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Why rework Sona when you didn't even adress her issues?

DJ Di0··3 votes·839 views

Back when Fearless made the thread about what Sona could use, I had high hopes that she would be changed in a positive way: both raising her skill floor and offering more ways to support than just be an aura bot.

"Things that need to be more awesome:

Sona’s auras are powerful, but not satisfying to use, and create very little interaction. Sona’s basic abilities don’t have as much skill expression as many other supports. "

So she no longer just QWEQWEQWEQWE to always have 3 stat auras up, which is good, but she's still not very interactive in lane.

I think her Q is what should have been changed and made a skillshot. It's clear you don't like targeted poke (as you said you nerfed her because she did well against things she counters..) I guess you wanted to keep her as an 'easy' champion just because.

Another gripe I have is that her W is still auto targeted as well. Why not let players choose who they heal? There's been many times where I would have rather healed someone else, but a high flat hp target was picked because their percentage was lower.

Her E is improved pretty well, if you build truckloads of AP. In general you have to build a lot of AP to be useful at all past laning phase.

Tl;dr the rework feels half assed (sorry Fearless) and I'd like to see another go at it once high priority champions get their updates.

22 Comments

Penguin Eclipse4 votes

Her rework was too rushed. If I recall we weren't even really given notice before it hit PBE and once it hit PBE all user input was promptly ignored.

But no. I don't think it solved her problems. And by problems I mean both her strengths and her weaknesses.

Pika3101 votes

That is if by "strengths" you mean it removed any she used to have and if by "weaknesses" you mean it handed her countless new ones despite already having clearly defined ones.

DrinkurMilkshake2 votes

She was fine when her auras were the primary focus. Since then she's just been cast in a similar mold as everyone else. Maybe if they show the range on her auras it would be a bit better but... (and I might be wrong here) aren't her auras what makes her relatively unique?

DJ Di02 votes

{quoted}

She was fine when her auras were the primary focus. Since then she's just been cast in a similar mold as everyone else. Maybe if they show the range on her auras it would be a bit better but... (and I might be wrong here) aren't her auras what makes her relatively unique?

It's what made her unique, yes, but the ones she has right now are kind of crap other than the E aura (pretty much a talisman when you go glass cannon).

Pika3101 votes

The reason you can't see her aura range anymore is because Riot removed them. She doesn't use auras anymore. Can't see something that isn't there, right?

Pika3102 votes

I don't agree with your entire analyses, but you came to the right conclusion so I won't fault you for how you got to it.

Tl;dr the rework feels half assed (sorry Fearless) and I'd like to see another go at it once high priority champions get their updates.

Basically, here's the entire list of Sona's current problems:

  • Lack of an identity: In other words both Nami and Bard are improved versions of her
  • Lack of auras: Sona used to be unique in the fact her 3 basic abilities were all aura-oriented. Now that she doesn't use auras anymore, she just became another bland filler character.
  • Rock-bottom base stats: She suffers from being the worst-in-class in overall stat-points with near every stat being in the bottom 3 amongst all supports, including - AD, MS, HP, Armor, Mana
  • Lack of damage: Her total potential damage output is the 2nd-lowest amongst all supports, her lone damage spell is tied for lowest base.
  • Lack of healing/dmg mitigation: Her heal is the absolute worst in the game, whilst also being the most expensive and its bonus effect, the shield is the weakest and shortest-duration of supports.
  • Lack of range: The only support in the entire game to have a spell with less than 500-range, Sona actually has THREE that suffer from a pathetic 350-units.
  • Lack of mobility: Between being nerfed to the lowest MS tier and having the aura from Celerity removed, if you get in range of her, it's impossible for her to ever escape.
  • Lack of CC: She's the only support in the game without pre-6 CC other than a slow. Her ult is predictable, short-range and overall weak, it's outclassed by near every other CC-ult amongst supports.
  • Bad cooldowns: Her cooldowns are all way too long, without even taking into account the fact her spells don't actually do anything anyways. Worse yet, all 3 are staggered to be different from each other, which works completely counter-intuitive to her passive which's effect is dependent on the last spell cast. This has directly led to Tempo and Diminuendo being under-utilized and Staccato being unjustifiably over-nerfed as a result.

I have a few more details and some suggested fixes in this thread: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/Is5dKpVZ-so-now-that-fair-is-finally-fair

ZileanUltJesusOP1 votes

but muh full ap sona with lich bane one shots. rito pls

DJ Di02 votes

[{quoted}](name=xBRUT4L LEG3CYx,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ThWt2UpE,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-06-22T17:59:02.115+0000)

but muh full ap sona with lich bane one shots. rito pls

Yeah it chunks squishies even now.

But then they get a banshees and you cry.

ZileanUltJesusOP1 votes

eh kinda if you max spellthiefs use the active to pop banshees

DJ Di03 votes

[{quoted}](name=xBRUT4L LEG3CYx,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ThWt2UpE,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-22T18:44:48.497+0000)

eh kinda if you max spellthiefs use the active to pop banshees

-building Spellthiefs

ZileanUltJesusOP2 votes

? spellthiefs is core on sona

DJ Di03 votes

[{quoted}](name=xBRUT4L LEG3CYx,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ThWt2UpE,comment-id=00000000000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-22T19:19:36.947+0000)

? spellthiefs is core on sona

It's honestly a waste of gold imo; just not worth it after the nerfs.

ZileanUltJesusOP3 votes

its more fo the gold generation with her q and passive, you get more gold with it then any other GGI

DJ Di03 votes

[{quoted}](name=xBRUT4L LEG3CYx,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ThWt2UpE,comment-id=0000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-22T19:24:10.197+0000)

its more fo the gold generation with her q and passive, you get more gold with it then any other GGI

That's the thing, though; it used to give a lot of gold, but now to just break even on what you spent on Frostfang alone you need to proc it 100 times.

I just keep it at Spellthiefs.

ZileanUltJesusOP1 votes

back to the banshees though, ok you have banshees, she q's you, now you dont. Your banshees cooldown=45 sec her q cooldown with lucid boots = 5 sec

DJ Di01 votes

[{quoted}](name=xBRUT4L LEG3CYx,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ThWt2UpE,comment-id=000000000000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-22T19:34:42.563+0000)

back to the banshees though, ok you have banshees, she q's you, now you dont. Your banshees cooldown=45 sec her q cooldown with lucid boots = 5 sec

What I mean is that her Q is 1/3 of her combo. In a short skirmish she'll lose any duel she can't quickly 100-0 as glass cannon.

ZileanUltJesusOP2 votes

She did her job if she forced the other adc or apc to build a banshees just to absorb one of her abilities. Plus her q isnt what does all the damage. Its her passive auto plus lich bane proc and ludens

Pika3101 votes

Her passive isn't doing damage, either. It's just Lich Bane and Echo. You may as well be playing any other champion in the game, cause your damage is over 98% artificial.

Pika3101 votes

Too bad the nerfs to Frostfang made upgrading it past Spellthief a gold-sink that'll set you an item behind the enemy support, every time.

Pika3102 votes

but muh full ap riven with lich bane one shots. riot pls

Ugh, I'm so disgusted that people don't understand Lich Bane and Luden's Echo are items. Anybody can buy them and 99% of all champions will use them more effectively than Sona can.

Fact of the matter is, Sona has the 2nd lowest dmg potential of all supports after Braum. You want to talk artificial scalings like Lich and Echo? Sona STILL LOSES because Lich scales a portion of AD, whereas Sona is not only tied with several others for 15th lowest in the game, but is also tied for 3rd lowest amongst supports, just above Lulu and Thresh. Who as you should already be aware both have on-hit passives that more than make up for this.

As a matter of fact, 7 of the bottom 14 all have on-hits and arguably 3 more as well. I have a strong case to argue that Sona is actually tied for 5th lowest AD in the game and tied for 1st in support.

Icestar11861 votes

The rework was ages ago. Am I missing something here?

Pika3102 votes

Ya, you're missing the fact Riot still refuses to revert it, even after 11 months of proof it was complete shit.

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