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Can someone tell me why Sona shouldn't be outputting lots of damage?

only zhule··4 votes·459 views

This is a legit question. So far people keep pointing out that she is a support character, but don't seem to have an answer when confronted with the fact that she usually ends up with 300+ AP simply by building her support items and item 3003 (because you need more mana to stay in fights and why not upgrade that item 3070 ). This doesn't even account for item 3100 .

It's really weird, I still sometimes see people playing champions like Lux or Annie in the support role. And yet i NEVER hear anyone complain about how much damage they can output despite them playing as "support". They grab 300+ AP and no one bats an eye. They chunk enemies for huge amounts of life, if not outright one shot them, and again no one complains about them being too strong. Annie has a literal point and click stun as part of her kit, or an AOE stun (with no cast time) in her ultimate if you time your flash right. Again that is considered 100% ok by the community at large.

If you want to complain about "free damage" please pull the stick out of your ass. 40-160 auto targeting (from 600 range) damage is not pushing anyone out lane. That big number you see, that's Sona in 550 range (average ADC range and much less range then any other character engage tool). That's a squishy champion getting close enough to you to be counter attacked. That's a champion with no build in gap closer moving within range of your counter engage. That is a champion with one offensive ability, THAT THEY JUST USED UP, walking up to you and auto attacking.

10 Comments

MorganFreemanBot5 votes

Sona also doesn't have to aim anything beyond her ulti. A majority of her damage will auto target over creeps and cannot be avoided beyond "don't get in range". Compare this to Lux who is all Skillshots, and Annie who has a pair of skill shots (you can dodge a tibbers with flash and insane reflexes) combined with a much shorter range and no utility beyond a stun.

only zhule2 votes

{quoted}

Sona also doesn't have to aim anything beyond her ulti. A majority of her damage will auto target over creeps and cannot be avoided beyond "don't get in range". Compare this to Lux who is all Skillshots, and Annie who has a pair of skill shots (you can dodge a tibbers with flash and insane reflexes) combined with a much shorter range and no utility beyond a stun.

I have said this before and i will say it again. 40-160 damage is not all that impressive, even if you can't dodge it, most of the time it's not driving you from lane, and it's not killing you. If we want to talk about the damage output she has when you include her auto after Q, which again can't be dodge, then you also have to point out that ADC's output basically all their damage the same way. So why is it fair that one entire class of champions outputs insanely high damage several times a second that can not be dodged. But when a champion outside of that class outputs decent to above average damage that is also undodgeable every couple of seconds, well that's "unfair".

Silly Neeko2 votes

Unlike Annie or Lux, Sona can give movement speed to an entire team..... boosted by AP.

Heal 2 people (or is it 1? Cant 100% remember) and self, and shield entire team...... boosted by AP.

Damage enhance auto for entire team as well as damage 2 enemys.... boosted by AP.

Ultimate that reduces cooldowns by an ADDITIONAL 30% or so that also can stun an entire enemy team.... that damages..... damage boosted by AP.

Passive with Q that deals MORE damage based on AP....

passive that deals less damage than Q but reduces enemy damage output.... damage and damage reduction increased based on AP...

Passive that deals less damage than Q but slows enemy..... damage increased and slow increased based on AP....

All of this while synergizing well with literally every tree, every AP item with very few exceptions.....

Does this answer your question? I assume she is having a damage nerf a bit or already has.... personally the only issue i had with her is new ADCs that tend to ditch or i tank the stuff for them so i die instead of them.

only zhule2 votes

{quoted}

Unlike Annie or Lux, Sona can give movement speed to an entire team..... boosted by AP.

Which means nothing during laning phase. 10% movement speed for 3 seconds is not enough to secure a kill 90% of the time. 40% slow is also rarely enough to secure a kill on anyone who isn't already nearly dead.

Heal 2 people (or is it 1? Cant 100% remember) and self, and shield entire team...... boosted by AP.

Great i can heal 2 people (self plus ally within range), to bad that 99% of the time what i care about is healing EITHER myself or my ally. Doesn't really matter that i'm healing myself for 30-70 health during laning phase when my ally is the one at >10% hp while i'm rocking 80%+ (if not full HP)

Damage enhance auto for entire team as well as damage 2 enemys.... boosted by AP.

Yes because everyone fears that bonus 10-30 magic damage, for one auto attack, that Sona gives to her team mates. That's why i pick her for a very very tiny buff to my allies damage output that can't be used against structures.

Ultimate that reduces cooldowns by an ADDITIONAL 30% or so that also can stun an entire enemy team.... that damages..... damage boosted by AP.

Team wide stun, yeah that is insane. so glad that no other champion can do that. imagine a team wide stun/knock up from someone like Annie , Nami , Leona , Bard ,Kennen ,Malphite ,etc.

Passive with Q that deals MORE damage based on AP....

again 10-30 damage for one auto attack that can't be used against structures.

passive that deals less damage than Q but reduces enemy damage output.... damage and damage reduction increased based on AP...

Passive that deals less damage than Q but slows enemy..... damage increased and slow increased based on AP....

All of this while synergizing well with literally every tree, every AP item with very few exceptions.....

Does this answer your question? I assume she is having a damage nerf a bit or already has.... personally the only issue i had with her is new ADCs that tend to ditch or i tank the stuff for them so i die instead of them.

You are right she works really well with AP items. One might even say that her kit requires you to get a ton of AP to work, more AP then you would normally get on any other squishy support. It's almost like her kit doesn't function well without a metric ton of AP. And it's almost like if you have as much AP as a mage would have during the mid game, that you are going to hit hard with your AP based spell and passive.

Viceroy Bolt2 votes

Because ADC's who can't lasthit cry? IDC build a metric ton of damage, if the patch notes are any indicator riot already hates her. If you can peel 90% of the health off the carry DO IT.

Just consider having restraint with that last 10%

ModPeriscope1 votes

I don't understand. She is doing too much or too little damage, because I think the former is true with certain builds.

Lightning I1 votes

All that depends on something: do you consider sona a mage?

If yes and you can play her mid lane then the damage is legit.

If not then she, as a supp, shouldn't be able to one shot you.

Sona has a very supporting kit:

  1. Q - damage and extra ally damage + passive effect
  2. W - heals and shields + passive effect
  3. E - movement speed + passive effect
  4. R - This can really affect fights; It has no cast time and deals alot of damage plus the stun.

As you can see there is literally no reason for sona to have the ability to one shot when she can do so much with her kit, it's almost like saying why soraka shouldn't be outputting damage when her main role is to heal her teammates.

As for why no one complains about annie and lux, There is something in league we call mage supports. Their role and I mean their only role in lane is to poke and deal heavy damage because they just can't do anything else to help the adc. They're actually effective and I sometimes synergize with them well.

imo even if sona could only do little damage to the enemy, she'd still be useful. [sona-playing]

only zhule2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lightning I,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=T72g3q3k,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2017-12-23T21:51:10.405+0000)

All that depends on something: do you consider sona a mage?

If yes and you can play her mid lane then the damage is legit.

If not then she, as a supp, shouldn't be able to one shot you.

Sona has a very supporting kit:

  1. Q - damage and extra ally damage + passive effect
  2. W - heals and shields + passive effect
  3. E - movement speed + passive effect
  4. R - This can really affect fights; It has no cast time and deals alot of damage plus the stun.

As you can see there is literally no reason for sona to have the ability to one shot when she can do so much with her kit, it's almost like saying why soraka shouldn't be outputting damage when her main role is to heal her teammates.

As for why no one complains about annie and lux, There is something in league we call mage supports. Their role and I mean their only role in lane is to poke and deal heavy damage because they just can't do anything else to help the adc. They're actually effective and I sometimes synergize with them well.

imo even if sona could only do little damage to the enemy, she'd still be useful. [sona-playing]

I feel i need to point out a few things here. First Sona's ultimate does have a cast time, its really low but it's there. Also it has a travel time (something you will notice often when Sona trys to land a near max range ultimate on a running target(s)). Next Sona basically is a mage support, your numbers are no where near high enough to play a passive lane where you simply heal and buff your ally, if you want to argue that remember that the bonus damage you are giving your ally is +10-20 magic damage on one auto attack, and 30-70 heal every 10-ish second. Both of these skills are going to cost you a fair chunk of mana, so you can't just spam to off set the low base numbers.

Dr Dog1 votes

Because she’s a support, lux and Annie are not, they are mid lane burst mages that people play support to blow up the enemy adc as a result they have little to no healing or shielding where Sona had a ridiculously low cd heal and shield and other buffs to give the adc beside dmging the laner, and don’t forget to add the auto attack dmg after she q s as it does more than the q itself along with sheen because for the most part you’d rush sheen right after your tier 2 support item

Cocho1 votes

sona got_ a bit_ more utility than annie lol

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