Thoughts, Ideas, and Discussion: Soraka
Points about Soraka:
~ I do like there to be a dedicated healer, but Soraka needs to be given something that makes her properly interact with the enemy team in a healthy way.
~ I would like to see her heal gain some kind of skill element about it and not just be simply point and click. This really just means that there will be a fun gameplay attached to using the heal; it could mean having to land a skill shot like Rakan or decision making like Nami, for vague examples.
~ It would be nice to see Soraka have her core abilities at least actually work together and interact with each other rather than just have a random passive, three abilities, and an ultimate.
~ I would like to see Soraka be both a completely immobile mage and battle cleric. Give her some special utility to get out of harms way for when she goes in to play aggressive that has no mobility to it whatsoever. A healthy Soraka will be one that gets rewarded for being aggressive and discouraged from being passive; games are made to be fun, and we want to avoid having a play style that is boring and frustrating to play against.
~ Soraka has to be forced as a squishy champion to be healthy, a super healer that is also a tank removes any form of counter play in the game. Soraka's ability to pump out insane healing should come at a cost of being squishy. If the healer cannot die then neither can the rest of her team.
~ All health costs have got to go. This is impossible to balance a healer that uses health costs and does all it does is make Soraka players be passive and never aggressive, there are a lot better ways to balance out a heal than this.
~ Soraka's basic attacks should be greatly improved on massively as it will help her play more aggressively, to go along with an entirely new kit.
Example kit below, it is to get those creative juices flowing!
Basic Attack Range: 550 units (Reminder) Basic Attacks: Improved attack animation, more fluid attacks, faster projectile missile speeds; still the mighty banana! Movement: 340 units per second
Star Orbs (Passive): Same Target Cooldown: 3 seconds; Range: 550 units Soraka's attacks and abilities against enemy champions grants her a Star Orb that orbits her for 60 seconds, up to a maximum of 5 Star Orbs at a time.
Each active Star Orb grants Soraka 5 - 40 bonus ability power. Whenever Soraka expends a Star Orb on an allied champion she permanently increases her ability power by +1%.
Current Increased Ability Power: X% Current Bonus Ability Power: X
Bouncing Star (Q): Cooldown: 6/5/4/3/2 seconds; Cost: 40 mana; Range: 550 / 700 units Soraka unleashes a Bouncing Star to the target enemy, dealing 50/60/70/80/90(+20%AP) magic damage and slow by 60% for 0.75 second, and then this Bouncing Star will return to Soraka's location. If Soraka catches the Bouncing Star then it will home-in to the closest enemy, this process can infinitely repeat. An unlimited amount of Bouncing Stars can be in play at a time.
Soraka moves 30/35/40/45/50% faster towards a returning Bouncing Star.
Gleaming Light (W): Cooldown: None; Cost: 1 Star Orb; Range: 900 units Soraka expels a Star Orb to heal the target allied champion or herself for 30/45/60/75/90(+120%AP) health. Healing the same target within 9/7.5/6/4.5/3 seconds of the last reduces healing to 10/15/20/25/30(+40%AP) health.
Soraka cannot cast Gleaming Light against targets above 90% health.
Super Nova (E): Cooldown: 15/13/11/9/7 seconds; Cost: 60/75/90/105/120 mana; Range: 550 units 1st Cast: Soraka shields herself for 90/105/120/135/150(+120%AP) shield for 3 seconds and surrounds herself with a barrier as long as the shield holds. Allies within this barrier receive 20/25/30/35/40(+20%AP) bonus armor and magic resistance, 200/250/300/350/400(+200%AP) bonus armor and magic resistance within the first 0.5 second.
2nd Cast: Soraka expels her shield and causes the barrier to explode, stunning enemies for 0.5 to 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds based on how long the shield was active for.
Astral Energy (R): Cooldown: 120/90/60 seconds; Cost: 100 mana Soraka grants herself 5 Star Orbs. For the next 5/6/7 seconds maximum Star Orbs limit is increased to 8/9/10, Bouncing Star's cost and cooldown is halved, and limitations for gathering Star Orbs against the same target is removed.
Additionally, casting Astral Energy causes Gleaming Light's first cast to gain global range and double its healing power.