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I feel like Sona's been left in the dust

Khristophoros··2 votes·694 views

Mainly because of the change to Manaflow Band. This is the first time ever that we don't have access to a mana regen option from runes or masteries in the laning phase. Every past season there were options from both runes and masteries for mana regen. In Runes reforged we had Manaflow Band but now it doesn't provide mana regen in the laning phase anymore. Nothing does.

It's really weird that for 7 seasons we always had these options and now in season 8 the narrative is being pushed that we have too much mana regen. It's never been worse tbh. But whatever this is about Sona. I can deal with the changes on pretty much every other mana user I play.

The problem with Sona is she is too squishy to survive lane without spamming her W. She just goes OOM now. You have to max out Manaflow Band, but before you do that you will most likely lose lane. She doesn't feel worthwhile to play anymore because of this.

8 Comments

Bern4 votes

Statistically, Sona is fine and has a passable winrate at every elo. Manaflow Band is also stronger on her than a lot of champions because Q is targeted harass (no worries about spending mana and not proccing manaflow bc your way to proc it is a skillshot), and the %missing regen is very strong later if she builds a tear.

In terms of feel, though, Sona feels like a walking ult until she gets her items and then she's a walking aurabot with an ult. (The auras become really fucking good later on, but they still feel like auras.) Her gameplay is exactly as unengaging as it was pre-rework; now she just gets to give everyone ardent buff and q buff and lots of movespeed with her boring gameplay pattern.

Power chord is strong (especially w power chord -- the damage reduction is huge) but isn't good for on-demand power in fights, so it can feel kind of bad.

Basically, I think Sona has more satisfaction issues than strength issues, but those satisfaction issues are pretty real. She can feel like she's just a passenger in the game unless she has her ult, and once you use your ult you're back to feeling like you don't do much again. IT's kind of unfortunate and unfun.

Khristophoros2 votes

I don't care about any of that shit. I feel satisfaction when I mash buttons and get results. lol

All I know is any decent support player knows she's weak in lane and will abuse that. It's never been worse now that manaflow band doesn't do anything until stacked. Like yeah I get that it makes Sona's midgame better, but that doesn't matter when you pretty much lose lane automatically.

Her general winrate is always going to look decent because she has a low skill floor. Her winrate does not increase much with more experience playing her because any optimizations or improvements you can make by being experienced with her are very low impact. There is nothing you can do to make up for her bad early game.

DeathBurst1 votes

Manaflow does do something before being fully stacked, it gives you +25 max mana for every proc. Compare that to +4 per proc of Tear, and it's easy to see that it's far from "nothing".

Khristophoros1 votes

{quoted}

Manaflow does do something before being fully stacked, it gives you +25 max mana for every proc. Compare that to +4 per proc of Tear, and it's easy to see that it's far from "nothing".

It doesn't change how weak she is until it's stacked.

DeathBurst1 votes

Agree with everything, except that you don't need Tear, and Manaflow is still strong without it.

Bern1 votes

I agree that you don't -need- tear, and that manaflow is also strong without tear.

Tear is just good for making sure you never oom being an aurabot, and seraph's is actually kinda nutty on her.

DeathBurst1 votes

Sona is probably one of the supports who can most easily stack the new version of Manaflow, it shouldn't take much more than 5 minutes to do it, it means a proc every 30 s, when the rune CD is 15 s, it's perfectly realistic. And once it's stacked, it's a pretty hefty amount of regen. So, I disagree.

Khristophoros1 votes

It does not matter how well she stacks it because she is so weak until she stacks it. She gets abused by any decent support. Even if it's only 5 min that is basically the entire laning phase. After that point one ADC is going to be ahead, and most likely it will not be Sona's ADC. Her winrate over game time supports what i'm saying. Her winrate is poor until ~20 min because she pretty much always loses lane.

When your first 5 min are shitty it takes 15 min to recover from that. As a support that's unacceptable because your ADC will be behind.

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