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The changes to Soraka on PBE are absurd and shouldn't go through

DemiluniS·1/29/2016, 10:37:40 PM·31 votes·4,104 views
1/29 PBE Update

By no means I'm a soraka main and don't to defend her kit, but if those changes on the PBE aren't gutting I don't know what is.

Starcall (Q) Mana cost lowered to 60 at all ranks from 70/75/80/85/90 NEW TOOLTIP:

Calls down a star from Soraka to a target location. Enemies standing in the explosion radius take 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.35 AP) magic damage and are slowed by 30% for 2 seconds.

If Starcall damages a champion Soraka gains Alignment, restoring up to 30/45/60/75/90 (.1 AP ) health and 20/30/40/50/60 (+.1 AP) mana over 5 seconds."

Slow lowered to 30% at all ranks from 30/35/40/45/50% All enemies hit are slowed rather than only those in center. Enemies in center no longer take extra damage. Missile speed increased to 1300 from 1100. AoE size decreased to 235 from 265. [New Mechanic] "If Starcall damages a champion Soraka gains Alignment, restoring up to 30/45/60/75/90 (.1 AP ) health and 20/30/40/50/60 (+.1 AP) mana over 5 seconds."

Astral Infusion (W) NEW TOOLTIP:

Restores 70/100/130/160/190 (+0.6 AP) health to another champion ally.

If cast while affected by Alignment Soraka will transfer the effect to her target with a refreshed duration. Cannot be cast if Soraka is below 5% Health."

Heal value lowered to 70/100/130/160/190 from 120/150/180/210/240 [Removed] No longer heals Soraka on champion hit [New Mechanic] "If cast while affected by Alignment Soraka will transfer the effect to her target with a refreshed duration."

They basically taking power off her W and moving her self sustain completely to her starcall. The problem is that the alignment sustain is absurdly low and is healing over time which makes it completely neglectible. Moreover it doesn't increase her sustain if starcall hits multiple targets. mid-late game soraka won't be use her W effectively simple by the fact that she won't be able to sustain herself with her Q. I think Riot should take a different approach if the want to fix her.

98 Comments

Kr1sys1/29/2016, 10:50:55 PM14 votes

Soraka is already absurd. I'm sure they'll tweak the numbers, but I for one, am glad they're getting around to gutting how unfun her kit is.

I'm sure the intended interaction is if you need to spam Q more frequently with items you should be spreading the alignment buff to others anyways so you can keep it rolling on her.

Edit: And frankly, they need her to be more interactive, she's still pretty vanilla even compared to her pre-rework kit with absurd utility.

Sightless661/29/2016, 10:59:37 PM7 votes

Completely agree. I gave it a couple tries earlier today. All of the annoying laning bullshit that everyone hates is completely intact, but her presence in absolutely everything else is just gone because she kills herself so quickly now, and the only way to not kill yourself is to not heal anybody.

Alignment is just sooooo bad. It's less healing than the old heal anytime she's under about 60-70% health, and it can't stack for hitting multiple people, and it has a duration of about twice the cooldown of your Q, and you lose the healing anytime you heal an ally. All that, just so that she can make laning a little more annoying for her opponents by healing her ADC for more. Even the mana regen feels terrible because the amount of mana regenerated is almost negligible until you max Q, and you still have to max W in most lanes because you need it for all-in fights and having the Q maxed in early teamfights makes you contribute almost nothing because alignment sucks and the Q itself does very little damage even when maxed.

At the very least, there needs to be some reward for hitting multiple people with the Q. There is no reason to take one of the more skill-based aspects of her kit and give her no reward for it. There should be a reason to force her to try to hit multiple people, and mediocre damage doesn't cut it.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the absolute worst thing about playing against Soraka is how little you can do against a good one in lane, right? It's annoying how she can completely negate even the best trades. That seems to be the biggest complaint I see when people post about her. So, why is her laning being left almost completely unchanged while her teamfighting gets completely broken?

Krinu1/29/2016, 11:49:13 PM4 votes

Soraka main here!

I think the intention behind the changes is good, and the logic is sound, but the numbers need a lot of work.

See, right now, you can build Soraka one of two ways: You can go AP, in which case you're a glass cannon minus the cannon, offset by being able to counteract pretty much any burst short of a one-shot in the game. Alternatively, you can go for HP/Warmogs, which cuts your ability to out-heal burst, but with the result of making any siege comp into an unstoppable monster due to your sustain.

The issue is that both of these paths avoid interacting with the enemy whenever possible. AP builds might go in to land a safe Q on a front-line tank for sustain, and HP builds will attempt to never get hit ever. Now, there are a lot of reasons for Soraka to avoid the enemy. She does 10% max health true damage to herself with every heal she casts, she has no escapes, she does pathetic damage, her defenses are garbage with her gold income and her item build path... she's really not suited to fight. It's not her forte. She's a support, after all.

But that's not really healthy.

So they want to make it more rewarding for her to be involved in fighting the enemy. But she's a terrible fighter on Live, because any support Soraka with an ounce of common sense maxes W for the power and to avoid pushing the mana cost of her already-expensive Q into astronomical (heh) territory. There really isn't a good way to change that with the ability breakdown as it is.

Hence the minor rework.

Moving her sustain from her W to her Q does a couple things: First, it makes solo-lane Soraka a potential counterpick to low-sustain enemies that lack combo-to-dead capability rather than just a universal joke. Second, it diversifies her skill investment path by making picking up a couple points in both Q and W a good plan bot lane. Maxing Q will be best for sustain and poke, W is still a better burst heal to deal with ganks or all-ins. Obviously, the numbers need tuning, but the idea is there.

The goal here is clearly to reward Soraka more for interacting with the enemy, and reduce her effectiveness when she's alone. By spiking the mana cost of her W and dropping the health returned by her Q, they're trying to drag her forward into combat more. Without some pretty huge changes to her kit, though, she's just going to get focused and stomped to death, because she's still a fragile glass cannon.

I'm looking forward to numbers changes, though, since her Q's AP coefficient is pretty awful. I'd honestly raise it up to at least 50% to make her viable solo-lane.

Itadaki Seieki1/29/2016, 11:15:29 PM3 votes

I can describe Soraka with my new favorite line given.

" I can do whatever I want because I can't be punished because Soraka heals me. "

That's how unfun it is to lane against her.

" OH WE JUST DID MASSIVE POKE DAMAGE TO THEIR AD- Oh.. Soraka already has her at full health. Where is she? Probably recalled or sitting in lane because of Talisman. "

Erockandroll1/29/2016, 11:07:34 PM2 votes

Personally, I find this freaking awesome.

Riot hated the Burst healer as being a toxic mechanic, so they shifted some of her power to sustain healing. Nothing particularly wrong with that. And potentially, you could cast-infuse multiple times and get the buff on everyone.

What particularly interests me is the mana regen on Alignment. We could see a return of the Mana battery identity she had prior to the rework.

Calabok1/30/2016, 12:21:26 AM1 votes

You just wanna keep her freelo status eyyyy?