Hello, and welcome to my first guide!

My name is Obamas Heart, and i have been playing League of Legends a month after it was released. In my time here, i have become proficient with a number of champions. Soraka is a champion i have started playing recently, but i picked up on the Support role very fast. I have played a good number of Ranked games with alot of success, and unfortunately, seen a number of Soraka players fail.

So i decided to share my success as Support Soraka with you all by writing a guide. I hope you all enjoy it, and i look forward to hearing from you. Now on to the guide!

*UPDATED 5/26/2012*

There are 3 Major Points that this build is focused on.

• Major Cooldown Reduction early
• Regenerating your own Health and Mana
• Providing Auras for your team
  
  
  

  Major Cooldown Reduction

  
  Reducing your Cooldowns early game is important to sustaining your lane. The faster you can fire Astral Blessing and Infuse, the longer you can stay in lane, and shut down your enemies. Wish is the most powerful heal in the game, and can be the difference between winning and losing a teamfight, and the game. The more times you can fire it off during a group push, the better.
  
  Now the limit for Cooldown Reduction as a stat is 40%. 6% comes from Intelligence in the Utility part of your mastery tree. 5.89% comes from rour Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, and another 4.92% comes from your Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction. This gives you 16.81% total Cooldown Reduction without buying any items. Soul Shroud gives you and all your allied champs another 10%, and your Shurelya's Battlesong gives you another 15%, for a total of 41.81% Cooldown Reduction. Of course, the cap is 40%, and we accomplished this with only 2 items. If you don't have the ip for the runes you need, instead of Mobility Boots, opt instead for Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and you will still cap your Cooldown Reduction.
  
  
  

  Regenerating your Health and Mana

  
  Especially while in lane early game, being able to sustain is key. Buying items with health and mana regen save your from buying pots early game, and also allow you to focus your heals on your team mates. And the longer you sustain your lane, you get more expierence and gold, which could mean the difference between winning and losing a Ranked game. This is why we should not play aggressive, but instead harass our enemies. There is some good tips in the Tips and Tricks section at the end of the guide. But the key idea for Soraka is to stay safe while still gaining exp. Harassing is not the primary objective.
  
  You start out with a Faerie Charm for mana, and build that into a Philosopher's Stone on your first trip home. Philosopher's Stone is a key item of Soraka, as it allows you to sustain your lane and focus your heals on your team mates, as well as giving you the extra gold you need from 0 farm. Mid Game, between your points in Meditation , Soul Shroud, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Shurelya's Battlesong, you have 45 Health per 5 secs, and 30 Mana per 5 secs. This will help to keep you alive while healing your team, or while Astral Blessing is on Cooldown.
  
  In your late game with Will of the Ancients and Zeke's Herald, you have some Lifesteal and Spell Vamp, allowing your auto attack, Infuse and Starcall to give you health. This means that you take little to no damage while clearing lanes, and you sustain better in teamfights. Just think, every time you Infuse an enemy, you silence them, and heal yourself. Great, right?
  
  
  

  Providing Auras for your Team

  Consecration
  This is one of the more overlooked parts of being a Support. Most of the other Supports i see build maybe 1 of these items in their core, and focus the rest on items like Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Randuin's Omen. While those items are good, they are out of place. With a decent team, the Support should be in the back, while the tanky characters take the damage. Being a Support is not about your survivability, but the survivability of your team. And a well played Support with good positioning should not need those items. Instead, use item with Auras to buff yourself, and your team. I will discuss the build order a few chapters down, but lets look at the facts. With all of those items in your inventory, you provide the following:

  • 31 Magic Resist
  • 12 Armor
  • 15 Health per 5 secs
  • 12 Mana per 5 secs
  • 30 Ability Power
  • 8 Attack Damage
  • 10% Cooldown Reduction
  • 20% Attack Speed
  • 20% Spell Vamp
  • 12% Lifesteal
  • -20 Magic Resist of enearby enemies
  • 50+ damage shield active with Locket of the Iron Solari
  • 40% increased movement speed active with Shurelya's Battlesong
    
    Thats for just being near a teamfight. Just imagine, if there was a buff or an item that did that by itself. Now imagine that buff being applied to everybody on your team at once, without killing a neutral monster, wasting gold, or taking up an item slot. Sounds OP to me. This is on top of your heals, silences, and near infinite mana. Oh, the joys of a good Support, amirite?

These are pretty much the standard runes for any Support, with the emphasis on the Cooldown Reduction and early game survivability. The Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction set and the Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction set are the key runes, stacking with Intelligence to provide you with 16.89% Cooldown Reduction to start, which allows you to cast Astral Blessing and Infuse much faster to sustain your lane early game. It also allows you to build better Support items, without needing that extra 15% Cooldown Reduction.

Now your Greater Seal of Vitality can be switched out for Greater Seal of Health or Greater Seal of Armor, depending on what runes you already have, and your playstyle. Greater Seal of Health helps you early game, stacking with Durability and Veteran's Scars in your Defensive Mastery tree to give you over 500 health at the game start. If you have 5 bars at the start of the game, you are less likely to get jumped for an easy kill.

The Greater Seal of Armor will give you and additional 12.69 armor, stacking with Hardiness for a total of 18.69 armor, in addition to your base. We do this because Consecration gives you and everybody else 16 magic resist in your lane, and in regular play, the Support normally goes bottom with with a ranged AD. And most junglers have a powerful AD early game, meaning 2 of the 3 champions in your lane, even during a gank, will be AD. The flat armor route is good against early game ganks, but like i said earlier, a well played Support with good wards and positioning should see the gank coming, and move accordingly. This is why i choose Greater Seal of Vitality and Greater Mark of Armor, so i have a decent armor bump early game, and my health scales into the late game.

Depending on what runes you already have, you can use Greater Mark of Health or Greater Mark of Vitality paired with the opposite seals, but the standard rune set i give offers the best of them both.

We utilize the 0-9-21 Masteries here.

In the Defense Tree:

• 1/3 Resistance : Never hurts.
• 3/3 Hardiness : We stack this due to the 16 Magic Resist we get from Consecration.
• 4/4 Durability : Scaling health into late game is good supplement to Greater Seal of Vitality
• 1/1 Veteran's Scars : What we really want here. Gives us a big Health bump early game.
  
  

  In the Utility Tree:

  • 1/1 Summoner's Insight : For the additional 2 seconds of Clairvoyance, and the cooldown reduction of Flash
  • 3/3 Expanded Mind : Scaling Mana per level is good.
  • 3/3 Meditation : Helps along with Faerie Charm to keep your Mana up early game.
  • 1/1 Scout : To help with our warding vision.
  • 4/4 Greed : Helps get extra gold we need due to 0 farming.
  • 2/2 Wealth : For the extra gold to buy 1 more ward at start, for extra sustain early.
  • 2/4 Awareness : Gives us the experience bump we need for not always being at the front.
  • 1/1 Sage : More experience bump.
  • 3/3 Intelligence : Gives you much needed Cooldown reduction.
  • 1/1 Mastermind : Helps us get Clairvoyance up more often, and our escapes out more often.
    
    It is possible to use 0-21-9 Masteries, but i find it is much easier to use this set here. With good positioning and map awareness, you gain more from the Utility Tree.

W -> E -> R -> Q

We start off with our W, Astral Blessing, and take our 2nd point in our E, Infuse. This way at level 2, you have infinite Mana, and an already powerful heal. Then in a nutshell, you max your W first, then your E, putting points in your R, Wish, whenever you can. Your Q, Starcall, should have 1 point put in at level 8. This way, you can still max Astral Blessing, while having a damage ability that stacks a debuff on your enemies. In the late game, you can use it to clear lanes quickly, but before that, you should only use it to farm if your lane partner goes B. Im team fights, spam this when everything else is on CD.

Viable Summoner Spells

• Flash: The best escape in the game. I prefer this to ghost, as this can get you over walls and away from trouble, or allow you to avoid getting caught completely.
• Ghost: Another viable escape. Can also to be used to keep up with a team fight, or to bail on a bad situation.
• Clairvoyance: Can be used to check the bush before warding, checking Dragon or Baron, and can also be used to set up ganks or counter jungle. Its got a relatively short cooldown, and is standard for Supports.
  
  

  Not As Viable Summoner Spells

  

  • Heal: A nice supplemental heal, but with a super long cooldown. With Astral Blessing and Wish, you really don't need another heal.
  • Exhaust: Good for slowing down an enemy to secure a kill. This ventures away from the Support aspect, but is still viable, especially paired with Ghost.
  • Teleport: Great for getting around to where your team needs you, but not prefered. With the right runes, Mobility Boots and Wish should allow you to heal and move as often as you need to.
  • Cleanse: Good for teams with alot of CC, but this only focuses you. Not as good as Ghost or Flash.
  • Promote: Really isn't good, but can be used to really keep your lane at bay if your partner goes B. Clairvoyance is always a better pick.
    
    

    Not At All Viable Summoner Spells

    
    
    These spells have no use on a support at all. If you see a Soraka going to play with these spells, either A: He's Trollin' you bro, or B: He's an ultra nub, and you should dodge immediately.

Starting Items

Sight WardSight WardSight WardSight Ward

• Faerie Charm: Helps to regenerate Mana to keep your heals flowing, even in a crunch. Builds into Philosopher's Stone, which we get on our first trip B.
• 1 Health Potion: Heals you if you take some damage, so you can focus your heals on your teammates.
• 4 Sight Ward: Wards are a must! They prevent ganks in your lane, watch for buffs, and can help counter jungle.
  
  

  First and Second Trip Back

  Philosopher's Stone Sight WardSight Ward

  • Philosopher's Stone: One of Soraka's core items. It does everything you need early game, for really cheap. Even better, it builds into Shurelya's Battlesong.
  • Boots: A must have on any champ.
  • Heart of Gold: Generates 5 gold per 10 secs, and builds into Locket of the Iron Solari, which is a core item.
  • At least 4 Sight Wards: Even if you divide them up, no matter what, Always grab at least 2 wards every time you go B, if lane phase is active.
    
    

    Third and Fourth Trip Back

    Kage's Lucky Pick Sight WardSight Ward

    • Mobility Boots: These help you to get around the map to where your needed.
    • Kindlegem: Build this before Mana Manipulator for your upcoming Soul Shroud.
    • Locket of the Iron Solari: With Health and Armor for you, and Health Regen and the Shield for your team, this is a core support item for sure.
    • Soul Shroud: This helps with you and your allies cooldowns, as well as your mana regen. One of the core items for capping Cooldown Reduction.
    • Kindlegem: Build another and get ready to lose your Philosopher's Stone.
    • Shurelya's Battlesong: Massive Health and Mana regen, as well as Cooldown reduction and an awesome Active.
    • At least 4 Sight Wards: At this point, the lane phase should be over. Put your wards on Dragon and Baron, and also in defensive spots. Placing wards in the enemy jungle is also good, if you have Clairvoyance, or an escort.
      
      

      Aura Items

      
      
      At this point, build into what you need. The regular build is Aegis of the Legion and Will of the Ancients. However, depending on your team composition and how your doing, you may opt for either Zeke's Herald or Abyssal Mask. For instance, if your team has good ranged/melee AD champions that are carrying hard, drop Will of the Ancients for Zeke's Herald, to help them carry harder. But lets say your AP Caster dominated mid, and is carrying the game, you would drop Aegis of the Legion for Abyssal Mask, for the drop in enemy Magic Resistance.

Warding Bottom During Lane Phase

Another very important part of playing a Support is countering the other teams vision. This is where Vision Ward's and Oracle's Elixir come into play.

• Use Astral Blessing and Infuse as often as possible. The more replenished you and your teammates are, the less your gonna be waiting for those cooldowns when your in a crunch.
• If you see an enemy going in for an attack on your teammate when your in the bush at Ward 3 or Ward 5, hit him with Infuse followed by a quick auto attack from the bush. They take damage, and you shut down their damage attempt.
• If you see somebody going in to initiate a fight, hit em with Infuse. That next 2.5 seconds will be a pain for them, i promise.
• Watch all your teammates to see if you can Wish any of them. F1-F5 are a great way to do this fast.
• Stay behind your Teammates, but not so far back that you cut your own experience. Normally this can be done sitting mid way in the bush, as long as your lane isn't being pushed.
• BUY WARDS!
• Always have good map awareness. Ping whenever you see a gank coming, or whenever the enemy is doing Dragon or Baron. Its the fastest way to let your team know.
• Use Clairvoyance as often as possible. Use it to check neutral buff spots when your Wards are down. Its short cooldown makes this possible.
• Listen to your team, if they need you. You never know when Wish or Clairvoyance could save your allies, or screw over your enemies.
• Place the ones you have, then BUY MORE WARDS!