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About Sona - Can we make her W and E more benefiting to max first?

It Is I Emoto·3/8/2015, 4:03:12 PM·46 votes·5,906 views

You know, as one of the most Sona mains, I've adapted to her poke-ish playstyle, going straight ap, getting an Lichbane and and Mikaels, honestly I accepted it, but after her Q being more and more gutted for adapting to it, can we make at least Sonas W and E stronger in return? I'm not even talking about her powerchords, I'd prefer that her W and E actually scale good into late game and making them more benefitial to use if you'll max one of those first than your Q.

Right now, Sonas W aura grants an 1.5 second shield with extremly low base stats and not so well ap scalings, yet people seem to favor it, since it harmonize so well with wich is not that bad honestly, yet being the shield so short, it seems like that it's only designed to trigger the passive of it for allies. Yet, even if it won't give Sona also the buff, making it pretty worthless for herself, yet being an great item for mid and late game when everyone else get damage.

About her E... well, an 1.5 second speedbuff for allies, but a max 5 second speedboost for Sona if she tags all her allies with it. It feels incredibly unfair, mostly if you're going ap Sona, and rushing as the speed of light while your allies are out of position. Yet, the cooldown being absurdly long while there are mobility spells with lower cooldowns. Literally, with each point you put in her E, the bonus movement speed per % is just increased by 1%. this is incredibly weak, no matter how you look at it. Sona players who won't go straight AP, will be incredibly slow compared to other supports.

Riots nerf with reducing the extra powerchord damage from 50% to 40% without any compensation buffs did kinda really hurt, not that much that Sona fell off the ladder, yet being extremly reliant played as an AP carry. Just looking at the Lolking scores for Sona, I see that Lich bane is an favorable item on Sona, and getting it in a game increases the chances to win as Sona over 60%

http://i.gyazo.com/b7e1d36be8e5af71a6dafd6898b7be9e.png

I don't want to make this sound like an "omg pls buff my non-skill champ with the ability to 1-hit burst champions", I want to be an open discussion for People to jump on and tell their own opinion about Sona.

93 Comments

Abyssphere3/8/2015, 5:08:24 PM17 votes

The main problem with the Sona rework imo is that Q is the only ability where leveling up feels like it does anything. Her W and E scale better with her Crescendo rank than anything else and you don't feel like your power is spiking at all when you level up either of those, whereas when I level up my heal on Nami or whatever I really do feel like I'm increasing its usefulness. Sona just feels like "well this should help me not fall AWFULLY behind" and it sucks.

Sona's really weird. Like it feels like you never "turn on" because your bases scale horribly (+20 heal/shield per rank, +1% movement speed? Terrible) but your AP scaling doesn't even make up for it. 20% AP on heal is terrible, 20% AP on shield is terrible, 20% AP on empowered auto is terrible, etc. Sona is the only support where building full AP glass cannon doesn't give you an unnecessary but hilarious amount of power (AP carry Nami's heal is too funny) but is instead necessary to do the same amount everyone else does with a fraction of the AP.

VDc0zCqe0w3/8/2015, 10:17:41 PM8 votes

they should tbh, she sucks so much right now it's not even funny

but most of all, she is not even fun to play at all, since your W and E don't actually do anything and you'll become a Q-ult bot

terrible gameplay and not fun at all

DJ Di03/8/2015, 5:55:53 PM6 votes

I think they should just try another rework (pls not fearless again; not to be rude but he ignored /a lot/ of feedback) after more urgent champions are dealt with (Taric, Urgot, Eve, Shaco, Warwick, Fiora).

Bisaknosp3/8/2015, 8:50:43 PM6 votes

mana cost on w and e are WAY too high they dont even do much

Uiru3/9/2015, 2:02:29 AM5 votes

My favorite part about playing Sona is that the enemy Thresh needs to fuck up like 20 times in a row for it to matter, whereas I die instantly (100-0) to one hook.

Her W and E were nerfed into worthlessness and now Sona's being punished for focusing on the only spell she has left. This is why people call out the balance team all the time. They force champs into stupid builds with their hamfisted blundering and then punish them for building that way. I'm experimenting with going E after Q now just because the heal does lol% regardless of rank and the "extra" "mobility" might be more useful than blocking half an auto and healing another quarter (for a billion mana, at that!).

The message is loud and clear: Riot doesn't want people playing Sona. ~Uiru

It Is I Emoto3/9/2015, 12:26:37 PM5 votes

Daily reminder, that Sona is op and can do everything what a support wishes for http://40.media.tumblr.com/5d97d359847beff9c28f1753e587782f/tumblr_nk5ofk4R021tjpn2ho1_1280.jpg

1st HanarSpectre3/8/2015, 8:34:24 PM5 votes

How many haste spells scales with AP though, I think her E is fine as a spell. Also, Lichbane is shown as a favorable item because if your game is going well enough for you to be able to afford a lichbane, then you probably already won. Anyway, I think that one of Sona's main problem is that she used to be the aura support, which is something a lot of people liked, but Riot down the line decided that auras are evil and must be purged, and she hasn't been the same since (not talking necessarily power wise here). One of the simplest fix for Sona would be for Riot to go back and end their brutal crusade against auras, so that she can reclaim her spot as the buff the whole team support.

Porlatte3/8/2015, 8:47:19 PM5 votes

It's upsetting that Sona is pretty much an ap carry now. Aria and Celerity are just too weak for utility. You must build her AP and focus on damage ): I chose Sona because I like supporting, not to be a second ap carry... And I miss her auras too. She was a true support with them.

It Is I Emoto3/12/2015, 12:55:14 PM3 votes

Still waiting

Juhnie3/8/2015, 9:23:47 PM3 votes

The heal and the shield look really weak if you just look at its base value in a vacuum, but it's actually meant to be used as a reactive spell instead of passive sustain in order to utilize both the heal AND the shield, effectively doubling it's HP value. It's a brilliant trading tool. It's also not meant to be used to keep your allies topped off: you should rather let them drop down to 50% or less of their HP and suddenly your heals become a lot more potent.

With CDR and AP the E feels like you've got a semi-permanent Talisman of Ascension active aura. Insane mobility for rotating your team around the map. Janna can go cry in a corner with her passive, Sona's the real deal.

Hell, out of all the supports in the game, I feel like Sona has the most diverse pool of possible build paths. You can go straight AP, you can go for a support item build, you can go for a tanky build, you can go for a mix of the three. She's definitely the most flexible support pick on my roster.

I think Sona is in a perfectly good spot, at least considering the great success I've been having on her recently. Don't see any reason to buff her right now. :)

Trash MammaI3/8/2015, 4:37:21 PM3 votes

I want to be an open discussion for People to jump on and tell their own opinion about Sona.

Hate her. She's one of those supports that has too much damage tied in with a crap ton of utility. Who's weakness is "lawl manacost" or "l0l low hp" The mana cost are easily fixed with a single item and her HP isn't that low considering her heal is crazy good with that shield.

She doesn't need buffs in any place at all. If anything she needs a nerf. In either her damage or utility. Besides not having innate tankiness she has everything a support could want

ImHerVoice3/9/2015, 10:15:23 AM1 votes

I agree the nerfs are dumb but its hard to balance point and click and a champion that can distrubute its AOE buffs to 4 other people. It was the same with janna/zilean

I heard they removed janna's passive from her self lol nail in the coffin for AP janna. Zero compensation buffs for AP scaling too I love riots "utility scaling" they did to poor supports back in s3. And haven't buffed ratios of a single support since this "utility scaling" (more like base stat gutting lmfao)

Juggernaut6283/8/2015, 7:52:41 PM1 votes

The problem is how long a range her Q is for a healer. Same with Soraka. Infinite sustain and godly poke.

Scramrail3/9/2015, 4:04:51 PM1 votes

If they buffed her W and E id expect some reductions to her empowered Q. Laning against a Sona is one of the most oppressive lanes in terms of poke because of her Q. At least with other poke champs like Karma you can dodge her Q or hide behind minions but Sonas Q just homes in on you like a fucking Patriot Missle and then she just has to throw an AA down whenever she feels like it and BOOM you've been chunked. I wish my Janna could hit that hard ever. Without even having to try to boot.

darknuke3/9/2015, 6:25:57 PM1 votes

This can be said for most champs in the game. Not all abilities are equal, nor should they be. That would be like maxing Lucian's dash first over his DPS moves.

ImAMountainGoat3/8/2015, 9:15:06 PM1 votes

The way it's been for me against AP Sona (Mid+Aram):

One Q can half health any squishy. One Q and a Power Chord can leave you with a fourth of your health. If you're playing an offtank, one Q does a fourth of your health plus a Power Chord pushes you down to almost half your health. That's one skill and one AA forcing you down to half and lower health.

And this is only with sheen.

You get the point. And then once she gets Lich Bane it doesn't matter what Power Chord she hits you with, *you just die. * How is her Q and Power Chord possibly balanced?