Is Soraka in need of another rework?

PhantomGG··14 votes·1,721 views

So with the introduction to the buffs for griveous wounds that happened in season six and with items such as item 3123 item 3165 being very very gold efficent Soraka feels very weak when compared to other heals such as Taric or Sona . I believe the main cause to this is largely because Sona and Taric may have a heal they spam a lot, but it is not the core part of their kit. If you suddenly removed their ability to heal people they still have a list of other options to provide their teamates. Taric can still stun or shield his allies, Sona still has damage to pop out and a heavy cc ultimate to create picks that is fairly easy to land.

However 100 percent of what sorraka does is cordinated with her healing. Her Q replenishes her health, her E heals allies, her R heals allies. The only ability in her toolkit that has a theme outside of healing would be her silence/snare. Because of this with items like item 3123 being so efficient to build against her she really becomes a one dimensional character that is easy to counter. I feel Soraka shines best on comps with tanks that can peel and protect her. But even then you want to know what item 3123 turns into? item 3033 a tank killing item, so item 3123 becomes even more gold efficent for the enemies AD players for now they get a item that can stop healing and kill the tanks.

This is not me saying item 3123 is broken. It's perfectly fair. Champions such as Vladimir Swain Taric Sona are still relevant even when such items are built on the enemy team. But this is because they aren't one dimensional. Vladimir has burst and dive capabilities, so even if he can't heal as much as he would like, he is still a damage threat, swaine has cc with his rooting ability and taric and sona can stun people. They aren't characters who suddenly become useless if healing is countered. But on a character such as Soraka where 70-80 percent of your toolkit is defined by healing teamtaes or yourself, item 3123 just becomes a impossible item to deal with.

My solution is not to nerf item 3123 it's a fine item, and Soraka seems to be the only champion suffering frmo it. So it seems unfair to change a entire item for the sake of a single champion. So instead, I believe it's time we give the goat lady a new toolkit that does more than just be a simple white mage. It's time to make her more than just a one dimensional character who spams the E button twenty four seven.

47 Comments

chipndip15 votes

Ya gotta really scrape the bottom of the barrel to try to suggest that Sona and Taric make better healers than Soraka. Soraka's healing is pretty much the best in the game, bar none.

The REAL issue you're seeing comes 2 fold:

  • Sona and Taric do other things. Sona fights and Taric has full blown invincibility and hard cc from 2 directions.

  • LITERALLY all you do is heal, so LITERALLY all anyone has to do to make you way weaker in the game is buy an Executioner's.

It isn't that those two heal better than Soraka. That's complete nonsense. The issue is that too much power budget is placed in Soraka's shitty play style of hanging back in the fog of war, spamming W. Riot's been steadily forcing Soraka to walk up and interact more, but her kit isn't necessarily designed to support a more aggressive style of play. Result? Her overall in-game strength takes a toll because she's being forced to do something that isn't optimal. I've been trying to say that there's serious flaws in some of the older enchanter play styles, but no one really bothered to listen to me anyway. There's an issue when a champ's primary play pattern is just hanging back spamming heals and shields rather than having a good reason to interact with the lane. Just because you're a support doesn't mean this isn't true.

Side note: Sona and Taric have their own major game play issues in and of themselves. The fact that you're in such a spot that you're envious of them is actually rather bad. Not of you, but rather of the state of Soraka as a champ.

Siegfriedx12 votes

{quoted}

Ya gotta really scrape the bottom of the barrel to try to suggest that Sona and Taric make better healers than Soraka. Soraka's healing is pretty much the best in the game, bar none.

The REAL issue you're seeing comes 2 fold:

  • Sona and Taric do other things. Sona fights and Taric has full blown invincibility and hard cc from 2 directions.

  • LITERALLY all you do is heal, so LITERALLY all anyone has to do to make you way weaker in the game is buy an Executioner's.

It isn't that those two heal better than Soraka. That's complete nonsense. The issue is that too much power budget is placed in Soraka's shitty play style of hanging back in the fog of war, spamming W. Riot's been steadily forcing Soraka to walk up and interact more, but her kit isn't necessarily designed to support a more aggressive style of play. Result? Her overall in-game strength takes a toll because she's being forced to do something that isn't optimal. I've been trying to say that there's serious flaws in some of the older enchanter play styles, but no one really bothered to listen to me anyway.

Side note: Sona and Taric have their own major game play issues in and of themselves. The fact that you're in such a spot that you're envious of them is actually rather bad. Not of you, but rather of the state of Soraka as a champ.

Sona and Taric heal more once no one build GW when against then but build GW against soraka.

chipndip14 votes

That is literally the stupidest argument I've heard in months.

Ahristocats4 votes

even if someone builds GW against soraka she will heal more than sona

and GW is built no matter what, morello is in 100% of the games

Wyrmblade1 votes

Soraka already does walk up and interact more. She does more than Taric or even Sona. If you are playing Soraka passively you are doing it wrong.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

Soraka already does walk up and interact more. She does more than Taric or even Sona. If you are playing Soraka passively you are doing it wrong.

https://blog.plays.tv/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/nautilus.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8IC1RwUQAEGW0m.png

Wyrmblade1 votes

You are supposed to be spamming Q and autos on the enemy laner every time they try to CS. She has a very long attack range and very good poke around once she gets two points in Q. Q spam costs very little mana and is extremely good poke. In my experience, Soraka should hardly ever heal outside of actual life or death fights since she doesn't need it due to the high amount of damage and CC she can deal in the right hands. Passive heal bot Soraka is viable in low elo, but it's vastly inferior to a Soraka that focuses on poking and trading.

chipndip13 votes

{quoted}

You are supposed to be spamming Q and autos on the enemy laner every time they try to CS.

Then play Sona instead of some off-brand attempt at it.

She has a very long attack range and very good poke around once she gets two points in Q.

If you want your heal to be bad then go ahead and max Q.

Q spam costs very little mana and is extremely good poke.

Hyperbole doesn't make your argument stronger. Just stupider.

In my experience, Soraka should hardly ever heal outside of actual life or death fights since she doesn't need it due to the high amount of damage and CC she can deal in the right hands.

I don't wanna be a dick but your Silver 2 is showing.

Passive heal bot Soraka is viable in low elo, but it's vastly inferior to a Soraka that focuses on poking and trading.

YOU ARE LOW ELO, and what do you think Soraka does in even my elo? The same shit, spamming W. And what do you think she does in pro play whenever she's picked? The same shit, spamming W. Soraka's not an aggressive champ.

Wyrmblade1 votes

I've been winning a massive amount of games in a row playing Soraka aggressively. It isn't hyperbole because it's true. Elo doesn't have any bearing because I didn't invent this strategy, I picked it up from LS's stream and the reason why I'm so adamant about it is because it's been working amazingly. I've never played with or against a decent Sona so I can't comment on how she compares to Soraka. In my experience so far, the heal doesn't need to be overly strong until mid game. The bonus healing provided from landing Q is enough to sustain in early fights and trades.

chipndip11 votes

Suit yourself, just don't mislead others.

Wyrmblade1 votes

I have done all that I could to keep others from being mislead.

It Hertz When IP4 votes

My take on this as someone who played Soraka from S1 all the way until her rework: Yes. Riot has decided that healing can't be very impactful, ergo League's poster healer is going to need some new tricks to back her up.

Step 1: Remove the health cost from her heal and ~~substantially ~~boost the actual healing. Compensate by increasing the mana cost to (say) 100 mana and increasing the CD. Now Soraka has to make a choice about when to heal, has to build plenty of MRegen to keep being useful and has an actual window of weakness. Step 2: Continuing on the "remove the BS" train, change her ult to a channeled heal (keep global?). Gives an actual risk to her ult during a teamfight. Step 3: Remove the self-heal on Q cast and (not sure about this part) convert it to a charge system. Increase the slow on targets caught in the center of the Q. Step 4: (purely wishful thinking) Allies standing in her E zone when the second part triggers receive a strong boost to base MRegen for a duration. Soraka used to be the only champion (that I can think of) who could give her allies mana, and I think it was a cool and unique niche.

Chromatic Eagle1 votes

I don't think they're against supportive mregen, they just didn't want it on Soraka.

It Hertz When IP1 votes

shrugs I think it'd be a nice idea, especially if she gets her healing cut down. Shifts her from "healing focus" to a more general "resource focus". Would give her a trick that other healer supports don't have, set her apart from Nami and Sona.

Swarovsko4 votes

I would like to but I'm way too scared Riot will just ruin her. I love healing allies, I've always been a cleric or something else who could heal in mmorpgs, I love Soraka so much and I don't wanna see her being ruined by a bad rework. Sorry but I don't trust Riot so just nerf the item.

JedenVojak1 votes

{quoted}

I would like to but I'm way too scared Riot will just ruin her. I love healing allies, I've always been a cleric or something else who could heal in mmorpgs, I love Soraka so much and I don't wanna see her being ruined by a bad rework. Sorry but I don't trust Riot so just nerf the item.

Problem is, Riot already ruined her when they reworked her into her current incarnation. She used to actually be able to hold lanes and regenerate mana, you know.

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Honestly the only thing truly out of place on old Raka was her Q, if they had just replaced that with something more intuitive and engaging then she may have been fine.

JedenVojak1 votes

I thought her old Q was pretty intuitive - if they're in range Q; is there anything more intuitive than that? This game has too many skillshots and delayed abilities as it is, and really needs more reliable spells.

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Intuitive design wise. Why put an ability that is most effective for waveclear or standing really close to a bunch of enemy champions on a very squishy enchanter support.

JedenVojak1 votes

Because she wasn't actually that squishy? Her heal would grant like 100 armor and she could also silence people who dove her - generally I liked to build items like item 3116 and item 3110 or item 3174 on her just to give a bit more staying power in the jungle and when counter ganking.

ryona3 votes

yes, rework this shitty binary healing champion into an AP mage support.

DoktorKaiser2 votes

Please yes, I find Soraka (and Sona for that matter) to be extremely toxic for the gameplay and the only lord and saviour is Executioners Calling, the amount of heals they can put out is just stupid, their design sucks imo. But then again grievious wounds destroys some other champs too hard like Mundo, Swain or Voli, but I will take that any day of the week if I dont have to deal with Soraka healing a carry who badly positioned through literal thousands of damage by spamming her W non stop, while having warmog and never even getting low. So its either not fun for Soraka to have her heal halved or its not fun for her enemies because she makes squishies have 10 000 hp in value. Rework is needed 100%.

Linna Excel2 votes

I say yes, but that'd probably require reworking both her W and her Q. Also I'd revert her E back into pre-rework form.

My thought is return her to being more of a bully white mage than a passive one.

Wyrmblade2 votes

She already is a massive bully in lane. If you're playing passive on her, then you're playing wrong.

It's really annoying to hear people asking for a champion rework when they don't know how to play the champion in the first place.

Linna Excel1 votes

Not really. Riot's always bouncing her back between too much of a bully and too passive. If Soraka gets too aggressive, she can be easily punished for it and loses her main healing resource.

Wyrmblade1 votes

Her W barely costs any health at low ranks, she takes very little risk to Q and gains health back from it even if she does take some damage in the process.

PokladnicaZla2 votes

Soraka is my favorite champion and she's going to be a balance nightmare for a long time until they rework or remove grevious wounds. For now the debuff is:

  1. Nearly on every mindlane mage;most of them lack choices for mana
  2. Is too easy to apply from AD champions. 1 AA and you applied the debuff.Great.

Few notes on your post: Soraka heals is on her W Taric's heal isn't really that good,unless you have it full stacked./ Sona's heal isn't really better,as the shield aura is pretty strong in teamfights.

Soraka could use a rework,but she still needs to be a healer primarily. The things I would like to preserve on her are:

  1. The ability to make stars fall from the sky
  2. The best healer concept BIG CHANGE :Her ultimate not being global and instant. I know people might disagree,because it's been her skill since forever,but it doesn't provide any counterplay.It's should be some kind of delayed AoE skillshot. It would be a god idea,that the heal was lowered,but an offensive component was added.It would allow her to either play defensively cast it on her allies for healing or use it on her enemies to deal damage and something(ground/slow/snare etc)

And also.Kill tank Soraka.It makes one of her weaknesses non-existent. After her rework RIOTers,commented they think a change in strategy ˝maybe focus the healer first˝ is something they liked.A squishy backline healer,that with one bad move is dead,but if played right can be a really CONTROLLER and change the flow of the teamfight .

Muzét1 votes

As I stated in a another topic. Grievous Wounds needs a nerf. Maybe reduce self-heal by 40% but healing received from teammates by 20%. At least it still counters a lot DrMundo Swain and other sustain champions, but allows healers to be able to do healing - And it almost feels like she should be reworked again yeah or give her b her Grievous Wounds clean on her R or when she's apply Rejuvenation on an Ally. That could be a mechanic.

Siegfriedx21 votes

Also ignite that everyone can pick

FourVsFive1 votes

Her ult used to remove Grevious wounds from allies, then they changed how GW worked by making it not effect heals from allies, then they removed it from her ult then they reverted GW to affecting heals from others without reverting her ult to remove GW...

xWaters1 votes

You can in no way compare Taric's heal to Sorakas. The mana cost is insane, and the heal is low. It's main purpose is to keep procing his passive. However you are right, Sona and taric aren't heal bots and have much better tools than Soraka.

SlashStriker1 votes

soraka is the best healer in the game and massively outclasses all other healing supports

No one buys this shititem 3123 I think it was mistake to increase EC cost from 800 to 1000 when no one is buying it

What they could do is this

item 3123 900 gold =item 1036 + item 1036 25 AD Unique - Wounds: 25% healing reduction

With extra AD EC would be much more desirable to AD carries since it gives more AD thus allow them to farm better yet counter champions like Soraka but not too hard

item 3033 Unique - Wounds: 40% healing reduction

AlienPrimate1 votes

No one who is ignorant of how to play buys it. Anyone with half a brain gets it first back against Soraka. That would be like not buying an item that halves the duration of CC against Alistar or halves the attack speed of Vayne for only 800 gold. You take an enemy champion and make them half as effective as normal and the game becomes so easy. Executioner's calling isn't about doing more damage. It is about making Soraka useless. Even if it had no AD on it, it would still be worth the gold.

I think a better rework for GW would be to remove it entirely from the game and turn it into an active that removes all healing from a target for a short time.

Malicious Fury1 votes

99.99% of the time I see AP people build item 3165. Take the 20% CDR off of it and compensate it in some other way and I bet they won't. It's already easy enough for AP users to build CDR.

Rarely do I see item 3033 built in favor of item 3036 . Most likely because an ADC has less HP than most of the enemy team, making item 3036 more effective against 4 of 5 of their team versus buying item 3033 for just 1 of 5 of their team, the Mundo, who can be summoner 14 'd.

ForgottenLuck1 votes

I disagree with the aspect of her not to be a white mage, she needs to stay as a simple healer in my mind. It's why I love her so much.

Erockandroll2 votes

{quoted}

I disagree with the aspect of her not to be a white mage, she needs to stay as a simple healer in my mind. It's why I love her so much.

Honestly it's that simplicity that's making her hard to balance. Considering that Healing seems to always be on this knifes edge between insufficient, and completely busted. And that's pretty much all Raka's designed to do. Riot tries to make Raka take more risks by implementing HP costs and sustain mechanics, Yet we still find passive solutions around them.

Because of the passive play patterns, there's little counterplay into the heals themselves. So it kinda feels hypocritical that we complain about counterbuild.

[{quoted}](name=Darien Juranas,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=MIWcmAhN,comment-id=000600000000,timestamp=2017-05-17T23:30:33.678+0000)

shrugs I think it'd be a nice idea, especially if she gets her healing cut down. Shifts her from "healing focus" to a more general "resource focus". Would give her a trick that other healer supports don't have, set her apart from Nami and Sona.

If this is in reference to her Old E giving mana, I'd honestly say this has way too much potential for being abused. Really if Raka's healing would be bonkers if it weren't for GW, then the same could be said for any other resource. More so on a support since their mana itemization is pretty damn good. And if you have a caster ADC who's balanced around having a limited mana battery, circumventing that with a support isn't particularly a healthy thing to do.

ForgottenLuck1 votes

I don't want her to do dmg, like Karma or Lulu she should be a champ that lives and dies, her team, with only playing by them. I love that of her, she is my second most played champ for this and believes she can stay how she is.

Wyrmblade1 votes

Soraka isn't useless with grievous wounds due to how massive her healing is and the sheer amount of poke, peel and sustain she has in lane. She doesn't spam the E button 24/7. We don't need to rework the same damn champions over and over again when they're in a decent and balanced state. Any time spent on her, even if it's just light buffs or nerfs, would be a waste of time compared to champions that actually need it. Please stay away from my freelo.

Hexs Fortune1 votes

I'd argue nami heals are comparable to soraka heals. Nami also brings alot of hard cc

Troll for Trump1 votes

Illaoi item 3070

Sexy Jack Rabbit1 votes

She's 100% going to through a rework, probably some time next year.

She's unfortunately, binary, stale and has a shallow kit.

I however doubt they will change her THAT much, as her kit is still quite modern, at least in comparison to other champions.

Siegfriedx11 votes

Its not about how much but about being succesful in the act of saving the player... I save more people with nami healing than soraka on mid late game against good players.

AlienPrimate1 votes

I think an easy way to balance champions who heal and GW is to remove it entirely as a passive and turn it into an active. Give item 3165 and item 3123 an active that completely removes all healing done to an enemy for a short time. This makes it so you can't just always have the counter to heavy healing champions and have to think about when you want to remove their healing.

Dianna Leveret1 votes

I love Soraka, because she is designed to heal and not to kill. And considering Im a healer at heart and in every MMO i main healers, I'd want her to keep this identity. Griveous Wounds wound't be as bad - IF the health costs was lowered when healing a champion, affected by healing debuffs. It is a bit unfair that she heals for half less but still uses 10% HP. This is the only change I'd want to see to Griveous Wounds. For example, healing a champion affected by GW, costs only 5% or 6% HP. A rework would be interesting, because she either carries games or is totally useless, not to mention she falls off so much in higher elos. But I truly hope they keep her 'pure healer' thematic unchanged.

Sir Fuzzi1 votes

Soraka's the premier healer. She's by and far the best, given a teamwide instaheal which is probably one of her most defining resources (always has been, really).

My big problems are that her other resources are amidst the weakest of their types, and in order to be crunk healing, she sacrifices health which seems like a pretty weak trade. But eh. I've never really been on board with her changes. I liked old Starcall, though.

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Soraka should be the premier medic champion. NOT healer, medic. Her playstyle should always be more about restoring allies than actual fighting but Riot can make that more interesting than just being a heal bot. For example, they could give her back her ability to give mana to an ally, that's what I found so great about previous Raka, "Oh you're hurt? Here's some health. Oh you're a bit low on mana? Let me top you off" her playstyle should be about mothering her carry not making them invincible.

Other things they could add are a cleanse or some kind, maybe make it only remove slows but it would fit with the theme of healing people without it just being about their hp bar. Maybe make it so she can give allies a steroid for a short time when they have a debuff applied to them (Like an attack speed slow would allow her to give them increased attack speed). Maybe give her the ability to teleport across the map temporarily to give healing and/or buffs to another ally in need and then pop right back where she was?

Medic support, not heal bot support.

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