Boards›Gameplay

Soraka needs a more complex identity ingame beyond "being the healer"

SaltyToplaneGoat··64 votes·3,766 views

Right now no matter how you do it, you only can screw up: if Soraka is strong she is percieved as oppressive as she just negates your damage. If she is weak she just sits behind in lane and is thr most passive champion in the game, while still keeping her ADC in the game with her heals. And that also pisses people off form obvious reasons.

The problem here is the fixation on Soraka's healing powers. I think it was Meddler who said some seasons ago that dedicated healers might prove problematic for the game, and in some aspect he was surely right about this. So how do we fix this now?

The solution is pretty much simple: Rework Soraka into an utility mage who would be THEORETICALLY CAPABLE of going into a Solo-lane, while at the same time not being unhealthy there.

I think no one has ever really complained about playing against Nami, right? I got my Rank 6 with Nami top and that was one hell of a game, I tell ya ^^

Nami is a mage, but just happens to function better with teammates around her due to how her kit works. And that prevents her kit from becoming so problematic as Soraka's is right now.

The question is now: where do we start there thematically? And here I would point to the E. We do not really have a dedicated Silence-Mage in the game, do we? "But Riot hates silences! LB got hers removed, Talon got his removed, and Kassadin still makes that joke despite..." yeah yeah I know. But it's not like they hate silences: they hate the mechanic just on champions with enough burst and firepower to just murder you during the silence.

On a utility-focussed mage a silence shouldn't prove too problematic.

Also I'd love for Soraka to be less team dependant. As much as LoL is a team game I'd like to have the feeling that I personally can actually impact the game in a significant way, even when my team is now not exactly the smartest bunch around (to say it in a polite way). Yes your heals can be extremly powerful, but if your team has the intelligence of a potato and/or is on full tilt... well, not even the 1-2k extra hp are going to save them, and you as a support just sit there and know that no matter what you do, there is no way in hell you could do more to win this game.

Also, before the haters start coming: I do not say that Soraka has to STOP healing. She can keep on healing, but it shouldn't be the only thing she does...

117 Comments

Amelie14 votes

I don't really understand what you're saying about making her a utility mage? Is she not already? She has an AoE slow, heals, and a silence field that turns into a snare. I don't get what you mean about making a silence-mage. I think Chogath and Malzahar kind of cover that area. Did you want Soraka to be more focused on silencing? I think that would create a lot more problems.

Veltox18 votes

He wants her stop being a heal bot while being viable in a solo lane. Simple enough?

SaltyToplaneGoat6 votes

Exactly.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

TotalJerk2 votes

She was in 6.5.

Elikain6 votes

That would mean that Soraka's healing power would have to significantly be siphoned and transferred to her damage dealing abilities. That alone would pretty much curb her support role (which is her intended role) in order to support her solo lane. To change Soraka's identity for the sake of turning her into a mage? That's a big no-no to me.

Soraka already works in a solo lane. Yasuo, Zed, LeBlanc and Kat are incredibly weak to her silence as they are combo casters Soraka easily can shut down with Equinox. Her waveclear is lacking but she scales decently with AP and in hindsight, she becomes an even better healer with significant AP items from a solo lane. Her ult alone on AP (+Windspeaker's and Athene's) can really turn the tide of the battle without Soraka even being present on a lane to help, think of a reverse Karthus.

The only thing she doesn't have is damage output and the longer the game lasts, you need to make use of super boosted heals and shut down/slow people with Starcall/Equinox and grabbing that HP regen buff to keep pumping out heals.

Bard is more of an AP support and probably has more damage to boot and his heals are limited. Changing Soraka in such a way would bring her closer to Bard and there again lies a problem. Two champions with similar playstyles and builds while Bard is unique in such a way that enables roaming for his team while Soraka loses hers for more damage. That's a downgrade.

Veltox4 votes

Except her current identity is not even close to healthy.

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

Yes, but there is more to utility than just healing. I kinda want her to be like Nami: versatile, able to heal, but also able to do some other neat things besides that. And thematically a silence would be a good way to go, especially since we got no other support that utilizes that mechanic.

The Blue Rajah5 votes

But she has a silence. One of the best in the game

Elikain3 votes

Well, if you want her to be more like Nami, that playstyle would overlap with Nami's and you'd have a problem of identity sharing. Something that both Graves and Lucian had before their reworks and people always picked the champion who had better stats. So when Riot nerfed the overperforming guy, the other guy becomes the default pick for everyone.

I also use Nami as a basis for a balanced support, where you have enough utility and can share some with your ally, can heal and at the same time damage people and have a CC that can't be clensed but good Nami players can hit and be rewarded for it. I'm all about Soraka's heals. I like that she is the League's premiere healer and that is unique. However, when a lot of power goes into her heals, i'd be more satisfied if those heals weren't flat, instant value but super HP regen over time, which would allow Soraka to be stronger in other areas of her kit and not feeling specifically like a babysitter.

If Soraka couldn't just instantly undo the damage done by the enemy team (which makes her oppressive even when she's passive and that's exactly why Riot nerfed her heal CD), ADCs with a Soraka in lane would also have to mind the damage taken, however, they'd still have a lot of sustain but would have to tone down their aggression until it kicks in. And this also allows Soraka to have more utility or a bit more power on other abilities as well which means she can move out of being just a dedicated heal bot. I'm still OK with her ult being instant HP back, i'm still liking the reverse Karthus analogy.

Abyssphere2 votes

But there's already Nami, Sona and Lulu in the "versatile pokey-ish sustain-ish support utility mage" space. It's a really crowded space. Soraka's current unique spot might not be healthy but at least it is unique and she's not got a ton of overlap with other supports.

Your idea to make her healthier needs to be more developed than "make her more generic" and "well she has a silence" isn't enough differentiation, particularly when Lulu's polymorph is a targeted silence/blind with a minor speed reduction attached.

Requiemsfire6 votes

Her other abilities are nowhere near as viable as her heal tbh.

Death by Glamour5 votes

her AoE silence can be a game changer

AuraCreed8 votes

When it doesn't glitch out, yeah.

Requiemsfire1 votes

Her silence can be a gamechanger yes, but that's very situationally dependent on exactly what champion is being silenced.

Sire Hippington2 votes

it's more the timeing, any champ can be fucked hard by silence because any champ does rely on his kit to funktion properly.

Linna Excel10 votes

This is why I kind of miss her as a battlemage/healer. IMO riot put too much power into her W while taking too much from her Q and E in her reworks. She's also lost a ton of utility and flexibility over the years.

MR aura? Gone.
MR shred? Gone.
Mana gifting? Gone.
AA-E-AA trading? Gone.
Lane bullying potential? Gone.
Big armor buff on her W? Gone.
Active Teemo/stealthed champ finding? Gone. Waveclear support? Gone when her Q lost MR shred.
Ability to be a viable ranked niche support mid/top/jungler? Gone.
Healing on her W that doesn't hurt her or require her to have self healing on her Q? Gone.

So she's lost a lot and people still hate her because of too much power in her W. What pisses me off is part of the problem is her healing has always been an issue and in her biggest rework, she was made to do even more healing, but at a cost.

SaltyToplaneGoat7 votes

I have played both the old and the new Raka and I have to say that the old one clearly had some issues. At the same time being able to heal and provide mana was just too oppressive in a winning lane for example and made balancing kinda tricky. And auras generally make for crappy gameplay, see the Taric rework for reference here.

I do not mind the healing coming with a cost given how powerful it can be, but it shouldn't be the only thing this champion is all about. They should have expanded more on the themaic used for her E I think...

Also, I played her as top or mid for some time, before the bonus damage for good Q hits was removed. Was quite fun ^^

PokladnicaZla4 votes

Glad old raka is gone.She was boring to play with and against.

Linna Excel2 votes

TBH the new version isn't much better and the old one could at least play more aggressively if you wanted to. Most people didn't, but she had the option.

PokladnicaZla6 votes

I read your post carefully and though you do make great post. Soraka one of the first champions I played in LoL and also one of the first I learnd to played properly.When she was weak/strong or the old/mini-reworked or new one. The healer archetype I the thing I like about her and I think she should stay as such. Nearly all games have healers and they don't seem to be as problematic as the ones in LoL. Nami's is more utility focused and has a wider range of agressive playstyle than Soraka.The heal isn't the primary reason peopme pock her. Instead of making Soraka a healer who's fun to play as/with/against why rework her completely into something else?

They could do so much with her currently,but what I feel is holding her back:

  1. Boring passive.Even though it can be good sometimes I feel like they could have done domething better with it.Making it into an item would be great choice.

2)Her Q. It's to slow and the AoE is too big. Early it's easy to hit,because it's huge and champions aren't fast on bot. But late game if the enemies aren't distracted or CCd it's too hard to hit.

3)Her E is too buggy.I think I can safely say that anyone who play Soraka often, has noticed her E sometimes doesn't silence.

4)Her ultimate being global. I know many people including RITO find her ultimate iconic,but giving an AoE would be pretty neat. (Her old R purify was pretty interesting.Why isn't it in the game anymore?)

  1. Grevious wounds.Why is this still aviable in the game on SR? Instead of keeping healing moderate,they have to keep it higher because of GW.Besides that, GW early nearly in every traditional mages kit and ADCs can buy it even when not facing an enemy who heals.

Her W could be made so interesting. Low base and the more times you heal the stronger it gets (manacost also increases),missing HP %inc. or making her healing stronger the more HP she is missing or her healing scaling only onCDR% with or without cap.

In the end,I think RITO failed at one thing they wanted to make a dedicated healer who watches her resources and ended up with a spammer.

Sry for any grammar mistakes.

CoffeeDave2 votes

There was a point at the beginning of the season, where GW didn't effect healing from others, just self healing. It was a glorious time to be a Raka main. I'm convinced at this point GW exists as it does now purely because of Raka.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

I think that was a step in the right direction,but why not just remove it and tone all healing down a bit?

crippler381 votes

Because with no way to reduce healing that'd require the healing to be low enough that damage can just outright ignore it.

Kind of defeating the purpose for anything but poke wars.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

That's the point of removing GW.If we remove them the healing can go down a bit.

crippler381 votes

that'd make healing feel terrible.

PokladnicaZla1 votes

Im talking about 10-15% value at best,nothing more.And this would only be directed at champions who primarily focus on healing.

It would also make them more fair to play against.

crippler381 votes

here's why I don't think that'll happen.

The way healing works is 3 ways

it saves you

it doesn't save you

it tops you off

what's the difference?

healing that saves you is healing that is large enough to keep you going so you don't die from the massive amounts of burst damage and such being sent towards you

healing that doesn't save you is self explanatory

and healing that tops you off is healing that's minor so you use it when you can to keep yourself close to max, usually doesn't save you.

Now I get that might sound stupid but here's the thing, if you remove grievous wounds you make it into basically

this healing will save you from X amount of damage every time no matter what or this healing won't save you from y no matter what

nothing else to consider when trying to burst someone down than that, without grievous wounds this means that healing will be completely binary in either too strong or too weak.

Same thing with zed and fizz before when you could QSS their ults, that made it so balance around them is completely around if you can counter them with one item or not, removing that made it easier to balance their damage so people who couldn't buy those items could make do. Doing that with the opposite of damage, healing, however would be pretty annoying since they'd have to either gimp healing a lot of make soraka pick or ban 100%, instead of how she is now which is insanely strong if you don't counter her, but relatively weak if you do.

Plus it'd nerf ignite, which I don't think would be a good idea.

You're entitled to your opinion and I know I've just been repeating myself over and over again, for that I apologize, but I really don't think removing anti-heal is the solution.

Requiemsfire2 votes

Part of the issue in League is that there are other healers, so for Soraka to be considered a part of this healing archetype her heals simply must be better which is the issue when you try to balance that concept that she either becomes worthless because she lacks the utility to compensate for the healing compared to other supports or her healing does too much and far overcompensates itself.

What's worse is that Soraka in itself is a degeneracy on balance in general because every healing item or health regen item or even grievous wounds must be centrally balanced around her kit so that it doesn't become too weak or simply too strong.

Her current state of balance in her kit outright negates all trades when it is effective rendering good plays. Prior to her nerf in the previous patch her ADC could make the dumbest mistake and come out totally unscathed only to return to a full health bar within seconds and with items like item 3069 her health bar would also regenerate very quickly alongside her mana.

Jet Sett5 votes

You have no idea how surprised I was to be snared while standing in her silence circle, I never stood in it long enough to notice that.

Boulderox4 votes

or make her an aggro healer, making her heal more for being in the fray? kills the passive goat she has become because that is all she can safely do now, but makes her have to come out to heal effectively and does damage on top of it allows the impact to occur some desire with supports.

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

Hmmm one would have to be careful how to go about this thematically. One theory would be also the following: the W heal gets replaced by an ability called "life-link". Champions with that on them suffer only reduced damage, but some of that damage is transfered to Soraka instead. And to prevent her from suddenly building fulltank: The more AP you have, the more damage is removed before the transfer.

However, that's an ability I'd also love to see on Karma if she could use her W on allies...

I mean, they tried to make her about combat healing with her little rework.

But Soraka by herself can barely fight. You can't tell people "go fight" when you don't give them the weapons for it, so unless she gets tools for her to actually use in fighting, people are going to be passive.

Linna Excel8 votes

This is a risky proposition only because of the Soraka cycle.

Basically whenever soraka becomes too passive, riot eventually forces her to become more aggressive. When she becomes too aggressive, bully soraka reappears. So riot nerfs that and buffs her healing to make her more passive. Repeat.

So if riot did that, chances are it'd get nerfed eventually and she'd be back to being a passive healer again.

SpecterVonBaren4 votes

I miss her old E. Soraka should be THE cleric of the game. I would love to see her E give allies mana for standing in it, her w be her old strong heal on a long cd, and give her some kind of buffing spell as her Q. I want to see her be the support that is about being a battery for her team, giving power to her allies to accomplish things and keep going but lacking damage and having to trust that her allies can make the plays and use her buffs to the best of their abilities.

She feels so oppressive right now because so much of her power is centralized in one thing, her healing, when it should be more spread out through her kit and require her to use it all together to make her efficient and strong.

It Hertz When IP4 votes

No.

Direct answer btw to your post title. Soraka has always been the poster child for sustain supports and represents the most misunderstood corner of the bot lane triangle.

Claims that sustain is unhealthy for gameplay stems from the recent trends towards LoL as a fast-paced battle arena rather than a strategy game. Prerework, she put out decent healing, but was very vulnerable to all-in and CC supports (looking at you, Blitzcrank). Want to fix her? Revert the last couple of changes to W; give her a meaningful heal with a longer CD. The band-aid machinegun W Riot keeps pushing towards is inherently unhealthy and toxic, giving no meaningful window of opportunity for enemies while removing most of the decision-making from Soraka players.

bony whimsark4 votes

I honestly think you cannot make an MMO in this day and age without having a dedicated healer. Some people just really like that play style, be it League of Legends or freakin Maplestory

chipndip14 votes

Enchanters and enchantresses have all been phased out of solo lanes. The last one was Lulu, and everyone hated her. So your idea is basically a tone-deaf, regressive one that takes us a few steps back.

A real solution would just be to rework Soraka into something where she has one more thing to do that isn't healing, so as to pull power from her healing properties, seeing how they're so binary. Issue is "What the fuck should that even be?" Her silence shouldn't be a "main focus" for her as a champ. Having a kit that's built around making everyone around you not play the game right is just borderline obnoxious. She really just needs more "oomph" in different areas more than she needs a massive overall and niche shift.

Penguin Eclipse3 votes

Soraka's ult has to stay or she is no longer really Soraka. I personally at this point would rework her W entirely. Make it some form of an aggressive ability with a conditional heal or maybe no heal at all and instead move her heal to her passive. I personally don't see any reason she can't have a passive heal. Something simple like when Soraka's abilities come in contact with an ally they heal for X per lv plus x% AP.

I also personally would also like to see her Q nerfs reverted. The shorter range has too much risk with no added reward. I think the center of her Q should also go back to dealing more damage and possibly a stronger slow (instead of being the only slow).

JDB8eoX8x03 votes

To be honest, I just want the old Soraka back with reasonable AP Scaling. What bothers ME is that Meta Soraka players build 0 AP and still heal too much. This should completely be changed in my opinion. It would be so much better if Soraka had a super weak base heal on her W that scales fantastically with AP. That would force Soraka to build a huge amount of AP up before she can heal people greatly. Maybe even go further than that. Give her W AP scaling that gets stronger as you upgrade it, like... 0.5/0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0. That way, people that build Soraka in the intended way on full AP for better heals can still be useful, but this god forsaken Tankraka "Buy Spirit + Warmog = Autowin" will become obsolete. Right now, her problem is that she heals just way too much for not putting anything into it.

Either that, or give us old Soraka back please. Only now that Clarity got removed from the game, I finally realize how mighty it was and that there aren't any champions around anymore that can share Mana with teammates.

UnboundCreator3 votes

This thread is retarded

Fashion Mage2 votes

ITT: "I like playing as Nami so I think Soraka should become a Nami clone!". How did this cringy thread get upvoted so much.

dunkeroni2 votes

Soraka has enough AP scaling to go mid lane. I've done it on multiple occasions, most recently going 6/0 against a viktor.

Witch of Babylon1 votes

"35% AP scaling on a skillshot that has a cooldown of 5 seconds" Yes I've tried it, but it just feels too weird.

dunkeroni3 votes

Don't forget that her E also has AP scaling, and is an instantaneous AOE damage spell, which can proc twice if they stay in the area. Very useful for luden's echo and thunderlord's decree.

Ralanr1 votes

If she kept her healing, I'd imagine it'd be with her ult and on a basic ability (but weaker).

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

Maybe one of both, keeping both at once migh prove tricky...

Ralanr1 votes

True, but I can't see them change her ult and losing basic healing would hurt her support laning.

SaltyToplaneGoat3 votes

She could get a new supportive ability instead... somewhere below in the tread I suggested a "lifelink" mechanic for example. But also offensive utility, such as a slows or silences can help her out, being a support is not limited to just healing after âll ^^

Ralanr6 votes

True, but healing (which admittedly you point out is the problem) is her main thematic.

She's supposed to be someone who helps those in pain. Unlike Sona who uplifts spirits with her music or Nami who splashes water on you and heals you for some reason.

SaltyToplaneGoat3 votes

That's why we have to get a little more creative on how to help people without actually healing them.

She is still supposed to be a support who helps others primarely after all.

Or wait, I just had an idea: what about a shield? Like, shields for X amount. Shields for MORE if target has dealt or has been dealt damage by/to a champion within X seconds. And after some seconds, 50% the shield that was not broken turns into permanent heal?

No clue how this would work, I just came up with this idea right now...

THE RlVER KlNG4 votes

Giving Soraka random shit just to excuse a rework or something wouldn't work. Her thematic is THE healer so having more utility and shields and CC tacked onto that would make her even more oppressive.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by SaltyToplaneGoat

As a 600k Soraka main the very existence of Senna is just a slap in the face
Gameplay198 comments
247
votes
Congratulations Riot, with this patch...
Gameplay252 comments
234
votes
Wouldn't it be possible to code the Nami Ult as a lot of tiny projectiles?
Gameplay141 comments
199
votes
The focus on Esport will be the downfall of this game.
Gameplay137 comments
175
votes
I do understand that Akali as an assassin needs massive damage and mobility, but...
Gameplay207 comments
170
votes
We shall remember the date as Caitlyn has become completly obsolte...
Gameplay201 comments
167
votes