Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Soraka, the Starchild.
So long as I live, none shall suffer.
Soraka is a ranged support champion who excels at buffing her team, healing and preventing a lot of damage.
Additionally, she has a number of strong offensive uses.
Soraka’s passive is Consecration. Soraka and friendly champions around her enjoy bonus Magic Resist.
Starcall damages all nearby enemies and lowers their Magic Resist for a few seconds.
This Magic Resist shred can stack, often placing enemies into negative values that cause them to take even more than the listed damage.
As a support, I recommend one point in Starcall early, but due to how dangerous it is to stand in close range, max it last.
In tankier mage-oriented builds, I recommend maxing it first.
Astral Blessing heals and significantly increases the armor of target ally for a few seconds.
For support Soraka, take Astral Blessing at level 1 and max it immediately. When played as a mage, max it after Starcall.
Infuse has two different effects depending on whom Soraka targets.
When cast on an allied champion, Infuse restores mana to her target, but Soraka cannot target herself.
Cast on an opponent, Infuse damages and silences her foe for a few seconds.
Support Soraka should max this ability second, while a mage build will want to take one point early but max it last.
Wish is Soraka’s ultimate. When cast, Wish immediately restores a large amount of health to all allied champions on the map, herself included.
As with all ultimates, take Wish at levels 6, 11, and 16
Because of Soraka’s great attack range and ability to heal herself, you should try to harass your lane opponents as much as possible.
But instead of blindly walking up and attack, pay attention to the health bars of your own minions:
You can see here Soraka and Graves get free damage onto Caitlyn as she walks into range for a last hit.
If you don’t wait for this opening, it gives your opponents the ability to strike back without worry.
With Exhaust and Astral Blessing, Soraka can take a lot more punishment than her opponents expect.
Though she gets caught out by Sona and Caitlyn, she Exhausts the enemy carry and heals herself once Crescendo ends.
Soraka follows up by staying in range for Starcall and tagging Caitlyn with Infuse, bringing her low enough for Graves to pick up the kill.
However, remember that Astral Blessing’s cooldown is pretty long, so even though Soraka has mana she is killed by Sona in a counter-attack.
Soraka’s deceptive tankiness is proven again as she gets jumped by Hecarim, Caitlyn, and Sona.
Flash gets Soraka a bit farther away and then she self-casts Astral Blessing, allowing her to absorb a lot of punishment as her team comes in from behind.
After Sona falls, Soraka keeps herself alive with Wish, Exhausts Caitlyn, and silences her ultimate.
Popping Shurelya’s Reverie, Soraka escapes and allows her team to chase down Caitlyn for the kill.
Don’t get overconfident. Soraka tanked the last fight because only physical damage dealers were focusing her and Astral Blessing grants tons of armor.
In this clip, Soraka’s caught out in front against significant magic damage and enough crowd control to prevent all of her healing.
Now let’s talk about her early game as a primary mage: In the beginning, rely on your basic attacks instead of Starcall for killing minions.
Using Starcall will place you in significant danger of a gank, so it’s better to farm from a distance.
Starcall does, however, deal incredible damage in team fights. Soraka follows as Lee Sin charges into a fight against Skarner and Katarina.
Summoner Heal just barely keeps Lee Sin alive while Starcall begins to wear down the health bars of her enemies.
Skarner falls dangerously low, but a last-second shield and then Flash keeps him from dying.
When fighting in direct champion combat in lane, a mix of Infuse and Starcall tends to deal more damage that your opponents expect.
As Katarina dives in on Soraka, the silence from Infuse prevents her from doing anything further while Starcall continues to take down her health.
Ultimately, Soraka is able to drop Katarina to about half without suffering almost anything in return.
One fun trick when pushing as Soraka is to wait until an allied cannon minion takes some damage from the enemy turret, and then target it with Astral Blessing.
The combined heal and armor buff make it significantly stronger at tanking the damage.
Soraka has to manage all her abilities well in a late-game team fight. First, she quickly interrupts Katarina’s Death Lotus with Infuse.
Second, she constantly stays in range to land Starcall, dealing significant damage and assisting Rumble’s output as well.
Third, after the opposing team counter-attacks, she makes sure her full team can benefit from Wish, keeping Rumble alive until they can bring down Caitlyn.
The continued use of Starcall and Infuse at this point serve to bring Sona extremely low and take down Caitlyn in a 1 on 1.
Astral Blessing completely shuts out Caitlyn’s damage output before she turns to grab Sona and then move to Skarner.
Flash and Exhaust keep her out of Skarner’s reach as Starcall continues to drop his health bar, picking up an ace with only two deaths on her side.
Let’s break down both two example builds: a typical support build and a solo lane mage.
As a support, I recommend building early gold generation, adding in auras to help your teammates, and finally a splash of ability power.
As a mage, try instead for 40% cooldown reduction, and healthy dose of durability, and a bit of Ability Power.
As a support, try Armor Marks, Armor Seals, Cooldown Reduction Glyphs, and Gold generation Quintessences.
For a more offense-oriented build, take Magic Penetration Marks, Mana Regeneration per level Seals, Cooldown Reduction per level Glyphs, and Gold generation Quintessences.
Take 8/0/22 Masteries as a support, with Cooldown Reduction in Offense plus Mana, Gold generation, and Cooldown Reduction in Utility.
Mages should consider 9/21/0, focusing on Magic Penetration in offense, plus Cooldown Reduction and general durability in Defense.
Almost any build with Soraka will want to take Flash, as she has no other way to escape in fights.
Aside from that, support Soraka with Exhaust will be able to weaken threatening enemies.
While a solo lane Soraka should take Heal because Soraka wants to be the last champion standing in a fight as she relies on Starcall stacks.
For support items, I recommend opening with a Faerie Charm plus multiple Sight Wards and one or more Health Potions.
Upgrade quickly to a Philosopher’s Stone and Heart of Gold before adding Boots of Speed.
If you can grab it before about fifteen minutes in, Kage’s Lucky Pick will also set you far ahead.
From here, start adding in items that help your team at large such as Shurelya’s Reverie, Aegis of the Legion, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Zeke’s Herald.
Finally, adding a Rabadon’s Deathcap at the very end will increase the potency of your heals, keeping your team alive longer.
For a more carry-oriented build, start out with Boots of Speed and Health Potions, adding in a Philosopher’s Stone early.
Rush a Rod of Ages, upgrade to defensive boots, and start on Frozen Heart. From here, adapt your build:
Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, Abyssal Scepter, and Rabadon’s Deathcap are all great options to increase your durability and damage output.
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