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A Straight Comparison of Sona & Nami

LankPants··8 votes·2,740 views

One of the things I say a lot is that Sona is simply a worse Nami. It's also a statement that I've heard many people repeat and one that I've heard people rebut by simply saying that Sona's win rate is better than Nami's and therefore she must be better, which is terrible logic.

I wanted to write out as complete of a comparison of the two champs as I could to show why by simple numbers and aspects of their kit Sona is a worse Nami.

Poke: (assumes Q-passive AA for Sona and W-E AA-Q for Nami) Sona : 568.8+(98%AP) Nami : 610+(120%AP) Nami (No Q): 315+(70%AP)

Maximum Burst: sum(basedamage)+sum(ratios) Sona : 918.8+(148%AP) Nami :960+(180%AP)

DPS: sum(Basedamage/CD)+sum(ratios/CD) Sona : 63.4+(11.58%AP) per-second Nami : 79.18+(16.05%AP) per-second

DPM: sum(basedamage/manacost)+sum(ratios/manacost) (Sona's passive cost=W+E because that's what you pay for it in a damage context) Sona : 9.74+(1.75%AP) Nami : 13.59+(2.62%AP)

HPS: baseheal/CD+ratios/CD Sona : 11+(2%AP) to 16.5+(3%AP) (on a dead target) Nami : 18.5+(3%AP)

HPM: baseheal/manacost+ratios/manacost Sona : 1.1+(0.2%AP) to 1.65+(0.3%AP) Nami : 1.42+(0.23%AP)

Other advantages: Sona

  • Has a shield
  • Speed Boost slightly stronger in terms of raw speed boost into the late game. Usually works out to around 5 Ms.
  • Has better boobs? Probably the best reason to play Sona.

Nami :

  • Has hard CC on a basic ability
  • can slow reactivly
  • gets better trades since her heal and damage are on the same spell
  • has better skill rankings for the same reason
  • speedboost is stronger in the early game
  • doesn't need to be suicidally close to an ally to have an impact.
  • better base stats

Basically the Nami holds around 10 solid advantages over Sona while Sona has 3 shaky at best advantages, sometimes Nami can actually outdo her in these areas if played correctly.

When all Sona can do is poke very slightly better and sometimes Nami can outdo Sona in that area why should I pick Sona over Nami?

50 Comments

Environmentalist7 votes

Haha I agree, I'd play Nami over Sona any day, but man, you said it yourself... Sona has better boobs.

Archon X7 votes

don't take either one

several better supports, particularly Braum, Leona, Lulu, Morgana, Janna, Soraka, Blitzcrank, etc

LankPants6 votes

I'd 100% agree. I think Nami is probably a little under the curve. She's just not miles under the curve in the same way as Sona.

RedCyclone7 votes

BUH BUH BUH BUH BUT SONA'S WINRATE!

Only Fish6 votes

I agree nerf Sona, buff Zed(who is hard to play), don't nerf veigar, buff Gangplank.

IAMS4T4N5 votes

anyone who calls nami sona or zyra bad supports are bad themselves

LankPants5 votes

Thank you mister Bronze 3, I'll be sure to take your opinions on what players are bad seriously and just ignore countless pro's saying that Sona and Zyra are both terrible at the moment.

The pros must also be bad because they don't think those champs are good, maybe we should just fill the LCS with people from bronze since they're clearly the only people good enough to understand how good Sona and Zyra are.

Uiraya1 votes

Zyra is at least fun to play. Got both to rank 5 recently; Sona was agonizing (worse than Eve was). Had some good times with Zyra; found out I'm better with sniping kills w/ passive than I thought 8)

LankPants5 votes

Zyra is at least fun to play. Got both to rank 5 recently; Sona was agonizing (worse than Eve was).

That's your opinion. Personally I enjoy both.

The champs I don't enjoy are the ones the boards keep telling me I should like Yas, Zed ect. If that doesn't tell you that fun is subjective then nothing will.

LadyRenly4 votes

{quoted}

Thank you mister Bronze 3, I'll be sure to take your opinions on what players are bad seriously and just ignore countless pro's saying that Sona and Zyra are both terrible at the moment.

Anyone who says Nami is not good right now are just meta sheep parroting the "tank or die" mindset.

LankPants5 votes

Anyone who says Nami is not good right now are just meta sheep parroting the "tank or die" mindset.

I think Nami's about fine. She's maybe slightly bellow average as a support but that doesn't really matter because she's the best at her niche and she is one of the best caster supports.

Zyra has major problems as a support, but I think that's OK. The bigger problem is that she has major problems as a mid laner, which is where she should be balanced around IMO.

Sona's a mess. She's marginally better mid lane than support right now but that doesn't even matter because she's atrocious at both.

Pika3104 votes

she's the best at her niche

Bard

LankPants2 votes

That's questionable. I'd say Nami's a bit better as a traditional support but Bard's a better support. I think Nami's better at babysitting someone through their laning phase and Bard's better at roaming and doing general Bard things.

Pika3101 votes

I'm not so certain about that. I've played roaming Nami before. My most successful game I started top, killed the the Kha'Zix, went mid and killed Syndra, went bot and pushed out Thresh and whatever ADC it was, then went top and killed Kha'Zix again. My three teammates praised me and turned on the toxic Cait that verbally abused us since the beginning of champ select.

Nami makes an AMAZING roamer, so the fact that we both agree Bard does it better just goes to show that the three of these champs really are copy and paste versions of each other.

LankPants2 votes

I'm not arguing that Nami can't roam, just that she's better than Bard when you don't want to.

Stonington4 votes

Sona also gives allies the Q passive to add to damage, her E aura giving a potential team wide shield, along with a nearly instant cast stun on her ult. She's also much easier to play and more reliable since she only has her huge AOE ult to as a skillshot. Nami is definitely stronger, but she also has skillshot that can be dodged, which is why they're more powerful. This makes her less reliable as a champ.

LankPants8 votes

This makes her less reliable as a champ.

You're right, Sona's ability to reliably do nothing is unmatched.

Reliability is only useful if your kit has some merit. At the moment Sona's in such a weak state that even a Nami who misses 90% of her bubbles is more useful because the 10% is stronger than Sona's kit.

Stonington4 votes

Lol, ok. According to champion.gg the have almost identical winrates(52.2% to 52.28%) and their playrate is only seperated by 1.2% in Nami's favour. You're making a mountain out of a molehill.

LankPants5 votes

their playrate is only seperated by 1.2% in Nami's favour.

Which is almost 50% of Sona's total pick rate.

But that's not even what I'm talking about, Sona's just a weaker champ in every aspect right now. Nami's kit is just better than Sona's right now and assuming you're not blind Nami's always a better pick.

Stonington4 votes

{quoted}

Which is almost 50% of Sona's total pick rate.

But that's not even what I'm talking about, Sona's just a weaker champ in every aspect right now. Nami's kit is just better than Sona's right now and assuming you're not blind Nami's always a better pick.

Much closer to 1/3rd of Sona's playrate.

In Plat+ the difference in win rate is 8/100s of 1 percent. Like I said, Nami's kit is stronger, but Sona's is more reliable. Neither champ is in the meta and neither champ is particularly that bad, I think.

LankPants5 votes

Reliability has a much bigger swing on win rate than actual power. Just look at Thresh, one of the most overpowered yet unreliable champs in the game can't break a 50% winrate.

Sona's reliability over Nami is giving her a hugh amount of that winrate which means when Nami's played well she's considerably better.

Stonington1 votes

{quoted}

Reliability has a much bigger swing on win rate than actual power. Just look at Thresh, one of the most overpowered yet unreliable champs in the game can't break a 50% winrate.

Sona's reliability over Nami is giving her a hugh amount of that winrate which means when Nami's played well she's considerably better.

That's almost exactly what I said in my first statement.

FaRmErX3 votes

beccause in ARAM you may not have a choice

Pika3105 votes

There's a reroll button. If you have the majority of champs unlocked, it's hard NOT to have 2 rerolls every game.

I reroll Sona every single time, without a second thought. Even yesterday, I dodged a promotion game because a teammate locked in Sona. She's just that bad of a champ.

1000angrybees3 votes

???? ARAM is practically Sona's playground. She literally has one of the highest win rates and has a pretty decent pickrate.

Sona's best attribute is teamfights, and most of her weaknesses in SR aren't here. The only thing that really stops her here is if the other team gets something like a good assassin, a tank with a lot of CC (e.g, Leona) or if they simply have better teamwork/teamfight.

Pika3102 votes

Pickrate... ARAM... Okay then.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v636/pika310/LoL%20Meme%2059_zpsygxlkpzm.jpg

LankPants2 votes

Pickrate... ARAM... Okay then.

Playrate is a stat in ARAM, probably not pickrate though. It's basically how unlikely a champ is to be reroled and how likely people are to own them. As it turns out a lot of people own Sona and she's a pretty good ARAM champ (doesn't make her a good champ) so her playrate is fairly high.

The game's not balanced around ARAM though so ARAM playrate is irrelevant to balance discussions.

Pika3102 votes

She's a 3150 champ that has been around since the original line-up of playable characters and at one point in time used to not be complete trash. It's less likely for players to NOT own her and the sheep of this community are too busy NOT THINKING to realize she only heals 15 HP per cast and is easily worth that reroll. Of course her playrate is high.

The "winrate" propaganda is just as invalid here as it is in every instance that it's ever used.

As for actual stats, speaking specifically for ARAM alone, studies have painted quite a contrary picture to the misconceptions this community continues to view.

1000angrybees1 votes

It's generally pretty accepted that Sona does well in ARAM, that's all I was saying. Also yes, I should have said something like playrate instead. Moving on.

Hayaishi23 votes

Because Nami takes skill.

Most of the strengths are completely one sided/biased, like the bullshit one "Gets better trades because X" but doesn't mention Nami's W costs 130 mana at rank 5.

LankPants5 votes

Most of the strengths are completely one sided/biased, like the bullshit one "Gets better trades because X" but doesn't mention Nami's W costs 120 mana.

In order to do the same thing Sona needs to Q, W and AA. That costs at least 125 mana if both skills are at rank one, which if Nami's W costs 130 mana they're not. The minimum mana cost for a fair comparison here is 150 mana for Sona.

That is why it trades better overall than the combination of Sona's Q and W.

Maximum Morde3 votes

You left out that Sonas Ult is arguably better than Namis. Sure Nami has the longer range ult with more damage, but Sona's ult is much much faster to use and more reliable. Does that make up for the entire kit? Not not really, It just needs to be said for completeness.

LankPants5 votes

It's a matter of Speed VS Damage+Better CC+Range+A long arse slow after the knockup wears off.

Overall I think the pros of Nami's ult generally outweigh the pros of Sona's ult.

Maximum Morde2 votes

{quoted}

It's a matter of Speed VS Damage+Better CC+Range+A long arse slow after the knockup wears off.

Overall I think the pros of Nami's ult generally outweigh the pros of Sona's ult.

I strongly disagree. Rapid fire reliability is way more important to me for playmaking on the fly due to all the mobility creep. The only real advantage Namis ult has imo is that she can combo it with her Q for longer duration. Namis ult is nice, but it's just not as good as it looks on paper. Of course, Annie's is better still XD.

LankPants5 votes

The only real advantage Namis ult has imo is that she can combo it with her Q for longer duration.

It's also significantly better as a secondary engage after something like a Glacial Prison or Crescendo (oddly enough) and far better for cutting chokes with than Crescendo will ever be.

That's not to say it's always better but there's situations where either can be better which is why I didn't really include their ults in comparisons outside of just their damage.

Lugg3 votes

Sona and Nami are very similar. To say one is better than the other is really nitpicking. Having played both quite a bit and knowing what the numbers say, Sona in game seems to have much better poke than Nami.

Deep Terror Nami2 votes

Sona becomes considerably more efficient for having more allies near (teamfight aura) and she often builds to maximize her harass rather than utility and can easily snowball her lane. Her poke isn't "very slightly better" because you don't build them the same when you want different results.

Pick her if you want to chunk a carry's health by yourself. Pick Nami if you want non-ult CC.

Yasuo can't stop Sona from healing either, which is a plus. I might actually start using Sona when they get Yasuo.

LankPants6 votes

Yasuo can't stop Sona from healing either, which is a plus. I might actually start using Sona when they get Yasuo.

He actually can. Sona's heal is a projectile, if he places the wall between her and her ally it stops the heal.

Her poke isn't "very slightly better" because you don't build them the same when you want different results.

But that just further exaggerates Nami's advantages because you're sacrificing uttility. Sure you now have a Sona who can poke decently, but Nami is actually useful in other areas. And the question arises if you want to build a support for pure poke what actual advantage does Sona have over Vel'koz. Sure she has a heal but if you want a pure poke support Vel is better.

Deep Terror Nami2 votes

You're right, it's a projectile, I should have said it doesn't have to bounce to the enemy which for Ebb & Flow means it will almost never hit anything (if you didn't self target) with a Windwall nearby while Sona's Aria will likely heal at least 1 intended target and the shield can't be blocked. They are in different leagues when Windwall is a concern.

If you want to pick Vel'koz you're wanting a completely different discussion. Brand, Vel, Zyra, etc. are not comparable to Sona and Nami.

LankPants5 votes

If you want to pick Vel'koz you're wanting a completely different discussion. Brand, Vel, Zyra, etc. are not comparable to Sona and Nami.

What situation can you think of where Sona's a better pick up than Nami or Vel'koz.

If you want a poke support why Sona, when the champs you listed are better?

If you want a traditional support why Sona when Nami's so clearly superior?

Deep Terror Nami3 votes

If you want a poke support If you want a traditional support

<Velkoz< >Nami> ^Velkoz^ ^Nami^ >Velkoz><Nami< http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgdlriZfNi1qf8kb8o1_400.gif Sona

LankPants6 votes

You're making the assumption that Sona's not trash.

It's better to have someone who's good at one thing rather than someone who's bad at both.

In a situation where you need poke and lane sustain supports who are better pick ups than Sona include Nami , Soraka , Thresh with a item 3097 , Velkoz and ignore the fact you need sustain and honestly at this point support Nidalee .

Deep Terror Nami3 votes

Not sure why you arguing about what supports do what and how well. Your match history suggests you don't support, and all your recent Sona games are mid.

Why not play Nami and Sona in the support role for a while before coming to these conclusions? Crunching numbers and intentionally leaving out important factors is not going to tell you why one is better than the other in different situations.

LankPants5 votes

I've played both in the support role. My conclusions were that Nami's a fairly average support, not broken at all, pretty fun, I like her, she's one of my go-to supports on the rare occasion I still support.

Sona I used to play support a lot. Before her rework I mained support, mostly playing Sona with a bit of Nami, Leona and Taric on the side. Since her rework I've not been able to enjoy spamming support like I used to. I can have fun occasionally but I hate having to play it multiple games in a row.

As for the conclusion I came to about support Sona? She's so weak it's not worth playing her. Mid Sona is marginally better but still not worth picking. I only play it because I still enjoy playing Sona and that's the best role for her right now, but it shouldn't be.

When was the last time you tried Sona? If you think she's actually good or ever worth playing right now why don't you? How can you accurately assess her power if your only two games on her recently are an ARAM loss and a bot game?

Pika3103 votes

Nice try brah, but Sona is actually Veku, NOT Gotenks. Try again.

MindSmash2 votes

sona is simpler to play. Her straight forwardness is easier to coordinate with in team fights.

LankPants1 votes

So how is that indicative of power? You just picked a trait (easy for her team to play around) that inflates winrate without actually being at all related to her power.

To be honest though your post is so simple and vague I'm not even sure what you're trying to argue.

Demacry1 votes

{quoted}

So how is that indicative of power? You just picked a trait (easy for her team to play around) that inflates winrate without actually being at all related to her power.

To be honest though your post is so simple and vague I'm not even sure what you're trying to argue.

Fine

tl;dr - You're playing Sona wrong and think it's a balance issue.

Demacry1 votes

As someone who plays Sona in plat solo queue pretty frequently I can tell you that I very much prefer her to Nami.

For me Sona is not a sustain support, but a poke support. Her heal is weak and costs too much mana while her Q is a strong, targeted ability that costs very little mana. I've talked with other high level Sona players and most of them seem to level Q and W and wait until rotations to start leveling E. The way I play Sona I level Q > W > Q > E > max Q > max E.

Around levels 4 to 6 is when ganks have the best chance of success and the passive AA-slow from E is the most useful; W's heal and shield is most useful for level 1 to 6 trades and for lategame item 3504 procs on your whole team. Other than that you should pair Sona with an adc that can make the most use of her Q passive, my favorites are Caitlyn Draven Graves

E speed boost is amazingly powerful for mid game rotations, it makes it very easy to move around the map to get deep wards, rotate between objectives and catch enemies.

Objectively, Nami's speed boost and healing are stronger and more consistent but are also single target focused and not very applicable outside of teamfights given her cooldowns are much longer than Sona's. A lot of your numbers are really kind of pointless since their abilities and roles in teamfights are very different.

You just have to remember that Sona's value on a team depends on the skill of the person playing her as she is 100% position reliant (more so than usual for supports) because of the short range on her auras. Sona can either be that worthless support that gets caught trying to poke the enemy and instagibbed, or she can be the unsung hero of the team providing thousands-of-gold-worth of stats to the whole team during the course of a teamfight. I find her especially valuable in the current tank meta where teamfights can really drag out (a good Sona is very much like a good Nunu in that way).

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