Soraka, the champion of endless pushing


In this guide i will be teaching you to play a gold deprived Soraka, who's main goal is too make sure your team never needs to leave a lane or stop their push.

Let's start with runes and masteries shall we?

Runes
quintessence of potency x 3
mark of potency x 9
seal of clarity x 9
glyph of focus x 9


reasoning: the quint and mark runes are going to be ap because you will have no ap until later in the game as for seals and glyphs well 6% cdr and some good mana regen is always useful on casters

Masteries
11/0/19
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner#&tree1=0-1-0-3-4-0-0-1-0-2-0-0-0-0&tree2=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree3=0-0-3-1-4-4-1-3-0-0-0-0-3-0-0
can be changed too 9/0/21 if you prefer putting the point into presence of the master but i find that mastery near useless

Summoner Spells
in order of preference
Ghost the ability to get in throw a heal up and run away is not something i can pass up

Exhaust reduce the damage of their carry units to reduce the amount of healing you need to do

Clairvoyance knowing where enemies are can help you prevent yourself and allies from getting ganked.

Clarity if you find yourself burning through mana early on and your gonna be laning with a caster then this will be a nice spell early on.

Foritfy extrra damage to minions passively and save turrets in case allies "get stupid"

teleport quickly get back in lane after dying or a forced recall

i would not use any other spells than these

Soraka's abilities
And how to use them

Consecration

(passive): Increases surrounding allies' magic resistance by 16. (1000 range)
this will provide some minor damage reduction but i would not expect to be tanking with it any time soon

Starcall

(Active): A shower of stars falls from the sky, striking all nearby enemy units
for magic damage and reduces their Magic Resistance by 8 for 8 seconds This effect stacks up to 20 times.
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Area of Effect: 630
Cost: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 mana.
Magic Damage: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.25 per ability power)
this spell will be a low priority spell for you as using it is only useful for killing minions and lowering enemeis
magic resistance by a small amount when the possability arizes though you will rarely be close enough to cast it

Astral Blessing
(Active): Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring health and granting bonus armor for 9 seconds.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 650
Health Restored: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+1 per ability power)
Cost: 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 / 170 mana.
Bonus Armor: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35
the bread of Soraka this spell heals your opponent and you will be using it frequently.

Infuse
(Active): Restores mana when used on Soraka. If cast on an allied champion, restores half that mana
to them and half to Soraka. If cast on an enemy champion, silences them for a few seconds and deals magic damage.
Cooldown: 15 seconds
No Cost
Range: 725
Mana Restored: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 mana.
Silence: 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds.
Magic Damage: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 (+0.6 per ability power)
the butter of Soraka, this spell will provide you with the mana to endlessly stay in lane or push and if you(or your allies) have no need for the mana it is a good bit of damage or a good silence for an enemy caster who is about to open up on an allie. stopping him completely mid rotation. i save this spell for nuking champions like Ryze, Leblanc, Nunu's ult etc

Wish
(Active): Soraka fills her allies with hope, instantly restores health to all allied champions.
Range: Global
Health Restored: 200 / 320 / 440 (+1.3 per ability power)
Cooldown: 120 / 110 / 100 seconds.
Cost: 250 / 350 / 450 mana.
This spel is one i would save until i had to use it to save someones life or if everyone on the team has taken a substantial amount of damage

spelling order
this is one that varies alot from game to game but my most frequent ones are
w>e>e>w>e>r>e>w>e>w>r>q>w>q>q>r>q>q
if i have a lane mate who is a farmer or if they will be attacking the enemy alot
W>e>e>q>e>r>e>w>e>w>r>q>w>q>w>r>q>q
if my lane mate is having trouble killing minions

Item guide
this step will have a very significantly less amount of detail in it because the way i play soraka is very gold deprived.

meki pendant +2x health pots - using health pots when you and your lane mate will be taking damage so that you can focus more on keeping him alive as well having less of a mana pool to worry about

tear of the goddess - large mana pool is useful and building this into archangel staff

ionian boots - cool down reduction for the ability to cast spell more often (around this time you should be starting to get more into the team fighting phase)

Rabadon's Deathcap - you will probably be building this item 1 step at a time using your own digression on which piece to buy first

arch angels staff x3 - get to work on building arch angel staffs tho i have never finished my second one before the game was over its the best way to go since heavy ap = heavier heals



in lane
keep ally full health and mana as well as yourself

in teamfights
stay behind your team and watch your back for an enemy that is going to run towards you (this is where ghost comes in handy as well as exhaust)
keep everyone full health(tank last) and full mana
silence enemy casters when circumstances permit
starcall enemy champions when circumstances permit (to lower their mres thus allowing your team to do more damage)

in 1v1's
run and starfall and heal while silencing them.
eventually they will either give up or you will reach your teammate and they will get killed

when pushing as a team
keep everyone full health and mana so you can pressure the enemy constantly while killing them one by one and eventually just outright taking the tower they are trying to defend

i like to get malady on soraka for mass -mr , is fun as hell

oh shi

"this spell heals your opponent"

sounds OP

luld

archangels is horrible for soraka

LOL

mana + mana regen + lots of ap
how is it bad now?

(and for everyone else talking about the error)
any other thoughts on this guide?

Because since Soraka is a support champion, not a pure AP champion she will die before she can cast heal on herself.

She needs something to keep her alive.