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Sona - the newest "no weakness" champ

SnowLeopard91·7/18/2016, 11:23:16 PM·16 votes·1,954 views

Sona is currently the best support, hands down, by a statistical measuring. The website Champion.gg aggregates data for plat+ games, and shows Sona having a 58% (!!!) win rate, with the next highest support win rate being Soraka with 53%. In other words, Sona is a full 5 points above every other support in the game. This isn't just a high-elo problem either. The website BestBans.com recommends statistically optimal bans for bronze through diamond, and every tier shows Sona with at least a 55% win rate, even though her current pick rate is "only" about 15%, and thus recommends banning her.

If you look on the Champion.gg page for Sona, and look at Champions Who Counter Sona, the top two are Blitzcrank and Soraka, both of whom only beat Sona 47% of the time. That's right - her best counters are still losing matchups.

The issue here is that Sona has no weaknesses. Her defining characteristics are her fight-winning ultimate and her ability to dish out damage and heals during team fights. She is a strong mid game champ who can single handedly deliver a decisive teamfight victory to her teammates. The usual trade-off for a high-octane midgame powerhouse is a weak laning phase and a late-game falloff. Sona has the falloff to some degree (a graph of win rate versus game time shows that her chance of victory decreases as you pass the 30 minute mark), but has an incredibly strong laning phase.

Sona's poke damage at level 1 is second only to dedicated mage champs, and is still close to their level. When she picks up her heal at level 2, only Soraka can keep up with her sustain. When you combine these two abilities, and consider that most players just push these two while ignoring the movement speed altogether until level 9 when it's useful in getting around the map, you have a champ who is nearly unbeatable in lane. Sona doesn't have to expose herself to much counter poke in order to get off the Q and auto-attack that define her trades, so she generally wins or comes out even when she pokes. After that, she uses a single heal and is back to near full, mitigating the entirety of enemy aggression and thus winning the trade.

We've seen this problem many times, where a mid-game powerhouse has too much early game strength, or when a late game hypercarry has too easy of a time in lane, and that champ becomes the de facto best in class. Sona is just the latest.

My proposed solution is to lower her early game impact by reducing the base damage and heal that she has access to at early levels. This would give opponents an opportunity to fight back and win lane, thus having the edge they need to succeed mid game against Sona's incredible team support mechanics.

27 Comments

Only Play Darius7/19/2016, 5:33:47 AM7 votes

This is why they were afraid to buff Sona. As much as I like playing her, she is THE generalist mage support who has almost everything you could want for a support in an easy to use package (whereas Thresh is much harder to play). Her kit is surprisingly overloaded and reads like a support's wet dream if you really break down all the tools she has at her disposal on relatively short cooldowns.

Kanzaki Ranko7/19/2016, 6:59:15 AM3 votes

You can't talk bad, it's Boards' waifu champ. Surprised you haven't been downvoted by the people screaming that she's weak and needs buffs.

Dominick Destine7/19/2016, 5:05:30 AM2 votes

Second lowest HP in the game.

Extremely high mana costs.

Absurdly low mana pool.

"No weaknesses"

Penguin Eclipse7/19/2016, 4:50:02 AM2 votes

Why is Sona being strong in the laning phase such a bad thing? Yeah I don't like playing against her either but it isn't like she can't be dealt with. Her poke can be mitigated by any healer/shielder. Her sustain in lane is noticeable but it is not out of line compared to the other healers in the game. Especially since so many people still opt to max Q first. I really don't see what is so problematic. Especially with her mana problems.

NahDogSolRahn7/19/2016, 9:35:22 AM1 votes

Ehem Leona

LadyRenly7/19/2016, 11:58:13 AM1 votes

no weakness? Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. She's a bit numbers strong but she is still vulnerable to what she has always been vulnerable to; cc and burst. She can heal through poke and some dps but cannot withstand any burst. You guys act as if she has no counterplay. Treat her like a Soraka.

Sona x Rubick7/19/2016, 12:32:19 PM1 votes

Killing her is the best counterplay, low base stats+lowest ms+550 range.

Frost the Reaper7/18/2016, 11:27:11 PM1 votes

I think the main issue is that she can now get 85% CDR on all of her abilities... I see that as a major issue. (Well all of them but her Ultimate, but still.... That's a ton)

oSEXYPLATYPUSo7/19/2016, 4:56:00 PM1 votes

i personally play alot of sona, i have played her since s2. i am not a high rank player. i dont play rank at all anymore , my highest rank was silver 4 last season. sona is a jack of all as it comes to support. the damage on her power chord was strong but the strip the damage down and made her scale on her ult. which means if she gets to lvl 16 she should be able to spam Q ever 3 seconds. but she is a support, which means she will have lower experience not as much gold income. typically on a sona you get item 3092 item 3174 item 3060 item 2045 item 3158 item 3100 which will get u to 45% cdr, mr, ap some hp. some other items are situational. but sona is weak to all in burst. such as a Lucian Leona but good vs sustain lanes or poke lanes like Caitlyn Nami . i also play alot of Leona as well. i recommend taking summoner 14 as Leona and as soon as you are lvl 2 or lvl 3 just all in on her. kill her. as a sona player i also find trouble vs ap mage supports such as Lux Velkoz Zyra .

khorney7/19/2016, 4:17:42 AM1 votes

Man's cost .. and like any supp like her leo destroys her

TheOvermind7/19/2016, 5:01:26 AM1 votes

Here's the false thing; sona is actually well rounded and does pretty much everything a support would want, and when she is strong she does it even better, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have weaknesses. Sona's weakness always was her squishiness and range. She actually is not as safe as janna or Morgana. She actually needs to be in there to do stuff with her chords and auras.

Gregor Gysi7/19/2016, 7:57:57 AM1 votes

I can't understand why everyone has to claim that OP champs have "now weakness" or "no counterplay". Of course they have a weakess. Sona for example is one of the squieshiest champions ingame and is very vulnerable to assassins/hardengage. But she is still incredibly OP of course.