Can a red explain to me why sona was able to keep her ap scalings?

Succubús GF·Feb 6, 2017·1 votes·658 views

Riot literally made it so that nami, janna, and lulu were not able to successfully build full ap and be useful to the team, but yet sona was able to keep hers? For what reason?

13 Comments

Sugar MommaFeb 6, 20174 votes

I'm not a red, but I am a diamond player who's played a LOT of Sona over the past 3 seasons (and a lot of the other supports too).

There's a few reasons why Sona retains good AP scalings. She can't go mid, no matter how good her AP scalings are, because she really doesn't have wave clear fundamentally in her kit (the other 3 champions you mentioned do). She's also a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, so that leaves all of her abilities rather subpar at their normal effectiveness, which leaves them open to have better scaling. She's allowed to do good damage because she has pretty much no peel, aside from her ult.

Janna and Lulu have a lot of peel so they can't have as much damage with AP, but your statement that they are not useful to their team building full AP is incorrect. They don't build full AP right now because support items are so good item 3107 item 3190 item 3504 . But they both have ridiculous scalings on their abilities and make it really hard to kill their allies.

Nami can't build full AP, even though she scales the BEST of all these champions, because she has no reliable way to save herself so she can't be super squishy (her Q and R both have delays). Sona has very little peel, but she does have her ult to save herself.

RequiemsfireFeb 6, 20173 votes

Because all in all Sona won't be a good laner at any stage, she's a low range, immobile champion and who lacks wave clear which you need in a solo lane. Furthermore she can't jungle either and even if she does lane her opponents should heavily outscale her through gold advantage. She's immensely vulnerable to the jungle thanks to her rather weak early game.

Friendly RamFeb 6, 20171 votes

sona can't jungle? I've seen a few do it.

RequiemsfireFeb 6, 20171 votes

I'll rephrase that, Sona can't jungle effectively especially after the jungle changes when I'm fairly certain at level 2-3 the only jungle camps that won't almost kill her is the scuttlecrabs and gromp. Also as soon as you don't have blue buff your clear speeds are screwed.

All in all, Sona **can ** jungle, but it's like breaking your knee caps and trying to walk.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoFeb 6, 20171 votes

i have sona top before and made people rage quit lol

Mecha MaIphiteFeb 6, 20172 votes

Nami, Janna, and Lulu have way more utility and CC. Sona's more pokey.

The Yetii RiderFeb 6, 20172 votes

Riot has barely touched Nami's scalings. Nami is probably the least nerfed support in the game outside of Bard, and she's five years old.

Sona has really poor AP scalings. 50% on Q, 40% on Q Power Chord. 25% on W, 1% on E.

The reason Sona has more success going full AP is because Lich Bane itself has an AP ratio. Without the extra base ratio from Lich Bane AP Sona would be terrible.

Sugar MommaFeb 6, 20172 votes

While you're right that Nami 's scalings are solid, Sona 's scalings are much better than you're giving them credit for.

Keep in mind she has scalings on each the ability, the aura, and the powerchord. The combined damage on her Q actually has a 50% (active) + 20% (aura) = 70% total ratio. Her W has a 25% (heal) + 30% (shield) = 55% total ratio, etc. This isn't counting the powerchord, either.

There are Sona players who build AP and actually don't build item 3100 . It's quite good still.

SaltyKrackaFeb 6, 20171 votes

Because she doesn't work well as a solo laner.

ScissorsNstuffFeb 6, 20171 votes

because she has shorter range for what makes her viable

ZephyrDrakeFeb 6, 20171 votes

You can build full AP Lulu and she will be useful to the team, she is not going to deal a ton of damage but her shield, MS boost and how much HP her ult gives is going to be increased pretty significantly. Janna also gets to not only give giant shields but also give someone on her team quite the significant AD boost. Their kits are what makes someone like Janna and Nami to not give them much of an incentive to build tons of AP since they can still do their job pretty well with minimal AP but they can still build pure AP and still provide quite a bit of enhanced utility due to the ratios on their abilities. Sona's highest ratio is 50% and that's on her Q and ult every single other ratio on her is from 20% to 30%

oSEXYPLATYPUSoFeb 6, 20171 votes

nami does damage on all of her abilities

sona does damage on Q and R

RedCycloneFeb 6, 20171 votes

Because she can't solo lane very well

If all the other utility supports had AP Ratios on the damage scale like hers, they would be able to farm super safely because they tend to have AOE abilities and the enemy would have no interaction, Sona can't waveclear with AP so if you do lane against her, you have to interact with her