hungry.

The basic trinket that most people will be getting, this is just like a Stealth Ward but it has a cooldown, lasts a shorter duration and its free! You can use this when you run out of Stealth Ward to ward. (Upgrade to Greater Vision Totem as soon as possible if you chose to have this till end of game, for its vision ward.)

Supports sometimes do get this trinket too, because it can help you clear wards. Only get this if your jungler took Stealth Ward or some other trinket. If your jungler took this, please take Stealth Ward. But if you prefer this, you are free to bring it to help clear wards for ganks. (Upgrade to Oracle's Lens as soon as possible for its True Sight active, bigger sweeping range and duration.)

cores:

Get this so that you won't have to spend a lot money keep buying wards, this will auto refill for you once you are at the base. This item also gives you some health. NOTE: It is recommended that you change your Stealth Ward to Sweeping Lens once you got your Sightstone.

This item gives you 40 Magic Resist and also 12 Mana Regen. Its unique passive and active is really useful on Soraka, its active remove all debuffs on your target. The passive also gives you more Mana Reg, based on how much mana you have.

Upgrade your boots to this for the cooldown reduction because your skills cooldown is really really long~ ( Mercury's Treads and Ninja Tabi works fine if you prefer to go defensive.)

The unique passive works well with Soraka's Starcall, because it can hit a lot of enemies if the positioning is correct. The slow is really good, because when you hit the enemies with your Starcall your team can catch up with them and try to win the fight. The bonus health and ability power is also really good, giving you both sustain and damage.

talisman of ascension

The active speed boost is amazing. It can help you escape from a teamfight, or to catch up with enemies. Because of Soraka's lack of mobility, this can help her a lot in her movement speed. It also provides you with cooldown reduction.

enchantment:

This is a popular enchantment that most people buy, because it gives you an *expert* speed when you're at your base. You can walk to the fight very fast, or to defend your base if your team is losing or having a draw.

For a lot more extra movement speed throughout the game, get this if you are not losing/draw.

To decrease the cooldown your summoner spells have, so that you can use your Flash and Exhaust more often.

situational items:

Although I don't see this much on supports, but this is a really good item. If you can get this early, you don't need to worry much about the enemy's support harassing you (If they're AP though). The passive given will also help you to scale to late game well, because as a support, you are supposed to help your team and get assists.

You get this because of its health and passive, which can help you out a lot in teamfights. Your Starcall can hit 5 of the enemies if your positioning is good, and it will apply Liandry's Torment passive on them, with their magic resist shred off. Your teammates may kill the enemies easier with your Starcall stacks, and the extra damage you deal with Liandry's Torment

defense:

Even though we have already get Soraka a lot of cooldown reduction, but this item will give you more magic resist, health, etc. The passive also increases healing, regeneration, and drain effects on yourself by 20%. (For Magic Resist)

Incredible armor given. It also provides you with some CDR and also mana, which is good for a Soraka. If your positioning is right, this passive can help your team to not get poked a lot by the enemy's ADC or whoever attack speed is high. (For Armor)

Although for the stacks you need quite some armor, but its fine. The utility provided is amazing, you can slow enemies with its active, and also your Rylai's Crystal Scepter. These 2 items scale really well for Soraka as her Starcall requires good positioning, and it can hit quite a lot of enemies. (For Armor & Utility)

NOTE: I would suggest buying defense item only if you are having a draw, or losing.





Soraka's Laning Phase

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Soraka's spells in the early games can save her ADC from dying with her heals and high poke. If you found your ADC getting caught, quickly Astral Blessing him/her and then spam your Infuse and Starcall on the enemy's ADC. Soraka can win her lane if her ADC is good enough, because Soraka's main job is just to save her teammates. Despite her good saving skills, she can be easily pushed out of lane by other supports like Sona. She can be countered easily, so make good use of her spells!



This is the time when you should be roaming around to help your teammates, if you have downed the first bot turret. Go to other lanes if you see your teammates pinging for help, with your heals and poke they might be able to kill the enemies. Your heals should be better by mid game, and the cooldown I suppose isn't too long so make use of your heal don't try to save it!



Most teamfights happen late game, this is the time to *show off* your healing skills. When there is a teamfight, please do stand at the corner and Starcall, Infuse, Astral Blessing and when your teammates health is getting to half/lower, Wish. Their health WILL go up a lot, but beware of your positioning for your Starcall.





Sorry for the incomplete match ups and synergies ;n; I will try to complete it soon.



ADCs (Versus & Synergy):

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GOOD SYNERGY Ashe is pretty mana hungry when she uses her Q, and Volley so you could donate some mana to her! With your Starcall, Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow may deal more damage with your Starcall stacks.

GOOD SYNERGY With Caitlyn's good poke, you can help her by giving even more poke to the enemies and also some mana to her! Caitlyn is a popular pick in ranked, because the range of hers is really long and you can reduce the amount of damage she takes in with your Astral Blessing while she harass.

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NORMAL SYNERGY While Draven has a high skill cap, he can trade safely with the enemies with your Astral Blessing. Although he has no attack speed, but with high damage you might be in a kill lane, if both you and the ADC are played properly. You can always heal and Infuse the enemy, allowing Draven to deal more damage while the enemy is silenced.

GOOD SYNERGY Most Ezreals love using their Mystic Shot to poke enemies, so he is pretty mana hungry in the early game. I'm sure Ezreal would be delighted to have a Soraka giving him mana and also let him trade safer. You both have good poke, so enemies might try to play passive against you unless they are counters to your ADC.

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Supports (Versus):

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EASY VERSUS Lulu might be a little annoying for your ADC with her Glitterlance poke, but you can stop her from harassing much with your Infuse. Silencing Lulu can make her kit go to waste, because she is dependable on her Q, Glitterlance and help pix! to protect her ADC. Not much to say about her, except that her Whimsy which works like your Infuse (on enemies).

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Thank you for reading! You've finally come to the end of this guide ;v;
I hope I have helped you in some way, and also make you wanna try Soraka out (again) ^^

If you find my guide helpful, it would be nice if you give me a +1 or a -1 if you find my guide is off from the Soraka's "normal" build. But I would love to hear your reasons though, for the votes you've given. I accept any suggestions for the guide like new items/cores, summoner spells, runes, masteries, etc.

Most of the time I will update the guide with your suggestions, so don't be afraid to let me know your ideas because I'm pretty sure people would have other play styles, resulting in different items, runes, and more. ^^

Again, thank you for reading the guide! Below is the credits of resources I use :)



Credits.

♥ jhoijhoi: Guide Making (Guide)
♥ LaCorpse: Dividers
♥ OutofPancakes: Contribution
♥ PoisonIvy: Contribution
♥ Emikadon: Contribution
♥ FoxyRiven: Contribution



♥ 12th May 2014
Updated the recommended mastery. (Changes made: Used Wanderer as the recommended mastery, and Expanded Mind as an alternative.)

♥ 14th May 2014
Added some new information on items~

• Included that you have to upgrade Sweeping Lens to Oracle's Lens.
• Also mentioned to have Stealth Ward upgraded.
• Edited Draven's synergy.
• Added Ezreal's synergy.

♥ 12th May 2014
Realized I never change from Heal to Exhaust o.o

♥ 11th May 2014
Made quite some changes to the guide :)

• Replaced the recommended runes to the suggested ones
• Some match-ups changes and Lulu's match-up "explanation"
• Fixed the Frozen Heart typo (I wrote frozen heart cape at first LOL ;v;)
• More contribution credits~

♥ 9th May 2014
Published the guide! ;v; Finally after weeks of work >u<

• Changed the recommended spells from Heal to Exhaust because I just realized the nerf in Heal ;-;
• More Runes and Masteries choice
• Added that you could change your Stealth Ward to Sweeping Lens once Sightstone is bought