Idea for a Sona "rework/ update"

only zhule·1/24/2018, 7:15:18 AM·3 votes·381 views

So i have been thinking a lot about peoples complaints about Sona. Both those who love and those who hate her current form. So i cobbled together some idea of how to change Sona without nuking her current concept. A lot of the numbers are rough, but i think the core idea works. Will be addressing the changes in basic Q,W,E,R format.

Q- A lot of people don't seem to like how basic Sona's damage output is. Given that it's two auto target abilities, her bolts and the follow up auto attack, both abilities can't be dodged and to a large degree can't be played around (you can counter attack but you are still taking the hit). On the other side her basic attack range for the auto attack, where most of the damage comes from, is 550; this means Sona is in range of basically EVERY champion to counter attack in some way. Meaning you often have to be behind a creep wave to not get super punished for being a little aggressive. My purposed change is to make Sona's damage from Q a skill shot. But a skill shot that works a little different then others. I'm thinking 700-800 range, the projectile detonates upon the first target it hits OR upon reaching max range. Upon detonating, it has a cone effect that damages all enemy targets within a 300-400 range in a 20/40/60/80/100% cone. So basically every time you level up the spell it hits a wider range of targets, with a max ability to be a basic AOE spell. The spell can now be dodged by smart positioning behind creeps and can miss out right if Sona doesn't aim smart.

Q Aura- Sona's current aura ability is really boring and not all that helpful in a lot of situations and for a lot of champions. My purposed change is that instead of giving a flat amount of bonus magic damage upon the next auto attack, Sona now has an aura where allies inside it have a certain percentage of their outgoing damage converted to true damage. I'm thinking maybe 12-20% with 4% AP scaling. This means that Sona is better building AP but the effect is still useful even if you decide to build a different path.

W- Sona's sustain is currently a joke. You go from a spell that does very little, to a spell that you just chain spam and keep you allies healed and shielded forever. A lot of the issues feel like they come down to a simple "does Sona have a big mana pool? Does Sona have 35%+ CDR? Does Sona have 2 items that give bonus healing/shields?" If yes, good luck winning any fight where you don't 100-0 opponent in one rotation. I think Sona should be the champion that you pick when you want your team to win a fight, by actually fighting. Too this idea i suggest a simple change, drastically increase Sona's healing ability while keeping the auto target to ally with lowest health within range. BUT remove the shield she gives when tagging an ally with the aura (this makes sense when you see the purposed change to the aura effect).

W aura- Instead of a shield, I would like Sona to have an aura effect that makes all allied champions in it heal for a percentage of their damage output. This means Sona finally pairs well with mages, or other characters who rely on spells/abilities to do damage instead of just auto attacks. I'm thinking something simple like 11/12/13/14/15% of damage dealt is returned as life. Maybe give it like 2-3% AP scaling, again giving Sona a choice to build AP and give larger benefits to her allies, but not forcing her down that path as the only viable option. This change also allows for Sona to be a viable champion even if she doesn't build item 3107 and/or item 3504 , since her benefits to the team are not heavily tied to her ability to spam out healing/shields.

E- This one is kind of tricky since part of me likes the unique power level of a possible team wide movement speed bonus, but at the same time hates how linear and weak it feels to level this ability. To this regard i would like to see some buffs to the spell. One of Sona's biggest weaknesses is that she is SLOW as slow can be. This is made worse by the fact that she lacks hard CC before level 6 and never gets a gap closer (not including summoner 4 ). This often means that champion, especially those with some form of grab or gap closer (looking at Leona , Thresh , and Blitzcrank ) can simply run her down, their higher base movement speed coupled with the threat of engage often means that Sona simply can't avoid being caught unless she predicts the exact moment they use their engage and flashes out of the way.... which then means she is defenseless against the same form of aggression for about 3 mins. To counter Sona's low base movement and lack of gap closer, i suggest 2 thing be added to her movement speed ability. First i would like to see a +5 movement speed/ per level of ability, passive bonus added to Sona's E. This would mean that if Sona choose to put points into the ability it would have a direct positive effect on her ability to use her other abilities. The other change i would like to see is that Sona's E active also negates unit collision for its duration, this would be both for Sona and any allies tagged by the ability. I think these changes would put Sona in a good place to be able to do her job and it also offers a fun little power ability for you allies. Tag them and they can engage easier (no creep block) as well as be able to disengage from a fight (again no creep block so, no risk of being caught because minions shifted in front of you)

R- Again i think this ability is fine, if you look it is simply from the active effect. A straight line CC with small cast time and some travel time, yes it has both of these. The one thing i would change, i think the rank 1 of this ability needs to be on a shorter cooldown. 140 seconds base, is WAY to long for a champion that otherwise lacks hard CC. Assuming the other changes go through, i expect that the bonus CDR would have to be dropped (no one wants a champion that offers endless damage shred and endless sustain).

As for her passive, a part of me would like to see it change as well. I would love to see Sona have a passive that doesn't revolve around auto attacking. This would further push her away from items like item 3100 since her power would be in her abilities rather then in being AP jacked and auto attacking for MASSIVE damage every 2 seconds no matter what you cast last.

P.S. Sona maintains all her buffs for the full duration the aura would last, i'm thinking like 3-4 seconds, but her allies only get and keep them so long as they are within the aura field. Meaning that Sona is no longer playing a mini game of "tag all your allies, then run away". This would also allow her a possible chance in mid lane, since she could now wave clear and W + Q gives half decent health gain.

TL:DR: Q is a skill shot that levels into an AOE, Q aura gets around armor and magic resist, W aura is now lifesteal instead of a shield , E now gives units the ability to negate unit collision and passively makes Sona a little faster, R has a lower base cooldown at rank 1 but looses the bonus CDR. Also Sona's passive changes to something not focused around auto attacks.

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