The State of Soraka - Rework?
So League of Legends is swiftly moving on the winds of change - and a hurricane is on the horizon.
Everything will change in Nov in big ways with the new runes and masteries making huge impacts, and with this I'd like to reflect a bit on one of our oldest and most beloved original champions, Soraka.
Soraka needs help - as a healer, no one is more powerful BUT Sona has long taken the crown from The Starchild
I don't ask or want a Galio level rework - I just want to point out what her current strengths and weaknesses are and give suggestions on what might be done to give Sona a competitive stance with League's most powerful Healer.
We all know that Soraka's heal is incredibly powerful - she is the original healer support, and as a result for several years, considered too OP.
There was even a time that she could restore mana or deal silencing damage FOR FREE with her E.
But to bring this anomalous entity back in line, all of that is gone, or comes at quite the price - Soraka has to give up some of her health making a squishy mage, even more so.
This is NOT necessarily a bad thing - it makes baiting with her that much easier at mid and lower ELO, but teams also bait her q to ensure she can't heal herself because it takes so long to hit.
For a quality control, it makes sense because Soraka has paper immortality potential - not nearly Tryn's, Kayle's, etc. but she has on paper the capacity to sustain indefinitely.
But league has changed. Tanks are more powerful than ever and right now, mages and anti-mages like Kassadin, the Anti-mage Tank Galio who CAN support, etc. are all here, making that kind of threat much harder to actually pull off especially at mid to high ELO.
So Soraka's real two supports are actually two things, *maybe* three.
Soraka's E is incredibly helpful as a poke and help secure your adc's kill - it has good long range for a squishy, silence, and the limited potential to snare - but much more limited than Lux's as it has a long trigger time and can't be recast to trigger it.
If Soraka did, nothing else would need to be changed to help her, and perhaps would make her almost OP - but there's no way to tell until this change is in the PBE and then the wild.
She's also very good at mobility with her speed boost and ability to share it, and Ardent Censor really shines here.
Thoughts:
Soraka's R may be a source of contention for many - A global heal in the face of Redemption a well. It used to be popular as Karthus once was, only Soraka's current heal can't out-heal the damage of Karthus' ult in mid and late game.
I have to ask and wonder if its too much to *reduce* Soraka's heal, but in exchange, give all her team a little armor, MR, and a few seconds of speed boost - just enough to give her allies a chance to escape should a fight go badly, but still be bypassable by lethality and similar items.
Or simply give small amounts of the three without - I'm not sure where exactly the power of Soraka's heal is these days as she is not as frequently played.
Her Q really could use a speed boost, maybe a slight range boost or something - the fact that her heal from it isn't instaneous puts a lot more risk than a Sona player who gets a personal heal *and* shield *instantly. *
Heal in general is not the oppressive power it once used to be - Korea has proven that shielding is far more valuable and prevalent, and lifesteal again, not quite as op as it once was.
I think a very close look at Soraka is pretty warranted at this point. She's long since no longer a tank and not even a mage - just a heal bot with some harassing ability, but not nearly enough to zone out a tank support (which are popular now), an aggressive jungler or bot lane.
I write these not from someone necessarily struggling with Soraka, but actually doing rather well with her and its allowing me to see her most glaring weaknesses and oversights.
There are times I actually miss the original from Season 4.
Be well everyone, and always, thanks everyone at Riot,
-Jesse "Tryst/Phoenix Incite" L.
