Talk:Soraka/@comment-4959312-20140927024805

So... the problem with this is not that she necessarily sucks, post-rework, but rather that she doesn't fit the idea of who Soraka is meant to be: a lane-sustaining, actual support.

This is because sadly, Riot doesn't like this play-style because "it's non-interactive"... in other words, it's strategically superior and makes games longer, which can be really fun if you're good at it, but doesn't sell in Esports.

Make no mistake, this change is basically a change to make her "more interesting for television" and a majority of League players who are more interested in aggressive tactical play than thoughtful strategic play. This is a problem because Soraka as a character concept is meant for people more interested in the latter, who actually like to play an honest-to-god support with a focus on maknig it so their ADC can snowball consistently.

It fits in with Riot's common tendency to default to less diversity of play-style and more focus on fast-twitch reflexes, speed-decision-making, and agression, as opposed to measured chess-like stratagies, and a diversity of play-styles.

It boils down to them forcing everyone to play basically the same game/method repeatedly and see who is better at that particular style of play. Which ironically goes against their design value of "Meaningful  choices", as Meddler said in the dev-blog on this "Significant difference between possible outcomes is also required. Clarity is nice, but if the choice is between a set of almost identical options – or if all choices result in the same, final outcome - there’s no significance to the choice in the first place. "

So basically, Riot sometimes screws up and doesn't follow their own rules while thinking they're doing just the opposite. Which is frustrating, but then, other times, they nail it. Basically, they are only human, it's just really disappointing when it is such a generally-disliked and obviously flawed move.