Soraka’s strengths have always been utilized supportively for the protection of her ADCs. But building ability power items on Soraka results in her actually dealing decent damage.
Not to mention that the more AP Soraka has the better her heals are.
With enough AP, Soraka’s Q becomes a decent poking tool, excellent for bullying enemies in lane. Her E + Q combo is powerful enough to take 30 or 40% of the enemy’s HP.
And the heals on her W and R are almost doubled.
And so, building more AP on Soraka is never wrong.
But if you want to see how a full AP Soraka build should look like in season 13 of League of Legends, scroll down and check the runes and items.
Table of Contents
AP Soraka – Runes
- Summon Aery
- Manaflow Band
- Transcendence
- Scorch
- Conditioning
- Revitalize
The Sorcery rune page for AP Soraka is focused on the early game. With the Summon Aery keystone you’re looking to increase your poke power during the laning phase.
The keystone deals extra damage when you hit an enemy with an ability, buffing your damage overall.
Manaflow Band is there to increase your maximum mana as well as mana regeneration. It also activates through damaging abilities but it has a bigger cooldown than Summon Aery.
Transcendence is a scaling rune that grants ability haste twice, first on level 5 and then on level 7. It also helps you refresh your basic abilities faster so you can use them more often. Pretty handy for an off-role mage such as AP Soraka.
And Scorch is another rune for poking early in the lane. It synergizes well with your keystone and burns the target for extra damage when you damage them with an ability.
From the secondary Resolve runes, I take Conditioning in most games. It’s a good rune for increasing your defensive stats in the mid game and making yourself tankier overall.
Next, I take Revitalize to buff up my healing. This rune is incredibly helpful and its power is almost equivalent to a whole item when you heal targets that are below 40% HP.
Even though this is the most recommended rune page for AP Soraka, sometimes I like to switch Summon Aery for Arcane Comet.
The latter does more damage and can be a better choice in certain games. So, don’t be afraid to test the keystones for yourself.
Read Also: AD Soraka Build Guide
AP Soraka – Items
- Luden’s Tempest
- Cosmic Drive
- Lich Bane
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
On to the items, the first thing you need to purchase is Luden’s Tempest. It grants all the necessary stats such as bonus AP, mana, and ability haste.
It also deals extra damage when you hit an enemy with one of Soraka’s spells, so it’s all you want in a neat package.
Cosmic Drive works extremely well as a second item on AP Soraka because it improves her playstyle in general.
Besides the raw AP and ability haste, the item increases your movement speed and AP after 3 consecutive attacks. And it’s really useful in combat.
Next, Lich Bane is the third core item for AP Soraka. Since she only has two damaging abilities, having another source of magic damage feels great.
Lich Bane enhances your attacks to deal extra on-hit damage after casting a spell, so it’s a good way to boost your damage.
In the mid and late game, Rabadon’s Deathcap becomes the most valuable item you can buy. By almost doubling your ability power, it also boosts the power of your healing and damage.
But because Soraka is still a squishy and quite vulnerable champion, building Zhonya’s Hourglass is also a must in the late game. The Stasis allows you to outplay opponents, dodge damage, and live to fight another day.
Plus the bonus armor is great against AD champions.
As for boots, the best ones to go for are the Ionian Boots of Lucidity. They’re pretty cheap and give you lots of ability haste for the early game.
Situational and Optional Items
There’s actually lots of diversity in Soraka’s ability power itemization.
For example, you can always ditch Luden’s Tempest for Liandry’s Anguish and have more consistent damage. Liandry’s works excellently against tanks, so hesitate to build it.
On the other hand, I really enjoy playing with Crown of the Shattered Queen simply because of how tanky it makes it. It annoys the enemy players because they can’t simply one-shot Soraka.
Chemtech Putrifier is an item that should be regularly built, depending on the situation at hand. But if you need to combat healing in League of Legends, always prioritize it.
Read Also: Full AP Janna Build Guide
Ability Order and Summoner’s Spells
When you’re playing AP Soraka in the mid or top lane, you don’t need to max out your W first. Your heals will be consistent because of all the ability power items so you can max it out later.
Here’s the skill order path for AP Soraka:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| R | R | R |
The choice of Summoner’s Spells is always dependent on the matchup. But in general, you want to go for a defensive spell besides your Flash.
So, choosing a Barrier or Exhaust is most of the time the optimal thing to run on AP Soraka.
Read Also: Full AP Sona Build Guide
How to Play AP Soraka – Tips
Make Poking with Soraka’s Q a Priority Early on
As you already saw, the whole build revolves around increasing Soraka’s power during the early game.
And in the laning phase, it’s especially important to play aggressively, harass the enemy laner as much as possible, and outlive them thanks to your heal.
Soraka’s Q, Starcall, is a weird skill shot but it’s really powerful. If you hit your opponent a couple of times with it, you’ll create a large health gap that will allow you to be dominant.
But you’ll also be safer because they won’t be able to play offensively without HP.
So, spam that Q button!
Read Also: Full AP Nami Build Guide
Use Soraka’s E Strategically to Disable Enemy Players
Soraka’s E, Equinox, is your second damaging spell and you’ll often use it just to deal more damage.
However, since the ability silences all enemies in the area and can even root them, it’s an important cooldown for countering mobility in League of Legends.
For example, if you’re up against Zed, you can use Soraka’s E to prevent him from dashing with his W and even casting his R.
It can completely destroy his combo and let you outlive and outdamage a fed Zed.
Remember, Equinox also prevents enemy players from using Flash, so it’s a great cooldown to use when chasing down enemies.
Read Also: AP Machine-Gun Lulu Build Guide
Don’t Forget to Heal Your Team
Even though you’re playing a carry-oriented build here, you’re still Soraka. Don’t forget that your healing is the best one in the entire game, and one or two Ws can top the HP bar of your teammate.
This is especially important after level 6 when you have access to Soraka’s ultimate, Wish. Wish is one of the best global ultimates in League of Legends and it’s broken because you can save an ally across the map.
With Soraka’s R, you can meddle in 1v1 duels in the top lane and influence the 2v2 skirmishes in the bot lane. It’s amazing how much you can impact the game while sitting in your own lane.
Read Also: Full AP Karma Build Guide
Conclusion
AP Soraka is one of the most fun off-meta mid lane builds I’ve ever played. It’s such a dominant playstyle that annoys melee mid laners such as Yone, Yasuo, and Zed.
You can use it to counter them and make them pay for all those times they’ve tormented you.
That said, good luck, and have fun!
