I just can't wrap my head around the new(ish) Soraka. I've tried to play her, but honestly, it just feels like I'm pants at her. I used to be good, but... now it just feels wrong.
Can anyone give me generalized tips on how to better my play, utilize my skills properly, and suggestions for itemization?
Thanks in advance!
For Soraka, the key is to think outside of the box.
Most people see "pay life to heal" and build more life (Warmog's etc.)
However, each of her abilities have a healthy AP bonus attached to them. I personally prefer a build of 
(Edit: 
is also acceptable; the early game is where you need to stay alive, and the health regen and increased mana regen helps me more than the early AP) 
an appropriate CDR item and then 
, with flat armor reds, scaling Hp5 yellows, and flat ability power blues and quints. 9/0/21 masteries, taking the CDR and ability power from the offense tree, and a full utility tree grabbing the CDR at the bottom of that tree as well.
You're not there to participate in team fights as a fighter. You're there for your healing. Hang around in the back, spam your heal, and let the others do the work.
I've got 40+ Soraka games on TB so far, and I've tried most everything. Not exactly a Pro, but I win more than I lose with her.
vs 
:
The choice here is if you need HPreg or gold. To start off with Soraka, I highly recommend taking Coin until you learn how to position. Once you learn to position, you should also be comfortable poking with her aa and q. Once you have that confidence, start taking Thief. The 10 true damage will really help you poke down people with your aa. Your range is decent, and easily abusive if you are persistent at it. I've made Braum's and Taric's cry with just my aa's. However, I don't recommend finishing either past the initial upgrade. Read below for why.
vs :
Soraka needs mana regen and she needs AP. Both items suit her really well. However, you should be healing with your Q, not by standing around minion waves. You also do enough poke with abilities that Frost queen will earn you lots of gold all throughout the game. It's not uncommon for me, when I do make this item, to hit 1000 by 25 minutes. I like it's active because it helps Soraka land her Q and E, and is pretty much her only form of instant cc, even if it's only a slow. Q should follow right behind it, but Q isn't instant. Talisman is awesome team utility, but I find Soraka moves fast without it, and is more concerned with keeping her team healthy than diving into a fight. If you don't finish, sell the base item to make room for higher items.
However, I rarely finish either of these items. I prefer getting better utility items early rather than a support item. But if the lane phase goes on til 20 minutes, I'll grab one of these.
vs :
This is your decision for a first item. Do you need to juice up your abilities and survive assassins, or survive extended fights? Warmogs is Soraka's only way to heal in between fights without returning to base. I find it very effective. Zhonya's is what will help you survive skirmishes and make your spells do more. It depends on the game, and how you see it playing out. Stacking some HP isn't a bad thing at all, it make enemy damage less intrusive to your already limited healing. Just don't build only HP. The main reason I build warmogs is for the 3% hp regen. You will really need it. Zhonya's is your main armor item. Even just building the core item (Armguard) will really help you. Having both warmog and zhonya isn't a bad build either.
and 
and 
and 
:
90% of the time, take Mobi boots. You need the speed to place wards in the mid game, and to get to the fights late game. Finish the core sightstone and upgrade it. You will be out on the map a lot, and vision is your game. Crucible is going to be your go-to mana item. Build it whenever you feel you need more mana.
vs 
vs :
Here are your final item options. Since Soraka tends to get to low hp a lot, GA can really help you. BV helps keep you from cc, and Rabadons stacks on top of Zhonya's really nicely.
...................................................................Gameplay:
...................................................................Early game: Q > W > E > W > W > R
Use your Q to zone out the enemy, and AA a lot if they get in range. Banana's are OP and you will do a lot of damage if you keep one of the other champions always low hp. I always focus the initiator of the two, which is usually the support. If you can single handedly zone the support, their adc will be unable to cs. Have your adc freeze lane, and enjoy some farm. I actually take AD marks with my spellthief to make my AA's hurt more. Rely on your Q to heal up up, but don't go oom with it: It's 1/5 of your mana pool early game.
Finish with:
...................................................................Mid game:
Pick either Warmog or Zhonya's for your first item and start building it. Keep dragon and it's approaches warded. Your ADC should be able to keep farming with you gone for the occasional 15 seconds and awesome vision. Stick to your team's playmakers at this point. Anticipate the fights, and keep the dragon side of the map warded.
Finish with:
...................................................................Late-Mid game:
This is about the 25 minute mark. If you find that you die early on in fights, get either BV or GA: Your life is more important than better heals.
i see 
as a supporting healer and build her accordingly. some people build her ap but i don't think that's as good, or at least that is harder to play and i don't care for it.
i start 
then get 
and upgrade into and
i go for 
over the course of the game but other boots are situational
if you need MR i suggest 
or 
or if they have heavy cc , if you need armor to survive bot lane i get 
or 
if you dont need armor i still think is good on her in general
i max her w (heal) first and sort of spam it along with my q e combo, with the you should be spamming your abilities to make sure each charge is giving you health and mana. this means i usually have to leave lane a bit early but the heals ensure my adc has the sustain to deal without me for a quick recall.
if your jungler starts bot side tell him not to use pots and heal him as he leaves his first camp. this has become more important with the recent jungle changes.
with all this time out of lane (strong leash for jungler and perhaps an early back) make sure to take inspiration from the utility tree in masteries. that way you can catch up in exp from missing time in lane. it means that occasionally you can back out of exp range to give your adc solo exp and you will naturally catch up allowing you both to reach lv 6 a minion or three earlier than your opponents.
EDIT: i forgot to mention summoners, 
or {{summoner:2}} are good and i might take 
if my lane partner is also mana hungry (like sivir for example).
Runes i run Gp10 quints, armor seals, MR glyphs, and Magic Pen marks.
masteries i run 0-9-21 making sure to have all the gold income and inspiration in the utility tree.
good sorakas heal teammates that need it.
bad sorakas spam heal on teammates(even when the teammate is at 80 pct hp) and then die later on because they have low hp from spamming heal so much.
I feel abusing her AP ratio is a good start. I get AP blues, mana regen yellow, and magic penetration red. I'll either go with Ap or MS quints. Getting spellthief will help further the abuse of her AP but you can't go wrong with coin simply for more MS and mana regen. I personally don't feel like you should put anything into health regen, especially with the PBE tweak Soraka is getting. R>W>Q&E. I like to put more points into E over Q but I usually end up splitting them evenly. Soraka's E should be used more as a reactionary ability. Don't spam it because it's one of her only defensive abilities as well. Keep your distance, she's squishy. Landing those Q's at max range is difficult (if not impossible) but almost mandatory to master Soraka. Of course, you could always sneak in a bit closer a cast a quick Q before running back. Don't spam your W either, use it when you need to. Your ally doesn't need max health to be safe. I find Soraka works really well with Jinx & Graves because they have their own form of CC which you can use your E as a followup to lock enemies in place.
{Disclamer: I am a HUGE scrublord. If you find anything here really stupid and nonsensical, it probably it. }
in lane
outa lane
Tips from a long time soraka player...
Magic pen is a trap. Get AP runes. Scaling or flat...they not only help your poke some, but also your utility and healing. This is true of almost all AP supports. Pen is for damage...and damage is not your strength. The poke will be a tiny bit better with pen, but the AP will be a lot better in the long run.
Don't avoid health...just do it smart. I tried a zero Health build...it was fantastic. I could heal myslef faster than I could cast my Ws going will full sustain. Then mid game their ADC would sneeze at me and I'd be dead. So I got AR...didn't matter. You are too fragile with out any health at all. Just do it smart. Try and get health items that come with some regen to help offset the % loss from Ws...also with better scaling on AP, and if you can land your Qs, items like RoA and RCS may be a bit more viable. Testing needed.
Never use your E offensively. The CD is too long and the CC too valuable for saving your ADCs ass. It's perfect for negating that all in by thresh or leona. Just cast it on your ADC as they engage. And savy placement during an enemy gank can ensure its failure. I always get nervous whenever I do poke with it because I have nothing if the enemy decides to go all in for the next 20 sec or so.
Don't top off health bars. Keep people above 50% or so unless they are engaged upon. Then spam that heal like there is no tomorrow.
Find yourself always low in mid game fights and needing to back? Elixir and Biscuits mastery can allow you really solid sustain for a nominal fee. Try taking an early elixir or even just a pot/biscuit every back. Great against a poke/siege comp that requires you to constantly face enemy damage for long durations.
One of the few champions I think actually makes use of captain's enchantment on boots. If you are always properly positioned in the back lines, your entire front line has great disengage and can fall back faster for heals if they get caught taking more damage than they anticipated. Requires teams that run to you when they are low...many do not when in trouble and waste the effect and your healing potential.
AS is great for poke. If you go with Spellthief, consider a little bit of AS in your Runes/Masteries. You will be suprised how much better your AA poke feels. Well worth the investment if you are comfortable playing a more aggressive poke Soraka.
Don't underestimate matchups. Soraka is strong against teams that have channeled ultimates. She can completely neutter the likes of Katerina, Miss Fortune, Nunu, and many others. She in turn is weak to Assassins and burst damage that can kill her before her heals can swing a fight. Also any one who has ignite or other healing debuffs can be a problem for the quality of your heals. Be aware of who they are and if their CD are on or off. Silence spells on champions are similarly debilitating and can cause you to miss key casts of spells. Lots of silence on an enemy team may require cleanse or qss to ensure you get your heals off if they target you a lot.
Don't neglect support items and their actives. You must get the most out of your team by making them better when you around. You can do this in many ways through the proper support items that buff with auras or actives. Morellonomicon, Ardent Censor, Twin Sadows, and on and on. Know them all and learn the best comps both ally and enemy to employ them with/against.
Saying silly things like "Wait for me, I'm hoofing it as fast as I can guys" or "weooo weooo weooo, never fear the ambulance is here" or "Do I make you horny baby?" At apropriate amd safe times. It lightens the mood and reminds teammates you got their backs.
Good luck, and see you on the fields.
I'm still trying to get the hang of her myself, but from my understanding, building a good amount of AP is probably good on her; getting used to leading and landing her Q's is going to be helpful too. I believe she's a bit more of a niche pick (You wouldn't pick her into just any team comp).
Buying flat health you probably shouldn't do (Outside of sightstone, and even then you should probably wait to upgrade it); With Soraka's W Health cost, you just can't trust her health alone to be enough to keep her alive, so having a bit of resistances should be good.
I'm not sure if the changes made Warmog's any better of an item for her, but I'm pretty sure it still wouldn't be core or anything.
Other than that, like I said, I'm still working at it, so I'd like to see what other people have to say.
I'm having a hard time finding it right now. That picture of the dude from Road to El Dorado drinking from a mug, that is reskinned to be vlad drinking a health pot? That needs to be Soraka.
Everybody, thank you so much for your help! Thanks to this, I've come to understand how to play Soraka a bit more. She actually won me my promo series into Gold! Thank you so much for these tips and ideas and ways to apply her skills. It really helped a lot!
I started playing her after the rework, so I never dealt with the old Soraka, so here's what I usually do. Get Q first and go bottom lane. ONLY use that attack when you know you can hit the enemy team. Next level get the W. That way you can now heal yourself with Q and heal your teammate. Get E next, and get more of whatever you think is best for your ADC. If the ADC doesn't have good defense, max out W first, but, if they're slower, get E, and get Q if they need help weeding down the enemies. What I found that worked best with her is team fights. When you can't see who's your team and the enemies, is the best for Soraka. Use E first, than use Q, then your ult to quickly heal all teammates and get the assists.
Ok. First thing you must undestand there is 3 completly different soraka build. You must know which one you take.
1- **Zeraka **: She build health and armor a lot (
) . It's the only build that could duel someone effectively. Her starcall hurt and she can take a lot of damage. The drawback is that she heal at a 1:1 ratio. It's more an health gift then an "heal" to be honest. She'll cast Zero heal, unless it happen to save a legendary carry.
2- 10- Soraka: She build somewhat like a standard ap support other then she somewhat avoid health item. She use her health bar to heal and manage to stay alive with starcalls and heals. her heal ratio is around 2:1.
3- 10+ Soraka: health is nealry forbiden in her build (even sightstone). She stacks 
s and use her HP5 as the source of her heal. Therefore she can jump well over the 10 heals wall and pay more then 100% of her health in heals. She will have enough to cap her teamates to full health. Her heal ratio is around 3:1.
A- AD Soraka: 
. A joke. Unless you face 3 or more tanks or your teamcomp have no AD champion at all.
Different Soraka require different builds.
In the Bronze V's opinion:
Her kit is really easy to use. I think the best thing you can do is realize when to play her. She is not a champion you want to bring into every match. She has good synergy with champions that are more about harass than those that are all-in; more importantly, she isn't really able to react well enough AGAINST all-ins. Sure, the ADC will get away barely alive multiple times, but that's not really the point. The point is to win the laning phase.
When to play Soraka:
Your ADC:
Their ADC:
Their Support:
Your ADC:
Their ADC:
Their Support:
When NOT to play Soraka:
Your ADC:
Their ADC:
Their Support:
Your ADC:
Their ADC:
Their Support:
Close Match Ups:
: In my experience, her bind+w isn't enough to get your ADC killed when you heal them. Use caution when ult up.
: Only a threat if she gets an equally aggressive support, eg Voli
: Will depend on the quality of the player; you take out a lot of her bite and can zone her. She's still Karma though.
: Can the Thresh execute his Flay properly (as in, immediately after hook)? If the answer is "no", you have enough time for an extra heal and won that fight.
: Abuse her short range, try to E when she wants to blind, and heal early when you see Valor.
: This is about mind games. You want to make her feel like she's hitting enough spears to not turn into a giant cat, while not actually letting her do that much damage.
