Soraka Top ITEMS

I'll be honest with you. Soraka top is really not good. I don't even play it that often because after a week straight of Soraka in solo queue I felt so burnt out. Playing Soraka top really brings out the worst in people. It's like people are so fixed in their mindset of where champions can go that they won't accept anything remotely different and will flame you till the ends of the Earth and back. But guys who have been playing as long as I have are pretty cool about it.

So first off, Items. I've developed a comprehensive Soraka item guide here.

The item paths are fixed. I'd reccomend to not deviate away from the build depending of what you're playing against. When you have enough gold for Armseeker's guard, I usually like to back when the wave is pushed towards me. I don't really care about how many minions I lose. Same goes for Zhonya's. Nothing to really explain in depth for the items. It's typical support items and other not die stuff.

 Regarding the situational items, Mean Hat is for extra healing when you are ahead. Banshee's for when you can get caught out by 1 ability and Spirit Visage for I guess tanky stats, CDR and a decent bit of healing on yourself. If you're playing against pure tanks I recommend to have some AP items. You are free to be more liberal with keeping yourself alive against a tank team comp. 

Ionian boots over any other boot, anytime. You need your summoner spells up as often as possible. CDR will be great with Soraka and having barrier+flash up faster is always good.

You will be over the CDR cap in most cases, but wasted stats on Soraka aren't a big deal. You may consider going transcendence, but those stats are even more wasted when you're dead in the dirt. Extra AP will not help Soraka do what she needs to do.