@Morello: The direction of Soraka's rework

Voliboar·4/16/2014, 8:23:18 PM·3 votes·4,807 views

Hello, I'd like to ask you about Soraka's rework's direction and share some of my opinions.

I believe that the biggest flaw of Soraka right now is not her sustain, but her offense power. It is very difficult to go agressive with Soraka.

She has no hard cc or slow, she doesn't have mobility, and her main offensive spell is low ranged and is sustained damage. Plus it pushes her lane, making her vulnerable.

Her lack of mobility and control means she becomes an easy target when she goes aggressive.

So I'd like to ask about where the team is heading with Soraka, since I'm afraid you would simply remove her W. But I feel like her heal can stay if she simply needs to take more risks to use it.

I think the rework should be focusing on making her Q flow better with the rest of her kit, and through that gives her better rewards for playing aggressively when she can.

22 Comments

RiotMorello4/17/2014, 6:13:34 AM8 votes

I don't think we'll remove her W entirely without bigger changes - that's a broken character, as you point out :)

I'd like to start with new explorations on IF we can come up with ways for Soraka to provide healing that doesn't run into the principles and problems that our mental model is built around, but I find that to be a high challenge. If tht doesn't work, I think we'll ensure that Soraka maintains a "helping" support fantasy and not a kill-based or CC-based support fantasy (Janna or Lulu are that sort of thing).

We're still in prototyping ideas, and Vesh is getting his feet wet there. No specific news yet.

Pangrine4/17/2014, 6:23:42 PM3 votes

Why can't she be the epitome of a defensive support? Strip her of all offensive power and instead focus her completely on helping her team?

Everyone who loves racking up "sweet l337 dps" will have plenty of other FotM champions they can flock to after a little whining and foot stomping, but people who actually enjoy playing defensively and don't care about being in the spotlight will have someone they can call their own.

Voliboar4/16/2014, 8:38:52 PM1 votes

My idea for the Q change would be turning it into something similar to Yasuo Q:

By using Q a couple of times you'd gain a skillshot similar to Cho's Q or Nami's Q that upon hitting reduces the targets' MR by a significant amount and also slows and does more damage. But the MR reduction on the normal Qs are removed. Only gain a stack of the big Q on champion hit
W now has smaller cooldown and increases your Armor and MR for a while. Upon using the big Q you gain a 15sCD-ish heal that you can use after the first part of W is on cd.

Astrallia4/19/2014, 12:27:55 AM1 votes

I honestly can not imagine reworking Soraka. She wasn't designed as an offensive burst support, but a sustained support making sure you never had to back. She perfectly accompanies the play style of very strong poke mana hungry champions. Let the ADC do the damage from afar and regain the mana to farm and poke again. She is my preferred support when I play Sivir or Varus. If you give Sivir or Varus infinite mana and health, the opposing lane will be shoulders deep in Piercing Arrows and Boomerang Blades. I don't have a problem with Soraka's abilities. You do not play Raka to burst people down, you play her for sustain in lane and for survivability.

Hyrum Graff7/1/2014, 9:26:16 PM1 votes

You may be interested in this thread I just made.