"Surging Tides stood out as Nami's least-appreciable form of enchanting, so we're boosting it..."

RedCyclone·Aug 20, 2015·197 votes·9,639 views

http://i.imgur.com/bx3s1QG.png http://i.imgur.com/Wg5xIco.png

ONE FUCKING PERCENT PER RANK ONLY

156 Comments

1000angrybeesAug 20, 201558 votes

"Dear playerbase,

Even though this buff is very beneficial for Nami, who definitely deserved it, we'd like to just reiterate how we don't want to buff Sona. She can't be good at anything she does, because if she was good at anything, she'd overshadow another champ. We like to keep her nice and subpar for those of you who like a challenge. Q? pretty average. But that auto targeted basic ability is really oppressive! better nerf it. that passive is too strong even though she has to be in ~~retaliation~~ AA range. Don't worry, nerfed. Her W? can't be better than other healers or shielders. Not even remotely close. It's genuinely worthless until rank 5, we've got you. Her E? 1% per rank because if we did anything else to it, it'd be overloaded. Her ult? Ha, better make sure this thing has one of the highest CD's at rank one, even though it's not as powerful as about 5-10 other support ults who have higher ratios and lower CD's. No, no. Can't allow that. But hey! DJ Sona is rad, right? That should make up for it.

We hope that clears up why Sona has to be a frail, barely functional poke support who relies entirely on AP with shitty scalings.

 -        -       -        -       -            -            -              -               -              -              -            -        -        Love, Riot"

maikokkAug 20, 20154 votes

as a sona main... i didnt appreciate the nerfs but she is still strong AF in soloque. most other supports are highly dependent on their adc knowing WTF to do to coordinate. sona's lane can be heavily influenced by her level of play as opposed to depending on a competent adc and/or the mistakes of enemies

only zhuleAug 20, 20154 votes

{quoted}

as a sona main... i didnt appreciate the nerfs but she is still strong AF in soloque. most other supports are highly dependent on their adc knowing WTF to do to coordinate. sona's lane can be heavily influenced by her level of play as opposed to depending on a competent adc and/or the mistakes of enemies

I kind of disagree here. While Sona can still do some reasonable damage by herself, it's almost never enough to scare the enemy without some back up from your ADC. But even then you don't really help them all that much in the early to mid game. Or at least i'm rarely that close to my ADC that i can gift them more then use of my damage bonus (even if we are chasing for a long period of time).

Mostly i just find that what other supports might miss in personal damage, they open up a much large amount of damage/openings for their ADC to attack you with.

blueberrypancakeAug 20, 20151 votes

Who needs a team when your Ap Sona late game with 40% CDR and lich bane

one shots carries from one Q AA Passive kappa

only zhuleAug 21, 20153 votes

{quoted}

Who needs a team when your Ap Sona late game with 40% CDR and lich bane

one shots carries from one Q AA Passive kappa

So basically what any half decent AP carry can do with a full inventory of AP items.

Singing LarkAug 20, 201517 votes

Sona is balanced for Urf. Kappa.

DJ Di0Aug 20, 201552 votes

Ngl, got pretty salty after reading that.

Arcane AzmadiAug 20, 201537 votes

Riot hate Sona. Long established fact. She's like Vladimir in the sense that they wish they'd never released her, but because she's so popular (unlike Vlad who pretty much everyone hates) they can't admit it. So she's not allowed to be playable any more.

ThryaleAug 20, 20158 votes

You got 'em thar facts to back up tha' thar statement, cowboy?

LankPantsAug 20, 20159 votes

That Sona nerf they pushed live at the start of the year despite mass player opposition?

RozzetaAug 20, 201526 votes

There's the fact that Riot doesn't want her to poke, reducing Passive's damage whenever they have the chance, but at the same time doesn't want her to be a passive healer, increasing W's cooldown (which broke with the armony of having all skills on same CD) and mana cost and reducing ratio, in order to make it an inviable choice to max early. Basically they know what they want Sona shouldn't be, but never mention on the Identity they want to give her. They do not want passive stats (hence the rework), so at one point they nerfed all her auras to have half the effect at level 1, including E, which was already the worst level 1. In that same moment Morello Stated they wouldn't nerf her passive, which was nerfed in the same patch and then recovered a little of power after having Zero picks in competitive games. Xypherous made a post on how unhealthy Sona's kit seemed to him, specially the ultimate, and considered she needed a rework. Later proceeded to make Lulu, a champion infamous for how well she worked in top lane compared to her supporting skills (at the time), which were heavily burdened by short ranges and 300 movespeed. Volty was pretty famous for his comments on two separate Sona nerfs: One when he considered she was "Too tanky" and therefore her health was reduced to the lowest of the entire champion pool at early levels (or second lowest when compared to Anivia, a very safe farming champion with resurrection pasive). The other was when they discovered that Diminuendo wasn't actually doing anything (I still doubting their claim on this), and fixing that bug was reason enough to nerf Diminuendo's power and duration, in adition to some other W nerfs which I do not remember right now. The lowers mana cost on Q came after 6 months of post about how Sona's nerfs made her into a walking ultimate. During that time we had Morello and Phreak talk about Sona as if she was THE support. Eventually Morello was forced to makes a 180° change on his speech about how healers are cancer to te game, and starts speaking about how important it is for a champion to have an impact. After the buff whent through PVP, all his comments on forum were about the management of player's expectations, making it clear the buff went through by sheer force of the playerbase, rather than from recognizing (and they DID recognize) that she was in a pretty bad spot and wanted to do something about it. Also, the extremely poor state of E was a result of a nerf given to it because Riot at the time didn't want champions to have one point wonder skills. Let's ignore, by the way, later released champions kits, like Dianna's E, release Fiora's W, and Graves' W. Then, there's the HORRIBLE rework, performed by a person who blatantly ignored all fanbase's comments, and presented the finished product in a post without giving the actual numbers for the skills, and a video of a battle already won, where Sona was simply spamming spells that made absolutely no change to the situation.

I can't say she's Riot's most hated champion, as that place is definitely for Evelynn, but the history certainly is against Riot when they try to claim they care about her.

Arcane AzmadiAug 20, 20155 votes

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Daedalus871Aug 20, 201523 votes

Sona needs another rework. She's in a bad spot and you can't really buff her without making her annoying to play against.

The only good thing about her is her Ult. I mean, you might as well play Lulu, Nami, or Bard over her.

SlampieceHawkeAug 20, 20153 votes

This guy gets it. ^

PurodyuusaaAug 20, 20155 votes

This almost looks like part of a growing trend.

Riot gets lucky on occasion but for the most part they can't rework shit. I'm almost inclined to believe they're just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Hatless CasualAug 20, 20159 votes

Considering Nami and Bard basically have her kit.... yeah. Poke? Check. Heal? Check. Mobility that is passed to your carry? Check CC ult? Check and check.

Seriously, they need to stop trying to replace her and just fix her.

HowPlayGAEMAug 20, 201519 votes

I have and will maintain the opinion that the Sona rework was total fucking garbage done by a guy who had no business even commenting on Sona. He and his team didn't even notice they nerfed her Q range by 200 in that rework. Really? You somehow don't notice a massive fucking change like that during playtesting? If you play Sona more than 10 times you'd have realized the error.

So either the guy(s) in charge of the rework were completely clueless about Sona, OR it was a secret undocumented nerf. Neither choice is good.

UltîmaAug 20, 201518 votes

She, unfortunately, needs a pretty extensive rework.

EnvyDragonAug 20, 20159 votes

Again.

Arcane AzmadiAug 20, 20153 votes

Rework? By THIS balance team?OH GOD NO! She needs to be made better, not worse!

Blue Moon WolfAug 20, 201511 votes

Sona rework team: we thought that sona really didn't fit into this meta, so we made her an AD jungler adapt at being a mobile healing station for lane champs. we also decided to make her talk now, cause reasons :L

terkmcAug 21, 20153 votes

Her Q is now a three hit active

Ariel the CruelAug 20, 20152 votes

Rework team =/= balance team. Though the rework team does do some balancing.

Only Play DariusAug 20, 201513 votes

Wow, she actually looks genuinely angry!

OverpoweredSoapAug 20, 201513 votes

As much as I don't think Sona really needs buffs, her E has always been her shittest ability.

I'd honestly welcome another rework at this point.

Make her Q a skillshot or something. Maybe that way E can actually do something, more useful.

RedCycloneAug 20, 20159 votes

her E has a ton of room for improvement, stats show that Sona drops hard when she hits around the 30 minute mark (when she is level 16+) the obvious culprit is her useless E ranking

Arcane AzmadiAug 20, 20155 votes

Her E makes a good case for being _ hands-down the worst skill in the entire game,_ from a roster of 126 different characters. I don't know if it takes the actual #1 spot, but it's definitely a contender.

XonraAug 20, 20155 votes

[{quoted}](name=Arcane Azmadi,realm=OCE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=GUawb2fG,comment-id=000600000000,timestamp=2015-08-20T08:50:19.650+0000)

Her E makes a good case for being _ hands-down the worst skill in the entire game,_ from a roster of 126 different characters. I don't know if it takes the actual #1 spot, but it's definitely a contender.

Well I would have said hawk shot before, but it being map wide helped Ashe a least a bit. I would say Sona's E is probably in the top 5 at the best, as far as the worst abilities. I mean it is bad enough I had to pull up the champ list to try and argue against it being the worst and I couldn't find one.

Terrible level scaling No AP scaling (unless you count the terrible 4% scaling on the slow, which you will rarely bother with using given the much better other two abilities power chord uses) It last 3 seconds which isn't terrible, but you basically have to hop on her back to even get the buff.

I mean seriously, when you have to stop to let your teammates catch up sometimes to even get a small boost from it because the range is so terrible, what is the point?

JedenVojakAug 20, 20157 votes

Making it a skillshot would ruin it, honestly.

IcyPepperAug 20, 20153 votes

The point is to remove some power from it, so other areas can be buffed. The damage can remain the same, but making it a skillshot vs homing would make some room in her power budget.

Honestly, I can see it working like Vi's E. Two charges can be held at a time, and using one will start the cooldown timer to recharge.

JedenVojakAug 20, 20159 votes

It already had too much power removed: in the first place, it's her only damage ability outside of her ultimate. Second, it only does damage and nothing else, that is, its not like it's a point and click CC of some kind. Third, making it a skill shot would make it not hit anymore, and they would almost certainly have to crank up the damage of the ability to 11 to compensate.

I think her power budget is largely being taken up because Riot is vastly overvaluing her auras: I mean, what percentage of the game is she actually just in the middle of her 4 teammates? I think if they just recognized that they're not actually that strong most of the time, she could get more buffs.

KuboxAug 21, 20153 votes

Sona's Q really is not a problem. Any ADC with a Vamp scepter can sustain it. Any significant damage from Sona comes from her Passive, and if you're letting her land those without punishing her, you deserve to lose that lane.

XonraAug 20, 20155 votes

{quoted}

As much as I don't think Sona really needs buffs, her E has always been her shittest ability.

I'd honestly welcome another rework at this point.

Make her Q a skillshot or something. Maybe that way E can actually do something, more useful.

Her Q NOT being a skillshot is the only thing going for her. If you made her Q a skillshot there would officially be no point of playing her.

Only reason anyone bothers with her now is being cause sustain other supports can do better, her ult which is fine, and her Q which can harass even if they are behind minions.

Take just one of those 3 away and what's the point of Sona? If she suddenly had a skillshot Q, she would quickly turn useless as her poke would all but go away. Especially when you have the likes of Annie who can do more damage and have a stun on all but one ability, and Nami who is better but for some awkward reason no one plays her.

Reaper SorakaAug 20, 20156 votes

Sona Excuse me while I level Q first every single game because E is too weak and W is too expensive. I wish I could talk so Rito could hear me.

(If they added some bonus per rank to power chords on the other two, I think they'd become good choices.)

RozzetaAug 20, 20151 votes

That is intentional. The extra mana cost on W, and later the extended CD, are all changes specifically made so Sona doesn't level W first, so she can't passively sustain a lane.

Reaper SorakaAug 20, 20151 votes

It really makes her feel like a one-button champion for the first 6 levels, then she goes up to two. I've had the opportunity to play her late game when she is (dare I say) overpowered in all categories, but as a support, you don't get that much gold often.

only zhuleAug 20, 20155 votes

{quoted}

It really makes her feel like a one-button champion for the first 6 levels, then she goes up to two. I've had the opportunity to play her late game when she is (dare I say) overpowered in all categories, but as a support, you don't get that much gold often.

i feel that she's never really overpowered, she simply has the rare chance (if the game goes super long) to build like a mage carry. Her Lich Bane, Q, empowered AA looks super strong, but compare it for a second against most other mage carry champions. Would you rather play Sona with 600 AP or Annie, Ziggs, LB, etc...?

BooriinAug 20, 20154 votes

Not only Nami buff but also Lee Sin buff scared me

http://www.surrenderat20.net/2015/08/patch-516-notes.html

Riot just mention that there will have some Zyra changes in next PBE cycle but they haven't say anything about Sona, I feel so sad :(

StellafreyjaAug 20, 20152 votes

I was scared about the Lee Sin buffs too, but then I read it was bonus health. So, only tanks are going to suffer really.

RedCycloneAug 20, 20158 votes

the bonus damage applies to all he hits

if you kick someone with 2k bonus HP, it will do about 300 extra damage to anyone it hits

BattleBalladeerAug 20, 201514 votes

Like Cyclone says, that is a bad thing. That Bonus Health is going to damage the tank's allies more than the tank.

Who is on the front line? The tank. Who will lock heads with Lee Sin first? The tank. Who is going to be stacking HP? The tank. Who is now a living bowling ball for Lee Sin to one-shot squishies with? That's right: The tank.

This change is not only a straight buff, but it also punishes players for standing behind their tank who is supposed to peel. It punishes the tank for trying to get Lee Sin away from their squishy friends. It punishes anyone for building HP against a high damage champion...

Hell at this point anyone running Riot's un-nerfable Golden Children LeeSin and Vayne in a duo should cause an automatic surrender vote on the enemy team.** One of them is only countered by a peeler tank that stacks HP, and the other one is an absolute counter to peeler tanks who stack HP!**

SlampieceHawkeAug 20, 20152 votes

I don't think sona is entirely that bad for having such a low skillcap. I mean cmon, one skillshot and the only other things you have to do is know how to press keys while moving. She may not be as amazing as you sona players would like her to be, but champs like thresh have the potential to be amazing because it requires some skill to land hooks/flays, and be able to throw your lantern out at the right spot while doing all of it.

BooriinAug 20, 20157 votes

[{quoted}](name=Slampiece Hawke,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=GUawb2fG,comment-id=0012,timestamp=2015-08-20T05:30:07.446+0000)

I don't think sona is entirely that bad for having such a low skillcap. I mean cmon, one skillshot and the only other things you have to do is know how to press keys while moving. She may not be as amazing as you sona players would like her to be, but champs like thresh have the potential to be amazing because it requires some skill to land hooks/flays, and be able to throw your lantern out at the right spot while doing all of it.

You act like "moving" an extremely squishy champion around mobility/all-in tanky champions is easy,

Thresh is safe to play, he don't have to always pay his whole life for his missing hooks, he can do a lot mistakes without worry. You can still be useful as a bad Thresh but you can't be useful as a bad Sona because she already dead.

SlampieceHawkeAug 20, 20151 votes

It is quite easy. if you don't have the sense to already know you're squishy yet you put yourself in range w/ no minion to block skillshots and what have you, then you have no right playing a squishy sup like her. I play sup karma a lot. she may not be as squishy as sona w/ a well timed barrier handy , but she is just as vulnerable to those mobility/all in-tanky champions and she can't keep healing herself like sona. I'd also argue that Sona and Karma both have the similar strategy of poke and hide behind minions. So I wouldn't assume that I'm not aware of the weakness of squishy sup champs. You can even tell me that karma sup is a better/safer support and guess what, you'd be right. She's allowed that potential to be better as she takes more skill than just moving around and pressing keys.

AmazingGoatAug 20, 20151 votes

I think that her aa-Q-aa poke is so strong in low level games that her e can't really be buffed without first somehow nerfing her q.

tl;dr - better nerf sona

MisterHealYoGirlAug 20, 201511 votes

Yeah, she's kind of a lane bully, but she's INCREDIBLY easy to bully back and she offers no real crowd control if someone decides to engage on her.

DJ Di0Aug 20, 20156 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, she's kind of a lane bully, but she's INCREDIBLY easy to bully back and she offers no real crowd control if someone decides to engage on her.

This is why she gets worse and worse the higher in elo you go.

Later on people actually trade back with you instead of running away in fear after you've dealt your damage.

Arcane AzmadiAug 20, 20154 votes

So... in other words she's a terrible lane bully?

Photos of GhostsAug 20, 20155 votes

When Sona is in lane, no one has any health. Not even her. When Rumble is in lane, no one gets any farm. Not even him.

UiruAug 20, 20159 votes

The day your adc realizes that when Sona does 15% of their hp in one rotation, they can do 20% of hers back in one click is the day they aren't low level anymore.