Thoughts and Discussion: Soraka
Do not freak out. Do not assume anything. This post is being made for a greater long term goal in mind and not what is happening in the here and now. Share your own thoughts and give proper feedback that works towards improving Soraka for the future on multiple perspectives.
The cools and not-so-cools with Soraka:
~ Someone that swoops on in and makes clutch heals to save an ally from death.
~ Lack of skill expression is a bad thing. If we improve on this then it should also make her less frustrating to play against, especially in lane.
~ Soraka is super frustrating to play against and turns laning phase into a super passive snooze fest that goes no where. Give Soraka more rewards for being active and interacting with the enemy would give Soraka more to do to have her more exciting to play as and actually be able to be dealt with by the enemy to greatly reduce her frustration levels.
~ Saving an ally across the map is cool, but in the form of an AoE click ultimate (you don't even have to point to make the skill even more brainless) is not so cool. Adjustments to a new ultimate to keep the cool cross-map clutch saves, while incorporating some kind of skill element / thought process to it would smooth out Soraka's balance.
~ Let's really hone into Soraka's battle cleric identity which looking at her kit right now you will never in a million years guess this is what she is supposed to be.
(Numbers are strictly to paint a better picture, they hold absolutely no weight here.)
Basic Attacks: Cleaned up and improved, a lot less wind up time and less floaty Movement: 340 units per second [from 325]
Star Shard (Passive): Range: 550 units; Pick-Up Range: 350 units Whenever Soraka inflicts an enemy champion or epic monster with a basic attack or ability a Star Shard is dropped for the next 60 seconds.
Soraka picks up a Star Shard whenever she gets near it causing it to heal herself and nearby allies for 2(+10%AP) health and permanently granting herself +1% increased heal power.
Champion takedowns grant Soraka 5 Star Shards.
Current Bonus Heal Power: X%
Starcall (Q): Cooldown: 10 seconds; Cost: 45/50/55/60/65 mana; Range: 800 / 600 units; Star Radius: 200 units Passive: Picking up a Star Shard refunds Starcall's cooldown by 10/12.5/15/17.5/20%.
Active: Soraka calls down 5 stars based on her location in a line at the target location, each dealing 40/50/60/70/80(+20%AP) magic damage and slowing by 15% for 1 second, stacking up to 45%. If at least 3 stars hit enemy champions and epic monsters then all nearby Star Shards are called in to Soraka.
Astral Blessing (W): Cooldown: 2 seconds; Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana; Range: 550 / 1100 units Passive: Collecting Star Shards stores them for up to 120 seconds, allowing Astral Blessing to be cast. A Star Shard is created and comes to Soraka every 100/85/70/55/40 seconds [lowers with CDR].
Active: Soraka heals the target allied champion for 23/26/29/32/35(+30%AP) health for every Star Shard consumed. Only a maximum of 5 Star Shards can be consumed at a time.
Casting Astral Blessing against the same target within 10 seconds reduces the healing to 20%.
Equinox (E): Cooldown: 20/17/14/11/8 seconds; Cost: 80 mana; Range: 550 units Soraka creates a zone around her for the next 1.5 seconds to silence enemies within and for the duration causes Soraka to be immune to damage from enemy basic attacks.
After 1.5 seconds, the zone collapses dealing 100/140/180/220/260(+80%AP) magic damage to enemies.
Beam of Wishes (R): Cooldown: 150/130/110 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: Global Soraka blasts a giant healing beam in the target direction healing all units struck, ally and enemy, for 100/150/200(+20%AP) health and brightening them for the next 4 seconds.
Astral Blessing against brightened allies gains a global range and increases the healing by 100%, removing the brightened effect against it afterwards.
Brightened enemies that are damaged by allies are dealt 15/20/25%(+4% per 100AP) maximum health as magic damage and become stunned for 1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds, removing the brightened effect afterwards.
UPDATE:
Astral Blessing: Removed double range against allies below 40% health.
Beam of Wishes: Created another new concept for an ultimate.
.
It's actually disgusting.