Hello everyone and welcome to my Soraka Guide. I am DA3DR1C L0RD currently a silver 2 support player. I began my league journey 1 year back on EUW. I am a support player and main Soraka. I started this guide because I find Soraka the best healer in the current game. Although she is a bit tough to master due to being very squishy, she becomes very rewarding if played correctly and the enemy team can become very flustered trying to decide whether to attack you or your team. I will try to make this as detailed a guide as possible and also will keep it updated.

Why to Pick Soraka
Soraka is a utility type champion that brings very powerful healing to the team. Essentially she is like another LARGE health bar of the entire team. This is not the only benefit of soraka, as she also has good crowd control. To top it off she has a game altering global ultimate.

Path to Victory
League is a team game and even if you do not do very well in the laning phase, team-fights can change everything. Here it is very important that you understand positioning and how and which team-mate to heal. The positioning is thus: in front the tanks, then come the damage dealers, and then comes soraka, at the back, untouched.

Every champion has pros and cons, and the biggest problem with Soraka is that she is very squishy.

Pros

• High Sustain
• Global Ultimate
• Crowd control
• Good Engage as well as Disengage
• Passive provides good move-speed towards low health allies

Cons

• Very Squishy
• Completely reliant on team to fight
• Vice-Versa if you die in or before teamfight it is difficult for team

Passive Salvation
Range: 2500

Soraka gains 70% movement speed when moving towards allied champions below 40% of their maximum health who are outside of Astral Infusion's range.

At a glance this passive might not look much, but truthfully, move-speed is one of the most OP stat in League. And it works wonders for Soraka and her team-mates as well. To break it down, it performs 2 very important tasks:

• First is that it allows you to close in on team fights very easily, or any fight really, very fast and heal the ally.
• In team-fights it helps in identifying allies who require immediate healing and once again help you get to them faster as you are far back from the actual fight, as I stated in the intro.

In short, this passive helps you in positioning A LOT.

Q Starcall
Range: 800
Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4
Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60

Soraka calls down a star at a target location. Enemies standing at the point of impact take 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+35% of ability power) magic damage and are slowed by 30% for 2 seconds.
If Soraka hits at least one enemy champion, she is also granted Rejuvenation for 5 seconds, which restores 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 (+50% of ability power) health and grants her a decaying 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% movement speed buff over its duration.
While Soraka is Rejuvenated she can Rejuvenate other allies with Astral Infusion, granting them the same effects for the same duration.

This ability is the bread and butter for trading with Soraka in the laning phase. Let's break it down:

• It is the ability that you use to poke the enemy laners.
• If it hits an enemy, (champion or otherwise, neutral jungle camps included), it slowes them. This provides a very easy disengage while trading, since most of the enemies will be unable to follow you due to the slow. Further,
• If it hits an enemy champion, rejuvenation is activated. This restores some part of your health, as well as providing you with extra move-speed. Rejuvenation, combined with the slow it applies on enemies, makes landing a good Starcall, for a very healthy trade.

In short, Starcall does many things at once; heals you, deals considerable damage, and helps you get away if someone is chasing you, and finally also helps you catch enemies if they underestimate you or overextend.
NOTE: Even if you hit multiple enemies, rejuvenation effects remain the same, that is healing or move-speed does not change if multiple enemies are hit.

W Astral Infusion
Range: 550
Cooldown: 8 / 6.5 / 5 / 3.5 / 2
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 + (10 % Soraka's max hp)

Soraka blesses a friendly champion, restoring 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+60% of ability power) of its health. Astral Infusion cannot be self-cast, nor can it be cast if Soraka is below 5% of her maximum health.

This ability is simple to understand, that it heals your allies. But unlike other healers in the game, it costs 10% of Soraka's max hp. Which means that you can not simply stand back and spam Astral Infusion to keep your ADC up since it will leave you with half hp without even getting hit by a single enemy attack.

Thus utilizing Starcall in conjunction with Astral Infusion is what keeps both you and your ADC in the lane. Starcall keeps your own health up and also pokes down the enemy, and then you can use Astral Infusion to heal up your adc.
NOTE: If you hit Starcall, rejuvenation is activated for 5 seconds. During this time, if you use Astral Infusion, it will grant the rejuvenation effects to the ally as well.

In short, the pattern is this: you go and trade with a Starcall, and then immediately use Astral Infusion to heal your ally, healing your ally more than you usually do, granting move-speed not only to yourself, but to your ally as well, AND regaining most of the health you lost for Astral Infusion.

W Equinox
Range: 925
Cooldown: 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90

Soraka creates a zone at a target location for 1.5 seconds. Enemy champions standing in the zone take 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+40% of ability power) magic damage and are silenced until they leave. At the end of the zone's duration, all enemy champions inside are rooted for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds and take 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 (+40% of ability power) additional magic damage.

Apart from the slow provided by Starcall, this is the other ability that provides some amount of CC. To break it down:

• It creates a zone that silences enemies that come inside
• It damages enemies that are in the zone when it is cast
• It roots the enemies still inside it when it ends and deals some extra damage

Truthfully, this is one of those abilities that is most under-estimated in lower-ranks. A well placed Equinox can be the difference between winning or losing a team-fight.
[side note* stopping Katarina ults, or stopping a Master Yi from disappearing into someone. XD]
Try not to spam Equinox during trades, as it costs much more than the other abilities and does not do much except stop the enemies from using their abilities, since they can easily get out of the zone. It is much better utilized along with Starcall since the slow helps in keeping the enemies inside the zone till they are rooted, which helps in making plays. Or it is a great dis-engage tool once again with a good Starcall, to keep enemies from following you. Also helps during tower dives, both when enemies do it, or when your team does it.

R Wish
Cooldown: 160 / 145 / 130
Cost: 100

Soraka calls upon the stars, restoring 150 / 250 / 350 (+55% of ability power) health to all allied champions across the field. Wish can affect untargetable allies.
Wish has a 50% increased heal on allied champions below 40% of their maximum health.

This ultimate is what makes Soraka really affect the map. It is literally an ability that can change the outcome of many team-fights, just by pressing a single button. It is an instantaneous Large amount of heal, across the map, to EVERY SINGLE ALLY. No other ultimate in the game works as fast as Wish with such a huge amount of healing.
NOTE: When allies are below 40% their max hp, healing with Wish is increased by 50% which really is a very large amount.
Try to use Wish during lane phase to get cross map plays going , without even leaving the lane. It helps in the plays and gives easy assists.

Opening Abilities order: ALWAYS Starcall > Astral Infusion > Equinox

Abilities Maxing Sequence:

Starcall > Astral Infusion > Equinox || Wish as soon as up
NOTE: This will help you trade better in lane but remember that Astral Infusion will be on a higher cool-down. Use this if your ADC does nto get poked down often, since you can not heal frequently, although each heal will be more powerful during laning.

**ALTERNATE
Astral Infusion > Starcall > Equinox || Wish as soon as up
This maxing pattern reduces your trading potential since you will be dealing less damage and also less rejuvenation effects, but use this if you are unable to land Starcall and/or your ADC requires healing very frequently, in which case you should also play safer. This pattern also drains your own health faster due to less rejuvenation effects.
I prefer the 1st maxing pattern and you should stick to that.

Sorcery is the best primary rune page for Soraka with many options to swap to, according to situations.

Summon Aery is the best keystone for Soraka. It deals some extra bit of damage during trades, and also provides bonus shielding to allies, when you heal them. An important thing to note is that it also damages enemies if you basic attack, so if enemy ADC is traditional, and the support is melee, it is easier to harass.

Arcane Comet is an alternate keystone to Summon Aery which reduces some shield potential to greater trade damage, and the slow that Starcall provides, almost guarantees that Arcane Comet always hits.

Manaflow Band is the best rune in the 1st row. This is because as Soraka you will have to trade and use a lot of mana, and it definitely helps with the mana pool.

Nullifying Orb is the other option from the 1st row and this is always an option against AP heavy matchups. Care must be taken since your mana-pool will definitely take a hit.

Transcendence is another very good rune as it helps to reach 40% CDR that much quickly. As Soraka cool-downs are another important aspect as with many other supports. Your basic attacks are very weak as compared to the difference each of your abilities make (as explained in the section above) in the game and you should try to get the CDR as low as possible to spam those abilities.

Celerity is a good option if you really need to dodge those abilities. (or outrun a hungry Warwick XD) Combine it with Boots of Swiftness, Ardent Censer, Twin Shadows, and maybe a Spellbinder to spice it up, you get a very healthy amount of move-speed. If we bring in rejuvenation from Starcall, barring a few, surprise attacks, no one will be able to TOUCH you. Keep in mind that this build style does affect your CDR, and you will feel the lack of it in game.

Scorch is THE rune supports should take. It is ready after every 10 seconds, and does bonus damage to one enemy hit by your abilities. It makes those early poke trades very effective as the enemy ADC is forced to use healing pots over and over while you simply use Starcall and Astral Infusion and sustain any at all damage taken.

Gathering Storm does not make much sense with Soraka at 1st look, since you do not need to deal a lot of damage and it is usually taken by those late game carries... But truthfully, Soraka's healing benefits a lot from AP. And being a support, you cant get those AP heavy items easily (yup a spicy Rabadon's Deathcap), so the extra AP from Gathering Storm is a welcome trade-off.

Resolve is also a good option as the primary rune page but i prefer it as the secondary page to complement with the sorcery page.

Guardian is the only keystone that makes sense with Soraka if you go for resolve primary rune page. Although the shield it provides is very good, it is overall a weaker rune for Soraka as compared to Summon Aery. Since it has a healthy cool-down, and it is easily proc'd whenever an enemy attacks you or your ADC after you heal, even if you want to save it for some other time. This means that you can not easily control when to proc it or not, as opposed to with someone like a Braum.

Font of Life is a good rune as it has perfect synergy with Starcall. Making those trades will be even more healthy.

Second Wind is a good option when the enemy laners poke you a lot, and it will help you in coming out of trades better.

Bone Plating is a good option against burst damage. You can pick this when against a burst damage support.

Revitalize is a rune that was made for Soraka. The boost it provides in healing is substantial, so much so that your ADC can go from being near 0 hp to 3/4 hp from a single Astral Infusion. This is even without having much AP or many items.

The Domination rune page can be used as a secondary page for Soraka, since it has 2 great viable options.

Ghost Poro provides a good deal of vision control and a good boost in AP.

Ultimate Hunter is the rune that makes Domination completely worth it. Using Wish is a great way to influence the map, and every single team-fight. Hence it does help a lot to have this global ultimate on a lower cool-down. What makes it even better is that the stacks are very easily acquired by using Wish itself, without you having to roam, and get assists in fights in top and mid lane whenever skirmishes happen.

Inspiration is a good rune page but does not offer a very good keystone for Soraka.

Glacial Augment is the only keystone that is slightly viable for Soraka. (Although I do not recommend it) This is because it does not truly shine unless Everfrost, or Twin Shadows is built and both of these items are not a priority for Soraka who specializes in healing.

Magical Footwear is a great rune but keep in mind that the boost it offers comes quite late, whereas I prefer to rush Ionian Boots of Lucidity, since they provide very good CDR, not just overall but for your summoner spells as well.

Perfect Timing is a great option, if you think you might need to build Zhonya's Hourglass. Although this is a more of a selfish item than a support item.

Future's Market is a good option and helps you get those extra Health Potions as well as Control Wards.

Biscuit Delivery is also a viable option as it will help you to replenish your mana-pool while trading in lane.

Cosmic Insight helps you gain a good amount of CDR, for all things which definitely helps.

The Precision tree is definitely not suited for Soraka support as it does not offer viable or useful runes as a support.

Presence of Mind is the only rune that benefits Soraka in any way.

Cut Down is the other rune to take. This is because you will hardly ever build any health on Soraka and therefore almost everyone else will have more hp than you.

NOTE: I do not recommend using the Precision tree in either primary or secondary rune page.


At the end of all this I will suggest going with Sorcery as primary rune page, and either Resolve or Domination as the secondary rune page.
For the additional 3, I suggest taking 2 Adaptive Force , and choose between Shield or Tenacity and Slow Resist rune. Flat Health is not a good option since the amount of health cost by Astral Infusion is 10% Soraka's max hp, therefore it is not advisable to get health on Soraka.

Flash is a spell that is of the highest priority. It is a must, and can not be replaced by any other in the current game. It will be used 95% times to help you get out of sticky situations, and maybe 5% time to help you secure kills. (Although, you should not be flashing to get kill only to realize later u could not get out due to flash being on cool-down)

Exhaust is the second most preferred spell for Soraka. Even though in the current meta, Ignite seems to be more useful, since it almost deletes Heal, which ADC'c tend to have, still Exhaust is a much better option. Ignite does provide a better kill potential, but you must remember your task as Soraka support: To keep your team healthy and trust that your team gets the kill. In order to do that Exhaust is a much better spell as it dampens enemy movement, decreases their damage and attack speed as well. This reduces burst potential of someone like a Zed, who if lands all of his abilities with Death Mark and Ignite, your complete heal combo with Starcall > Astral Infusion + Wish might not be enough to save your ADC, or any other squishy team-mate. In such a scenario, a good Exhaust will definitely help. Late game this spell becomes more useful to keep troublesome assassins from one-shotting you or your ADC as I mentioned in the example above.

Ignite is always a good spell as a support and will help to get many kills in laning phase. NOTE: Its use decreases drastically late game during team-fights as Soraka since you tend to be behind others and do not get into the thick-of-things. Also keep in mind it does not give you any protection in any way. What to do you are squishy as hell late game XD.

First of let us talk boots!

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are a very good option for Soraka since they cost only 900, give you an early boost of CDR, not just in general but also for your spells, which will give you a lot more utility.

Boots of Swiftness are the other option if you feel that there is a lot of CC on the enemy team and you will need to dodge those abilities as it will help in that. I have mentioned this in the runes section as well, combining with Celerity, Ardent Censer, Twin Shadows... etc.

NOTE: If the enemy team does not have a lot of CC but is AD heavy, you can swap to Ninja Tabi or AP heavy, Mercury's Treads

HEALINGGGGGGGGGG

Like Revitalize, Ardent Censer is an item that was made for Soraka. It provides everything you could wish for... (or Wish for if you like XD): AP, move-speed, CDR, mana regeneration, bonus healing. This is the core item of Soraka and it is always the second item that you complete after rushing boots.

NOTE: If you are going for boots other than Ionian Boots of Lucidity then it will be better to build in this order:
Boots > Forbidden Idol > Boots of Swiftness/ Mercury's Treads/ Ninja Tabi > complete Ardent Censer

Aftermath...

After this you really have to do the Math and figure out the build pattern according to how the game progresses. The standard items I have mentioned above as well as all the other viable options. One thing to keep in mind, try to get as less bonus health as possible since Astral Infusion costs 10% of your max hp, it does not benefit you much, you will lose more health per Astral Infusion but gain back less through rejuvenation effects as that only relies on how much AP you have. In short you lose more health in trades where you Starcall > Astral Infusion, if you get health.

So.. what to get?

• If you are behind currently go for items that give some defensive stats.. like Banshee's Veil, Seraph's Embrace, Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Blessing
• If you are even it is also good for some AP as well as defensive stat like Athene's Unholy Grail.
• If you are ahead you can go Twin Shadows, Spellbinder(although you might not need it in this situation, Spellbinder > Wish XD), Luden's Tempest, Rabadon's Deathcap.

First Step

BAN Blitzcrank PERIOD. This champion is the worst match-up you could possibly have in lane. Thresh is another one but sadly, you can not ban 2 champions XD. And in between these two champions, Blitzcrank is much easier to play, although the play making potential of Thresh is greater. Truthfully since Soraka is so squishy, all hard engage champions pose a large threat in lane, but none more so than Blitzcrank and Thresh.

Your lane phase is determined during champ select itself so you need to pay close attention to the champions the enemy team has selected. According to that you need to decide your runes and your play-style. The most important enemy you first think about is the enemy support and if that is a hard engage type champion (I am talking Blitzcrank, Thresh, Leona, Alistar), get ready to get that defensive game in bot. Next type is the utility type same as yourself (like Lulu, Janna, Nami). In this case the lane-phase will be normal and you can go the standard poke and play style in lane. The next type is AP poke mage type supports (like Brand, Zyra, Xerath, Vel'Koz). This type of match-up depends much on you dodging their abilities and out sustaining them. So it is a bit defensive game.

Early game

The start items are Spellthief's Edge and 2 Health Potions. During the early game, as Soraka you will probably require a lot of Health Potions to stay in lane. Also Control Wards. In the first 2-3 trades you should be able to determine whether or not you are able to trade successfully with Starcall. With time and practice you will understand the range and cast time. If you are able to trade well then keep at it and poke down the enemy as much as possible. If not, then do not force yourself to trade as you put yourself to risk. There is a very simple rule. If you die first, your ADC is easy to kill. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF AT RISK BY TRADING UN-NECESSARILY. Become more careful when you reach about 20% of your mana-pool and do not push too much without vision since you are very easy to gank and kill. Hold on to Equinox while trading, unless you think you can root, and not waste it since it has a very high cool-down and it is a very powerful deterrent during enemy ganks, or even keeping the enemy laner from following you after a bad trade.
NOTE: Always play more safe when Equinox is on cool-down
Warding is always important but do understand that you as Soraka can not go for deep wards often as it is too risky.
If the game is going even or if you are ahead, try to use Wish to
help other lanes. If you are behind, keep Wish for yourself and your ADC and wait for ganks.

Mid game

By this time you should have whichever boots and at-least Ardent Censer complete and maybe even started on the third item. Soraka is not a champion that can roam a lot and you should never venture in the jungle alone anyways... So, roam with one of your allies who you think is the win condition. Alone you can not gank, but with a jungler, or even with your ADC you can gank other lanes. Spellthief's Edge should be upgraded to Frostfang or even Shard of True Ice which means you have ample wards with you. If you are roaming a lot with one of your allies, switch to Oracle Lens and if not, then to Farsight Alteration.

This will be the time for small skirmishes that will break-out all over the map and the teams will start grouping either 1-3-1, or 1-4. Understand that you can not defend any place alone so stick to your team mates. Use Wish to assist locations that you were unable to reach in time. Otherwise you have to remain on the edge of these fights. Try to silence the enemy champions that rely heavily on abilities like AP Mages, or even front-line tanks with Equinox. Spam Starcall as much as you can to chunk down the enemy (enemy front-line is an easy target), but the major use of this becomes the rejuvenation(can help you stay in fight even if you are below 50% hp) that comes from it and copy that rejuvenation to as many allies as possible. Use your passive Salvation and keep moving. Starcall > Astral Infusion will help your team a lot in sustaining through the skirmishes. Keep Exhaust ready in case there are assassins that have good access to back-line and can get to you or your damage dealers like Zed, Yasuo, LeBlanc. The vision control that your team can set up with your help, will determine the objectives.

Late game

By this time your team should be playing grouped up 1-4 or 5 man squad. What is important now is the positioning. Avoid fighting in jungle without vision as you are an easy prey for enemy assassins. And keep in mind, with you playing, your team becomes accustomed to getting a ton of sustain. If you die early, or are not present for a team-fight, it can throw off the calculations of how much damage your team can take and it can lead to a very easy loss even if you were way ahead of the enemy. Your should be with your team always keeping them at full hp. Keep in mind your own hp. If you have a Wish ready you can stay with the rest, otherwise back and get your hp back up. Otherwise team-fights will be the same. You will stay at the edge of the team-fight, spamming Starcall and Astral Infusion and trying to silence the ability reliant champions with Equinox. Use Salvation to position and determine immediate healing requirements (that is PRESS R, dammit XD), and Wish when a major portion of your team is low hp, and not give the enemy even a slightest chance to survive your onslaught.

• Wish is a global ult. When it's safe look around the map or at the health bars of your allies icons. Use your ult in situations where you can save allies from dying or assist them to turn the fight around and get them a kill. Don't just use your ult if someone is low, make sure there is a chance your allies may get away or at-least finish an important target before dying.
• Your ult heals 50% extra when allies are under 40% HP, wait till your allies are below 40% but make sure they don't get bursted, so react fast. Sometimes you can bait the enemy team by using your ult when your ally is around 5-25% HP rather than 25-39%, make sure you don't bait yourself by reacting too slow.
• Starcall slows and damages all enemies inside, hitting at-least one enemy champion activates Rejuvenation.
• Rejuvenation lasts for 5secs, while Rejuvenation is active Soraka gets healed every half a second and gets a 10% bonus movement speed when not moving towards enemy champions, meaning the speed buff only applies when you're disengaging.
• Healing allies with Astral Infusion while Rejuvenation is active will copy it's effects to your allies. You can copy the effects to multiple allies with one Starcall hit.
• Starcall gives sight of the area before it lands, use it to check bushes/dragon/baron if the enemy team is missing.
• Astral Infusion uses 10% of your health to heal allies, avoid building health items, exception for Redemption
• Top up your allies HP to around 95-99% with Astral Infusion, don't waste your own HP by over-healing your allies (more than 100%).
• Know how much you heal your allies, don't get too low on HP yourself, since you're already squishy you may get focused and die.
• Be careful with how much you heal your tank as they have a-lot of HP, if the enemy team has at-least three magic damage champions suggest Spirit Visage to your tank/bruisers, this will increase your healing on them by a-lot!
• At low HP (20-50%) you may want to stay at longer range and try to hit your Starcall, don't recall if you have MP left. Once you get better on Soraka you'll notice you won't always have to leave the lane at 5-10% HP, unless your adc is recalling as-well, due to your high sustain from MP/HP regen items and Starcall.
• If you're confident that you're safe, top up your allies health before recalling.
• Use Equinox to silence enemies and root/immobilize them if they stay too long in it. Also useful when doing objectives such as drake to zone enemies away/keep them at distance.
• Warding Tips Thanks to Skill Capped guides
• Macro Tips Thanks to Pro Guides

Before I close off this guide, I would like to thank you fellow summoners, to read through it all. Soraka is a fun champion and my favorite support. I hope you find her enjoyable as well and that my guide helped you to understand and play her better. Become that annoying healer that defies explanation and saves her allies from certain death...

Please feel free to comment your thoughts on the guide and about Soraka herself if you have any, or if you have any doubts, those as well. I will try to keep this guide as up to date as possible. Best of luck on your games and see you on the rift!!