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Sona and Spellthief's preference towards her

Thamios·9/29/2014, 7:45:47 PM·2 votes·1,207 views

Okay I'm sure this probably won't get a lot of attention but I wanted to bring something up that bugs me as a support main:

Sona is the ONLY champion in the game that can use a "bonus magic damage" buff to her AutoAttacks to proc spellthief's twice in the same blow, specifically her Staccato (PC-Q). I believe this is because the way her damage is calculated/coded calls for a damage value twice on hit.

While I'm not against this entirely, she's still getting an effective extra level of damage on her Power Chord base value with FrostFang for the whole game. She also only has to land one combo per minion wave to get the highest gold reward support item in the game. While the range is short enough for some counterplay, a skilled sona can skirt around many of the dangers in the lane with E buff.

My issue with this is that there's an immense lack of CLARITY and CONSISTENCY here. I noticed this about her after they reworked her kit, and when I tried it with supports like Nami, Viktor, etc (ppl who buff THEIR AA's but don't reset the AA timers with the buff), this didn't happen, despite having similar text tooltip. I understand the difference is "in addition to another effect" in Sona's versus theirs, but should a 50% damage buff deal 100% more if a spellthief charge is up?

Gonna leave a poll here asking if mages that buff their AA's should get two procs in the AA (base AA and bonus damage both trigger), or if Sona should be brought down to everyone else's level.

I'm sure this came up in design and testing, so I'm really more or less wondering why it was left in if it's not being entirely consistent with the rest of the game.

8 Comments

InsaneSamurai9/29/2014, 7:51:11 PM2 votes

I voted the first option just because alot of champs can get multiples on one ability. Take Morg for example, she will often get all 3 procs off one pool.

Hullabaloo9079/29/2014, 9:53:39 PM1 votes

I think whether or not Sona gets the double proc is less important that that all champs get the same treatment. Lux and Lulu both have passives that do magic damage on hit, so it should work the same.

That being said, you have to keep in mind that Spelltheif is supposed to be the best gold generating support item. The reason why is that it is much less safe than the others. Targons has that amazing heal on it, and the coin is the easiest to optimize and has really good health regen passive. Sona might benefit the most from it since she has the built in heal to help with the safe part, but it is still riskier than a coin.

Thamios10/7/2014, 3:25:20 AM1 votes

While that may be what's happening, just check next time you play her and count the stacks for just the AA Q proc. I feel that the extra 50% damage gets added on as an extra tick of damage and counts as an extra proc for Spellthief. The pattern you're describing isn't the one that's been happening for me, and that SHOULD have the high risk-reward for it. Will edit when I hop into a custom game to confirm that this isn't what's happening.