Thoughts and Discussion: Sona
Jump right into things with Sona, and do keep an open mind:
~ Sona should be an introductory support for new players. This does not mean her base kit should be brain-dead to use with a passive that is far to hard to understand for new players. Adding something like a skill shot would do wonders in teaching new players how to use skill shots. ~ ~ In general, Sona needs more tools that properly teaches new players things about the game since face rolling QWE does not teach much. ~ ~ On a side note, have a poke spell, heal spell, and movement speed spell does teach the player the importance of harassing in lane for your marksman / ranged damage-mage can farm up, with heal keep your allies alive and movement speed the importance of re-positioning.
~ Crescendo (R) I should point there is nothing wrong with this ability. The only qualms I have with it is that it happens so fast and the after effect is just a stun that it does not feel like Sona is playing a song at all or struck enemies are dancing neither. This would be the reason to rework Crescendo is to make it feel a lot more thematic rather than an instant AoE nuke and stun. ~ ~ I know I said adding skill shots to Sona will be good to teach new players about skill shots, and I am thinking line skill shots here. The thing is her ultimate being this makes it actually hard for new players to use since it is on such a long cooldown. So the skill shots being on her base kit make more sense because of the spammy nature of her kit allow players to learn how to use them and turn Crescendo into a positioning and decision making ultimate. ~ ~ ~ Perhaps have Crescendo into something like Sona channels in place playing a song, while the song plays enemies immediately nearby will dance around Sona. With Dance being a very powerful and unique crowd control where it takes the same premise of charms and fears, but they slowly go back and forth as they circle around Sona rather than fears where they run away and charms where they run towards. The channel duration will of course have a hard cap and can be canceled early. It be fun with Crescendo being a lot more unique, being more powerful and supporty this way, with an unique Dance crowd control that does not deal damage - self-stun essentially to take over the dance floor and make the enemy dance to your tunes! Forces that element of super powerful with her team and basically useless solo since it is a neutral you cannot hurt Sona and Sona cannot hurt you during that time, and of course can be disrupted for those not caught up in the music since it is CC only while channeling.
~ I do like Sona being a spam champion and she needs a new passive that is easier to understand for new players, because I still remember my troubles of trying to understand her passive back in the day (I do not give a shit if you did not have troubles learning her passive, that is just you and you do not represent every new player). ~ ~ I am thinking of something along the lines of use an ability and the next ability's cooldown is reduced by a % amount, stacking up to 3 times, the % amount would increase with ultimate levels (1/6/11/16), if the timer runs out then the stacks reset back to zero. This is of course basic abilities only. ~ ~ ~ This might be too much, but could add a skill element to it as well where if you time your spell casts within a certain 0.5 second window some time after your previous spell cast then that basic ability will become greatly enhanced. Creates a rhythm mini-game and adds an interesting skill element for those that want to take the extra step into mastering Sona and feel REALLY good for their mastery of the champion. This would create that long global cooldown to Sona's abilities without actually having a global cooldown at all (global cooldown is when you cast an ability, and the other abilities go on cooldown for a short while).
~ Let's try to have Sona fun and rewarding to play as which is always on a high priority list. But she still needs to feel fair to play against, why her Q should be a skill shot to gain full control of it so it does not accidentally take farm and feel fair to go against all at the same time.
~ And of course Sona just needs some bigger changes to give her a more interesting kit. Yes, she has literally everything in her kit, but its everything done in such a bland fashion. I do want her music theme to stand out a lot better than it does not (it really does not show through at all).
Below is just an example kit to help brain storm ideas since everyone thinks DIFFERENTLY, hard concept right there for this community accepting the fact that someone thinks differently than you, I know. Anyways, following that is below is a fun thing I like to do afterwards to do something creative and again help create MORE ideas out of it by laying the ground work with starting ideas!
Metronome (Passive): Ranks: @levels 1/6/11/16 Whenever Sona casts a basic ability her next basic ability's cooldown is reduced by 5/10/15/20%, stacking up to 3 times, when cast within 4 seconds.
Sona's basic ability casts are increased in power between 10% to 100% when cast between 1.5 to 3.5 seconds of the previous cast, the closer to 2.5 seconds the greater the power. 100% increased power only occurs when basic abilities are cast exactly 2.5 seconds after each other.
Hymn of Valor (Q): Cooldown: 4 seconds; Cost: 65 mana; Range: 1000 / 500 units Sona sends a bolt of sound in the target direction dealing 60/80/100/120/140(+30%AP) magic damage to the first enemy struck. If the bolt of sound hits an enemy champion then it splits off seeking out two nearby champions.
Aria of Perseverance (W): Cooldown: 10 seconds; Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana; Range: 600 units Sona pulses out a sound wave, blocking enemy projectiles and healing herself and struck allies for 30/45/60/75/90(+40%AP) health.
Song of Celerity (E): Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 seconds; Cost: 80 mana; Range: 1000/150 / 1000 units Sona creates an intense melody at the target location after 0.5 second delay for 4 seconds, granting Sona and allies up to 100%(+10% per 100AP) bonus movement speed based on how close they are to the sound.
If enemies are struck by the initial cast then they are slowed down by 50/60/70/80/90% for 2.5 seconds.
Crescendo (R): Cooldown: 120/100/80 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: 600 units Sona channels in place, playing an irresistible tune causing enemies around her to harmlessly Dance around Sona as long as the music continues to play. Sona can play this music for a maximum of 2/2.5/3 seconds. When the song ends, Sona plays a terrible noise, dealing 150/225/300(+50%AP) magic damage to struck enemies.
Cast Crescendo again to end the effect early.
