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Sona doesn't need nerfs. The Sorcery and Domination trees need to be looked at.

Tribbles Foxfolk·11/14/2017, 6:32:00 PM·16 votes·2,705 views

As someone that mains Sona and has since Season 3, I've felt her pain for what will be 5 Seasons now. She was gutted for the longest time and even when Ardent Censer broke all Enchanters, she was still not a staple pick. Now that Aery (and by extension, Sorcery with Domination off-tree) has caused her to see such a huge power spike and playrate increase, I get the eerie feeling Riot is going to gut Sona again before they look at the runes.

Aery is currently the problem, not Sona. Sorcery doesn't offer any better alternatives since Arcane Comet has way too little reliability and Phase Rush is no good on most poke mages like Sona. Electrocute is whatever; same problem as Thunderlord's Decree in that she can't proc it with her Q-auto-passive anymore. Her only real other option would be something like Kleptomancy (which, actually, does synergize well with her Q + STE), but the Inspiration tree is otherwise very mediocre. (The TotalBiscuits are alright, Hexflash sucks, and the rest of the tree is forgettable. The +5% global CDR one is good, though)

51 Comments

Penns11/14/2017, 7:49:06 PM12 votes

Sona is pretty fascinating. She is the only champ that, no matter how broken she is, people will always say "is actually weak" and defend lul

NTrumpWeTrust11/14/2017, 7:09:12 PM10 votes

Fixing 1 champion makes far more sense than fixing 2 entire trees

RedCyclone11/15/2017, 5:43:57 AM6 votes

And here's me, long time Sona player fed up with the gated balancing they do

I couldn't care less if they end up nerfing her for having insane winrates, that's all fine n dandy making complete sense It's the point where she can't have any prominence in any e-sports games because apparently if she has a higher then 3% pickrate in tournaments then that means she needs to be nerfed. It's the reason Sona has become some oddity in support where she is a lategame carry that doesn't really help as a SUPPORT, thus making her a rare pick even when the meta suits her

zero35611/14/2017, 8:02:48 PM4 votes

Sona needs any an actual rework from someone who actually cares about her as a champion

Elisheva11/15/2017, 12:50:15 AM3 votes

She doesn't need nerfs, she needs a full rework. Not quite as bad as some other champions admittedly, but she shouldn't have such a powerful, game changing kit, that is completely aoe/shillshotless other than her ult, which has a large area, low cooldown, and high utility.

Tenth Leper11/14/2017, 6:57:02 PM2 votes

Well they can either nerf Sona directly or nerf her indirectly twice by first nerfing her runes then buffing her competitors who use those same runes.

Since buffing the other enchanters will not be received well by the community so soon after the ardent situation, I think it is unfortunately best to nerf her directly.

That being said, I expect they will end up nerfing her AND Aery, not because it is necessary but because it is the thing to do these days.

AL00011/14/2017, 7:24:36 PM1 votes

I agreed that rune needs to be re-balancing first before rebalancing champion.

Actually Aery and Scorch are very strong damage for poke only... With low cd and long range damage would see more benefit. Electro is good if not use Sorcery.

I did math... red/purple would give most damage and very unfair IMHO. <<< If play really safe.. prefect for assassin, mage and ADC.

PS. comet did more damage IF 100% chance to hit... ;\

BobaFlautist11/14/2017, 6:43:06 PM1 votes

I mean the other problem is everyone has negative mr at level one. Every magic damage dealer is gonna chunk anyone that didn't take mirror shield.

DracosKasu11/14/2017, 8:05:11 PM1 votes

To tell you the true the most use tree are actually domination and precision. Aery just happen to mostly never have a cd since you just need to pick her up to send her again unlike comet who is in cd which result to be stronger overall.

They already on check for aery and aftershock, i wouldnt be surprise if more rune are like electrocute and press the attack. And yes some champ can be more bursted like Ezreal because of one set of rune.

Craft Zeppelin11/14/2017, 7:27:50 PM1 votes

I agree. Poke, Dot, battle mages have very little options. Like if you really want to cater the entire mage class you will probably need like 5 keystones, Seriously

Milodic Mellodi11/14/2017, 11:02:01 PM1 votes

Why would anyone use Sorcery or Domination on Sona, when you could use Inspiration instead? Kleptomancy makes Sona insanely difficult to go against.

Eternya11/15/2017, 1:38:53 AM1 votes

I think Sona was fine before the hotfix but to be honest in order to see future Sona buffs i believe her kit needs to be looked at in general, having point and click poke will never be ok and she has some major issues that i'd like to see fixed in the future

Kubox11/15/2017, 1:56:42 AM1 votes

I think her current state is a mix of rune balance and lack of player knowledge/experience.

I've been playing her with Kleptomancy (Inspiration/Domination). Damage is fine, it's very easy for me to zone adc's out and the items I'm getting + cookies are making sure that I can sustain damage back and not go oom the moment I need to heal. For a while I thought that I was overbearing in lane and was definitely an unfair champ.

Until I met a Lucian with the brain to rush Vamp scepter. At that point, my poke was not enough to really zone him completely and I was more or less doing it for the money.

I think the moment the Sorcery tree gets tuned and players no longer stick to a pre-defined build, her win-rate should go down a bit

Aakesh11/14/2017, 9:13:32 PM1 votes

I don't get the point of aery over comet if you don't have any support skills?

Riot was actually dumb enough to make the utility option more powerful than the additional damage option

Comet is good on champs with pokes that come with CC to help it land. It scales better than Aery. Generally though Aery works with anything and has a lower cool down making it more suitable for champs who want to trade frequently.

Like Sona Pantheon Swain ( E damage amp ups aery,comets damage etc) Malzahar (will get beam in the face by aery two too three times if tag by his E three if ult)

Variks the Loyal11/14/2017, 7:28:27 PM1 votes

Is Aery busted on champions other than Sona?

That's what we need to ask first before changing anything.