Sona's base stats do not accurately represent the type of playstyle she currently has.

Hey everyone, Dj Hatsune Miku here with another thread about bot lane and Sona. Am I obsessed? Probably...

tl;dr - Sona's kit encourages her to be in the thick of things despite being one of the squishiest champs in the game. Extra relevant information is bolded.

First some history is probably in order. Sona released a number of years ago and, from what I've read, was very good and extremely easy to play, ultimately leading her to being nerfed. Her defining characteristics were her auras, her frighteningly strong poke game, and her squishiness. Season 2, where I began, was where Sona was one half "SonaEz" which is still regarded as one of the strongest poke lane set ups despite both of the champions having received a number of nerfs. (This was when Ez W had an attack speed reduction. Talk about wonky balance~) Anyways, season 3 rolled around and Sona remained strong with Runic Bulwark until it was removed and Sona slowly was pushed from the lime light until utility scaling happened. I don't remember the exact dates but I do recall utility scaling coming after Runic Bulwark's removal, someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong.

So what does all this have to do with current Sona? Well... Ultimately not a lot other than explaining the fact that Sona being one of the squishiest champs in the game became part of her identity. Her passive armor/mr aura made her more tanky late game than she looked, but early game she had the honor of being easier to kill than a caster creep. That's just plain bad!

Here is where I start talking about actual gameplay stuff So with Sona's little rework her base health was reduced and compensated with hp/level and armor. She's squishier early and tankier late by ~100hp. This also took into account the fact her W has boosts to its heal at lower hp% as well as having a shield. This is all fine, at least it would be. Sona before was able to hang back with W or roll her auras for their actives and end back on W for her passive proc for damage reduction+passive armor. Now she does roughly the same thing in teamfights, however she has to be on top of anyone she wants to assist, which puts her in the fray. Ultimately her teamfighting isn't her biggest problem, nor was it her main draw as a champion. It's always been her aggressive laning phase.

This, however, was changed significantly in terms in her update. Her poke is split up and that is a big deal. Her damage on the active was reduced heavily and she now gives everyone she touches a mini-sheen. Her power chord was also cut in terms of the damage it deals per level to reduce her damage. What does this mean? It means that Sona now has to auto champions after Q to effectively poke instead of just Qing and this is a huge deal. Her attack range is only average, 550 to be exact, which puts her in the danger zone of every champion bot lane. This, combined with her early game being even squisher, has left Sona in an awkward place of being a champ that is very risky to interact with her opponents. In fact I would dare say there is no champion bot that takes a greater risk in attempting to interact than Sona in terms of supports.

Sona's ability to sustain in lane has to be balanced along with her ability to relentlessly poke her opponents down, I do greatly understand this. The fact that any sort of trade has sona down to 15-20% while the opponent eating Q+power chord is only at 60% seems heavily skewed. Ultimately, Sona is far, far too squishy for the amount of risk she needs to take. At the moment I actually can play Soraka as a more aggressive poke/scrapper support due to her self heal and sustain on top of the silence. I bet you'd never read that Soraka is an aggressive support, but it's very much true in my experience. At this point I do not believe Sona is as squishy as she is for any other reason other than it being, wrongly, part of her identity. Her heal is very mana intensive, her poke is more risky than many other mage supports, and the only thing she has up is her potency. Even that is slacking a little. She's gone from a poke mage to a bit of a scrapper but is squishier than ever early, when it really matters.

I'm aware that according to online spreadsheets she's doing well for herself, however she's not exactly popular because of her risk/reward being skewed. A simple buff to her base health would do wonders to make her more appealing of a pick while not affecting her relative power level much. Her lack of mobility, CC outside of her ult or E power chord, and low impact sustain compared to Nami/Soraka in lane (Due to both typically maxing their heal first while Sona doesn't until 13), there's no logical reason for her to be squisher than champs that do a similar job as her but with more utility. Soraka will still sustain harder, Nami/Morg have more CC, Janna has more protection, which leaves Sona to take her place as the queen of poke over someone like Annie, Zyra, or Vel'koz.

Thanks for your time, feedback and comments greatly welcomed! ^-^