Thank you for the Soraka change! Now my toplane is even MORE oppressive :D

SaltyToplaneGoat·Mar 8, 2016·2 votes·334 views

My favourite right now is Soraka Mid or Top, and I've been going pretty well with it. Sure, the damage buff for good hits is gone, but just think about all the other stuff she got: massively reduced mana costs on Q, a RELIABLE SLOW to set up your E, I do no longer have to level W early before I can start sustaining in a Vlad-like fashion. Also, my sustain now levels together with my Q. AND BONUS SPEED FOR RUNNING AWAY!

Oh the enemy toplaner wants to engage on me? Q->E, walk off with zero hp loss while drowning them in bananas. Repeat until they either back or they underestimate you and you actually kill them. And if they don't engage, enjoy the free poke.

Sure, people whine and flame me in champ select, but once they see the heals a full AP raka ult can deliver they shut up quickly ^^

So, thanks Riot, for buffing my strong pick into total freeELO :D

6 Comments

Dominick DestineMar 8, 20161 votes

Soraka got gutted.

SaltyToplaneGoatMar 8, 20161 votes

AHAHAHAHA NO. But keep thinking that. I'm just the level 5 Raka with a 66% winrate, what do I know? :P

If you get reuvation with a heal her W actually restores even more than before. Actually, who cares about 40 base value when I get like 300 bonus heal with AP?

KrinuMar 9, 20161 votes

We'll see how things go on live. But, just from looking at PBE and the notes... it's a mixed bag.

The "stack health and warmogs to heal from the backline" build is getting gutted, but most people agree that's a good thing. That build was annoying for everyone.
Her sustain in teamfights is going down, and significantly. Previously, she'd get more healing for hitting multiple foes with her Q, now she only gets the healing over time from Rejuvenation, and that doesn't stack with targets hit. Whether this is a serious problem remains to be seen.
She's getting some extra utility. Part of this is the movespeed buff, but a bigger part is Rejuvenation. Because it's a ticking heal instead of regeneration, she triggers Ardent Censer and Windspeaker's with every tick, meaning that one rejuvenation-empowered W with a max rank Starcall grants 11 seconds of +15% AS and on-hit magic damage to her carry, while also granting 8 seconds of bonus armor and MR.
Her burst healing is going down, and given the incentives to max Q first now even in support roles, it's going down by a lot. No more "heal through the jungle gank" for Soraka.
Her sustained healing theoretical max is going up, because the combined healing of her Rejuvenation and Astral Infusion is higher than her pre-nerf Infusion alone. However, getting this reliably will require a lot more landing starcall, which doesn't look to be any easier.

SaltyToplaneGoatMar 9, 20161 votes

For tank/supp Raka this is indeed quite problematic. But if you play Full AP anyways (which you should because that triples your W heals) it's irrelevant. I mean, I max Q anyways ^^

I think even if she lacks teamfight sustain, the reliable slow on Q is going to weight that one out together with the speed buff.

KrinuMar 9, 20161 votes

The problem with full AP has always been "if you get hit by any CC you're dead." Her changes don't make that any less likely to happen, so it's a huge increase in vulnerability without any appreciable increase in support capability.

I worry she's going to be an "off meta" mid lane pick from here on, instead of a viable support pick.

SaltyToplaneGoatMar 9, 20161 votes

Well that applies to literally any squishy mage. Ofc you have to get your positioning game right, but if you manage to do that your team becomes pretty much immortal.

I'd expect her more in top than in mid tbh. Mid's crawling with assassins, toplaners can be held of with the Q-slow and the E.