Can Soraka get a rework?
Riot, I think soraka needs a new rework. Her last rework didn't fix her passivity, she has all the old problems, she gave up a lot to get where she is, and people still have the same complaints about her.
- She lost the mana gift on her E. That was completely unnecessary and it happened because the guy reworking her didn't even think about that aspect of her. Riot never bothered to figure out how to give it back.
- IMO she feels a little worse to try and trade with now than before her rework. Her old E was much better for trading and her old Q encouraged her to be in the middle of a fight. Pre-rework I could make a case for starting E on level 1 on soraka, post rework I can't.
- The health cost on her W has a couple issues, but in terms of gameplay it forced new soraka to be even more passive the more you use it. It also forces people who can't hit Qs to base more often, and being without your support is terrible for the ADC.
- Thanks to her rework, Soraka's current theme is banana martyr vampire unicorn girl. WTC? That's not a theme, that's chucking darts at a bunch of random words.
- Riot still has to keep a careful eye on her. She's not a champion riot can ignore because she's so focused on healing.
- The rework didn't make her any more fun to play or any less annoying to play against.
- Everyone still calls her a braindead champion. While I think she needs to be an easy champ to pick up, there's no need to really master her. Just put on some crunchyroll on the other monitor and remember to press W occasionally.
- She can't go into a solo lane so much. I mean technically it's possible, but she lost her niche mid/top status. That kind of sucks, some of my most fun games where taking Soraka mid and top before she got reworked (I'm talking about before pre-season 4 broke her too). I mean you've got AP mids flooding bot lane, but exactly 1 support, lulu, was allowed to go into a solo lane. Not cool riot, not cool.
- Did I mention she's too passive? Well she is. Also, you can't itemize for non-passive behavior. Either you go full healer support or you go healthpool regen warmogs healer spam. Her AP ratios are bad so even if you could afford damage, you'd be stupid to pick it up. So riot was trying to fix her passiveness, but then gave us zero avenues (or another lane to go to) where she didn't have to be passive.
- By turning her E into an AoE on a big cooldown instead of a manaless single target spell, you took away one of her tools for trading. 9 times out of 10, the change on her isn't worth the loss. Also, why did you add a snare to a champion who's biggest weakness was supposed to be no CC?
- Despite her Q being a skill shot now, it's not fun to use and the drawbacks to missing it are very high. Soraka really doesn't want to get that close to make hitting easy so the other team doesn't have much trouble dodging it. When they do, you lose out on damage, slow, and that healing your W demands you get.
- The only good thing about her rework is you eventually got the passive to a point where we have less problems with ADCs kiting us now. So yay.
- There's no variance on how to approach a game as soraka anymore, she lost strategic and tactical mastery. Right now her game is stand back and heal. Before, you could start W then E and focus on healing and mana gifting. Or you could start Q E (rare) and focus on bullying. Or you could plan on being a battlemage bruiser who walks into the middle of a fight and shreds the MR of our foes. This is why I personally think she's more braindead than ever. Her skill mastery is technically up, but you no longer give any thought about how you approach a situation. It's always the same: stay back because you are going to be focused hard and have no mobility, hit W, and don't die.
So while she's good at what she does, I don't think she's better in the ways she needs to be and her biggest gameplay problems as-player were not fixed, if anything they were increased.