Hey, thank you for dedicating time for you answer! I really appreciate the answer you provided and i will make an effort to provide one good for you too!
Ok, so from the start why am i creating so many topics about soraka lately? Who the hell am i?
Im a guy that started playing soraka in season 4 and have achieved multiple marks playing her across the years.
For example in 2014, i did an entire run from unranked to Master tier playing only her as recognized in this post:
http://forums.br.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=323165)
Also across the years i always would work with different strategies and ideas to impact the match using soraka of different ways.
As many of you don't talk portuguese i took of some images of my match history back in the day to support what i am saying:
http://i.imgur.com/GQKbwrp.png
http://i.imgur.com/J3BnzMb.png
http://i.imgur.com/HCU26Zg.png
I used to play with some professional players occasionally too, like BRTT [adc of Red Canids from Brazil, that played worlds on Pain few years ago], and Yoda [streamer that recently left CNB e-sports]
http://i.imgur.com/pYwTTFI.png
With soraka i have maybe something close to 800.000 mastery points and all my elos that i had during my entire life are split in a bug that happened when i changed my account from brazilian server to NA.
The account i started with it's called siegfriedx1 [had other names in the past like Soraka sieg, and um white sieg], and in this server is called siegfx1. For some reason sites like op.gg think that those are 2 different accounts but you can check that they are the same by looking at some stats on lolking for example:
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/br/796297/%20Siegfriedx1#leagues
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/76019150/SiegFx1
I have progressively playing less and less as the years go, but i love Soraka the same way as i always did.
Now going to the points you made:
I agree it's dumb that the lane is decided on whether or not the opposing AD has the funds to buy grievous wounds. The Rejuv system was supposed to give them a chance to attack before the heal sets in instead of the insta heal BS from before.
The current setup feels better for opponents and forces Soraka to think a few second ahead (until she gets items and then she just spams it).
This time i will be less emotional about the point i was trying to make and be very analytical about it.
The Rejuvenation system was, in fact, not implemented to prevent only the insta heal from before and create more windows to assassins [although it was announced as that]. It was the higher straight forward power cutting nerf from the history of the game on an attempt to shift power from mid-late game to early game in a way never seen before.
How is that?
A lot of people don't remember that but Soraka not only healed instantaneously, but ALSO had an high AP ratio, would heal MORE if she was low in hp and her healing would be MULTIPLIED if star call landed on more than 1 enemy. The max effect would be something like 800% ap scaling if landing on the entire team, or something really close to that in the end of the day. Also astral infusion healed more and had a shorter cooldown.
What they removed from Soraka during the Rejuvenation implementation?
Sure they converted the full blown healing she could do for herself in to a way more modest regen. But was that all they did?
It would be cool to convert all her instant healing in to a regen. In the end would be just a shift between instantaneous healing and a long time affect [what would make a lot of sense as assassins would have a good time killing her regardless but she would still be able to maneuver against tanks and fighters].
But that's what they did: They removed the high ap scaling, made sure that the base values of regen where lower than before on mid-late game, removed the multi landing stacking system, the mechanic of having a better healing if you are low health and then nerfed astral infusion base healings [also nerfing it's cooldown later on] with some kind of "transfer mechanic" that would allow Soraka to, if landing an starcall in an enemy, to transfer that regen.
In fact nothing in the game had suffered such a blow in just one patch in the entire history of league, not even kassadin or ryze.
So what they did to compensate for removing all that? They basically removed the entire mid-late game mechanic and were trying to put something else in place. What on earth could compensate for all that mid-late game mechanic?
They added a guaranteed slow to starcall and a momentary movement speed boost if you land it.
That's it.
Of course, by how the game works, having an guaranteed slow on early game with a 5 seconds cooldown skill that also give you life back sky rocked her win rate. She could now combo better her equinox and had a lot of fighting potential she didn't had.
Talking about how that feel to the player it's really straight forward. You spam starcalls and see if you win. That's it.
I have thousands and thousands of games, and everyone that play Soraka mainly on challenger/master agree with me on the forced spamming lane phase she have.
I don't agree with the claim that say that now she need to "think more" some seconds ahead. You just press it when you have the chance of doing so and that's it. Also it's the opposite, after you get items you stop using it because it turns into suicide to use it because of the landing time and how the risk are higher than the rewards of it. Most of the times you use it it's in a fight anyone would be able to use anything [vi engaging your adc and situations like that].
The benefits of it are so high early game and so low close to mid game that i never, in thousands and thousands of matches, i never saw anyone flashing that to avoid Soraka to receive it's benefits in a fight. TL.DR, no strategy. Just use it when you can.
Here are some quotes from a guy that got master this year playing only soraka on NA [Ambushes] that support what i am saying:
"First, I think Soraka is incredibly OP right now. She procs Spellthiefs better than Coin.
Soraka spam's Q like crazy in lane, and you actually rack up gold pretty well. Compare this to coin, where you rarely have the lane pressure to pick up all the coins. She also doesn't really need the mana either. Spamming starcalls it's always the best strategy"
https://www.reddit.com/r/SorakaMains/comments/69ipgg/just_hit_master_playing_soraka_my_thoughts_on_the/
So, do you have preposed changes that would make her not Namified but more healthy?
Nami is designed as a champ that needs to interact with the opponents, so technically Namified is a gameplay health compliment... except it's Soraka not Nami so it's not what we want.
Do keep in mind that every time they tweak/rework Soraka without getting it "right" Soraka mains are forced to re-learn their champion. It doesn't send a good message to the playerbase, so it's not something you want to keep happening.
Yes i do! Here is a link!
https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/o8AmK9Ap-can-we-have-a-little-rework-on-soraka?comment=00020000
Top changes would be:
Starcall have higher CD [maybe around 10 seconds] but get low [back to around 5] IF YOU LAND IT. [forcing people to land starcall right and allowing outplays flashing it]
Starcall now fall like Xerath W, from the sky.
Starcall have better range and same landing time does not matter what range you throw it.
Starcall start with a very low ap and base rate on her rejuvenation, but permanently increase both if you auto attack enemies. This effect gets disabled for 10 seconds for each minion Soraka farms. [i like how lux, xerath and ziggs need to auto attack to trigger something and give window to people to exploit that. The idea is that, sorakas that auto attack in lane would have a much stronger mid-late game with a powerful rejuvenation while Sorakas that decide to play passive will suffer. Also it creates some cool counter picks like cait and karma to this mechanic and give a good reward to make soraka interact with leona, blitz, thresh etc].
Starcall provide vision for more time where it lands.
Equinox become a longer range projectile that when lands creates the silence/binding field. The first target hit get slowed.
Rejuvenation can not be passed anymore.
Rejuvenation starts really low at lower levels.
Wish [R] give GW penetration as you level it up, up to 100% at level 16.
Passive: Soraka's decrease her casting times as it level it up.
It stacks with Spirit Visage, Masteries and any heal/shield power items she has.
It's actually very powerful, Soraka just don't actively "see it" as the Soraka since once she heals the ally she's not usually staring at them since she's looking at the whole battle.
If you have replays you should watch them to see.
I played her enough through enough years and saw enough replays to completely disagree with that. You most of the time active this effect on fights where you would win or behave that way [landing starcalls and healing] anyway. The preparation time to be in position, cast starcall, see it falling, land it, see the light from starcall flying to soraka, healing your ally to then see it start to proc a little regen completely cut by GW is just too much on most situations.
Fights that this mechanic gets activated you would play the same way even if the mechanic didn't existed, most of the time. Exception would be the lane phase where you can actively take that in account. Also the amount you regen from your ally is negligible compared to her old base stats from before nerf [what i'm not saying it should be back, but it feel clumsy and a place holder].
Bottom line is, late game [when people deal 2000 damage in a fraction of a second] all this ritual to a low impact effect feel very gimmick. The regen thing should be a way to open a window for assassins to kill soraka, not who she is trying to save.
