^{From The Nameless Bard's devianart.}




Welcome

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Hello and greetings to everyone whose interest towards the mechanics, kits, builds or even aesthetic of Soraka, the Astral Blesser, was enough to cause you to take your time to look through my in-depth guide. My name is Rodrigo, a brazilian Gold IV main support and I'd like to introduce you to my first and single guide made in mobafire, in which I'll be briefly talking about Soraka's °Pros & Cons °Abilities discriptions and how to use them °Match-ups °Summoner's spells °Masteries °Runes °Itens Feel free to leave your opinion, rather you think it's lacking information or simply disagree with something! As any other guide, it's based on my own empiricism and can vary from person to person in really different ways. Maybe your own experiences with her can bring me new perspectives of her I never conceived.

Pros/Cons

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Pros + Global pressure + Great disengage potential + Strong Sustain + Acceptable poke

As a dedicated healer, soraka best succeeds in winning damage trades. Despite having a good global presence with Wish and fulfilling an acceptable zoning role during lane phase duo to Starcall vast range, it's in the exchange of damage where her true power lies. With a low cooldown and great burst heal on Astral Infusion, along with a considerably easy-to-land AoE silence on Equinox, she can peel (protect) her carry from any harm during a team fight as long as they stick together.

Cons + Lacks Mobility + Weak to pokes + Demands glorious positioning + Mana Hungry + No remarkable engaging + Relies too much on others

The fact Soraka lacks any sort of mobility besides Salvation's extra movement speed sets her to a really weak spot against champions that are able of repositioning her teammates such as Blitzcrank. Other than that, the soraka's porcentage maximum health cost on Astral Infusion plus Starcall's high mana costs make her really vunerable to poke. Both downsides together sets her to a spot where she relies too much on her carry positioning and confidence to poke so she can succeed in lane.

Skills Explanations

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I take Astral Infusion first for giving the jungle a better leash. It helps a lot with his farming, principally if he lacks some sustain. It also spare my adc from losing CS or EXP on early poking. Furthermore, Starcall spends a lot of mana at level one and you will very unlikely hit it precisely or start the game agressive otherwise you're against a level one Leona. However, which skill you should max first varies a lot on the lane compositions. Sometimes you'll be better off maxing Astral Infusion, others you might prefere going for Starcall.

SKILLS DESCRIPTIONS:


Salvation (passive):Grants Soraka a 70% movement speed buff when moving towards allied champions who are below 40% of their maximum health and outside of Astral Infusion's range.

note: Not much to talk about here.


Starcall (Q):Soraka calls down a star at a target location for the cost of 70/75/80/85/90 mana, dealing 70/110/150/190/230 (+ 35% AP) magic damage. Enemies standing in the center take an increased damage of 105/165/225/285/345 (+ 52.5% AP) and are slowed by 30/35/40/45/50% for 2 seconds.

note: Disregarding your masteries, runes and itens, this ability, additionally to Astral Infusion's passive, is what gives yourself sustain in lane. By healing you based on the amount of champions you've hitten, landing this skill properly is what guarantees you'll remain in lane longer to support your marksman. However, Starcall's projectile is one of the slowest in game when used in max range and it mana cost's hurts soraka bad, so use it wisely.

Soraka's AA range is actually high and a perfect tool for lane poking. That plus the fact her AA grows bigger the more distant her oponnent is plus the travel speed being fairly slow makes it a perfect tool for you to predict the next steps of your enemy laner and decide rather or not you should use Starcall and where: Pay attention to the banana and use it in the direction it is moving to.

Fun fact: Soraka's AA projectile speed is 1000, close to one of the slowest projectile speeds in the game: Anivia's Flash Frost

Astral Infusion (W):
PASSIVE: Each enemy champion hit by Starcall heals soraka on 25/35/45/55/65 (+40% AP), increased by 1% for every 1% of Soraka's missing health.
ACTIVE: Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring 120/150/180/210/240 (+ 60% AP) health by the cost of 10% maximum soraka's health plus 20/25/30/35/40 mana. Astral Infusion cannot be self-cast, and nor can it be cast if Soraka is below 5% of her max health.

note: Her main ability. Has a relatively short 550 range and require good positioning throughout the game ( Salvation help a lot with that in emergencial cases but she still lacks mobility). The % cost means flat health runes/masteries/itens are not useful for her and you should avoid the most.

It has a really low cost early game duo to your low base HP. With the passive life regen. from Ancient Coin and some hp regen. runes you're pretty much capable of ****ing your enemy last hitting.

Fun fact: With the recent HUD changes that have just arrived (link for more information), your team frames are now in a much more accessible place: above the mini-map. For those who don't know, one can cast unit-targed abilities in their allies by clicking in their respective champion frame. The new acessible location makes it possible for you to, at the same time, land your skillshot abilities and kite while moving your cursor fast enough to heal by clicking their frame so you don't have to fear missclicking minions during improper moments if you're fast enough.

Equinox (E): Soraka creates a zone at a target location for 1.5 seconds, enemy champions standing in the zone take 70/110/150/190/230 (+40% AP) magic damage and are silenced until they leave. At the end of the zone's duration, all enemy champions inside are rooted for some seconds and take additional 70/110/150/190/230 (+40% AP) magic damage.

Note: Really strong CC along with high cooldowns, Equinox can give the enemy a 1.5 seconds silence and a 2 seconds snare. It's her key for disengaging and can protect her carries from almost any assassin or AD caster. Having this available whenever you're ganked is essential and spare you and your adc from spending unnecessary Flashes. It means you should not be using Equinox for poking or zoning otherwise you're sure you'll not be ganked.

Imagine how rewarding, to stop a Lee Sin or Alistar insec or even a Akali from bursting your marksman or going invisible. Even more! Imagine you, the most underrated character in the most underrated role of this game making it possible for your team to steal a dragon or baron by silencing the enemy jungler.

For engage situations you can use Equinox after exhausting so they won't be able of walking away from it and also are unable of dashing or flashing out of it. You can use Starcall instead of equinox if you're able of landing it so the slow procs.

Wish (R): Soraka calls upon the stars, first removing Grievous Wounds and then restoring 150/250/350 (+55% AP) health to all allied champions on the field, including untargetable allies.
Wish's healing is increased by 50% on allied champions who are below 40% of their maximum health.

Note: It's high cooldown early on requires a lot of knowledge circa when to use it or not. If laning against champions that are able of applying grievous wounds you'll have to make your mind rather using your ultimate to pressure other lanes or keeping it to ensure bot lane's damage trades will be successful.

Imagine a situation in which your top lane is having an intense fighting and you really think he's gonna lose it otherwise you cast Wish. However, the dragon is up and you know the enemy's jungler is heading bot lane. If you ult, they probably gonna end up with an easy dragon.



SKILLS SYNERGY:

HIGH means their kits fits anormally well and they can easly win lane together
GOOD means they have more advantages than disadvantages or they do really well in some specific situations
AVERAGE means they're capable of causing positive impact but require a lot of knowledge/communication from both to work well

HIGH SYNERGY explanation Soraka's inefficiency to engage is only covered by her amazing follow up potential. Because of that, high CC adcs do really well with her. A successfully land Chain of Corruption+ Equinox can give a total 4 seconds snare. The fact she can keep varus alive long enough for him to stack his Blighted Quiver also make this lane composition beyond dangerous. Great poke, not to mention the gank potential.

HIGH SYNERGY explanation The same as Varus. Insane follow up potential with ashe's high crowd control. Frost Shot+ Equinox combo plus Enchanted Crystal Arrow can root enemies for 3.5 seconds, not to mention the slow that lasts as long as Ashe's mana is up. Perfect global pressure, easy for your team to gank.

HIGH SYNERGY explanation Flame Chompers!+ Equinox gives something among the lines of a 3.5 seconds snare and both skills are really easy to land when used defensively. In damage trades, Soraka is capable of keeping Jinx alive long enough for stacking Switcheroo! and that make of their damage trades huge. Both immobileness make it somewhat hard for following up ganks, but a Super Mega Death Rocket! right after a Zap! or Exhaust+ Equinox combo can deal with it. Good global pressure.

GOOD SYNERGY explanation The fact soraka can guarantee vayne will live long enough to stack Silver Bolts is perfect. A Condemn+ Equinox combo can give a 1.5 seconds stun + 2.0 seconds snare. The high mobility Vayne has and soraka lacks, though, can lead them to situations in which vayne runs away from soraka's heals, not to mention it require good communication from both no to freed someone from Equinox with Condemn. Annoying

GOOD SYNERGY explanation As a AA-based damage dealer with low to no mobility, Soraka is the perfect fit for a safe, farming-to-late-game lane. She can guarantee any attempt of initiating will be useless and will hardly punish enemies that try it anyway, by letting twitch alive long enough to stack Deadly Venom and Contaminate.

GOOD SYNERGY explanation As twitch, the more he remains alive, the more he becomes a threat. His % max hp damange and passive attackspeed as well as his % armor/magic resist shred gives him high late game carrying potential as well as a hard time building against (too much hybrid damage). A support who can give him a safe time farming is just what he needs and I couldn't see a more fiting support if not Soraka (maybe Tahm Kench or Braum). Other then that, kog'maw high-ranged skills make it so soraka can play more passively letting the poking job for him. Other than tat, Kog'maw's Void Ooze make it easier for Soraka to poke or even get close enough to land a Exhaust+ Equinox combo.

AVERAGE SYNERGY explanation Soraka has a high auto-attack range, what synergies a lot with Sentinel passive. Both also have great poking and soraka is able of keeping Kalista alive long enough to stack Rend so much no one could possibly survive it. Kalista's Fate's Call can also save your life when you spent all your HP healing her. This lane require a lot of attetion from kalista, though, not to step out of Astral Infusion's range because of Martial Poise or to use the ultimate for initiations, making soraka unable of healing her.

AVERAGE SYNERGY explanation An hard poke and sustain lane with no actual kill potential; As a farming/disengaging based lane, it can works as far as Ezreal goes for blue build to become a late game monster. It can also work fairly well as a high poke/zoning lane for guaranteeing enemies won't be able of farming, but champions as Corki could do it much better.

AVERAGE SYNERGY explanation Not much crowd control, but together they have amazing zoning power in lane thanks to, most of all, the long range on both of their auto attacks and caitlyn's Piltover Peacemaker. It's also a really awesome composition for punishing out-of-position enemies that steps into cait's Yordle Snap Trap by using Equinox right after. If you're against a hypercarry and you want to give him a tough time farming while granting your adc good sustain against burst ( Annie+ Vayne for example), this lane is perfect.

Summoner spells

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Flash is always a good summoner spell for any character, any role. It can save you and your team from countless different situations, e/g when you're too far from someone to heal them or when you think you'll not be able to escape a chase, but then you suddenly go through a wall.

Exhaust is also a really good summoner for supports in general, almost core. It grants a 2.5 seconds 30% slow and reduce enemies' damage by 40% for the duration. It can make any burst champion as Zed or Akali useless for 2.5 seconds and guarantee your adc can kite without fearing death. An interesting combo is to use Exhaust and cast Equinox right after. The slow + silence will make it so the snare works and you can make full use of all your CCs. Easy kill if followed up by your team.

Ignite is a really situational spell for supports. It does good true damage over time, what means you're able of stealing kills from your team even if not intended. It's good for a agressive lane against champions that you really don't wanna let free farming and whose first itens have life steal ( Blade of the Ruined King). Against a Vayne + Nami lane composition, for example, you can zone vayne hardly because of her range. Your sustain is bigger than nami's and your poke is as decent as hers or superior. When going for a serious damage trade, a well-placed ignite can not only guts Nami's Ebb and Flow heal and Blade of the Ruined King's lifesteal. It can also turns Final Hour's invisibility useless. If the enemy team has no assassins and your adc and jungler have decent CC, this is a way to go.




Mastery Explanations

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DEFENSIVE TREE Since flat health is no longer a useful stat for soraka, going for Veteran Scars and Juggernaut don't seems like some well invested mastery points. Instead, going for Block and Unyielding to give much more resistence through the game and Recovery , Swiftness and Tenacious for some passive-yet-crucial stats seems much more rewarding.

UTILITY TREE In the utility section I opted for Phasewalker instead of Scout most of all because the second one doesn't works with Ruby Sightstone's wards, but also to reduce the time I spend out of lane, so I can use my spared time to help my team. If you have the intent of upgrading your Stealth Ward instead of going for Ruby Sightstone though, I would highly recommend to get Scout instead. Other than that, after the changes to the utility tree in which Expanded Mind changed place with Meditation , Fleet of Foot raised to replace the now kind of useless flat mana in the early point investments and Meditation became an even more crucial mastery for most likely any support. As a character with unreliable self-healing that is easily dodgable and with a % hp cost spell, potions, Culinary Master , Alchemist and Wealth (for more starting potions) are your best friend. As for the rest, gold masteries are pretty niche for any support considering you shouldn't be farming nor killing anyone through the game.

UTILITY TREE Soraka is not a roaming champion. She is unmobile, have close to no CC and, therefore, offer nothing to other laners with her ganks. That being said, Wanderer is not as useful for her as it would be for other supports. The points i could put into it and Wealth were instead invested into Sorcery for doing her healing job better early on, that is the moment where her burst heal shines the most.

Runes

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Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: The fact soraka really relies a lot on cooldown reduction to keep her carries alive + the fact riot basically took away all support items that give 20% cooldown reduction made it kind of mandatory to build Ionian Boots of Lucidity early on, meaning she lost a lot of movement speed she would have if she built Mobility Boots or Boots of Swiftness. I opted for picking at least one quint of movement speed to combo with Fleet of Foot and Wanderer so she could make up for the lost speed. Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration: My favorite quints for her were always ability power ones and i actually though they worked really well. However, after reading this awesome Soraka's guide I went to Health regeneration and it's beyond perfect. I would certainly recommend it if you're not going for the Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. Greater Mark of Armor: These ones depends a lot of how you want to play the bot lane. both Greater Mark of Armor and Greater Mark of Magic Penetration works really well for her. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: As i take Ionian Boots of Lucidity for her early on, plus the fact Intelligence gives me some more extra cooldown reduction, I dispose of a higher freedom to choose rather i want more cooldown reduction to complete 40% as soon as possible or if I can go for more tanky (or even ap) runes. Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: I opted for three of these glyphs to combo with Sorcery and Intelligence , so I could start the game with 15% cooldown reduction that would be later on completed by Ionian Boots of Lucidity acquisition to give her a easy 30% cdr. That would leave her the possibility to opt between buying Aegis of the Legion (against heavy ap teams) or Zhonya's Hourglass (if being hardly focused) early on without the fear of damaging her supporting potential, rather then going for some mandatory cooldown reduction itens, such as Forbidden Idol. It would also make it possible for her to choose rather she would finish her gold inc. item ( talisman of ascension or Frost Queen's Claim) if she's lacking utility or go for offensive itens ( Ardent Censer and Zeke's Harbinger) if not. Greater Seal of Scaling Health Regeneration: Flat health unefectiveness on soraka plus the recent nerf to armor seals set Greater Seal of Health Regeneration and Greater Seal of Scaling Health Regeneration to the highest priority level for her. I opted for the scaling one because it's stats outperforms the normal ones at level five, but it's up to you. Greater Seal of Armor: Armor seals still enough good and the best alternative option for those who underrate health regen. If you feel like you're too tanky, with unecessary sustain while lacking some damage or if you simply want to play Soraka full agressive, I would recommend you runes like Greater Mark of Magic Penetration, Greater Glyph of Ability Power and Greater Quintessence of Ability Power. Soraka have really high ratios on her abilities, so going for a more ap based build won't fail you at all. This will require a lot of knowledge of her mechanics though, since all your sustain in lane will be on landing your Starcall. It's like a high risk, high reward building. I've already tested it some few times and I oftenly found myself either winning with ease or getting into sustain trouble. True is Starcall is easy to dodge and if your enemy manage to avoid it while poking your adc you'll be going base over and over again for the entire lane phase. Against champions you know will have a hard time dodging your abilities such as unmobille marksmans ( Twitch, Kog'Maw, Jinx, Ashe) though, going for an ap raka can surely be viable.

Itemizing

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Talisman of Ascension

The health regeneration over dead creeps is perfect for doing her healing job without getting out of life so fast. Her passive moviment speed, life and mana regeneration also are perfect for Soraka and the active helps a lot your team on follow ups or diseganges. It's like it was made especially for her.

If you're confident you can land your Starcalls with ease and you don't fear geting out of life to heal your adc by playing agressively, you might enjoy this item better. Along with ap based runes, masteries and itens, you can do decent damage and outsustain your enemies hardly, but remember there are other supports that could do this poking job much better, as Sona. It's not worth upgrading for Frost Queen's Claim, though; This item has a hard-to-land skillshot and some unworthy stats, for a 1335 gold that could be easily used to buy another core item for her, such as Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

As the match proceeds, people exponentially have less slots for buying wards and helping the support to keep the map pressure. Otherwise you have a jungler that make use of them for big plays, such as Lee Sin, you'll rarely see any of them helping you with clarifying the game. That being said, Twin Shadows is the only item that can give you both useful stats and vision and is a perfect alternative for replacing your gold item once it's not useful anymore.

She doesn't benefits a lot from it's stats since flat health takes her Astral Infusion potential down a little, but is kind of a standard item for supports in general.

Sightstone has been a really problematic item for soraka since her Astral Infusion % hp cost came. Facts are it was a necessary item for every support and she was forced into building it even though it gave her nothing but a increase in her healing costs. With the changes to Greater Stealth Totem though soraka is once again able of warding just as much as any other support, but the lack of Oracle's Lens can be really damaging for your team. A good communication with your adc would surely solve it: ask him to buy Oracle's Lens and always bring with you two Vision Wards so you can get rid of some wards anyway. Share with him the job of controling vision.

For sure the best boots for her early on. She really relies a lot on 40% cooldown reduction to perform properly and this is the fastest way to achieve it. Later on i recommend changing it for a Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads. Talisman of ascension, Fleet of Foot, Wanderer , mov. speed runes and support itens in general already give her the movement speed she needs to make up for Boots of Swiftness or Mobility Boots.

Some people rather buy Mobility Boots for being cheaper and giving better movement speed to roam, but this one make up for it with the tenacity and magic resist. I would recommend buying Ionian Boots of Lucidity early on for a really useful cdr. After you've hitten 40% cdr (the max), sale it and go for Mercury's Treads.

Soraka is not a roaming support at all. She don't have any engage potential and her ultimate is probably her only way of being useful for the rest of the team during lane phase. In really situational cases where your jungler or mid laner have high CC to engage she can work as a follow up to secure kills with her Equinox, but she would still be better off sticking to her carry in lane.

If you still think movement speed is more useful than tankness go for those instead.

Gives her every stats she wants and an active that can actually change team fights when you're too far away from someone to use Astral Infusion. Locket of the Iron Solari's active buff made of him a much more attractive item than Mikael. The loss of the CC removals is obviously damaging, but her own over-powered healing coupled with the silence makes it possible to save carries from being bursted by their own. Other than that, QSS is always a possibility for marksmen's builds if suffering in the hands of high CC enemies.P.S: Mikael also have a way higher cooldown (144 vs. 48 with Intelligence ) and can be casted in wrong teammates.

The ap it grants certainly fits a lot with her ratios. With a good amount of armor and a perfect active that can save her life after spending all her health healing her team, this is like a core item.

Banner of Command used to provide her with much more needed stats than this. The actives were equally good, but the exchange of 200 HP for 60 AP could make all the difference. However the recent nerfs to Aegis of the Legion made both Locket of the Iron Solari and Banner of Command way less attractive for her and any other support in general. As a compensation, Riot buffed Locket of the Iron Solari's active to turn it into a AOE Mikael's Blessing (only without the CC removal). Basically both are cheaper and weaker, but only one of them received some love as indemnification.

The flat mana helps a lot to remain longer in team fights among with Mikael's Blessing supreme mana regeneration and the amount of armor is perfect. The decrease on enemies' attack speed almost goes unnoticed but is really game changing. If you see team fights are not lasting long enough for you to spend all your HP with heals this might be more useful than Zhonya's Hourglass.

If you want more armor or some decrease on enemies' attack speed, don't go for Randuin's Omen. Not only it's a core item for almost every tank and bruiser there is (making it's unique passive useless), it is also really gold ineffective compared to Frozen Heart. Randuin's flat health is not worth the money spent too.

Ardent censer has never been a really good item for her for the simple fact that most of the time it makes you feel forced into healing your allies even when it's not necessary, just so you make use of it's passive. With that in mind, Zeke's update came to give her tankness while providing some great AP and a agressive passive which is just as good as Ardent Censer's one. Keep in mind though that the passive gives you AP based on your current ap, so with an ap-less build it's passive would only appeal the one you binded it to.

Despite ardent censer can put you in situations where you see yourself healing allies with no need, it's still the best option to replace Zeke's Harbinger (except for Twin Shadows maybe) for a early game offensive item if you don't have any intent of building more ap oriented items as Banner of Command, Zhonya's Hourglass, Frost Queen's Claim or so on.