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Sona needs a bit of love: tons of suggestions inside

Aeolian Melodies·8/6/2015, 4:33:23 AM·12 votes·4,334 views

So lately I've been playing a lot of Sona after sulking her for a bit post-rework. I've come to the conclusion that there is great potential in that rework, but she's being held back - partly due to external factors, partly due to her kit itself. As a jack-of-all trades, Sona isn't (and shouldn't be) allowed to best specialists in their own area; she can't engage harder than Leona, she can't heal as well as Soraka, she can't peel as well as Janna, and she doesn't hurt as much as a true damage dealer. That is fine. However, when you take into consideration that Nami exists, and that she:

  • Has more hard CC, accessible more often, from longer range, and her CC isn't affected by tenacity
  • She has better sustain (numbers and practical use), AND an actual incentive to max it first
  • Her AA buff lasts longer, slows, and is more visible to the ally
  • Her speed buff can be done more often, and more reliably on allies

Essentially you have 2 jack of all trades who hard CC, sustain, buff allies, and speed them up; one of them does it better than the other. Why would you pick Sona over Nami (except preference)? The only thing Sona has on Nami is her damage, but unless you think your support hitting like a truck is somehow more beneficial to your lane and your team, why go for Sona?

She needs an edge. Thoughts:

OBVIOUSLY NOT ALL OF THIS SHOULD BE DONE. i'M MERELY GIVING EVERY POSSIBLE IDEA THAT COMES TO MIND.

GENERAL

  • Make her tankier, so poking and tagging allies with auras is less dangerous to her (not as bad as she once was, but she's still extremely fragile)
  • WIth the same idea in mind, buff her base MS so that she pokes enemies and tags allies better, BUT is still heavily punished if caught out of position
  • Buff her mana pool or mana regen - for a champion with such incentive to cast often and in rapid succession, she is pretty damn gated by mana all game long
  • Reward Sona for properly tagging allies with skill: small CD reduce on whichever aura was used, small mana regain, etc

POWER CHORD

  • Make Diminuendo and Tempo more visible on enemies, especially Diminuendo. It's hard for me to feel good about Diminuendo (which is powerful!) when I can barely see its impact on my screen (Arcade Sona somewhat fixes it).
  • For some reason if you cast a spell immediately after using PC, it doesn't give a stack. FIx it.

HYMN OF VALOR

  • Make it so the buff can proc on tower. Sona used to be great at supporting pushes, the rework removed most of that: give it back, it was one of her signature imo
  • Make it so the buff is more visible
  • The buff does not properly grant assists, fix it
  • Make it so the buff cannot be spend on a lane creep

ARIA OF PERSEVERANCE

  • Lower the mana cost/even it out so that maxing W in a tough lane actually is an option for her
  • Increase the shield duration, for an AoE shield that requires you to tag allies with a 300 range aura, it's very short
  • Make it grant the shield on Sona's healed target, and refresh the shield on that target if she tags him (Lux W style) for clutch saves and good teamwork
  • Make it heal the target more/go to another target if Sona herself is full
  • Make the heal stronger OR lower its mana cost, atm it is extremely inefficient. If you don't want to strengthen the heal because you don't want her to be a strong AFK heal bot, which is understandable, strengthen the shield which requires timing and tagging allies

SONG OF CELERITY

  • Lower the CD, for what this ability does it does feel like it should be up more often than this; if you don't want to make it so Sona is impossible to catch when caught with her pants down, lower the CD only if an allied champion was tagged
  • Allies that stay within the aura keep the MS buff as long as the aura stands (rewarding teamwork, and since it means stay grouped tight, it has drawback, aka enemy AoE hard CC)
  • The buff doesn't properly grant assists, please fix it asap
  • Creeps are sped up again (giving her the potential to support pushes again)
  • Increase the value at lower ranks... other supports have one point wonder skills, she does not

CRESCENDO

  • Lower the CD, it has no business being twice as long as Ashe's ult, Tibbers or Solar Flare when these abilities have global range/tons of burst/superior range, and for Annie and Leona, on champions who have another mean to hard CC in their kit
  • Give it back its old width, "but we only changed the visuals!" lalalala, not hearing you over the sound of my reflex Crescendos that whiff when they would never have whiffed pre-rework
  • While the ult passively making her QWE stronger is a nice thematic, what it does is it makes Sona unable to have the full potential of her basic skills until lvl 18, not cool for a support! Take some if not all of that power and actually give it to the skill

33 Comments

1000angrybees8/6/2015, 5:22:37 AM6 votes

See, now these are some decent suggestions. There are ways to make her better without making her too much. I especially like the hymn aura tower proc, the W shield buffs, the grouping together with her E, and the Ult CD tuning.

Stiv12348/6/2015, 2:33:49 PM3 votes

Reward Sona for properly tagging allies with skill: small CD reduce on whichever aura was used, small mana regain, etc

Oh yeah, this would be soooo nice.

Make the heal stronger OR lower its mana cost, atm it is extremely inefficient. If you don't want to strengthen the heal because you don't want her to be a strong AFK heal bot, which is understandable, strengthen the shield which requires timing and tagging allies

They need to buff it ASAP... its pitiful, seriously.

OperationDEEZ18/6/2015, 4:44:54 AM3 votes

As a jack-of-all trades, Sona isn't (and shouldn't be) allowed to best specialists in their own area

Thresh You called?

Cowgirl Ed8/6/2015, 5:06:40 AM2 votes

her movement speed is a joke her e is a joke her heal is a joke early going ap instead of support is much better

the rework was a failure, but had a nice concept

Aeolian Melodies8/8/2015, 3:54:44 AM2 votes

bumperino?

SnazzyTheMister8/9/2015, 3:48:26 AM2 votes

while i don't think sona is in as bad a place as everyone seems to think shes in i can agree that she could use some love.

mana from power chord, something on the side of 10 +(5*lvl), would be nice. it potentially refunds the cost of last spell cast, not that big when you need to cast 3 spells to get a it while also encouraging sona not to hold onto a PC forever.

redistributing the power in W to have the heal scale harder and the shield have higher base values. so if you take some early ap and are maxing Q first that ap helps your heals and late game ap heavy builds provide sustain for sieges or in rougher match ups you can max W for the bigger shield earlier and late game tanky builds still provide protections with well timed shields. i like the idea of being able to refresh the shield of the heal target as well but i'm not sure if it will feel nice to play with because you don't have a great way to pick who gets double shielded.

pushing E to more of a one point wonder seems like the right idea what with Q and W being so strong for lane. allies that stay within the aura getting refresh on the buff repeatedly and increasing the duration bonus of an allies entering the arua to more be like 1 second seems like it a good place to start. you need to be careful with this those cus talisman and glory are items, at lvl 1 it should be more about giving allies the ability to side step in scraps then fully reposition/disengage.

the idea of ult scaling is cute and the idea of putting that on a support who is looking for those ulti level power spikes seems like the right choice but its likely costing sona a lot for a fairly small pay off of invisible power, also it adds to sona's already overloaded tool tips.

only zhule8/8/2015, 5:35:55 PM1 votes

Does anyone else have in issue where Sona, seems REALLY slow in comparison to other champions? Like i'll get boots of mobility on her and have like 445-450 movement speed, and i'm still just barely out pacing my allies with there 370-380 movement speed.

I've noticed it being even worse trying to run someone down or outrun someone else. Like i'll try to run down an enemy, me with 70+ movement speed above theirs, and it will take me most of a lane to close the 500-600 range gap. And yet when i'm trying to outrun a champion who has like 10 more movement speed then me it's like they are on top of me in seconds.

Rozzeta8/8/2015, 8:39:19 PM1 votes

Look at all the ideas that Fearless could have ignored.

Dakuraigun8/8/2015, 10:57:40 PM1 votes

Honestly, as a Sona player myself, I wouldn't mind the idea of her getting any of the buffs mentioned. She does pale in comparison to champions like Thresh or Blitz, who don't need much to do stuff.

Honestly, I think they should add a thing with Crescendo and her Power Chord which does an additional effect when Crescendo is leveled, such as maybe her E Chord turn into a situational stun, like Irelia, or maybe have her W Chord do a partial blind, like Shaco's W does. As far as her Q Chord, probably make it to where it amplifies damage from allies. Something that makes it more rewarding when landing a Chord on someone (Because honestly it feels more rewarding to do it with just her Q chord. The rest feels like it doesn't change anything.)

As far as her Auras, the Q aura is fine, and I do agree it should proc on towers also because you're right: it does require an Ardent Censer to get literally anywhere with tower pushing. W's shield and heal does seems very underwhelming, even when adding more AP into the mix. Even at like, 200 AP it still feels weak. And the shield feels like it doesn't even exist sometimes. Her W, I feel like they should put a passive movement speed buff on it, and then make it to where the active adds additional MS equal to your AP scaling to you, and then give your allies the passive buff with half the scaling to make it worthwhile.

And then her Ult. I like it. Helps when locking people in place, but for it being an ult the duration is way too short, honestly. On top of that it's literally her ONLY hard CC. Other supports, like Janna, Thresh and Morgana have a lot better stuns or roots (because someone corrected me on that for Morgana) or knockups with JUST THEIR Q. Seriously. It's Sona's Ult. The stun should last a bit longer, maybe 2.5-3 seconds (Because The Box feels like a Death Sentence, and the Tidal Wave is literally just that [Albeit neither stuns, they still impact the flow all the same, Sona's Ult doesn't feel like it does that, it just Stuns for 1.5 seconds and that's it.]).

I mean, that's just me. She feels underpowered sometimes compared to most other Supports, and that's why she isn't even seen in competitive play. She needs more power, but Riot doesn't see that.

The Yetii Rider8/8/2015, 11:48:46 PM1 votes

I want Sona to be buffed. That said, Riot isn't going to take a thread with so many inaccuracies seriously, so I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here and point out the flaws in your argument (because I want you to strengthen it so that Meddler will be impressed when he reads the OP).

  1. Sona is already rewarded for tagging allies. The duration of the buff that allows her to tag allies extends by 0.5 seconds.

  2. Sona's base MS was nerfed from 330 to 325 specifically BECAUSE Riot felt her ability to poke in lane and then escape counter-harass was too easy. They're not going to give her a base MS buff because you think it'd be better for her to have an easier time poking without counter.

  3. The buff being expendable on minions and monsters is intentional to provide clear counterplay to the skill (If you simply stay out of range of the target's attack range, they can either waste the buff on a minion, or miss CS). This is the same reason that Caitlyn's passive was changed to no longer build on turrets, if something should hit a champion, that champion should have the option to simply avoid it.

  4. Lowering the mana cost on Aria of Perserverance would result in players maxing it from the start. Also, you have to understand that Power Chord has an inherent mana cost that is dictated by the cost of Sona's basic abilities, that's why they're all so expensive, because her passive is loaded with power.

  5. The reason that Sona's ultimate CD is so long is that, unlike ECA or Solar Flare, it has a practically instant cast time, and also unlike Leona, Annie or Ashe, Sona will and often does build CDR. Her base CD for her ultimate is based around the fact that players are going to build 40% CDR on her.

Jefftiffy8/9/2015, 3:56:05 AM1 votes

I honestly feel like Sona's problem isn't her numbers. They fixed her numbers. It's her E (that is the move speed one right?). It only gives MS to the people who enter it any point where her other abilities give other effects than the activation effect such as an extra proc of damage or a shield. I think it needs to give 2 of her closest teammates a microstun (like .1s) on their next single target effect (like an AA or spell) and it would not apply on herself (no for potential solo Sona). This wouldn't tip her too far in any direction but it would give her some ability to bring CC to teams that need to to interrupt channels but wouldn't really effect normal fighting.

Erockandroll8/6/2015, 5:05:31 AM1 votes

I Think her passive already procs on towers. I just that the only good one for that his her Q-chord. And I don't recall them removing that.

A slight buff to her defenses would go a long way. particularly how they would scale with her heal and shield.

Definitely fix anything that doesn't properly give assists.

I have two Ideas of my own.

a) Assuming we keep her identity as a poke support. Make her powerchord ignore a portion of the targets MR. This is designed to give her more power over the tanks, who would otherwise eat up everything you dish out, While not becoming oppresive against other Squishes.

b) My more Dangerous proposal. Assuming she should have scaling utility, while being a spell slinger. What if her utility scaled off of maximum Mana? It would allow her to get a Tear, (a cheap items) for her choice of mana item, while diversifying her options for CDR Items.

Origami Kaiju8/6/2015, 3:10:53 PM1 votes

I love all of these suggestions. Sona's auras should have more impact, I love the idea of the cd lowering or refreshing the effect when you tag allies.

W - The cost and cd are too high for an ability that barely negates the damage from a single auto attack. Either lower the cost and slightly lower the cd, or buff the shield duration/amount. The shield is one of the shortest shields in the game. What if the shield lasted longer for each ally you tag, so not only does the aura persist for .5 seconds but what if the shield did too? I'm not arguing that Sona's sustain should rival that of Soraka, simply that her shield actually be effective, because right now it doesn't feel like it.

E - Let's be honest, early the speed boost from E is very pitiful. The only useful part of e is the slow from it's powerchord. Sure, after you have a few hundred AP it's fine, but is that really how it should work for a support champion? Also, for Sona to be the squishiest champion in the game, maybe she should be hard to catch? If they aren't willing to buff this ability itself at least the mana/cd should be brought down.

One thing that I don't find fun about playing Sona is that you have to build ap to be effective. You simply won't do enough for your team with a traditional support build. Just think, while Janna and Nami both benefit from AP, it isn't absolutely necessary for them to be effective because of the utility that they bring with their abilities. This is why you feel so weak when playing from behind on Sona, without ap items you simply don't bring enough utility for your team.

Shénzhì8/6/2015, 3:15:55 PM1 votes

Sona does have an impact. I play Sona regularly and she is fine except...

[P] and [Q] The 3x Power Chord passive with [Q] gives her alot of instant power that ought to be ironed-down a little (but keep same damage output)

Honestly she's fine right now before 5.16

Abyssphere8/6/2015, 4:11:44 PM1 votes

"Make it so the buff cannot be spend on a lane creep" - I don't think they should get rid of this. Whenever I poke with Q and tag my ADC but they're not in a position to poke too, it's useful for their last hitting.

RedCyclone8/6/2015, 11:21:52 PM1 votes

Make Diminuendo and Tempo more visible on enemies, especially Diminuendo. It's hard for me to feel good about Diminuendo (which is powerful!) when I can barely see its impact on my screen (Arcade Sona somewhat fixes it).

Funny thing about that, they had a solution and scrapped it due to some problems during the rework in PBE her W chord made enemies smaller and less intimidating, much more noticeable then a few green sparks flying off them with a tiny red (why?) flicker for the duration what often gets totally lost in a fight