Over the past few patches, Soraka has quickly become one of the most annoying champs to play against as a League of Legends top laner. In a match between T1 and SANDBOX Gaming today, Park “Summit” Woo-tae showed how slippery she can be when he valiantly tried to escape from an enemy gank.
It started off simple. T1’s Canna pulled in Summit with Sett’s E and jungler Cuzz came in to help secure the kill as Gragas. It looked like an easy elimination for T1, but Summit had other ideas.
By using his Flash, Barrier, Soraka’s Q, E silence, and ultimate, it took T1 almost a full minute to take him down. Eventually, Faker roamed up from the mid lane to secure the kill, much to the amusement of the fans and casters.
This clip exemplifies why Riot Games nerfed Soraka’s top lane capabilities in Patch 10.4. Her ability to sustain herself while also remaining relatively safe in lane was too strong. Her potential upside was game-changing if her team was able to transition to the late game since she’d build straight AP to provide insane amounts of healing.
Luckily for most top laners, Riot nerfed her Q’s self-healing, mana costs, and the bonus movement speed she got from hitting enemy champions. The developers did have to apply a quick hotfix in the week after the patch, though, because they inadvertently nerfed her support capabilities as well.
We might not have to see Soraka in the top lane for much longer after the big nerfs she got. T1 would probably be happy to see her drop out of the competitive meta so that embarrassing situations like this don’t happen again.
