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Summon Aery

Summon Aery triggers on spells and auto attacks and then slowly returns to you. You can walk towards this little projectile to get it off cooldown faster. I have surprise killed a lot of enemies under their tower when as they reach safety they think my auto or Equinox won't be enough to kill them. But when I Flash or run into my Summon Aery projectile, it's suddenly a bit more damage than they expected and I kill them.

When you play Nimbus Cloak you have to remember to cast your spells with a purpose. You will run out of mana if you carelessly throw out spells and miss them. You can swap Nimbus Cloak for Manaflow Band against sustain lanes (usually Sona), or if you are playing Exhaust.

Scorch is the default choice here. You can take Gathering Storm against enchanters like Sona/ Janna/ Lulu who have a shield that's bigger than the combined damage of your Starcall and Scorch. Or if you're really insecure about some matchup where you think you can't get any Starcall hits because you'll get engaged on ( Draven + Pantheon). Or if you are turbo outranged ( Caitlyn + some artillery mage). That's a lot of scenarios but in practice it's pretty rare for a lane to be so hard that you can't get any Starcalls.

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Guardian

You can play the Guardian runepage in matchups where you won't be able to make use of the poke that Summon Aery provides. Typically those are matchups where you shouldn't have picked Soraka to begin with, but as a onetrick this is my band-aid for those situations. I also tend to pick this page in games where I know I will build Warmog's Armor. The Presence of Mind rune goes hard with it, the Ability Haste from Legend: Haste helps compensate for the lack of throughput a bit, and the Guardian rune itself helps with protecting you from getting oneshot if that was the reason for your Warmog's Armor purchase.

Second Wind is great against champions with damage over time effects like Brand/ Teemo/ Twitch/ Cassiopeia. Bone Plating is good when it's not easily poked out before for an engage. Conditioning is good with Warmog's Armor if you bought to prevent getting oneshot.

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Heal is the best because it scales with bonus healing and can easily proc Nimbus Cloak. The biggest gain of all is to cast it before the enemy uses Ignite. This is a bit of a mindgame, and getting good at predicting when the enemy is committed enough to Ignite is a skill of its own. In order to get the most benefit out of Revitalize you can try to use Heal when your ally is under 40% HP. You can do this when the enemy used Ignite early and you know your ADC will survive long enough, or if their Ignite is on cooldown.

Exhaust can help vs Garen/ Olaf/ Hecarim. These champions don’t deal (much) true damage, telegraph when they commit to diving your backline, are easy to Exhaust, cannot meaningfully be nullified by your Equinox and can just run past your frontline.

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Put 1-3 points in Starcall depending on how much you are able to bully with it and if you can control the wave. If you want to put a 3rd point into Starcall you have to remember that you are delaying your rank 5 Astral Infusion powerspike until level 10.

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If you're not expecting an all-in before level 3 you can put your 2nd point into Equinox for some extra poke or to deny a Nautilus from tryng to walk around the wave to throw out his Dredge Line.

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Some games you can skip putting a point in Astral Infusion at level 3, and put another point into Starcall instead. Play the next couple minutes of the lane in your head and ask yourself if you will Astral Infusion before level 4, or if you are better off having a stronger Starcall.

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If you don’t expect to be able to land any Starcalls at all, and you're just surviving artillery while jailed on your tower, you can max Astral Infusion. Then once you get low, dump your remaining HP onto your ADC and recall while they soak XP and CS. One benefit of this is rank 1 Starcall perfectly sets caster minions up to have very little hp left after a tower shot, so your ADC has an easier time CS'ing under tower. There is one exception though. If you have 2x Adaptive Force and the enemy team is behind on levels you might deal slightly too much damage, since the level of the minions scales with the average level of the enemy team.

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You want rank 5 Astral Infusion not too long after you start teamfighting, as that allows you to milk two empowered Astral Infusions out of one Starcall. It's ideal to put your 2nd empowered Astral Infusion on a different target than the first so that you don't overwrite the buff. It's technically also possible at rank 4 Astral Infusion if you have at least 35 Ability Haste and kite the Starcall return projectile a little, but it's very tight. You can reach this breakpoint with Moonstone Renewer's components + Ionian Boots of Lucidity. However, by the time you have that much gold you usually have rank 5 Astral Infusion already.

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Wish goes from 150 base healing to 250 at rank 2. That is nearly double! If you are not level 11 yet you should consciously be soaking XP from your teammates when they clear waves.

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Once your Astral Infusion is maxed out you can choose to finish up your Starcall or start putting points into Equinox.

Equinox max is definitely better in games where you build items with hp on them like Redemption, Locket of the Iron Solari and Warmog's Armor. Equinox is a more impactful teamfighting spell, and getting a 2nd cast off or a longer root can do a lot. Some people would argue it’s always better.

Starcall max has the benefit of giving you more self healing and some movement speed to kite backline divers with. It is mostly a thing if you don’t have much bonus health/sustain in your build ( Dawncore and Staff of Flowing Water come to mind, and no sustain from Redemption or Warmog's Armor). The flat health restore from Starcall will make up a larger percentage of your total health, while your unempowered Astral Infusion costs a percententage of your total health. This way you can spam Astral Infusion at the edge of combat and only need to get close to hit a Starcall every once in a while to stay healthy.

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Ward n' Switch

I place a Stealth Ward in lane level 1 if I'm against a hooker or Hail of Blades user that I want to spot sneaking into a bush before minions spawn. I then assess if I'll be able to abuse the bush against them. If I can, I'll recall and swap to Oracle Lens before I head back to lane.

Stealth Ward

I also start Stealth Ward against champions with long range and large area-of-effect abilities such as Lux/ Xerath/ Brand, who I can't meaningfully abuse the bush against. If they have Oracle Lens I use it to ward against ganks, otherwise I place it in whatever bush they took control of during the first wave.

Oracle Lens

I start Oracle Lens if I expect to be able to abuse bush control to further my dominance in lane. Typically this is against wardens or enchanters. It's nice to take it from the very getgo in these cases because then you will have two charges which guarantees you can sweep both the enemy support and ADC's wards in lane.

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Boots + Refillable

This pair is better than a Ruby Crystal. The Refillable Potion gives you 200hp for 150g, but it heals you over time so it's not as good against catchers/engagers that burst you 100-0 in one go. Buy this if you have under 800g or if the enemy relies on poke/skillshots.

Crystal + Amp Tome

This pair is better than a Kindlegem early on. It is generally the best 800g recall.

Kindlegem

Better than Bandleglass Mirror and Forbidden Idol if you don't have Dawncore. Buy this first when building Moonstone Renewer, Redemption or Locket of the Iron Solari.

Blasting Wand

Gives the same amount of healing as two Forbidden Idols put together. Buy this first when building Dawncore.

Fiendish Codex

Better than Forbidden Idol if you don't have Dawncore. Buy this first when building Staff of Flowing Water.

Forbidden Idol

Trash until you have Dawncore, then it's suddenly better than anything else. It also has some merit if you already built a Warmog's Armor against a rot comp, and don't need the increased healing per second of Fiendish Codex while building Staff of Flowing Water.

Giant's Belt

Generally the best component of Warmog's Armor.

Winged Moonplate

Sometimes I prefer this over Giant's Belt if I'm against a lot of skillshots or have to space an enemy that has a lot of Movement Speed.

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Swifties

Swifties help a lot with spacing which is one of Soraka's most important mechanics to master. I rush these before finishing my mythic if I'm playing a lane where I have to dodge a lot of skillshots. The value of faster roams should also not be understated. The price was recently increased by +100g but the effects remain the same, which means they grew in value compared to Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Luci Boots

They got nerfed really hard. +100g gold cost and -2 Ability Haste hit this item like a truck. It used to have nice synergy with Nimbus Cloak but the nerfs made it not really worth buying at all anymore.

Mobis

Mobis' recall empowerment is like an infinite tempo glitch. They can feel especially good against Umbral Glaive users because it's so easy to recall for wards. They are also nice in lategame when your jungle is dark, an objective is spawning soon and your team won't escort you to ward. You can put out a buffer of shallow vision, recall fast and and then move up to ward a bit deeper with more safety. These boots remained untouched in the recent tuning pass so they grew in value compared to bot Boots of Swiftness and Ionian Boots of Lucidity. That said, I don't think it changes a lot about when you would want to buy these.

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Moonstone

The best first item. Its passive effect benefits from your bonus healing twice; once when calculating the size of the original heal it copies a portion of, and then it multiplies the copied portion by your bonus healing again.

Redemption

Beefs you up a bit with 200 bonus health and helps with target access in drafts where you can't really heal your frontline without getting focused down. It also helps you sustain yourself really nicely. It doesn't increase your healing from Astral Infusion that much so you need to get good value out of the active effect. It's overall the best default 2nd item if you have no good reason to buy anything else.

Dawncore

It's very expensive at 2700g and doesn't have a fantastic build path but Blasting Wand juices your heals as much as two Forbidden Idols. This item is only really worth buying 2nd if you are playing with a Nilah. You usually buy it 3rd which negates the downsides of the poor buildpath since you will only have bagspace for the best component which plays into the strength of Blasting Wand. If you're planning to build Warmog's Armor or Locket of the Iron Solari then Redemption and Staff of Flowing Water are better options than Dawncore.

Warmogs

Warmogs is not for every game. It can be a situational purchase against Karthus or Teemo rotting down your healthbar before a fight starts. Or to ensure you are full HP all the time so you can't get jumped for free by a fed Rengar.

SOFW

SOFW is great at pumping out single-target healing and unlike Dawncore only costs 2300g. If your team is AP heavy it's a fantastic 3rd item because then it won't just be you benefiting from the passive AP.

Locket

I like Locket into teams with mixed damage and a heavy engager that gasses out quickly once their combo is on cooldown, like Diana or Vex. It can also help you stall a bit between your first and second Astral Infusion if the person you're trying to keep alive is getting bursted 100-0 too hard.

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Verdant Barrier

It’s going to win you games when the enemy Fiddlesticks or Neeko jumpscares you when you are grouped because you won't be CC’d along with the rest of your team so you can heal. I don’t really upgrade it until last, unless I base with roughly 1250g and might as well sit on the Needlessly Large Rod for a bit (uwu).

Negatron Cloak

I like to buy Negatron Cloak when the only threat on the enemy team is a fed AP assassin like Ekko/ LeBlanc or someone that can run past my frontline such as a fed Vladimir. If the game goes long enough I upgrade it to Kaenic Rookern after finishing my 2nd item. If the game is on its last legs and I won’t have time to finish it, I’ll put the gold towards a Watchful Wardstone instead for some immediate stats to hopefully win the last fight with.

Chain Vest

I like to buy Chain Vest for super fed AD assassins like Rengar/ Shaco/ Quinn/ Kha'Zix. I upgrade it to a Knight's Vow as early as 2nd item if my ADC is a low range champ with a lot of lifesteal or life drain like Nilah/ Samira/ Swain, otherwise as 3rd. You can kinda think of the 12% damage reduction as 12% increased healing for both your heals and their own self-healing.

Shurelya's Battlesong

Good if you are playing a melee heavy team comp and notice your team is having trouble connecting with the enemy. Ever since the AP got nerfed this is the only reason you would want to buy it.

Mikael's Blessing

Good when you find yourself thinking "Geez, if that teammate didn't get shut down by [insert CC ability here] he/she could wipe out their whole team!". If the enemy team has a lot of CC then it's not as good, because they'll just use something else as soon as you cleanse the current effect.

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These calculations are done under the assumption that we have rank 5 Astral Infusion and rank 3 Starcall. Our Moonstone Renewer double dipping into bonus healing is factored in. Ability Haste is difficult to quantify and should be weighed at your own discretion. You don't heal perfectly on cooldown all the time, Ability Haste is generally good for champions with long ability cooldowns ( Equinox/ Wish) and more unempowered Astral Infusion casts also drain your health bar faster.

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In lane you are the femdom. The enemy laners are your subs and they need to be taught a lesson. You need to maintain proper spacing and immediately seize any opportunity to punish the enemy for breaking parity with their lanemate or missing a skillshot.

It's easier to land Starcall on the enemy ADC when they go for a last-hit, but sometimes you'll have to bait out the spells of their support first. For example, I'll notice a minion is getting low, walk into Brand's Pillar of Flame range, dodge it, then I auto attack the enemy ADC as he goes for the last-hit to see if he dodges. If he dodges then my auto goes through and I Starcall after. If he doesn't dodge but autos me back, my auto goes through, I Starcall after and throw another auto. I will have traded either 2 damage events for 0-1, or 3 for 1-2.

It also becomes a lot tougher on the mind of the enemy if you walk towards them and away from them a lot, rather than waddling left and right. You want to condition them, you want them to get used to your character facing in the direction of their character so that it isn't so obvious when you are trying to get in range to cast Starcall. You also, where possible while maintaining correct spacing, want to stay close enough to them to Starcall as much as you can, even if you're not going to cast it or if it's on cooldown.

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After laning phase is over you need to entirely switch your mindset. You are no longer the dominatrix, you are now a sissy femboy. You're scared of anything that moves and always take the safe route towards your destination. You do not help hitting towers, you do not scout ahead to make sure it's safe for your ADC. You play back or you will get gibbed.

You should always try to be near the largest clump of allies, as that's where there is the biggest chance for a play going down. An exception to this is if you are playing with a Nilah or an ADC with a big ego. In this case you sidelane with them, 2vX anyone that comes to stop you, and hope your team doesn't take a 3v4 on the other side of the map. But if they do you can Wish to help out.

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Equinox is really important to use well. It can be used to deny Flash/ Zhonya's Hourglass, to zone (though a lot of the time a Starcall would suffice), to scramble up the enemy's engage, to extend the crowd control chain on an already locked down target, or to delay a cast to buy yourself some time to get your Astral Infusion cooldown back up. Good enemies will be waiting for you to use it before they make their play. Just sitting on it can prevent a Katarina or Samira from jumping your backline, so don't feel pressured to use it just because it's off cooldown, as even without casting it you are getting value.

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Tracking enemy ability cooldowns is really important. You can't just follow your engagers into battle to heal them. You need to be sure that the enemy actually wasted their gap closers before you can get in there yourself. If you don't have Flash or fast reactions and the enemy Malphite still has Unstoppable Force off cooldown then you just have to sit back until it has been used or until you figured out where the Malphite is and know he's not in range to be a threat. Dying to get off one more Astral Infusion on an overextended frontliner is never worth as much as you staying alive and getting many more Astral Infusion casts on your other allies.

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Spacing is closely related to cooldown tracking. Staying out of each enemy champions danger zone is just the surface of it. The danger zone of enemies changes depending on what abilities are on cooldown. Once the enemy Diana didn't get a reset on her Lunar Rush, her danger zone shrinks to just the size of her Moonfall. Now you can get in range to cast a Starcall, and if you know she doesn't have Flash or Hextech Rocketbelt you could even weave in an auto attack. Tracking this for all relevant enemies is how you find these windows to weave in and out and become an exceptional contributor in teamfights.

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Sometimes it gets messy and it becomes hard to mouse over specific targets or keep track of which nameplate belongs to which player. Luckily there are some other ways to do those things. I have my F-keys re-bound to my mouse buttons so I have an easier time moving my camera around to track where my allies are and what they are doing. But that is not the only thing they are good for. If you hold down your W key and then press the F-key that corresponds to the teammate you want to heal it will cast your Astral Infusion on them on key-down.

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Keeping track of the health of everyone in your team when they might not all be on your screen can also get hectic during fights. I use the portraits above my minimap for that, it really helps with timing your Wish. These frames double as yet another way to target allies with spells. If you mouse over one of these frames and then press W you will cast Astral Infusion on that player.

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Turn on timestamps for messages in your chat and always ping when the enemy uses Flash. You can press Z to bring up chat history when there is a break in combat and take a moment to do some maths. Just look at the timestamp and add the following:

Regular Flash

+5 minutes, then round it down.

Cosmic Insight

+4 minutes and 10 seconds (it should be 15 seconds but I found 10 seconds to be a lot easier to calculate in my head and it doesn't really matter).

Luci Boots

+4 minutes and 20 seconds (should be 25 but again, easier to calculate and there's some delay between when it gets used and pinged anyways).

Cosmic + Luci Boots

+3 minutes and 45 seconds.

Cell Division

It's also very helpful if you track Zac's Cell Division for your team which is exactly 5 minutes.

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You can format it nicely for your team so it's easier to read and understand. I like to type them in order of how long is left on the cooldown so the one that is off cooldown the soonest comes first.

Example:
830ad 905sup 1120jgl 1130zacP

I hit CTRL+A and CTRL+C before I send it, so that I can easily spam it with CTRL+V. Then once for example the enemy ADC has their Flash back up, I open chat, hit CTRL+V, hold SHIFT and use the LEFT ARROW key on my keyboard to select the text and I stop just before the 830ad so it doesnt get copied and hit CTRL+C. Then I do CTRL+A into CTRL+V to overwrite it and send it a couple times again. I like to post it at least twice every time I send it in chat.

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Guardian has a hidden interaction with Equinox. If an ally is standing in your Equinox then Guardian will think you recently healed them and trigger on the next damage they take. This can be really useful when you are late to a fight and need to clutch a shield on someone at low health to buy yourself some time to get in range to cast Astral Infusion.

Bone Plating can cause First Strike to not grant gold to the enemy. When you take damage during their First Strike window, 0.4 seconds later a little projectile is shot at you that deals the bonus damage. This damage can get negated by Bone Plating which causes the enemy to receive less or no bonus gold.

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Starcall's return projectile which empowers your Astral Infusion can be spread to allies with Astral Infusion before it reaches you. Doing so will instantly give both you and your target the movement speed boost, and your target the healing over time effect. The penalty for doing this is that your Astral Infusion doesn't refund its health cost.

Starcall's (return) projectile can be intercepted by Samira's Blade Whirl and Yasuo's Wind Wall.

Equinox's Silence will break if Ahri's Charm times out while the target is standing in your Equinox.

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Kittxnly & 1YANOU's guide has an excellent writeup on support matchups. I recommend you to check it out!

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This section is WIP. I'll be working on it over the next couple weeks.