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So about the Soraka Rework

eztarg3t··3 votes·429 views

Hey guys, I have been running a thread in GD about the Soraka rework and was able to get a lot of feedback from Vesh on what her kit may look like. So I decided to do my best and give everyone a basic understanding of her new kit. I just want to point out though all of this is simply from pure speculation and I could be way off the mark with this.

  1. Soraka will not be keeping her old passive. She will receive something that Vesh and company have dubed the astral ambulance. [B]SPECULATION[/B]: From the sound of the nickname, I can assume it has to do with speed. I believe that when Soraka heals an ally they receive a speed boost. She might also recieve a speed boost as well. There is also speculation that Soraka alone will instead recieve a speed boost if there is a wounded ally nearby. [B]OPINION[/B]: If this is true, I think it would be pretty awesome if it acted as a cleanse as well. That speed boost is useless if the person I am healing is being bogged down with CC. Althought this is rather op, so it would probably be gated with how much health the ally has (I.E if ally is below x% of health) and a possible CD tacked on the passive for extra measure.

  2. Soraka Q will now be a Skillshot and will no longer have a MR shred. [B]SPECULATION[/B]: With a few more hints from Vesh and speculations from others, I believe that Sorakas Q will be a Skillshot directed at enemies that will also heal her. [B]OPINION[/B]: I'm kinda glad to see the old starfall go. It was just a spammy no thinking ability. Although I may miss that MR shred.

  3. If Soraka lands her Q, healing will be safer for her. [B]SPECULATION[/B]: This reinforces # 2. If sorakas healing cost her health then it would make sense that her Q would, in fact, make it safer for her to cast because she is also getting health before that. It's possibly a boosted health regen.

  4. Sorakas infuse will keep its mana-battery capabilities but it will be on a longer CD because her silence will have a bigger impact. [B]SPECULATION[/B]: From what I can tell so far, her Infuse is going to change so that it will be more than just a point-and-click ability. At least when it comes to interacting with the enemy. It would be a pretty interesting ability if it would be a AOE silence.

  5. Sorakas Ultimate has been altered so that it will heal more for allies with less health and no so much with allies that are well off without it. [B]OPINION[/B]: This seems to be a reoccurring theme for sustains supports. It's nothing but a means to ward off topping allies health while rewarding them with clutch heals. I personally have no problems with this and, so far, it seems to be effective. But if her ult is also effected by this mysterious Q ability, I think that would be pretty cool.

  6. Soraka will no longer be built as a tank(?) [B]SPECULATION[/B]: With further information and speculation from others, it has become really difficult to say that Soraka will no longer be tanky. Although she may only build a few tank items in her build instead of a full tank set.

  7. Soraka will still be able to keep her Star theme. [B]Speculation[/B]: Considering this is Sorakas identaty it's a good to hear that they were able to keep this.

  8. Soraka may not be able to heal herself by regular means. [B]SPECULATION[/B]: So far the only response we have gotten from Vesh is that Soraka will not be able to heal herself by reagular means. In other words, she may not be able to use her healing on herself. This has yet to be confirmed that Sorakas ultimate will not target her either. [B]OPINION[/B]: I'm kinda concerned by this if Soraka cannot heal herself. The Dedicated Healer is incapable of healing themselves? That sounds kinda silly if you ask me. But it might just be for the sake of counter-play. Still though, I would really like Soraka capable of using her healing on herself, even if it's for a reduced output.

There is also talk about Sorakas healing costing a flat % max health. I left it out because I'm not really good when trying to decipher stuff this technical and I would probably accidentally misinform you with me trying to explain it.

That is all that I can understand so far. This is all speculations and opinions on my part. If you feel like dropping your two cents, go ahead!

Here is the GD thread: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4736115&highlight=

EDIT: Decided to get rid of the blood healing argument, it's pretty much been ruled out and there is no reason to keep gripping about it.

6 Comments

Serpents Embrace2 votes

Your conclusions are quite the leap, I think.

Health doesn't necessarily have to mean blood. Soraka's a very selfless character in lore - and giving up parts of herself (her divinity) to help others, even strangers (Warwick), is quite in character with her. Not to mention the Infuse healer archetype is fun to play (from experience in GW I can say it's pretty exhilarating, huge highs when you get off that heal that stops the burst). You mention you "understand" this but continue to make it the backbone of your argument, which leaves me somewhat confused.

And a Star theme doesn't really go against the idea of an infuse healer. Soraka draws her power from the stars, but there really isn't much that confines to how it works or what it does. Veigar uses celestial magic, too, if his skill names are any indication, and they're very different types of play and effect.

TBH it just feels like you're clinging to things she's not even necessarily going to lose.

eztarg3t1 votes

Thanks for posting and I agree with pretty much everything you said, leaps and bounds. I said this in a previous post that I have some form of tunnel vision when it comes to infused healer. I have never played GW so I'll trust your judgment on that and I have played Viyana in Dawngate (she is a lot of fun). I will admit though there really isn't that much information on how her healing works per-say so Riot can pretty much go to town with it. There is pretty good chance I am being very 'clingy' (actually obsession is a spot on word for it) about the rework. But I was having fun trying to dissect everything that Vesh was saying and trying to understand his meanings. Although I should remove the whole blood healing thing out, it's already been proven that it won't be the case. I will admit that I am being kinda resistant about the rework but I'm happy with being negative and proven wrong about this.

EDIT: Got rid of the Blood healing argument. Tell you the truth, should have done it earlier.

Serpents Embrace1 votes

I can totally agree where you're coming from. I would freak out if they announced they were changing Cassiopeia in a way that impacted her play style.

I think it's just important for you to itemize what is it about Soraka that you love, and be careful about keeping those things separate from the confirmations you see. I believe Riot has been intentionally vague about a lot of things because those are still tentative. Releasing the Infuser information is likely because that's the set direction they want to go and have "locked it in", so to say.

I think it's a good direction, too, because selflessness is a key part of Soraka's characters but also from a gameplay perspective - because healers that are weak themselves are the easiest to balance. They reward positioning and kiting but because they're so frail themselves they're not impossible to deal with.

In Guild Wars, the Infuser was a common Monk (the healer class) in higher ranked play, because Infuse Health was hands down the strongest heal the game had to offer. The character lost half their current health to heal for a multiplier of it (scaled with their healing prayers ability, capped around 125% I think). It was powerful when they were healthy, but would suffer if they were dying. At 20% health you only healed for 125% of 10% of your health. The meta and play styles differ a lot from League but the idea was the Infuser was great at healing another target, but kind of weak at healing themselves. Soraka using a % of her maximum health seems similar to this, but it seems like the healing will be independent of the heal amount.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

you can also add that her E: Infuse will be on longer CD,but also more impactful.

Arent flat and %max Hp cost different?

This is the first thing i hear about her not being able to heal herself,well lets see how it works out. :)

eztarg3t2 votes

Thanks for posting.

  1. It's number 4 on the list

  2. flat and % max HP probably does, I have no idea. For me, this seem really technical and I would do it injustice by trying to explain it.

  3. It's just that she may not heal herself by normal means. Her Q may actually do the self-healing on her part but Vesh has been all mysterious about it. He's such a tease.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

FlatHP cost only increases by leveling up the ability.

%maxHP cost incrases while increasing your own HP.

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