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@fearless ideas to "buff" sona

It Is I Emoto··5 votes·2,552 views

Hello! I was playing many games with the Sona rework, the new auras are honestly a strong concept, but they still feel very weak, mostly at early and mid game. Honestly, building Sona defensive makes her weak, because of her scaling auras, and building her offensive makes her to a easy target to burst down, what might be problematic, because you're supposed to support your team, instead of dying.

I was thinking as first how to fix her "squishy-ness", and comparing her to other supports, she simply has a extreme low health base, she has even less health than a meele minion. Considering this, she really needs a health base buff to her early game to make her a bit more durable in lane.

Now an Idea for for Sonas passive:

Powerchord(My personal preference: Crescendo) Each time Sona casts a ability, all of Sonas other abilities cooldowns are reduced by 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 second. After 3 ability casts, Sona's next basic attack will deal bonus magic damage, with an additional effect depending on the last basic ability cast. ** NEW:** Additionally, at level 6, 11, and 16, all of Sonas non-ultimate abilities are reduced by 1 / 0.75 / 0.5 second and her passive cooldown reduction is increased by 0.25. NEW: At level 6, 11, and 16, the range of Sonas unique auras are increased by 50 units. (lvl 1: 350 / lvl 6: 400 / lvl 11: 450 / lvl 16: 500) NEW: Standing in Sonas Auras, will refresh the Aura-bonus (can be refreshed every second) and increase the duration of Sonas Aura for 0.5 seconds. Each ally can refresh the Aura once. MAX: 5 seconds (when all allies touch it.) **NEW:**At level 6 / 11 / 16, Sonas Auras recieve bonuses.

Why? This will mostly improve the current Sona rework, because she will have her abilities faster aviable, even without much cooldown reduction And for the cooldowns of Sonas Q, W , and E: they all start with 11 Sec on Cooldown, but thanks to the new Passive, and the reduction of 1 seccond with each point she put's in a ability. This will give Sona a important choice: What to max first? Q for being more offensive, but weaker heals or movement speed, W for having stronger sustain, but less poke, or E for stronger engage and disengage but sacrificing early game sustain and power. I updated her Passive a little bit. Reducing the Cooldowns for her Spells, so the passive cooldown reduction and the new additional cooldown reduction balances itself out. Additionally, standing in Sonas Auras will refresh the Aura-buffs. It is really stupid to stay close together in a teamfight, but that's now balanced with the Aura range increase.

Sonas Q:

Hymn of Valor Active: Sona sends out bolts of sound that deal magic damage to the two nearest enemies within 700-range, prioritizing champions. (Honestly, even if she lacks of wave clear and prefering it to make it like vlad's e, it's alright the way it is)

Magic Damage: 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+ 50% AP)

Aura: Sona and allied champions tagged with Hymn of Valor's aura deal bonus magic damage scaling on their attack damage AND ability power on their next basic attack OR ability within 3 seconds. This bonus damage is increased by 50% for Sona. The Magic Damage will trigger on Champions, turrets, and minions.

Hymn of Valor Magic Damage for allies: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ ALLIES 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20% AP) (+ ALLIES 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20%% AD) (+10 / 20 / 40) Sonas Magic Damage: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+ 23 / 25.5 / 27 / 28.5 / 30% AP)(+ 23 / 25.5 / 27 / 28.5 / 30% AD) (+15 / 30 / 60)

Powerchord bonus remains unchanged.

Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8. 25 / 7.75 Seconds

Sona's Q is honestly one of the strongest spells she has. Because of the weak base stats, it would be a better idea to let the Q aura bonus scale on allies AP/AD. Why? So Sona can build then more defensive, like she could before, and she knows, that she empowers her allies with her aura. It will also give Sona some of her early game dominance back, because her nerfed powerchord is right now extremly weak. NEW: To give Sona again the important decision what to max first, the bonus damage will scale with each rank in it, yet it will be a important decision for Sona players.

Sonas W:

Aria of Perseverance Active: Sona heals herself and a nearby allied champion with the lowest health percentage and gives Sona and her healed Ally bonus armor and magic resist for 3 seconds. The healing is increased by 1% for every 1% of the target's missing health.

Heal: 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+ 20% AP) Maximum Heal: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+ 40% AP) Bonus Armor and Magic Resist: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30

Aura: Sona and allied champions tagged with Aria of Perseverance's aura are shielded for 1.5 to 3 seconds. Additionally, The aura gives bonus armor and magic resist.

Shield Strength: 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+ 40% AP) (+10 / 20 / 40) Shield lenght: 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds Bonus Armor and Magic Resist: 5 / 7.5 / 10 / 12.5 / 15

Powerchord remains unchanged

Cooldown: 11 / 10 / 9.25 / 8.75 seconds

Sonas new heal is alright, but still somewhat weak if compared to other suports like tarics, namis, and etc heals. I considered about how to improve Sonas heal with keeping her numbers, so I thought, how about giving it like the old Sona? People might not noticed, but her old heal gave additional armor and magic resist to herself and the healed ally. It will help her almost dying allies extremly well with the additional armor and mr. About Sonas shield Aura, it's alright as it is, but still extremly weak. giving it the double numbers of her heal would be alright in my opinion. With the additional Shielding time, it will be easier for Sona to shield her allies from burst damage. NEW: Giving Sonas Aura additional armor and magic resist will improve her shield much better, as well, incoming burst damage will decreased alot.

Sonas E:

Song of Celerity Active: Sona gains a burst of bonus movement speed, giving allies within a range of 1000 a flat movement speed bonus, and ignores unit collision that decays down to the aura bonus over 3 seconds. The duration is increased by 0.5 seconds for each ally she tags with the aura.

Self Bonus Movement Speed: 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17% (+ 7.5% per 100 AP) (+ 2% x Crescendo's rank) Flat Movement Speed Bonus: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 units per second (+ 2.5 units per second, per 100 AP) (+ 5 ups x Crescendo's rank)

Aura: Allied champions tagged with Song of Celerity's aura gain movement speed for 1.5 to 3 seconds and ignore unit collision.

Aura Bonus Movement Speed: 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14% (+ 3.5% per 100 AP) (+ 2% x Crescendo's rank) Movement Speed Time: 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds

Powerchord remains unchanged

Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10.5 / 9.75 seconds

Sonas new E is perfect, it's not as annoying as her pre-work E, because it's active was a free item 3069 The only thing that bothers me, is that it's still somewhat annoying, because even if you're running away from a gank, if a minion wave is coming, it becomes kind of annoying to crash with minions. It will also improve Sonas positioning and can easily go in a teamfight with the ignore unit collision buff. (as well you can escape easily a blitz hook with running in a minion wave after you poked him a bit) NEW: I was thinking about to improve her new E without making it too strong as her old E, so I was thinking: "Why not making it work as her old E, but inverting how they did work?" So giving on activation a flat ms bonus, but touching the aura will give them the % ms bonus + ignoring unit collision. This will still help her allies around her, yet not giving them a bursty talisman alike speedboost. Sonas R:

Crescendo (My prefered name: Ballabile (Ballabile = (song) to be danced to))

Active: Sona plays an irresistible chord in a line, dealing magic damage to enemy champions and stunning them for 1.5 to 2.5 seconds, forcing them to dance.

Magic Damage: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 50% AP) Stun Duration: 1.5 / 2 / 2.5

Cooldown: 160 / 140 / 120

The increased Ult cooldown has a purpose, mostly because of Sonas new passive idea. As well, the increased stun duration makes it feel more beneficial if you hit as Sona the stun, since of the high cooldown.

This is basically the first time that I'm talking about changes on a champion, maybe some of those I've suggested sounds "op" and I'm open for critique! Also, not all changes have to be accepted, I believe in fearless, maybe he'll come up with something more unique in future to improve Sona!

Sincere.

UPDATE: updated the Reworked abilities. I might create a new kit for Sona too if people don't like this one. UPDATE 2: Updated her Passive again.

  • Added that her Aura-bonuses refresh each second
  • New Scaling for her Passive cooldown reduction
  • Cooldowns of her abilities reworked!

Another suggestion, I have created my own reworked Sona, without numbers.

I felt free to think about a own rework for Sona, because I think that some people could've do it better. This rework won't have any numbers because it's just a suggestion and maybe riot will get inspired by it and maybe try to make it real. This rework is based on her Lore and League Judgement, showing that her Etwahl (her instrument) has more power than you thought.

NEW PASSIVE: Crescendo Sona has unique Auras that Lasts for 3 seconds and extend each time a ally touch them. Each ally can refresh the aura once for 0.5 seconds. Those Auras range increase at level 6, 11, and 16. (range: lvl 1 - 5: 350 / lvl 6 - 10: 400 / lvl 11 - 15: 450 / lvl 16 - 18: 500 units) Maximal Possible Aura duration: 5 seconds. Additionally, each time Sona casts a Ability, the Cooldowns of all her Abilities are reduced by (lvl 1 - 5: 0.25 / lvl 6 - 10: 0.5 / lvl 11-15 0.75 / lvl 16 - 18: 1) seconds. With each time Sona casts a spell, she gains a stack of Crescendo. All of those stacks will be consumed if Sona uses her Ultimate Ability.

Yeah I removed her well known "Powerchord", because this one was Sonas other Damage ability, yet it didn't made Sona strong except if she got a Sheen/Lichbane. Instead, Sona will get a new Damaging ability that will allow her to make more "Plays". As well, I'll tell you what her Crescendo stacks for..

**Q: Hymn of Valor **(prefered name: Forte = stronger ) Sona will play a strong song (chord) that will damage every enemy unit in 700 range in a 90° Cone. Additionally, she creates a unique aura that will empower her Allies next Attack or Ability. This bonus is increased by 50% for Sona.

Pretty much nothing changed, except that Sona needs to aim if she wants to poke her opponents.

W: Aria of Perseverance (prefered name: Piacevole = pleasing) Sona will play a calming song (chord) that will heal herself and the most wounded ally in 1000 range. Sona and the healed ally recieve additional armor and magic resist. Additionally, Sona creates a unique aura that will shield her allies and gives them the half of the bonus armor and magic resist from her heal while lowering the defense of enemies. The closer the enemies are to Sonas aura, the more armor and magic resist they'll loose .

This is a mix of her reworked W and pre-work W, with and additional debuff for enemies. This one will probably increase her teamfight ability and make it more beneficial for Sona to go closer to her enemies, because even if she's somewhat sacrificing herself, it'll help her allies to burst enemies down.

E: Song of Celerity (prefered name: Presto = Very Fast) Sona will play a fast song (chord) that will damage every enemy unit in a 100° cone and slowing them (percent). The more enemies are hit, the weaker the slow and damage becomes. Additionally, Sona creates a unique Aura that increases the Movement Speed of her allies and gives them a ignore unit collision buff (percent), while lowering the movement of enemies. The closer the enemies are to Sonas aura, the more movement speed they'll loose (flat)

So, for the Powerchord removal, I gave her another damaging ability, and this one is actually a strong one. It might be weak in the laning phase, but in teamfights or chasing, it will be a incredibly strong one.

NEW R: Grand Finale

Sona plays a strong in magical chord that will consume all stacks of Crescendo and convert them to Magic Damage. All enemy targets in 1000 range hit by it will be stunned and will dance for 1.5 / 2 / 2.5. Additionally, the last basic ability Sona casted before her ultimate ability, will do an additional effect on enemies that are struckt.

Q: Morendo = dying away: Sona's ultimate will do bonus magic damage based on percent health of enemies struckt. **W: Diminuendo = gradually becoming softer **: Sonas ultimate will lower bonus armor and magic resist of enemies struckt. E: Largo = slowly and stately, broad: Sonas ultimate will additionally lower the movement speed of enemies struckt.

So, let's say that I combined her old ultimate with her old passive, powerchord, so it becomes a giant aoe powerchord. I feel like, this new updated version of her ult will increase her play makings and supporting, mostly of the additional effects she can do. It works somewhat like, Leblancs mimic. This ability won't have a high scaling on ap, but on her new passive, Crescendo stacks. It makes it more beneficial and gives Sona players a important decision: Wich ult should I use? All of them are great, but certain ones fit better to some situations, and I feel this would make Sona a stronger pick. Maybe a bit more complicated, but more worth to play.

Sincere!

54 Comments

Tadidam5 votes

I'm sure it has been brought before But how about mixing some of the old Sona aspect and some of the new ?

First, Riot should bring her auras back, that's her identity, while keeping the "snuggle zone" when she stay close the others champions. Just make the numbers smaller to balance things out.

This way you emulate the fact her music echoes and that its effects are stronger, the closer a champion is to hear it, and more importantly, you reward her for taking risks, instead or FORCING her to take risk all the time and get insta-deleted for it.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Well, if her shield aura is permanent, it would be pretty much a nerf instead of giving invisible bonus armor and magic resist imo :/ but if the aura buffs could refresh each time when allies touch them, it would be a huge buff

Booriin3 votes

Upvote for your thread :)

I'm a Sona main btw, simply because I don't like/don't enjoy/suck at skillshot champions and I love sona's style.

Everytime I take a look to sion's rework with his crazy ult, I wonder how can Sona cover her AD without sacrifice her ult or even herself.

Before the rework, I always wish Sona's aura can scale with AP, but this rework changed my mind. I feel pretty sick when I must build same items again and again every matches just to offset her lack of defence and mana (it is so hard to build ap and lichbane on her as a supporter nowaday, the scale ratio is awful), make her aura so "meh". Try to play carefully and scare everything (especially when play again Yasuo).

Sona after rework have nothing special (in my opinion :( ), her aura turned into aoe buffs, her weakness buried her power. She almost useless when your team fall behind

It Is I Emoto4 votes

That's sadly true :/ Considering that Fearless nerfed Sona instead of balancing/buffing her is very annoying.

It Is I Emoto3 votes

Updated the abilities a bit!

  1. Passive got updated!
  2. Global 11 sec cooldown is removed, instead, the cooldowns of Sonas non ultimate abilities is decreased by 1 sec at lvl 6 / 11 / 16
  3. Sonas Q got now some scalings, so we give Sona again a decision what to max first.
  4. Sonas W Aura shield gives also Armor and Magic resist
  5. Sonas E on activation, gives everyone around 1000 units a flat ms bonus.

It's not the best, but I'm trying my best :0

Pika3103 votes

The one thing I can't agree with are the buffs refreshing themselves by standing in the bubble, especially if each re-application extends the duration.

Hymn: She can easily stand back and risk hugging her ADC at all times, especially if it's say for example a 710 range Kog'Maw with >2 AS. Firstly, he's extending the duration faster than it's running down and then he's applying the on-hit damage with every auto. Dealing an extra 100 magic damage per hit is stronger than the 20/50 physical damage every attack she donated previously.

Aria: A shield that instantly refreshes itself infinitely? Even if it only procced every .5 seconds, it seems like it'd be harder to break through than a fed Mundo.

Celerity: I don't even know how this would be supposed to work, she just needs 1 ally next to her at all times and they have a free Zephyr all game.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Consider that the Aura-refresh can be extended to 5 seconds. (If every ally would touch it or Sona applies them)

To Hymn: That might be really strong. I never considered that there might be a champ that can abuse their range (Tho tristana can at late game..) As well, Consider that Sona can build more tanky and go to front row and help her short-ranged allies with giving them the buff. Maybe the ratios can be changed, but the refreshing idea should replace the "always existing" Aura.

Aria: That's intended and it should make it more worth to stay close to Sona if a AOE attack is incoming. (mostly in lane if maybe mid comes to gank and does tons of aoe damage)

Celerity: The buff duration would be only 3.5 seconds with one ally around here. It's designed so She can in case move with her adc from bot to mid or a certain place on the map (like drag)

Maybe we need to think when they should refresh? like each second they're re-applying?

btw: The Aura's extended time is maximal 5 seconds, of course it would be OP if they would refresh each time.. I did forgot to mention that. I'm sorry!

Prophet Four2 votes

I really understand what you are getting at the thing is she is a support. giving spell givin cooldown can make her a ap carry and very broken do to extream heal rate stun/speedups and a any ultimate giving a passive buff to other spells is unheard of and it is very hard for it to be balanced. She is very strong but her meta is weak d to other supports give it time. other supports will take debuffs you'll see just how strong she is

It Is I Emoto1 votes

I guess the passive of crescendo can be removed, because they're not that strong either. I already considered to increase the cooldown of her ultimate for earlier levels, so that Sona players still have to be careful with it. Considering Zilean with his rewind, he can easily reduce the cooldown of his ult, and abuse his early game dominance with his strong bombs. I tried balance Sona as good as possible (in my view) with this post, keeping her numbers still very low, but increasing them a little bit, so that Sona won't become that strong.

Considering that all of her abilities will have on rank 1 11 seconds cooldown, won't be able to spam her spells that easily, even with the passive. considering that she can just lower the cooldown of abilities on cooldown for maximal 3 seconds (if you include her ult being used)

The current meta is working like, strong assasins mid and strong cc supports at bot. Sonas only cc is her ult and her E powerchord, what makes her still extremly vurnable, mostly if she is forced to use her Crescendo at early game to disengage. Those ideas should also give Sona players a important choice: what to max first? even if a Sona mid would max Q first, she would be extremly vurnable at early and mid game without a strong heal, mostly because other supports outclass her right now (nami, soraka, lulu, etc)

It Is I Emoto2 votes

Fyi, i just noticed, Sona gets outclassed by the most utility/heal supports. Even sorakas rework is stronger than Sona with her aoe silence/snare. Sona simply becomes without any buffs, one of the low tier supports if nothing happens

Pika3102 votes

Indeed, the Soraka rework was truly innovative. All of her normal abilities work completely different from before with added CC and her passive is fresh and brand new.

Sona's abilities on the other hand are essentially the same as before, completely uninspired ripoffs of other champions'. Hymn still just does extra damage, Aria still mitigates incoming damage and Celerity... She just reiterates it all with nerfed numbers across the board.

Pika3102 votes

Well, these changes answer most of the nerfs, but you missed the fact that her non-auras are now melee abilities. Do you have a proposed alternative fix to this as well, or just a basic range increase to say, 550 at least?

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Hmm, you talk about her short auras? yeah they are pretty short, but usually tend to build a item 3110 and item 3222 on her, and have a pure defensive rune page for her. She can go with those items in the front row without worrying to die extremly fast. Maybe a aura increase at lvl 6 / 11 / 16 would give her a safe late game.

If you talk about the actives: they are supposed to have the standard ranges as prework sona: 700 range for Q, 1000 range for W, and her E stays with 350 range.

Pika3103 votes

Hmm, you talk about her short auras?

They are not auras, that is exactly why I am extremely careful to make certain every time I reference them to define them as non-auras.

Building pure defense and face-tanking the enemy is not a fix, just an attempt to mask the nerf. If her non-aura range could increase at 6/11/16, that would undoubtedly be a step in the right direction. I can't say for certain or not whether it would be enough, since Riot is completely unwilling to test any changes whatsoever, no matter how big or small. Their motto is, "The customer is always wrong."

It Is I Emoto2 votes

It's simply fearless who re-designed Sona and her abilities. Not every rioter. I think fearless is also new in this genre, and we all know that this rework is far behind before it's finished. Right now it's not strong in competive play, and since the range bug has not been noticed or worked on till patch 4.18, I must say, fearless did pretty bad for now. I just hope that he'll bring at least "something" that makes sona more viable in future, or better if he take some of the buff ideas that players suggested.

Pika3102 votes

The problem being though, that it's been just about 17 weeks now and he's not taken a single buff idea from players. He's been spoon-fed them since she first hit PBE and rather than listen to players who actually like Sona and played her practically religiously, he wants to rely on his "internal tests" he claims exist, but refuses to give actual proof of. He's completely delusional, believing he's done Sona and her fans a favor by making her nonviable.

It Is I Emoto3 votes

The only thing what fearless did was, removing the permanent auras, and that's probably the reason why riot agreed with the rework. Auras getting right now removed, this means that probably other impactful aura items like the iron locket, zeke's, Frozen Heart, and etc get removed in future. This probably also means that Jannas passive gets reworked, as well for Heimerdingers passive, since they're all auras. Players don't seem to use many Aura items anyways, what gives Riot the reason why to rework Sona and etc in future. She probably won't be the only one, I heard that taric also gets reworked, wich means that his armor/ad/ap auras get removed too.

Sailor Mint1 votes

Auras add very little gameplay. A lot of Locket's power lies in the active. Frozen Heart's weird stats makes purchasing it an actual choice.

There's a difference between having some item power budget spent on auras and an entire champion's kit being balanced around permanent auras. Old Sona didn't choose which aura to use lategame, she just tried to keep max uptime on all 3 during fights.

Taric's Shatter at least forces him to make a choice between an Armor aura or an AoE armor shred. His ultimate is awkward, it just turns Taric into a walking ball of stats aura.

Now is to hope they wait until Season 5 changes are finalized before deciding if Sona deserves a nerf or not.

It Is I Emoto3 votes

thats quite funny, because in her championspotlight it was recommended to spam the auras :P I know what you mean, and at times Sona players really did that, but.. spamming auras means mana burn, and if sona don't have any mana anymore, she's pretty much useless with that method. I did not play her like that (well maaaybe in urf...) but engaging with q, teamfight with w, and chase with e, thats how I used to play her. If Sona players, even in high elo, played her as permanent aura spammer, then yeah, it's dumb. mostly if that sona is tanky.

The lockets active is not that much, except a small shield that scales on lvl and not on armor/mr/health, what makes it pretty much likely to be removed in near future, and maybe get replaced with an item without and aura, but with its old active.

And frozen heart.. yeah it's a lovely item for tanks, I agree with that.

And to taric: Yeah, that's true. his W gives a meaningful choice, but his ult is.. well a weird thing. it synthesized well with his old passive, but now it's kind of useless.

I don't think that Sona deserves any nerfs or too high buffs, maybe utility buffs so that she can be more useful in late game with her Q triggering on Towers, W getting a longer shield duration, and her E getting a ignore unit collision buff. that's really everything what I'm wishing for..

I had the idea to give the shield/heal also a short armor/magic resist buff, but that needs to be carefully done.

Sailor Mint1 votes

When Sona came out, she didn't get 40mp5 + Mana Front and 40%CDR from building core items. Supports building items is still a relatively new thing. S3 was still GP10/Mobo/Sightstone and the rest of your income spent on wards and Oracle's.

As for Locket, there's two selfish MR options. Aegis/Locket will always be the worst personal MR item, but the best for the team. Which is why it's a support/jungle item.

Back to Sona, her ridiculously high win rate and rising pick rate pretty much means she'll get looked at. If she's just the Amumu of supports, that's fine, if she's not, hopefully the nerfs come with some QoL changes.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Well, I have recently alot of success with building her on AP because her incredible power-chord like Q does synthesize well and does extreme amount of damage with an lichbane. Nerfing it more will probably be a not-so-good decision, since it's Sonas only non ultimate damaging ability..

Booriin2 votes

So her Q and E will be like syndra's E? It look like she turn into a mage more than a support, ppls will pick her to farm mid. I like some of your Ideas in the first post and I just wanna say thanks to you and other Sona-mains who still fighting for her in both forum.

I feel so sad when I see ppls on reddit ask riot to swap price for Soraka and Sona.

It would be rude if I say: I want Riot revert Sona back to pre-rework, but I miss old Sona so badly, she unique (I don't like mainstream things) she squishy, easy to burst down but her kit worth every single AP you build on her , I was a fan of a guy named "A wild AP Sona", he mostly play ap support Sona, but now he don't upload video anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=droZ6oJFPoo&list=UUBfwd_0thDeAyIoJBRcG0yQ

It Is I Emoto2 votes

Yeah, pretty much. I know it's a somewhat more aggressive kit, but for her powerchord removal, she needs another damaging source and I thought that her E would be good for that. As well her seccond role is "Mage", so Sona might be played at mid sometimes, if bot lane lacks of utility. Since for my rework idea her new Es slow and damage would decay, the more enemies you hit, i thought it would be balanced. Those videos are great btw :) Tho, prework Sona is still better than fearless rework Sona.

It Is I Emoto2 votes

Updated her Passive a bit again, and added accurate cooldowns! As well I added my own take on her rework, I'd be glad to hear your opinions! Sincere.

AHeroNamedHawke2 votes

So she needs a 60% win rate then?

Edit: Sorry I didnt actually read the changes, it'd be a 70% win rate

Lstrike1 votes

My take on Sona's rework:

  1. Q needs its range reverted back to 700 (its 650 now)
  2. Q power chord is fine.
  3. Q aura needs to work on turrets
  4. W Aura (heal and shield) is fine
  5. W power chord sucks right now. It should reduce resistances instead of damage output of a enemy champion
  6. E is fine..
  7. Crescendo needs an added ability. After using Crescendo, the next basic attack activates all three power chords and resets power chord stacks..
Lstrike2 votes

Oh and I forgot to mention.. She needs her base health, and armor buffed.. big time...

Another wild idea.. what if power chord works mutually exclusive of each other...

For eg.

  1. A basic attack after every third cast of Q will do Q's power chord. Same for W and E.. Of course you should remove the damage portion of W and E's power chord or it will be OP.

This allows for a lot of new plays... Enemy champion is low.. E power chord to slow them down.. then W power chord to reduce resistances and Q power chord to finish him off...

The down side is, she might move from a support role to a mid laner which I dont like,... what do you guys think?

It Is I Emoto2 votes

If you remove her magic damage bonus from her powerchords, she simply becomes weaker. And if a enemy is low, just prepare a e powerchord and you secured a kill.

Lstrike2 votes

How do you just prepare a E power chord? With all spells off CD, you have equal chance of preparing a Q power chord as you have of preparing a E powerchord.

WIth this idea, the bonus damage from power chord will be moved to Q (like instead of +50% power chord damage, it should do 300 + 30% AP at lvl 18). Right now Power Chord does 192 + 20%AP.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Simple, just dont spam your spells in lane, and use your powerchord at the right time. That simply is it.

I dont know about that, Sonas powerchords would become extremly unbalanced if her q would only do damage.

Origami Kaiju2 votes
  1. Q needs its range reverted back to 700 (its 650 now)

I just want to mention that the reduced Hymn of Valor range was a bug, it wasn't intentional. It's scheduled to be fixed on the next patch.

Pika3102 votes

I'd also like to note, they ignored the -50 range bug for 10 weeks, until a second bug lowered it by an additional 100 units. For the past 2 weeks, Hymn has had 550 range.

Origami Kaiju1 votes

Is that really what happened? Wow, I was unaware of that. Do you happen to have any sources ?

Pika3102 votes

Well, players as far back as Sona hitting PBE have been complaining about -50 range, Fearless kept responding by claiming he checked the coding repeatedly and found nothing wrong. Two weeks ago after the 4.16 patch, players noticed it became even shorter only able to send bolts out within her AA range. On PBE her Q's range is changed from 700 to 850, clearly the extra 150 is meant to compensate for the bugs taking away an equivalent amount. If I recall correctly, last time Fearless addressed this on these boards he flat-out said they have no clue how these bugs came to be and equally no clue how to fix them. Up until recently, he has just been denying the first bug's mere existence.

Origami Kaiju1 votes

Hmm. I see. I was aware of the initial reduced range (I play a lot of sona, both before the rework and after). I also saw Fearless's posts about how they were unintentional ect. I didn't know that the range had decreased all the way to her 550 aa range though.

Zushakon1 votes

I like the new Sona better than the old Sona. The old Sona felt like an aura bot that spammed spells and the occasional ult. The new Sona feels much more engaging to play. The longer cooldowns and increased power of her spells makes them feel more impactful. I'm a fan of the "Snuggle Zones" over the old auras as well. Auras are useful, but also kinda boring. The careful positioning required to tag everyone you can with a Snuggle Zone before it dissipates is a more enjoyable playstyle to me.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

I think it's alright, but the scalings of the auras are extremly useless. the shield duration is too short, her early game heal gets outclassed by many other supports, and if Sona goes pure ap, she becomes a easy target to burst down.

With those ideas I've posted, I want to keep the Sona rework, but making it more impactful than before. Considering that her new E should give a ignore unit collision buff, would be a huge improvement for the current Sona, Mostly with escaping hooks from thresh and blitz with just running through the minion wave. As well, I want to make her ult more impactful, since the numbers are on it extremly weak, but for a ultimate ability, it needs to be more impactful. Compared to Sorakas new E, Sonas ult looks somewhat dull, mostly because Soraka can with good placement, lock everyone down.

Pika3104 votes

I'm a fan of the "Snuggle Zones"

"Yes, it is all proceeding according to plan. Soon my pentakill will be guaranteed."

Yasuo Orianna Ziggs Braum Fizz Nami ZileanJanna JarvanIV

I like to think of the snuggle zones less as a nerf to Sona and more as a buff to every other champions' AoE. They now have a flashing traffic sign that says "Place ult here." I can only imagine that every player still defending these nerfs are a Sona-Hating Cultist.

It Is I Emoto3 votes

True point on that tho, I guess the extra range for her auras at certain levels is really needed, so she actually can tag allies without worrying that they're get caught in a aoe ult/ability..

It Is I Emoto1 votes

I'm still wondering why this thread get downvotes isntead of real criticism :/ I know how many want's the old sona back, but can we think just for a minute or two and see how to improve the current Sona?

Emmy Cha0s3 votes

We've thought for well over 120 thousand minutes how to improve on her current state. Fearless is refusing to listen and may secretly himself be a Sona-Hating Cultist. He intentionally nerfed her, players are suspicious he secretly nerfed her ranged not once, but twice calling it a "bug" when be called out on it and he only comments on the boards about once a week giving us only libel and propaganda.

It Is I Emoto3 votes

I guess. We can say that it was a horrible idea to give Sona to fearless, but what can we even do now, as Sona and Support players? Supports are most the time the most neglected champions, and they're getting nerfed to oblivion till no one will actually use them in bot lane.

Emmy Cha0s2 votes

As far as I can tell, the only thing we can do is continue voicing our observations as we have been. Hopefully somebody other than Fearless that's in a position to do something will take notice. Somebody who actually cares about Sona, like Ezreal or Guinsoo.

It Is I Emoto4 votes

I've suggested that on the forums, yet no rioter does actually talk about sona and fearless has been absent for a week

Pika3102 votes

Well over a month now. He's not even making token posts anymore attempting to trick us with more propaganda. To this day, players are still advocating for her and making countless viable suggestions. Yet Fearless is nowhere to be seen. He has tarnished his own reputation with this failed rework, complete obliviousness to Sona players' words and eventual silence, but despite this doesn't even bother attempting to redeem his image or improve/undo the "rework."

Booriin1 votes

OMG!!! I feel so sick when facing Blitz and Cait, there is nothing I can do to stop Blitz dive pass minion waves to pull my AD T___T

It is even harder to deal with him after rework, why doesn't riot rework him first!!!!

It Is I Emoto4 votes

That is it pretty much. Her old E was designed to help allies that are that far away to have a somewhat better escape, but now you have basically to go to the adc just to give them the buff.

I honestly think that blitz is a strong pick, mostly against weak supports (like sona rework) you're able to dodge his hooks, but a good blitz will always hit a hook on a Sona, because killing her is extremly easy.

killd0zer1 votes

This is why they don't just ask X champ mains what they want. You want to buff literally every single portion of sona substantially, and then give her a passive that lets her cast QWERQWE in like 2 seconds.

Just stop for a minute and look at what your propose for her W. You want up to 210 heal, 210 shield, AND 45 armor/magic res on an ability with a 9 second cooldown, that's going to be cast at least twice a fight with her new passive.

You also just threw AP ratios on every single aspect possible. This is the most overloaded "remake" I've ever seen.

Sona might be a little weak atm but good lord thats beyond godlike broken.

Pika3102 votes

It's not a 210 heal, that would require your HP to be below 1%. When discussing Sona's heal, it's absolutely necessary you use a grain of salt as it will always be very close to its base numbers unless your ally is nearly dead. Comparably, Nami can heal an ally for 185 and hit an enemy, or attack on enemy for 230 and still heal an ally, a 105 base with % scaling is just fine. Even better, I'd rather Sona's rank 5 heal be lowered to raise it at rank 1 where it NEEDS to be. As it stands right now, even Alistar's healing to each individual teammate is better than Sona's, now multiple that by how many he's using it on, include minions in that math. All of this for less mana and a potentially lower cooldown.

I agree the shield and defenses are too high. Putting a +45 defense would more than double what she gave pre-nerfs, at most the shield should be kept at 115 and the defenses should be made to match their old +20. The other route, if they just don't want to return the defense buffs at all, the shield's base at rank 5 should be closer to around 165. It is an AoE shield after all, it can't rival somebody's like Janna's who's 240.

This is why they don't just ask X champ mains what they want. You want to buff literally every single portion of sona substantially, and then give her a passive that lets her cast QWERQWE in like 2 seconds.

This statement is prejudiced. Only some want their champ to be OP, a lot of us are able to take an impartial view and suggest reasonable number fixes.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

So let's see; The new passive will be useful for her early game, because of the increased CD's on them. And the dumb thing is, that the Manacosts remains unchanged, if you really go with the spam method, you'll drain your mana, wich is, like i said once, dumb. That's why her ultimate got a increased cooldown, because of the new passive, so it will be still viable early, if you're playing wise.

Let's see.. your ally, left with 1% health gets the 210 heal, and the 30 bonus armor/magic resist. If they enter also the shield aura, he'll get the shield armor and magic resist as well. it's designed to help even more with almost dying allies. And don't forget, that her W has a high mana cost as well, if you keep spamming it, you'll drain your mana for your important ult. Don't forget that the healed ally and Sona gets the stronger armor/mr buff, and not everyone around her, the not-healed allies will only recieve the shield buffs.

And for the numbers thing, they're the actual numbers right now (heal and speed per % untouched). I just touched the Q ratios a little bit, and added her E a small ratio as well. That's basically it.

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