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Sona, early game interaction? You funny

only zhule··1 votes·371 views

So i'm super hyped for the new runes. partly because I think it will be amazing to see what comes of them. But also because once they drop and the chaos dies down a bit. Maybe we can let Sona have some early game interaction. It honestly feels like your only interaction is summoner 4 + full "combo" to kill none tank targets below 15-20% health. I would kill for something like a root, long range skill shot slow, disengage tool.... ANYTHING that would allow Sona to interact with the enemy team before level 6 AND without having to burn flash to use it 70%+ of the time. Hell i would even take abilities that let my allies interact with enemies. As it stands Sona is classified as an enchanter but she has very very little in her kit that enhances her team mates. With Q being a one and done (small) damage buff, allies are normally either going to waste it on a minion, or have it time out trying to line up the perfect hit on an opponent. W doesn't enhance anything for your allies (the shield is nice don't get me wrong). The speed boost from her E is great... except you often need full CDR + the cooldown reduction from being level 11+ to really make use of it as a chasing tool.... YAY mobility creep.

Oddly enough my "dream" version of Sona is basically just a insanely buffed up item 3504 (pre nerf). Range of her aura goes up by like 100-150. Q makes a % of damage dealt be true damage. W gives % damage dealt as healing (physical AND magic damage effected). E gives attack speed. Each one effective for a certain kind of fighting. Maybe work in a passive that allows her to root targets with her next damaging ability (auto attack maybe..) after a certain number of abilities used.

7 Comments

General Esdeath 2 votes

You know your enhanced E slows at range right? She's an early game poke late game burst support who can run you down and make you dance.

DeathBurst1 votes

Sona's not a late game burst, no... Her damage is respectable in early, but in late, you'll be outscaled by any carry with a real income a access to their full 6 item slots, and you'll never reach a stage where you have enough Burst to make it worth. You should itemize for healing and utility, not burst.

only zhule1 votes

{quoted}

You know your enhanced E slows at range right? She's an early game poke late game burst support who can run you down and make you dance.

a 550 range (her auto attack range) slow with travel time, that requires you have built up charges (and not use them with any of your other abilities) before engaging. A slow on a character that does not have a gap closer other then flash.

People keep saying she has early game poke (i assume they mean "good" poke) and i honestly don't see it. You have one good combo hit every 30-ish seconds. This assumes you have the ability to play an aggressive lane, since passively she really doesn't do much and even a good chunky hit doesn't do much if the opponent isn't already heavily damaged and/or your ally can't follow up for an attempt at a kill. Am i missing something? Are people running support Sona with thunderlord's and like 50 AP at the start of game? Is your average opponent letting you get Q + AA follow up every 10 seconds? Where is this assumption that sona is going to wear down the opponent coming from?

Even late game i can't say that she has that much burst by herself. She pairs REALLY well with some items, that is half the issue. Sona with no item 3504 and/or item 3100 is a really unimpressive character. I would go as far to say that if she didn't pair insanely well with heal/shield buff items and Lich Bane she would be near unplayable. She spends the first like 8-10 mins with no hard CC, no sustained damage output, a mana pool and mana regen that doesn't support her defensive abilities begin used often, low base movement speed (with no gap closer beside flash), and a very small health bar. Even post level 6 many of these issues don't go away without investing heavily into fixing them.

DeathBurst1 votes

Am i missing something? [...] Is your average opponent letting you get Q + AA follow up every 10 seconds?

Bluntly said: yes. Because what can the ADC do if you Q+aa him every time they move up for a CS? Your Q is auto-targeted, can't be bodyblocked, and your aa takes just as much time as the ADC last hit. And if you can't achieve that regularly, well you're doing it wrong, but you still have the option to just max heal and play passive like a Janna/Soraka. You'll have a hard time in lane, but Sona's strong point is post level 11 and big team-fights where her low CDs and AoEs shine, anyway. You don't play Sona to snowball lane, even if it's possible with an aggressive ADC.

(But don't go Thunderlord or Lichbane. It's a trap, you're basically putting a time-bomb on yourself, and if you don't win before 25 minutes, you've lost.)

Regarding Mana: itemize full Mana Regen, not half Regen / half Flat Mana (another reason to not go Lichbane). Don't forget the Meditation mastery (while it lasts). In late game, with Redemption/Athene/Censer, you can basically use your spells every time you need them without care for your Mana. The goal is to reach that threshold of Regen where you can't get OOM. Buying Flat Mana means you get OOM slower, but you still get OOM eventually, so it's no good.

DeathBurst2 votes

Hum, I main Sona in Solo/Duo, and I have plenty or early lane interactions...

Sona's contributions are hard to appreciate because they are so spread out, but they are BIG! Like, seriously, massively big. One Q spell, for instance, is four different components (the 2 auto-targeted bolts + the 2 enhanced basic attacks for you+your carry), so none of them feel strong, but all combined, it's a pretty efficient spell. And that's the trick with Sona, you need to work to make every little bit counts, but, personally, I find it really satisfying when it does work.

only zhule1 votes

{quoted}

Hum, I main Sona in Solo/Duo, and I have plenty or early lane interactions...

Sona's contributions are hard to appreciate because they are so spread out, but they are BIG! Like, seriously, massively big. One Q spell, for instance, is four different components (the 2 auto-targeted bolts + the 2 enhanced basic attacks for you+your carry), so none of them feel strong, but all combined, it's a pretty efficient spell. And that's the trick with Sona, you need to work to make every little bit counts, but, personally, I find it really satisfying when it does work.

No one is going to argue that Q bolt + empowered auto attack + allies empowered auto attack (+ possible power cord bonus and the AA reset when you proc power cord) isn't a lot of damage. Problem is that the power cord bonus is maybe once every 30 seconds, if you are lucky. And the bonus damage on your ally is insanely hard to sync up so that your ally gets an empowered attack RIGHT as they are auto'ing the enemy champion.... and not half a second after, or right as they are hitting a minion.

The issue is that until your level 6, you have no way to start a fight, stop a fight, you can barely keep your ally safe via heals due to mana to health regain ratio, and if you don't burst someone down chances are VERY high that you lose any kind of prolonged fight (even if they are below 5% hp and you are above 50%). Sadly if you aren't getting the auto attack follow up, you really aren't doing that much damage to you opponent given how long you have to wait between spell casts.

DeathBurst1 votes

And the bonus damage on your ally is insanely hard to sync up so that your ally gets an empowered attack RIGHT as they are auto'ing the enemy champion.

Yeah well, that's what I said. "You need to work to make every little bit counts". Sona raw output is HUGE, seriously, the raw numbers of her abilities are enormous compared to other Supports. But it's auto-targeted and spread out over multiple targets, so it's always partially wasted, and that's the important skill that her kit tests, how much of her automatic skills you'll be able to use efficiently.

The issue is that until your level 6, you have no way to start a fight,

And you don't need to start fights to win games, especially not pre-level 6. If you want to start fights, play Leona or Alistar, not an Enchantress... But back to Sona: even post-6, F+R is a bad idea 9 out of 10 times. It's too dangerous, too unreliable, you expose yourself, and it's simply not your job to jump in front of the enemy team.

In laning phase, you should use your blue spell on cooldown to poke, and you should be able to use at least 2 out of 3 components between the two auto-bolts and your own empowered basic attack (ignoring the empowered basic on your carry). If you use it for just one bolt on one champion, it's bad, but if the two bolts connect or if you can also use your own empowered basic, it's fine. If you do that properly, your opponents shouldn't be in a position to start a fight to begin with. If you're in a lane where you can't do that, simply max your heal first, and suddenly the mana to health ratio is much better (going simply from rank 1 to rank 2 is a 50% increase in mana efficiency; even when I don't max it first, I typically put a second point in heal at level 4). Once again, it's important to use at least 3 out of the 4 components. Heal during trades/harass to also benefit from the shield, and don't heal if either you or your carry is still full life.

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