Sona rework: Why would you incentivize Sona to move into a teamfight?

CupcakeTrap·Aug 14, 2014·11 votes·1,499 views

This seems like the same problem as Starcall poses for Soraka: it feels like the game is urging you to do things that amount to playing the Champion poorly.

Sona is super, super squishy. If you hang back in teamfights now, you feel like you're playing her wrong and the game is punishing you by not providing those cool extra buffs (duration, shields, and so on). But if you do follow the cue, you're going to be a one-bite snack for anyone who cares to click on you.

I'm not a pro Sona player, and I haven't tried the rework, so maybe I'm just misunderstanding. Am I?

22 Comments

Emmy Cha0sAug 15, 20147 votes

I've not seen a half-decent Sona since the rework. This could be in large part to the duo facts that: non-Sona players who never touched her before suddenly want to because "she got reworked" and; secondly actual Sona players tried her and gave up due to her being weaker or already realized this pre-launch by watching her on PBE.

She does less damage now, you can essentially ignore her attempts at harass and farm freely. Even worse if she doesn't max W first, you can counter-harass her and she no longer has the CDs, mana or base numbers to sustain herself without taking 3 or 4 points. On top of these, she never had real escape mechanics, but more so now that she doesn't have a flat boost from celerity to rely on when the active wears off. Every Sona I've seen in the past 2 weeks, even if her team managed to win she still had the highest number of deaths out of all 10 players, understandably so when she dies in 2 auto-attacks from Trist, despite her rushed Frozen Heart.

Whenever it came to team-fights, her abilities were unnoticeable. She'd be applying Q to players using abilities and W's shield would go on somebody not taking damage and disappear before you even realized they had it.

Crescendo is exactly the same, so now that the rest of her kit is weaker she's become more of an ult-bot than she previously was.

FaerKhanAug 15, 20144 votes

This is pretty much completely spot on. The only time Sona is even slightly useful is if she gets way ahead

MEMEME670Aug 15, 20143 votes

In my experience (Diamond 3 Solo Queue and Plat 1 Ranked 5's), Sona was buffed pretty significantly.

But she's HARD to play now. Before, she was harder than most supports to play well at some stages of the game, and the easiest character in the game at some. Now, she's difficult to play all the time.

That being said, I've found once you can work around this difficulty, her damage is insane, she has a heal to go with it, and to be honest I could probably win lane most games without levelling E (although you do generally need it to avoid jungler ganks.)

Yeah, you die fast. I also consistently half health ADC's and Supports level 1, and retain heavy burst potential all game. Getting behind also sucks, and can feel really bad. But that's your own fault.

And yeah, the Crescendo change was neutral.

I honestly don't know what else to say in response to your post, because so much of it is just things I can't relate to, due to me having not experienced them except when I've screwed up.

FaranaeAug 14, 20145 votes

While I admit that moving into a teamfight seems odd on her, it does encourage good positioning and thoughtful play.

I've had no real issue becoming a snack in teamfights because I'm always aware of the enemy movements. With practice, you learn by heart what your ranges are, and how to move in to place a buff, shield, or Q-PC without getting instagibbed.

If anything, the changes will help players learn how to play her as they should have been playing her anyway: A very flighty support that is constantly darting in and out of the fray to give assistance and damage when necessary.

CupcakeTrapAug 14, 20141 votes

I guess it might depend in part on the size of these auras.

SkernanAug 14, 20143 votes

They're about half the size they used to be. Possibly less.

Emmy Cha0sAug 15, 20145 votes

No, they aren't anywhere even close to half, that would be Sivir and Lucian range at 500. They're only 1/3 the size they used to be sitting at a pathetic 350. They're extremely tiny, practically melee abilities. Even Urgot has 75 more range on his autos at a nearly useless 425.

When you consider Kog'Maw has 710 and Tristana has 703, that 350 becomes comparably embarrassing.

CupcakeTrapAug 15, 20141 votes

They're about half the size they used to be. Possibly less.

I read this and for a split second was like, wait, did she get a model rework too?

TheKaymonAug 14, 20142 votes

I've only played the new Sona in a couple of games, but she definitely seems less mindless to play now. Positioning for things other than ult is much more important. You can always use the speed boost to help with darting in and out as well. I think you can choose how far into the fight you want to go, since you can focus on just giving the buffs to your carry or to more members of your team. I don't think she is far off from other supports like Nami in that regard.

TawneyAug 15, 20142 votes

I concur -- I love the re-work and play mainly Sona. <3

EapenatorAug 15, 20141 votes

Her new spells also now provide her ally's their full benefit per cast the instant you tag your ally, so you don't feel bad about instantly switching spells in order to provide a different benefit instantly when it is needed.

Thematically her model and atmosphere depicts that she should stay back ,but game play wise its good for Sona.

MAZZ1M0Aug 14, 20144 votes

In theory, it doesn't make sense, but the rework wasn't intended to enhance her abilities. It was intended to make players use her more actively, which it achieved. As far as her effectiveness, her laning phase is really, really bad, but her mid to late game is incredible -especially in teamfights. I recommend going in with some defense masteries and runes to survive laning phase. It'll pay off later if you work well with your adc. Otherwise, probably not the best solo queue choice unless you're boss with her.

CupcakeTrapAug 14, 20141 votes

I have a sudden urge to build megatank Sona.

EapenatorAug 15, 20141 votes

Tanky Sona was the best support build for sona back in S3

Shurelya's Reverie
Aegis of the Legion/ Runic Bulwark
Locket of the Iron Solari
Sight Stone
Boots
6th slot for vision wards

ALL HAIL THE SUPREME AURA OVERLORD

Sadly though, Riot phased out/reworked all these items in S4

Jinxed AmuletAug 14, 20143 votes

I'm too afraid to play the reworked Sona. I might try her this weekend, but from what I've seen from my friends that played her she is more useful than before. Or at least they told me that they feel like they can actually contribute in team fights, so I'll take their word on it.

Sona is one of my favorite supports so if it is true that she is indeed better, I might fall in love with supporting again and I really don't want to haha. I like my top and mid lane :P it's cozy there.

Nokia 3315Aug 14, 20142 votes

sonas early game damage has always been bursty, if anyone on bot lane doesn't have any MR (or even armor) then sona's squishyness doesn't matter because of the damage she will be able to do to the enemy bot lane, since she can still spam heal Sona promotes agressive plays

Pika310Oct 26, 20141 votes

Except that she specifically cannot still spam heal. Its mana cost is higher, its cooldown has been increased by 43% and despite all of this, it blatantly heals less at ranks 1 and 2 requiring it to be used more often when in actuality that isn't possible for the dual-reasons given. A paradox.

SuperPsyzeAug 14, 20142 votes

I feel like she's gotten better since the changes. Sure, she has to be closer to the battle, but her heal is so much better than it was before. Her heal has far more burst on it (bonus healing based on missing health), along with the shield, makes at helping allies disengage (they benefit from running towards you). It also makes you pretty good bait as enemies try to aim that last hit while you gain 20% of you HP back.

I can't harass in lane as much as I used to (I now go Ancient Coin item 3301 instead of Spell Thief's Edge item 3303 ). The damage on Q is about the same, but for some reason I can't sustain the damage well enough with the new cooldowns.

I think overall, they changed her from sustain heal/damage to a more bursty role. It makes her more effective in skirmishes when trickle-heals don't really cut it.

A2ZOMGAug 15, 20142 votes

Sona's good in big teamfights when hopefully your team is grouped and close enough to take advantage of the retarded base bonuses from her auras. Q aura lategame at least helps you instagib single targets during hard engages, and the shield aura procs Ardent Censer which is basically like old Zeke's Herald which was an Attack Speed aura and completely OP for taking objectives, so she has that going for her. E aura still is pretty lame until you max CDR, though at least you can use it to dodge things like Ashe Volley on reaction which I guess is okay.

You actually have slightly better trades earlygame if you max Q first than old Sona given Q auto earlygame does more damage, meaning new Sona is even more focused on level 1 lane cheesing basically. Furthermore Sona's level 1 invade is RIDICULOUS because Q gives like 260 magic damage for 5 man invades. The worst part is because you don't get free stats from Q aura, it means you're rewarded less for really persistent kiting from both you and your AD.

idk, new Sona is okay, even factoring the 50 range nerf on Q. But her kit is just so...abuse heavy. It's like Riot wants Sona to be a bunch of silly flashy gimmicks. Also you effectively are forced to build tank+max CDR on new Sona most of the time so that you can actually take advantage of auras, which do have really silly numbers. Earlygame though, you need AP runes/masteries to make your trades matter.

Matchups: Leona: Same as before, actually one of the few matchups you probably do slightly better in given Leona offers nothing to her lane except her ranged engage combo, and new W does slightly better for mitigating burst when Leona does manage to engage and I guess if you like, new E is a bit better for reaction dodging Leona's dash. You always have dumped on her at level 1 by just full focusing her AD before they hit level 2. If you didn't win the lane by then, you played it wrong, but you still have a window post level 2 to crush this lane while your Flash is still up, given you can survive a Leona engage guaranteed by Flashing out of it which should be enough time for you to harass adequately.

Thresh: Matchup is harder because MS quint Sona isn't as good anymore given you don't get free stats from Q aura anymore which means your range AD isn't as threatening while kiting. Still a fair matchup as long as you don't let Thresh walk up Flay earlygame.

Braum: See Thresh. This lane used to be a lot better for Sona where you pretty much trolled him with MS quints and win by free poke, which overall became weaker because no free stats meaning Braum gets more effective sustain from timing his shield in this lane now.

Caitlyn: Bah. Caitlyn is stupid to play against now due to your mana costs whereas previously old Sona hard countered Caitlyn by being an unkillable lane that couldn't be forced out early. Sad times. Now you basically have to rush Chalice to manage the lane consistently.

Pika310Aug 16, 20141 votes

Sona has the advantage against Leona? She used to auto-win against Cait?

A2ZOMGAug 16, 20142 votes

If you're any good at Sona and press the advantage at level 1 by heavily harassing the enemy AD, Leona can't do anything. It's a favorable matchup for Sona given Leona can't do anything at level 1. Furthermore without ganks, Leona has to play her engages absolutely perfectly to win, while Sona actually has enough margin of error to simply flash to survive one engage and harass in between cooldowns. If she puts the enemy AD under half health with her harass, which basically only requires two or three opportunities to poke, Leona loses the lane. Given Sona's level 1 is in fact BETTER than it was previously, the matchup is clearly better for Sona when it already was in fact favorable. Not factoring that it's also possible for Sona to rank E to reactively dodge some skillshots which means she overall has more options to avoid getting engaged on than she did previously.

It's not that Sona autowins vs Cait, more that old Sona basically would never lose lane to Caitlyn simply because Caitlyn can't all-in hard enough to beat old Sona's sustain, and is forced to play the matchup passively simply because ever being in range to be harassed by Sona would cost her the lane. Meaning against Caitlyn, you could run Sona Kog/Vayne and consistently outscale Caitlyn with virtually no fear of dying. Thus, old Sona ruined the purpose of Caitlyn by being a lane that couldn't be denied or shut down. Plus with the old bonus AD aura, it was much harder for Caitlyn to simply shove to turret to deny CS furthermore.

Earl EulrichOct 26, 20141 votes

>50%winrate in SR >60%winrate in Dom >70%winrate in Aram

THere are big issues with the rework, and the biggest actually is that she still is able to float at a way too save distance for too much of a fight and still has an impact.