What actually is/are the problems with Soraka that make(s) Riot repeatedly nerf/tweak her? (Part 1)
She has a passive laning phase since she is a dedicated healer in Riot's eyes. As a dedicated healer it is hard for her to play aggressive, let alone interacting with the enemies. Her entire kit screams "PASSIVE" to me:
Her passive "Salvation" is just a movement speed boost towards low health allies and it doesn't require her to interact with enemies.
Her Q "Starcall" is not very impactful (except for early game and that's only because its numbers are too good for early game) on a whole lot as the healing has an over time effect and the movement speed boost isn't significant enough to change the tide and since it's a HOT (Healing Over Time), it is weak against burst damage. A Soraka main will never use it on enemies unless she is sure it's safe for her to land it with accuracy and without taking any damage. She probably won't ever use it unless it's for peeling and/or clutch healing from Q.
Her W "Astral Infusion" requires her to play passively because she sacrifices health to heal her allies. In fights where Soraka's allies are bound to lose and die whether it be them getting outnumbered or enemies having better teamfighting potential, good Soraka mains will never sit next to predestinedly dying tallies and will just run to safety.
Her E "Equinox" has a super long cooldown at early levels and she can basically save it until her ADC/herself are being engaged/dived on. If the enemy ADC and support are playing passively she doesn't even have to use it because its impact is not enough to make any difference during laning phase. Teamfight wise it requires her to actually be relatively closer to any enemy tanks/hypercarries in the way, making this spell a "hit-and-run" spell, instead of an interactive spell Riot intended it to be.
Her R "Wish" is just more healing. She isn't required to interact with enemies with this ultimate. She doesn't even need to be in range to cast this spell, rendering her playstyle even more passive.
Here is the thing: despite Riot trying so hard to make Soraka's kit more interactive when against enemies, good Sorakas are never going to play her aggressively and interactively against enemies since her kit wasn't designed to have a lot of interactions with enemies. You see Warmog's Armor build popping up every now and then and is even the most popular build on Soraka in ranked. Warmog's Armor provokes an even more passive playstyle because Soraka no longer needs to land "Starcall" as long as she hasn't taken any damage.
If you take a look at Riot's patch history with Soraka, you'd notice every move they did with Soraka was actually aimed to make her a more interactive champion: lowering range on her Q (which does the opposite of making her playstyle more active as like I said good Sorakas would never use it on enemies unless it's safe for her to use without any risks), moving her self-healing passive to Q and making it HOT instead of instant healing and adding movement speed boost when she is NOT moving towards enemies, as well as adding more cooldown on her W so that Soraka mains are forced to level it up first, etc..., fostering a more passive playstyle. What Riot has done is the exact opposite of what they wanted.
Soraka has become a feast-or-famine champion ever since the rework in 2014. She either makes enemies rip their hair out because of her spammy and passive heals or she is useless when she is behind as she provides not much utility to the team other than healing. If her healing is not on par with enemies' damage it sucks and makes Soraka a dead weight to the team. If her healing is on par with enemies' damage it feels oppressive and throws all counterplay options out of the window and forces enemies to focus Soraka first and leave major damage dealers alone. Does that seem like a healthy champion kit to any one of you?
So what can be done about this? Are there any options to make Soraka a healthier champion whilst still being a dedicated healer? I will suggest some rework ideas in Part 2: Link
