Soraka used to be an amazing support/mage but now she pretty far from that. She used to do a lot more damage, give mana and heal/give armor. Now she cant heal herself but when she heals allies it takes away some of her health as well as her mana. The mana giving was a very unique ability that no other champion had/has and now its gone. All in all im just hoping RIOT brings back the old Soraka but without as much damage to make it fair.
I think her new kit is fine and actually needs a certain amount of skill to use and has counterplea as opposed to old soraka.
Be sure to comment and tell us why you want you want or don't want the old Soraka back.
I honestly enjoy the new Soraka more; I've distinctly remember quite a few times where I'm able to keep myself and a teammate(s) alive at the brink of health just by how quickly she can get her heals out, and how her Q gives her more health the lower her own health is (Can we stop saying she flat out CAN'T heal herself? She just has to do it by using her Q instead of her W).
And, personally speaking, I just REALLY hated her old Q; YMMV if the new Q is any better; I just hated having this ability when playing support. The visuals of it were great, but I hated having an ability where, as far as I was concerned, only existed to push the wave, and if you didn't want the wave pushed at all (Like if you're playing a SUPPORT and DON'T want your ADC missing farm or getting ganked), the negatives outweighed the positives of the ability. I was glad to see it turned into a Ground-Targeted AoE Skillshot, if nothing else.
Anyway, you're totally free to disagree with me.
New Soraka is the most fun i've ever had in this game. She is the queen of healing, can do it fast, can do it burst and globally, and sustain herself while her silence is a hard counter to popular champions like Katarina and Zed. Zhonyas is her core item, maybe Seraphs (but tear farming isn't my cup of tea), I don't recommend building tanky, go full AP (dcap), because you want your healing to scale with the damage of everyone else. You should always keep 2-3 biscuits on yourself at all times, the sustain is worth the money. Her Q is 0 damage. Don't bother casting for harass, only use it for sustain or slowing somebody, it heals more the more HP you're missing and it's good to land it on 2-3 people if you can.
I think the new one is better, but I prefer the old one. The closest support to backline/pure-support playstyle is Janna. But she isn't sustain-granting, unlike the old 'Raka. I really miss giving people mana T_T
I actually really like what they did with her. The fact that she can heal more often, but has to monitor her own health, is just awesome. Coupled with the fact that she can sustain herself with a harass ability (yes, I do consider this harass, because a smart enemy vs a smart Soraka WILL be zoned by it to deny her sustain) makes her a champion that actually requires skill. I'm not implying that the old Soraka required none, but it was easy to be a brainless sustain bot, with nothing to worry about but mana, and actually be effective. Now, she's rewarded directly for zoning and landing her skillshot with the ability to provide her partner more sustain.
The one thing I miss, however, was her ability to grant armor to an ally. I still sometimes find my self preemptively popping a heal when my ADC goes to trade or is being focused. The mana, I could take or leave. I can understand why it was removed, because it allows her ally to constantly spam abilities, which are designed to be gated by mana, without building the appropriate items. However, it's on such a high cooldown now, that I can imagine it having this alternate use without it being too unfair.
I'm going to be completely honest-- I liked the old Soraka a lot more. But I think the way they chose to rework her was incredibly smart.
I want old soraka back!
All I cared about in her old kit was the mana infusion. I think giving that back to her will help better define her as the ultimate sustain support.
