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Sona Update Q&A

RiotFearless·7/1/2014, 10:53:31 PM·33 votes·65,745 views

Hey everyone!

Sona

A few months ago, we talked with you all about what you loved about Sona, and what you thought could be better. We also had numerous internal discussion about the faults in her design along with the things about Sona that make her a great part of League of Legends. The product of those dialogues, along with many weeks of exploration and testing, is a updated Sona kit that will be hitting PBE very soon.

However, we are going to be using PBE a bit differently this time. Sona is getting out to PBE much earlier in the development process, with much of her VFX still in progress, and the design still very much in iteration. The main reason for this is to get the maximum amount of feedback on Sona. We know how many people love Sona, and we want to ensure that we give as much of a window for people to check out what we’re doing with her and give us their thoughts.

This also means that players will get a chance to see a much longer window of development. The good side of this is way more time to absorb and react to the feedback we get, the downside is that there will be more bugs and pre-final game balance, art and audio.

As far as the actual kit changes, the gameplay update is focused almost entirely on updating what an aura can be in league of legends. The primary goal is to transform Sona’s auras from giant stat bubbles to high impact “Snuggle Zones.” (Thanks Feral Pony!) Sona’s old auras granted her allies a tremendous amount of power (100 AP/AD on Q for example), but they weren't well communicated, and didn’t create new gameplay. Sona’s allies didn’t play differently with Sona’s auras, they just did everything invisibly better.

Sona now gets much smaller zones, and they now grant short duration buffs of condensed power to any ally Sona tags with the zone. This means that Sona players need to care when they give these buffs, and giving these buffs to the entire team requires skilled positioning and more team interaction. It also means that allies can make skillful use of the auras, rewarding teamplay and coordination. The goal was to increase the tactical and strategic choices Sona makes without increasing the mechanical complexity required to play Sona well.

  • Hymn of Valor: Zone grants bonus magic damage on the next auto for Sona and any ally tagged.

  • Aria of Perseverance: Zone grants a short duration shield.

  • Song of Celerity: Grants a short duration % move speed buff.

We’ve also made some changes to Sona’s basic abilities to improve allied and enemy interaction. These changes aim to create some space for the new aura gameplay, and to ensure that Sona has windows of power and downtime, vs the previous patterns that allowed for the fire and forget, spammy spell patterns.

The cooldown on all of Sona’s abilities have changed from 7 seconds to 10 seconds. There are two reasons for this change. The first is that Sona needs more time to use the new auras without having permanent uptime. The second is to give Sona’s opponents windows to interact with Sona. Increasing the impact of all of Sona’s aura gameplay also means that Sona needs to have more downsides to balance so that her choices have weight and meaning.

Aria of Perseverance’s base heals have been lowered, but now scale with the target’s missing health. This mean’s that Sona’s ability to get ahead and then erase any damage her opponents do is much more costly for Sona, while Sona’s ability to save her allies with reactive casts on W is much improved.

Song of Celerity’s cast now grants Sona a big increase in MS that ramps down to the boost she gives her allies. This gives Sona the tools to position herself to get the most out of her Q and W.

Along with the gameplay update, Riot Phoenix and BuyFilm have been working to update the readability of Sona’s VFX. The biggest change is making sure that Crescendo has particles that actually show what it does mechanically. So far, Sona players have been very happy to fully understand what their ult actually does, and be able to make better plays from that information. We’d love to hear from everyone on these particles as well.

Normally, we’d give a full change list here, but a lot of numbers are still in flux. We’ll give out more info as we push to PBE and as we dial her it as we approach her release.

We’ll be happy to try and answer any and all questions you all have, but there will be limited information on numbers and balance right now. Questions on Sona’s design goals or development are going to be a lot more easily answered, as we’ve been consistent on those as we’ve been prototyping these changes. Can’t wait to hear from everyone!

415 Comments

ModUlanopo7/2/2014, 12:37:43 AM122 votes

EDIT: My responses to the PBE release can be found at my Wordpress blog.

I know that this is early in PBE iteration, but these changes sound like exactly the wrong direction.

  • If these "snuggle zones" are so small, then I won't be able to effectively Q-poke and have my ADC benefit from the cast. What you have done is make it to that I have to choose between buffing my ally and doing damage on my own. That's no fun.

  • You seem to be forgetting that Q is Sona's only damage-dealing spell outside of her ultimate. Having it on a 10-second CD just means that I get to fight much less. You're crippling my already meager ability to duel.

  • Longer CDs mean lower Power Chord uptime. This is a massive direct nerf to her fighting ability, unless you're planning on substantially increasing the effect of Power Chord.

  • Giving "Sona’s opponents windows to interact with Sona" sounds an awful lot like "stand around doing nothing because otherwise your opponents will jump on you when your spells are down." You have to remember that Sona's CDs are so low because they don't individually have the impact of those of other supports.

  • Sona lacks an engage, a low-CD CC and an escape, all of which can be found on more popular supports. Her opponents already have wide windows of opportunity to interact with her - mostly in the form of beating you to death if you make a positional error. What I'm really hearing is that you don't like auras and you want to make her decide when and where to have them up.

  • I don't like "Zone of Perseverance grants a short-term shield" at all. I already have a new item to grant shields and, if I were so inclined, I already own Morgana, Karma, Lulu and Janna. This design space is already thoroughly occupied and I feel that you're killing Sona's identity. You're also forcing me to make the "why would I bring Sona when X does a better job" determination.

  • Sona was never designed as a "get in there and fight" support, but that's what she'll become if her new meta-game is to cover as many people as possible in "snuggle zones".

  • My favorite part of playing Sona is the early-game dance with Q-poke. I have to make many risk vs. reward decisions on the fly. There is a lot of interaction there. I don't feel that these proposed changes preserve my play style.

Thornmaelstrom7/2/2014, 12:23:50 AM69 votes

Clarity and readability are very important, but Riot culture as a whole seems to be repeating this to themselves in a self-brainwashing way. I'm all for better particles for Crescendo, but defining clarity as "Any player with as low as zero cognitive investment into League of Legends must be able to instantly recognize every cause, effect, and nuance from VFX+Audio alone on the first cast." is a faulty approach that will reduce Riot's freedom for design and balance. This may be an ideal case scenario, but shouldn't be strived for with every ability. Doing so would kill things like Janna's +AD on shielding.

Instead, a more healthy approach would be understanding the intent of an ability on first cast/game. Every detail should be in the tooltip, a mere mouse-hover away, and nuance is something explored as players grow over hundreds of games.
How would this apply to Janna's Shield? Honestly, the intent of the skill is already very clear. You can only cast it on allies, and when you cast it on them they gain a shield. The preferred use-case scenario is handed the player on a silver platter. A lvl 2 player with 0 games as Janna isn't going to benefit from information overload, and if they ARE ready to absorb information at that stage (god bless) it is within their grasp in the most intuitive ways possibile: tooltips and even the Champion tab in the profile. And then the internet, for which there is a wiki. If Riot tries to smother their game with too MUCH hand-holding clarity, then eventually (A) Janna's shield will lose it's +AD, or (B) Janna's shield will cause the characters weapon to glow, with a big Arcade "+DMG UP!" icon every single time.

As to how this applies to Sona... well, frankly, there is *plenty *of room to add clarity without actually detracting from Sona. What I AM concerned about is the definition of Auras in League of Legends. I approve of aiming for "high-impact, smaller-area", I HIGHLY approve of "Snuggle Zone", I do ***not ***agree with "granting single-use buff from inside of an area that is centered on a champion". That is just a champion casting a buff. That is not a Snuggle Zone. The fact that champions have cast-ranges, zone enemies, and make their allies feel secure does not make them all have 'auras', LeBlanc's Q is not an "Anti-Snuggle HP DeBuff Aura", it is just a spell.

Sona is the Aura Champion, for better or for worse. This is simply part of her identity, and changing it would cause a Riot as real as the company. Auras are:

1) An area *emanating *from a single point (in this case, Sona)

2) *Passively *applying its effect in the area.

Tools you can work with: Effect, Duration, Radius, Magnitude, Change In Magnitude Over Time, Change in Magnitude Over Range, most importantly, the Active cast of the ability.

Here's an example of how I'd imagine a high-impact "Snuggle Zone" reworked ** Sample Aria of Perseverance**:

"Passive: Sona emanates a field of security up to range 800. Allied champions within 150/300/550/800 range gain 12/6/3/1 stacks of Perserverance per second. At 100 stacks, all stacks are consumed to generate a small Shield of 20/40/60/80/100(+TinyAP Ratio) that lasts until consumed or staying out of Sona's aura range for 6 seconds.

Active: Sona strums audible encouragement into her allies, restoring target Ally's health by A/B/C/D/E(+TinyAP Ratio; +1% per missing) and Sona restoring half the amount healed herself. Instantly refreshes the Perserverance Shield on both."

Sona's base health would be reduced to compensate for almost perpetually having a tiny shield up, but that would just become one of her cool little eccentricities, just like Malphite. Malphite LOVES having a 10% shield up most of the time, and it's just become his thing of "Yeah, I'm the 110% health champion, Deal with it." The important thing in this Sample Aura is a real aura, constant AoE (!targetted) application of positive intent (stacks) that results in a feel-good visible payoff (no shield -> Shield!) unlike +HP5.

Linna Excel7/1/2014, 11:35:19 PM44 votes

Why does this sound like a stealth nerf to me?

Sonaring7/2/2014, 4:03:25 AM38 votes

I know this is PBE, but from someone who has played Sona over 4000 games from Season 1 with 4 D1 sona accounts, this is going to ruin Sona completely. = Proof=

http://www.lolskill.net/top?filterChampion=37&filterRealm=

http://na.op.gg/ranking/champions/name=sona

http://www.twitch.tv/best_dota_2_sona (I rarely stream so don't expect it)

I have posted numerous times about the current state of Sona and how she fits well in the current meta. But when I read over these pbe changes it's gotten to a point where I want to quit league completely. (My challenger friends are already quitting if jungle timers are being implemented).

The biggest issue with this patch is the 7 to 10 second cooldown increase. Sona is currently viable just because her Q pokes are constantly harassing the opponent ADC so that the ADC can't lifesteal or heal back up. But if you increase her cooldowns it's taking away the core aspect of Sona's viability in lane phase. What happens if you poke with Sona Q at level 1? You have to wait 9 (10-1) seconds (5/0/25 mastery or 9/0/21 mastery with 10% cd) for your next Q to come up and that goes on for the entire lane phase. So basically less pokes against leona or thresh who one shots you if they get a good E or Q? Sona is already having hard time vs braum thresh leona blitz, the current meta support champions. Why would you nerf her cds so that you can't even poke some of the hard counters? Have you seen Janna or Taric in ANY of the LCS OGN? NO. Fix the champions that needs fixing not Sona.

I have always been lenient with the quality you have provided till now. But lately it's gotten to a point where I could careless and and expect less. As a Korean player who plays in NA server, I am getting sick and tired these garbage excuses. Gambit got screwed over because of a Visa problem. The Korean World LoL Cup fiasco. Now you ruin champions that doesn't even need fixing. How much more collateral damage do you wish to cause yourself? She might need a slight armor and health buff but still I don't even think that is necessary.

Is Riot really going to right way of making this game more viable or is it ruining to their demise? Games die out because of the lack of fan base. The more you fix the champions the more the game turns to S***. Every champion that somehow gotten a rework turns out to be either OP or down right garbage. And when the champions are OP you nerf it to the ground where it turns out to be garbage. Do you think this is the correct way for a game to develop? Now all I see is just money hoarding garbage.

Let's give it an example. Braum. So let's see, Braum comes out in League EXTREMELY OP where everyone would buy it not only for the looks of the champion, but also because he is OP in ranked (100% ban rate?). And when people buy the champion and feel that he is REALLY good(due to the OP stats) they have an impulse to buy the skin too. Why NOT buy a champion that is OP? Why not buy a skin for the champion that is OP? After about a month of revenue they probably decided Braum is too strong and is about time to nerf the champion. And look at it now, it's STILL being nerfed because he is still too strong.

From an Ex-Dota 1 Tournament Player, I understand this game is hard to balance. I played dota 1 and dota 2 where all skills and champions have somewhat of a fixed value. There are no AP or AD influence in skills. League maybe slightly harder but there shouldn't be this much of a disparity. IceFrog and Guinsoo both are talented MOBA game producers. I love their work and their mechanics for each game. But personally, I think Riot is going downhill. Not only from a Korean point of view but also from a NA Riot Fan.

I think I have written too much and while I've been typing this out all I have is anger and disappointment. I don't care if I am the world top 10 Sona player, this is going to ruin all Sona players at a whole new level. Thank you for reading.

tl;dr Riot is going the wrong way with these patches.

Nutbladder7/1/2014, 11:55:06 PM36 votes

**To be honest this sounds like nerfs. The main issue with Sona is that she can't compete with Thresh, Blitz,Braum, Morgana,Zyra,Leona, Nami because 1 spell landing onto Sona from ANY of these champions is an instant death unless you flash. In other words she's high risk and not enough reward even in the late game.

What I don't understand is why she's not getting stronger like lower mana costs, higher heal ratios on par with taric/Nami. All of thresh's spells are no higher than 60 mana at lvl 1 and the cooldowns on 2 of his hard cc spells are lower than sonas spells or 'can' be lower depending on whether you land the hook.

What I'm asking is, am I going to even want to play Sona after this? Or will she go to the back of the line like I have a feeling she will?**

IS1794df284f3d528710d987/2/2014, 12:12:14 AM28 votes

Though I'm not a Sona player, I want to say to all Sona players reading this that I'm sorry your favorite champion has been targeted for death. Don't get your hopes up for your feedback to matter or bring back the champ you love; it never does. Move on now and not when it's released.

Vorthas7/1/2014, 11:41:47 PM24 votes

Reading some of these changes are making me, as an avid Sona player, kind of sad. I LIKED the aura gameplay of her. Though I do like the heal healing more if my ally is lower on health (I always played her as a healbot).

Are you considering upping Sona's base defenses a tad? That is, in my opinion, what she needs more than anything. Having one of the lowest base healths in the game makes it difficult for Sona to go out and poke without being chunked for nearly half or three-quarters of her health. A bit of disproportionate retaliation there.

The Yetii Rider7/2/2014, 4:58:52 AM23 votes

As a long time Sona player (100+ ranked games in Season 3), I knew this was coming but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you don't increase Sona's base stats after causing her to lose 10 armor/MR off her W aura, then she's going to have the same poor health early game with an even squishier late game.

Sona has been devastated by the changes to support itemization in Season 4. She can no longer get extra health on Shurelya's Reverie, she is expected to build some form of AP to get the same level of utility she used to, she still doesn't have any form of hard cc, etc. Sona is a squishy champion with only 1500 health at level 18 and her enemies have just gotten burstier and burstier. And now you're weakening her passive defenses as well as her heal. I understand that you want to nerf sustain on supports because it does not encourage lane interaction but I also don't know what kind of interaction you expect from a support when her only ability to interact with her opponents has a 10 second cooldown.

Another thing is that this is not really addressing Sona's problem of "Power Chord is the real power in her kit". I've said this before, I'll say it again. Power Chord costs 155-195 mana to use, each time. It has a range of 550, on the second squishiest character in the game. If you're not changing Power Chord's stats any, the risk is still not worth the reward. Zenith Blade, Death Sentence, Rocket Grab, Dark Binding, Aqua Prison, Grasping Roots, all of these are common and have longer than 550 range. If Sona gets hit by them, she dies. This constant fear of being killed if you go poke creates the need to play passive in lane. That's the reality of the situation. Sona will not interact with her enemies as often because she has a very real chance of dying if she does so.

If you're going to remove the armor and MR from her kit, and lower the heal, and expect us to be able to play her the same way because she has better defenses when she pays mana for them on a 10 second cooldown, then...that's not how this game is played. Champions rely on their base stats immensely in the early game. Sona's base stats are bad because she gives stats to other people. You have removed that. You need to compensate it, period.

Clearer particles on Crescendo is good, but you honestly need to straight up nerf it. Too much of Sona's power is in Crescendo, and it's not healthy for her kit. Give it a cast time, give it a longer cooldown, shrink the width, or just flat out remove the damage. Then you can normalize the mana cost (seriously, 200?) and give her some better consistency in her kit.

If someone jumps on Sona's carry, she has the fewest options of any support, especially pre-6. If she happens to have her Power Chord up, she can hit the enemy with a slow. This doesn't really help if the enemy is already on her carry, especially if Leona has Exhaust ready or hasn't cast Shield of Daybreak yet. She can try and burst down, but oh wait, she only has one ability that does damage and it has a 10 second cooldown. Now you have given her a second poke ability, sure, but if you've done anything close to correctly balancing it, if an all-in champion manages to catch a carry out, she should kill her before the poke support kills her.

What do the other supports do? Nami can speed her ally up, heal him, and stun the enemy. Soraka can deal damage every 2.5 seconds, silence her target to prevent immediate Exhaust, and heal/buff her ally's armor. Taric can stun, heal both of them and his carry already takes less damage because of a passive armor buff.

Literally [b]every[/b] support that is played other than Sona has hard CC pre-6. Literally [b]every[/b] support that is played other than Sona has cc that has a range longer than 550. Literally [b]every[/b] support that is played other than Sona has more health and armor than her.

Now, can people still play Sona? Yes. But is she still fun and satisfying? No. She is TOO WEAK and susceptible to burst at all stages of the game, and now that you're removing her auras she isn't even deserving of this

Solomonarius7/2/2014, 12:41:54 AM20 votes

Having played more than 1k games with Sona mid in Season 2, 3 and 4, I only have one question to ask: Why is mid Sona being disregarded? Many supports can be played as mages also - Annie, Zyra, Leblanc. Mid Sona has always been strong, and I've always enjoyed playing with her, until Season 4 hit, and all her ratios got nerfed on the basis that it would make support Sona with ability power become too strong. AP Sona then got even further nerfed when Lich bane got nerfed. All champions who would use Lich Bane got a small buff - except Sona.

Sona was in Season 3 an extremely versatile champion, being able to be built AP, AD, hybrid and support and function well at all levels. Yes, she still sees a lot of play because she can help the team with small buffs/heals here and there, but that hasn't made her any more interesting. Taking a look at the big picture, there is nothing that defines her anymore. After Season 4 started, she's been reduced to a walking squishy aura dispenser.

Sona's never been a champion with which you can make crazy plays on. That's fine, not every champion has to be as multi-faceted as Thresh or Orianna. Sona is like that but she still has some potential for diversity. I know you're not trying to enforce a meta, but mid Sona's been a thing for a long while now and you should take that into account. Your goal should be to make champions more versatile and more interesting, not reducing them to a single lane, a single role, a single build and a single playstyle.

Swordhawk7/2/2014, 6:02:30 AM18 votes

So, if I'm reading this right, then her "auras" no longer do ANYTHING except for at the instant that they're activated? That doesn't really sound like an aura at all.

Lyraphix7/2/2014, 8:21:07 AM16 votes

When there's more frustration with these changes than there were with Nidalee's rework, I think that should send A MASSIVE SIGNAL THAT THESE CHANGES LOOK LIKE THEY'RE GOING TO KILL SONA

A Wild AP Sona7/3/2014, 7:37:30 PM15 votes
  1. Buff Sonas Q/ult damage and fuck the auras
  2. lower mana cost for ult (should be 100 for all ranks)
  3. sona needs more dueling potential
  4. fuck the teamwork nonsense

the current sona is good enough for helping teammates

she STILL has not received a q buff/power cord compensation buff for lich bane being gutted AND you already nerfed her damage previously now your telling me you want to nerf her power cord from 100% to 50%? seriously what the fuck

she is missing out on a good 100-250 damage PER ROTATION over old ap sona why the hell would you remove that much damage from a champion and not give a compensation buff?

NORMALLY when you nerf damage you do it by 15-20 damage instead of fucking chopping 200 damage off the champions kit for no good reason

just how much does riot hate sona?

a 5 item leona with thornmail can fucking 1v1 a fed tryndamere but you dont want sona dueling anybody?

why do you insist so much on sona being a bad champion that relies on teammates to be carried to victory and cant 1v1 anybody herself?

if you gutted any other champion and removed 100-250 damage per rotation from their kit there would be fucking rioting in the streets so why the hell do you think its ok for sona?

stop acting like only shitty bronze 5 people pick sona that want to sit in a bush the entire game and get carried and let her actually FIGHT other champions

how about that for your "healthy interaction" bullshit? the interaction of being able to actually fucking defend yourself in a 1v1 situation

Techy3257/2/2014, 9:16:16 AM15 votes

Alright, I guess I should weigh in on this as well. As an author of one of the most popular Sona guides in the world right now I feel I should give some input on what I see these changes doing to Sona.

Sona play resolves around the utility of her ability to bring out high speed heals, harass positional mistakes, and help chase down enemies. Not to mention having a strong flash engage method. These changes mess with all of this as Riot decided to re-imagine what an aura should be.

First off lets tackle what you have just done to Sona's Q. Sona relies on her Auto-Q-empowered auto combo in lane to keep her and her ADC relevant in lane phase. This removal of bonus stats, but giving the ADC an empowered auto as well removes much of the power behind Sona's lane. This "aura" changes Sona from a champion that has to play the bushes and minions to harass her opponents into a wishful AP fighter, because the only way to fully take advantage of her new aura is going to be having your ADC lay down some harass as well since Sona is losing power there.

The reason Sona is so strong in lane is because the closer the game gets to mid-game the stronger her poke and utility become, it is a shame that a harass based support should be punished for harassing well. Everything Sona has now is dependent on risk and ability to play skillfully. As a squishy champion you have to harass from a "safe" spot, and if you mess up you get punished by your opponents for it. I would consider that fair and balanced considering the new utility item that we finally get to build on sona(ardent censer) it just seems wrong to have her kit nerfed right as she was given a decent boost.

This lower W HP ratio with percent health heal garbage does the opposite of fixing anything with Sona. Not only that you threw an AoE shield in, which I won't even call an aura because its not. Early game Sona heals work like the backbone of her harass kit, as we go forward to deal damage we usually take some in return or the ADC does. Our already small mana hungry heals in lane heal us both up and allow us to remain in lane. This new passive encourages fights over harass.We do not need a shield after we back out from harass, we just need our heal, and not a silly percent health one because now we get even less back for the mana we put into it. The whole idea of a spammy healing Sona at mid-late game is ideal to her kit, and plays fantastically well with the right team compositions. Considering her 50-55% win rate I cannot even figure out where the idea came from that she was too strong, she just needed a visual update...not some kit breaking nerf rework.

Sona's E, the most underused, nearly impact-less ability in her kit. The sole reason Sona players even use her E since the nerfs have been to consistently land a different power chord. In the rare instance that someone actually uses it to chase someone down it is underwhelming and gives such small slows and speed boosts that it is not even worth it as an active. It is literally there as a faceless third key to make sure we can get our Q or W power chords off without having to wait another ~4 second(40%CDR) for the preferred ability to come back up. If one thing on Sona needed a rework it was this, but to me it just looks like the only thing that happened was it dodged the nerfs the other abilities got.

When I clicked to check out this Sona update I was excited that maybe Sona's E was getting changed to a better utility for her team, I was more than disappointed to see it was the soul survivor of Riot's nerfing spree on my favorite champion.

Here are the changes I propose, that might fit Sona's aura/spam/harass kit better. First off instead of nuking Sona's abilities just give her aura's a particle effect on those influenced by them, leave her Q and W be as they are perfect, but buff her e as its useless at the moment. Then give her a VU and call it good.

Saint Tyrone 7/3/2014, 5:08:46 PM14 votes

Why does Sona need a rework?

Itzely7/3/2014, 10:42:29 AM12 votes

RIP SONA. Was nice to play with u, now people is even gonna report me for use her. They always tell me to pick another champ in rankeds, so, guess what are they gonna tell me now. GG RIOT. ironic

xImaginaryfriend7/2/2014, 7:59:06 AM11 votes

I can already tell from your first few posts that you're going to ruin her when shes already a 2nd tier support. Sorry to bring this up but your elo is not high enough to appropriately judge what playing sona is like in a real game;nothing against silvers but playing in that elo really gives you a flawed view of what its like to play in a lane against quality players that can land skillshots and know how to actually trade appropriately and control the lane. And secondly, why is a guy with 0 sona games and less than 10 support games overall even discussing the sona rework with the community? Can you imagine having someone else in any real life industry discussing things with a wide audience when they have virtually no experience with the subject? Nothing personal against you but your statements are being delivered from a position of authority when you really have no knowledge of the subject beyond watching other people play or some internal testing with other low elo players aside from a select few people like phreak. If you want an idea of where sona is sitting look at her pick rate in competitive play or ask actual pro supports why sona isn't being picked other than a handful of times over the entire season across all regions.

You stated that sona wasn't designed to win a straight up duel but that's literally the only way you can win a lane with her by constantly applying pressure via autos and q to force them out of the lane to extend your adcs farm lead(binary,toxic etc insert whatever riot buzzword) or by outplaying in an extended duel. If you aren't applying said pressure you allow thresh/etc to be in a position where a single cc can be your death and gg on the lane.

You said sona "sits in a brush" waiting for the perfect ult but that's delusional and nobody playing in real games actually plays that way unless they want to lose bot lane 100% and get yelled at by the adc for not applying any kind of pressure or "playing forward" if you've ever heard the term.

You said you wanted to make her auras more visible and that's fine if you made them actually visible around the feet of other characters or whatever so people could see when they have a buff on them and make people feel like shes giving more to the fight(so is the decreased range if they gave more power) but please don't pretend like your 100ad/ap argument is valid, its spread across your whole team and alot of those stats are being wasted so its no where near as efficient as you're making it out to be. Does your mid laner getting ad matter? no Does your adc getting ap matter? no

The whole idea of applying a short duration idea is absolutely horrible and just makes positioning that much more difficult in a tense scenario where your positioning can mean a win/loss for your whole team. Without even trying it once I can tell you right now that in that situation I would be more likely to completely avoid even attempting to activate the auras properly for the safety of being in a proper postion and being in the correct location for a proper crescendo, which will always be more valuable in a fight than whatever miniscule stat boost someone gets for a few seconds. Basically you're just making her more "skill based" but in a way that is infinitely less valuable than being skilled at something like thresh/morg.

Anyway, I've ranted too much as it is and I could go on but I'm not sure you'll even see this post so I'm going to end it here. In conclusion, whatever you do you need to reconsider the whole short duration buff "auras" and just make them more visible and more powerful in a much shorter range so sona players can worry about maximizing team stat increases over a duration of time in a fight rather than just the cast. Also as someone else said previously the longer cd on her q will only make her ability to cancel out lifesteal on adcs that much less viable.Sona

RiotRiot Scruffy7/3/2014, 2:09:49 AM11 votes

This is a really unique and positive situation for us and you all (the players), because we are going to have her on PBE for longer than most changes we have done in the past.

What this means is that there will be lots of time for testing her-> giving feedback-> making changes-> testing more-> etc.

Some of the changes may look like nerfs in isolation, but the whole picture of the changes will not amount to a nerfed sona. More importantly, our main target is making Sona much more satisfying to play with a much higher skill ceiling that allows her to make plays against the newer supports like thresh, braum, etc.

PS - Fearless is really committed to delivering the improved Sona that the core Sona players want, and he is 100% on team Sona with this update.

Sir Vejeiro7/4/2014, 1:18:50 AM11 votes

Just one word... "NO"

Sona already became one of, if not the weakest supports of the list w/ so many direct and indirect nerfs.

-Her poke is now just an shadow of what it was last season;

-Ok her heal have a short CD like nami and alistar but still is the weakest and only hits one target even if it gives an small passive bonus ( that cant really do anything during team fights);

-Her Movement speed bonus, passive and ult are the only skills that actually helps in team fights (and not much beside the ult actually);

-AP Sona core items got all nerfed already;

-Sona is not a good duelist, as so increasing CD will make her even more vulnerable since she dont have that many offensive skills and kill potential or escape;

-As a mage (plz check her champion profile) and poke/sustain support atm she lacks potential as what she was supposed to do;

-As support she already have some really hard times in lane against the major meta supports (Leona, Thresh, Morgana, Braum, etc).

Is not a secret that Riot wants to place some champions in a fixed position instead give us the chance of use them in different roles, specially mage supports (like lulu, soraka and sona mid lane), what is really a pity since they had a lot of potential and most important... they was fun to play.

Just a thought

I believe that instead their goal is get non meta supports nerfed to the point where they cant even carry their adc to mid game or carry the lane by themselves when the lane team up fails.

Please dont start w/ the 100 AD and AP Buff!! Thats all situational. Counting that your entire team is alive and in range and specially if YOU are alive so yes the bonus exist but thats not the point. You can count how many times this happen in a game and we cant forget the rule: "Kill squishy ones first" and theres no one squishier than Sona. Also the point is not fix her skills to affect the player selected target. Sona have her characteristics, skills and personality as champion so about that plz keep her as she is.

I dont think sona needs a rework, VU, pretty particles or anything like that. What she needs is or a buff or a revert on her previous nerfs making her viable again.

Edit: Btw the circle around the aura is too bright and and distracts the attention =/

ADCs items got buffs (probably not even thinking about the impact that it will cause on top laners and junglers) even tho ADCs was always able to carry their teams while supports get nerfed over and over again.

As support she deals no relevant dmg or buffs/sustain, as mage she deals dmg but she dont really have much kill potential, as champion her ratios are low and shes the squishiest character of the game...

Edit: Forgot to mention that reducing her skills and aura range forces Sona or her allies to get closer to each other what makes them vulnerable to any AoE so if the team wants to take advantage of the aura bonus this can result in all team get murdered by any Aoe initiation and execution, that includes: Malphite, Fiddle, Orianna, Nami, Wukong, Nunu, Pantheon, Vlad, Talon, Leona, Katarina, Jinx, Brand, Cassiopeia, Amumu, Gragas, Gankplank, Hecarim, Heimerdinger, Ziggs, Yasuo, Jarvan, Leblanc, Kennen, Miss Fortune, Lux, Nautilus, Thresh, Viktor, Twitch, Velkoz, Xerath, Zyra, Ezreal, Anivia... Did i missed someone?

Even if Sona is my favorite champion by far as support main i confess that atm i have to play the actual meta champions in order to win games.

Luv u Sona plz dont die <3

hartar7/3/2014, 10:21:58 AM10 votes

I really saw the sona rework on Surrender @ 20,and i need to said,it is not a good idiea.

Auras it is gave to Sona her identidty,removing that, and she not unique anymore.Beside,the range for the bonus are so small,for Sona to be effective,she will need to be really close to the alies,to the point that a leona can get both in one Zenith blade.

Please Riot,rethink this rework, or she will be on the same level has urgot,unplayable.

Jeedos7/4/2014, 5:06:27 PM10 votes

Sona Does not need at all, she has simply been hammered with nerfs in time gone by. She fit the S2 and S1 meta by being a sustained damage support.

The bot lane meta has changed drastically thus Sona needs her kit buffing which is both unique and solid - however it has been nerfed too hard to make any impact when we see supports like Nami Leona Braum Thresh Janna dominatng bot lane at the moment.

Simply put - buff her mobility, survivability and give her some stronger/noticable utility and then she'll be fine. e.g.

  • Make her E more impactful early
  • Give her stronger base stats on her heal and base HP (maybe movespeed)
  • Lower the cooldown on her R
  • Make her Q powerchord stronger

Don't rework her, you're destroying her identity and a perfectly fine champion which can be fixed by a a series of small buffs.

Plus what is exactly wrong with invisible power? People know that Sona is an aura based champion, the same way people recognize that Soraka is a healing champion and so on. Having invisible power does not make X situation or X champion much worse, surely this is just a minor issue of clarity that Riot can add to Sona already. Rather than just reworking her for the sake of it, when she really does not need any drastic changes from my view.

grease lightning7/8/2014, 3:46:05 PM8 votes

LEAVE SONA ALONE!

Apollinarius7/3/2014, 5:12:53 PM8 votes

I'm going to chime in here as someone whose favorite support is Sona right now.

These changes are taking Sona in a completely different direction from where she is now. They literally change the decision making process behind picking her, let alone how she should be played.

Old Sona: Has really strong level 1 poke that allowed her to get a huge HP lead in lane so that Leona can't easily all-in her and kill her at level 2. Has an AD steroid that allows very good tower pushing for a 5 person team and generally synegizes very well with bursty AD champions. Has an AR MR buff and aura that helps the lifestealing ADC stay in the fight much longer because of the nice synergy between LS and resistances. Has a permanent speed boost when roaming the map so that she can ward fast, and can give her allies a speed boost when chasing the enemy.

New Sona: Has average level 1 poke that means she will die to a level 2 all-in or at least have to flash and run to base. All her auras are very short range, meaning that trying to benefit from them means her team can get destroyed by AOE abilities like Leblanc W, Amumu, Malphite, Maokai, Alilstar, Braum, Leoona, Twitch, Talon, Riven, Annie, Anivia... Just to name a few. Has no sterioid that synergizes with scaling ratios so she gives the same buff to tanks as damage dealers. The buff is for only one attack, so no more tower pushes with Sona. Has a shield instead of resistances. A shield which is best used at the start of a fight to prevent being bursted, but the heal benefits from being low health, so there is always a conflict between when to use it. Has the same movespeed system as before, but it runs out fast instead of being permanent. It's a really, really weak Sivir ult. Unless you're hitting many people with it, it's just a way worse version of Lulu/Kayle MS boost.

As far as lategame viability, the old Sona was probably the strongest support to have in the game. Those stats were huge on a Deathcap Karthus or PD+IE+LW Vayne. With 40% CDR and enough mana, you could really do amazing things, such as have your low HP carry never die because of the defenses, or completely wreck towers and inhibitors. The new Sona seems to be much less capable of bringing a lot to her team, while at the same time feeling overpowered because of the big burst from Q aura and the big shield from W aura. She's going to go from being strong while not feeling very strong to being weak while feeling overpowered.

WorthlessSupport7/4/2014, 1:59:00 AM8 votes

After testing the new Sona she felt more than weak. She lost her aggressiveness and really feels like a passive, lane stalling support. The CDs are just way too high to let her play aggressively and power chord needs too long to get loaded if you dont want to get oom of spamming qwe.

Speaking of E: it is more than underwelming and feels really, really weak to me. Atm it gives Sona and her allies the ability to roam the map because of the aura + low cd (you usually get E lvl 8 or 13 and at this time you are having some cdr besides masteries). With the new E Sona cant keep her team mobile since she has to stay with the adc and running around to "tag" everyone" brings her out of position.

The range of the "auras" is way too low to allow Sona to play like the squishy champ she is + the "auras" VFX look really ugly to me ._. - too bright and just jumps into the eyes.

Traverse7687/6/2014, 10:39:17 PM7 votes

2nd lowest health champion in the Champion universe and they nerf her down.

These idiots need to play 100 straight sona games in bronze to see how powerful she really is.

Im so angry.

Mialee7/4/2014, 5:05:36 AM6 votes

Man I do not have access to the PBE but I went to the PBE thread to read the answers from people and I was surprised by what I found there!!

I read people answering based on games they had against bots ! Other people answer that they do not know how her late game feels because the SINGLE (bot) game they played just lasted only few minutes because server crashed.

Some comments are like "yea she feels squishy but I did not have runes or masteries so I am not sure"

The only serious comments I found just confirmed mine and most of us suspicion that new Sona sux and we are better off with no changes at all.

In general though, I want to raise some concerns about the way the PBE works. I do not want to see a rioter write in couple of days " but you see these guys liked new Sona " without of course mentioning that he is referring to someone who praised her visuals and/or liked previous Sona more and on top of that played just 1 single bot game with her!

MackleDoge7/1/2014, 11:03:16 PM5 votes

I think I'm just going to make a mental note of what you guys are going for here and then wait until I actually see and experience in action before I say anything. The direction sounds nice in concept and it has potential, but I can't say that it is going to make playing Sona any more enjoyable for those that like her already. Just out of curiosity, what is the priority for you guys: that Sona reads better to the teammates of Sona or that Sona still feels fun and enjoyable to those that currently enjoy her (assuming you had to pick one)?

WraithTanker7/1/2014, 11:23:43 PM1 votes

Will you be fixing Crescendo not stunning players?

Sona-->LeeSin

I was watching a friend play when sona on his taam crescendo on lee sin that far away and in the middle of her hit box and he wasnt stunned aat all