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Soraka - The most tilting experience

Weeb Filth··5 votes·662 views

Not the first time I've been here but gonna make it short.

While I have found Soraka getting increasingly annoying to play against there are things that along with the rest of the game (Tank dps > carries dps > assassins dps - cause balance) that aren't fun to play against and add nothing to the experience. While there might be counter play to one area there is nothing you can do against the lane other than hope your team are willing to co-operate with you... assuming the enemy team isn't doing the same (illaoi, who am i kidding even ganks don't help). But in my last game it hit hard when a support joined me in my salt-fest about Soraka and the terms "Soullink Warlock" (for WoW players) and "spirit master" (for Aion players) got brought up. It made me realise the futility of playing against the champions and how linear these champions really make gameplay, just like an AI in an mmo. You're forced to face the immediate threat while ultimately your efforts (and resources, such as mana and cooldowns) are wasted to their healers. They can focus on a single ally, essentially treating them as a pet toggling between; giving them/infusing them with health > and draining health from the opponents > using light cc when things get rough > repeat. Describing Soraka like this shouldn't be possible but is, and it made be realise just how simple her gameplay is and how simple it is to play against it... which is just don't (passive mobs always live through your dungeon runs).

But throwing around salt is impolite (thinking solutions here) so here is one suggestion which I think could make a huge improvement even if its only temporary which is; remove her sustain while removing her infuse (or even better remove the champion :D) since it means that... well... poking her has an impact. Her q is easily avoidable at max range but that's assuming you're not going to farm, the attack animation is long enough for soraka to pop out of a brush and pop a q on top and this is even more prevalent in teamfights. While on the other hand her infuse feels underwhelming until its spammed, While another fix for this would be to make her even more of a warlock and make her w a healing over time (working much like old karma soul link connection) however that would be a drastic change and we're not talking short term with that.

Overall this is one of many champions/items which as of right now infuriate me in the current game state and while I'm sure people will say "You can't do a better job" I'm one of the (roughly) 30 million daily users who play the game and together we, as a community, can. the game shouldn't be based around the 100-200 professional players any more and while esports is great it shouldn't let its greatness drain the healthy, fun parts, of our game... like laning... laning used to be fun...

20 Comments

disregardable3 votes

I've never understood why people complain about Soraka. Most of the time I get stuck with one supporting me we lose. Early game heal cooldown is too long, and it's not like she can do anything else well. I mean I guess if you completely and utterly refuse to all in them it'd be bad?

Weeb Filth1 votes

You're talking about all ins as if there wasn't a need for engaging which then greatly limits the viable supports AND carries able to be played against soraka. I understand counters should exist to keep variety but countering 60% of the reworked carries (now based on casting and essence reaver) and forcing people to play 900 range poke champs/beefy engage supports isn't healthy for "variety". Though them same tanks are also dealing 30-40k damage in 35 minutes which doesn't need promoting.

1 800 MID LANE2 votes

Go ham early. The CD on her heal early on is painful and an all-in pre-6 is almost impossible to stop.

Duke Anax1 votes

Just watch it that Soraka doesn't go ham first, she got mad damage early.

Weeb Filth1 votes

{quoted}

Go ham early. The CD on her heal early on is painful and an all-in pre-6 is almost impossible to stop.

I'm not talking about facing solo lane soraka, I'm on about duo lane where the "carries dealing more than assassins" belong.

1 800 MID LANE2 votes

And I'm saying go ham early. All-ins aren't restricted to assassins. Even if you just get a shitload of poke off, that works fine too. Her heal costs her health. Punish that. Her Q costs a relatively high amount of mana. Make her heal a lot and she'll essentially kill herself for you. Either way, there's a reason she's the second most-banned support in the game.

Weeb Filth1 votes

{quoted}

Either way, there's a reason she's the second most-banned support in the game.

That statement alone proves my point. I'm sorry if you're not understanding but the initial point was that regardless of how bad/average soraka is her laning phase is infuriating and far from fair. Her rework was based around her lcs appearance and her lack of a second one is why riot refuse to give her a second look.

1 800 MID LANE2 votes

High ban rate does not always mean that they need nerfed. It means that their kit is so obnoxious that no one wants to play against them. I almost always ban Zed right now. Does that mean he needs nerfed? Nope. It means he's obnoxious as all hell and I either don't want to lane against him or don't trust anyone else to.

Weeb Filth1 votes

Because its more likely to tilt people and more likely to ruin your game if they can't handle it which proves my point yet again... At no point in my post did I purely say "nerf" or rule her out as "op".

Which is why I suggested making poking her feel impactful as the tilting experience comes from the feeling of lack of impact.

1 800 MID LANE1 votes

"remove her sustain while removing her infuse (or even better remove the champion :D) since it means that... well... poking her has an impact. "

And that's not a nerf?

VictoryDance961 votes

If you face a Soraka supp, you can essentially be aggresive because as long as you avoid her Q, she cannot deal a great amount of damage or heal her teammate without running low on mana. She is incredibly easy to kite as well, so focus her really early on.

BluePolarizer1 votes

how the hell are you kiting Soraka when she does not engage you at all? lol.

anyhow the #1 counter to Soraka is Blitzcrank. Destroys her at all stages of the game: early, mid, late. Doesn't matter.

VictoryDance962 votes

{quoted}

how the hell are you kiting Soraka when she does not engage you at all? lol.

anyhow the #1 counter to Soraka is Blitzcrank. Destroys her at all stages of the game: early, mid, late. Doesn't matter.

She has to get relatively close to you to get her Q off. If you let her and her lane mate push to your turrent, once you engage it is off to the races...

Weeb Filth1 votes

{quoted}

She has to get relatively close to you to get her Q off. If you let her and her lane mate push to your turrent, once you engage it is off to the races...

I understand the playing around Q aspect of the game but seeing as a number of carries are short ranged and now casting based, soraka's power has spiked, too much from my perspective. (a slow more reliable against short range carries and a silence for casters puts her in a too perfect spot)

Weeb Filth1 votes

As a side note, to your earlier comment I also want to point out that "not being his by her Q" isn't simple. Anyone with decent understanding of the game will abuse the window of your attack frame to cast these skills and unless you have a 6 second cd dash it is impossible to avoid all of them in the early game. And people are talking assuming she is the only one in bottom lane.

I'm open to criticism but atleast give more reason than "but dodge q" when the post was aimed at the laning experience.

VictoryDance962 votes

{quoted}

As a side note, to your earlier comment I also want to point out that "not being his by her Q" isn't simple. Anyone with decent understanding of the game will abuse the window of your attack frame to cast these skills and unless you have a 6 second cd dash it is impossible to avoid all of them in the early game. And people are talking assuming she is the only one in bottom lane.

I'm open to criticism but atleast give more reason than "but dodge q" when the post was aimed at the laning experience.

Usually you can tell when a champion will cast an ability. Maybe you get hit the first time or so, but then you should be able to see how they play and when they time their abilities. Is she going in hard? Does she have enough mana? These are questions you need to be asking yourself after a trade or two.

Weeb Filth1 votes

In the new meta where games are considered much shorter being set behind by that inevitable "trade or two" can make or break the game in itself since you're being set behind with no real reason to it. You're talking as if its support vs support, not duo vs duo or team vs team. There is more than 1 person, on both sides funnily enough.

Posui Gart1 votes

Poke Soraka, not ADC. Her Q range is nerfed so she can't Q you from safety. Or just all-in with something like Leona+MF(again, focusing Soraka as a priority). And after lanephase, JUST BUY THAT 800 GOLD EXECUTIONER'S, and suddenly she is 40% weaker

Duke Anax1 votes

EC has very limited use against Soraka, it only works on self heal.

Weeb Filth1 votes

While pointing out what Duke said I also want you to keep in mind the idea of the rpg element I personally see in soraka. The issue is how much she manipulates the lane just by existing rather than playing. I can win games against soraka and still not enjoy it because of how infuriating the lane is which isn't why I play the game.

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