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Riot, Sona is a Controller Enchanter, not a Battle/Burst Mage

DJ S0NA··65 votes·5,287 views

In mind of the recent changes to her PBE, Sona recieved big changes. Lower damage on Q, more heal and shield but no % missing health, E increases range for 3 seconds on next basic attack, and URF mode with the new ultimate.

Come on Riot... Do you really think adding a new ability on E will make Sona a better poke support? It's literally useless since you are still going to level up E last (past level 13), and it's really really hard to get XP as a support.

Having movement speed on self E was good (or really really great). Quoting from gypsylord:

> E having a higher selfish MS buff is likely good overall for making Sona feel like a more impactful character, especially when most of the rest of her power is in her harder to feel auras. I think opening up Sona's pattern to try things like dodging skill shots, escaping ganks, and chasing/engaging without flash will overall in the long run make her more satisfying and easier to balance.

From: http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/gfdFv6F8-sona-learnings

So where did this go Riot? Why did you remove, what could have been a worthy way to level up E at early level, instead of level 8? Hell, with the heal change, I would've even start leveling up E 2nd instead of the usual Q->W->R->E.

Please don't let this go into live Riot. It's literally useless to have extra range on E, especially in later levels. You get the movement speed still, but you will become EVER MORE IMMOBILE. You are already freaking squishy and your removing one of the only escape tools for Sona? Come on Riot. All other Controller Enchanters have some sort of an escape ability to get away from problems. But Sona, with 325 movement speed, it's a sitting ward to kill without any sort of protection or escape ability.

So Riot, once again, please take a look at Sona again, make her E what it was before.

79 Comments

Athenes Lulu14 votes

Also, thematically that E change makes no sense. So if her E is supposed to make people move faster like a cheerleader kind of spell, giving off extra range just sounds way too out of place.

macromite1 votes

actually, it makes plenty of sense. it's a cheer, which means it needs to carry farther. should increase aura size as well.

Abyssphere1 votes

Did you actually read what the change is? Because it has nothing to do with aura sizes.

And the guy is talking about how the song is called "Song of Celerity" - Celerity = speed.

macromite2 votes

I did infact read the change. I'm saying that It should add an increase to the size of the aura, and am revealing reasoning as to the change, while restricting myself to the words used by the person before to make it easier to understand.

I think you are simply trying to argue. I don't want to argue in a scenario where I'm just adding context, go away.

Sightless667 votes

Personally, I'm interested in giving up a 3% movespeed buff and half the AP ratio to get range. A big problem I have with Sona is that I can't make choices about when to use power cords because it's pretty much a "fire whenever you can" kind of deal because the range is just too short to make it worth taking a risk. However, if I can activate an E and then either get a long-range E power cord to slow them or save the range boost for a W power cord on an otherwise inaccessible target, that could be quite nice.

You get the movement speed still, but you will become EVER MORE IMMOBILE.

She's already about as immobile as it gets. A difference of 3% ms is rarely going to be making a difference.

E having a higher selfish MS buff is likely good overall for making Sona feel like a more impactful characte

In my experience, it didn't really work out that way in practice. Being really selfishly fast is kind of nice and has some charm, up until you ask "what am I supposed to do with this"? The only thing I ever felt able to do with that movement speed was run away or try and get in a better position to ult engage. For in-fight purposes, I didn't actually think it was making that much of a difference, particularly when you consider the Q+W power she gave up to get that movement speed. I still couldn't position aggressively, so I didn't have much to actually use that MS for except running away, and that's just not that interesting. The new E though... I can actually play around that, and try to utilize it to get better power cords that I could not have risked before, and I'm still just as effective for proving teamwide mobility as ever.

I do think its current iteration has the major problem of leaving Sona too level-reliant to actually make use of it early on (she'll probably keep skipping E until 7-8 because 25 range by itself isn't worth more than her current selfish MS buff), but I do think the idea has promise if the numbers are right. It already feels pretty good once she gets some points in it. Then again, this could just be PBE novelty talking.

Ulquiorra9955 votes

You have to think of the full scope of these changes. Is PBE E better than current E? Probably. But look at other changes - her active spells are getting nuked and auras get a tiny increase in range but lose on lots of potential duration. Lots of her power is being shifted into those auras - and in that situation (see quote from gypsylord in OP) having a higher speed boost in order to manoeuvre and tag allies more easily is much more valuable than range increase that will be crap until you max it.

Second problem I see is that previous PBE iteration (higher MS) actually gave reason to invest points into E. It is yet again one of the worst abilities in game to invest in.

azhelf1 votes

you'll have to remember, sona kit is so binary because everything is auto aim besides her crescendo, giving her more range in order to proc powercord would make her feel more bullshit because you can proc a strong slow from miles away. As said by many, previous changes made E actually worth skilling over W, was more impactful, and probably healthier from a gameplay perspective; she moves faster but not like a racecar so people still have time to react and she has a better escape.

Audiomancy5 votes

What is that even supposed to be? "Congrats, you just spent 65 mana on a tiny range increase, have fun having even less mobility than before"?

Rozzeta4 votes

To be fair, it's 40 mana (unless they reverted it) and you keep the aura to enhance allies move speed. But yes, this skill does little to Sona other than improve poke and Power Chord Application, and plays completely against her new "auras", as the added movespeed was pretty much intended to help her go to her move around to tag her allies.

Abyssphere3 votes

They reverted the mana cost.

Rozzeta4 votes

Ah... Fuck Riot, then.

ZT Xperimentor4 votes

Not to mention they gutted her heal, as well as nerfed her auras which she was based around. She's shouldn't need to be played like a frontliner just to give her team beneficial buffs; soraka's rework made her a better sona, than the sona rework.

1000angrybees4 votes

She could have used this when she WAS more of a burst support, but now she's more utility oriented, why the hell would that entice me? I'd rather have the better speed boost 4x over

Witch of Babylon3 votes

They didn't remove it. The movement speed is still there.

Pope Glitterhoof2 votes

They remove the self movement speed boost.

Sightless664 votes

To be clear for anyone reading, they removed her personal increased movement speed buff, but still let her be affected by the aura MS. She still gets the same movement speed as all her teammates, so she's losing 3% MS and half the AP ratio for herself.

Rozzeta1 votes

Wait, she does still get speed up? That's interesting, then.

Dengeden3 votes

Why play Sona as a control support when you can play Janna Soraka Nami?

A little attack range goes a long way, as evidenced by the late Annie support and the current Caitlyn.

I was Lupxel1 votes

Cause to play soma you don't have to put half as the efford. You press QWE randombly and boom you win

A Wild AP Sona6 votes

[{quoted}](name=I was Lupxel,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=l5FKqRx8,comment-id=00060000,timestamp=2016-06-20T18:37:00.671+0000)

Cause to play soma you don't have to put half as the efford. You press QWE randombly and boom you win

mfw low elo trash bins try to discuss playing a champion

for such an easy champion its sure interesting only 3-4 people on the entire na server can play her properly without power feeding

I was Lupxel1 votes

Where did you got that date? LOL Tell me what is difficult about Sona? Mana manegement? Tear/Shen; Damage? Shen, supp item; CD? Shen supp item... Skillshots? Nah just press QWE randombly while near a ally, or at a safe distance of an enemy and it will get there anyway. Enemiea gettinng close R in their direction! Boom! She still got damage heal speed if she eventually fails her highskill cap R

A Wild AP Sona4 votes

[{quoted}](name=I was Lupxel,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=l5FKqRx8,comment-id=0006000000000000,timestamp=2016-06-20T23:49:13.009+0000)

Where did you got that date? LOL Tell me what is difficult about Sona? Mana manegement? Tear/Shen; Damage? Shen, supp item; CD? Shen supp item... Skillshots? Nah just press QWE randombly while near a ally, or at a safe distance of an enemy and it will get there anyway. Enemiea gettinng close R in their direction! Boom! She still got damage heal speed if she eventually fails her highskill cap R

probably the fact in high elo she needs to be able to accurately read/predict fights/gameplay within about a 5-10 second time window and everyone 1 shots her

she also must get 10-15 consecutive pokes without being 100-0'd by the blitz/thresh etc and if she doesnt get the pokes in during a short time window they wont accumualte through sustain

which means extremely repetitive and dangerous gameplay to win lane

I was Lupxel1 votes

That can be said about everychampion expect lets say... Ekko and Sona. Blotz/Thresh apllies to every non-tank champ. - you just need to sidestep it... Pr3dict fight? When? She just spams QWE in a random order and it will affect the fight in the same way. Then if a enemy gets closer you R, and then back to the normal random QWE. How does she have a hard time poking if you just need to press Q and it will get the target by itself LOL

A Wild AP Sona3 votes

[{quoted}](name=I was Lupxel,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=l5FKqRx8,comment-id=000600000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-06-21T11:47:14.157+0000)

That can be said about everychampion expect lets say... Ekko and Sona. Blotz/Thresh apllies to every non-tank champ. - you just need to sidestep it... Pr3dict fight? When? She just spams QWE in a random order and it will affect the fight in the same way. Then if a enemy gets closer you R, and then back to the normal random QWE. How does she have a hard time poking if you just need to press Q and it will get the target by itself LOL

b/c a real sona would be diving the backline and would be within 550 range to cash in thunderlords and lb proc at some point

if when shes stepping forward you dive on her its easy to 100-0

its also easy to flash initiate on her when shes going to ult its also important to hold ult until the ideal point in the fight and not mindlessly ult one person

that means predicting the fight enough to know if a beter ult is possible if you wait or if you should ult immediately

cheerleader sonas does jack shit and have like a 70 damage q end game after mr reduction and are usually the first people to die in fight due to being awful at league

I literally dodge if some kid picks non ap sona because it contributes nothing and is outscaled by all other supports

sona has a shit ton of counterplay in lane if your not awful

I also first blood her in the first 1minute of the game by a bush cheese with ignite and tell my jungler to start top instead

the counterplay to sona is that she either dies instantly or she built too much tank and went cheerleader and thus her q/w are worthless becuase their awful base stats so it doesnt mattee if she lives through the fight

and in lane she has hilarious amounts of counterplay

for starters 0 cc pre 6 all you have to do is go flash for flash (flash cc her w hen she steps forward to poke) then she cant lane or even harass anymore because she will be flashless behind her adc witih 30-40% health

HaloDragonX2 votes

I love the E change, don't get me wrong, but it scales so much with level that needs to be changed. Otherwise the ability is useless.

LankPants6 votes

There was an iteration where the E gave about 4% MS to you and 1.5% to allies per rank. It wasn't a skill you'd want to rank, but it did have a noticeable difference between each rank. Her current E on the PBE doesn't. You don't notice any difference when you drop a single point in. There's a difference between rank 1 and 4, but rank 1 and 2 feel the same.

Basically her E was in a state were it was a 1 point wonder that didn't feel horrible when you had to skill it, which is perfect for Sona's E IMO.

Rozzeta5 votes

The idea of this skill is basically to try to make Sona not level up W in lane. You know what Riot thinks about sustain supports.

Emmy Cha0s1 votes

Never mind the fact that it may very well already be the weakest spell in the entire game. Between healing for practically no HP, having a melee-range shield with an inusably short duration which practically has no HP anyways and one of the most extreme mana costs in the game with no other effect, it has roughly less than ~2% the return-per-cast comparably to pre-4.13

A Wild AP Sona2 votes

[{quoted}](name=DJ Sona,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=l5FKqRx8,comment-id=,timestamp=2016-06-20T01:20:34.182+0000)

In mind of the recent changes to her PBE, Sona recieved big changes. Lower damage on Q, more heal and shield but no % missing health, E increases range for 3 seconds on next basic attack, and URF mode with the new ultimate.

Come on Riot... Do you really think adding a new ability on E will make Sona a better poke support? It's literally useless since you are still going to level up E last (past level 13), and it's really really hard to get XP as a support.

Having movement speed on self E was good (or really really great). Quoting from gypsylord:

From: http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/gfdFv6F8-sona-learnings

So where did this go Riot? Why did you remove, what could have been a worthy way to level up E at early level, instead of level 8? Hell, with the heal change, I would've even start leveling up E 2nd instead of the usual Q->W->R->E.

Please don't let this go into live Riot. It's literally useless to have extra range on E, especially in later levels. You get the movement speed still, but you will become EVER MORE IMMOBILE. You are already freaking squishy and your removing one of the only escape tools for Sona? Come on Riot. All other Controller Enchanters have some sort of an escape ability to get away from problems. But Sona, with 325 movement speed, it's a sitting ward to kill without any sort of protection or escape ability.

So Riot, once again, please take a look at Sona again, make her E what it was before.

sorry but sona is much better when played an ap assassin also known as a burst mage or a lane bully

definitely not whatever the hell a controller enchanter is but that sounds more like janna or nami

new e makes it alot easier to harass

ps: im going to be leaving heal at level 1 and maxing e first for more combat ability because heal is her most worthless ability until 30-40 minutes

Ulquiorra9954 votes

How she's currently played =/= what she was supposed to be.

Rito left her with one viable play style: rely on every possible crutch in order to make your one trick hurt as much as possible. And if they want to fix that, I'm all for it.

That being said, range increase is much, much worse than move speed buff she would've gotten otherwise. She's heavily reliant on her auras now and that MS was invaluable for positioning and tagging as many allies as possible.

E2K52 votes

Isn't Sona a very good champion already? Her Q damage and the passive boost on auto can be VERY punishing.

CasterGilgamesh5 votes

yet thats almost all she does she is just around to Q spam and be an ult bot she is supposed to support her team with auras

Emmy Cha0s1 votes

Her Q has lower base damage than any other spell in the entire support class. Her entire combo even with her passive is only 78 damage, lower than most support have just on each of their single-target spells. To make matters worse, she's also tied with Soraka for lowest base AD. Sona's damage output is negligible, it's the lowest of the support class as a whole. Hence why all of her top items are artificial numbers to fill in for the fact she herself has no damage in her kit.

Ultîma2 votes

Honestly, Riot should outright rework or outright replace Sona's Q. As long as the only counterplay to this ability is ''Don't be in range of Sona'' she'll never have a healthy play pattern and ever be allowed to be strong competitively. It's an oppressive ability that honestly doesn't fit the theme of an enchanter.

I've been a huge advocate of Sona getting a proper large-scale rework a la Sion/Taric to turn her into a champion that plays music with her Q/W/E in order to craft spells depending on the combination of notes she chooses. If Riot wants to turn her into a generalist support who can do a little bit of everything then please make it involve the proper level of depth and mastery that it deserves.

chipndip13 votes

{quoted}

Honestly, Riot should outright rework or outright replace Sona's Q. As long as the only counterplay to this ability is ''Don't be in range of Sona'' she'll never have a healthy play pattern and ever be allowed to be strong competitively. It's an oppressive ability that honestly doesn't fit the theme of an enchanter.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/zMPrELVH-i-imagine-1-million-sona-mains-would-hate-the-sound-of-it-but

19 downvotes boys.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

I've been a huge advocate of Sona getting a proper large-scale rework a la Sion/Taric to turn her into a champion that plays music with her Q/W/E in order to craft spells depending on the combination of notes she chooses. If Riot wants to turn her into a generalist support who can do a little bit of everything then please make it involve the proper level of depth and mastery that it deserves.

Join the club, but don't get comfy because Riot's never going to put that amount of effort into fixing Sona as a champ, probably for the next 1.5 - 2 years if I had to guess. They have a good backlog of champs they already want to rework anyway, and even Teemo managed to not be on that list (somehow).

Ultîma1 votes

Riot themselves have said many times that Sona has major counterplay issues whenever she's in a competitive state. There's no way to effectively play against her Q. Full stop. Not to mention, the idea of Sona possessing a poke/burst tool goes directly against her theme of a character that empowers and benefits her allies with powerful auras. So in true Riot fashion, they reworked her around the most toxic part of her kit (Q) and gutted her auras to the point of non-existent. Flash forward a few seasons, and she's been repeatedly nerfed due to the existence of the current Q in her kit. They reworked Heimerdinger because of his rockets (and other things of course) and they functioned in the exact same fashion as Sona's Q does now. You don't have to be a genius to understand that on-demand, targeted, multi-target, instant, long-range damage isn't a good mechanic to have in a kit that's supposed to be designed around supporting.

Knowing the pace at which Riot works, you're absolutely right that it may take years before her issues are properly assessed and remedied. Also I don't know why you're citing downvotes as a reason... it didn't stop Riot before, and it certainly won't now if they set their mind to a task.

chipndip12 votes

{quoted}

Riot themselves have said many times that Sona has major counterplay issues whenever she's in a competitive state. There's no way to effectively play against her Q. Full stop. Not to mention, the idea of Sona possessing a poke/burst tool goes directly against her theme of a character that empowers and benefits her allies with powerful auras. So in true Riot fashion, they reworked her around the most toxic part of her kit (Q) and gutted her auras to the point of non-existent. Flash forward a few seasons, and she's been repeatedly nerfed due to the existence of the current Q in her kit. They reworked Heimerdinger because of his rockets (and other things of course) and they functioned in the exact same fashion as Sona's Q does now. You don't have to be a genius to understand that on-demand, targeted, multi-target, instant, long-range damage isn't a good mechanic to have in a kit that's supposed to be designed around supporting.

Knowing the pace at which Riot works, you're absolutely right that it may take years before her issues are properly assessed and remedied. Also I don't know why you're citing downvotes as a reason... it didn't stop Riot before, and it certainly won't now if they set their mind to a task.

The downvotes was because Sona mains think it's a bad idea to give Sona some means of counter-play so we can see a better risk/reward ratio in her kit as a whole...for some odd reason, even though Meddler replied to my own thread that I made stating that they find it difficult to give Sona power beyond what she is now (a low elo stomper) because she lacks counter-play. GO FIGURE.

[slayer-jinx-unamused]

Rozzeta3 votes

I don't believe you for a moment, but let's assume Riot grants your wish, and Sona's Q is now a skillshot.

Now what?

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

I don't believe you for a moment, but let's assume Riot grants your wish, and Sona's Q is now a skillshot.

Now what?

You don't believe me? Nah, it's ok, here's a direct quote.

{quoted}

Some thoughts on the current state of Sona:

  1. Sona's got a kit design that makes it really hard for her power to be satisfying. Her power's split between spell casts that affect multiple targets, auras that can affect multiple allies and power chord effects. That means each individual effect has to be pretty weak and therefore hard to feel, let alone feel good about.

  2. Sona's got a really high reliability kit. Provided you've got at least a moderate handle on how her kit works you're going to see fairly consistent output from her. Because her lows aren't very low that also contrains our ability to give her high highs.

  3. Sona's auras are powerful ally buffing effects with a high uptime. That means if solo lane Sona's ever in a spot where she's a solid, satisfying pick duo lane Sona's almost certainly pretty overpowered (since she's able to access her full effectiveness by contrast). That issue could potentially be addressed by adding a mechanic to Sona that's only useful if she's solo laning, though that runs the risk of feeling really forced and post laning adds yet another mechanic to a kit that's already splitting its power into a lot of pieces as above.

  4. In terms of where that leaves us we could introduce some less reliable abilities and concentrate power (e.g. by removing auras, power chord or multi hit spells and in exchange buffing the remaining elements) to address points 3 and 4 above. That would lead to a drastically different Sona however. There might also be room for some small QoL or buffs, and I expect Sona will be discussed again internally after preseason follow up's on a good track (though I'm personally doubtful we've got much power to work with and simply buffing Sona until she feels good's going to set her up for a nerf).

So, basically, Sona's overall kit has a bunch of shit in a bunch of places that suffers from putting a lot of "power points" in awkward spots that make them difficult to notice or apply well unless you're grouped up with most or all of your team. They can't let her solo lane because her mechanics would make her duo-laning toxic if solo laning was possible. They can't buff her directly because her mechanics have no counter-play outside of "ice her". I left it out of the quote, but Meddler thinks that her state is "aight", but does note that her competitive and high elo representation is lacking. Still, seeing how this is supposed to be a competitive game, why gimp her ability to function in a more competitive environment? It's the Heimerdinger treatment all over again.

If it were me, I'd scrap the whole thing, but if we weren't going that large, I'd simplify some of this shit. Q would be a skill shot, and the powerchords would be replaced by some other passive. Sona shouldn't be forced to be that close to enemies when icing her is so easy. It's not like she can sustain a lane with W alone anyway, and how does one do "defensive control support", when you can't save yourself AND you put yourself in harm's way all game long?

Rozzeta3 votes

High reliability on her kit is due to interaction mostly with teammates than enemies, rather than a issue with Q autotarget. But yeah, let Sona Q be a skillshot, as I really want something to poke enemies on a bush on which I have no vision, for extra safety.

In addition, your solution is basically to scrap the passive which places Sona in the highest risk/reward scenario, and change it to something that doesn't require enemy interaction. The very Idea that Meddler even considers removing Power Chord right after all these changes aimed at her having more interaction with enemies is just plain stupid, and shows they don't even have a clear idea of what they want to do. IF they have to remove something, because Riot is Riot, only one of the items listed is not something that defines Sona as a champion.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

High reliability on her kit is due to interaction mostly with teammates than enemies, rather than a issue with Q autotarget. But yeah, let Sona Q be a skillshot, as I really want something to poke enemies on a bush on which I have no vision, for extra safety.

In addition, your solution is basically to scrap the passive which places Sona in the highest risk/reward scenario, and change it to something that doesn't require enemy interaction. The very Idea that Meddler even considers removing Power Chord right after all these changes aimed at her having more interaction with enemies is just plain stupid, and shows they don't even have a clear idea of what they want to do. IF they have to remove something, because Riot is Riot, only one of the items listed is not something that defines Sona as a champion.

Well, look at other mages:

The risk for mages is that they have no escape if caught, but the defense against that is that they operate at longer ranges naturally. If they do need to get closer, like Morg and Karma, they aren't as inherently squishy as mages like Lux and Zyra. Sona was designed as squishy as Janna/Soraka/Lux because, initially, she was expected to just pass around stats from up to ONE THOUSAND UNITS AWAY (that was her old aura range), but now she has to get significantly closer to fights than any of them to utilize her passive, which is very important to her overall strength. You could up her reward for being this danger close to offset the risk in comparison to others, but due to the lack of counter-play, you actually can't. Still, if Sona shooting from a range is a big deal, why are Karma and Morgana allowed to do it? Why is no one whining about Janna not coming closer so you can hit her? Why is this twisted expectation held for only Sona?

And yea, the bush thing is pretty whack.

Rozzeta2 votes

Morgana was constantly bashed by Riot for her safety, and they've nerfed her W quite a bit over the years and increased E cooldown a lot. Karma gets a free pass in order to cover for a failed, binary rework; one that required inflated values on skills just to feel good to play. Janna, basically because she lacks poke, and Riot made very sure she lacked damage when they found out mid Janna was a thing back then. Sona melts faster than an ice cream on summer when caught in an engage, but is able to poke AND provide support, while the prior 3 mentioned are somewhat limited in one aspect, at the expense of not doing a better job than them at their specific forte. The jack of all trades, master of none, as she was called.

Unfortunately that came with a problem: Since she can do a bit of everything, Riot is very sure what they don't want her to do, but have no Idea what they want her to do (also they don't acknowledge low defenses and early mana pool as a weakness, for some reason). She can't poke too hard on enemies she counters, because the enemy gets frustrated. If Sona is countered with hard engage in lane, they don't want her to rely on W. They didn't want E to be a 1 point wonder at one point, and reduced the old aura active considerably (Ironically that was around Dianna's release, who had a 1 point wonder on her E), they don't want a support with an AoE stun, even if it's her only hard CC. Then comes this "rework" aimed at artificially raising exposure by shortening auras, with a buff on her mobility to go in and out of battle. Lame rework which solved nothing, but in hindsight it at least pointed to something they wanted to do, make her get more close and personal, and fast as fuck. Now she's not as fast, and they want her to poke at extra range with Power Chord...

Worst of all is that, as per the Meddler post you provided, any potential new rework is pretty much ensured to be a new Skarma if they're even considering removing auras.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

Morgana was constantly bashed by Riot for her safety, and they've nerfed her W quite a bit over the years and increased E cooldown a lot. Karma gets a free pass in order to cover for a failed, binary rework; one that required inflated values on skills just to feel good to play. Janna, basically because she lacks poke, and Riot made very sure she lacked damage when they found out mid Janna was a thing back then. Sona melts faster than an ice cream on summer when caught in an engage, but is able to poke AND provide support, while the prior 3 mentioned are somewhat limited in one aspect, at the expense of not doing a better job than them at their specific forte. The jack of all trades, master of none, as she was called.

  • Just cause Morgana was nerfed doesn't mean she's any closer to me than she was before. Her bread and butter move is still a long range skill shot.

  • Karma's new long-range skill shot kinda goes with the notion of "mages shouldn't be all that close to enemies". Even if it wasn't implemented too well, the logic in and of itself is sound.

  • Janna not having damage isn't the point. POSITIONING is the point. If Sona's supposed to be vulnerable because she can poke at all (which isn't even that much damage. It's just front-loaded and consistent), then she needs more reward because her positioning in order to land that poke is garbage. Have you really looked at all the shit that can catch a Sona at 550 range? A freaking Jinx or Jhin can send you packing if they're good enough, and they're freaking marksmen.

And this is the issue with talking about Sona's issues. People are too attached to something that doesn't work, just like Teemo and his...everything. Sona's an enchantress, which is supposed to be aoe and defense oriented. Her game play pattern reflects none of that. You don't have to make a checklist of what Sona does or doesn't do, because the problem lies within the fact that people take this ludicrous weakness of "I have to walk up to fight, but doing so puts me in extreme danger of dying to any coordinated engage", compare it to "I can sit WAY back here and just cast shit all day and be a top tier support", compare the two, and say "Yup, balanced". The fuck type of world is that balanced? Look at the ACTUAL problem. It's the reason behind the E change anyway.

Unfortunately that came with a problem: Since she can do a bit of everything, Riot is very sure what they don't want her to do, but have no Idea what they want her to do (also they don't acknowledge low defenses and early mana pool as a weakness, for some reason). She can't poke too hard on enemies she counters, because the enemy gets frustrated. If Sona is countered with hard engage in lane, they don't want her to rely on W. They didn't want E to be a 1 point wonder at one point, and reduced the old aura active considerably (Ironically that was around Dianna's release, who had a 1 point wonder on her E), they don't want a support with an AoE stun, even if it's her only hard CC. Then comes this "rework" aimed at artificially raising exposure by shortening auras, with a buff on her mobility to go in and out of battle. Lame rework which solved nothing, but in hindsight it at least pointed to something they wanted to do, make her get more close and personal, and fast as fuck. Now she's not as fast, and they want her to poke at extra range with Power Chord...

Worst of all is that, as per the Meddler post you provided, any potential new rework is pretty much ensured to be a new Skarma if they're even considering removing auras.

All this shows is that this current kit needs scrapping. It's a dead end kit. Just like Taric and just like Poppy. It's not something to be ashamed of and it's not something to despise. There's like 130 or so champs at this point, right? Some champs are gonna need more work than others. Worst part is that there's a decent list of champs that need more work than Sona, and that's why we're not getting a major overhaul of this champ any time soon.

Rozzeta2 votes

Weird. Last time I checked Riot took out a lot of damage off Power Chord ON THE SAME PATCH in which they reduced the level 1 old auras into half their original values.

A Wild AP Sona2 votes

{quoted}

Honestly, Riot should outright rework or outright replace Sona's Q. As long as the only counterplay to this ability is ''Don't be in range of Sona'' she'll never have a healthy play pattern and ever be allowed to be strong competitively. It's an oppressive ability that honestly doesn't fit the theme of an enchanter.

I've been a huge advocate of Sona getting a proper large-scale rework a la Sion/Taric to turn her into a champion that plays music with her Q/W/E in order to craft spells depending on the combination of notes she chooses. If Riot wants to turn her into a generalist support who can do a little bit of everything then please make it involve the proper level of depth and mastery that it deserves.

worst idea ever she is a lane bully q bot go learn how to play the champ

CasterGilgamesh2 votes

only she isnt unless she has more then one spell to poke she isnt a lane bully support Zilean doesnt count

The Yetii Rider1 votes

But! What if the range boost stacked? Since she has URF mode at that point, imagine racking up 3 E's for 375 bonus range.

LankPants3 votes

Wouldn't work that way. Range increases generally set your range to a number, so rather than adding 125 range it's setting Sona's range to 675. The only AS increase I know of that doesn't work this way is Rapid Fire.

killd0zer1 votes

Lmao "controller/enchanter"

I love making up terms so that everything has to fit within my definition XD

Get over yourself, you're a nobody. Sona is a support idiot. You can say whatever you want, but understand I win because I'm not trying to pretend to be an influence on a fucking video game board.

Autrah Fang7 votes

{quoted}

Lmao "controller/enchanter"

I love making up terms so that everything has to fit within my definition XD

except those are terms that were literally made up by Riot internally to classify characters like Nami, Lulu, and Janna for instance. the OP is simply using them to make his point.

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