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Sona Still Strong After Hotfix, and in All the Wrong Ways

SnowLeopard91·7/20/2016, 12:36:28 PM·9 votes·2,598 views

I've been playing Sona a lot since the changes made her broken (call me horrible if you like, I see nothing wrong with jumping on the hype train), and made a post earlier about how she's just too strong in all phases of the game right now.

Then comes the hotfix, and I've not noticed any difference at all. In my opinion, her midgame heals and speed buffs were not the main problem, so giving them a whack with the nerf stick doesn't really fix anything. If your goal is to leave Sona as a dominant mage who is essentially AP Ezreal with a stun and a heal, then I guess those nerfs make sense, but her core identity should be as a support. Healing and move speed buffs are fine on a support, but having them alongside the ability to nuke an ADC out of existence with an R-Q-Auto combo is unhealthy.

That's where I think the problem is - her damage potential. Especially with the increased CDR for her base abilities, Sona's Q-auto is ready nearly as often as her Lichbane is (and she can fill the gap with a heal or speed boost), which again turns her into a better AP Ezreal. Reducing the base damage of her Q, and maybe also the AP scaling, would do much to address her current role as nuke-mage with a heal and absurd chase potential, bringing her back to being a spammy support.

Given Riot's recent insistence that they are focusing on bringing out the core fantasy of champions while reducing unnecessary strengths and highlighting weaknesses, the W and E nerfs seem completely out of place when the Q isn't being touched. The recent changes to Lulu highlight that policy, with Riot attempting to reduce the power of solo lane Lulu while maintaining her support viability. This Sona hotfix seems to do exactly the opposite, hurting her support potential while leaving her solo lane power alone. Granted, Solo Lane Sona isn't a major thing (yet, though I've heard rumblings...), but even so it seems inconsistent with the core philosophy of augmenting fantasy-specific strengths while reducing extraneous power.

20 Comments

sheldonbunny7/20/2016, 1:00:06 PM4 votes

None of the above.

She was fine before the initial update and for all the aggressive Sona supports out there, I can give a resounding no to nerfing her damage. Same would me said for the solo lane Sonas. (which existed long before this as well)

She has more than one identity. I disagree with taking away her ability to lane bully, especially suggested by a FotM chaser.

She always had this kind of damage. People just finally took notice and started building her this way instead of a tanky ward machine.

Trolljimu7/20/2016, 3:33:00 PM3 votes

anyone who thinks q needs to be nerfed should just uninstall this game right now

it used to do 250 damage with higher scaling and now you think 160 is too much?

seriously fuck off and look @ namis ebb and flow

its literally 2x sonas q and 2x sonas w on one ability and she gets built in lich bane via her auto attack buff

Blåbæret7/20/2016, 7:24:54 PM2 votes

She deals too much dmg. with LB tbh.

Calabok7/21/2016, 5:32:58 AM2 votes

more nerf to her damage. DOET!

Soul Eater54067/20/2016, 12:58:15 PM2 votes

Sona is an interesting champion to me. I find her useless as I'm an adc main and her supporting me is my nightmare, but her as a mid lane is pretty great and i find it fun myself. Now how she works is one way boring "here let me press buttons and use one power chord never touching the others cause they arent useful" is all i see. I think giving her more utility with a few balances to her damage more spread out on her kit then a one stop for damage, one stop for utility, and one way to win in lane with a single cc on her ult. That just doesent sound like a fun champ to me. She needs a change up and not just some balance changes.

DeathBurst7/20/2016, 1:14:56 PM1 votes

I played Sona a lot, even before the mini-rework, currently 3rd most played champ and mastery level 6 (I'm a Top main, in fact, but a decent Sup secondary). But I don't go Lichbane at all on her, contrary to "common wisdom", so I don't know how my feedback is representative.

The mini-rework felt like a huge buff, especially level 11-15. I agree that they should nerf her damage more than her utility, if they want to increase her weaknesses instead of nerfing her strengths, but maybe her strengths are just THAT strong right now and too strong.

blfUvZ8Ybu7/20/2016, 12:37:32 PM1 votes

I don't know but did you see her win rate after hotfix?