Save Our Soraka (an informal petition)
According to the recent thread regarding the proposed Soraka rework that is soon to his the PBE (http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/BTP5uwf1-this-rework-is-going-to-be-bananas-soraka-rework-preview-and-discussion), there are two reasons why Soraka will be receiving an almost completely new kit that will change the core of her identity and play style.
First Premise: Riot claims that Soraka does not currently fill a unique role among the League of Legends champions.
This is untrue, as she has, or had before she was nerfed, the ability to be a lane controlling champion with her low cooldown Starcall, who brought good utility to extended team fights with her ability to spend significant time in the front line in order to protect her allies by zoning/wave clearing with Starcall and the silence from Infuse, and by restoring their mana and heath while also buffing armor.
The proposed rework, on the other hand, will do much to make Soraka a less unique champion. Beginning with Starcall, the new version removes her ability to control/clear waves and zone in favor of a spell that is almost an exact copy of Xerath’s Eye of Destruction. Compare the descriptions of the two spells, "Calls down a barrage of arcane energy, slowing and dealing magic damage to all enemies in an area. Targets in the middle receive additional damage and a stronger slow," vs "Calls down a star at target location. Enemies standing in the explosion radius take 70 (+X) magic damage. Enemies standing in the sweet spot in the center take 150% damage and are slowed by 20% for 2 seconds."
Likewise, Infuse’s unique ability to restore mana to an allied champion will be replaces with Equinox, which begins as an aoe silence and finishes by rooting any enemy still in the zone. This is a retexture of Viktor’s Gravity Field, with the minor difference of the slow being replaced with a slilence, and the stun becoming a root.
Finally, Astral Blessing, in becoming Astral Infuse, will lose its armor buff and gain a cost of a percent of Soraka’s max heath, thereby making it a less efficient heal than it currently is, thus diminishing Soraka’s viability as a healer in contrast to Sona, who also gives an aura shield, Nami, who can bounce her heal between allies and enemies, damaging them, Kayle, who provides a move speed buff, and Nidalee, who gives an attack speed buff. In short, Soraka will be the only healer whose heal lacks a unique effect while also coming at a greater cost.
Second Premise: Riot claims that there is no meaningful interaction or counterplay for Soraka.
Soraka has two very noticeable areas for counterplay. The first is that, in order to maximize the zoning power of her Starcall, she must take up aggressive positioning in lane and push the enemy into his, her, or their tower constantly. This positioning makes her vulnerable to poke and ganks as well as a variety of CC effects, including pulls, taunts, stuns, silences, knock-ups, charms, and roots. This is compounded by the second area for counterplay, that Soraka is an immobile champion (compare this to Tristana, who has strong pushing power with her Explosive Shot, but also has her Rocket Jump and Buster Shot to escape or disengage).
Turning to the new kit, there is actually less interaction between enemies and Soraka. Beginning with her heal, the percent max health cost combined with the loss of armor will make Soraka have to stay in the back line in order to stay alive in team fights, as she will be constantly draining her own health. Her new passive works with this new stay in the back style, as she can hide until the move speed buff kicks in, run forward, heal and toss out her other spells, and retreat to the back line, a play style reenfoced by the long cooldown on Equinox and the new Starcall. The old Starcall, in contrast, required Soraka to stay in the front line for extended periods, thus giving more opportunity for counterplay, as it has a short range and low cooldown, which gives her incentive to stand in the front line where she is potentially vulnerable.
Having shown that the started reasons for this rework are invalid, it is time to move on to what I see is the real reason that Soraka is being changed so drastically. I mentioned several times above the zoning and pushing power Soraka has with her current version of Starcall, and this is why, as I see it, Soraka has been targeted for a rework that changes the core of her identity as a champion. Riot has decided, after their buffs to utility champions (as support is a role, not a champ type, just as marksman is a type and adc a role), especially seeing the good effect Hai and others have put her and other utility champs to in the LCS and beyond, that they want to weaken solo lane utility champs, which they have done for the most part in a reasonable way, as evidenced by their balanced approach to Lulu and Alistair nerfs. But the fact that they do not classify such champions as utility rather than support demonstrates the attitude that Riot wants these champions out of solo lanes and would prefer to see them locked to bot lane. The depth to which they nerfed Soraka has backfired on them, however, and she has not seen a return to bot lane, even though she has fallen out of mid and top for the most part. The problem they currently face is that, as long as Soraka maintains her current kit, she will always have the potential to be the AP lane controller who excels in the front line and in extended team fights, and rather than roll back the nerfs they overburdened her with and let the players decide how and where to play her, Riot is attempting to dictate her positon on a team.
In closing, not only has Riot either misunderstood Soraka’s uniqueness and potential for counterplay, or they have, and this is the conclusion I see as more likely, deliberately engaged in deception regarding their motives for such a drastic rework in order to push Soraka away from being a solo laner. At the very least, they have based this proposed rework on faulty premises, but they have also violated both of their standing principles regarding champion reworks: that they will never change the core identity of any champion, and that they will never take steps to dictate how we players use any champion. Because of this, we (I and those who add their support) ask Riot to scrap this rework as far as Soraka is concerned, and to, since the kit itself does not seem objectively bad, create a new champion built around the concept laid out by Vesh.
