I don't think even Tank Ekko got that high of a winrate when he was broken op

Akali is SO HOT·Jul 17, 2016·46 votes·4,345 views

58.5% winrate with a 14% pickrate. I think this might be hotfix worthy tbh.

118 Comments

Mr Broken WingsJul 17, 201629 votes

"thx riot you made sona somewhat useful again!!!" Who would have guessed that when gameplay and bronze thinks sona is in a " decent" spot she would destroy everything and everyone? Yep, everybody. But riot did buff her anyway because 50% winrate sona wasnt balanced hehe xd

Sona x RubickJul 17, 201613 votes

She had 53% win rate before the patch imo

@op, i think at this point everyone realised that sona is gamebreakingly overpowered, you don't need to waste your energy to say it again because the same information do not stack in the human brain tbh. Either you propose a good way to balance her, or you just return to the game and play ~~akali~~ any champ you want.

AhristocatsJul 17, 201613 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sona x Rubick,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OQAv58Eq,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-07-17T12:38:46.865+0000)

Either you propose a good way to balance her, or you just return to the game and play akali.

This is gameplay, did you expected smart people to be here?

RalanrJul 17, 20162 votes

Nope. We're all morons.

Tarquin96Jul 17, 20162 votes

Does her R passive stack with normal CD reduction,if it does then its like urf if u have 45% cdr at lvl 16.

Akali is SO HOTJul 17, 20163 votes

What if I feel like playing Irelia right now

GULAG 4 UJul 17, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mr Broken Wings,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OQAv58Eq,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-07-17T09:21:47.740+0000)

"thx riot you made sona somewhat useful again!!!" Who would have guessed that when gameplay and bronze thinks sona is in a " decent" spot she would destroy everything and everyone? Yep, everybody. But riot did buff her anyway because 50% winrate sona wasnt balanced hehe xd

Meanwhile aatrox and yorick seemingly don't exist

TurquoiseYoshiJul 17, 20162 votes

To be fair, Yorick is the next rework.

YCitizenSnipsYJul 17, 20161 votes

My favorite part was how all the Sona mains complained about how bad her kit felt to play with. Well these changes hardly changed the way she plays, really just broke her number wise, but suddenly Sona is so much better and a blast to play.

Sona x RubickJul 17, 20165 votes

made all power chordes viable instead of only staccato took power from hymn of valor into heal made her E not trash

"changed hardly how she played" she just went from a burst mage into an utility sup but it's hardly :^)

pre patch sona was already good, but her gameplay was all about hymn of valor and staccato

YCitizenSnipsYJul 17, 20162 votes

All her spells are still press button for Aura. Her passive is still auto attack after three spells. All they did was make some number changes to those spells. Her kit still functions the same way it did before with better numbers.

And surprise surprise, Champion.gg shows her skills are still maxed in the same order they always have, Runes and masteries haven't changed. And The most successful build with her still incorporates a lot of AP.

http://www.champion.gg/champion/Sona Some real big changes to gameplay their.

chipndip1Jul 17, 20163 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mr Broken Wings,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OQAv58Eq,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-07-17T09:21:47.740+0000)

"thx riot you made sona somewhat useful again!!!" Who would have guessed that when gameplay and bronze thinks sona is in a " decent" spot she would destroy everything and everyone? Yep, everybody. But riot did buff her anyway because 50% winrate sona wasnt balanced hehe xd

How about we buff Azir to a 50% win rate and see how that goes, or nerf Amumu down to that?

Immortal spaxJul 17, 201612 votes

Op+braindead skillcap = Sona 6.14

Atleast to play ekko you need some skill...

I QJul 17, 20169 votes

I love you sir, thank you for saying that Ekko takes skill! Earlier I went 10/1 in a games and the entire enemy team said "You are playing Ekko! he is broken you have no skill"

I just laugh....

Immortal spaxJul 17, 20165 votes

AP Ekko is one of the most difficult champs in the game, he is Squishy but he still dont have burst, he is the only assassin with this style.

MhihnjJul 17, 20164 votes

he does have decent burst but it's not as fast as akali's or Zed's

Immortal spaxJul 17, 20163 votes

If fed yes, because he still is a assassin.

At same gold, it's more a high dps in a slow amount of time, but not a burst 100-0, more like 100-40 then 2 aa, another Q, and then 0

Hyrum GraffJul 17, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=Shenpai Ekko,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OQAv58Eq,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-07-17T10:22:18.514+0000)

I love you sir, thank you for saying that Ekko takes skill! Earlier I went 10/1 in a games and the entire enemy team said "You are playing Ekko! he is broken you have no skill"

I just laugh....

AP Ekko takes skill because he is squishy and your two survivability skills require really good prediction to use well.

Tank ekko, you just E them, hit them with your point blank Q while they are IBG slowed, AA to proc your passive so they stay slowed and you get a speed boost to easily reposition and hit the return Q, and I guess maybe try to avoid their damage or land your W/R.

R FLASH XDJul 17, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=Immortal spax,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OQAv58Eq,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-07-17T09:10:55.983+0000)

Op+braindead skillcap = Sona 6.14

Atleast to play ekko you need some skill...

Sona mains be downvoting

Immortal spaxJul 17, 20163 votes

They even downvoted me when i said she needs nerfs, lol.

InstaPoppyJul 17, 20163 votes

[{quoted}](name=Immortal spax,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OQAv58Eq,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-07-17T09:10:55.983+0000)

Op+braindead skillcap = Sona 6.14

Atleast to play ekko you need some skill...

Ekko and skill?

ChaosThiefJul 17, 20161 votes

Yes, there is some skill to it if you aren't going full tank.

The only thing I have to be thankful for is that they buffed AP ekko quite a bit by trying to shift his power that way.

InstaPoppyJul 27, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Yes, there is some skill to it if you aren't going full tank.

The only thing I have to be thankful for is that they buffed AP ekko quite a bit by trying to shift his power that way.

Luckily full ap ekko doesen't get a giant ass shield, oh wait...

ChaosThiefJul 28, 20161 votes

At least that only lasts around 3 seconds. Full tank ekko, on the other hand, is permanently hard to kill.

warpenguin555Jul 17, 20168 votes

Yep. but dont worry according to some people here its healthy because its Sona. EDIT: I think this is the 2nd highest winrate ive seen since i started playing, behind juggernaut update skarner

A LiberalJul 17, 20165 votes

IKR, these boards act as if sona is someone like Cassiopeia or Mordekaiser whos rework completely killed them, and whom nobody ever plays. Sona has always been ~50% winrate, and has always had a 5-8% play rate.... shes a really popular champion, but I guess since a shes a support nobody is allowed to hate on her? LeeSin Yasuo Zed item 3070

The EcdysiastJul 17, 20163 votes

That's pretty much exactly how it is. The game needs supports to be played at all, but no one wants to play Support. There needs to be some incentive.

A LiberalJul 17, 20161 votes

Riot just needs to focus on making new champions and reworking old ones to be interesting to play in the support role. While Janna , for example, is almost always a top-tier support, her playstyle is the most braindead thing in the game, and really isn't fun to play. Same can be said for other high-tier supports, such as Soraka and Blitzcrank . All three of these are great supports, but to be blunt, standing around for a majority of laning isn't really fun. It's why the highest pickrate supports are people like Thresh , Sona , Morgana , Nami who are actually interesting to play and engage the player.

Soraka RulesJul 17, 20162 votes

Whaaat? I find Raka soooo fun

The EcdysiastJul 17, 20162 votes

In reply to you: That's true, but a good support is really hard to make. In the attempt to make someone who can mirror what Thresh can do that makes him better than all the other tank supports (the Lantern), they made a champion that worked too well alone to be fair as support (Tahm Kench). And any attempt to make a new healer will have to be braindead, since a skillshot heal would be broken.

What gets new players are the flashy champions like Zed or Lee Sin, who look really fun to play when you watch. But any time they make new flashy champions, they're too strong to be fair. (Ekko, Yasuo, Illaoi)

I think what Riot really needs to do is take the team in charge of their animations and make a web-series or movie about the lore. That would be great.

In reply to Poop Stained Cat: We're not counting easy-to-win-with+easy-to-play as "fun."

A LiberalJul 17, 20161 votes

No, I totally agree with you. A lot of supports, such as TahmKench Lulu Karma all function too good on their own to be held down by the support role. When I say supports that are interesting to play, I mean something more akin to Bard . Bard has a clear role as a support and hasa kit overflowing with utility, but still remains fun to play because of the skill required to play him, as well as the roaming aspect of his passive. Yes, he has several gimmicks (Set in place heal, giant AOE zhonyas, meep collection, tunneling through terrain... ok so basically his entire kit), but because of that he is interesting to play and has never really outclassed other support

Battlecast SonaJul 17, 20164 votes

basically, Riot needs to learn that gimmicks can be fun for supports while they detract from gameplay when added to a bruiser/fighter/etc kit. Like, stop giving juggernauts minigames and give supports minigames, they're the role that doesn't have enough to do

My Waifu VanillaJul 18, 20161 votes

The problem is that almost all Enchantresses play the same and current Sona simply has more utility than the rest (can easily keep almost 100% uptime on power chord W/E late game) and heals for CLOSE enough that it is more than worth the "sacrifice" you give for not playing Soraka. Soraka ends up healing ~24k while Sona heals for 13-14k on average according to op.gg, but Soraka typically overheals a good 4k of that with her ult throughout the game and healing does not take into account shields iirc. Combine that with the E buffs turned Sona into a racecar that is VERY hard to catch out and the fact she has a 1.5 second AoE stun (on a 55 second cd with max CDR) in her kit and you will have to do a lot of work to convince me to pick Nami, Soraka, or Janna over her in her current state.

There just isn't enough to differentiate the class besides "who heals for more?" Yes, Nami DOES have more CC than the others, but the Bubble is an unreliable skill shot and the wave is fairly easy to react to with its cast time and travel speed. Soraka DOES have more healing than the others, but is a lot easier to catch out if she is focused since she has no defensive steroid besides ulting herself and throwing a silence zone. Sona just provides too much utility for being close to the others in terms of raw power with her AoE speed boost, a non-decaying 50% slow or a 30% damage reduction on a target, and the ability to just give her ADC ~100 bonus on-hit damage with Censer+Q Aura.

A LiberalJul 18, 20162 votes

I would like to add that while sona's heal is weaker, not only does it give a shield but it also doesn't cost 10% of her health.

DarkRitualJul 17, 20161 votes

Sona is fine, in a vacuum. Add in things like Windspeaker's Blessing, Ardent Censor, etc., and it starts to stack up pretty hard. The changes make her FEEL a lot better to play as, but things are certainly tuned a tad too high. The ult cooldown passive chould likely be dropped to 10/20/30% to start.

MiraweaveJul 18, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Sona is fine, in a vacuum. Add in things like Windspeaker's Blessing, Ardent Censor, etc., and it starts to stack up pretty hard. The changes make her FEEL a lot better to play as, but things are certainly tuned a tad too high. The ult cooldown passive chould likely be dropped to 10/20/30% to start.

Almost anything is fine in a vacuum. The game isn't a vacuum so that's a completely meaningless statement.

Slamurai JackJul 17, 20166 votes

Tank Ekko peaked at around 59% IIRC.

The DeckownerJul 17, 20162 votes

Ekko's win rate drastically dropped when the tank build were revealed to public. But sona's win rate remain growing despite all the new sona players picking her up after hearing that she is op. player who only had 1~5 games on her has a 52% win rate that shows how op and braindead her kit is right now. literally dpam everything and you win.

Battlecast SonaJul 17, 20161 votes

Damn I wish it were that easy to play Sona.

Sona is definitely overtuned, but they actually ADDED complexity to her kit - by allowing her more access to power chords, it's no longer just "I need this to be a Q power chord because I won't get another one for 30 seconds and I wanna help oneshot someone" - you can get a new one every 5-6 seconds at max CDR past about level 11, so you can actually utilize the "skilled" part of Sona's gameplay - managing and utilizing power chords properly. Additionally, since your auras no longer last longer for tagging people, you have to position yourself in a much more dangerous way to utilize her auras as effectively as pre-patch.

So her numbers are certainly overtuned, but this patch actually did a lot to make Sona LESS braindead. Her numbers are too high with the reduced CDs, but now you actually have to worry about mana management instead of just "I finished Athene's and I never run out of mana again no matter what other items I make". Overall the changes have been really healthy for Sona's gameplay feel (she no longer feels like a wet rag to play when her ultimate is down past about 20 minutes) but the numbers are too high atm.

The DeckownerJul 17, 20162 votes

how to play sona in the current patch: q whenever people are near spam w for soraka level heal that doesn't cost hp use e whenever you run or chase cuz the movement speed is super high after you got ult you can spam even more ltho you can't buff by tagging prople, the aura range is huge right now and the self buff part of the aur were buffed so it would be easy to chase your ally.

Battlecast SonaJul 17, 20161 votes

if that's all you're doing as Sona you're ignoring big parts of her kit (that were buffed this patch).

Like yeah the numbers on heal are overtuned, but E is way more fair - it falls off immediately if you take damage, so, you can't just zoom around teamfights anymore without any way to stop you. Yeah the speed gets too high with AP right now but I think Riot mistakenly thought people were going to be going Locket focused builds on her and it seems most people are doing ardent censer/athene's and AP/support builds on her. You're really not taking full advantage of the character's kit if you aren't using your power chords, especially because on the current AP builds the damage reduction is comparable to exhaust but it's on a way, way shorter CD - especially at level 16 with max rank ult.

The DeckownerJul 18, 20161 votes

When a champion is only played to 50% of her kit and is still the highest win rate currently, it is very obvious that she is broken.

Battlecast SonaJul 18, 20161 votes

I never said she wasn't? I'm not arguing that she isn't broken, I'm arguing that the changes were a step in the right direction for making her gameplay less braindead. I hope that her current broken state doesn't mask the fact that they actually put a lot more impetus on properly using power chords for the Sona player (since you have so many more of them).

The DeckownerJul 18, 20161 votes

Sona is basically an aura bot right now, she is nothing different than what she was except stronger.

Battlecast SonaJul 18, 20161 votes

I'm sorry, but if "I can have my powerchord up every 5 seconds instead of every 15 seconds and all of my powerchord bonuses and the powerchord damage got buffed" makes her an aurabot I don't really know what this community is thinking.

If you think she's nothing different it's clear you never played any decent amount of Sona. This is my problem with 99.9% of Sona threads - people who haven't even played the new patch and have no idea how Sona actually works aside from the memes of "lolololol QWEWEWEQWEWEQEQQWEQWEQEWEW". They could add a fucking stun to her powerchord and people like you would still be "SONA IS AN AURABOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT"

They gave her 5% more reduction on her W and gave it almost 100% uptime. That is significant whether you think so or not, lol, being able to have like 80% uptime on a 25%+ damage reduction

The DeckownerJul 18, 20161 votes

LOL USE AUTO ATTACK EVERY TIME AFTER YOU USED AN ABILITY LOL SO HARD SO MUCH MECHANIC WOW SONA SUCH A MECHANICAL INTENSE CHAMPION

HazyCloud7Jul 18, 20161 votes

^Pretty much. Mechanically, she takes practically zero skill to play.

My Waifu VanillaJul 18, 20162 votes

All it takes to play Sona is to have decent decision making skills for passive and not position like an idiot since if your positioning is fine you can just roll your face on your keyboard and dodge skillshots for days since you are rocking a permanent 500 MS or so with that E buff.