@Riot Sona's Rework

Luner Hunter·Jul 28, 2014·2 votes·2,134 views

So how about a status update on the state of the Rework? Some of us don't have access to the PBE to see how shes actually doing to alleviate our concerns of Sona being Reworked to death... (no auras just "tag boxes", great AoE target, suishy as ballz, ect) I have a few questions about the Rework in and of itself. What if the majority of the Live Client's player base doesn't like the Sona Rework? Sure on the PBE 50-60% of the players there might like her but they are probably around ~10% or less of the LoL player base... so what if when her Rework gets launched to Live and the majority of the player base doesn't like her Rework? I HIGHLY DOUBT that it will be repealed if the majority doesn't like the new "Sona" or any skills reworked (again). I doubt anything other than minor buffs will be given to some of the abilities (which is what should have happened in the first place) to rectify any discrepancies the player base has with Reworked Sona... :| Or am i wrong?

EDIT: I've been on the proverbial "warpath" about Sona's nerfs since the Pre-Season 4 patch...I would love a real answer as to why Sona is being reworked in the first place... "ppl who don't play her don't know everything about her" is a bs answer and thats how playing a champ you've never played before it should be... Don't play the champ? Then there are gonna be some things YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT!

8 Comments

Full AP VenusaurJul 28, 20142 votes

Im afraid for her, they are literally taking away her auras. HER AURAS! Notice how no "Xereth players" play Xereth anymore but people who couldn't play him before enjoy him now. Also, wtf shes already like the 3rd squishiest champ in the game based on lvl 1 hp, armor, and mr so why are they making her squishier and closer range?

Phoenix Kotori Jul 28, 20141 votes

To be fair she has more hp at lvl4+ now on PBE than she does currently.

Luner HunterJul 28, 20141 votes

to be fair that doesnt make up for having to stand next to the enemy ADC/top/jungler/APC/support just to try and buff/heal your front line which makes her a REALLY EASY TARGET... but im sure +5 hp a lvl more is worth that right?

Teridax68Jul 28, 20142 votes

If Sona 's rework turned out to be unpopular for a large part of the playerbase, she'd likely get re-reworked, as was the case for Skarner a little while back. It's likely that her current long-range, permanent auras are going away for good, though, regardless of the changes she receives in the future.

I personally think she'd become even more popular once her new kit gets released. The expectations of the players on the forums and the expectations on the playerbase at large tend to differ a little when it comes to what to focus on: typically, raw stats are more important in the forums, because that's what a lot of theorycrafting is based on, whereas more visible power is what usually makes the average player happy above all else. The Sona rework is pretty much all about converting her not-too-visible power to visible power, so it's bound to ruffle a few feathers on the forums even if the end result looks a lot more interesting and flavorful than the current kit. Here is a gameplay video featuring her new abilities.

The reason Sona is being reworked in the first place is because of her auras: on one hand, auras all fall into the same issue where they're extremely strong overall, but that strength isn't immediately visible to those who benefit from it. Sona , being the aura champion, therefore ends up having most of her power shunted into a feature that most players don't fully appreciate, which means that, although experienced players will know how much power she brings and how to make use of it, the average player and players trying her out just see her as weak, even if she's really strong. The other problem with her current auras is that they don't provide any gameplay in themselves: you just press a button and everyone gets a little stronger, so there's no way you can really express mastery there. With her rework, she still remains the aura champion, and still focuses on the same mechanics (selecting the appropriate aura, positioning, managing her Power Chord), except she gets to have more impactful effects on her auras at the cost of their permanent bonuses, and slightly more emphasis on positioning.

An interesting note, though, is that her PBE kit scales a lot better with AP. Her new abilities have a lot more theorycrafting potential than her current ones, from the looks of it.

Luner HunterJul 28, 20141 votes

Some champions have to be played quite a bit before you find out the true strength of a champion just because i can't pickup and penta-ace the other team my first play doesn't mean she's weak...
if making her scale better with AP was all it took to make her stronger then why didn't they just buff her?
they reduced her heal (again), lengthened cooldowns, took her auras so shes no longer "the aura champ", her "snuggle boxes" make her already low survivability even lower due to the proximity she has to be to the enemy team to help her team at all, AND they screwed her Q and reduced her Q power chord by 50% how will she be more impactful?

I never get any meaningful answers to 2 & 3 ... supposedly you're answer about "newbs dunno everything about her at a glance" is the answer to 1 but "she feels weak lets take her auras give her something similar but scales worse (50% dmg Q PC nerf, reduced heal)" is not something i would call buffing her or an answer to 2... and 3 how is being more vulnerable, doing less dmg, and being a great target for AoEs due to the insanely close proximity you have to be of your team to do ANYTHING for them make her positively impactful to your team?

EDIT: watching that match... that shield almost has a long enough duration to block a single AA from and ADC... seriously? is so fuckin short riven's shield last longer...

EDIT 2: If that's Sona being "stronger" someone needs to go play Season 3 Sona... not to mention that Sona was terribad... AND lulu wrecked that Sona all match

Teridax68Jul 28, 20141 votes

There is a difference between mastery and power appreciation. Even if you're not good at a champion, you can still realize that they can be pretty darn powerful in the right hands. 's auras are pretty much the opposite of a mastery problem, since there's currently not a significant difference between the aura usage of an average player and that of a pro. The issue is that, for the average player, or even a good player, there isn't a really visible increase in power when you benefit from an aura, even though high-tier players are familiar enough with the champion to put the effects to better use. She feels weak, not because she isn't being played well, but because even when played well it doesn't feel like you're making a big difference with your auras, even if the bonuses are really powerful.
Because 's rework isn't about buffing or nerfing her. right now is pretty balanced, with a ~52% win rate, and just giving her more or better AP ratios would overtune her. It would also be difficult to add AP ratios to her current auras: her Q aura gives AP, so it would make little sense to have her bonus AP scale with AP, her W aura gives resistances, so an AP scaling risks creating damage-to-tankiness problems a la , and her E aura gives flat movespeed enhanced by the active, which already scales with AP and would cause AP to scale quadratically with the skill if another ratio were added.
The base heal is reduced at ranks at ranks 1 through 4, but only at full health. The maximum heal with her new W is 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+ 40% AP), significantly better than her current heal, and equals her current base heal at 0 / 62.5 / ~83.3 / 93.75 / 100% health, so it's actually an overall buff. Her "snuggle boxes" are her auras, only more visible, and her base armor and health per level got buffed to compensate for the loss of range of her auras. Her Q active base damage got nerfed by 50, but her Q total damage (Q + aura effect) deals up to 310 (+ 75% AP), significantly more than her current 250 (+ 50% AP) damage. If you count her "nerfed" Q Power Chord, the damage goes up to 598 (+ 105% AP), 34 base damage less than the current 632 (+ 90% AP) damage but with a far better ratio. That's why the Power Chord proc got nerfed. This is also without counting her shield, self-movespeed boost and more powerful base movespeed aura.
PBE Sona's shield lasts 1.5 seconds. This is exactly the same duration as 's shield.

Personally, I feel like this is more or less the same situation as Karma 's rework, which was initially unpopular because a very vocal minority was attached to her old, albeit near-unworkable kit, and refused to see what the new champion was capable of. Yes, Sona's auras are crucial to her identity, but I think you're too attached to her invisible auras to realize that PBE Sona 's new "snuggle-box" auras have more gameplay and visible power. This isn't a matter of objectively criticizing Sona 's new abilities, this is just Riot versus a small part of the playerbase who's opposed to any kind of change because it would mean the removal of a mechanic they love, despite the mechanic itself not being conducive to interesting gameplay. You yourself formed your judgment just by looking at the numbers, without having seen so much as one single gameplay video prior to your initial post.

Luner HunterJul 29, 20141 votes

there are 2 issues with your reply:

I and many others DONT HAVE A FUCKIN PBE ACCOUNT SO WE CAN'T TRY THE REWORK OURSELVES SO STOP BRINGING THAT SHIT UP! so we can only base our opinions on the numbers we are given

and now onto the next one

I'm more attached to her identity of an Aura champion not a cast-a-buff-that-last-2ISH-seconds champion if i wanted that i'm sure i could find a better buffing champion in lets say Lulu, Nami, or Braum.

Her W issue is its useless unless my ADC's half dead her W's mana cost was already stupidly high for such a low amount now its even worse with a HIGHER cooldown timer LOWER base stats and 1% for 1% missing to make up for the duel nerfs... isn't the point of a heal or healing champ to keep a target healed and healthy? at the point that the heal gets meaningful my ADC is within the thresh hold of being killed by the next crit of the enemy ADC... isn't it sad when Nidalee an ap midlaner outscales a support in heals? Her "snuggle boxes" aren't auras in the same context as Sona's current auras... not to mention they suffer the same issue with the current auras all that "invisible power" but lose over half the range of the current auras UNLESS your talking about the Visual Update which could have just been applied to current Sona for that "(in)visible power" to be noticed, there is no "nerfed" about her Q power chord if you're REDUCING 100 to 50 then its a reduction and you call that what in game balancing? oh, right! NERFING.. Now onto them hp/armor/mr buffs she got... i'm sure they didnt turn her into a tank or even as tanky as a bruiser/fighter so shes STILL SQUISHY AS FUCK which still makes it a bad idea to get near the front line which makes it impossible to apply the new abilities they are giving her to her team... 5v5? Squishball Sona is close? shes squishy as fuck and i can burst her down in 2 seconds flat making this a 4v5? WHY NOT!?! not to mention thats how most team fights go trying to catch someone out and if Sona has to be in the front line to apply her buffs she is likely to be caught by the pokes/cc shot by the other team

MrsKumaBearJul 28, 20142 votes

I'm not an avid forum prowler or poster at all, but when I found out about Sona's rework, I couldn't help but to voice my displeasure. In fact this is my first post on forums ever because that's how big a deal this is to me. I main support champions and although I generally play Nami, Sona is still one of my favourite champions. I have been following the PBE updates since I found out about the rework a few weeks ago and I don't like it at all and it seems my sentiments are agreed upon by many PBE users. I was hoping that maybe the trade-offs between the auras would be worth it, but every update to me has just been seen as a nerf. For example, I don't really care for the new shield added in- if I wanted a support that could shield, I could just pick Lulu, Janna or Morg and their kit would still be better than "re-worked" Sona. Sona's persistent auras is what makes her unique and I can't imagine playing her without them. Personally, I'm going to start playing more Sona games in live right now before the re-work is officially released because I know she definitely won't appeal to me afterwards. :(