Why is Sona's winrate always so high?

Only Play Darius·Apr 25, 2015·17 votes·5,825 views

Champion.gg - Sona Support Stats, Builds, Runes, Masteries and Counters

Sona has been nerfed more than any other champion in the game, enough to have a meme about it. Apparently at one point (Season 4 I think) she was getting nerfed every other patch. Yet her winrate always springs back up to > 50% a few days after each nerf she gets. I just don't understand. I don't ever hear people complaining about her (outside of URF) and personally I have no problems facing her and have never thought she was obnoxious to fight against, if anything she is a free kill when i'm jungler since she is twice as squishy as her ADC. Not to mention she is also a support, so she can't reliably solo carry games and relies on her team more than the other roles. Is there something in her kit that is OP that i'm not seeing? Because logically a champ that get's nerfed this often shouldn't have a winrate anywhere near 53%.

I haven't bought her but I could always use another support in my roster. Is she worth learning? I'm hesitant to spend time learning a champ that gets nerfed this much, but her winrate seems to always be well above average.

EDIT: I'm not sure what's with the downvotes. I'm simply asking people who know more than I do why her winrate always seems to be well above average. I am, in no way, asking for nerfs, I specifically stated that I have zero problems playing against her and the Sona supports on my team do just fine and are in fact often more team focused than most other supports I have played with.

70 Comments

Neo CyrusApr 25, 201511 votes

Look at the stats of that same damn site you linked. Most the players are highly experienced with using Sona. It says the percentages right there. And here's an obvious one; they pick her SITUATIONALLY into matchups where Sona doesn't get 100-0'd by being breathed on. Such as not into Leona.

And here's a bonus tidbit, not long ago 55% win rates among supports were common while Sona sat at 50-52%, and it's that much ONLY because her ult was finally normalized to not cost 9001 mana.

TL;DR - Her win rate is artificially high.

Sir YamazukiApr 27, 20154 votes

[{quoted}](name=Neo Cyrus,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d1l4Mgow,comment-id=000a,timestamp=2015-04-25T12:24:54.903+0000)

Look at the stats of that same damn site you linked. Most the players are highly experienced with using Sona. It says the percentages right there. And here's an obvious one; they pick her SITUATIONALLY into matchups where Sona doesn't get 100-0'd by being breathed on. Such as not into Leona.

And here's a bonus tidbit, not long ago 55% win rates among supports were common while Sona sat at 50-52%, and it's that much ONLY because her ult was finally normalized to not cost 9001 mana.

TL;DR - Her win rate is artificially high.

What are you talking about? People playing her for a few games is like half, which consists of the average win rate for that group still being ~53%. On that same link, against Leona, her win rate is almost an even 50%. How about people stop pretending Leona automatically wins games against Sona, because that's obviously not happening.

Also, when her skin came out, she had a 50%+pick rate and still maintained a 52% win rate, so again, lets not pretend it's "Sona mains" keeping her win rate high.

The Sona being "weak" circlejerk needs to end.

ZmuecatApr 25, 20157 votes

She has a dedicated following, she's a poke support that can function as a secondary mage or a full on support with her abilities, and if she gets super behind she can still do something like Blitzcrank (meaning you can be horrible all game but still manage to help) by flash ulting the enemy team. If she gets ahead in lane, she can easily zone people out simply by existing thanks to her passive.

My experience at least. I do think she's worth learning, but I've played her since release.

IcyPepperApr 25, 20157 votes

Is someone just going through this thread downvoting everything...? You didn't say a thing to piss off even a Sona hater.

To add to what you're saying:

Her mechanics are relatively simple on the surface, so she's easy to pick up, so people are likely to master her earlier than other champions with enough practice. Beneath the surface, she's not terribly complex but using her passive appropriately (instead of just for more damage) requires some noggin use and timing the shield of her W can royally piss off your enemies (Once denied a Karthus ult with perfect timing, got treated like a G0d).

It also helps that her hard counters are the three most popular supports Blitzcrank Leona Thresh , so Sona players are quick to learn how to position properly to avoid dying instantly. She's much more annoying (YMMV), but less "100-0 all-in" than they are. Thresh teaches you the basics to juking (since his hook has a slight delay) and manipulating and using your minions as shields (very useful now that Nidalee is seeing a lot of play). Blitz teaches you the importance of bush control. Leona, due to her Zenith Blade going through minions, teaches you how to position yourself beyond your minion wave, and predict and time skillshots like that.

In other words, due to the popularity of Sona's counters the players learn how to not die as opposed to kill the enemy laner, which soon they learned (due to Sona's poking nature coupled with her ultimate cc) that the second eventually follows the first when done properly. People forget how to survive over killing, and get high KDA's like 10/10/x or something, when it's better to have 3/1/x (discounting other lanes completely for the sake of objectivity).

FantasySniperApr 27, 20152 votes

Yeah, the downvotes on any Sona thread are to be expected. Especially when someone supports the idea that Sona is actually being a playable champion (practically everyone).

IcyPepperApr 27, 20151 votes

According to some stats, she has a high win rate but requires quite a few games of experience to reach over 50% win rate, apparently.

FantasySniperApr 27, 20151 votes

According to champion.gg, (Where she's also ranked to be the 3rd best support) she has a positive win rate no matter how many games someone has played with her.

IcyPepperApr 27, 20151 votes

The first 1-10 games seem positive (she does have an above win rate ratio), which is a low sample size and is going to be a tad inflated (one game with Sona can mean 100% or 0% win rate, so you need larger sample sizes per player).

I'm referencing the low winrate between 5-15 games played to halfway between 15-50 and 50-125. I'm not quire sure how to read this kind of graph, but she does require some experience.

FantasySniperApr 27, 20151 votes

x = win rate %, y = games played (logarithmically)

The white line is her overall average. This graph doesn't even register win rates below 51%.

The graph shows an average of multiple players with the same range of games. 22.51% of the summoners who have used Sona have a collective win-rate average of anything between 52.69 and 53.49.

Unfortunately, champion.gg does not feature how many summoners have actually played Sona, so we do not know the true sample size being featured.

StoningtonApr 25, 20156 votes

Good question. She was the first champ I mained and I always had a really high winrate on her. With that said, I used to put 25 points in defense with a standard ap runepage. I was deceptively very tanky. Right now, her heal is complete shit so I have no idea how people are playing her successfully. I personally think she's in a bad spot and doesn't work out for my style at all.

Emmy Cha0sApr 25, 20156 votes

Don't put so much stock into win-rates, it's only 1 number amongst countless factors. If you also factored in every additional stat: player experience (on that champ, in that role and in the game entirely), pick rate, average Elo, lane match-ups, team comps, et cetera... Sona's overall score is factually one of the lowest amongst the support class, if not THE lowest. Basically, what that means is she's played almost solely by Sona support mains into theoretically favorable lanes with compatible allies. With so much working in her favor, it's actually pathetic that she can't hold a much higher win-rate.

Then you have the professional win-rate: 0%. It's sat comfortably there ever since 4.13 went live, despite being played several times in most regions and even international tournaments, including thrice at worlds. Nobody can get this iteration to work in the pro-scene, even after 9 months. Makes me sad to see, considering her win-rate BEFORE 4.13 was comfortably higher than 50%.

There's no reason to learn Sona, she's almost assuredly the weakest champion in the game. She has the 2nd lowest damage potential amongst supports, the worst heal in the game by a longshot, one of the weakest ult abilities, severe immobility and many rock-bottom base stats AND scalings. Not to mention she's the only support in the game without pre-6 CC other than a slow, which even that is mostly inaccessible, especially after the cooldown nerfs.

If you want to play a Sona-style support, Nami has always been considered a carbon-copy of her and unanimously superior since the pre-Season 4 support-class "rework" where all supports had their scalings gutted. Additionally, Bard is another Sona-style support that has ALSO been unanimously considered stronger since his release. Although he's still weaker than Nami atm, he's been receiving buffs every patch as Riot is eager to push him onto the pro scene.

Penguin EclipseApr 25, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Emmy Cha0s,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d1l4Mgow,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-25T09:58:01.560+0000)

If you want to play a Sona-style support, Nami has always been considered a carbon-copy of her and unanimously superior since the pre-Season 4 support-class "rework" where all supports had their scalings gutted. Additionally, Bard is another Sona-style support that has ALSO been unanimously considered stronger since his release. Although he's still weaker than Nami atm, he's been receiving buffs every patch as Riot is eager to push him onto the pro scene.

Bard stronger since his release? You Sona trolls are hilarious.

IllusoryLuminesApr 25, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Penguin Eclipse,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d1l4Mgow,comment-id=00070000,timestamp=2015-04-25T14:14:25.075+0000)

Bard stronger since his release? You Sona trolls are hilarious.

Sona mains always act like their champion is unviable, completely useless and hated by riot every time it isnt picked or banned every game.

MAZZ1M0Apr 25, 20151 votes

You should watch a Lustboy game with him. I'm callin' it now, Bard is gonna be big in LCS. Last game I spectated Bard carried their whole damn damn -literally through the map and victory. Bard lets you group incredibly fast and capitalize on enemies caught out of position -or even in position. His ult is easily one of the best supp ults in the game. The problem most have with him is that they try to use his portals to escape. Not gonna work. It's for objectives, grouping, and zoning.

Penguin EclipseApr 25, 20152 votes

{quoted}

You should watch a Lustboy game with him. I'm callin' it now, Bard is gonna be big in LCS. Last game I spectated Bard carried their whole damn damn -literally through the map and victory. Bard lets you group incredibly fast and capitalize on enemies caught out of position -or even in position. His ult is easily one of the best supp ults in the game. The problem most have with him is that they try to use his portals to escape. Not gonna work. It's for objectives, grouping, and zoning.

Oh I've seen some very good Bards lately. I don't doubt that after the next round of minor buffs he will be in a good position. But at release he was complete trash. Far worse than Sona. Anyone who denies that is delusional.

MAZZ1M0Apr 25, 20152 votes

Then you'll just hear how he got buffs while Sona only gets nerfed :\ . I wish Sona fans had more finesse with their posts so they wouldn't look like whiners.

I'll agree with you on that though. On release he really did seem like garbage though I question whether or not it was because I didn't understand how he worked or if he really was just crap.

I will disagree on the Sona point though. Bard's shrines heal for way more and his ability to get teammates across the map was always good. His ult is also ten times more powerful and easy to hit with and safer than Sona's. His (E?) stun/slow is also more useful in a variety of situations. Sona needs power chord to do the same thing for a slow, forget the stun. Bard wasn't the greatest when he came out, but I'd be hard pressed to call him worse than Sona at any point other than prolonged teamfights. Considering he can shut down any part of any fight he wants from a safe distance I'd be surprised to see prolonged teamfights being common with him.

Pika310Apr 27, 20152 votes

Sona fans have lots of finesse. Immediately after she was gutted, all we had was finesse. However, constant verbal abuse and apathetic forum mods makes it difficult to keep discussions civil when every thread is forced to become a cesspool by certain individuals you see disturbing the peace in just about each and every one.

MAZZ1M0Apr 27, 20152 votes

I'm well-aware. I'm surprised you don't remember me, Pika. I've been a part of almost every major Sona thread since the change. I really liked your earlier posts on the subject. You have to admit though, you don't have the same composure you did that first month following the rework anymore. Your posts back then were some of the most articulate and well-thought out posts in the Sona threads -and they were civil! I think every Sona player whose commented on the rework has had at least one lapse in civility, myself included. I find that the finesse that was common around those first few weeks is largely dead now though. I think we're all too bitter to reengage as group without someone bringing up something that makes us seethe about it the rest of the day, or for some, b$%^& about it here on the boards. People instinctively turn complaining into a negative to be used against them. That's largely what's being used to waive us off, or rather, the perception. I believe the statistics belie greater issues with the rework as they don't explain why the stats are like that and they as Riot and us as Sona fans interpret the data to mean different things.

They see high usage rate as "fun to play" I interpret it as "easiest champ in the game to play" especially for newcomers who need a support they can be consistent with. Support is the least-favored role, many newbies don't put in the time to learn supports. Sona is easily accessible. You could also chalk up the winrate to inflation due to her dedicated higher elo playerbase -though I doubt it comes solely from that. I think she's just popular fro other reasons. She's extremely visually appealing. Shilin's Sona is the Sona. Let Riot try to change the splash. http://thebestoflol.com/upload/20140705105745uid51.jpg Photoshop the house with Riot headquarters. Realt-talk though, Sona has attracted many players because of her design. The DJ Sona skin seems to have sold extremely well. I have a dozen friends who bought it -used her once or twice, and never picked her up again. She's just appealing to people regardless of whether or not they find her good or even fun to play. Actually, I'm working on a funny criticism comic centered around mostly around Sona and a proposed rework. Riot likely won't do anything with it, but I'll at least get some laughs out of people with the comic. I'm mostly doing it to practice how quickly I rip off linework and color in photoshop for a work project I'm working on.

Anyway, I remember how it all went down. I was there.

KrfinApr 25, 20155 votes

She gets small nerfs. She gets big buffs. Therefore, Buff>Nerf. Shield on heal is extremely useful

DJ Di0Apr 25, 20155 votes

I think the reason her winrate will always stay fairly high is because of her skill floor. She's very easy to understand and there won't be a noticeable difference visually between a new Sona player and someone who's mastered her, besides positioning and powerchord management.

I really do think they need to give her another rework (after high priority champs get theirs); all they did was water her auras down and nerf their ranges, the only change I liked was her W's heal increasing the lower your health(but that got halved a while ago) and the shield that came along with it.

If they /do/ rework her I feel the focus points should be the auras (mostly Q and E's aura) and Q in general. This is actually a time I'd be in favor of the recent 'make Q a skillshot rework' trend that Riot has been doing.

[{quoted}](name=Adolf Swiftler,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d1l4Mgow,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2015-04-25T06:06:23.962+0000)

She gets small nerfs. She gets big buffs. Therefore, Buff>Nerf. Shield on heal is extremely useful

I don't recall Sona ever getting big buffs, lol. The last buff, as compenstion for halving her max healing, was a measily 5 flat hp increase on her W.

Emmy Cha0sApr 25, 20155 votes

Firstly, "Sona" doesn't use auras, those were removed in the 4.13 gutting. By definition an aura has to meet 4 basic characteristics of which Sona's spells only meet 1 of those.

I don't recall Sona ever getting big buffs, lol. The last buff, as compenstion for halving her max healing, was a measily 5 flat hp increase on her W.

That change was an overall nerf to her heal, Riot has never buffed Sona. You can think up your own reason for why that is, but truthfully they just hate her and don't want her in their game.

As for why the change was a nerf, here are the numbers:

Level 1 After 4.13 Gutting:

75% HP - 31.25
67% HP - 33.33
50% HP - 37.5
33% HP - 41.67
25% HP - 43.75
10% HP - 47.5

Level 1 After Additional Nerf:

75% HP - 33.75
67% HP - 35
50% HP - 37.5
33% HP - 40
25% HP - 41.25
10% HP - 43.5

Level 5 After 4.13 Gutting:

75% - 131.25
67% - 139.65
50% - 157.5
33% - 175.35
25% - 183.75
10% - 199.5

Level 5 After Additional Nerf:

75% - 123.75
67% - 128.15
50% - 137.5
33% - 146.85
25% - 151.25
10% - 159.5

Emmy Cha0sApr 25, 20154 votes

Sona's never received a buff in the entire history of her existence. You haven't even bothered double-checking before propagandizing this thread, I assume. Or perhaps your disinformation is selective, either way she's only ever been given nerfs since the game started.

KrfinApr 25, 20152 votes

lmfao. To compensate for her small health gain nerf, she was given a shield. Which is GREAT... A Shield to everyone in her range 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+ 20% AP) x5 = Tons of net gain for overall supportage. This completely destroyed other champions with their Grieving Wounds when it just came out. They nerfed her Laning phase, because it was too strong with infinite poke and heals, and they buffed her teamfight because of the AoE Shield rather than the one person heal.

RatbertApr 25, 20153 votes

It also lasts like 1.5 seconds and requires you to be so close to everyone any aoe mage would get a penta. The shield would only do better than 20 armor and mr if the other team had only true damage. Her laning phase was never too strong, just no one knows that all ining her means she can't poke you cause she ded.

Miku Hime samaApr 25, 20152 votes

Not to mention the armor and MR lasted for 3 seconds, twice the duration of this crappy shield which has the lowest base of all supports. She lost healing AND she lost damage reduction, both sides of Aria got nerfed. Players just don't want to admit it because the shield has a visual effect they can see. Regardless of the fact it's doing almost nothing...

TheEloGoblinApr 25, 20151 votes

i heard somewhere its weaker then thresh lantern shield

Miku Hime samaApr 27, 20151 votes

Thresh:

60/100/140/180/220 (+ 40% AP)
Range: 950
Duration: 4 Seconds
50/55/60/65/70 mana

Sona:

35/55/75/95/115 (+ 20% AP) (+ 10/20/40)
Range: 350
Duration: 1.5 Seconds
80/85/90/95/100 mana

You heard it because it's true, Sona's shield is the weakest amongst all supports.

PubgamerAUApr 25, 20154 votes

She has a combination of spammable healing, solid poke, and hard engage. You wont find that on another reliable support. Nidalee can poke and heal, but her hard engage is non-existent. Thresh can hard engage, but he doesn't really have any poke or healing. Soraka can heal amazingly, and has semi-decent poke with her remade Q, but she has zero hard engage.

Miku Hime samaApr 25, 20156 votes

You wont find that on another reliable support.

Bard Nami

Considering there are only 8 champions with heals, your criteria is misleadingly thinner than you're implying. Of the remaining 5, Alistar has engage and the remaining of course have poke, as you've already noted.

That's not to say Sona is actually usable at anything you've mentioned. Sure she does it all, but she's also the worst at everything she does. Her poke is amongst the worst of all supports, with the 2nd-lowest damage potential and her lone spell being tied for lowest base. Her ult is one of the worst CC ults having short range and duration, slow travel-time, an interruptable channel and being Cleansable. The heal is so bad... it's not even worth mentioning.

Penguin EclipseApr 25, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Miku Hime sama,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d1l4Mgow,comment-id=00080000,timestamp=2015-04-25T11:31:27.859+0000)

Considering there are only 8 champions with heals, your criteria is misleadingly thinner than you're implying. Of the remaining 5, Alistar has engage and the remaining of course have poke, as you've already noted.

That's not to say Sona is actually usable at anything you've mentioned. Sure she does it all, but she's also the worst at everything she does. Her poke is amongst the worst of all supports, with the 2nd-lowest damage potential and her lone spell being tied for lowest base. Her ult is one of the worst CC ults having short range and duration, slow travel-time, an interruptable channel and being Cleansable. The heal is so bad... it's not even worth mentioning.

Did you really just say Bard is a reliable support?

Miku Hime samaApr 25, 20152 votes

Compared to Sona, he's far more reliable. That's been the consensus since his release. He has higher damage, better stats across the board, stronger heals, far more useful mobility, pre-6 hard CC and an ult with longer range, duration and far more utility.

Penguin EclipseApr 25, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Miku Hime sama,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d1l4Mgow,comment-id=0008000000010000,timestamp=2015-04-25T16:12:06.505+0000)

Compared to Sona, he's far more reliable. That's been the consensus since his release. He has higher damage, better stats across the board, stronger heals, far more useful mobility, pre-6 hard CC and an ult with longer range, duration and far more utility.

Being the consensus in your little fantasy world doesn't make it reality.

PubgamerAUApr 25, 20152 votes

Lol, bard. His poke is laughable, considering the range is abysmal. Bard would never outpoke sona. Also, Nami? Yeah ok, she has a pretty good all-in, and her healing is pretty tops, but her poke isn't that amazing. She either has to give up her heal to poke, or her poke consists of maybe 1 auto attack buffed by E.

Sona on the otherhand, can spam her Q with a couple mana pots early/a mana item mid-late. Anytime she's on 2 or 3 stacks of her passive, she effectively zones out the enemy or they risk taking 1/3 of their health in harrassment. Sona is able to both shield AND heal her adc, providing max protection for them in lane, while also zoning out the enemy with poke. At 6, she becomes one of the biggest support threats in the game, almost on the level of blitzcrank/thresh.

AbyssphereApr 25, 20153 votes

{quoted}

Lol, bard. His poke is laughable, considering the range is abysmal. Bard would never outpoke sona. Also, Nami? Yeah ok, she has a pretty good all-in, and her healing is pretty tops, but her poke isn't that amazing. She either has to give up her heal to poke, or her poke consists of maybe 1 auto attack buffed by E.

Sona on the otherhand, can spam her Q with a couple mana pots early/a mana item mid-late. Anytime she's on 2 or 3 stacks of her passive, she effectively zones out the enemy or they risk taking 1/3 of their health in harrassment. Sona is able to both shield AND heal her adc, providing max protection for them in lane, while also zoning out the enemy with poke. At 6, she becomes one of the biggest support threats in the game, almost on the level of blitzcrank/thresh.

Nami doesn't give up her heal to poke. She heals while poking.

PubgamerAUApr 26, 20152 votes

Only in a very favorable circumstance of the ADC being in range of the person being poked.

When I talk about healing supports, im not talking about self healing, or anyone with a bit of lifesteal would count. I'm talking about healing their ADC. Nami gives up healing her ADC to poke the enemy, unless your ADC is putting themselves out of position/ignoring CS to move up the lane with you to be in range of the bounce.

Kariu RenaApr 25, 20154 votes

because she is still cancer to lane against if you dont have sustain

Miku Hime samaApr 27, 20151 votes

That explains why she's pick/ban at every Elo and in LCS. Oh wait...

Kariu RenaApr 27, 20152 votes

yeah just like how jayce was p/b for months and also overpowered in soloq rite?

mvargusApr 27, 20153 votes

Sona is a strange champ. She's got a very low skill floor as only her Ult is a targeted ability, so she's easy to pick up.

However, using her to her fullest effect actually takes a lot of practice and knowledge since you have to be able to get your teammates into your aura range while avoiding getting taken out by enemy champs, and Sona is one of the squishiest champs in the game. So she's actually a high skill champ.

What has happened is that the people who play her usually play her quite a bit, so they understand how to get the most of her auras while sustaining their ADC in lane. The nerfs also tend to chase away the more casual Sona players, so the people playing her are ones who have played her a lot. That means they have the practice necessary to do well on her.

Emmy Cha0sApr 27, 20152 votes

The nerfs have chased away serious Sona players as well. Three of the top four Sona players in NA inevitably quit because she's blatantly unplayable now. She's a high-risk, no-reward champion, only a masochist is willing to play her now.

mvargusApr 27, 20152 votes

I had not noticed, but admittedly I only started play in January so I have no reference to the version so many people talk about. I've had some success with her and had some struggles. She's not my favorite champ, but I have enjoyed playing her when I get good synergy with my ADC, but I feel that way with any poke support when I get a good ADC.

Miku Hime samaApr 27, 20151 votes

I had not noticed, but admittedly I only started play in January so I have no reference to the version so many people talk about.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Sona/Background

Scroll down to "Previous Abilities" and click "Show."

Cain the EnablerApr 27, 20153 votes

She pokes and people dont respect her. I've carried games as Sona because people disrespect Sona's lane damage.

Emmy Cha0sApr 27, 20152 votes

Sona has the 2nd lowest damage potential of all supports after Braum. Her Q is tied for the lowest base on any support spell. No, the problem is that players don't understand how to right-click on her, 2 auto-attacks and she either has to back, go OoM or dies.

[{quoted}](name=A Wild AP Sona,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=lGqOpxEQ,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-01-24T18:42:25.728+0000)

** the only place she still works is in low elo where people dont know how to right click on a champion** she has to spend 400 mana to heal 150hp and the higher you go the worse she becomes and she has now officially become a troll pick

only people suffering from some kind of mental disability dont simply right click on her as lucian/graves to cause her to burn her entire mana bar to not even heal for half her hp

50% win ratio in plat 47-50% win ratio in diamond 38% win ratio in master

meanwhile freelo leona/blitz/nami with their 99999999x higher pick rate/win rate 0 nerf

sona also now only has a 5% pick rate and not even her mains can make her win ratio good anymore after her 30 nerfs and having every item she uses nerfed

http://www.lolking.net/champions/sona&region=all&map=sr&queue=1x1&league=diamond#statistics

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/lGqOpxEQ-sona-was-overnerfed-and-now-has-a-38-50-win-ratio-in-real-elo

Cain the EnablerApr 27, 20151 votes

She has a strategic niche in low elo. Consider her a "learn to play champ" like Garen, Ryze, etc.

Miku Hime samaApr 27, 20151 votes

So you're saying she's not allowed to be viable above bronze? Why?

I could just as easily say LB has a strategic niche in pro play. Consider her a "learn to have 100% winrate champ" like Faker.

Reminds me of my first time playing Zed and ending with a score somewhere around 12-4 I think? So point-click assassins and Cinderhulk tanks are allowed to be OP, but misleadingly simple champs like Sona aren't even allowed to be playable. I don't see the equality in that.

Cain the EnablerApr 28, 20151 votes

No my point is that her simple kit has simple counterplay and a binary play style, but I'm all for making her stronger. The problems is that if you were to buff Sona she would simply be too strong for low skill people to deal with.

Miku Hime samaApr 28, 20151 votes

Smurfs are too much for low skill people to deal with. Point-click assassins are too much for low skill people to deal with. Anyone maining a meta pick champion is too much for low skill people to deal with.

Why do you single-out Sona to be the lone exception when there are dozens already following the rule? That's the exact same discrimination that Riot is showing.

VicvictorwApr 28, 20152 votes

Sona's a very deceitful champion.

She's got two paths she can take if not generic utility: Tanky Sona and Burst Sona. Either one will trick players that aren't expecting her to have 3,000 HP or chunk 1,000 of yours in half a second.

She doesn't _look _like she's a threat, which makes players bite off more than they can chew with her.

Miku Hime samaApr 28, 20151 votes

I could use that exact same logic with any of the other 123 champions in the game and as a matter-of-fact, since every last on of them has either better damage potential or tank potential and the majority sporting both, the concept holds up far better than in Sona's case.

Truth is, she has the 2nd lowest damage potential amongst all supports, her lone damage basic ability is tied for the lowest base, she's tied for weakest auto-attacks and her scalings are outclassed by her rivals. Players intentionally mislead themselves into thinking she does damage by ignoring that Lich and Echo are artificial scalings completely unrelated to her actual kit.

Then you have tank... She has the 2nd lowest lvl 1 HP amongst supports, 5th lowest amongst all champs that scales up to a pathetic 9th lowest at max level. Speaking of, even her armor remains the 2nd lowest max of supports as well. Truth is, even a full tank Sona is still embarrassingly squishy, there's no 2 ways about it. She can't outlast anyone short of Zyra.