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My own input on Sona, and concerns for her identity.

Wofye·4/8/2016, 9:50:05 PM·2 votes·663 views

She feels so subpar when she builds traditional support. Her power only comes from items, like utility supports, her power should come from her kit, but her kit cannot stand on its own. She has a build that is semi decent in which she goes full AP assassin Sona with off-shields / heals, however, in the support role, she doesn't get to build these items and keep up with the rest of her team because they are way too expensive. She needs to build a gold item and a sightstone, so it won't work, and considering how all of her abilities except her Ult depend on how much AP she has, it's an unfortunate kit for a support to have. I've played her mid-lane and that's where I can find better performance of her, however, she has waveclear issues and getting ganked won't help, and she's only playable into certain matchups as well.

Riot members have said they like her to be the easy to use support that beginners can hop on (Sorry for no citations, I simply overhear this on others' discussions). That's fine, I'm sure most of the community has no issues with this, however, the issue I see people talk about is how she sucks, not that she needs more of a mechanical challenge in gameplay. Annie is a good beginners mage, but she is still a huge threat, I hope I'm making myself clear here. I don't see a reason not to redesign Sona a little so that she can be easier to balance (If that is the issue), fit the theme Riot wants her to be, and make the playerbase who play Sona happier.

Personally, Sona was indeed my first support champion I played when I first got into league. I enjoyed that she was a bard-like (Bard like in the sense of auras) champion which had stances I could change into that fits the situation at hand. That felt pretty unique, and I would like to see that back . However, I don't think we'll ever get that back considering the work gone into the new one. Now, she feels much less unique compared to other utility supports. She has weak poke, weak heals and shields, and feels much less of an aura champion (Which what made her unique). I feel like I am forced to abandon my first support champion ever if I want to do well on the Rift. I think if Sona is supposed to be the beginners support, she shouldn't be barred from getting any meaningful reworks to get her to be played more competitively. I would imagine that players would like to keep her in their pick pools (At least its true for me).

I'd probably get beat by sona mains for saying this but, I wouldn't mind if we even had her poke playstyle removed if it meant giving her an aura-centric unique playstyle. I've also seen some people absolutely hate sona for having that playstyle. We as players have to try to understand our in-game opponents as well, since they share the game with us and have much a reason to talk about sona as we do. Is it fun getting "100-0'd " by Sona if she builds full ap? Well, Sona can only really do that when she's super fed and the adc is starved, however, it is understandable to think that Sona should not be an assassin, at least, I don't believe Riot wants Sona to be an assassin. I believe that a good solution would be to reduce power to her assassin-like nature, and add to her strengths in auras. I say this because Riot has recently found a trend in fleshing out characters and making them unique. Sona has great potential to be unique, as an aura champion.

I hope Riot considers my feelings on Sona, and the rest of the community's.

Thanks.

4 Comments

Magnum Mack4/8/2016, 10:03:02 PM2 votes

I've never had an issue keeping up poke and getting kills as sona. I've carried many a game and still built dmg on her with a sightstone. IF you really wanna save cash, go for the frostfang eyestone or something. I just don't see the issue. I use the auras plenty to heal/shield and speed boost my team/adc and her poke has always been fairly oppressive. If what bothers you is her ap ratios or something then I don't know what to tell you. Your pure aura style sona would be so immensely boring for me to play and I'm a support main.

Loves Jesus4/8/2016, 10:03:46 PM1 votes

Wow, well written :3. Thank you for voicing your concerns, thoughts and feelings on Sona :D. First, you claim Sona feels subpar when building traditional support. What is traditional support "building" and why does Sona feel subpar compared to other supports? What is Sona's "Semi Decent" build and why is this better than others? When you play Sona as a mid and attempt to 100-0 people and embrace her as an "Assassin" does this power as an assassin come from Sona herself, or the items you build with mid lane gold? If Sona IS, indeed a product of her items, and not her kit itself why do you pick Sona? What goes through a Sona player's mind when they consider "What to play" and decide to select Sona? If Sona is so sub par, what might be reasons NOT to pick Sona. If Sona is indeed so nebulous, without a clear Identity, would having an Aura based play style fix that? Would your mid lane Sona cease to be a thing? You claim Sona USED to be an Aura based support, and would like to have "that back" What's different, and why was that better?

Athenes Lulu4/8/2016, 10:27:38 PM1 votes

The problem with her "rework" is that eh... no one uses AoE buffs. They see the poke and cry out how shitty Sona is.

And it's not "because she's bad", but because "everything around her just got better". The rework only changed so that she isn't the blind "pick to win" because of her auras, so they changed it to AoE buffs that actually required people to time to some extent. Or we can talk about the transition from season 3 to preseason 4 where Supports are 1) no longer ward bots so itemization for them actually exists, 2) increased gold generation in earlier phases, and 3) rise of tanks and just good ol' CC botlane because of 1 and 2. Sona was "better" back then because of the lack of all 3 points. Simply put, she does have her own niche and identity (though rather shitty), but just in the wrong game. Everything against her are all lockdown-based, quick assassin/DPS action, and the like, which is something that's not fit for her. So in the end, she appears to be "bad".

The idea of the aura/AoE buff bard-like support is amazing, but execution is kinda lame. Hardly anyone ever makes a use of her AoE buffs. I would advocate for another rework, but it would be difficult if she has to 1) retain the "baby's first support status" (which means very forgiving mistakes = encourage spamming spells = no hard CC = NEED AP to remain useful) and 2) retain the "aura support" identity.

And as for current state... she's kinda like a "dumbed down" version of Nami, or even Lulu. She actually needs competitive teammates to do well, but can still "carry" randoms because heals and poke can go only so straightfoward.

Been maining Sona/Lulu for a long time now, but that's just my 2 cents. I could go on, but I'm lazy. Also expecting downvotes because I made the slightest hint that she is "decent" to any shape or form.