Soraka needs a bit more reliability.

FistOfSharkiesha·Jun 21, 2015·32 votes·2,607 views

Right now I think Soraka is a well-balanced champion on paper, but the main issue is that you have to hit Q to heal yourself if you want to heal allies, and it's so easy to dodge, especially if they have MS items. On top of this, there is such a bad delay on her silence that bursty champions like Katarina can use their entire kit while standing on top of her Soraka's silence.

So please either rebalance her or buff her by making her Q slightly more reliable and her silence not buggy.

Fix her silence to actually silence as soon as it lands.
Either increase the missile speed of her Q at all ranges or reduce the mana cost slightly. It's basically the opposite of Lux's E. It's one of those abilities that maybe hits 50% of the time if you're playing against a half decent enemy.

This makes Soraka a fairly weak poke champion and a self-destructive healer.

Not QQing about her, not wanting a huge buff, I just think too much of her skillcap is relying on your enemy to be bad at dodging. I've never once seen her in ranked and I only play her to counterpick champions like Karthus.

54 Comments

Truly PridefulJun 21, 201511 votes

They definitely need to fix the silence, it's the reason I haven't been picking her as often even though I like playing her a lot.

Her Q is something I like and probably have a 60-70% hitrate with so I have mixed feelings over buffing it. Lowering the mana cost is something I would look at. It keeps her playstyle the same, but gives her the tools to utilize her W more if she can land the skillshots. Another thought is rather than cutting the cost, give her a partial refund per target hit, up to a 100% refund for 5 champions hit. Again this keeps her playstyle the same while rewarding you for hitting your skillshots.

That said, I love Soraka as she is right now. They just really need to fix the silence because it's a really horrible bug.

Ariel the CruelJun 22, 20152 votes

If they cut the Q cost too much, they run the risk of her taking a solo lane. Her poor mana efficiency is the biggest thing stopping her from becoming the next Vlad.

Truly PridefulJun 22, 20151 votes

Yeah, I understand that. I don't honestly want a buff for her, it's just the only thing I can think of that would be worth doing. I feel like she's good as she is right now, aside from the silence bug.

PartholonianJun 23, 20151 votes

A solo lane cuts in half the number of people you can potentially hit with Q, though. And her W does nothing in a solo lane anymore (old Soraka could use it on herself, sometimes to great effect).

I don't think there's a meaningful chance of her becoming a solo laner anymore.

Ariel the CruelJun 23, 20151 votes

using Ghosts + ludens I'm able to heal roughly 1/4 her health per champion hit. She doesn't have a lot of innate damage. But she gets a lot of health from her Q if she able to build AP. Rush Ludens, and she's able to wave clear just fine. As a support, she doesn't have that luxury most games. In a solo lane, she would. The biggest thing stopping her from going top (again) is her horrible mana efficiency. She runs out of mana faster than a 1st time Lissandra.

Champion SkinJun 24, 20151 votes

Hmm and well if you buy AP then spirit visage might be good if against AP? As it increase to cost of the heal by 40 however it increases the healing by 20% (which get better with AP)

hmmm lets see how much AP you need for your Q to heal you for at least 40 more because of the spirit visage effect At rank 5 (W) you will need between 88 and 338 AP to make it worth it depending on Soraka's current health (of course it is likely worth it if you land several Q's without using your W too much if you hit several people with Q)

FastAsHeckJun 21, 20158 votes

they should make her hp cost on w flat instead of %. that way, you could build hp to heal more because right now building hp on soraka is almost wasted money. and it could lead to some interesting decisions, do i want ap or hp?

FistOfSharkieshaJun 21, 20153 votes

Yeah I think right now it's a double tradeoff. Not only are your heals less effective as a tank, they cost just as much as an AP build. It would be balanced to make them either drain less hp or heal less hp, but not both, as it currently is.

Remlap1223Jun 21, 20152 votes

I'm all for that. Early game it would be the same, but late game it gives her some... need for focusing in teamfights.

Meeks011Jun 21, 20151 votes

Yeah, the more health you build the less effective your Q is. A Warmog's is going to take 17 seconds to regenerate you after each heal to your teammate after leaving combat. Your Q is going to take 0-5. With AP the heal is very potent. In URF I went full AP Soraka. I was always getting chased by 3 people and whenever they aall cornered me and got me low I'd Q all three of them, get to full health, slow them, throw down my E to silence them, then run away laughing.

PartholonianJun 23, 20151 votes

In URF it doesn't matter if you miss your Q over and over because it's free and has almost no CD.

Most of the game is not played in URF though.

Ariel the CruelJun 22, 20154 votes

They specifically don't want Her health stacking. That's why her heal costs %max health. If she's able to heal the amount that she does without repercussion, then you run into the same gameplay problem she had before the rework. Focus her: you lose. Focus her ADC: you lose. Ignore them: you still lose.

I wouldn't complain about maybe speeding up her Q speed a bit at max range, but cutting the heal cost would also require them to cut it's power.

KougaJun 22, 20155 votes

These were all pretty deliberate choices, as I recall during the Red discussion over the rework. Soraka had been a sore spot for a long time because they have historically nerfed heals - especially team-based heals - and Soraka had been in this uncomfortable spot where they had to either make her useless or delete her. Finally the question came up, "What would it take to make a Healer-based Support." So these choices were all made carefully.

Soraka had to have some way of gating or limiting her healing, hence why she gives up health. Before she could literally just stand near tower and heal up their ADC all day long. Made early game oppressively boring. They made it a skillshot because Riot has an unhealthy love affair with skillshots - but in this case, if it wasn't a skillshot they'd run into the same problem. If Soraka could reliably get her health back, then she'd still be in a position to consistently just top off her team's health. The skill shot element was included to force that element of risk - force her to poke to make her more interactive.
Her silence should silence as soon as they step into the field.. I've been silenced immediately by Sorakas before so if there is some unintentional delay it might be a bug? But I haven't observed that. It should only be the snare that delays if they remain in the silence zone.
In response to other comments, the choice to have her heal cost %HP was also deliberate. Flat HP would absolutely encourage/force Soraka into building very tanky, with high health (which naturally comes with high resistances) and then you get a situation where the caster who can keep her entire team healthy becomes commonly quite more difficult to kill. Given the relative power she can give her team in a team fight - a well timed Wish can turn around an entire fight - they wanted her to remain a viable target. So, %HP.

Ariel the CruelJun 22, 20153 votes

Her silence should silence as soon as they step into the field.. I've been silenced immediately by Sorakas before so if there is some unintentional delay it might be a bug? But I haven't observed that. It should only be the snare that delays if they remain in the silence zone.

Her silence has a refresh rate of about .5 seconds. It applies immediately when cast, the again each .5 seconds. If any enemy can pass through it between refreshes, they will be unaffected.

KougaJun 22, 20151 votes

Ah, thank you for clarifying. Well, still doesn't match what the OP said about Kat sitting on it and getting her full combo out, but that does seem a bit weak. It should be a fast refresh, like Singed's MegaAdhesive, if it can't be coded in such a way to stay actually permanent for the duration. A silence zone should be a silence zone.

Ariel the CruelJun 22, 20154 votes

Kat sitting on it and getting her full combo out

Actually, that's plenty of time for her to get everything except her ult off. Same for talon and Akali. Though it does work on Zed, thanks to the way his ult works.

Champion SkinJun 22, 20152 votes

Yeah and it also gives time to flash out when they come out from Zhonyas even if they are in the silence field

Champion SkinJun 22, 20151 votes

Well 3) they could give her Q self healing a little bonus hp scaling or on her W whatever would work best... This means that she wouldn't be punished as hard for building hp... which she is kind of forced too... like sightstone...

I understand that they don't want soraka to build tanky... however I don't think she should be punished as hard for building HP when she is pretty much forced to build HP

Actually Soraka wasn't all that good at sustaining before the rework as her heal had such a long cooldown so over a longer amount of time most healers would heal more thAn her... however Sorakas heal was pretty good in combat because it was a pretty strong heal and with a strong armor bonus (however it's sustain power was severely limited by it's long cooldown and low AP ratio)

(Edit... damn than/then.. I always mess it up)

Ariel the CruelJun 23, 20151 votes

Actually Soraka wasn't all that good at sustaining before the rework

That's because the gutted the hell out of it. ...Repeatedly. . . . Every time she started to become a meta pick.

TotalJerkJun 21, 20154 votes

If her Q was any more reliable her teammates would never die. My full Soraka build heals 431 health every 1.3 seconds. She isn't in a completely terrible state, overall. She has a decent play rate with the second highest winrate as a support.

RismonaughtJun 21, 20154 votes

I often find that you can only cast Starcall for hits when you know your enemy has a vested interest in standing still a moment. Usually to AA, if you can predict where an enemy is going, like for a squishy, it's almost easy enough to place Starcall right near your squishy just as the enemy pounces. Then, if you are quick, you can get your heal on the squishy immediately just in time for the health from Starcall to refund health cost for heal. It's mostly not worth it to even try to hit someone just walking around in your influence range, you have to cast it where they are going.

Darth Pixy MisaJun 21, 20153 votes

With the changes to item 3069 and the support tree, she is strong. I have played her a few times, and i think it is very difficult to hit champs with the center part of starcall. IF i played her 50 more times i am not certin i would ever get to the point where i can land the slow regularly. Soraka should get 10 mana reduced off of Q at all levels and the center circle of the aoe should be expanded. The Ap ratio is kinda bad on Q as well.

FistOfSharkieshaJun 21, 20152 votes

Yeah I think her Q needs to be rebalanced. Maybe increase the cooldown, reduce the cost or increase the AP ratio in return. Or just make it more reliable. Skillshots like Xerath's Q and Lux's E are so different from Soraka's Q. With them, you basically land the ability if you simply line up the skillshot. With Soraka, they have nearly 2 seconds to dodge after it is telegraphed.

chipndip1Jun 21, 20153 votes

All you gotta do to beat Soraka is get in lane, dodge, and poke her equally as much as you poke the adc. She doesn't do too much dmg, and she offers no real form of hard cc unless you're unlucky or bad or both. With this said, she's can be made more useless than a Blitz that can't land pulls (at least the pull is an ever constant threat of instant deletion). I rarely lose to Soraka these days. Her kit needs to be dealt with to be less of a drag. Right now she's just easy to put down if you can dodge and poke.

FistOfSharkieshaJun 21, 20153 votes

Exactly, that's the problem. Soraka's skillcap has less to do with the summoner using Soraka and more to do with the enemies dodging. You can effectively dodge a longrange Soraka Q at lvl 1 with 325 movement speed. Not to mention so many laners have dashes or blinds or in Vayne's case a super short cooldown tumble.

Sassmast3rJun 21, 20152 votes

I could not agree more with this! If these two things were fixed I would most definitely use her more, as both of these (especially the silencing thing) hinder my gameplay greatly. If you ask me, if they made the missile speed of Q any faster it would become much too difficult to dodge. Perhaps increase the diameter of it? Not by a whole lot, just enough so that it's easy enough to at least get a LITTLE bit of health from the enemy when you desperately need it.

Bondage BunnyboyJun 22, 20152 votes

Whatever they do, I just want her healing powers to remain. Increasing the reliability on her Q might not be the best idea... I feel like if it got even a minor buff, people would bitch that they couldn't ever poke or all in her because she's constantly full HP.

E could use a reliability buff though. Feels pretty awkward to use it, but we may as well be rewarded for landing it on the enemy assassin instead of having them ignore it.

Aria ValkyrieJun 22, 20152 votes

I feel like she could use a lot more adjustment. Soraka was pretty much the first champ i played in pvp, and i always loved her. But she does suffer in the heal category She may be the strongest healer, and you can easily take an ally from dying to thriving in 5 seconds or less, but it's difficult to not die. As she is now, there's really no point in stacking health or armor, since her heal takes away a massive chunk of her own health. The most effective way to build her is full AP, with her Q returning a fairly large chunk of health. . . if it hits. Soraka's biggest issue is landing her Q and E. while the root from E is strong, and works well as a counter to item 3157 , the two abilities rarely hit their mark.

The missile speed on Starcall could easily be adjusted. that would solve quite a lot of the issues regarding her health. It would also proc the seldom-seen slow more often, which in turn would let her survive and peel for the adc or other squishies. It doesn't even have to be a full, overall boost, it could even just speed up as you rank up Q. It would give you the choice of helping poke with Q and giving a little health back, or leveling W for more heals. Not only that, but it would help her to blossom late-game and be a little more self-sufficient in fights.

If Starcall was changed to be more reliable, i think it would solve some issues with her heal. That being said, I feel like there's a few things that could be changed. Maybe rather than having it be a % of her maximum health, have it be a % of the Current amount. It could be balanced by raising the threshold for the health (currently 5%, if i remember right). Another solution that might work for her would be to add a portion (or all) the health lost from the cast, into the heal. So rather than healing 230 (+60%ap), It could add on the health she lost. her base health at level 18 is 1855, so this would add an additional 185.5 health to them (with the current 10% of max health). This would allow Raka to stack some HP items and still retain the integrity of her heal.

As for the E. . . I'm not sure. While i think that it has a rather long clock to settle, i think lowering the time by much would lead to problems. I'm not sure there.

Like i said, I love Soraka. I've gotten so many people out of sticky situations with her, and I'm in general just happy to play her. but i know she needs. . . something. She's a wonderful support, she just needs a lil lovin. The changes i said would need to be WAY more thought out than the stream-of-consciousness that i gave it, but i think you get the general idea of the sorts of things i've thought about.

Champion SkinJun 22, 20152 votes

Well it would nice if Soraka if she wasn't punished for building HP and got at least a little in return for it by either scaling her self heal (with Q) or her W heal with health to some degree Especially since support items have health on them like sightstone, aegis of the legion (mr Aura), Zeke's herald (AD + lifesteal aura and it actually is pretty good if your team can take advantage of the lifesteal and AD... however the stats are often pretty bad on the support themselves unless you are playing support Ashe... I am not sure how support Ashe was affected by the rework)

other items which could be good on Soraka, Spirit Visage (increase self healing from Q and R) and Warmogs (health regen which isn't based on Sorak's gutted base health regen)

Aria ValkyrieJun 22, 20151 votes

Yeah, it sucks that raka is pretty much the only champ that suffers so much from stacking health. getting any sort of health just kills her faster with her heal. spirit visage is very wonderful on her, even with the health stack. I dunno. she just needs something to work with. even the auras are hard for her.

Since i wrote that blurb up there, i've been thinking about what if raka could heal from starcall off of large minions and monsters? I know that early on, it might not make that much of a difference, but being able to get that little bit of extra health would benefit her greatly. and it wouldn't be all minions/monsters, just the large ones.

Champion SkinJun 23, 20151 votes

Well if Soraka was a mid lane mage then it might not have been so bad... since many mages don't really buy any hp items other then maybe a banshee or something as their defensive item (however Soraka could just buy GA or something instead)

While as a support... Soraka is kind of forced to buy sightstone and she might have to pick up some aura items like Aegis of the legion

MaratsuneJun 22, 20152 votes

Her Q is ridiculously easy to dodge. Unless their entire team is clumped together in on spot and they don't notice it or something, hitting anybody with it is ridiculously hard. That's my only complaint.

NorthernDruidJun 22, 20151 votes

She needs a better way of interacting with her own health than hitting Qs on enemy champions.

The leagues primary healer becomes useless after the teamfight is over and you ace them but everyone are low on health unless you invest in Warmogs.

I wish they'd remove her lame (good and effective but not very interesting) passive and gave her a way of passively regenerating her health or negating the health cost of her W.

KougaJun 22, 20151 votes

If the fight is over and you aced them and your team lived..

Then go home and heal. You've done your job. You get a gold star, now go heal up.

Champion SkinJun 22, 20152 votes

No... you also need to take advantage of having killed the enemy and get objectives if you don't your lead won't get as big and as most of your lead would then be in kills if the enemy team is able to win they would likely get a huge up swing with all of the shut down gold (up to 750 gold per kill and even more with "assist sprees")

NorthernDruidJun 22, 20151 votes

Every other healer in the game can keep their team going in a similar situation.

Nami Taric Bard Kayle Sona Nidalee

Heck even Janna if her ult is up.

All of these have the capacity to give staying power to their team out of combat. This is one of the things you should be able to expect from a healer, especially the primary healer of the game, yet it's the one thing Soraka can't really do stably without building a very specific item.

Soraka can only really function as an in-combat healer, but on of the main functions of a healer is providing out of combat staying power through keeping your allies at high health.

The problem IMO isn't that her Q is a skillshot or that it's hard to hit or whatever.

It's that your main contribution to the team is shut down as soon as the enemy champions go away.

Most supports have something to fall back on when that happens, whether it be to help push with Relic shield, help take towers with steroids, or offer sustain so that we don't have to back when we start getting low.

And none of them are gated by %max health balanced around a recovery mechanic reliant on enemy champions being present.

Why is Soraka the only healer who can only keep going when there's enemies about?

Unless she gets Warmog's of course.

LearndingJun 22, 20151 votes

Soraka needs an actual heal. This whole, you get to heal but takes 10% health and mana thing is so retarded. Her kit is a direct counter to building tanky or survivability.

Champion SkinJun 22, 20151 votes

Well it isn't that bad if people are stupid and ignore Soraka... because they have to focus the carry (though of course there isn't much Soraka can do if the ADC get bursted 100-0 by an assassin or something)

Solarious28Jun 22, 20151 votes

Maybe they should fix the silence, but I am personally fine with her Q. It's not an ability that's easy to land, but I DO usually land it on my opponents, and I have absolutely no problems winning lanes with her. Now, if top or mid feeds (because my games are backwards, and it's usually one of those lanes that feed) then, winning the game maybe difficult, but in team fights, where the enemies are less focus on what Soraka is doing and more worries about kills, her Q is pretty easy to land, and her heal heals for so much, that usually you only need to do it once in order to tip the fight in your favor. All I'm saying it, I don't have too much of a problem with her at all. I'm fine with her the way she is.

Need Gold 4 TentJun 22, 20151 votes

I thought the silence was already instant (for those in the zone anyway). It's just the root that's delayed, right? Don't play her enough to notice.

Duke AnaxJun 22, 20151 votes

I think Rylai's will become my new core item on her. with the upcomming change it will give Equinox a 40% slow, that makes it a lot easier to hit the second half.

you don't need to land QE anymore, you can now do EQ. it's not muhc, but will be slight buff.

I hope the new Skillshot engine they work on will, also fix those issues with E not silencing propperly.

AsToldByGingerJun 22, 20151 votes

they need to change that passive. or atleast have it constantly fluctuating rather than have a break point.

BodyByDaveJun 22, 20151 votes

While she is fun to play, and I really used to love her old kit too, I think she falls into the 'skill level required not worth the results yielded' category of champions. Which also to be fair is a much smaller number in 2015 than recent years.

These suggestions seem fair. The E ~~bug~~ clunkiness is likely caused by not 'event' checking fast enough during the uptime of E. (See recent Hecarim nerf as a point of reference).

FlippyGoneTrippyJun 22, 20151 votes

I fail to understand why you all want to build Soraya like a tank. First off let's look at her... She is a skinny unicorn-woman hybrid, a "star child". What about that screams tank to you? You guys are saying how it would be nice to be able to take advantage of passives like Warmogs and Spirit Visage. I build AP items with survivability actives and movement speed.

Well I think all of you do not understand this champion. She is built for sustain. Her Q heals her, the passive on her W has an 80% AP ratio when she is low. That's more than enough to keep you alive. Her W has 60% AP ratio when it heals allies. At max level with 0 AP you are healing for 240 HP. Not even one spell / attack from your average late game carry. How do you expect to be keeping your allies alive with a heal as small as that? Does it work? I have never actually played tank Soraka so I don't know. But I don't imagine 240 HP helping too much. I picture tank Soraka only ever getting good heals off after fights are completed and in combination with her ultimate. My AP Soraka has relevant heals throughout the entire game and because I'm not building health a good three man Q can get you at least 500 HP... Or a quarter of your health bar. Why do you need Warmogs or Spirit Visages passive's when you can heal that much from one of your spells?

Finally, I'd like to point out her 52% win rate. Not bad at all and slightly higher than the average champion win rate (according to champion.gg). Soraka is probably my favourite support and I've been playing a lot of her recently.

Though I have read about the glitch with her silence before; I have never seen it in action.  I can't see it being a large problem though considering I haven't come across it once and Soraka has been my exclusive support as of late.

TLDR :

Soraka is NOT a tank. You want to be tanky? FINE. Build Archangels Staff for a shield, Zhonya's Hourglass for armor & active and Abyssal Scepter for some magic resist. DON'T build health.

PartholonianJun 23, 20151 votes

"Don't build health"... meanwhile item 2049 item 3105 are items your team frequently NEEDS you to build.

And Zhonya's and AA won't make you tanky. If the other team decides they actually want to kill you first (the main source of wanting to build tanky, since you can't heal anyone if you are dead), that will extend your life by less than 3 seconds (counting the 2.5 from zhonyas, during which you also can't heal anyone).

The general point that resists are usually better than max health for her is somewhat valid, but at the same time, SV and Warmog's are so good for a healthcaster that it's not surprising that people would want to get them now that she has turned into one. Health regen is a quite good stat on her, whatever you may think of the merits of max health; but it's normally hard to get those other than together.

New WOTA might be worth a look too. She won't need magpen to benefit from it and it will stack with the existing health restore on Q while also getting you some health from Q'ing non-champions...

FlippyGoneTrippyJun 23, 20151 votes

I appreciate the comment ^^

To be honest, Locket isn't something I've even considered putting in my build which seems fairly amateur considering it's one of my favourite supports. I have built is as a top laner before but not very often :/ I think you may have me beat though xD. You could build Banner of Command instead of Locket; for 200 less HP an interesting passive and the MR aura passive still (right?) I will try this next game. Sightstone is another 200 hp. Yeah it's a lot but it shys compared to the 400-500 you get from tank items. I like how you brought up the new WOTA too. Can't wait to see how that shit works with her ^^^ As for health regen? Talisman gives a fuck load if that's not enough there are at least two other items that give HP regen without giving flat HP.

But, AA and Zhonays are really good buys imho. What you said "if the other team actually decides they want to kill you first" well if you have good positioning and pop zhonyas well you are getting focuses. They are likely going to be occupied with the rest of your team by the time your shield and zhonyas have run out. They are my "oh shit i'm being shot team please halp" items. I think both items have extended my life by far more than 3 seconds countless times. It's not like I'm a Fizz using Zhonyas while im diving their team so I can wait for CD's. I just dont want to be focused xD

Origami KaijuJun 22, 20151 votes

I think Q's mana cost should be brought down to 60. I just think you should be able to use it a little more often, considering how difficult it can be to hit. For me, I don't even care about the poke from starcall because frankly it's negligible (unless of course you hit the sweet spot). For me, starcall is just a vehicle for the self sustain. I just feel like starcall and equinox are very unreliable unless someone else on your team lands cc first.

Also, I think it would be cool if the travel time of the Q heal increased based on how low health soraka is. How often have you died right before that heal from starcall travels back to you?

Soraka is relatively easy to counter. Just go Annie and flash-stun-ignite her at level 3 and proceed to make her life a living hell for the rest of the match. item 3165

FlippyGoneTrippyJun 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Also, I think it would be cool if the travel time of the Q heal increased based on how low health soraka is. How often have you died right before that heal from starcall travels back to you?

This. Omg. Best Idea Ever.

Sona FemBoyJun 22, 20151 votes

Soraka really only needs her E silence to tick faster. For a champion with no mobility, her forms of CC should have absolute reliability. There have been so many times I've watched a Zhonya'd Fizz or Kat jump out of the E zone or watched a Thresh/Blitz hook right in the middle of it. Her E has been bugged (or intended, please don't tell me it's intended) like this since the rework.

Otherwise, she's a balanced champion atm with clear strengths and weaknesses. Her Q isn't a poke tool. She's meant to be the ultimate sustain champ in the game. If you want poke in lane, there's Sona.

DrackolusJun 23, 20151 votes

I don't really have an issue with her q, but all for that e fix. I get so mad when I put it under someone a bit before their zhonya's ends and they can flash out anyway.