Hey everyone! My friends and I are forming a ranked team soon, and I will have the roles of Mid and Support. I already have Janna and Kayle, and plan to pick up Braum, Sona, and Soraka as well. The Sona decision was only partially influenced by my getting of DJ Sona in Hextech Crafting :). Anyway, I was looking for some tips and tricks with her. Thanks :)
Quepha6 votesAbuse the range and reliability of your Q in the early game. The damage doesn't look very impressive, but starting at level 3 if you keep firing it off cooldown, it will add up (she works really well with poke adcs who can add their damage onto this harass)
Be wary about spending mana on your W during lane phase, it's only really efficient if you get value out of at least two of the four components (heal on you, heal on ally, shield on you, shield on ally)
Your power chords are hugely important. Early on you want to learn when you want that burst from a Q power chord, the slow from an E power chord when someone goes out of position, or the damage reduction from a W power chord when the enemy hard engages and you want to turn the fight around. The safe bet is Q in most cases early game although there are also a lot of times when you want E, as the game moves on the lines become a lot fuzzier.
In general you're probably better off building mostly AP (mixed in with athene's, zeke's and/or ardent censer) to keep up the harass throughout a game. But eventually you should learn to recognize when your team is working in such a way that they can benefit from the more cheerleader-ey items like locket and mikael's (also when you're good enough to remember to use your item actives)
As teams start to group your auras become more and more useful so make sure you are getting Q auras onto auto attackers, W auras onto allies when they're going to take damage, and E when your team is trying to rotate, chase, or run to save an extra couple seconds here and there.
And of course, remember when to use your ulti. If you can crescendo both enemy laners at level 6 then you probably just got your adc at least one kill, and if the enemy tries to engage on your team and don't realize your R is up, they will suddenly be having a really bad time.
japan hate acc1 votesAbuse the range and reliability of your Q in the early game. The damage doesn't look very impressive, but starting at level 3 if you keep firing it off cooldown, it will add up (she works really well with poke adcs who can add their damage onto this harass)
Be wary about spending mana on your W during lane phase, it's only really efficient if you get value out of at least two of the four components (heal on you, heal on ally, shield on you, shield on ally)
Your power chords are hugely important. Early on you want to learn when you want that burst from a Q power chord, the slow from an E power chord when someone goes out of position, or the damage reduction from a W power chord when the enemy hard engages and you want to turn the fight around.
In general you're probably better off building mostly AP (mixed in with athene's, zeke's and/or ardent censer) to keep up the harass throughout a game. But eventually you should learn to recognize when your team is working in such a way that they can benefit from the more cheerleader-ey items like locket and mikael's (also when you're good enough to remember to use your item actives)
As teams start to group your auras become more and more useful so make sure you are getting Q auras onto auto attackers, W auras onto allies when they're going to take damage, and E when your team is trying to rotate, chase, or run to save an extra couple seconds here and there.
And of course, remember when to use your ulti. If you can crescendo both enemy laners at level 6 then you probably just got your adc at least one kill, and if the enemy tries to engage on your team and don't realize your R is up, they will suddenly be having a really bad time.
Okay, thanks!
Athenes Lulu4 votesHm.... how to start.
#1 rule: you are going to be very, very, very squishy and fragile. Your peels are very subpar, but she's squishy for a reasonable excuse: she has good self-heals compared to other healer supports. Unless you know how to dodge every skillshot, you're gonna have to be a lot more careful.
Focus more on tagging, buffing up, and peeling for allies than poking, especially as starter advice.
If anyone's telling you she sucks and that you should not play Sona, don't listen to them. Sona is not that bad when played by the right hands, as well as having the right teammates; think of her like Katarina where she needs the right matchups, team comps, and players to do well. Feel free to do experiment on that. Sona's bases are good enough so even without much items, you can still do a lot.
For runes, I heavily recommend mana regen runes. For masteries, Windspeaker's, so your heals will actually do something.
japan hate acc1 votesAlright! Thanks! What would a full build look like on her then?
Athenes Lulu1 votesIt depends on your playstyle, but I like going slightly off-tank style with some AP, because her bases aren't that bad and extra durability won't hurt on her already squishy self. Not in any particular order:
Just an example where she's not that behind, but not too ahead.
japan hate acc1 votesAlright! Thanks for all the help!
Eagleheart1 votesFarm up a full page of scaling mana regen runes.
You will not regret having them. (Note: Marks cannot get scaling mana regen.)
japan hate acc1 votesAlso going off of what Leopards Ghost said, mana regen is a core for Sona?
Qulii2 votesI'm more or less a Sona main, and while mana is very important for sure, your only skill that costs a significant amount of mana is the heal on your W. If you take the mana regen mastery in the second tree, you won't run out of mana usually as long as you can poke relatively safely. At the beginning if you're still learning Q range and getting familiar with the champ, you might take some more harass in which case W spam will definitely run you dry. As you get more experience you shouldn't find yourself mana-less in lane.
If it's a safer lane as well (enemy adc/support aren't super aggressive or poke-heavy) you can go 
+ 
+ 
or + 
start instead for more vision or mana regen, and rely on your W alone for heals.
AP Sona is usually the more popular one among Sona mains, usually getting an early 
and building into a 
. If you're with a full premade though, coordination is much better and building more for your team also works.
Cynika1 votesYea getting sheen early feels AMAZING on Sona
Leopards Ghost1 votes that should get you through the first 10 minutes.
japan hate acc1 votesAlso going off of what Eagleheart said, mana regen is key for Sona it seems?
Leopards Ghost1 votesdepends on your playstyle. if you poke, which is how i use sona, mana rationing is essential.
if you spam triplebuffs to use your charged basic then mana pool starts to become an issue.
most lower-elo players will drain their mana pool in the first couple minutes of the laning phase. try to avoid doing that. a couple necklaces should help you recover in-lane while your adc buys. when done properly you can outlevel your adc.
japan hate acc2 votesNice! Thanks :)
Eagleheart1 votesMana regen is one of the single most important things you can build on Sona. With scaling mana regen runes you're going to outpace flat mana regen runes by level six. This is a huge advantage in terms of mana regen because Sona has naturally low cooldowns and you will be spamming your abilities very often. Especially your heal.
With a full page of Mana regen runes, you can actually forgo buying a ton of mana regen in favor of more AP so that your abilities will actually do something.
Assuming you have full mana regen runes, along with masteries set up to support mana regen/healing/cooldowns/etc. Here is a build I would recommend for Sona.
Gives you pretty good stats and provides wards.
Antivision.
Positioning is critical with Sona, so you're going to want to scoot around the rift as fast as possible.
Health, AP, and a nice slow.
AP and more movement speed.
Sona players often find themselves constantly spamming QWE, this makes it worthwhile.
Never leave home without a deathcap!
This should give you a good amount of AP, good movespeed, mana and mana reegn, and some health. To go along with this you've got a handy source of wards and can clear wards at your leisure.
japan hate acc1 votesThank you!
Zone of Endless1 votesI like utility on her more than AP simply because all those AP are wasted on her horrible ratio and more utility is always good on support, but that's just me.
So my build is Sightstone, FQC. Then the rest is mikael, locket, and zeke/whatever else.
japan hate acc1 votesOkay, interesting. What do you think about Aegis of the Legion on her?
Zone of Endless1 votesOkay, interesting. What do you think about Aegis of the Legion on her?
yeah. it builds into locket. I get it after FQC if against heavy AP team otherwise i'd get it last.
Zeke, locket, and mikael priority depend on the game.
If I'm doing well and think my ADC is decent I'll get zeke before locket/mikael, if enemy team is heavy AP i get locket, if they have a lot of CC i get mikael.
And those items will give enough mana regen.
To be honest if you're playing with a premade it's better to build utility because you have more communication. It's a lot easier to peel for the ADC with communication and keep him alive longer with all the utility you have. With that build though you just have to remember to use the actives since you will have 3 actives(not counting sightstone/zeke/boot.)
Even though I say you can build zeke you don't really have to, but it's a good item when you don't know what else your team need.
japan hate acc1 votesyeah. it builds into locket. I get it after FQC if against heavy AP team otherwise i'd get it last.
Zeke, locket, and mikael priority depend on the game.
If I'm doing well and think my ADC is decent I'll get zeke before locket/mikael, if enemy team is heavy AP i get locket, if they have a lot of CC i get mikael.
And those items will give enough mana regen.
To be honest if you're playing with a premade it's better to build utility because you have more communication. It's a lot easier to peel for the ADC with communication and keep him alive longer with all the utility you have. With that build though you just have to remember to use the actives since you will have 3 actives(not counting sightstone/zeke/boot.)
Even though I say you can build zeke you don't really have to, but it's a good item when you don't know what else your team need.
Okay, great thanks! I appreciate all the help :)
cuddlykitten41 votesSona has been my main for all three years that I've played League. First off, use Q twice before you ever leave your platform. Do not use Q when you leash. When you get to lane immediately Q that ADC down to like half health with your passive (not always that much but I run full AP runes just so I can hit as hard as I can out the gate). Pick on that ADC nonstop. You want to make him afraid to get close enough to farm as much as you possibly can. Try not to overuse your heal early as it will devour your mana, and abuse the shield aspect of it as well. Don't always use your Q as your passive as the W dmg reduction can save you and your ADCs lives if you don't expect to win that fight. The passive with E is great for every reason a slow is. A lot of people give her sightstone, but in truth, I disagree with building sightstone at all. It's very easy to get a fully warded map if everyone is warding like they should, and everyone is investing in pink wards. My ideal build goes 
. The idea being that you'll make up for the lost AP from the zzrot with the stacks of mejai's. Obviously this is in ideal situations, but things can influence it to change. AP Sona has some real power to her as well if you wish to take that route. Do not be stationary with her. If you have nothing to do in bot then go mid and get an assist there. E gives you the kind of speed that makes that fairly safe to do fairly often. You're gonna take blows with Sona. You're gonna get the shit knocked out of you sometimes. The important thing to remember is that she is the goddess support of teamfights. Give her that and fire off a heal as the engage happens, hit everyone with the aura, fire off Q, hit everyone with that aura, enemy team wiped. Also, use your Q constantly when hitting the towers as it will hand out free AD to your allies.
japan hate acc1 votesWow! Thanks for the complete guide! This is really helpful :) Thanks again!
Athenes Lulu2 votesOr you can Q once at platform, Q the 2nd time when leashing, and there's your 3rd time ready in lane.
cuddlykitten41 votesDoing that is risky though. Giving the ADC that damage output buff while leashing leads to the mob getting stolen every once in a while on accident.
Athenes Lulu1 votesHuh, I never run into problems when leashing with Q, as Sona just Q once and leave, I usually do the 40% rule where if the camp's health goes below that, gtfo of the jungle and back to lane.
Some ADCs don't know when to stop leashing, leaving first as the support kinda "forces" and reminds him to gtfo as well.
Though yes, the main point is to get 2 spells cast so your 3rd as well as your passive is ready.
cuddlykitten41 votesYea, it's just different preferences.
QjTHqo3RTq1 votesI can write this one down as a Thresh main, someone who Sona "counters"
Sona is stupid squishy, seriously just dont pick her if they assassins or someone with a cc gap closer, stuff like gragas e or any part of leona's kit, any hard cc will likely kill you unless you can fire off an ult in time for a reply, and that demands immense reaction time.
Her Q honestly performs meh, but what it does is buff your adc aa, so make sure you time it so you're hitting enemies and your adc is also in a position to poke, then we're talking decent damage. Of course, this isnt going to happen everytime, she is likely going to be rocking the 60 damage for around 60% of your Qs.
Sona ult is not some god tier cc like some people make it out to be, it's an aoe stun that lasts 1.5 seconds, I can think of a certain champion that does something like that, expect much slower. So basically abuse the speed it comes out. Me personally, I recommend you use this for peel, but it has aggressive uses, but keep it mind, this about the only real cc you have.
She is not actually like one of those ap mages that says "death is the best cc" she has damage, but it does not mean go try to fight in the backline tossing out qs like you have a deathcap, which I pray to god you didnt buy. You run around with movespeed boosts, buffing your fighters and most importantly, trying to not blow up as you line up an ult.
Sona doesn't counter Thresh. Even though it says that on a website does not mean its true. I am 100% confident in my ability to kill any sona lane AS LONG my adc is partially sentient and its not caitlyn, ezreal or sivir. And then it becomes a skill match up between the adcs. Sona can not stand up to Thresh's displacement effects and reliability. They're both jack of trades, expect thresh has hard cc and is tanky because he doesnt build lich banes.
Besides all that, I personally don't like sona as a choice for support, just because she has a nice looking skin doesnt mean she's the best pick. She has some stupid obvious weak points, and hates tanks, hates assassins and hates almost anybody that isnt god damn stupid enough to see her move up to q
Junsui Aoi1 votesThis thresh main has it pretty spot on. As a former sona main I confirm. I've given her up this season since too many things can kill me.
shadowlordkiro1 votesIf your in a lane you can't reliably poke safely or just want a more passive lane get coin instead of spellthief. You'll lose out on damage but you'll still get a lot of gold and have sustain outside of your heal to save on mana. You should upgrade to talisman because the speed boost is very useful on top of your e to engage and disengage. Speed can help make up for your squishy nature since you can generally keep away from the less mobile champs and dart in and out of danger to power cord. Generally I build talisman, mobi boots, sightstone, and lichbane as my core with Lichbane being bought after the others are finished and the other two slots are situational though the new Athenes is great on her and either of the items from aegis are great against a heavy ap team. Windspeakers is a must since it affects your shields and your heal which in the long run is better than thunderlords limited use in comparison. Ap is great on her as everything scales with it but don't prioritize it over getting your support items unless your mid in which case stack it and if your adventurous get rapidfire cannon for those long ranged q chord combos. Remember her numbers may not be the best but they can affect the whole team giving them a lot of value and don't underestimate the value of speed on her. And don't forget you cannot clear a wave get someone else to do it and that your q range is usually bigger than you think.