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@Riot Soraka Compensation?

xFrostKnightx·11/1/2015, 7:42:38 AM·12 votes·1,419 views

So with the introduction of grievous wounds on a core Ad item. Will our "Healing focused" Support be getting any compensation for this indirect nerf? She was balanced in her own way, that she had no hard cc to lock down people with compared to Thresh/Leona/Nami/nearly all supports.

So with -40% healing on all AD champions now, Soraka takes a slap to the face. Can we see a buff which will put her back where she was before the introduction of this core item?

Say for example...
R: At rank 3, W now also removes grievous wounds before applying it's heal.

She pay's 10% Flat total Hp just to cast Astral Infusion. Now her healing will be -40% of it's strength because of an item existing in the game which is a mandatory item to build on any AD now to counter all the free lifesteal you put on Ad items.

Does Riot have any planned late game buffs to make up for this? or do you condone having an item in a game which "Literally" shuts down a champion's Kit just by buying it.

Not just Soraka. Vladimir and Swain even Aatrox are also punished and the "Core" sustain which their whole kit is built around is rendered pointless the second Mid game rolls by.

31 Comments

GigglingAngel11/1/2015, 9:18:26 AM10 votes

Dude ... have you not seen the new Healing mastery? Every time she heals someone, they'll gain 15% resistance and heal for 10% more or something. And she heals like every 3 seconds. If anything, she's been majorly buffed.

Deep Terror Nami11/1/2015, 7:44:24 AM4 votes

If healers just got compensation for healing reduction items then there would be no point in having that item.

IcyPepper11/1/2015, 8:19:45 AM4 votes

Soraka's ult removes grievous wounds, giving you a window of time to get around it. She's not completely gutted with grievous wounds.

Also, keep in mind that currently in PBE (I'm a tester now, woot!), there's a lot of lifesteal options. That balances out the whole grievous wounds business. If we had those changes without grievous wounds, Soraka would be gutted to hell for it. She does not need compensation for this.

Best Boop NA11/1/2015, 7:58:26 AM3 votes

The new masteries have some nice healing buffs. Personally I never liked the idea of grievous wounds being easily applicable, but what can we do eh?

Runic armour will make your tanks get a bonus 8%, and windspeakers blessing make them 10% stronger, and increase the resistances by 15%, so overall healers are actually getting buffed. The new item is still pretty nasty (and the fact that you dont have to sacrfise a item slot to get it, because it also gives armour pen) but it does a lot less damage than the other option, so it is overall sacrifice in damage for it. I would not mind if it was only to champs under a health percent like item 3165

overall heals are going to be stronger base, but easier to counter. It is a little odd, because riot has done a lot to make heals more combat oriented, and less just spam heals and go back to full and the fight again. The changes make healers stronger out of combat then in combat, so I am not sure what the reasoning is. Overall I think it is a little to soon to say anything major, all of the primary healers (soraka, sona, nami and taric) have above 50% win rates, so a small nerf should be fine.

Zavern11/1/2015, 12:18:39 PM2 votes

Just her? All the supports that can heal that were shoved out of the meta because of tanks are now even worse off than before. With all the new LS options in the items and masteries any item that gives grievous wounds will be on every team.

Krys Star11/1/2015, 9:44:42 AM2 votes

Yes and no. Although Grievous Wounds is back, and it's uglier than ever, it's 40% instead of 50% at least. It should take a while for carries to build this item, however, so it wont hit Soraka as hard until early-mid to mid game. That being said, Soraka's undeniably powerful at the moment. She does a pretty amazing job at what she does at the moment, which is keeping her allies alive.

She DOES need a bit of compensation buffs, but not as massive as Wish allowing Astral Blessing to remove all applications of Grievous Wounds immediately before hand. That's insanely powerful. What they can do for her is a hard choice, because it's hard to fix a healer in a meta where Grievous Wounds is mandatory by default. They could remove the mana cost on Astral Blessing, but her healing will still suffer to Grievous Wounds.

We already have the mastery, Windspeaker Blessing, coming out which increases outgoing shields and heals by 10% on top of providing allies with a 15% boost to their armor and magic resist (so long as it's not on yourself). That in itself will help Soraka, but really it's going to be very hard to help Soraka against a constant application of Grievous Wounds.

Base health regen reduced to 2.5 from 4.675 Health regen growth stat reduced to 0.5 from 0.7

They could revert those changes for starters, or just simply increase her health regen per level to 1.0 so that she's not suffering a lot from trying to keep her Grievously Wounded allies alive.

Best Boop NA11/1/2015, 8:02:49 AM2 votes

How does lifesteal effect sorakas healing rate?

Duke Anax11/1/2015, 10:37:25 AM1 votes

I think the Windspeaker mastery (that she already has early game, before anyone get's GW) is a nice compensation, and her sustain (that can rarely be affected by GW) is quite strong already.

However I think she can get some buff to her clutch heal so i made a suggestion to add some healing to Equinox: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/EUs73lfk-sorakas-equinox-should-heal-for-equal-amounts

Crett11/1/2015, 9:07:01 AM1 votes

Tanks can devote all 6 slots to armor and have 47% of it ignored with one item. Lots of injustice coming this preseason

Although I do think it's kinda pointless to make Soraka the exception to the exception. That's like making a champ who can CC an ulting Olaf, or a champ who takes reduced true damage

CasterGilgamesh11/1/2015, 7:03:27 PM1 votes

I feel the best small buff to Soraka is remove the mana cost of her W and reduce mana cost on her other spells other then that she will be fine early and mid game.they should also make the item work like the ap version

Penns11/1/2015, 2:05:38 PM1 votes

At rank 3, W now also removes grievous wounds before applying it's heal.

Because fuck counterplay lol. Soraka is already broken, lets just look at that as a nerf.