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Sona's current balance state - One week after the rework

JimmynatorB·8/5/2014, 1:22:34 AM·8 votes·2,332 views

So it's been a week now. After trying her in a few teambuilder matches and some ranked matches as a support, I've come to the following conclusions:

  1. The most successful build I've used is the next one: item 3303 -> item 3098 -> item 1001 -> item 2049 -> item 3057 -> item 3092 -> item 3020 -> item 3504 -> item 3100 -> (item 3023 or item 3222 ) -> item 2045. The reason I don't pick Mikael's Crucible early (or even pick it in some cases) is that you loose too much gold on it while getting no offensive value off of it, and Sona NEEDS AP to be able to help her teammates. There is a big power spike once you buy Sheen, that lasts ultil you complete your boots.
  2. As I said before, she gets a big power spike once she gets her Sheen, but she is overall helpful all over the game. In many games I ended up dealing more damage than most of my teammates, and that's not counting the heals, ults and overall utility she has. This is what makes sona powerful, so I don't know if this deserves a nerf, but she definitely DOESN'T NEED BUFFS on her damage or heal/shield.
  3. She is way too squishy early on, like dangerous levels of squishy. I've had problems in almost every match-up where I got nuked in half a second at levels 1-5. Later on, she being squishy is not really a big deal, because you can pop your ult and let your teammates follow, and you are not being focused most of the time. Blitzcrank was outright unplayable. Alistar was a real pain if he stunned you. Leona could almost kill me without her ADC. Morgana hit me with a Q and I died before even being able to flash. Thresh is the same as morgana. Lulu deleted over half of my HP with one E-Q combo. I didn't get a chance yet to go against the other supports, but I suppose it will be the same: they get you with their CC/poke, and you have to recall or die. She desperately needs a buff in her early defenses, specially considering she has no escape but her E.
  4. Her E has started to feel a bit better than when I first tested her. I think this is because of the build I'm using, as builds that had no AP in them (typical crucible rush build) made her abilities feel underpowered, her E being the most affected spell of all three.
  5. Overall, I feel like her abilities are in a good spot (or even a bit on the OP side), but her stats need a boost, as she is WAY too risky to play. Most of the time I ended up having too many deaths and feeding the opposing ADC in the early game, even though I could recover many times in the mid game.

51 Comments

Pika3108/5/2014, 2:16:43 AM6 votes

Well, countless mathematical calculations done by a multitude of different players, numerous 1st-hand accounts and her continuously declining win-rate all say otherwise, but we should definitely ignore all of that and take your singular opinionated word at face-value.

I will say this though, her role as an ADC has gotten stronger. Since she is her own ADC, she never has to worry about anybody's positioning in relation to her melee-(non)auras other than her own. Her abilities will always apply to the ADC since that's already herself. The best way I found to do this is starting Trinity Force into either BT or IE then the other later, probably picking up Sorcerer Shoes and LW when needed. Focus on singular large hits and not attack speed, since her new kit doesn't favor sustained DPS. Crescendo is an amazing tool for peeling assassins off yourself while you blow them up. It was a fairly resounding victory as seen here:

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1480290631/205261518

MyraKai8/5/2014, 8:03:37 PM5 votes

Has anyone here tried a lvl.1 five man gank on the enemy jungler with Sona's new Q yet? I'm currently unable to play, but just thinking about it makes me giggle with evil.

Crescive8/5/2014, 9:20:18 AM5 votes

I actually agree with the OP. Having been skeptical of the Sona rework at first, I have also been successful using a similar build. Currently in Plat 3 I am 13-4 with Sona post re-work. From my experience Sona is really risky, but strong especially when her lead is snowballed.

Sona is now a character of extremes even more-so than before, and I set my rune page accordingly. I figure since I will probably die from one mistake anyway, that I might as well go AP heavy with magic pen. I still play the same way pre-rework. Blitz/Leona is as impossible as ever. Thresh/Morg are doable in that their skill shots are slow enough for Sona to have a chance.

Even though she lost a lot of her tower pushing strength (though that is somewhat rectified by ardent censer), I believe she has another niche now that I'm not sure other people have completely addressed and that is pick/skirmish. Sona is better now at roaming the map picking off vision-starved enemies heading blindly into areas with objectives because her burst damage with allies plus sheen is so high. No need to worry about teammates wasting empowered Q auto when they're all waiting in a bush. She has really strong synergy with other Champions who build sheen items, she can easily help TwistedFate Fizz Irelia pick someone off in the mid-game.

I don't think asking for buffs to base-stats for survivability is too much to ask. Sona's only competition in lane as a sustain support right now is Nami. Alternatively, make her so that she isn't so skewed toward building AP to be moderately useful.

Coot Coot8/5/2014, 6:27:34 PM3 votes

[deleted]

Akariii8/5/2014, 7:57:13 PM3 votes

D1 here and I'm playing her relatively the same as she was before the rework. Obviously her spells require you to be more aware of your positioning. I run a weird 8-8-14 in masteries taking flat armor reds, flat hp yellows, flat ap blues and quints. Generally building item 3303 ->item 2049 ->item 1001 ->item 3098 ->item 3158 ->item 3092 ->item 3028 -> item 3222 -> depending on enemy team

The masteries and runes still give her the strong burst early and I lean towards cdr for mid-late game and the game ends usually about the time I get a mikaels.

By doing this I have strong early laning pressure, but instead of building more AP I go for more spell rotations for mid game.

If you're going to be playing against any hard initiators as Sona, you're gonna need to assert some dominance early with your burst before they can use their initiating spells.

Against Blitzcrank Alistar Leona positioning is key. Playing vs Thresh Morgana should be relatively simple as you stay within/near the wave and q harass without risk of getting caught in a bind or hook. And you should be able to counter burst against Lulu especially when you're favouring an AP build.

tl;dr

I run early AP in runes and masteries to control the lane, and then build heavy cdr to quicken spell rotations. New Sona positioning is even more important than before.

LeBestAsheNA8/6/2014, 1:46:52 AM3 votes

play sona with defense masteries

Binxy Prime8/5/2014, 7:56:30 AM2 votes

Am I the only one who thinks she is really strong now? Her level 1 through 4 is crazy good then you have a slight slump for level5 then at 6 she's insane again then kinda teeters between average and way too strong based on teamfight positioning.

I run 0 9 21 with hybrid pen reds and armor quints and do a standard fang stone CDR boots Michaels build

Flemman8/5/2014, 3:54:02 PM2 votes

Maybe she is not so bad now (even if it's the AoE year and that's one of her weakness >-<) but damn she is no more fun to play anymore if you don't go full premade.

Trying to put your buff on your team when they act like a scared ant line all over the map is so annoying.

Rundus18/6/2014, 9:16:57 AM1 votes

Okay, this is gonna sound crazy, but bear with me here for a second. I saw this on a video and thought it was stupid until i tried it a bit, but has anyone else tried Sona mid? I have played three games to test it out (and i'm a support mainly, so I farm terribly), and I was able to keep up with a Yasuo from Gold 3 easily, even matching him for kills and beating his damage output. I stayed even with an Ahri until her jungler Urgot just camped mid (they were both in silver though) and could easily kill her if I fired first using my W passive, EQR, Q passive combo. In the third, my laptop crashed, and I came back to a lv 10 Lucian mid, who I caught up to from lv 1 (thanks to a Fizz that was top for my team helping) and was able to kill him with the same combo as Ahri the moment I hit 6 and had an AP item built. It doesnt always kill full health, but it does enough damage to pose a pretty nasty threat. As for farming, she has her issues with it, but with her Q able to almost guarentee two minions dying from it and a third taking a buffed AA (once you level your Q) every few second, you can get enough to contend easily while (f positioning right) getting off some Q's and Q passives on the enemies, all from right under or next to your tower, with E (i get it at lv 4) to retreat with and W to heal up and survive ganks. Of course, she suffers against a lot of ranged champs who can play her game better than she can, but she can shut out melee and all-in champs with her W and it's passive pretty nicely, and (if under turret), just hold them there with R,Q,E e passive until they die. For last hits, she can just use Q and Q passive. Anyone else try this? When I play her mid, I run AP Quints, Armor marks and seals, and MR glyphs with 21 0 9 masteries. It's weird, odd, strange, and not as efficient vs agile champs, but it was so much fun finding the enemy Ahri or Yasuo trying to gank my bot lane and just W passiving them and wailing on their mid laner and ADC. In team fights, I had a ball as a support-APC nuking monster. P.S.: I'm not looking for someone to say I'm playing her right, I wan opinions (Whether or not they agree with this) and I want to know what people think about this (Advice, criticism, stories, logic, etc.)