Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
x
x

Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment.
You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment
I liked this Guide

I didn't like this Guide




Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Choose Champion Build:
-
Healer Soraka
-
Aggressive Soraka
Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
Items
Ability Order
Salvation (PASSIVE)
Soraka Passive Ability
Introduction to the Guide

Hello, I'm Halipupu and a main support player. This is my guide for




Nowadays you can play

I felt like I had to make a chapter about this, since mostly when I've picked
Soraka in Ranked matches I've had a very negative reception. People give me comments like:
"OMG, Soraka"
"Why Soraka?"
"NOOOOOO! Not Soraka!"
Mostly the negative reception comes from the fact that
Soraka is very underappreciated. She can be countered by having
Ignite on the bot lane or just by having a good
Blitzcrank who manages to hook you or your ally every single time (usually it's your adc who then complains about how useless your
Soraka pick was).
In Season 3 people have preferred tanky high crowd control supports like
Leona,
Thresh and
Blitzcrank and compared to those supports
Soraka does not have any CC, hence it can be hard ganking on your lane or even getting kills on the lane.
Soraka however does give a great sustain to your team in and out of teamfights, so she's very good with poke teams who need a lot of mana to poke the enemy team while their pokes go to waste thanks to you.
Since
Soraka is easily countered by some hard CC, I wouldn't go first picking her, but regardless of the negative comments you get from 3/4 players in your team when picking
Soraka in Ranked, she's a very viable pick and fun to play - she just requires some caution and a carefully thought teamcomp.
Soraka works well with teams that do a lot of magic damage due to her
Starcall debuff, but she's also good against teams that do magic damage due to her passive. She's good at countering global ulties like
Karthus's ulti and especially good with teams that have high CC as it is, but not so good with teams that lack CC in every aspect.

"OMG, Soraka"
"Why Soraka?"
"NOOOOOO! Not Soraka!"
Mostly the negative reception comes from the fact that




In Season 3 people have preferred tanky high crowd control supports like





Since





Pros:+best single (and aoe) heal in the game + global healing can save allies even if you're not near + very annoying to the opposite team because of the sustain throughout the game + silence up to 2.5 seconds + can grant mana to allies + great debuff on Starcall, that works well with AP heavy teams (and AD corki) + ![]() + lovely art |
Cons:- low damage early game - long cooldowns on all skills except the only one that's not very useful at early levels - painfully long cd on ![]() - squishy early till mid game - often focused especially late game - can't use ![]() - prejudices of other players - lack of heavy CC - wrong kind of role model to anorectic teenage girls (and boys) |

















































Weird, but viable supports:








aka Carries who love you



































- Hybrid pen marks for for both healer and aggro Soraka, allows some harass power even if you max heal. Armor marks are a suitable alternative for laning phase.
Greater Seal of Armor is and has been the norm for supports for a long time. You don't want to go to bot lane with too low armor, because you'll die. Alternatively you can grab the scaling ones as they're much better late game. Soraka has a decent armor to begin with so you can try which suit you better.
- For glyphs I take the flat cooldown reduction runes, because
Soraka has long cooldowns otherwise and with runes and masteries you can shave off 2.5 seconds of her
Astral Blessing cooldown which is a lot at early levels and also you don't need to buy half as much CDR items with these.
Another good alternative to glyphs are the (scaling) magic resist runes if you feel too damn squishy with your 30 mr. I usually manage till I get mr from items, but it might be a good idea to try the magic resist runes. Greater Quintessence of Health proves extra hp which gives you a starting hp of whopping 600+ with runes and masteries.
- From the Defense tree I take
Block and
Unyielding to reduce incoming damage
- and health regen from
Recovery and max health from
Veteran's Scars and
Juggernaut
- In the Utility tree I take the
Phasewalker mastery instead of
Scout , since it doesn't give much bigger range when using the
Sweeping Lens. Shorter Recall helps however.
- Mana regen from
Meditation and HP regen from
Strength of Spirit
-
Summoner's Insight for lower cooldown on summoner spells
-
Alchemist and
Culinary Master to change
Health Potions into
Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation
- Gold masteries
Greed ,
Wealth ,
Scavenger and
Bandit are useful additions to gold income
- I take
Expanded Mind because the new
Infuse kinda like scales with
Soraka's max mana
- Last but least we aim for that CDR from
Intelligence that also lowers the cooldown of activated items (including trinkets if I understood correctly).
Flash is always a good pick for any hero, because it helps you flash out of sticky situations and go over short walls. For
Soraka this is a must, because you should keep yourself close enough to allies and to enemies in order to be able to use
Starcall efficiently. This might get you in bad positions occasionally, but
Flash should help out with that.
Exhaust is a basic support spell that works on many supports against ad heavy based enemy teams. Since
Soraka has low CC and it's hard to gank a
Soraka lane,
Exhaust helps in that point.
Ignite is a popular spell on offensive supports, but I'd rather pick
Exhaust for it's CC effects on
Soraka who has low CC otherwise.
Skilling Order:
I know






After maxing


Even when I play a more aggressive



I follow up with




_____________________________________________________________________________________
![]() |
SPACE |
Soraka's new passive increases her healing and mana giving abilities depending on how little HP/mana the target has left. Less hp/mana they have, the more ![]() |
![]() |
SPACE |
Starcall is a very nice spell, because it can be spammed hard and actually does some nice damage when it can stack long enough and it also lowers the cooldown on ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
SPACE |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
SPACE |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
SPACE |
![]() |
The most basic




More AP based, indirectly supportive "Spam that

Both of these starter items work with both builds. I'd run the
Ancient Coin starter against an equal lane which poses little to no threat. The
Doran's Shield build is valid against tough lanes and adcs that have high tendency to poke, for example
Caitlyn and
Draven.
Most of the people start with Warding Trinket which is ok, but when I start with
Ancient Coin I grab the
Sweeping Lens instead for some annoying vision deny. So the idea is that you're gonna manage with your adc's trinket ward and your
Stealth Ward whereas the enemy shall manage with 1 trinket ward only, because you'll kill the other one and the additional wards whenever you can.
In addition to
Ancient Coin we'll get 2x
Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation so you don't need to heal yourself unless absolutely necessary.
Starting out like this is very popular at high elo, because
Doran's Shield provides 100 extra hp and a passive that blocks 8 damage from basic attacks which helps incredibly much. You'll get also 10 hp regen and whereas you will lack the 3 mana regen from
Ancient Coin, you can manage without. And to be honest, the money you get from
Ancient Coin during the time you stay on lane varies from 120-200, which isn't all that much.
With
Doran's Shield we'll still get the 2 cookies, but for trinket you must take
Stealth Ward, because you'll still like your vision.




Most of the people start with Warding Trinket which is ok, but when I start with



In addition to


Starting out like this is very popular at high elo, because



With


Regardless of which way you started, I'd recommend rushing



If you don't have enough money for



Further Core Items



Talisman of Ascension is useful for all supports, because it gives not only HP and mana regen, but also 20% cdr and a speed active that benefits all team. Therefore I include here as a core item. Before getting it I'd upgrade


For boots you can always use


Shoes:



Friendly Support items:



Talisman of Ascension Builds from the





Less Friendly Support Items:














General:




Farming:
As a support you're not allowed to farm, but it's ok since we all got nice gold items like



Gold items give you plenty of gold throughout the game so you're not left behind horribly bad considering that assist streaks give you gold as well along with the occasional kill steals. If your carry isn't on the lane, you can farm but not push unless it's totally intended (like in the times you decide to go push the bot lane while your team is doing something else).
Game phases:
Early game your sole intention is to babysit and aid your carry with their farming. You take care of their sustain and aid them in killing the enemy if they decide to farm champions instead of minions.
Mid game you either keep on farming or start roaming and pushing turrets. Note that too early turret pushing will result in your carry getting less farm, but more money for your whole team and an advantage in pushing (objectives are more important than kills!).
Late game you go wherever your team goes. You ward out the most important objectives and use your


Overall throughout the game you should stay alongside your carry. They are your main objective in teamfights although you can and should save your other teammates as well while spamming

Warding limit per person is 3
Stealth Wards and 1
Vision Ward which means that after getting
Ruby Sightstone you'll never again need to buy extra
Stealth Wards.
Pink wards will last forever unless destroyed, but since they are visible they WILL be destroyed unless you know a really good spot to put it in. I wouldn't buy too many pink wards (mainly for Dragon and Baron and use them only at the time you're doing it) because
Sweeping Lens reveals wards long enough for you to destroy them and later on
Oracle's Lens not only reveals the trinket area, but also gives you Oracle's Buff for 8 seconds so you can clear whole Baron area for ecample. The cooldown on red trinket is 120 seconds before lvl 9 and only 60 seconds afterwards.
I don't have a picture for warding yet, but I'll add it later. For now I'd say that depending on which side you're playing, put the 1st ward in the bot lane river bush or tribush if you're playing on purple side. I'd prefer putting it in the tribush since it's a place where the enemy support can't use
Sweeping Lens and kill it without getting punished.
What comes to early game sidebush wards, have your carry use their
Stealth Ward there.




Pink wards will last forever unless destroyed, but since they are visible they WILL be destroyed unless you know a really good spot to put it in. I wouldn't buy too many pink wards (mainly for Dragon and Baron and use them only at the time you're doing it) because


I don't have a picture for warding yet, but I'll add it later. For now I'd say that depending on which side you're playing, put the 1st ward in the bot lane river bush or tribush if you're playing on purple side. I'd prefer putting it in the tribush since it's a place where the enemy support can't use

What comes to early game sidebush wards, have your carry use their

There are different ways to play Soraka as a support, all mostly with some minor differences. This the way where maxed out cooldown reduction allows better use of skills, therefore better support for the team without lacking aura-items.
I'm open to critisism and will improve this guide based on given comments.
P.S. I'm sorry but I took out the Wall of Fame since all of the scores where S2-S3. You're very welcome to send me some S4 scores with my recommended build and I might even make a new one.
I'm open to critisism and will improve this guide based on given comments.
P.S. I'm sorry but I took out the Wall of Fame since all of the scores where S2-S3. You're very welcome to send me some S4 scores with my recommended build and I might even make a new one.
9/4/2014
Made minor changes to runes and item order. Will update the explanations a bit later.
13/2/2014
Added
Doran's Shield started items and respective explanations in the guide. Tried to do some column formatting, but we'll see if it was successful or not :D
3/1/2014
Added aggressive Soraka build due to requests. Slightly modified sections accordingly to the alternative build.
15/12/2013
Made slight changes to runes and explanations according to 3.15 patch changes.
29/11/2013
General update - updated Warding and Gameplay sections along with Support section.
23/11/2013
Updated for preseason. If I missed something, lemme know.
14/11/2013
Added pictures and made some other minor changes into the text. Changes runes and skilling order slightly, since apparently I had missed them previously.
8/3/2013
Made the necessary changed corcerning the new
Locket of the Iron Solari.
4/29/2013
Added
Sightstone and Sight wards section that tells about counterwarding.
6/12/2012
Edited masteries and item builds suitable for Season 3. If something is missing, lemme know. I only did a quick remake to keep the guide updated so some things can be a bit confusing.
20/10/2012
Minor fix, since I noticed I had put attack speed quints instead of
Greater Quintessence of Gold. Avarice = Alacrity in my eyes apparently :D Fixed now.
4/10/2012
It took me too long to update this guide, but I've been meaning to do so for sometime now. Just been lazy or playing something else than LoL, but now I've gotten back my interest in playing it and playing
Soraka. So I updated runes and the section and summoner spells. I'll be adding
Soraka Champion Spotlight sometime soon, but now I'm gonna go cook :)
30/8/2012
Made a separate Wall of Fame for other players, but since I couldn't preview it I had to publish it without seeing how it turned out... I hope it didn't turn out terrible bad :D
27/7/2012
Readded the original item build for the build and wrote more about Morello's Evil Tome and added Locket of the Iron solari to the items section since it seemed to be missing. Also wrote a bit about nerfed
Wish and alternative skilling orders.
8/6/2012
Added
Athene's Unholy Grail to possible items and item builds.
7/5/2012
Added
Lulu section to Soraka vs Other supports and Laning partners that much up well with
Soraka to the same part. I think I'll be adding more possible ppl, but those are the ones I've noticed to fit the best with her (but all other AD carries are good as well, except for
Ashe, it seems that Ashe+Soraka lane never wins...)
10/2/2012
Added the new support items Zeke's HErald and
Locket of the Iron Solari into the item explanations and builds as well. Still waiting for a support warding item...
Changed Gameplay section to be a bit more comprehensive.
25/1/2012
Added other players game scores into Game Stats section, added bigger pictures about other supports in the Soraka vs Other Supports - section.
Slightly edited Item Builds section by chancing the pictures larger and also added
Will of the Ancients to the Item Choices section, because it was lacking earlier even though I thought I had added it there... Also edited the outlook of it by dividing it into better sub-sections.
12/1/2012
Midnight update on my guide on the commercials of Skins: added game new game stats and edited Summoner Spells section
28/12/2011
Edited Summoner Spells section and Masteries section slightly. Also added more colour to the guide (especially Pros and Cons). I'm planning on making Gameplay section a bit more... informative so I'll stay in touch when I have more time from real life.
27/11/2011
Changed masteries to the new ones and edited Masteries section to fit with the new masteries.
8/11/2011
Changed Item build and edited all sections and added couple of new sections as well.
28/10/2011
Edited Item Section and Runes slightly adding few other possibilities to build
Soraka.
26/9/2011
Rewrote skills section and edited skilling order. Also edited the item build section and added an alternative build.
24/8/2011
Added Healer Change Patch-section to the top of the guide and edited Pros and Cons. I'll continue to edit the guide after trying out the new Soraka with this build and few others to see how valid my current item choices are.
23/8/2011
Edited Item section for even more early
Aegis of the Legion and added Game Stats section to display the power of heal on Soraka
11/8/2011
Added a picture for the Gameplay section about warding and edited the text there slightly
22/7/2011
Edited item sequence slightly - different starter items and a more early
Aegis of the Legion whereas later
Shurelya's Battlesong
Made minor changes to runes and item order. Will update the explanations a bit later.
13/2/2014
Added

3/1/2014
Added aggressive Soraka build due to requests. Slightly modified sections accordingly to the alternative build.
15/12/2013
Made slight changes to runes and explanations according to 3.15 patch changes.
29/11/2013
General update - updated Warding and Gameplay sections along with Support section.
23/11/2013
Updated for preseason. If I missed something, lemme know.
14/11/2013
Added pictures and made some other minor changes into the text. Changes runes and skilling order slightly, since apparently I had missed them previously.
8/3/2013
Made the necessary changed corcerning the new

4/29/2013
Added

6/12/2012
Edited masteries and item builds suitable for Season 3. If something is missing, lemme know. I only did a quick remake to keep the guide updated so some things can be a bit confusing.
20/10/2012
Minor fix, since I noticed I had put attack speed quints instead of

4/10/2012
It took me too long to update this guide, but I've been meaning to do so for sometime now. Just been lazy or playing something else than LoL, but now I've gotten back my interest in playing it and playing


30/8/2012
Made a separate Wall of Fame for other players, but since I couldn't preview it I had to publish it without seeing how it turned out... I hope it didn't turn out terrible bad :D
27/7/2012
Readded the original item build for the build and wrote more about Morello's Evil Tome and added Locket of the Iron solari to the items section since it seemed to be missing. Also wrote a bit about nerfed

8/6/2012
Added

7/5/2012
Added



10/2/2012
Added the new support items Zeke's HErald and

Changed Gameplay section to be a bit more comprehensive.
25/1/2012
Added other players game scores into Game Stats section, added bigger pictures about other supports in the Soraka vs Other Supports - section.
Slightly edited Item Builds section by chancing the pictures larger and also added

12/1/2012
Midnight update on my guide on the commercials of Skins: added game new game stats and edited Summoner Spells section
28/12/2011
Edited Summoner Spells section and Masteries section slightly. Also added more colour to the guide (especially Pros and Cons). I'm planning on making Gameplay section a bit more... informative so I'll stay in touch when I have more time from real life.
27/11/2011
Changed masteries to the new ones and edited Masteries section to fit with the new masteries.
8/11/2011
Changed Item build and edited all sections and added couple of new sections as well.
28/10/2011
Edited Item Section and Runes slightly adding few other possibilities to build

26/9/2011
Rewrote skills section and edited skilling order. Also edited the item build section and added an alternative build.
24/8/2011
Added Healer Change Patch-section to the top of the guide and edited Pros and Cons. I'll continue to edit the guide after trying out the new Soraka with this build and few others to see how valid my current item choices are.
23/8/2011
Edited Item section for even more early

11/8/2011
Added a picture for the Gameplay section about warding and edited the text there slightly
22/7/2011
Edited item sequence slightly - different starter items and a more early


You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.