I'm not a professional. I don't even have a rank because I am too scared, so I cannot help with play style very much, BUT I do know my way around Soraka.

When I first played League years ago I quickly became a Soraka main because I loved her play style, but I didn't know how to use her very well. When I got back into playing League recently, of course I'm with my baby goat girl again, but this time I really wanted to focus on making the best of her abilities. Most Soraka builds are the same, y'know the ones that start with Moonstone Renewer, but while those help with Soraka's healing, she is still left weak and squishy, so she can't help the team much. Then I saw a build by swelteringmuffin (pls look up their build), which is great because it focuses a lot more on AP, but for how I play she was still left too squishy. So I decided to make this build myself which is like a mix between swelteringmuffin's build and the typical build. So far it has been working really well for me, so I decided to share it and hopefully it can help others as well.

Also sorry if this guide looks bad, idk how to use mobafire. This won't be super in depth because I'm not really good at the game so expect loose explanations, and only small tips. This post is mostly for the build.

Pros~

• Strong Heals
• Cross-Map Healing
• Good Crowd Control
• Good Poke
  

Cons~

• Squishy
• Weak
  

Sorcery Tree:

Summon Aery is a great rune for Soraka because it provides extra protection to your team when you heal them, and extra damage to your enemies when you are poking them.

Manaflow Band makes hitting enemies adds 25 max mana up to 250 and then starts restoring 1% of your mana every 5 minutes ensuring that you can always give that poke and heal your teammates.

Transcendence increases ability haste on certain levels, which is great when you need to keep healing and can't risk waiting for your cooldown

Gain AD and AP over the course of the game which is just good. Yay.

Domination Tree:

OH MY GOD THIS CHANGED MY LIFE (thank you swelteringmuffin). Ghost Poro leaves a small poro that grants extra vision after your ward expires. As someone who sometimes struggles with vision this helped a lot, and it also helps you know where the enemy jungler is because the poro disappears when it is discovered, so if it goes away in river bush, watch out. Also stacks AD or AP.

more cooldown reduction is always good.

Rune Stats:
+8 Ability Haste because the cooldown for [astral infusion] is annoyingly high early game, so this helps a little
+9 Adaptive Force (AP) more AP is good
+8 Magic Resist just helps you stay alive

I personally choose Flash and Exhaust

Flash of course is great for quick escapes or getting to the enemy for one last hit, and Exhaust is great for making sure an enemy doesn't get away. Using them together as a combo is my favorite thing to do and has helped a lot, so I'm fine not using anything else.

Other good replacements for Exhaust is Ignite and Barrier. For that just experiment and choose what works best for your play style.

Ability Priority:
Q>W>E

Soraka's Q, Starcall, sends a star to fall onto the ground. If it hits an enemy it will slow them and recover some of your health.

Soraka's W, Astral Infusion, will sacrifice some of your health in order to heal a teammate.

Soraka's E, Equinox, creates a zone that silences enemies that are in it, and if they are still in it when it closes they will be rooted. It does damage when the ability is cast on them and when it closes. It does not damage or root minions.

Soraka's R, Wish, heals herself and ALL of her teammates no matter where they are.

The reason I make Starcall a priority instead of Astral Infusion is because it really helps with poke in early game, and makes you useful when fighting instead of just waiting around until someone needs a heal, but that doesn't make Astral Infusion not useful early game. Trust me it still is. Feel free to change up the order depending on the team matchups and how you like to play.

Some random tips:

• Q then E is a good combo because it will slow the enemy, so they stay in the E longer and will get rooted.
• Don't be afraid to use Wish for just one person. Since it heals everyone, it's tempting to always save it for when everyone needs health, which is true, so like don't waste it, but if your adc is going in and is about to die, feel free to use that ult in order to keep them alive for that crucial second longer. Or if your fed teammate is getting beat up across the map and you don't want the team to kill them and catch up, feel free to try and help them. The beauty of Wish is that it works across the whole map, so use that to your advantage.

starting items:
Spellthief's Edge, Health Potionx2, and Stealth Ward
Spellthief's Edge will give you a good amount of AP, Health, and Mana regen to start the game, not to mention that it will give you most of your gold income. After you get 500 gold with it, it will upgrade into Frostfang, 3 refillable wards. Once that happens, replace Stealth Ward with Oracle Lens the next time you back.

Early to Mid Game:
Imperial Mandate, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, and Staff of Flowing Water
Building these items, Imperial Mandate first, will help you most with ability haste and AP. This ensures that when the team fights start in mid game that you will actually be strong enough to help do damage and constantly heal your allies.

Late Game:
Redemption and Warmog's Armor
Ok, it's now late game, the enemy team has scaled and is super strong, problem is, Soraka is still squishy af. News flash, heals don't work when you're dead. If you are better at champion placement and sustain then maybe you don't need these items and can get something else, then by all means do it, but if you are like me and need the extra help, these items do wonders. Redemption gives you a lot of health, health regen, and can be used as a way to heal your team even more as long as they stay in the area you place it. Warmog's Armor just gives you a lot of health. Since Astral Infusion takes away health in order to heal others, I personally think being able to have a lot of it and still stay alive is very important.

Anyway, yeah. if you read this, thank you. I hope it helps. Definitely check out the Soraka build by swelteringmuffin because they definitely influenced this build and inspired me to create my own. Anyway, good luck and have fun. I can't really give any other tips because I suck, but just keep practicing.