Sona vs Soraka

Or; how to rework a support. Or or; the two second teamfight

Recently, two of the primary support/mage champs of the game have been reworked. Some of you may know my opinion on Sona. However I have an opinion on Soraka as well.

But first, Sona for those who don't know already. New Sona sucks. New Sona is a tactical champ on par with Nami. This, in and of itself, is not why she sucks. On the contrary, she's a well balanced tactical pick that slides into most any team comp and stands blow for blow in busting teamfights open. Like Nami. The problem is, she used to be Sona and had an identity of her own apart from being "Nami 2.0". Now there's no realistic difference between the two champs. There's no good reason to pick Nami over Sona or vice-versa. The big reason behind this is the change to her auras. The fact that they are smaller and that they are temporary are part of the reason for her identity shift, but the biggest reason is that the buffs she hands out are one shot deals. This is great for busting a teamfight open, but poor for extended engagements where her reliance on cooldowns to contribute anything to her team at all makes her a liability. What this leaves us is with a champion that the enemy team has no good reason to focus. Who cares about Sona? After she blows her cooldowns she stops contributing. If your team lived through her rotation, you can turn around and kill her and her team. Old Sona worked differently, she created a still point for her team to fight around. A walking buff that made her team better by existing. It created a problem for the enemy team; do they fight Sona's team while they're buffed up (and under the threat of a crescendo to the face), or do they focus Sona and remove these advantages at the cost of getting shot to bits by the rest of Sona's team? This is what it means to be a strategic support. It means to provide a subtle but positive benefit to grind an enemy down under the weight of superior numbers.

So now we have new Soraka. She's not an aura bot, she doesn't buff, and she doesn't need to. She has heals on practically no cooldown. She can keep a team healthy through an enemy team's assault, whether it be burst or DPS. Which means she poses a problem to the enemy team, the same problem old Sona posed. Do you focus Soraka's team while they don't die, or do you focus Soraka while her team collapses on yours? But new Soraka has a trick for that too, she can drop her Q to recover her health. The big gag is if you collapse on her, she can drop it on herself and it drops faster. So if you don't drop your hard CC or heavy burst (on the support), she'll live through your attack and you get chopped to bits anyway. The one problem being that the heal from her Q has a travel time, which is silly, but otherwise a solid kit.

However both kits play to the same design idea Riot is pushing (whether they mean to or not), the two second teamfight. Teamfights are generally decided in two seconds (even if one or two people manage to hobble away from the fight) barring significant last minute outplays. This phenomena stems from an idea that Riot is definitely pushing, their insistence on counter play. Most every ability on every champ needs to have counter play according to Riot. This creates a situation where no one wants to have a stand-up-knock-down teamfight. If your kit can be countered by listing lazily to the left, why would you want to give the enemy team a chance to counter? Teamfights are settled now by either having a staring contest until someone blinks or by hiding in a bush and jumping out to throw a party (of death). And builds are tailored to end the fight before the enemy team can react to their screw up. This leads to the two second teamfight. Sona and Soraka were tailored to this play style. The difference is that Sona got screwed up hardcore.