Hello, I'm HelloPolar! This guide will lead you to a, hopefully, better Soraka build! Soraka is a support champion. This guide is for anyone who wishes to play a support champion, however, if you are in high elo, disregard this, since you probably already know most of what I am about to say. I recommend this guide for those of you who are silver and lower elo, or unranked. Soraka is easily one of my favorite champions. She is easily one of the most viable support champions because she heals, lowers magic resist, and can give mana back to a friendly champion.
By the way, this is only a support Guide, so, I will not be featuring any of Soraka's Ap Carry/Mid capabilities.

Pros

• best heal in the game
• global healing can save allies even if you're not near
• very annoying to the opposite team
• silence
• can grant mana to allies
• great debuff on Starcall
• Starcall has spammable damage

Cons

• low damage early game
• long cooldowns on all skills except the only one that's not very useful at early levels...
• all AP ratios are semi-low
• squishy early till mid game
• often focused

"Counter" Supports

Viable Champion Comp

Not a very good combo....

Spoiler: Click to view

It just doesn't work very well. Alistar or Taric are much better options.

Spoiler: Click to view

Tristana doesn't work well with Soraka, unless you are an AMAZING Soraka, and your Tristana is 1500 ELO.

I would recommend using 3 [Quintessence of Ability Power] to maximize her early game heal. I then take 9 [Mark of CD reduction] even though we build it in the build, and put it in with masteries, simply because it gives you a quicker spam time. Just kidding. You build the cooldown reduction so that you can build a [Ruby sightstone] and keep your cooldown reduction. Then take 9 [seal of armor] I take these because Soraka's armor stat is too low, and an ADC can chunk her easily, making her have to waste her pots, or her heal. Then take 9 [glyph of mana regen]. Soraka isn't a mana hungry champion, but, these are always nice to have. You will lose less mana this way.
Other options may include using 9 Greater Seal of Gold and 3 Greater Quintessence of Gold. Also 3 Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed.
I include these options because some people prefer not to build very many GP5 items, prefer to get more gold, or prefer to build Mercury's Treads instead of Mobility Boots.

For masteries I use 5/0/25. I find that diving into the utility tree does well for Soraka. Also, the added cooldown reduction, and the little boost to ability power helps immensely. I choose not to include the experience boost, because I find that it's not extremely useful. Instead, I take the cooldown reduction in the tier below.

Ideal Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
I choose these spells because, flash gives Soraka her escape, and Exhaust is useful for an ADC, or anyone else she may be in lane with at the moment.
Other Choices:
Heal This is useful, but, I don't recommend it. It's better to just suffer through the longer cooldown, so that you can take Exhaust in order to help your ADC more.
Clairvoyance Clairvoyance can be useful, because of it's low cooldown, but, it's main use is only to check Baron for a long distance, or dragon. You can check other jungle areas, but, it's not extremely useful at the moment.

I start with Faerie Charm, 3 Sight Ward, 2 Health Potion and 1 Mana Potion.
I then build my Faerie Charm into a Philosopher's stone and purchase up to 5 Sight Ward. Most people prefer to get the Sightstone, but, I think it isn't as much of a useful item, since you have to purchase extra wards anyway, which leads to another item slot being taken. I then buy Boots which I upgrade into one of four options; Mercury's Treads if they have high CC, Ninja Tabi More of a last resort, and only if they have a majority of AD champions, Mobility Boots these are for a more ideal movement speed, so that you may return to your team faster, or Ionian Boots of Lucidity. These give Soraka the cooldown reduction she requires. I purchase another 5 Sight Ward, but, only if I'm out of the last ones. Usually I will build an Aegis of the Legion, which I will later upgrade into a Runic Bulwark. Frozen Heart will be built next, to lower the enemy team's Attack speed. Usually, about this point in the game, I would build my Philosopher's Stone into a Shurelya's Battlesong. I then build a Zeke's Herald to give my AD Carry some more lifesteal, and some extra attack damage.

I choose to max heal as quickly as possible. I wait to get a point in Starcall because you shouldn't be taking minions as a support, and with Starcall it is easy to do so. Also, if you, at times, fail like me, and you're trying to kill minions with it while your ADC is getting a kill, you could accidentally steal it. Max Astral Blessing first, then Infuse because it has decent harass, and you can give your AD carry mana.

Early Game

Soraka isn't a very aggressive support, because of the fact that she isn't very tanky. I recommend that you sit in the bushes, only coming out to heal your ADC, or give him/her mana. Also, leaving the bush is required to keep the river warded. Do not forget to ward river, or else you will not see an incoming gank from an enemy jungler.

Mid Game

Mid game, you can be slightly more aggressive, because, by this point, you will hopefully have a Frozen Heart. This will allow you to become slightly tankier, and you should be able to stand by your ADC, and the rest of the team, if need be, and heal them constantly. Try to ward the enemies blue , or red , depending on your side. This will allow your jungler to counter jungle.

Late Game

Just keep warding. Don't forget to ward Baron and Dragon constantly, so that your team can have an advantage.

Thank you to everyone who made a "How to" guide. I cannot remember all the ones I used, but I remember jhoijhoi was a great help.
If you use this guide, you should be pretty successful in your games. I cannot guarantee that you will be successful 100% of the time, because occasionally, things happy. Don't be afraid to just use this guide as a base and build off from it. Please take the time to comment on some things I may improve, or if I have any grammatical errors. I hope that you guys enjoy your games, and keep on supporting!

Most of all

Have fun! I mean, that's what League of Legends is for, correct?



Thank you!
HelloPolar