Sona, A Playable Kit

Pika310··12 votes·4,117 views

Fearless removed Sona's identity, then gave her a weak and self-contradictory kit. Here we return Sona's lost identity and take usable versions of the new effects.

Base HP: 497.6 HP Per Level: +77 Base armor: 28 Movement Speed: 335 Base AD: 52.04 Base Mana: 376 Mana Per Level: +43 Base Mana Regen: 11.5 Mana Regen Per Level: +0.4 Other stats: unchanged

Sona's abilities use the stance mechanic creating a 1000-range aura depending on her most recently used spell. These auras persist for 1 second after activating a new spell. Activating a spell puts all of her other spells on a 0.5 second cooldown and create a 500-range "Snuggle Zone" for 3 seconds that grants allies who touch it a single-use effect. This duration is increase by 0.5 seconds for every ally affected for a max of 5 seconds.

Power Chord: AP scaling 10% Staccato - If Sona's most recent spell was Hymn of Valor, Power Chord does 50% more damage and marks her target for 6 seconds. Damage from another allied champion detonates this mark to deal 75% of Power Chord's damage. (note, this is 75% of Power Chord's base, NOT Staccato's.) Diminuendo: unchanged Tempo: the target will be rooted for 0.75 seconds and then slowed by 40% for 1.5 seconds; AP scaling removed

Hymn of Valor: CD - 7; mana cost - 45/50/55/60/65; range - 700 (unchanged) Active - Sona sends out bolts of sound dealing 50/100/150/200/250 (+ 40% AP) magic damage to the nearest 2 enemy units, prioritizing champions. Aura - Sona and her allies gain 3/6/9/12/15 bonus AD and AP. Snuggle Zone - Tagged allies deal 20/30/40/50/60 (+ 12.5% AP) magic damage on their next basic attack or single-target spell against an enemy unit within 3.5 seconds.

Aria of Perseverance: CD - 7; mana cost - 60/65/70/75/80; range - unchanged Active - Sona sends out a healing sound healing herself and her most injured ally for 35/50/65/80/95 (+ 12.5% AP) increasing by 1% for each 1% of the target's missing HP. Aura - Sona and allies gain 3/4/5/6/7 bonus armor and MR. Snuggle Zone - Tagged allies are shielded by 30/55/80/105/130 (+ 10% AP) for 3 seconds.

Song of Celerity: CD - 7; mana cost - unchanged Active - AP scaling removed Aura - Sona, allied champions and minions gain 2/4/6/8/10 bonus movement speed. Snuggle Zone - Tagged allies gain % movement speed(values unchanged) for 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds, rapidly decaying after 1.5 seconds. AP scaling removed

Crescendo: mana cost - 100 at all ranks; CD unchanged; Range 1350 Active: Sona sends out a sound wave in a Cone, **units **hit will be stunned for 1 second and forced to dance during the duration; **units **within 1000 units will be stunned for 1.5 seconds instead; **units **within 350 units will be stunned for 2.5 seconds and silenced for 1 second after the stun ends. Passive: REMOVED

SAVE SONA 2015

41 Comments

Grothhar6 votes

Save Sona 2015! {{summoner:10}} Sona

DemothHymside5 votes

What I love about Sona is you have to get close to teammates to buff them, and a stupidly small window to do it. This means that when the enemy team blows all of their AoE's (which everyone seems to have now), you melt trying to buff your team, while doing no damage and having CC as an ult which is no longer unique, as a lot of other champs have similar ones.

SaltyToplaneGoat5 votes

The real problem is the lack of complexity in her kit.

Also they need to change the way Q works. Her only viable attack pattern as AP is highly toxic and not avoidable. Q+Passive+Lichbane... even spellshields dont work since that only catches the Q and not the loaded basic attack coming afterwards. Some kind of skillshot would be nice... or at least something dodgeable.

Overall, while the rework itself was fine, it was a total waste of potential. Maybe becuase they wanted to keep Sona at a "can be used by total noobs level"...

How about some complexity? How about the mechanic to weave two songs together? Or something else that would allow the players to actually express skill with the champ? How about being able to chain Q-W-E together in a random order, but every new "verse" of the "song" you're currently creating costs more Mana. Now that would sound awesome.

On another note: Aura's were removed for a reason, they take too much of her power budget AND are not really fun to use (mostly just broing and hoping that your teammates HOPEFULLY use that boost somehow. The "Snuggle Zones" are the better approach here.

Kitten of Evil4 votes

The real problem is the lack of complexity in her kit.

This. The reason she's a problem is because if she comes in range, she will Q and AA you brainlessly. Unless you have a dive or kill lane (Leona or Annie/Vel'Koz as support), you really can't respond. Partially because you actually have to aim your spell, or at least point and click, and partially because most harass can't compete with the Q/enhanced AA. Especially since she'll just shield if she sees skillshots coming.

She's an extremely uninteractive champion -- I just played against her as an Anivia support (weird, I know, but miscommunication in champ select)... and every time I landed a Q-Q-E combo on her or her ADC, they were back to full health again after a couple Ws.

Brainless poke and brainless sustain aren't a good combination, and that's why Riot's had to nerf her so much. It's still toxic design, but it's not oppressive now -- she couldn't kill us anymore than we could kill her.

SaltyToplaneGoat1 votes

Well, that's what happens if Riot tries to keep "noobs" in mind when designing champs. ( because low interaction = less possibilities to fuck up) OH, all the potential that got wasted!

"But... But... Sona's a champ loved by beginners!"

FUCK THAT! NO ONE CARES ABOUT A GODDAM NOOB WHO'S TOO LAZY TO EVEN LEARN THE BASICS!

Don't design champs for those people, but for the real playerbase! On top of that "beginners" isn't even a stable group of players... if you want to improve the new player experience, go ahead, there are much better and more important things you can do. But don't bring that matter into champ design!

Pika3104 votes

and every time I landed a Q-Q-E combo on her or her ADC, they were back to full health again after a couple Ws.

There's no way you can expect anybody to believe this. Sona has the weakest base heal in the game at only 30 HP and even after the % scaling maxes out at 45 HP, which would tie it with the 2nd lowest heal belonging to Nidalee. Meanwhile, it's also the most mana-intensive heal in the game in addition to this at 80 MANA per-cast. Sona has very low base mana and will run out immediately if she's attempting the scenario you're claiming to have occured.

Kitten of Evil1 votes

It's 30 HP at level 1 up to 110 HP at level 5, and this Sona was maxing her heal first -- her Qs barely tickled. It also shields 35 to 115 (plus 10 to 40 with ranks in her ult)... also keep in mind I was on support items as well, so my QQE, even double-damage, does something like 500 damage before MR. (before AA and RoA, I had about 40 AP).

Pika3103 votes

... and Soraka heals 120 HP at rank 1 for only 20 mana. Fact still stands that Sona can't keep up such a mana-intensive strategy, exerting 100 mana every cast. Having usable numbers at ranks 3 and higher doesn't fix Sona's low base mana and the fact she's essentially spending an ult's worth of it every 9-10 seconds.

What you've portrayed to me sounds like a winning scenario. Force Sona OoM after 2 trades, then 1v2 her ADC. It's an auto-win lane for you.

qetzel3 votes

Comparing Soraka, whose whole schtick is healing, to Sona, who just happens to have a heal, is not fair.

Pika3103 votes

... and a Sona maxing W is an illogical scenario. Frankly, his comment was inherently not fair, thus I don't have to give a proper response. Besides, it was one line and I MATTER--OF-FACTLY DID GIVE A PROPER RESPONSE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING IT.

Kitten of Evil1 votes

Is it illogical? Some Sonas do it.

Dingleberreh4 votes

I don't understand why Sona needs to get nerfed.

She was somewhat stable with the ACTUAL AURAS THAT HELPED THE TEAM.

The new Sona provides absolutely nothing and she feels like a placeholder playing a 4v5.

No matter how well someone plays with her she doesn't do much for the team. Why did she need to get a rework?

It Is I Emoto4 votes

I know that riot removed auras because of invisible power, but it was much healthier than her current kit. Though, I was thinking about % increase of stats instead of flat numbers. So, the more of the stat you have, the more benifiting the aura is. Prolly i think this would be extremly op, but it'll be stronger and more noticeable than a flat number. as well % increase scales extremly well into late game, yet i think this might be extremly overpowered.

and how about we make the heal a flat number, and instead make her active shield aura scale on missing hp? This would probably encourage more players to use it at the right time and actually shielding each of her allies with it!

Emmy Cha0s4 votes

A bit weak for my taste, but it's worlds better than what we have now.

Of course, this is all wasted effort. Fearless hates Sona far too much and will never let her be playable so long as he continues working for Riot. He doesn't even care that his vendetta is blatantly costing Riot money.

Vesarixx4 votes

We probably aren't getting her persistent auras back, I'll miss the Sona+item 3050 cheese on heavy AD teams but there are other options other than just merging the two kits, I made a thread on a change that would allow her a higher reward for risk taking and allow her to have more powerful abilities than before while still maintaining balance. though I would like to see the return of her basic abilities to the same cool down, since the change there is where a lot of the problems started

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/abXPdY0E-riot-an-open-letter-on-fostering-a-healthy-playstyle-for-sona?comment=0004

Leaf of the lake4 votes

So... you want the best of both worlds? You want pre-rework sona and post-rework sona, with the strongest aspects of both kits wrapped into one? She would become a huge stat stick with this, I don't even need to think about how broken she would become. If riot did try to combine the two sonas, both would get horribly watered down and she would not feel rewarding to play. They certainly wouldn't give her the numbers you listed here.

SouL1ess2 votes

So... you want the best of both worlds?

That was the whole point of OP's idea of a playable Sona kit.

Leaf of the lake2 votes

Except she's already "playable" as is, and trying to combine the two sonas would just result in her either becoming absurdly overpowered through raw stats alone, or everything being incredibly watered down and unsatisfying because nothing makes a dramatic impact on its own. You can't have the best of both worlds.

SouL1ess1 votes

Which is why I upvoted your comment.

After seeing Q having 310 base damage I already know what the OP is trying to do.

Pika3103 votes

Except she's already "playable" as is,

That explains why her pick-rate in pro play is so low and her win-rate is a solid 0%.

Such cardboard logic. I'd suggest removing your rose-tinted glasses for a minute and see that Riot aren't the omnipotent gods you worship.

Leaf of the lake2 votes

You have no idea what you're talking about. How about you pay attention to the rest of my post instead of cherrypicking one thing I said then shoving words into my mouth that aren't even tangentially related? I never once said riot were "omnipotent gods," and frankly, by implying so, you have completely diminished any reputability you may have had.

You also seem to think that a champ being "playable" is the same as being "competitive." No. Sona is not competitive, and the only way she ever will be competitive is if you break her, because her fundamental design, both before and after the rework, is based on numbers alone. She heals you for an amount and does auto-targeted damage for an amount. Either the numbers are high enough that they overpower the enemy or they aren't. Any time a champ is strong only because of numbers, they become a binary pick; either they're too strong and should always be picked, or they just end up doing an inferior job to someone else. Look at what happened to warwick. He became broken purely due to numbers in the preseason, when he was at a fairly healthy win and pick rate prior to that.

I'm going to just pull this one part of your post, because it manages to break sona all on its own.

Power Chord: Staccato - If Sona's most recent spell was Hymn of Valor, Power Chord does 50% more damage and marks her target for 6 seconds. Damage from another allied champion detonates this mark to deal 75% of Power Chord's damage. (note, this is 75% of Power Chord's base, NOT Staccato's.) Diminuendo and Tempo - unchanged

Hymn of Valor: CD - 7; mana cost - unchanged; range - 700 (unchanged) Active - Sona sends out bolts of sound dealing 50/100/150/200/250 (+ 50% AP) magic damage to the nearest 2 enemy units, prioritizing champions. Aura - Sona and her allies gain 3/6/9/12/15 bonus AD and AP. Snuggle Zone - Tagged allies deal 20/30/40/50/60 (+ 25% AP) magic damage on their next basic attack or single-target spell against an enemy unit within 3.5 seconds.

In summary, her power chord goes up to +125% damage after a Q in place of what had previously been only +50%, and recently nerfed to +40% (not that I necessarily agree with this nerf, but it was nerfed). Additionally, her Q gets an extra +50 damage at max rank, and an absolutely massive aura buff, which, assuming just sona and the ADC attack the foe, results in an extra 45 damage from the Q+two AAs alone (100% AP ratio, two 100% AD ratios).

So, what does all this come to? At lv9, we've got... Q: 250 (+50% AP) Q proc (each): 60 + 10 (+25% AP) (+100% AD) [the +10 comes from the passive on the ult] Power chord base: 82 (+20% AP) Power chord (after Q, including ally hit): 184.5 (+45% AP)

Factoring in the +15 bonus AP and AD, we can replace these ratios with actual numbers, representing the damage sona would provide without any items: Q: 250 + 7.5 = 257.5 Q proc (each): 60 + 10 + 2.5 + 15 = 87.5 Power chord (after Q, including ally hit): 184.5 + 6.75 = 191.25

Counting the Q proc twice, we get... 257.5 + 87.5*2 + 191.25 = 623.75 damage. Any additional AP sona has beyond what is given by the Q passive would be dealt as a 145% ratio.

What does the sona of one patch ago get (i.e. when she still had +50% power chord damage instead of +40%)? 200 + 70*2 + 82*1.5 = 463 damage. Any additional AP sona has would be dealt as a 100% ratio. These damage numbers leave out the base AD of sona and her ally, but so does the previous calculation.

Current (one patch ago) sona: 463 (+100% AP) damage for Q+lv9 power chord+two Q procs Your proposed sona: 623.75 (+145% AP) damage for Q+lv9 power chord+two Q procs

Do I even need to explain how this would be overbearing? This is a point in the game that most people are sitting at around 1k HP, with maybe 40 MR. You already know how sona's Q chunks people. Do you really think she needs 33% more damage on her Q to be viable? To be able to instantly remove 50% of your total health? She would go well past "viable" to the point of automatically winning lane, because sona lanes would always outburst non-sona lanes. I'm not even factoring in the extra 15 AD you want on every subsequent AA, or the vast amounts of extra damage your sona would deal when building AP. You need to realize you are creating a pure statstick that would require only limited amounts of skill to use effectively. It would feel unfair to play against and unrewarding to use, because the raw burst power of one move would exceed many champ's whole kits.

Oh, for the record, I have nothing against increased AP ratios on sona. It would encourage her to go to a solo lane, which could be a fun change of pace. Just amping up her bases, though, would break her in the support position.

Emmy Cha0s3 votes

sigh Further proof the forum mods refuse to do their job. I dunno why they force us to have to waste time with so much insufferable trolling like you.

Just a few mouse clicks every now and then and the forums would a lot less toxic.

Leaf of the lake1 votes

Just because someone disagrees with you does not automatically make them a "troll." Do you really think I would put that much effort into writing a post if my only intention was to troll the OP? I'm making an argument here, one that happens to be in opposition to the circlejerk that is this thread. If anything, you're trolling me.

Zmuecat3 votes

Riot does not want auras.

Auras, while I enjoy them, are not viewed as fun by the majority of the people (and I can understand completely why).

All Sona needs is some numbers love.

Raptamei9 votes

{quoted}

Riot does not want auras.

Auras, while I enjoy them, are not viewed as fun by the majority of the people (and I can understand completely why).

All Sona needs is some numbers love.

The majority of the people had no problem with auras until Riot decided they were the worst thing in gaming since Ubisoft.

Zmuecat1 votes

Fair enough point and very true, but unless Riot changed their stance on them again, they don't want them. That was one of the purposes of her rework (I actually quit playing the game for a little while when they did it too).

I'd much rather enjoy some number buffs on her kit. I don't want her to have a hugely overloaded kit. She doesn't need these changes in my opinion.

The Bardic Gay4 votes

People had no problem with them because no one even noticed them. Auras are piratically invisible, even if you give a small buff icon, no one is going to really consider how much the aura buffs alter the game. It wouldn't really matter if they were strong or weak to the average player. Sure, on patch notes you'll notice 'hey! they nerfedmy aura!' but in game, auras are so subtle that baring extreme circumstances, such as with runic bulwark being picked up by 2-3 teammates and all but completely invalidating AP casters, no one is ever going to consider them, except for maybe the Sona player. And it's not like the aura system is much of an active one, since you have one for offense tied to your offensive spell, one for defense tied to your heal, and a Ms one tied to you MS boost. on top of the fact that they persist for 3 seconds, left very little for them to be considered due to their low apparent impact and literal no brainier status.

The total lack of visible impact made it so that Sona had a lot of her power budget consumed on something no one really appreciated-- and, no, don't start going on about how you appreciated the auras, because you and I both know you really didn't, not the the full extent of their potency.

The snuggle zone system, flawed as it may be, allows Sona more active power and doesn't for her to sink away her strengths in something that offers nothing to the game beyond making a champion slightly stronger, of neigh imperceptible reasons. At least with snuggle zones your lane partner is aware that they are buffed.

Pika3105 votes

At least with snuggle zones your lane partner is aware that they are buffed.

The majority of players I've talked to have stated this is not true. They are just as unnoticeable, if not more-so than her real kit was.

Vesarixx2 votes

Thresh CLICK THE LANTERN

Soraka STOP RUNNING AWAY

Sona GET IN THE CIRCLE...

"#"supportproblems

Knight SoIaire 1 votes

he majority of the people had no problem with auras

the majority of the people knew that auras were there, but they played like they are no auras there that was riots problem, so they changes sonas auras to something that actualy is visible and can be played with

they were there and they did what they were supposed to do, but players didnt realy pay attention to a big part of their champion

Erockandroll1 votes

{quoted}

The majority of the people had no problem with auras until Riot decided they were the worst thing in gaming since Ubisoft.

The Problem was her Auras felt Unipactfull. It had no noticeable effect too the game. But Riot could not Buff her Aura. It would be completely Overtunned if something as Uniteractive as Auras, were powerful enough to have a noticable fun effect.

As a result, they redefined what an Aura could be. And in all Honesty. The game play rework did NOT destroy her Identity with auras.

Knight SoIaire 1 votes

All Sona needs is some numbers love.

or some skillshots the problem that riot sees and nerfs her for is that she doesnt realy aim much so if sona is a succesfull pick its because her numbers are high not because players do the plays with her they are afraid of her becoming the ryze of botlane

Zmuecat1 votes

They had their chance to do that with the rework, but instead gave her snuggle zones.

If they didn't want her to become Ryze, they had a fantastic chance there, but noooooo, SNUGGLEZONES.

SouL1ess2 votes

Q does too much damage.

Having a 550 range Darius Q (and potentially more) is pretty terrifying.

Q's tag effect could be damage that scales by level so Sona isn't too strong early and the ability is not too weak late (the same idea with power chord's damage).

Pika3104 votes

Except Q is Sona's only damage ability and Darius has 3. One of which grants inherent armor pen and another is an AA reset. Not to mention all of them and his basic attacks feed into his passive which feeds into his ult for even more damage. Sona's passive requires 3 spells just for it to be usable only a single time.

Then there's the argument that Sona is a squishy mage-support and Darius is a bruiser-tank. If you think this is "too much," first consider that Morgana's Q alone does more than Sona's at more than DOUBLE the range at 1175. Not to mention following up with soil at 900 range makes her nearly rival Leona's damage output. Point being, if anything this isn't enough damage, Sona would still be outclassed in both damage and safety by ALL of the tier 1 supports.

SouL1ess2 votes

No, Morg Q deals 300 damage. Your Sona Q deals up to 370. Your Q does not need to aim a skillshot in order to do 250 damage, and only requires you to be in 550 range of the enemy champion to do 310 damage. I assume that Sona's Q "snuggle zone" works the same as live, and that the on-hit damage also applies to herself.

In addition, since your Q selects two targets and you are most likely in a duo lane, your Q contributes effectively to 250*2 + 60*2 = 620 damage in lane with one press of a button, without considering PowerChord's damage and companion bonus damage. That is NOT what Morg can do.

The fact is Sona's Q selecting TWO targets makes it great in a duo lane, and it still deals the same damage (310 if Sona vs other support) against lone targets compared to other champions (after your change).

Current Sona does nothing as a support because her bases are bad for a support...but that doesn't mean you can straight-out buff her beyond strong.

Emmy Cha0s3 votes

Isn't it difficult walking around while wearing those rose-tinted glasses of yours?

SouL1ess2 votes

No, I am rather fond of my glasses.

I understand that people want Sona to be good and viable, like how I want my favourite champions to be good, but when people put suggestions that rival CertainlyT's release powers, I do not believe they are thinking of the balance of the game at all.

I could have suggested that Talon get his base damage and ratios back and remove his damage amplification, since the cutthroat bugfix patch didn't actually give Talon anymore power than he did before, but the fact is Talon does too well at AoE damage as an assassin, and the damage amp + ult nerf, while bearing no effect on Talon's single-target burst, did nerf Talon's AoE damage output.

You have an idea of your champion and Riot has theirs. Despite that people discredit Riot for all the mistakes they had (e.g. OP Warmogs, Release Black Cleaver), they try their best to balance the game.

I also do not agree that Sona is in a good spot as a support right now, but handing out incredulous buffs for an underpowered champion doesn't make them balanced, nor will the suggestion be heard with full consideration.

Miku Hime sama1 votes

A lot of the numbers are lower here. The shield has 5 lower base at level 1? Then all of the auras are weaker than their old values. The purple one in particular is only half. Then only 5 more points into the heal? Looks to me like as far as the green one is concerned, the heal and shield are just swapping places, which might be a good thing overall.

Pika3103 votes

If she keeps her new "snuggle zones" the auras don't need to be full strength. Although admittedly, they probably could be and she'd still auto-lose to Thresh, Leona and Blitz regardless.

For Hymn of Valor, the majority of its potential is lost completely in its weak numbers, particularly in what she gives allies. For this to translate into her new bubble would require donating something akin to the full value of her bolts, around 200-250 bonus on-hit damage. That's insanely high for something you could potentially donate to 4 teammates, the fact of the matter is Hymn of Valor is **IMPOSSIBLE **to balance without returning its old aura and at least a large percent of it like the 75% I suggested here.

On Aria, yes 35 is still less than her original 40 HP heal, but at a 1% scaling this evens out at 85% HP or less. Her current live heal evens out at 33% HP, which is atrociously low. Even if the value stayed 30 and they returned the 1%, it would still balance out at 75% HP. Either of these are HUGE improvements over her current shitty heal. I took 5 points off the shield's base to increase its rank-up value so she can assist allies better later in the game where it becomes more useful. Regardless of all this, Aria's numbers are still somewhat low and a strongish aura makes up for that.

Celerity is currently Sona's strongest ability, it only needs some minor fixes to bring it up to par. The main problem is that it lacks reward for ranking it up. An increased duration-per-rank changes it from being a "1-point wonder" to something worth considering an extra point or 2. Whereas just a weak aura is enough to fill in its missing power.

insaiyanbacca1 votes

oh, you

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