Underwhelmed by Sona

Past few days I've been playing a lot of Sona in attempt to make her work, before I decide whether I should buy the ultimate skin or not.

So far it's been a struggle.

Her gameplay feels linear and her ability kit doesn't have enough power to compete with the other supports. By the linearity I mean the way you level your skills. Her abilities cost a lot of mana and are behind high cooldown, meaning player needs to use the most impactful skill every time. Gating the player to always maximise Q first as it causes opponents to avoid you, creating space for ADC farm. The second ability to level is the W, shield and heal is mandatory in order to stay alive. Leaving the E last, as it has the lowest impact in early / mid game.

Only reason to pick Sona is because of her ultimate and the possible scenarios it can create. Playing as a glass cannon shotgun Sona, in every game, makes her gaming experience feel lackluster. Her kit doesn't offer a choice which ability to level up first. I remember when she was "faceroll keyboard" type of champion where the best play was to constantly press every single ability when available, not good. Her stat giving passive auras from the abilities were deemed too strong and thus she was reduced to the state she currently is.

The biggest problem is that she doesn't specialise in any particular area. I'm aware of different champions plays differently in different skill levels but Sona lacks the depth. She feels like a half mage with half support abilities, master of none. She used to be the aura support, and that's what I want see her to be again.

I would like to write several pages long word file, in detail, about the changes I would like to see happen, but for this post I will settle for shorter version.

Passive:

Her old / current passive promotes ability spamming to gain the benefit you want for the fight. This is out of sync with the current design and should be changed.

For her new passive she should gain the enhanced auto attack through a stack system. Think of statikk shiv style charge system fueled by actions. More time / mana / aura tagging / basic attacks she invests counts towards the stack. Take the damage components away and replace them with more supporty ones such as:

• Q - Reduces armor / magic resist
• W - No need to be changed
• E - Reduces movement and attack speed by X%

Same target cannot be afflicted by enhanced basic attack more than once in X second. Stacks transfer between auras.

Abilities:

The current abilities (excluding ultimate) provide utility in short range, promoting Sona to move towards teammates to give the benefits. The timeframe to do this is too short and thus leaving unsatisfied feeling. Especially when the one, you want to give the benefit, is moving faster than you. In order to make Sona the aura support again, the aura should last until death or when using another ability. Reasoning behind this is the removed stats from the auras and the short width (which should be increased by one Teemo).

Q - Hymn of Valor With new passive this ability can have higher base damage, still relevant as poke but not forced choice. Continuous aura provides extra damage for the next auto attack, which has flat base damage + % AP scale. Think of Nami Tidecaller's Blessing but as weaker since it can be given to a party of five.

W - Aria of Perseverance Healing is great, but I really wish it would hit more than one target. Sona should be less selfish when healing as resulting to always heal two lowest / nearest targets. Continuous aura provides instant / charging shield which decays after a few seconds. Tempting teammates to move towards Sona to gain a shield before they jump back / into the fight.

E - Song of Celerity Same range with the healing, activation gives flat movement speed and % attack speed for few seconds. Continuous aura acting like a speed shrine (scuttle crab / Twisted Treeline).

R - Crescendo No change.

**TL;DR ** Overall I want the auras to be appealing to teammates and available to them more often, without spamming abilities mindlessly. Choosing which ability to level should be strategic choice for example: "I'm going to lane with Ashe, I know she doesn't have great mobility so maxing E allows her to dodge enemy skillshots better" or "Enemy has Caitlyn who is a lane bully, I better provide us shield / heal to prevent getting zoned".

I strongly believe that with these changes Sona would be the healthy aura support in League of Legends.