Soraka's heal isn't very effective on tanks

darkdill·Jun 22, 2015·27 votes·2,586 views

Whenever I play as Soraka, I feel like my heal is a waste when used on tanks. Granted, you probably aren't supposed to use it on tanks, but it feels really bad when your heal isn't able to patch up your team's Sejuani.

Maybe Riot could change the heal a tad? Maybe lower the base slightly, but add on that it heals a small percentage of the target's max HP?

Or is it working as intended and not meant for tanks period?

EDIT: For those of you who think tanks would become unkillable as a result, try killing Soraka first. She's VERY squishy, and just makes an assassin's job easier every time she uses her heal. That and building tanky on her doesn't work, since she sacrifices her health so much.

45 Comments

WildCard823Jun 22, 201529 votes

Even though it doesn't look like it does much, it does more for tanks than it does for non-tanks.

Imagine this. If your heal heals 100 HP:

You have two teammates. Sejuani and Caitlyn.

Sejuani has 3000 HP and 200 Armor. Caitlyn has 1500 HP and 50 Armor.

Your heal will heal Caitlyn for about 6% of her max health. Your heal will heal Sejuani for about 3% of her max health.

However, the SAME AMOUNT OF HP IS HEALED. It just looks like it doesn't do as much for Sejuani. Now, think of it this way, if you're healing Caitlyn for 100 HP, that's 100 HP with only 50 Armor. If you're healing Sejuani, you're healing 100 HP with 200 Armor, you are getting A LOT more effective health out of that heal (is it 4 time? I don't have the formula in front of me).

So moral of the story, the target that you heal with the most Armor and MR, the more effective health you are granting.

SaiannaJun 23, 20152 votes

You are focusing only on "tank stats".

Reason why you'd want to consider healing caitlyn isn't for her awesome tankiness, but damage.

Champion SkinJun 23, 20153 votes

Effective health is really simple 100 armor gives +100% hp 200 armor gives +200% hp

In your example Caitlyn has 50 armor which would be +50% (given no armor pen) so that would mean that the 100 hp healed would give Caitlyn 150 effective health (Against physical damage)

while Sejuani has 200 armor which would be +200% which would mean the 100 hp healed would give Sejuani 300 effective health

DrackolusJun 23, 20152 votes

Beat me to it! Dammit, I'M the Soraka math person!

EDIT: I'd like to point out mmo healers. Healing doesn't get better based on who you cast it on, but you'd much rather be healing the tank, since you know they're taking less damage when they get it. Any experienced healer will tell you that the whole point of tanks is that you just can't heal through damage to squishies nearly as well as damage to tanks.

Spacesuit SpiffJun 23, 20151 votes

Yep. Same reason you use shields on a meditating yi. More mileage out of it.

WildCard823Jun 22, 201518 votes

Everyone is getting caught in the "it doesn't fill up the HP bar very much," but remember, you're healing the same amount. It actually turns out to be more if they have higher resistances, even if it doesn't look like it.

ReikkenJun 22, 201511 votes

tell your tanks to build more resists instead of just health

Champion SkinJun 23, 20151 votes

Spirit visage is also good XD

FirstSergeantBimJun 23, 20153 votes

SV passive only works on personal healing effects, Soraka's heals aren't 20% stronger on a Sejuani with SV.

What Is SmiteJun 23, 20151 votes

However, I believe a Raka with a SV heals her teammates for more

FirstSergeantBimJun 23, 20153 votes

No, I do not believe that's how it works. Spirit Visage only increases self-healing, health-regen, life-steal and spell-vamp. Soraka's W is only one of those four things if she manages to land a Q on an enemy champion to receive the passive heal. In order to increase Soraka's W and R healing, she needs to build AP.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Spirit_Visage

5000000000000000Jun 23, 20151 votes

It increases her healing upon landing Q, but it's just worth more to build more AP instead.

ModAcademy KaynJun 22, 20154 votes

Well you shouldn't be healing tanks. They're meant to take the damage. Adc's are not. As Soraka you are literally a secondary health bar for your adc.

5000000000000000Jun 23, 20151 votes

Soraka is meant to heal anyone who's taking damage. That's why her cooldown on heal is 2 seconds. (and with 40% CDR, 1.2 seconds) Other healers are supposed to mainly heal carries, though.

YOLO420SWAGSCOPEJun 22, 20154 votes

if soraka could heal a tank effectively they'd be unstoppable.... rip assassins

5000000000000000Jun 23, 20151 votes

Assassins can kill Soraka, then?

Skia AsteriJun 22, 20153 votes

Only is they stack health without resistance, in which case they are not really that tanky.

Penguin EclipseJun 22, 20152 votes

You're right. It's not very effective. But no one's heal really is ever since healers were taken out back and....

In reality all heals should probably be percentage based. Percent of max or percent missing. Both with a small base or minimum healed. Riot has been at war with heals for a long time. Making heals percentage based would help combat the negative affects of healing (passive lanes, topping off, etc.) and reward the good effects like clutch heals.

Champion SkinJun 23, 20152 votes

You are aware that heals are actually more effective on tanks? If Soraka W heals for 200 and lets say she heals a tank with 300 armor now that tank can take 800 more physical damage from that one heal

however if soraka heals an ADC with 50 armor now that ADC can only take 300 more physical damage from that one heal

TransgressorJun 22, 20152 votes

So you're telling me a soraka healing the frontliner constantly is a bad thing? Because it doesn't "feel" very effective?

...

The heal value is the same on all targets no matter how large their HP pool is, and it's even better on tanks because they have resistances. If volibear is considered tough to beat when his passive pops imagine being healed for more, far more frequently, from a source that's not native to you. Pfffft, that's not effective at all.

DJ Di0Jun 23, 20152 votes

Pft, just go AP Support Raka like me and heal tanks for 600 for even more effective health :^)

http://i.gyazo.com/d9adcfe167738f80a583835f1f59f8e0.png

Akali is SO HOTJun 23, 20152 votes

Don't buff Soraka

NorthernDruidJun 22, 20151 votes

It would be nice if the heal was balanced so I wouldn't get it those situations where It's a waste healing the tank because I heal less %max health than I take myself.

Also if there was an out of combat way of actively regenerating my health so even if i spam healed that beefy tank from 20% up to 40% I wasn't useless without opponents around while I was doing it.

AbyssphereJun 22, 20151 votes

There aren't any heals that are good on tanks. Sona's feels awful on tanks, Nami's does... everyone's does. It's just one more reminder that you're meant to be keeping your ADC alive, not your frontliners.

76SummersJun 22, 20151 votes

im beginning to think your meant to heal the adc in fights rather than the the tanks..i mean your ult heals more when a person reaches a point below 40 percent.. so try the ult heal and see if its more effective on tanks.. as for the basic heal its for adcs..no doubt in my mind on that

WildCard823Jun 22, 20158 votes

You're supposed to heal your carries or whoever is being focused. This isn't always your ADC. Sometimes it's your jungler, mid-laner, or top laner. You are supposed to heal the target that will keep your team alive and your damage-dealers dealing damage.

76SummersJun 22, 20151 votes

you must main Soraka....meh im usually with my adc most of the time so maybe thats why i think like that..

WildCard823Jun 22, 20153 votes

I main support and play Soraka occasionally. She's not too good in the meta, so I don't player her as often as I used to. When playing her, though, it's important to watch the fight and decide where your heal will be most useful. If they are all targeting your tank, heal your tank. If someone has dashed in to your ADC, heal him. If your mid-laner is super fed and your ADC is 0/12/2, don't worry about healing your ADC, since your mid laner is the one doing all the damage. Keep that mid-laner alive.

NicholasPetriccaJun 22, 20152 votes

Soraka is actually really favored with the new Ardent Censer.

WildCard823Jun 22, 20151 votes

The changes are nice, but I'm still not a huge fan of this item. It needs to be built early to have a big impact, but there are usually items that do better than this early.

Champion SkinJun 23, 20151 votes

Well in general Soraka's healing is more effective on tanks As the higher resistances the target has makes health/healing/shielding more valuable

Fallen SorakaJun 22, 20151 votes

Soraka's kit has an insanely low cooldown heal. Her only limiting factors in using it are A: health, and B: mana. The mana generally isn't too bad of a problem in a fight so long as its full. Soraka also has a way to heal herself by landing her Q's. So long as she lands those, she has a near infinite supply of health and is only gated by mana. She's able to spam heal so quickly that sometimes it makes her healing target really difficult to kill. The point of this? Your use of "patch up" seems like you're fixing the tanks up after a fight. That Soraka heal is really strong in a fight, where the enemies are usually too busy to avoid Q's. So with that supply of health and short cooldown, you can heal tanks really really quickly, but I understand your point of healing after a fight. At that point, I guess it's intentional. The old Soraka had the problem (well, I thought it was cool) of having a really strong heal for tanks. It used to give armor, which those tanks loved. And being able to have a champion make another one a lot more tanky is sort of toxic. That old Soraka heal had the problem of costing a ton of mana, which sort of balanced out its use outside of battle, but the current heal heals for less, but has a much shorter cooldown and less mana cost. It's working as intended. The heal, in my opinion, does not have its first purpose in a pro sustain composition (unless it's ARAM), rather it's supposed to be a tool of survival in a fight, instead of fighting poke really well as it used to. So, pretty much if you want to do meaningful healing to tanks you have to be in the middle of a fight so have enough health to heal a ton on a tank.

TotalJerkJun 22, 20151 votes

All heals are less efficient for tanks. That's the price they pay for stacking health.

WildCard823Jun 22, 20158 votes

This isn't true. The same amount is healed whether you have 500 health or 5000 health. That doesn't make it less efficient. It makes it look less efficient, but it's the EXACT same.

CaelerJun 22, 20158 votes

It's actually more efficient because tanks have resists.

TotalJerkJun 23, 20152 votes

In terms of a health stacker vs a resist stacker, heals are better on the resist guy. Especially when the enemy is packing any form of percent health damage.

5000000000000000Jun 23, 20151 votes

Against true damage resist stacker wouldn't be as effective. Just pointing out that no form of defense is objectively superior in every scenario. Stacking resists is generally better if you have some form of sustain, though.