@ morello from europe regarding Soraka

Thanks for replying.

1. Where did sololane soraka have 58%. In the lcs, in diamond/challenger, in all ranked games? Over what period? The problem is that she just counters the current meta to well. People are greedy. They just see a 1000 hp bar and forget that they might want to proc her heal before they dive. Where is her sololane winrate now. Lolking tells me that her winrate is about 43% in diamond.

2. Support soraka really is horrible now :( The manacost on e is such a burden!

3. A complete rework of her skillset as it is intended will take at least 3 months is my bet. Probably we won't see it until the end of the year. Can't you buff her a bit again until that rework happens so she at least becomes playable? The manacost on the silence harms botlane soraka more than sololane soraka in my eyes. Reverting that change could already help.

4. I did read everything in the other post, but I assumed that it died and that soraka would be left untouched until December. And I don't want soraka to be at 40-45% winrate until then. If you could provide us with more info on how you intend to change soraka along the way I would be grateful. Only increasing the cd reduction on w when hitting q (on PBE) will most likely not solve the current situation. Soraka just runs oom faster.

5. Guess we continue this in the other thread then. Though, why does a 58% winrate legitimate an approximate 15% winrate nerf. Why couldn't just the damage dealt to minions be reduced by half? What do you think about limiting the number of enemies that starcall hits at early ranks like I suggested?

Morello, would it be possible to touch on what you plans are for soraka's Q and E in the other thread if you have to?

I'm very curious about what the possibilities are for starcall and infuse and what is going to become of them after the rework.

when u gave the nerf to her e u did not compensate it. i do not mind it being a weak ability with a silence and no mana cost but now it has a mana cost with no justification in numbers. u could have keep the mana cost and shorted the silence and gave it more damage. u could also gave soraka the karth treatment like his q( less damage if it hits more than 1 traget). you obviusly did not look to hard into this u only wanted to knock the champion back into trash tier

You keep saying that you want to keep her as a healer and honestly that scares me. You say "healer" so much that it seems like all you thought Soraka as was a healer when she was much more than that to many players, myself included. She may have had two heals, but there was so much more to her kit that made her more than just the archetypal healer, she was a full mage. With the way you're using the word "healer" so often, though, it makes me scared that any changes you make are going to shoehorn her as a support and as a pure healer with little damage upside. Don't get my wrong, I love supporting, I main it, but in a game such as this, designing a character so it can only fit one role is just daft. One of the great things about this game is that it encourages creativity, but with Soraka it seems like you want to keep that down and leave her as only a support.

One of the things that has added to this fear comes from the recent patch notes.

In our zeal to reduce solo lane Soraka's obnoxiousness, we kicked her a little too hard in the shins. These changes may not get her up to par, but we're committed to supporting her beyond these buffs.

The emphasis on "supporting" is in the patch notes. This seems like you're trying subtly/not so subtly say that Soraka is a support and nothing else. Am I reading too far into this? Is this really what you mean? Or is Pwyff being a dick and making us worry over nothing?

I guess what I'm asking is, please, please let Soraka still work in solo lanes. Please let her still be viable in the jungle. Don't make her just a support and above all else please don't make her just a healer.

Dawngate's Viyana is actually an interesting example of a MOBA healer design done well, IMO.

All her sustain is conditional on having enemies, neutral camps or teammates at low health around, her sustain scales with her bonus health, and she pays a health cost for using her abilities (but can heal/shield herself with her abilities if a lower-health ally doesn't need it more). (She also has, curiously enough, the ability to inflict reduced sustain on enemies--making her more of a "sustain manipulator" than a "healer") The combined result is a kit that's actually kind of fun to play, has some level of counterplay, and really makes me feel like a powerful healer while healing allies/draining enemies.

Of course, Viyana's fantasy is "blood mage/dedicated sustain manipulator," while Soraka's is "divine healer/dedicated healer." What works for a "magical genetic experiment" with a staff trailing a floating ribbon of blood behind it, a superiority complex, an imperialist mindset, and a German accent may not work for a mystical starchild from a sacred grove with a banana at the end of her staff who just wants to heal people as selflessly as possible. That being said, she's still a good example of a sustain support done well. Consider what makes her work in the context of Dawngate when considering how to make Soraka work in the context of League.

"We're going to do everything we can to keep her as a healer"

I've waited so long for you to say that. :p

1. Nerfing solo Soraka makes sense given the details. I agree. She removes/reduces counterplay while having very little real decision making in lane. However, I'm not sure that the nerfs did this correctly and I think it's disingenuous to bring up winrate while also holding the position that winrate means little without context. In this case, the context is "people don't know how to deal with her", and the correct nerfs would have (in my opinion) been a reduction in her early safety. That way, the play of "ask for ganks, all-in when her heals/escapes are down" would be rather obvious. Nerfs to movement speed, base health regen, base mana regen, and Q's cooldown would have been solid. The E nerf was also fine, imo.

2. Yes, Soraka is getting a rework, but so is Nidalee. So is Kayle. LeBlanc is being looked at for more tweaks. However, Soraka is the only one being left in tatters 'til that time. Why is that the case?

Is it also intended that Soraka E is now castable again on manaless champs/energy champs? I just did this ingame Im pretty sure that in the mini rework at the start of S4 removed that......

"Nerfing" wasn't exactly what you did there, it was a complete removal of any remaining viability. I don't see how she's healthy right now. But you're already familiar with my arguments, after all the creator of this thread cited mine as a source before. Our goal is to make the current Soraka somewhat playable again, we're not here to discuss the rework.

Her main issues still remain as evident as ever - her overbearing mana-costs and the vast cost-inefficency of her abilities. As I said before, increasing the cdr on her W from using Starcall won't make a difference since Support Soraka (the very direction you're aiming for) will not level this ability for a long time.

I'd also like to know why you nerfed the cdr-cap on her Q to 15% when it was supposed to be 17% in the first place, I already asked you on the rework-thread about it but you didn't reply. What's stopping you from implementing any of the suggestions we've made so far?

Just from reverting the nerfs on her Q and by adding a damage-reduction to creeps/minions you'd make her so much better without making her the farming monster she used to be. I've been saying these things for over a week now and you still didn't consider it, how else could you go through with those "changes" on 4.9?

It's quite ironic, really. Soraka, the face of traditional supporting, can't support anymore. Heck, she can't even sustain herself anymore. Please, if you refuse to make her playable in any way, you're better off by disabling her until the rework is done. Just spare us the massive disappointment from having to play her in this awful state and save others from doing the same mistake.

I've got the feeling you only come into those threads just to tell us to wait for the rework and that's it. You don't respond to actual solutions nor do you make the impression of even wanting to fix her right now. We, as Soraka-fans, feel totally alienated from this. Don't you realize we don't want to wait several months just to play our favorite champion again?

I've played soraka evenly across all lanes. I enjoyed top lane and mid the most. That said I wouldn't mind if soraka was turned into a full time support.

Let me answer in your thread :p