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@ morello from europe regarding Soraka

Temestokles·6/3/2014, 11:39:15 AM·23 votes·6,637 views

About myself. I would be the European version of Kirby Cake. I'm a soraka addict with more than 2000 ranked games on her. My best ranking on Euw was 72 in preseason.

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/euw/20776961#ranked-stats

I greatly support Canastus. Everything he said in this thread I agree on:

http://community.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/live-gameplay/twua1Wzz-morello-what-to-expect-from-soraka-in-49

He perfectly explains how Riot broke soraka to the point where it simply insults her playerbase. For the European playerbase I beg for a buff within the next 1 or 2 patches. Soraka can not stay in her current state until her rework.

In the patch notes riot claims that the changes address sololane soraka. However the changes hurt her supporting just as hard. Soraka needed the damage on her q in order to be able to trade. Her balance in botlane was about fine because she lacks hard cc and has no escape.

You need to look at what makes soraka "toxic" in the sololanes. That clearly was her ability to push waves quicker than most others at early levels. Her free silence wasn't really the problem. So why not just give her the rumble treatment and reduce the damage that starcall does to minions by X%? Then, if the trading power still would be 2 good: Reduce her q dmg by maybe 10 flat all over. But instantly nerfing q by 33% at all ranks? That is just pure hate.

Now my personal suggestion for a quick rework.

1) revert the changes from 4.8

2) Limit the number of stars that fall down.

  • rank 1: 3 stars hit the closest enemy units.

  • rank 2: 6 stars hit the closest enemy units.

  • ....

  • rank 5: 15 (or inifinte) stars hit the closest enemy units.

One star/enemy of course and arguable whether starcall focuses champions over minions. This change would tone down soraka's shoving ability in early ranks, giving her opponents in sololane a chance to get in the game.

3) If soraka still is the most strong evil toxic champion in the game as she apparently was before, tweak her numbers mildly.

I know that you are trying to rework soraka into something new. What I fear though is that you will take away a unique champion and replace her with a skill-set that we already got so many of. I love the current skill-set of soraka. I don't want another karma or lulu...

There were plenty of champions that countered sololane soraka well. They just weren't played much in the current meta. Let me name some:

  • syndra
  • cassio
  • darius
  • tryndamere if he knows what he is doing
  • karma
  • quinn, vayne

On top of it junglers like:

  • fiddle
  • rammus
  • udyr
  • xin

... will own her hard if she tries to push her lane. And these are just her hardest counters who will be fine without any help. Also there are safe picks like ziggs who just farm from distance. Champions like twisted fate, ryze and veigar who cc soraka when she pushes so she easily dies in a 1v2.

On top of everything her so called "op waveshoving" is also her weakness. Let soraka do 1 q into the enemy units, then force her to retreat with a gank or hard engage. The result is soraka being zoned from the minionwave. She will lose the farm and possibly even exp. The worst thing that can happen to a soraka is a jax/nasus/irelia/darius/tryndamere freezing the toplane.

On top of that, soraka is not able to freeze a lane while efficiently harassing the enemy. Her so called op ability to push while harassing also has its weakness ;) Just nobody seems to realize it...

I agree that soraka might have been a bit too strong. I just don't understand this hate she received from Riot. A mild nerf should've sufficed at first.

Hoping on an answer and a reasonable reaction to the situation!

Regards, Temestokles

(angry European soraka addict)

37 Comments

RiotMorello6/3/2014, 9:53:01 PM8 votes

Thanks for the post. Looking at it, here's what our analysis is;

  1. Nerfing Solo Soraka was needed, and we think this was the right decision. "Countering" based on a specific pick limits the pool of picks additionally - let's not confuse hard-countering and counterplay. Solo Soraka, pre-nerf, had a 58% winrate, which does cause us to ask questions.

  2. Support Soraka was already weak, and this is an additional kick to her. We know this feels bad, and we may look at this.

  3. Soraka will get a rework this year. There's this thread in where we talk a bit more about our plans here.

Soraka is overdue for this - we do think she's a bad experience for people who want to play her, and we need to fix that. That being said, her current kit cannot be powerful and healthy simultaneously - exactly why we've reprioritized her rework to this year. We're going to do everything we can to keep her as a healer - though that will require MAJOR shifts to her kit.

A healer may be able to work under a different model. The MMO Priest model cannot be what it is (I've written litanies on why this is the case). If anyone can do healer in League, it needs to be done on Soraka.

Linna Excel6/3/2014, 2:15:47 PM4 votes

Nice post OP. Reducing her Q's damage only against minions would be an option that keeps mid viable and would help support trade. So if only for the time being, that might be an option.

I'm actually a bit scared of the rework only because I don't know what riot is doing with her or which direction they want to take her. I want her to remain a viable solo champ because I've had too many games where I had fun taking her mid or top.

SrDiscrepo6/3/2014, 9:07:32 PM2 votes

Soraka is my favourite champ, i hope they let Soraka like 4.7 :(

Banana must be op!

Hetchy6/3/2014, 5:51:05 PM2 votes

I'm sad to see what they've done to Soraka. I hope we can get enough support to improve her instead of allowing her to languish until an unlikely rework.

ClimbMountTargon6/3/2014, 6:49:26 PM2 votes

I'm Temestokles' bro and an occasionnal Soraka enthusiast and I support this god damn thread

eztarg3t6/3/2014, 12:55:06 PM1 votes

I would think that her Q would be the big problem here. It is kinda ridiculous how she can just spam q and it requires no skill on the players part. I would suggest something similar toVeigar ability. I don't know what its called but I think you know what I mean. Just lets starcall be a meteor like ability that lands after .5 seconds. And possibly have it also heal, that would be intresting right? You can either use it to heal your teammates or hurt enemy champs or help push lane. But I can also see this possibly being used to deny creep kill to a point of raging. So how about after the meteor lands leave little rocks that can be picked up and give a bonus health regen (possibly 5%?) and picking up more would just reset the health regen rate (possibly even the enemy could pick it up to heal as well). I Don't know but it's her Q as it is right now that is causing so much fuss.

Canastus6/17/2014, 11:51:37 PM1 votes

After seeing the patch 4.10 notes I'm at a complete loss of words.

Not a single Soraka buff, no, instead another nerf to the goat - they reduced the mana-regeneration on Athene's Unholy Grail while crippling its magic resistence.

How on earth is Soraka supposed to sustain herself now? She's already plagued by INSANE mana-costs and now it has become impossible to use her abilities without going oom almost instantly.

When will we finally see that long-overdue rework?

Wolfeur6/3/2014, 3:51:34 PM1 votes

I see you play Soraka in multiple lanes, then are you concerned about her becoming a pure support after her rework?

If you aren't, I'd like you to give me feedback about my rework proposal. Your opinion would be welcome seeing that you are a Diamond I player maining Soraka.

HowPlayGAEM6/3/2014, 4:18:38 PM1 votes

I both agree and disagree. Soraka was too strong vs certain champs in solo lanes, but vs other champs she got stomped so hard she'd be shut down completely. This is already a sign of awful balance, and Riot's blanket Soraka nerfs hurt her already crappy support.

Everything else I agree with.

A while ago I tried to brainstorm a rework that would still feel like Soraka but give her more activity and reactive power, it didn't gain any popularity with the forum though.

http://community.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/live-gameplay/dNMZ9P03-yet-another-soraka-rework-idea

It is rather long, but I think its worth reading. In terms of your poll options, it would be a mix of more cc, slight skillset tweaking, and number tweaks, plus a gameplay mechanic that Zac already has but I forgot about him.

If Riot thought 4.8 was a good idea for Soraka, then I fear and dread the upcoming rework.

Venowolf6/4/2014, 1:46:10 PM1 votes

I really like the idea of "transfer heal and mana" to his allies, this doing more risk the plays and think better when give heal obviusly the amount of heal need to be higher than the actual. Also I think that Soraka need more strongs CC in his kit maybe in his Q, put stacks in his Q and to the 3rd stack roots/stun/knock up the enemie's affected, finally I want to see his core thematic like a healer but a healer with very prescence in the competive game play.

PD: Launch Soraka and Warwick rework's together in one huge and wonderful event please! Both need more love an I really love see both rework's in a amazing event that explain more deep his stories.

Dream of Stone6/6/2014, 9:44:14 AM1 votes

I do have a question, Morello. Why did you not just bring Starcall's damage back to **60 -> 160 ** like it used to for two years without any major issues?

If anything it was the season 4 spring 60 -> 200 values that brought her back into the problematic zone.