Never Fear, new Soraka may still be a good solo laner

Hyrum Graff·Sep 6, 2014·10 votes·1,175 views

I was thinking about soraka's new kit, and I realized something: Soraka still has a massive about of self-healing, on her q. She needs it, in order to be able to heal on her w.

In a solo lane, she'll heal just as much (actually more, because she'll have more gold => AP) with her q, but she won't be healing herself with w, so her net healing is actually higher (she won't be paying that hp cost).
She'll struggle with waveclear, especially early, so you'll have to be good at csing under tower with her.
- However, she'll be able to respond to ganks pretty well (slow & root & healing her jungler)
- And she'll be annoyingly hard to engage on (same things, but underneath herself)
Lategame, she'll turn into an epic healbot for her adc - she should be used in a "protect the hyper carry" comp

Thoughts?

21 Comments

Linna ExcelSep 9, 20143 votes

Thoughts?

My thoughts are that riot will crush her if she ever goes solo lane again and will probably make sure in PBE that it is impossible for her to solo before her new kit goes live.

Hyrum GraffSep 9, 20141 votes

I don't think riot had any issue with solo lane soraka per se. What they had issue with was her solo lane playstyle:

Spam q to push wave all day
Spam e for free harass where your opponent can't trade back
Use w as needed so engaging on you isn't really an option

If new soraka has counterplay in lane (probably: shove lane and engage on her), I don't think riot will have an issue with her going solo.

Linna ExcelSep 9, 20142 votes

The vibes I'm getting from what morello and vesh said is that she's going to be too weak to go into a lane alone on purpose. Even if she could solo lane, only having one offensive ability seems kind of boring.

Hyrum GraffSep 9, 20141 votes

I can't see them being able to balance that.

If her q heals enough to keep Soraka healthy when she's spending a LOT of hp to heal her ally, it will heal MORE than enough to stay healthy in a solo lane.

Does that mean she'll be the unstoppable solo laner that she was pre-gut? NO She'll have a lot of trouble vs enemies who can stay out of range of her harass. She'll probably also need to build some AD early so she can last hit under tower. But I think, situationally, she will still be able to go to a solo lane.

Linna ExcelSep 9, 20142 votes

I don't know. I'm just getting the feeling that they are preparing to slap her if she ever goes solo again... even if that means screwing her support lane.

I still think she'll suffer from:

Lack of interaction with the enemy (only 1 damage spell)
Lack of damage for mid (only 1 damage spell from a position that needs to bring damage), she's got no burst and her sustained damage will be too weak
Lack of escapes, if your E is down or the root fails, you are screwed
Lack of itemization options, I'm not sure I'd build AP glass cannon for this kit and she's got no AD scaling, and not going glass cannon will have drawbacks
Morello is on record he wants her to be a healer only, do not underestimate his hatred for her
Lack of mobility makes her a bad solo laner for the meta
She'll definately have problems CS in lane early, maybe have problems trading
Her old E pre nerf is what kept her viable in solo lanes, the free poke+silence did wonders for her

The only situation I can see her going solo is when a gold+ player decides to troll bronze 5 people on his smurf. The lack of mobility and lack of damage is the real thing that makes her an unjustifiable pick for a solo lane.

SluicewaySep 9, 20142 votes

This seems like a good opportunity to bring up the petition I wrote asking Riot to keep the current Soraka kit. I don't expect it to be salvaged at this point, it is just that I am too lazy to retype what I wrote there as part of this discussion, so I hope you will forgive this self-referencing link. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/wAUhQyhw-save-our-soraka-an-informal-petition. I have stopped checking it for updates, so don't bother responding to it there, so if anyone sees anything they consider relevant, please respond as part of this discussion.

Edit: On the subject of pessimism, has anyone else noticed and increase in Soraka play the passed week or so? Maybe it is just coincidence, but it seems like players are saying farewell.

Thunder DreamssSep 6, 20142 votes

Interesting argument. Have you played her solo yet or are you planning to? I'd be curious to see some followup with actual play results.

Hyrum GraffSep 7, 20141 votes

I'm not on the PBE; this is purely theoretical.

I think she won't be a strong lane bully, because she won't have enough damage to have any kill potential (though maybe I'll end up wrong about this), but I do think she'll be exceedingly difficult to push out of lane, so she'll be a strong utility/support mid, in a "protect the carry" comp.

MrBuffingtonSep 7, 20141 votes

According to Morello, she'll be a strong enough healer that you basically have to kill her first before you can continue the fight. Also, her passive chunks some of her own armor/MR in favor of AP. Not exactly the buffs that Galio or Vladmir have; it's supposed to be in place to prevent you from getting tanky, but I predict GA will be insanely powerful on her (gives her AP and makes her harder to kill). Can you imagine, Soraka support, first item GA, with a Zilean mid (or vice versa)? Scary stuff.

Seriously though, Soraka + GA + Warmogs.

cshakesSep 7, 20141 votes

I approve of this idea! Have a +1 from EUNE Upvote Hell.

Linna ExcelSep 9, 20141 votes

Unfortunately if she starts healing others killing her is not going to be an issue.

MrBuffingtonSep 9, 20141 votes

It's all about balancing her health as a resource. Warmogs + Spirit Visage help her regen health and heal herself (also being a solo laner and having more AP means she will be healing for more, and need to heal her teammates less often). GA will help if she ever does get below a certain amount of health, and Zilean is there as a back up plan. Heck, you can throw in a Kayle top lane/jungle, and suddenly your team starts looking pretty invincible.

Linna ExcelSep 9, 20141 votes

Those two things are also expensive as heck and provide no (traditional) AP for her. Also regen sucks against burst and with more life, it's going to take more Qs to heal up. I'm sure Kayle's ult will not stop soraka from hurting herself via heals.

MrBuffingtonSep 10, 20141 votes

That's not the point of why I mentioned Kayle; as you mentioned she's vulnerable to burst; Kayle's ult will stop her from getting bursted by the enemy. Soraka solo-lane has never really been a carry mage; she's like Lulu where she transitions into a utility or support mage late game. It's not about making her stack huge amounts of AP to delete people; it's about making her team unkillable in extended teamfights. Kayle/Zilean/Soraka becomes a very scary trifecta in this sense; heck you can put Kayle in the jungle, drop Lulu in the team, and you have a scary protect the Kog'Maw team comp.

Linna ExcelSep 10, 20141 votes

Problem is, I'm not sure putting kayle's ult on a champ that going to kill herself anyways is a good idea. And kayle's ult keeps getting nerfed. It seems like a very poor use of the ult to blow it on soraka when you can save someone useful or mitigate damage on your initiator.

It's not about making her stack huge amounts of AP to delete people; it's about making her team unkillable in extended teamfights.

They'll be extremely killable because soraka doesn't heal damage, she just takes it onto herself. Technically that's not a healer, but morello is too arrogant to appreciate finer points like that. I'm really not even sure what to call it. Anyways, an unkillable team means no counterplay and that cr4p is not happening in LOL on purpose.

Kayle/Zilean/Soraka becomes a very scary trifecta in this sense

It'll never get intentionally picked and the devs would squash it the moment it becomes popular like that kayle/MF/mumu combo from awhile back. Also I hate zilean because he's always in ARAM games and is toxic as cr4p there.

MrBuffingtonSep 10, 20141 votes

It's about putting Kayle's ult on a champion that's important to keep alive at the moment. The enemy team invests a ton of spells to kill Soraka, because as long as she's alive, she can just heal herself and her teammates of any periodic damage done to them; she'll literally just wear out the team. Kayle negates all the enemy's spells with her ult; that's a huge advantage for her team.

I think you're forgetting that Soraka does have two self-heals in her kit. If Soraka can just heal her team on a whim with no costs or repercussions, that's just flat out unhealthy for the game.

It doesn't matter if it's happening on purpose or not, or how much you hate it; if it's part of the game, it's part of the game.

Linna ExcelSep 10, 20141 votes

Kayle using her ult on someone who's just going to murder herself anyways is pointless. The point of kayle's ult is to keep someone alive, I'm sorry but I'm not going to keep alive a champ who's just going to demand I W her and die anyway.

If Soraka can just heal her team on a whim with no costs or repercussions

There's a mana cost. Also her W isn't a heal. I'm not sure what to call it, but it isn't a heal. Aside from that one niche GW skill that was only really used on a small number of PvP monks, I can't think of many other healers in any game, PvE or PvP, that have something like that or use it as a main part of their skill set.

So via precedence, her W is not a heal and should never be called such. I'm going to call her W a bullcr@p until I can think of a better term.

if it's part of the game, it's part of the game.

It's a dumb@ss part of the game and this level of fail should have never made it past the pitch stage.

MrBuffingtonSep 10, 20141 votes

Kayle using her ult on someone who's going to keep the rest of her team alive is not pointless, not in the slightest.

Honestly who knows how these changes will turn out; Soraka update just came out on PBE, we'll see how things go with that, I'm just theory-crafing over here.

SluicewaySep 9, 20141 votes

I posted this elsewhere, but as I don't think the thread with get many views, I will ask this again here. I have been considering builds for a solo lane & Dominon Soraka, in part because I plan to never play her in bot again, since I see in the proposed rework a clear targeting of solo lane Soraka. Anyway, the possible build I have come up with is

item 3040 into either item 3001 or item 3152 then item 3157 item 3065 and item 3110 with either item 3158 or item 3111 for boots.

I know that it is really not possible to come up with a good build without playing a champion, so I am curious if this seems to be a good starting place, at least.

Edit: After posting this, I read Morello's statements as linked by Mr.Buffington, and I just keep finding new things to dislike about this rework. I misunderstood the passive and thought that, much as Hecarim gains bonus ad from his move speed, Soraka would gain both armor/mr and a small boost to her ap, not that she would lose armor and mr for very little ap. I amend my speculative build, therefore, to item 3040 item 3152 item 3157 item 3065 item 3089 item 3158 .

Unfotrunatly, I agree with Linna's pessimism that they will cripple Soraka if she is played outside of bot lane, just as they tried to do after she appeared in the LCS. All the more reason to boycott support Soraka, and only play - and win, of course - with solo lane Soraka. It is not Riot's place to dictate how we play any champion, and they have said in the past that they will not take steps to do so. They owe it to us now to live up to their word, and if they will not, then it is up to us to prove them wrong.

AliceInMadnessSep 9, 20141 votes

It worked with Morgana, so why not with her too.

Linna ExcelSep 9, 20141 votes

Okay, Dryad Soraka over on GD said her AP ratio on her Q is .35, I'm sorry but that low a ratio on her only damage skill just sucks something awful for a midlaner. Not viable.