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Soraka and the Healing Stars Ability Kit Concept

Stacona·5/1/2018, 12:51:03 AM·2 votes·1,749 views

FEEDBACK IS NEEDED!

I will get to the points:

  1. Offer better counter play and reduce frustrations against Soraka.
  2. Get rid of stupid mechanics that makes her awkward to play as, i.e. health costs on her heal, cooldown and mana is good enough.
  3. Make Soraka "easier" to play as, as in reduce mechanical skill, but make her harder to play as with better skill expression and decision making with trade-offs for her abilities rather than always good to use abilities. Basically move Soraka for those that have good decision making and game knowledge, but have her simple to use for the us veterans and old timers, this helps with new players as well.
  4. Soraka changes should not be afraid with a lot more "bold" changes to try to get her in a good spot for the game.

Attack Range: 550 units Movement: 340 units per second

Star Storm (Passive): Range: 725 / 300 units

When Soraka casts an ability her next right-click within 2 seconds will summon stars to rain down at the target location after a 0.75 second delay, dealing 40(+60%AP) magic damage and slowing enemies by 10%(+6% per 100AP) for 1.5 seconds.

Star Call (Q): Cooldown: 2.5 seconds; Cost: 30/35/40/45/50 mana; Range: 650 units

Passive: Star Storm deals 30/55/80/105/130 additional magic damage and slow increased by an additional 5/7.5/10/12.5/15%.

Active: Soraka summons down a shooting star to the target enemy, dealing 30/40/50/60/70(+25%AP) magic damage.

Wish (W): Cooldown: 1.5 seconds; Cost: 55/60/65/70/75 mana; Range: 550 - 1800 units

Soraka heals the target allied champion or herself for up to 50/75/100/125/150(+150%AP) health based on how long Wish charged for, minimum 20/30/40/50/60(+30%AP) health.

Wish charges up over time, consuming its charge when cast, increasing its range and healing power based on its current charge percentage. Wish gains maximum charge after 60 seconds, charges faster with cooldown reduction. Grants 20% max charge upon damaging an enemy champion or epic monster with Star Call or Star Storm, every champion struck from Super Nova grants 20% max charge.

Equinox (E): Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds; Cost: 80/90/100/110/120 mana; Range: 625 units

Soraka saps all light from the area around her, dealing 50/70/90/110/130(+50%AP) magic damage, silencing and blinding for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds to struck enemies. While Equinox is on cooldown, Soraka cannot charge Wish's power.

Super Nova (R): Cooldown: 120/90/60 seconds; Cost: 100 mana + 99% current health; Range: 825 units

Soraka channels in place and becomes invulnerable for 1.5 seconds, afterwards dealing massive damage against herself to deal 200/275/350(+200%AP) magic damage to struck enemies and healing struck allies for 300/700/1100(+300%AP) to 25/50/75(+25%AP) health, healing increased based on how much health Soraka consumed.

For the next 5 seconds, champion kills or assists heal Soraka for 80/130/180(+70%AP) health.

UPDATE NOTES:

Other: Left mention that Soraka channels in place during Super Nova's invulnerability. No changes were made, just an important thing that was left out.

Star Storm: Cast range reduced to 725 from 825 units Effect radius increased from 175 to 300 units Damage increased to 40 +60%AP from 30 +45%AP Slow changed to 10% +6% per 100AP from 15% +4% per 100AP

Star Call: Enhanced Star Storm damage increased to 30/55/80/105/130 from 20/40/60/80/100 Enhanced Star Storm slow decreased to 5/7.5/10/12.5/15% from 5/10/15/20/25%

Cooldown lowered to 2.5 from 3 seconds Cost reduced to 30/35/40/45/50 from 40/45/50/55/60 mana Range increased to 650 from 600 units Damage reduced to 30/40/50/60/70(+25%AP) from 40/60/80/100/120(+35%AP)

Wish: Cost increased to 55/60/65/70/75 from 25/30/35/40/45 mana Cooldown increased to 1.5 from 0.5 second Minimum range increased to 550 from 300 units Maximum range decreased to 1800 from 3000 units Minimum heal increased to 20/30/40/50/60 +30%AP from 4/8/12/16/20 +10%AP Maximum heal decreased to 50/75/100/125/150 +150%AP from 100/150/200/250/300 +200%AP

Star Storm and Star Call charge increased to 20% from 5% Every champion struck (ally or enemy) from Super Nova charges Wish by 20% from 15%

Equinox: Cooldown increased to 14/13/12/11/10 from 12/11/10/9/8 seconds Range increased to 625 from 600 units Damage lowered to 50/70/90/110/130 +50%AP from 80/120/160/200/240 +80%AP Now blinds and silences for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds from silences and applies grievous wounds for that same duration Drawback effect changed to while Equinox is on cooldown, Soraka cannot charge Wish from Soraka cannot cast Wish

Super Nova: Range reduced to 825 from 950 units Damage changed to 200/275/350(+200%AP) from 200/300/400(+175%AP) magic damage Healing changed from 50/75/100% of the health consumed plus 200%AP Healing changed to 300/700/1100(+300%AP) to 25/50/75(+25%AP) health based on how much health Soraka consumed

Next 5 seconds kill or assist healing changed to 80/130/180 +70%AP from 10%(+4% per 100AP) missing health

(I had her not feeling like a dedicated healer. So these changes are aimed to bring back the healer element a lot more, but in a way to ensure she is building squishy by reducing base values further for more emphasis on the ability power ratios. Changed effects that were % health to flat values with high AP ratios to discourage tank builds even harder, by giving Equinox a blind and silence makes more sense as a squishy mage to be close to the enemy as a defensive tool and giving up the ability to charge Wish instead of being unable to cast Wish makes a little more sense for a healer and the neutralizing effect of Equinox.)

8 Comments

Fine Ionian Silk5/1/2018, 2:39:13 AM3 votes

Hello, I thought I should take a look at this rework of Soraka! While I'm a Rakan main now, Soraka was a champion I learned a lot about League on and I mained her for a decent while. As opposed to where I normally address abilities one at a time, I think I'll take a different approach and address each one of your goals and tie those into the kit. Well then, here we go!

1) Offer better counter play and reduce frustrations against Soraka. Unfortunately, I believe that you missed the mark when going in on this one. Your passive is effectively free poke after you use one of your abilities, so rather than a healer you are turning Soraka into a poking support. Right now, I'll admit that Soraka can poke a decent amount with her Q. However, this doesn't really get rid of the frustration that people can have about that -- instead, it removes her passive that ties into with her healer aspect and focuses on increasing her poke.

Additionally, the W is kind of strange. You have a base of 300, but you can get up to 3000? Why would I ever use the base option? The return is so limited there is no point in using it in the first place. With a charge, you should feel an empowerment with using the ability later, but there should still be a benefit of using the ability at the moment. With this, there isn't that trade off. Also, it can get up to 3000 in range. Keep in mind the current range is 550 -- in a way, you're effectively removing the counterplay of Soraka by making her get close. If the heal is THAT weak at the beginning, then there is no point in even trying to use it.

2) Get rid of stupid mechanics that makes her awkward to play as, i.e. health costs on her heal, cooldown and mana is good enough. First off -- the health cost on her heal wasn't stupid. It makes quite a bit of sense in actuality. Mana regen is easily granted from support items that you build normally (Ardent, Redemption, etc.). Soraka with her heals instead uses a different resources which isn't granted out quite as easily with support items, health. While there is the upgraded Eye/Sightstone items and Redemption gives it -- it isn't as free access as mana regen and cooldown is. However, they counterbalance this by making Soraka have to land her Q in order to regain the health she lost overtime. In other words, the Q helps counteract the W cost -- making it so that Soraka has the nice little bit of skill there where better Sorakas hit the Qs that enables their healing more. Now then, onto what you currently have.

With the W you have currently, the real limitation on it is the charge system that reduces charge the more you hit. This is a tie in with the former Soraka play (Landing your abilities assist with your healing) but the system it goes through is quite strange. You give the charges a 60 second cooldown. A 60 second cooldown is a minute, which is an extremely large time. Sure, the heals are more powerful later in the charge/scaling, but you're locking Soraka out of one of the things she is most known for -- being a healer. You're removing the focus on the healing and instead turning the focus onto the poke. There is no reason for this -- one of her core things is being a healer, not a poker. While the old system had poke, it isn't trying to force it in the same way you are trying to force it here. The charges feel more clunky then anything she has on her current kit.

The E makes no sense to have as Soraka. "Saps all light from the area around her" applies she is having the ability spawn from herself. Why would you want to go up and apply this in the first place? You're leaving yourself vulnerable for attack. Her current E serves as a disengage/disruption with the possibility of follow-up CC. This is just an aura that comes from her that deals damage, applies grievous wounds (more on that later), and... stops healing? Stopping healing just makes no sense with it, and doesn't add anything to the kit at all. There is no grand benefit from this ability that would make it useful. It does not even add to the W charges. As for the grievous wounds, there is no reason for it to be there -- it does not apply to anything thematically or ability-wise. It removes her only hard CC in favor of this.

The ultimate, I figured I should address now, is just a movement speed buff and the mistake of an ally champion hitting you. The ultimate offers no skill-expression, and the ability for ally champions being able to basic attack you doesn't offer any reason to do so. The only thing in exchange for it is magic damage poke that does not begin to compare to performing a basic attack on an enemy champion. In the end, this ability is not even an ability, it is a movement speed buff on an ultimate.

3) Make Soraka "easier" to play as, as in reduce mechanical skill, but make her harder to play as with better skill expression and decision making with trade-offs for her abilities rather than always good to use abilities. Basically move Soraka for those that have good decision making and game knowledge, but have her simple to use for the us veterans and old timers, this helps with new players as well.

Soraka's current kit is already easy to play as, with the most complicated skills being keeping up your health, mana, proper E usage, and ultimate reaction timing. This kit does not add anything to make it easier to play as -- instead, it makes it more complicated and unnecessarily so. As for it having better skill expression and decision making... the current kit already does that. The proper usage of your abilities and maintaining resources helps you grow as you play -- the more you play her, the better you get at maintaining your resources and timing your ability usage. A great example of this is the E. It allows for a great example of practicing proper ability usage/placement. Right now, the E in your kit removes that and makes it an ability to trick players into getting into range of enemies... for no really good reason.

Soraka is supposed to be an easy champion, but she does a good job of teaching support to players and having them grow more -- but your kit removes that function which what you were aiming for to allow for better skill expression. While I will admit it isn't as evident with the current Soraka, it is still there enough to where I feel it does better than this reworking of the kit.

4)Soraka changes should not be afraid with a lot more "bold" changes to try to get her in a good spot for the game. Bold changes can be great! However, bold does not necessarily always mean good. With this, you are removing her as a healer and instead changing her into a poke-focused support with healing on the side. There isn't really enough reminiscence of the old Soraka into this to really call them the same champion --- just stars and bare-ability basics for some of the abilities.

So, what can be improved? First off, understand what Soraka does and means as a champion is vital for reworking her. Right now, I feel as if you are missing the mark with that. Try playing Soraka a decent bit to understand more about her and what makes her her. Additionally, try gathering opinions of support players and Soraka mains -- what makes Soraka to them?

Keep in mind that Soraka is one of those champions that are great for people to learn on. While she may not have the most complicated/skill-based abilities because of it, it does not drag her down. For now, I'll try to include a list about things that I think can be improved with your rework of her;

  1. Passive is free poke and deviates too much from her original healer aspect, try revisiting it to see if there is anything better to put as a passive that can feel more player-interactive but still ties into her healing aspect.

  2. The Q removes her soft CC and the flow it had with the W. Right now, it is just an ability that does poke that also reduces the W charge time. It feels so bare-bones to have, with the original Q flowing with the kit much better. Try to give the abilities a nice flow with them in the kit -- not every flow needs to be forced in, but a flow like the current Soraka is a good example of one that is really good and seems natural.

  3. Charges don't add anything good to the gameplay. They are either too weak or too strong, with a really small range or a range too large. This is trying too hard to force her into a poke playstyle rather than that of a healer with her poke tying into her healing. Try to put the focus on her healing again instead of her poke.

  4. The current E removes some of the skill expression on her kit and makes a healer go into the fray more for a compensation that is too heavy. Try bringing back the skill-expression with her E and think about what fits the theme of Soraka more. Also, being unable to heal completely goes against Soraka as a champion.

  5. The ultimate isn't really an ultimate. It doesn't offer the umph that an ultimate. An ultimate generally needs to scream "This is an ultimate!". Try reworking it into something that not only fits her theme, but has the umph it needs to be called an ultimate.

Well, that's all I have to post! I apologize if I come across as harsh, but I really do wish for the better improvement of your rework. Good luck!

thaBeast5/5/2018, 1:54:57 PM1 votes

soraka is good how it is now if you played since season one you do remember her w had no max health cost could heal her self and ont top of that applied regeneration

Stacona5/5/2018, 4:30:09 PM1 votes

New update!

sad þoy5/5/2018, 4:34:18 PM1 votes

I like the original concept aside of the charge system. She uses current max health to heal allies, she doesn't need to be restricted anymore on it.