Soraka, underpowered?

Lamarson·3/26/2015, 1:09:43 AM·3 votes·1,139 views

I have been playing soraka support now for a while and I cant help but notice a few shortcomings. For one, why cant i cast heal on myself? why does it cost 10% of my max health to cast my bread and butter heal? I feel like im being punished every time i press W. The only way I can directly heal myself without casting R is to hit a champion with starcall, but I dont really find myself wanting to poke when low on health. When I do find myself wanting to poke I usually have enough health to feel comfortable doing so. Basically when im poking I am almost always overhealing for large amounts at a time with the heals literally going nowhere. In short if i cant cast my heal on myself at least let the overheals from Q bounce to nearby minions and champions

12 Comments

Sona Ping3/26/2015, 1:57:14 AM2 votes

You're absolutely correct about this. I take it you're new to League? You've got good instincts about this.

I know your new to League because you don't seem to know Soraka wasn't like this. She used to actually be the best sustain champion, designed by Guinsoo, who was very important designer for both DotA and the beginning times of Legaue. Her W giving health as well as a temporary armor boost so she could stilll be effective without gold (like how champ chosen for supports work) as well as healing with her global ult Wish. as well as giving Mana with her E that she could use to interrupt an enemy's ability in a clutch play.

However, since she hadn't been changed for a while a guy named Vesh was given the job to rework her. Under the guiding principle of "Doing damage is fun so healing is un-fun" he changed her abilities (I'm serious. He literally wrote something this stupid). So from this principle, he nerfed her abilities and gutted her kit.

Lamarson3/26/2015, 4:22:35 AM2 votes

First off, thanks for all the comments and everything said makes alot of sense.

I am new to league and i do realize that soraka was changed up (quite a bit) awhile back. It seems like before the rework she was rather OP and I dont really feel that she is terribly UP currently. The changes seem to have been aimed directly at the way the champion should be played and the job she was supposed to do. With the changes, the heal Cd got taken way down (but now costs health), no more funneling mana into your carry, no more point and click silence (now they just walk out of the AOE and if they dont they get rooted for like 1.25 second, oooooooooohhh scary). While I understand that all of this was aimed at making soraka more like a healer, It sure seems like alot to take away just to get the Cd down on the heal. It really feels like whoever did the rework went a little bit far with things.

Now, all of this would be fine and dandy if it didnt cost 10% health to cast the heal others spell. Just stack ability power and all of a sudden im dealing more damage, healing for more with W, and R becomes more of a game changer. The problem really is that I get stuck having to stack Health regen to counter the 10% health cost on the heal. more health regen means I can heal more often and my health will come back in reasonable time. This means Im stuck rushing sightstone (800) followed by mobility boots (800) followed by warmogs armor (2500). I'm already well into the midgame and half my inventory slots are spoken for before I can even consider getting a deathcap, twin shadows, ardent censor or the like. This all means I can never really build the AP that I feel would actually make soraka effective in the support role.

ModAcademy Kayn3/26/2015, 2:17:54 AM1 votes

Well she used to have- 20 cd (or something) for her heal. Granted it was a much bigger heal. A click & point silence/give mana to allies. A close range Q that requires her to be in the fight for it to work (lowered Heal cd by 1 sec for each champ hit) And her normal ult.

Her original heal was a high cd, so you'd heal them once and then wait for your support to get hurt or well that's it. She could literally supply her adc with mana so high poke champs like Ezreal and Varus could stay in lane, wearing you down forever. And don't get me started on a point and click silence that was 2-3 seconds long. Her Q put you into the middle of the fight so you had a chance of getting some cd reduc on your heal. Lets leave front line supports to the tanks.

Personally I like the new kit better. You can spam heal, for the cost of your own health, to help save your carry instead of just watching him die. The Aoe silence is great since you can snare people, adding a bit of useful cc to the usual AA duo laners. Q provides a long range poke that heals, a heal that scales off maxing your heal others heal, and helps keep both of you in lane.

Her old kit was static. At least this gives her some counterplay and better heals. Whats the point of a heal if you had to wait 13 seconds to use it, unless you choose to throw yourself into a team fight. Like a tank should, not a healer support.

IcyPepper3/26/2015, 2:19:18 AM1 votes

I wouldn't mind it if they removed the health lost from her W. And to compensate, keep the healing on her Q but not allow her to use W on herself. So she could heal herself, but by dealing damage, and could only use her heal on allies.

However, I wouldn't consider her too UP. I managed to use her as a reasonably effective jungler one or twice recently by abusing her passive for ganks.