@Morello What role will the new Soraka be?

Yes I know a Soraka rework is coming, but a rework into what?

This is kind of bugging me. We know firstly that she's probably going to keep her wish. Second is that while riot is trying to keep her W a heal, it may not be. That's about it.

We also know that as of now (pre-nerf at least) her role in a fight was more of a sustained DPS exhaustion fighter. She isn't going to get the quick kill, she tries to extend fights and slowly wear the other team out. In MMA terms she's the fighter who can only really expect to win via a submission hold (shoving the other guy to a tower and starving them out over 20 minutes). In the snake world, she'd be a constrictor. In MtG, she's playing a control deck for late game.

Something I've not seen riot talk about is what role she's going to be in the future. Right now she's technically a support/mage. She's sitting just on the support side of the utility mage/support fence.

Part of the reason for this is because her nerf came about because S4 and the last rework to make her more aggressive finally opened her up as a popular mid laner. However how she won slowly by capitalizing on a small advantage over time (strangling your gold supply) instead of getting a lot of kills. This was deemed unfun by riot so they had to nerf her moderately and push her a little too far into the support side of things.

Now let's not spend too much time on this, but I think there probably is both a need for and a place in LOL for a champ like this as far as gameplay is concerned.

There's generally 2 spots that I feel cause people to latch onto champs in LOL. One is the visuals, thematic, and lore stuff. The other is gameplay and mechanics.

I think that the real b*tch of this rework is the gameplay and mechanics right because there's 2 types of soraka players riot has to make happy. There's the support players and there's the solo laners.

Some people like playing the healer. Her kit has a strong healer aspect and identity to it.

Other people like playing the mage. Her kit does have a strong mage aspect to it as well. Her Q is definitely (at least pre nerf) a mage spell. Her E worked offensively too via poking down others.

I'm going to admit one thing: I played her in both solo lanes (including jungle once) and support. For me, the solo lane mage is what I really feel in love with the most. Of the fun and memorable games I've had in LOL, a lot of them are the times I've played Soraka in a solo lane, even when it wasn't popular.

She was my second champ ever and I just love the versatility she used to offer. She could either be a functional mage even if she would never rack up the kills, or she could be a support. Let's say I felt this last nerf a little as a soraka player because for the first time, it seems like riot is trying to kill that versitility. If felt like they were trying to kill the /mage once and for all.

This is something that's really pissed me off about the rework. No one has come out and asked her fan base what do you like about mage soraka or what do you like about support soraka, or what role would you put her in? Other champs get that. It seems like the only thing riot ever really talks about is her bloody heal.

This is... I don't know how to say it. Saying you are going to nerf soraka so she can be a sololaner who is to be picked "for team support" is pretty arrogant to say the least. People picking her for a solo lane don't want to be supports. Screw it, not even supports want to be supports anymore which is why we are seeing all these mid laners in bot. People picking her to go mid were doing so specifically because they like the mage aspects of her kit. However it seems like those of us who like that part of her are getting ignored.

This seems like a big screw you to Soraka fans. The whole reason behind the S4 changes were so supports could carry more often or feel like something more than just a roaming form of utility.

But us mage soraka fans?

Nope.

We get a big screw you from riot because everything it seems about Soraka is toxic. No carrying for you people, go back to being good little passive heal bots, this includes you support soraka players. Her Q is toxic. Her W is toxic. Her E is toxic on ally or on enemy. Her old passive was toxic. Somehow her Wish got a reprieve. Dunno why.

I mean really, how am I supposed to act when I get mixed messages that range from "we are always interested in champs finding new roles" to "go back to being a support you". If Lux or Zyra or Cass or Morgana or Annie or Leblanc or Kayle don't want to support, carrying is fine for them. But Soraka? Nope, she's only allowed to be a one-trick unicorn.

So this is what I'm asking riot: please don't forget not everyone who plays Soraka plays her to be a support only. Some of us love her for the mage parts. Yet I hear absolutely zero discussion about her mage aspects so of course I'm worried one of my favorite champs is going bye-bye and the part I liked the most isn't going to be there when the new kit is finished.

So can we talk about this a little?

Can we talk about what riot is doing to keep the mage aspects of her intact? Can we talk about what she is going to do after the rework that isn't related to bloody healing? I'm sick of all the rework discussion seeming to be focused on her Astral blessing. Screw that for a change.

What about the rest of her kit? What about the people who liked the mage parts of her? What do we get to look forward to that's not purely support related? What do those people who got to D1 and bloody Challenger playing her as a solo lane mage get to look forward to?

There are people who don't just play her to be only a healer/support because they found something more they liked in her. Yet there seems to be zero dialogue or inclusion about that part of her.

I'll flat out say it. I don't want the new Soraka to be viewed as a support. I want her to be a utility mage. I want her to have some option to be not pure utility and be able to push lanes down or poke enemies and do damage to them.