Soraka Kit Rework idea

Intro

As a player of Soraka and supports in general, I was extremely pleased with her visual update last year but disappointed that she had fallen out of practice. Compared to other supports at the time, she didn't have the utility to be useful late game and had no power in making plays other than being a ‘heal bot’. Now, in a time where mages building purely glass cannon are replacing dedicated supports, Riot will have to make some changes to the bottom lane in order to make them viable again. With this in mind, I was inspired to take a shot at looking at the Starchild's abilities and changing them to be something viable in today's meta while avoiding making her kit too overloaded and complicated.

Live Kit

Consecration: (Passive) Ally champions within 1000 range gain 16 bonus magic resistance.

What’s wrong: The free magic resist aura is powerful, yet unnoticable by many and doesn’t really change the way she plays.

What’s right: It is a ‘defensive’ skill and an aura, a good skill for a mainly defensive based support.

Starcall: (Active) Soraka summons a shower of stars to fall from the sky, striking all nearby enemy units for magic damage and reducing their magic resistance for 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 10 times.

What’s wrong: The MR shred. Dear lord, the MR shred. While it’s a nice utility for the mages and magic-based abilities to hit a little harder, it is also ‘hidden power’ and is what makes AP Soraka mid viable and extremely annoying. It isn't really useful as a support, even if she was paired with an AP, as it pushes the lane and messes up last hits.

What’s right: The general theme of the spell evokes the celestial power that Soraka wields, and in her lore it is presumed that this spell smited Warwick’s attacks enough to make them flee. I really like the core concept of the skill and its effects late game to be an ‘aura’ of damage and MR shred around her.

Astral Blessing: (Active) Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring health and granting bonus armor for 3 seconds.

What’s wrong: Free armor. The free armor given to this spell tops out at 125, and given it's is usually maxed first, it means that at level 9 an ADC can have 125 armor for three seconds. While that doesn’t seem like a lot of time, in a teamfight it could mean the difference between life and death. It also causes issues with sustain, as this ability had to be nerfed to the ground to prevent boring, passive, concrete lanes as opposed to a heal like Nami's W.

What’s right: It’s a heal on Soraka. Soraka is the ‘queen’ of heals in my mind, with not one but two heals on her kit. Getting rid of it would destroy her core theme of the priestess of the stars.

Infuse: (Active) On ally cast: Restores mana to the target. Cannot be cast on Soraka.

On enemy cast: Silences the target and deals magic damage.

What’s wrong: This spell is the hidden thorn in Soraka’s kit. Mana restoration is not a bad idea, but its ‘short’ cooldown and other option means that it’s delegated to topping off the Marksman’s mana every 10 seconds or silencing the enemy support when it’s back up again. The no mana cost is troublesome because it essentially gives Soraka a free ‘shut down the mage’ card with the downside being 100 less mana for that mage with blue buff.

On AP Soraka, this is the skill that makes her truly toxic. A 2.5 second silence combined with an MR shred hurts really, really hard while also being almost uncounterable. Kassadin also has a on-target silencing nuke, but his costs mana and is a shorter range. Even then, that silence makes Kassadin really annoying to play against. While she’s not a jumping around assassin, this combination is toxic and is the skill that, in my mind, has to be changed in order to make her not a monstrous mid laner.

What’s right: The only CC that Soraka has, removing the silence from this kit would leave her without any peel. Also, the fact that she restores mana to her allies is tied heavily into her role and character as a being of 'magic' and in how people view her. Removing the mana part completely would gut her for many longtime Soraka players.

Wish: (Active): Soraka fills her allies with hope, instantly restoring health to all allied champions regardless of where they are

What’s wrong: The global range of this ultimate is annoying, as a Soraka can just ult randomly and pick up an assist. It also has a fairly decent AP ratio.

What’s right: This skill promotes thinking and decision making. Its high cooldown stops people from randomly spamming it, and good map awareness means that Soraka can save allies from across the map.

Observations

I have noticed that Support Soraka is rarely played due to her unnecessarily with lifesteal being prominent and CC being a much more needed ability on supports. From my personal experiences playing her, I find the most joy out of making ‘plays’ and saving people from across the map, picking up assists, and stopping that pesky assassin from killing my squishy.

The few times I’ve seen an AP Soraka mid is dangerous. Her MR shred and her silence are amazingly effective against mages and the danger of buffing Support ‘Raka to a usable level is to make AP Soraka unstoppable. However, keeping AP Soraka mid would also be important as many people enjoy playing her in this interesting way and would be unhappy if it was completely nerfed to the ground.

Reworked Kit

With the rework, there were many goals I had in mind. Not only did she have to keep her ‘easy to use’ kit, but also give her a level of thought and nuances so people could be interested and make an impact on the game other than ‘healing’. I also wanted to keep the core theme of her character (a healer who occasionally attacks those who threaten her allies) while making sure that her gameplay was changed from a passive healer to someone who could go passive-aggressive.

‘Bananas’: (Passive) Basic attacks on enemy champions increase Soraka’s mana regen by a flat amount for 3 seconds. Scales based on champion level. Does not stack, but will refresh the duration for each basic attack.

Reasoning: Soraka’s current passive is, well, passive. It is an aura that is powerful, yet does not feel powerful to the average player. Something that a Soraka player can feel, as well as being an integral part of how she plays and her kit is important to her overall healthiness as a champion. This skill will also help with mana issues and make her basic attacks feel 'important' when all of her skills are on cooldown.

Starcall: (Active) Soraka summons a shower of stars to fall from the sky, striking all nearby enemy units for magic damage and marking them with the ‘Smited’ debuff. This debuff does not stack, but will refresh. The buff lasts for 3 seconds.

‘Smited’: Basic attacks against this champion double the effectiveness of Soraka’s passive.

Reasoning: Starcall has a ‘hidden power’ as a MR shred, as it made little sense with support Soraka (who wouldn’t be able to get into range without exploding instantly) but made other Soraka builds incredibly powerful. What is not stated is that the base damage will be upped a bit to compensate for the lost MR shred. It also gives a reason to use Starcall when you’re Support Soraka and not just ignore it as long as you can: combined with your autos, it will help you recover the mana you lost from that heal and get enough to use it again.

Astral Blessing: (Active) Soraka blesses a friendly unit, restoring a small flat amount of health as well as a % of their missing health.

Reasoning: Yes, I lifted this from a Red's idea. In order to keep it viable for late game but not insane during the laning phase, the % scales per level as well as the base amount.

Simplifying this spell into something more ‘modern’ helps prevent Soraka from spamming it in lane, though it also Instead, this spell is focused on helping a target stay alive when they are on their last few strands of life after that 12/0 Kassadin jumps into their face. Using it mid-combo on an ally would be the best choice.

It also helps prevent Soraka from just using it to sustain her laner constantly, keeping them full throughout the lane, and makes it ‘better than lifesteal’ in the fact that it can restore a huge chunk of health while they are CC’d or unable to make up that much health in that short period of time.

Removing the armor was to make sure the spell is ‘powerful’ while ensuring that she did not have a crazy ridiculous armor buff that people forget about. 125 additional armor on an ADC? Ouch.

Infuse: (Passive): Allies within 1000 range gain an additional mp/5 (does not affect Soraka)

(Active): Soraka damages and silences a target for 1.5 seconds. For 3 seconds, the target is marked with a debuff known as ‘Celestial Imprint’. The passive disappears when the ability is on cooldown.

'Celestial Imprint': Basic attacks from allies give them a flat amount of mana.

Reasoning: While giving someone mana is a unique skill, it was never really ‘fun’ or ‘engaging’. Sure, giving Swain a few more precious ticks of his ultimate to survive and get the triple kill makes an enormous impact, or silencing that Ahri so she didn't instagib your Ezreal makes an enormous impact, but most of the time it was just spamming the E key on allies or enemies every 10 seconds. This is a more ‘interactive’ ability, combining Shen’s Vorpal Blade and Janna’s Zephyr to make a mana-based aura for her team. This also helps keep Soraka’s ‘sustain’ and ‘white mage’ aspects alive with the aura and the mana return. Giving it a mana cost helps avoid pointless spamming and makes the Soraka player think twice before using it.

Wish: (Active): Soraka fills her allies with hope, instantly restoring health to all allied champions regardless of where they are

Reasoning: I find nothing wrong with the ‘core’ concept of her ultimate, though a few number tweaks here and there will help keep it in line. It is a great skill to teach a new player to be map aware and rewards veteran players for keeping a close eye on their allies.

Stat Changes

These are changes not to how an ability works, but more general things to match her new kit. Most of these are self explanatory, such as reducing her mana regen or increasing mana costs in tune with the free mana regen she gets from her passive, Q, and E active portion.

Statistics

Increased

• Base armor

• Base magic resist

• Armor per level

Decreased

• Base attack damage

• Base mana

• Base mana regeneration

• Mana per level

• Mana regen per level

Abilities

Starcall

• Increase base damage
• Decrease cooldown to 2 seconds
• Slightly increase mana costs at later levels

Astral Blessing

• Slightly increase mana cost
• Decrease base heal
• Will still affect minions

Infuse

• Add scaling mana cost to active portion
• Make silence flat across all levels
• Increase base damage

Wish

• Increase mana costs (still flat across all levels)

Conclusion

The unicorn lady is one of the most unique and interesting characters in the League. To be able to see her again with having less frustration against the sustain and have her be viewed as more than a 'heal bot' would be one of the best things that could happen to her, the other being an apology letter from Warwick. I believe that this proposed kit is a part in making that dream into a reality.