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Current PBE Soraka Nerfs

KR Fried Chicken·1/29/2016, 5:50:29 PM·12 votes·2,966 views

It is not clear what the current changes to Soraka (in PBE) aim to achieve. Reviewing the changes, it is clear that Soraka's laning phase will be severely limited, going so far as to reducing her viability with certain ADCs if the opponent bot lane brings hard cc or burst. Let us review the changes first:

http://puu.sh/mOf0d/6da95d55ec.png

Of these changes, the most major change is how the new healing system works. Soraka's W was severely nerfed, while she received an ability to "transfer the alignment buff [Q] from herself to her healed ally [W target]." In summary, Soraka needs to fill the nerfed portion of her W with transfer from her Q. This is where simple mathematics show a concerning degree of nerf to Soraka's healing potential during laning.

To do these simple calculations, the following assumptions have to be made:

  • Effects (including CDR) from runes, masteries, and items will not be included in the calculations

  • The amount of health and mana Soraka transfers (using Q and W) was optimized so that all of the health and mana is transferred to her healed ally

  • The calculations and the results are relevant and intended to target Soraka maxing W first going standard build (ex: item 3069 item 2049 item 3050 item 3117 item 3504 item 3060)

Here is a summary of the statistical change: http://puu.sh/mOe67/cdba9dc6d5.png

Referring to these statistics, we can perform the following calculations: http://puu.sh/mOgQz/d75287bc23.png

At level 3 (with one point in Q, W, E), live Soraka can heal for 240 health in 8 sec. The PBE Soraka can heal for anywhere between 140, 170, and 200 health. If we expand the time frame to 12 sec (maybe Soraka and her ADC is running back to their turret or chasing the enemy), the live Soraka can heal for 360 health while PBE Soraka can heal for anywhere between 210, 240, 270, 300, 330 health. Comparing the live healing to PBE healing, it is clear that for the PBE Soraka, hitting her Q will be CRUCIAL. Even if she is able to hit both the enemy ADC and Supp with her Q, her healing was decreased by 40 and 30 (8 sec and 12 sec).

The most concerning portion of this new mechanics is not blatant at first look. If we take a realistic view, Soraka will rarely be able to hit both the enemy ADC and Supp with her Q for two reasons:

  1. If the enemy Supp is a tank with hard CC (Nautilus Leona), Soraka needs to stay safely out of their range. This means the enemy ADC is most likely out of Soraka's Q range as well.
  2. The enemy ADC and Supp are going to be consciously keeping distance from each other to avoid getting both hit by Soraka's Q. This will further reduce the chance of hitting both.

It is reasonable to assume that most of the time, Soraka will be able to hit 1 target with her Q. This means that at level 3, live Soraka can heal for 240 health in 8 sec while PBE Soraka can heal for 170. At 12 sec, live Soraka can heal for 360 health while PBE Soraka can heal for 270. That is -70 at 8 sec and -90 at 12 sec. This difference does not shrink from level 2 to 5 as Soraka maxes W. On top of this, PBE Soraka will have to put herself forward in danger to get the Q hits.

In conclusion, Soraka will be very very hard countered by and enemy bot lane composed of long range ADC (Ashe Caitlyn) and hard cc Supp Blitzcrank Leona Nautilus). Even if Soraka can dodge the enemy Supp's cc and start healing her ADC, it is questionable whether her ADC can survive. 70 and 90 health border around 10+% of ADCs' health. Even without hard CC, squishy ADCs (Ashe Jinx KogMaw will no longer be viable with Soraka if the enemy bot lane takes any sort of early spike/burst champions (Kalista Sona Annie). The mana regen will be nice, but at the cost of this much healing potential, it loses meaning.

If we look at the ranked statistics, Soraka has a normal win rate: http://puu.sh/mOiJq/cdae1d621f.png http://puu.sh/mOiJa/1e266e77d5.png

She does not need these ridiculous nerfs to her healing. Soraka was supposed to be the best healer to offset her lack of cc. This is what distinguishes her from similar supports (Nami Sona). Riot, your changes to Soraka will just make her unplayable. It is unclear why you are even addressing Soraka (there are other champions that much more need the balancingTrundle), but I feel that at least these changes are the worst you can bring.

Addition as of Jan 30 1:39 AM EST: I want to briefly address the mana regen feature. I wrote this as a reply to one of the comments below, but I think it sums up the lackluster mana regen feature pretty well:

"You will not be maxing Q first (unless you purely want to have fun and go AP Soraka) which means you are sacrificing an enormous amount of healing potential to restore 20 mana to your ADC. You also have to note that Soraka will not be able to spam this mana regen feature. At level 3, Soraka will be using 60 + 40 (Q + W) = 100 mana to give her ADC 20 mana. As you can see, it is not efficient at all. In addition, when you go forward to land your Q, you are putting yourself in danger. All things considered, the cost is way to high compared to the return."

17 Comments

Krys Star1/29/2016, 8:43:08 PM4 votes

Well, they finally shipped out even more nerfs to the pbe. They took a massive chunk out of Starcall's radius, and it has a pitiful 0.1 AP ratio over 5 seconds. Her heals are going to be an absolute joke now. There'd be no reason to take her over Sona, Nami or even Bard as they can provide more reliable heals without committing suicide. She'll barely be able to sustain herself now. Riot is literally punishing her for doing her job well. She's not even overpowered, just antifun and frustrating to play against much like Riven, Yasuo, Fizz, Zed and other champions are.

It's literally unfair how Soraka has to go through the harshest of nerfs every season, leading to an inevitable rework that they'll just nerf into the ground again.

Birefringence1/29/2016, 11:47:44 PM1 votes

Wonderful post. At first I was very optimistic about these changes believing it was just power shifts for the better...however Riot made me look like a fool.

DemiluniS1/29/2016, 11:50:07 PM1 votes

her Q heal doesn't stack anymore if you hit multiple targets

Sluiceway1/29/2016, 11:58:20 PM1 votes

In spite of the heal nerf, is anyone else happy to see she got her mana restore back (in some form, at least, even if the pre-rework mana restore was better - in that it scaled with max mana)?

Also, is there any mention of the alignment buff having any type of scaling beyond leveling, or maybe stacking per champion hit? Because 90 hp over 5 seconds seems like it will be useless beyond the early game, especially given the hp cost of her heal.

Calabok1/30/2016, 12:34:42 AM1 votes

Maybe now no more SUPER BANANA SORAKA GOAT GIRL heal everyone and everything in site

Blumpkin Nation1/30/2016, 12:43:18 AM1 votes

Can they return the range to her Q if they do this, then?

YuGiHo1/30/2016, 12:52:01 AM1 votes

Ok but, You never address the benefit of soraka being able to restore mana to ally's once again. of course some of her healing power was shaved off for this effect to be back on soraka

Vincenzoooo1/30/2016, 7:10:16 AM1 votes

Her self-heal gets the ratio nerf, and no longer increases when hitting mutiple enemies, and may be transfered to someone else if she use w, and she already has a (very very) shitty health regen... sigh Time to main some other champions item 3070 Soraka item 3070

Chrome Raven1/29/2016, 8:14:33 PM1 votes

does this mean soraka is going to be recalling every few minutes in lane?

Oleandervine1/30/2016, 7:35:20 AM1 votes

I'm really on the fence about this. I believe it wouldn't be as bad if the Alignment buff was tacked into W instead of Q, so leveling her heals would keep her in business.