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I both love and hate new(ish) Soraka.

Kojiro Sasaki·12/5/2014, 12:47:30 PM·2 votes·929 views

"New" Soraka has been out for some time now, so people have had ample time to adapt. Initially, I thought she was awful and was extremely angry at Riot for ruining the image of my favorite champion. I was a Soraka main, pre-rework. I tried her out for like 3 games, then in a rage quit playing her. How could Riot betray me like this?

Some time passed, and I decided to try her again, thinking of her as just a different character entirely. I'm now having more fun than I did with old Soraka. This is one of the rare cases where I think the rework was nothing but a 100% improvement. The mechanics of being risky don't suit Soraka at all, but they're fun! The harassing of your opponents at long range doesn't really fit the persona of a "Do no harm" champion...but again, its fun! Finding ways to trap people in your E for just long enough for it to pop and root them is also very satisfying. The only real problem I have is with her passive. I've actually found myself purposefully not healing certain teammates just so I could use them as a speed boost during the fight. You're not just playing with your own life as new Soraka, you're playing with the life of your teammates too!

In short, New Soraka doesn't fit her lore at all, but she's a really fun champion. Her passive suits her but causes anti-characteristic gameplay, but its fine. (Note: In no way is this a thread parodying about Cass and how I think her changes are good. I hate them and think they suck, and I doubt that will change the way this has. I thought this needed clarifying. )

Has anyone else had a similar experience with a Reworked champion, perhaps Soraka? I don't see her played as much as I wish I did. Its only ever me.

10 Comments

Fashion Mage12/5/2014, 11:14:31 PM2 votes

Implying new Soraka does any real damage *

Lumus Avatar12/5/2014, 1:12:30 PM2 votes

I play a lot of ARAM so I see her a lot. after the rework, she seems, to me, to be just as much of an aggro healer as she was before, but now she's harder to punish for it because starcall's range is so dramatically increased.

Playing against her, I focus on punishing her by never letting starcall hit me. I deny her the healing she'd get from damaging me. I'm very focused on the skill telegraphing so that I can deny her starcall and her silence-root. Though I am often hit by the initial silence and the damage from that always catches me off-guard.

When I play her, I max CDR, Regen, and AP. I take Orb of Winter as my second item after Chalice of Harmony so that I have a shield, but as little HP as possible. This maximizes the trade-off of sacrificing HP to heal an ally. I lose as little HP as possible for their gain. This works well to a point. Once Orb's shield breaks, I die pretty fast.

I try to be a consistent healer: if I see my passive up, I know I haven't been doing a good enough job.

For me the most satisfying thing is using the silence AoE to corral the enemy team into my starcall. Seeing a bright stream of healing energy rushing to me as 2, 3, or 4 of the enemies take the hit is just so exhilarating.

Meep Man12/5/2014, 1:04:53 PM2 votes

If you don't heal your teammates in a fight, that is on you, not the character. Her passive is completely fitting, but it can be abused and used incorrectly.

About the rest of her kit, I think it is fine. Having a pure healer of the sort that Soraka is means that if you didn't have any damage, you would be really useless in fights except for just pumping out healing. Some damage is needed on every character.

Origami Kaiju12/26/2014, 5:12:07 PM1 votes

I've actually found myself purposefully not healing certain teammates just so I could use them as a speed boost during the fight. You're not just playing with your own life as new Soraka, you're playing with the life of your teammates too!

Haha, that's so hilarious! Reaper Soraka totally makes sense now.

Leti the Yeti12/5/2014, 6:20:13 PM1 votes

While yes, the banana meteor thing isnt true to her "dont hurt anyone" thing She did hurt alot more people back when solo lane soraka was a thing ;l

k wìx12/5/2014, 3:07:02 PM1 votes

I'd personally like to see her tweaked to take a bit of the focus off of harassment, but overall its a good rework and a pretty cool champion. It just feels odd that as the 'iconic' healer of the series she needs to so focused on landing that harass to remain viable in high play.

As for a similar experience, I used to play Xerath a lot, I loved his gimmick - and awhile back they gave him a big rework, and I fell in absolute love with him - he's my main now and I hit high gold/low plat with him in the support/mid role. I hope they keep him where he is!

Annie ADC12/26/2014, 4:15:07 PM1 votes

I have a similar feel in this situation. I loved Soraka as a kind of "I will help my allies and make peace" kind of champion. Now she harasses and is involved in not such heals and buffs, but also with contribution in combat.

While I do definitely enjoy this new Soraka, if I had to choose between the new and old one, I think I would prefer to play the old one. Not because I think she is particularly better, but because I liked her MMO-RPG backline-healer gameplay. She healed, buffed, and debuffed, which overall I thought was pretty cool.

I also liked playing the older version if I kind of wanted to relax. She was not very interactive with the enemy until later on in the game, and sometimes I enjoyed the rather simple playstyle.

I also really want to give people mana! q_q

But other than those personal feelings of mine, I think that in the support role, Soraka is pretty strong, and more viable than she used to be, despite my disdain for saying such a thing. She pretty much went from "overall sustain" to "heavy HP sustain with risk."

I think it would have been cool, to be honest, if they combined some aspects of the rework with her old kit. I like that her Starcall is a skillshot that slows, and the new effects of her ult. Though I guess the primary thing I miss is the mana giving of her Infuse and the long-range and armor-buff of her Astral Blessing.