Hey guys, it's Massive Nuts, your regular boy. The new S8 runes gave birth to this amazing new masterpiece: Soraka midlane-mage.
I've been playing it a lot, studying the best build, the best runes in each case scenario. I'm not going to lie, I'm proud of it. We're talking about some really savage meta stuff here, so be prepared. Goodluck to you if you try it, and good reading.

Soraka is usually played as a healing support, but in this guide, consider her as a mage. Her biggest advantage is the sustain she gets from casting her abilities, but she also has a silence-CC and a slow which makes her a perfect control midlaner. Above that invincibility, add some damage and mix it all: you get Soraka midlane. What makes her a really good pick, is whatever happens in the game, you will carry: either by healing your damage-makers or by dealing heavy damage. Enjoy.

DOMINATION

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Electrocute is the key rune of this build. In early-game aswell as in late-game, the poking of electrocute will set most of your damage. Play arround it. There are multiple possibilities of fast combos for you to proc the electrocute. The best one in lane is Equinox-> Starcall->AA. This will also proc your lich bane and deal a lot of damage with the ennemy defenseless because silenced.

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Taste of Blood is a really nice rune for Soraka. Adding to the Starcall, you'll be able to regen about 30% of your HP just by hitting one Starcall on lane. The cooldown being low, this rune will provide some good sustain.

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Zombie Ward has really interesting mechanics since its rework on 8.13. The fact is, midlane is probably the lane where you're most likely to be attacked after destroying a ward (pink in bush) and this additionnal damage may allow you to take more risks while destroying wards and still be rewarded.

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Ravenous Hunter is a stacker rune which will make your heals go wild after a few kills. This will allow you to restore much more health in fights. I prefer this hunter rune to others as it fits well with the "heal and destroy" strategy.

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SORCERY

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Manaflow Band The early game manabar for soraka will seem really small unless you build yourself to be prepared. You will need mana to poke so this rune will provide you the mana necessary without being forced to build ore mana which would slow down your item path and wouldn't be really useful.

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Scorch is the best poking rune and alongside with all your other runes/items for burst, this rune will make you a real poker master, if I may say. The cooldown of scorch being low will allow you to constantly spam your abilities to burn the ennemy.

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What to take on Soraka midlane with flash? Well... A few possibilities are actually possible, if you are smart enough to adapt your gameplay.

Ignite is the most common one. I use it against most champions as a way to finish them. This summ will be very useful after you put your full combo on a champ and he still has a couple HP left. Indeed, your CD are pretty high for a mage and this may be the last damage before you die yourself.

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Barrier is pretty useful against heavy assassins. You have a high-sustain, but you're pretty weak against burst. Let's say there's a Zed, a Fizz or a Diana in front of you, this is what you should take. Getting your through the burst, you will regen quickly with your own combo and be able to return a loosing situation in a winning one.

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Exhaust is a good item against close-AD champions in lane with low escapes. ( ...) This will, after their full-combo, allow you to burst them correctly and twice without them being able to do anything. Exhaust + your Q will reduce their damage and their speed so much you can make them regret their all-in.

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Teleport is also a good backup item. You have an amazing sustain, but sometimes you need to go back to lane to buy iitems and, your wave pushing being pretty weak in early, you'll need to come back fast to catch up in the farm. This also allows you to teleport to a lane which is getting ganked and heal/attack the enemies like a countergank. Pretty powerful, but you need to master it.

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