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What people don't understand about Sona

StoryDuck··8 votes·697 views

Is that she isn't Thresh. Stop saying she is terrible. Stop comparing her to a support that can do everything. Sona has strengths and weaknesses like many champions. Learn what those are before saying she is crap/needs buffs/is a troll pick. Is she a good pick in every team comp? No. Is she good against every team comp? No. Are there times she is an amazing pick? Yes.

Don't believe me? Try her in a protect the ADC comp that has a tank top lane, tank jungle, and utility mid. Her Q allows the ADC to excel in early game due to it's aggressive pressure. Her W allows her to apply Ardent Censor mid game to further amp up the ADC and gives a strong bonus to the tanks so they are an even bigger threat. Her E late game gives your ADC a lot of kiting ability.

Would I like to see some changes to her? Sure, I'd like to be able to pick her up a bit more often. For now, I pick her in teams that have a strong front line so that I don't need to worry about peeling as much as I do adding damage to my team because that is what Sona is good for. Adding damage.

22 Comments

Dominick Destine9 votes

{quoted}

Is that she isn't Thresh. Stop saying she is terrible.

You're right, she isn't Thresh.

You're wrong, she is terrible.

StoryDuck1 votes

I must just be imagining my high success rate with her then.

1000angrybees9 votes

Another "I don't know what I'm talking about but I'm going to anyway" thread about how Sona doesn't need changes. You're literally cherry picking the smallest good things about Sona and presenting them on a silver platter.

You know, I'm not going to say that I'm not a little bias, because every person who mains a champ is at least a little bit towards that particular character. But what I will say is, even being biased doesn't get in the way of indicating that Sona needs a few changes.

StoryDuck2 votes

Sona is my second highest mastery score, I main support, and I am in plat rank. I do know what I am talking about. I have played her a lot during season 5. I am just saying she isn't as terrible as people are painting her. It is just that she has really pronounced weakness that you need a team to get those benefit of her kit to shine. I actually state that I would like some buffs but I don't feel that I always need them because I can use her kit to its fullest when I pick her into the right team comp. I could have gone into far greater detail about her but I wanted a short post people would read and not a wall of text. What I explained was but one instance of her being a good choice.

EDIT: Downvotes make me stronger! It also doesn't change the fact I have a 56% win rate with her in ranked and a 5.31 kda with her. Puts more salt on the downvoters wounds

ADepressedLeona7 votes

Yeah I disagree

If you really want a support for a protect the ADC comp, both Ali and Braum/Tahm Kench are way better than Sona every day of the week.

Sona is pretty trash right now.

Sona is literally the poor man's Nami

StoryDuck1 votes

You missed the point at the end. Sona adds damage. Each Q can be 900+200% ap damage on a 6 second CD. Add on Ardent Censor damage bonus and AS steroid and then you have a team comp that protects an ADC but also deals tons of damage as if they had 2 carries is what she does. It allows a team to have 2 threats but one is a support. This is actually really powerful when the enemy team has juggernauts or tanks of their own because if AD is the main source of damage Sona adds so much magic damage that she might as well be an AP carry. Her point isn't to be the best CC/peeler for the team. Her point is to deal massive amounts of damage while having a few tools to keep her and her ADC alive. Hench, she works really well with a strong front line.

ADepressedLeona1 votes

{quoted}

You missed the point at the end. Sona adds damage. Each Q can be 900+200% ap damage on a 6 second CD. Add on Ardent Censor damage bonus and AS steroid and then you have a team comp that protects an ADC but also deals tons of damage as if they had 2 carries is what she does. It allows a team to have 2 threats but one is a support. This is actually really powerful when the enemy team has juggernauts or tanks of their own because if AD is the main source of damage Sona adds so much magic damage that she might as well be an AP carry. Her point isn't to be the best CC/peeler for the team. Her point is to deal massive amounts of damage while having a few tools to keep her and her ADC alive. Hench, she works really well with a strong front line.

Sona has to get into auto range for that

And if Sona gets into auto range, she gets into range to die in .4 seconds because she's made of paper.

StoryDuck1 votes

No she doesn't. The problem is that everyone seems to think the only way she adds damage is with a Q passive empowered AA. Laning phase it the only time I really use that. The active has a larger range that allows her to deal 400 +100% ap. Then anyone she tags that is nearby adds another possible 100 +20%ap and she also has that 100 +20% ap if someone dive into the team. If you are on the front line during a teamfight as Sona you are doing it wrong. Just like an ADC that deals tons of damage Sona also kites back. An ADC also dies in .4 seconds when they are in the front line because they are made of paper too. I would also like to point out that if everyone is dumping everything to kill Sona that leaves the ADC some pretty good breathing room.

Verxint5 votes

It's not Sona that's bad

It's the Sona players who are so used to their braindead champ they lack basic awareness.

Every so often you see that godlike Sona, but usually it's someone who expects to mindlessly mash buttons and win.

There's also the tendency to build full AP and get caught and die

StoryDuck2 votes

Oh god. It makes me cringe every time I see a Lichbane first item Sona support (even when behind). That's pretty much saying "I hope the enemy Carry gets out of position so bad that I can AA them and win". I can't say this doesn't happen but I tend to not count on the enemy ADC always being out of position. Although, if they are like 1/0/3 and their ADC fed at 10 minutes due to a bad enemy ADC I would probably consider it then, established pattern and what not :P

Catastrop1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Little Mac is OP,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=NGkJlZan,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2015-11-09T17:03:29.482+0000)

There's also the tendency to build full AP and get caught and die

I'll never really understand the need to build AP on Sona aside from maybe Chalice and LB/LE. I've always had success just building normal support items on her.

Puynsi6 votes

braindead champ

TahmKench /Braum /Thresh

http://i.imgur.com/Dq9cnHK.gif

Verxint4 votes

If you're actually trying to call any of those 3 braindead (especially thresh) im the context of a Sona discussion, that really says all I need to know

Tell me, what specific mechanical skill do you need with Sona besides casting Q at the edge of range? Don't give me "you have to know when to trade and how to stay alive hurruehehrhrurhrhrurrg durrr" that applies to literally every champion, including ones who actually have to manually aim their abilities at targets.

Puynsi3 votes

You've got thresh who has engage, disengage (both hard), tankyness and even has scaling stats with his souls. Kench is tanky as hell, has his 3 hit overloaded kit passives, hard engages, a teleport and can take anyone out of a teamfight long enought for your team to kill everyone else. Braum can block all damage, bullshit damage passive, massive knockup ult range with a slow. Sona can't get near anyone to even use her power cords without getting killed and using her ult for anything else that isn't engage is dumb as hell. Also, knowing how to trade its actually a skill! Just like positioning! omg right?

Verxint2 votes

Like... I actually don't know where to begin with this. I've typed the start of this post like 5 times now... Imma just... I don't even know..

Champions can do things = they're braindead.

That's the sum of your post.

You didn't even explain what's braindead about their mechanics, many of which involve skillshots, facing/directional mechanics, predictive timing, mindgames, zone placement..

These champions have mechanics that offer options for the opponent as well as the player. Sona does not do that.

This example might help:

"Man, Azir is such a braindead champ. He can engage, disengage, escape anything with shuffle, do ADC levels of damage, farm from a safe range in lane, and he even has a shield! Then to top it all off, he can bring a turret back to life"

Yet I think most people would agree Azir is one of the hardest champs in the game to play because what a champion can or can't do isn't what makes them braindead. It's how much effort it takes to execute it.

So I'm going to ask again.

What mechanical skill , specific to proper execution of her kit,does sona have, besides using Q on the absolute max range?

Penguin Eclipse4 votes

I personally think Lich Bane Sona is a noob trap. It leads to bad positioning and poor use of her utility. Then people bitch Sona is trash because they got within AA range of LeBlanc and she 100-0 them.

If you know what you are doing... go for it. But the majority of people do not know what they are doing when they take Lich Bane Sona.

xJLx MCHammer3 votes

Who says Sona sucks?

She has a high winrate. She clearly is good. Is she meant to make plays? Not really, the best she can do is flash + ult.

StoryDuck4 votes

Kind of my point...ummm Sona isn't terrible. I don't really care about Win rates. Also...do you read forums? What Sona thread haven't you seen someone QQ about Sona being terrible? Honestly...I'm not sure what your point is.

Erockandroll1 votes

[{quoted}](name=xJLx MCHammer,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=NGkJlZan,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-11-09T16:53:15.450+0000)

Who says Sona sucks?

She has a high winrate. She clearly is good. Is she meant to make plays? Not really, the best she can do is flash + ult.

I think the problem is the power in her kit lacks cohesion. Mostly in the sense that she can do a lot of things pretty well, but nothing exceptionally well. Regardless of her win rates, I can't figure out how Sona fits into any particular team comp. (while other supports serve very specific functions.) She's like the most general purpose Support out their.

{quoted}

I'll never really understand the need to build AP on Sona aside from maybe Chalice and LB/LE. I've always had success just building normal support items on her.

Considering that her W and E ratios arn't that good. And the fact that LB gives her utility spells an offensive presence. Regardless, because sona's kit isn't really equipped to lane, I don't think she should be tunneled into an AP or offensive build in general. (Sona may be balanced around the supports inability to gain any gold, but the mere thought of LB/LE Sona, seem to make people cringe.)

Flemman2 votes

I kinda agree that's it's not sona that need change, but more the "over the top" support who need some nerf to bring the ap sustain sup back to life.

Obviously thresh is in the first place on that list (even if it seems impossible to balance him, make him melee maybe? :s) but tank support as a whole (except taric for whatever reason) are to powerfull atm in regard of situationnal sustain support

StoryDuck1 votes

Heh, Thresh is almost perfectly balanced in my opinion. He just needs to lose that AA steroid on his E. It's pretty bad when they needed to give thresh an extra passive that makes him not scale with AS just to balance out the passive on his E so that he isn't an ADC.

Penguin Eclipse2 votes

Looks like the swarm of smurfs have arrived.

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