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![[Champion Remake] Soraka, The Starchild Empty](https://2img.net/i/empty.gif)
I think it's safe to say that Soraka is something of an outdated champion. Over the course of League's history, she's alternated between 'best support in the game' and 'underwhelming'. As of late, she hasn't seen a great deal of play, being passed up for Sona mostly.
I find that Soraka has three main problems with her current kit; visibility, best/worst case scenario and the shift towards a more aggressive early game. Let's start with visibility. For the things actively perceivable in game, she has her burst heal and her silence, really. Starcall's damage tends to creep up on an opponent, since it's so gradual, as does the MR Shred. Her MR aura and the Armour buff from her heal aren't obvious to anyone watching. Plus, whilst you might hit your ultimate to save one person, the fact that it's effectively providing a total of 2200 bonus HP across your team, regardless of where your team is, has a tendency to go unnoticed. As a result, her kit is somewhat deceptive and she feels much less effective for the person playing her than she actually is (especially since her heal has such a painfully long cooldown). Then we have her best/worst case scenario; when she's doing well/doing her job properly, Soraka shuts down any sort of enemy aggression in lane, zoning the enemy carry and slowly whittling the opponent's health with Starcall, until they either back off or the two of them are able to force a fight the enemy has no chance of winning. She has a very potent heal that, in a duel, temporarily increases the target's durability by a very high amount, and Infuse lets your lane partner spam harassing abilities without fear of running out of mana (in most cases). Because riot's tried to make damage stick, Soraka's ability to do this has been hit numerous times, but she's still able to do so given the right match up and watching any harass you've been putting down on her carry disappear tends to be rather disheartening (especially since, if she's gotten a few levels on you, you can't all in against her either, due to the amount of durability she provides). In her worst case scenario, Soraka is food for both the enemy laner and the Jungler. If her lane is put behind or in a bad match-up, her lack of peel and reliance on levels means she'll struggle to provide assistance and she'll feel incredibly irrelevant in team fights despite the buffs she provides, since at the end of the day, 800 HP (base value of her burst heal) doesn't last long against a reasonable ADC or even many assassins. Finally, Soraka's kit was created in an age where Warwick was king of the jungle and teams generally ran one tank. The rise of bruisers has seen her heals nerfed to compensate and she has trouble dealing with ganks due to her lack of hard crowd control.
So with these in mind, I thought I might have a crack at reworking Soraka's kit somewhat. It should theoretically retain most of the positive things from her current one (saving allies across the map, friendly to new users and outlasting enemies in lane by playing the long game) whilst letting her deal with the changes that have happened to the game, making her power a bit more visible and stopping her from swinging so far to either end of the scale. Her base stats and lore are assumed to remain what they are currently.
Passive - Awestruck
Enemies facing Soraka have their movement speed slowed.
Slow amount: 8%/12%/16%
Range: 450
Slow % increases at level 8 and level 16.
[Q] - Starcall
Unchanged
[W] - Astral Blessing
Passive: When Soraka casts a spell, nearby allies have their mana restored for a percentage of the mana used.
Active: Soraka heals target ally and grants them the benefits of Awestruck for 3 seconds. Each additional Astral Blessing in the next 30 seconds will cost an additional 80 mana and have its healing reduced by 40% (to a minimum of 20%).
Targeting: Single Target (Ally)
Mana restoration: 10%/15%/20%/25%/30% of mana used
Heal: 80/120/180/240/300 (+100% AP)
Cost: 80 mana
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range: 625 (both passive and active)
[E] - Pacify
Soraka fills the target's mind with thoughts of peace, preventing them from attacking. Enemies affected by Awestruck are also silenced.
Targeting: Single Target (Enemy)
Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds
Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds
Range: 725
[R] - Wish
Soraka kneels and channels for 4 seconds, immediately healing the target for 20% of their missing health plus a flat amount over the duration and providing bonus armour and magic resistance.
Targeting: Single Target (Ally)
Total Flat Heal: 280/400/520
Bonus Armour/Magic Resistance: 60/80/100
Range: Global
Cooldown: 140/120/100 seconds
Will be adding comments and reasoning on each ability a little later. Please note that most of the numbers on the abilities are tentative; I haven't run the calculations yet.
I find that Soraka has three main problems with her current kit; visibility, best/worst case scenario and the shift towards a more aggressive early game. Let's start with visibility. For the things actively perceivable in game, she has her burst heal and her silence, really. Starcall's damage tends to creep up on an opponent, since it's so gradual, as does the MR Shred. Her MR aura and the Armour buff from her heal aren't obvious to anyone watching. Plus, whilst you might hit your ultimate to save one person, the fact that it's effectively providing a total of 2200 bonus HP across your team, regardless of where your team is, has a tendency to go unnoticed. As a result, her kit is somewhat deceptive and she feels much less effective for the person playing her than she actually is (especially since her heal has such a painfully long cooldown). Then we have her best/worst case scenario; when she's doing well/doing her job properly, Soraka shuts down any sort of enemy aggression in lane, zoning the enemy carry and slowly whittling the opponent's health with Starcall, until they either back off or the two of them are able to force a fight the enemy has no chance of winning. She has a very potent heal that, in a duel, temporarily increases the target's durability by a very high amount, and Infuse lets your lane partner spam harassing abilities without fear of running out of mana (in most cases). Because riot's tried to make damage stick, Soraka's ability to do this has been hit numerous times, but she's still able to do so given the right match up and watching any harass you've been putting down on her carry disappear tends to be rather disheartening (especially since, if she's gotten a few levels on you, you can't all in against her either, due to the amount of durability she provides). In her worst case scenario, Soraka is food for both the enemy laner and the Jungler. If her lane is put behind or in a bad match-up, her lack of peel and reliance on levels means she'll struggle to provide assistance and she'll feel incredibly irrelevant in team fights despite the buffs she provides, since at the end of the day, 800 HP (base value of her burst heal) doesn't last long against a reasonable ADC or even many assassins. Finally, Soraka's kit was created in an age where Warwick was king of the jungle and teams generally ran one tank. The rise of bruisers has seen her heals nerfed to compensate and she has trouble dealing with ganks due to her lack of hard crowd control.
So with these in mind, I thought I might have a crack at reworking Soraka's kit somewhat. It should theoretically retain most of the positive things from her current one (saving allies across the map, friendly to new users and outlasting enemies in lane by playing the long game) whilst letting her deal with the changes that have happened to the game, making her power a bit more visible and stopping her from swinging so far to either end of the scale. Her base stats and lore are assumed to remain what they are currently.
Passive - Awestruck
Enemies facing Soraka have their movement speed slowed.
Slow amount: 8%/12%/16%
Range: 450
Slow % increases at level 8 and level 16.
[Q] - Starcall
Unchanged
[W] - Astral Blessing
Passive: When Soraka casts a spell, nearby allies have their mana restored for a percentage of the mana used.
Active: Soraka heals target ally and grants them the benefits of Awestruck for 3 seconds. Each additional Astral Blessing in the next 30 seconds will cost an additional 80 mana and have its healing reduced by 40% (to a minimum of 20%).
Targeting: Single Target (Ally)
Mana restoration: 10%/15%/20%/25%/30% of mana used
Heal: 80/120/180/240/300 (+100% AP)
Cost: 80 mana
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range: 625 (both passive and active)
[E] - Pacify
Soraka fills the target's mind with thoughts of peace, preventing them from attacking. Enemies affected by Awestruck are also silenced.
Targeting: Single Target (Enemy)
Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds
Cost: 50/55/60/65/70 Mana
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds
Range: 725
[R] - Wish
Soraka kneels and channels for 4 seconds, immediately healing the target for 20% of their missing health plus a flat amount over the duration and providing bonus armour and magic resistance.
Targeting: Single Target (Ally)
Total Flat Heal: 280/400/520
Bonus Armour/Magic Resistance: 60/80/100
Range: Global
Cooldown: 140/120/100 seconds
Will be adding comments and reasoning on each ability a little later. Please note that most of the numbers on the abilities are tentative; I haven't run the calculations yet.
