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[Rework] How to make Sona The Aura Champ

Hyrum Graff··26 votes·3,828 views

Sona's basic abilities share a cooldown. She gets a stance mechanic / permanent auras, which get a new tempo-based mechanic.

Balance: Overall Sona's power level when casting spells should be about the same. Then she gets short range permanent auras for free.

Sona has traditionally been difficult to balance. Aura buffs are much stronger in teamfights, so making them balanced leaves them feeling weak in lane. Long-range, auto-targeted abilities feel bad to play against if they're too strong. On top of that, Sona's kit has a bit of everything in it. Poke? check. Sustain? ok. Wombo combo? You got it. Burst? check. Mobility? Mini sivir ult. If she were good at all of those things, it would be too much. And to top it off, she never really felt that musical (I'm a drummer/have played some piano & sax).

The problem is, all of those things are also iconic to Sona's kit. She can't lose her auras and still have it be Sona. She can't lose her autotargeting and still be Sona. She needs a heal and a damage ability. Crescendo is probably the most-recognized thing about Sona. And what kind of pbaoe utility spell could you make that would be useful on a squishy, besides a speed boost? As a result, Sona has seen a long series of nerfs, feels underwhelming to play, and more importantly, doesn't feel like a musical aura champion.

Enter this rework. It's designed to make Sona feel like the musical aura champion who's mechanically easy but needs perfect positioning. It does so by addressing a core problem with her kit: live Sona can do everything, at the same time New Sona has to choose whether she wants to go [Offense / Defense / Speed] mode, and stick with it for 6-10 seconds (depending on cdr). Since she no longer gets to do everything at once, she can actually be good at the thing she's choosing to do at the moment.

| http://i.imgur.com/W8Ulkkj.png | Passive - Power Chord | |-

*Power chord every cast. Basic abilities share a cooldown changes, change sona's stance, and temporarily increase the range of her auras. Permanent auras with smaller range give bonuses based on the active stance at a tempo.

STANCE (auras):

  • [New] Each of Sona's basic abilities also has a persistent effect, which ends only when Sona switches stances, though using an ability prevents her from using another until the previous comes off cooldown.
  • [New] Tempo: Every 3.33 seconds (2 with cdr), Sona tags allies within 250 units. Tagged allies recieve a buff based on which stance is active. The tag rate scales with cdr, down to 2 seconds.
    • Just in case you were wondering: Yes, this stays on all the time, like Udyr's stances. No, changing stances doesn't affect the tag rate.

Here's an illustration of how it would work & look:

http://i.imgur.com/Ycc2hq2.png

  • [New] Room to breathe: Spell casts increase the aura range to 350 (same as live) until the ability comes off cooldown (3 pulses, always, because pulse rate scales with cdr).

POWER CHORD

  • Can we just call it sheen? Power chord every 3 spellcasts => Every spellcast

| http://i.imgur.com/7Rq7EZF.png |Q - Hymn of Valor | |-

Longer cooldown. Damage on hit moved to aura.

I crunched some numbers, and theoretically Sona adds Hella Damage to her team. Like, the same amount of dps as Cass. In practice it'll be less because your whole team isn't going to group tight enough for them to get the full benefit of Sona's auras. Balance.

  • [Nerf] Cooldown: 8 => 10 seconds
  • [Removed] Damage on hit: Sona and tagged allied champions deal 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 20% AP) (+ 10 / 20 / 40) bonus magic damage on their next basic attack within 3 seconds.
  • [New] STANCE: Sona and tagged allied champions deal 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 20% AP) (+ 10 / 20 / 40) bonus magic damage on their next basic attack within 3 seconds.

| http://i.imgur.com/eT3Bk8G.png | W - Aria of Perseverence | |-

Summary: Shield on cast moved to passive

  • [Removed] Shield on cast Sona and tagged allied champions receive a 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+ 20% AP) (+ 10 / 20 / 40) shield lasting up to 1.5 seconds.
  • [New] STANCE: Sona and tagged allied champions receive a 35 / 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 (+ 20% AP) (+ 10 / 20 / 40) shield lasting 1.5 seconds.

| http://i.imgur.com/AVBubpK.png | E - Song of Celerity | |-

Speed up yourself for just over 1 second. Go REALLY FAST. Pulses give allies short but fast speed boosts to reposition in fights.

This ability used to be sort of a lackluster Sivir ult. The idea was, "tag as many people as possible so I can keep going fast for longer and more of them can go fast too." Now the idea is "I get to reposition, then give my allies tools to reposition." It should be more useful in fights, less useful as a tool for engage/disengage.

This first set is likely an overall nerf. It's intended to make Sona a little more vulnerable (positioning matters more), so we can make her ally bonus stronger. Its strength is comparable to the speed boost on Karma's shield, all things considered.

  • [Buff] Cooldown: 12 => 10 seconds
  • [Nerf] Self duration: Decays over 3 seconds down to the aura value. +0.5 seconds per ally tagged with the aura. => 1 second, then rapidly decays over 0.5 seconds.
  • [Buff] Active self bonus MS: 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17% (+ 2 / 4 / 6% from ult) (+ 7.5% per 100 AP) => 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30% (+ 3 / 6 / 10% from ult) (+ 7.5% per 100 AP)

This set is likely an overall buff and might be too strong. Live sona needs 600 AP to match this one's BASE (and the AP scaling is ~1.5x higher).

  • [Removed] Allied Speed boost Tagged allied champions gain bonus movement speed for 1.5 seconds.
  • [New] STANCE: Tagged allied champions gain 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14% (+ 3.5% per 100 AP) (+ 2 / 4 / 6%) => 2/3 of sona's bonus movement speed for 1 second.

| http://i.imgur.com/S0HzgCs.png |R - Crescendo | |-

Creates large aura tag on cast.

  • [New] Time in the spotlight: All allies within 1000 range (ability currently has 1000 range) of Sona are immediately tagged with the bonus from whichever aura is active. Does not affect the tempo or range of the normal pulses.

#Thoughts:

I will admit the way Sona's auras scale with the spell rank, ap, and her ult's rank is a little wonky. It gives her a different power curve (better late, worse in lane). It's probably the first thing I'd change if the numbers on this kit weren't balanced well. At the same time, I'm concerned that this will make Sona's optimal play pattern, "Max one skill and never switch stances." The more I think about it, the more I think that in version 2 of this post, I will make Sona's auras scale with only her level (or her ult's level), not the skill's level. It will allow me to do some nice things with numbers to make putting points into skills feel rewarding while also incentivising her to use the right stance rather than just the strongest one.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

47 Comments

B1naryB0t4 votes

Sorry bro, but auras are deemed by Riot as unrewarding/invisible power. That's why they're removing them, things like Zekes being reworked and Aegis nerfed.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

Sorry bro, but auras are deemed by Riot as unrewarding/invisible power. That's why they're removing them, things like Zekes being reworked and Aegis nerfed.

That's true, and it's why these auras have the pulsing mechanic. Each pulse is the equivalent of the secondary effect of each spell on live, so it's not any less visible than live Sona.

Hyrum Graff2 votes

{quoted}

Sorry bro, but auras are deemed by Riot as unrewarding/invisible power. That's why they're removing them, things like Zekes being reworked and Aegis nerfed.

I'll also mention, this is the same thing Riot said about Soraka: A healer can't work in league.

Then they asked a different question, "What would it take to make a healer work in League?" and we got the Soraka rework.

For this, instead of saying, "Auras can't work in league," I'm asking, "What would it take to make an aura champion work in League?"

B1naryB0t1 votes

Let's be honest, who enjoys playing as soraka and agianst her? You're nothing but a heal bot who can silence for a bit of time. Against her it's terrible because unless you 100-0 in the first .5 seconds any play or skill is negated with a heal.

I remember back when Taric was strong I'd go "Captain Aura" who gave roughly 5000-6000 gold worth of auras to his team and I felt like I contributed absolutely nothing other than a stun.

The issue is, auras are a toxic mechanic. If you make them balanced, they're unrewarding and useless. If you make them noticeable, it's broken.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

Let's be honest, who enjoys playing as soraka and agianst her?

I enjoy playing raka.

You're nothing but a heal bot who can silence for a bit of time.

Try raka & nami bot, raka csing, maxing R->Q->W->E. Buy an athenes into luden's. I think you'll surprise yourself with how much damage you deal. Works best with someone like vayne top because raka falls off late without a carry to heal.

Against her it's terrible because unless you 100-0 in the first .5 seconds any play or skill is negated with a heal.

Or you focus raka.

I remember back when Taric was strong I'd go "Captain Aura" who gave roughly 5000-6000 gold worth of auras to his team and I felt like I contributed absolutely nothing other than a stun.

The issue is, auras are a toxic mechanic. If you make them balanced, they're unrewarding and useless. If you make them noticeable, it's broken.

I think that's true only if they're invisible auras, that give stats only (ad, ap, armor, mr, like taric's auras and sona's old ones). Auras like sona's current ones, that give bonus damage on hit, shields, speed boosts -- those I think can be OK.

Vesarixx2 votes

I've seen people suggest making her passive proc after every spell before, the problem is power budgeting, if you increase the availability of her passive, you also need to decrease the effectiveness, being able to choose the right effect for each situation is part of being a good Sona player, losing a 40% slow for a much weaker one to lower the skill for the champion is not a good trade off.

If any changes were going to be made to Sona here are some suggestions

  1. there is currently a slight delay between casting Q and Sona herself getting the enhanced auto, so if you Q+auto too quickly you only get a regular auto attack and need to auto again in order to use the on hit damage, the delay could be reduced or add an auto attack reset to her Q, which would also help her pop wards

  2. E is the only one of her basic abilities that has no effect outside of the aura range, an effect could be added to the spell to give allies within 800 range increased movement when headed into Sona's aura range, without effecting allies already within the circle and ending once they enter it. This would also have synergy with her other abilities as you could get someone into shield range than much faster, while not affecting Sona's chasing potential unless she was the closest to the enemy team.

  3. Add some sort of slow resist/removal to Sona's E, as you level it up it activating it could reduce the effectiveness of any slows affecting Sona.

Hyrum Graff2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Raith alghul,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2015-09-13T20:53:31.146+0000)

I've seen people suggest making her passive proc after every spell before, the problem is power budgeting, if you increase the availability of her passive, you also need to decrease the effectiveness, being able to choose the right effect for each situation is part of being a good Sona player, losing a 40% slow for a much weaker one to lower the skill for the champion is not a good trade off.

The availability hasn't increased because she's locked out of casting another spell until the current spell comes off cooldown. This means she's casting 1/3 as often, so the passive change makes up for that.

If any changes were going to be made to Sona here are some suggestions

  1. there is currently a slight delay between casting Q and Sona herself getting the enhanced auto, so if you Q+auto too quickly you only get a regular auto attack and need to auto again in order to use the on hit damage, the delay could be reduced or add an auto attack reset to her Q, which would also help her pop wards

Reduced delay sounds like a reasonable QoL change.

  1. E is the only one of her basic abilities that has no effect outside of the aura range, an effect could be added to the spell to give allies within 800 range increased movement when headed into Sona's aura range, without effecting allies already within the circle and ending once they enter it. This would also have synergy with her other abilities as you could get someone into shield range than much faster, while not affecting Sona's chasing potential unless she was the closest to the enemy team.

My implementation is different than yours, but it attempts to solve the same problem. Mine gives sona a huge freakin' speed buff, though only for a second, that should allow her to get in range of her allies (and then give them MS boosts with the persistent aura boosts.

  1. Add some sort of slow resist/removal to Sona's E, as you level it up it activating it could reduce the effectiveness of any slows affecting Sona.

My proposed E's value can pretty easily get up in the range of +80% MS. That'd be pretty crazy if combined with a slow removal (potentially making Sona too safe), but I'll consider it when I make version 2 of this post.

For context: this isn't the first time I've done a rework of a champion I don't play that often. See my talon rework, which I spent well over 24 hours on, over the course of 3 revisions.

That is to say, I know that mains know the champion much better than I do, and I'm fully expecting to change this rework in major ways to make it into what Sona deserves to be.

Vesarixx4 votes

That's actually much worse, in fact you're actually decreasing the availability of not only her passive but her basic kit as well. This would pretty much ruin Sona as a champion.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Raith alghul,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2015-09-13T21:20:36.054+0000)

That's actually much worse, in fact you're actually decreasing the availability of not only her passive but her basic kit as well. This would pretty much ruin Sona as a champion.

Her passive availability is intended to stay the same. Her overall impact on the game when casting should stay the same or be slightly buffed, at the expense of availability. If it's numbers you're concerned about, it's fairly easy to tune those. Honestly I can tune the availability, too, by changing the ability lockout duration.

Since you edited your original post I'm going to go back and edit mine so I can respond to your points individually.

Vesarixx2 votes

One strategy I use when playing Sona is to charge my passive before a team fight, either leaving it at 2 stacks or locking in the one I think I'm most likely to need, once it's used I can quickly cycle through Sona's basic abilities to get another passive proc available, so I can slow an enemy twice in a short time, or reduce the damage of multiple threats at once. If Sona was effectively silenced while any ability was on cool down that would prevent synergy between any parts of her kit, her survivability and peel would be reduced because using heal would leave you without a speed boost. Removing the ability to combo abilities from a champion entirely not only makes them 1 dimensional but ruins any chance they have at viability.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Raith alghul,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=00010000000000000000,timestamp=2015-09-13T21:46:12.904+0000)

One strategy I use when playing Sona is to charge my passive before a team fight, either leaving it at 2 stacks or locking in the one I think I'm most likely to need, once it's used I can quickly cycle through Sona's basic abilities to get another passive proc available, so I can slow an enemy twice in a short time, or reduce the damage of multiple threats at once. If Sona was effectively silenced while any ability was on cool down that would prevent synergy between any parts of her kit, her survivability and peel would be reduced because using heal would leave you without a speed boost. Removing the ability to combo abilities from a champion entirely not only makes them 1 dimensional but ruins any chance they have at viability.

What if you were locked out for a shorter period of time?

The thing I was trying to go for was moving Sona's gameplay back towards her auras, making the actives of the abilities less important than the persistent effects they give, so sona's play pattern whenever she interacts with her enemies isn't just "mash qwe on cooldown, autoing at the right time to get the power chord I want."

If I'm mistaken about her play pattern, please correct me over in this thread, which I made a while back, but nobody responded, so I'm kind of flying blind here.

Vesarixx2 votes

moving her power towards persistent effects rather than actives is not interesting gameplay, Sona already has a 0.5 second delay between being able to use each ability, which is a holdover from her previous kit and probably should have been removed during the rework, another thing to consider is that aura effects currently do not end when another ability is activated, so they can be activated both at once, like having Q active then activating W, if an ally moves into the circle at the right time they will get the benefit of both, even if they only entered it once W was activated.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Raith alghul,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=0001000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2015-09-14T00:58:42.565+0000)

aura effects currently do not end when another ability is activated, so they can be activated both at once, like having Q active then activating W, if an ally moves into the circle at the right time they will get the benefit of both, even if they only entered it once W was activated.

Do you consider that a core part of her gameplay, or an unintended side consequence of the rework?

I've been drawing inspiration from the rework in terms of how to make Sona's power more visible, but drawing primarily from pre-rework in terms of the direction I'm trying to take the kit.

Vesarixx2 votes

The existing delay is an unintended side effect, the ability to combine auras is not, it's pretty core to her ability to peel and act as a utility body guard for carries.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

(Done with edits to first post)

Hyrum Graff1 votes

Replying here because we got fairly deep into the comment thread.

I'm curious on your opinion on the new tempo mechanic, because it's really the core of the rework. I had the idea that it would be cool to make Sona feel more musical and give her back persistent auras with visible power through a tempo effect. So then everything in this rework stems from the question, "What do I need to do to make a tempo effect work in Sona's kit?" The first thing was to take away power elsewhere, because the tempo effect adds a huge amount of power.

I ended up at the 'shared cooldown' solution, but that doesn't have to be THE solution (and in rework V2, it may not be). So far most of your objections, if I'm reading them correctly, have been to the changes I've made to accommodate the tempo effect. I guess what I'm trying to get at is, "Is the tempo effect worth trying to accommodate?"

Vesarixx2 votes

As a rule persistent effects that you can't control aren't interesting or particularly usable from a game play standpoint, if the refresh needs to come up in order for a new stance to have effect that's going to mean a lot less clutch saves with Sona's shield, artificial delays like this aren't really a direction you want to be going in.

Rico Nasty2 votes

She still needs some pre-6 cc

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=karma or feed,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2015-09-14T01:25:35.500+0000)

She still needs some pre-6 cc

Not sure I agree with you on this one, but for the sake of argument, let's say we wanted to give her pre-6 cc. I think the obvious place to put it is on her E, since Q and W are already pretty distinctive. What kind of cc would you like to see? Slow / Stun / Root / silence?

Rico Nasty1 votes

A silence would be cool tbh. I just think this because the reason she feels like such an outdated support is because she's just a heal-bot, she has only cc on her hard-to-land ult.

RedCyclone2 votes

Just a little thing what conflicts, a Powerchord is synonymous the number 3

It's like if Ahri's passive required 10 hits on a target

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

Just a little thing what conflicts, a Powerchord is synonymous the number 3

It's like if Ahri's passive required 10 hits on a target

I'm not sure what you mean. And actual power chord or Sona's?

1000angrybees1 votes

I really don't understand this, did you just leave out the damaging parts (passive, Q, R) or is she just a moving aura projector now?

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

I really don't understand this, did you just leave out the damaging parts (passive, Q, R) or is she just a moving aura projector now?

This is formatted patch notes style, so the stuff that hasn't changed, is left out. That is to say, Q, W, R and passive still do the same thing.

If that's confusing, I can add in the parts that are the same as well.

AdanChristo1 votes

this is gay, do aura combinations and efffects

Hyrum Graff2 votes

{quoted}

this is gay, do aura combinations and efffects

Thank you for your feedback.

Captain Aishi1 votes

I really like the idea of asmall shield that's almost constantly being refreshed as an anti-siege support champion (makes her team very resilient to poke damage while still being quite prone to burst dives)

i really like the concept overall too (anything that would give a sense of rythm back to playing sona gets a +1 in my book)

Hyrum Graff2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Captain Aishi,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2015-09-14T00:42:03.988+0000)

I really like the idea of asmall shield that's almost constantly being refreshed as an anti-siege support champion (makes her team very resilient to poke damage while still being quite prone to burst dives)

Yeah. Hopefully there's an interesting dynamic of, "If I keep my permanent aura up, I'm free to change spells when needed, but my range is really short so if my teammates clump around me we could get wombo'd. If I hit W again I get more range which is safer, but I'm locked out of my other spells for this wave. Should I do it?"

Hopefully the same question comes up while seiging, sitting in Q aura.

i really like the concept overall too (anything that would give a sense of rythm back to playing sona gets a +1 in my book)

:)

Shroom Junkie1 votes

Lower shield time. 1.5 seconds with full CDR is a shield every 0.5 seconds. Not that its a big shield but still, that's a lot of people being shielded a lot of the time.

Other than that cool idea. But now she lacks CC and people will call her underpowered for it since almost all supports have some small form of CC. Maybe make the Crescendo active with an added one-target root? Could be a long root? q.q Idk

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

Lower shield time. 1.5 seconds with full CDR is a shield every 0.5 seconds. Not that its a big shield but still, that's a lot of people being shielded a lot of the time.

Noted. I think 1s is a good amount, that way it'll line up with the speed boost timing, too.

Other than that cool idea. But now she lacks CC and people will call her underpowered for it since almost all supports have some small form of CC. Maybe make the Crescendo active with an added one-target root? Could be a long root? q.q Idk

So, I think I was not appropriately clear because a couple people have had this misconception.

This is formatted in patch-notes style. So, if it doesn't say [Removed], it's still there (ie, the damage on Q, heal on W, power chord and Crescendo). For example, the large aura is an addition to crescendo, not a replacement.

When I make version 2, I will include [Unchanged] tags and list everything in her kit.

Shroom Junkie1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=00050000,timestamp=2015-09-14T01:19:31.315+0000)

So, I think I was not appropriately clear because a couple people have had this misconception.

This is formatted in patch-notes style. So, if it doesn't say [Removed], it's still there (ie, the damage on Q, heal on W, power chord and Crescendo). For example, the large aura is an addition to crescendo, not a replacement.

When I make version 2, I will include [Unchanged] tags and list everything in her kit.

Ah, I see. Thank you.

AATTRROOXX1 votes

Perchance make her E remove any slows on an allied champion and reduce the effectiveness of any on her by 50%

Vesarixx1 votes

Here is a past suggestion I made a while ago about adding a second part to Sona's passive

Passive: Powerchord: After casting 3 basic abilities, Sona's next basic attack will deal additional damage and gains an additional effect based on the last spell cast(largely unchanged) Cadence: Sona's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage on hit equal to a base amount per level + a % of her AP, when attacking enemy champions these attacks restore 2/3/4/5% of her maximum mana scaling with levels in her ultimate and generate stacks that are consumed to enhance her next basic ability. Max 3 stacks. Stacks last 6 seconds and fall off one at a time, auto attacking champions at max stacks refreshes the timer.

Q: Hymn of Valor: active affect unchanged, deals additional damage over time for 1 second per stack of cadence Staccato: next basic attack marks the target enemy for a few seconds, increasing the damage they take from allied abilities and basic attacks by a %(applies to the triggering attack as well)

W: Aria of Perseverance: active unchanged but gives a greater heal/shield based on cadence stacks Diminuendo: unchanged(should have a clarity update to make it a more visible debuff)

E: Song of Celerity: stacks of cadence reduce the cool down by 1 second per stack of cadence Tempo: unchanged

R: crescendo: unchanged

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Raith alghul,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2015-09-14T04:16:32.552+0000)

Here is a past suggestion I made a while ago about adding a second part to Sona's passive

What is the goal of these changes? That Sona AA's her enemies more? That Sona changes her build path?

Vesarixx1 votes

The goal was to create a risk/reward dynamic that encouraged Sona to play a more consistently aggressive pattern but also open up windows of counter play for her opponent, allowing her to have more sustained harass rather than front loading her burst. These are old suggestions so they probably could use some updating, just an example of the kind of changes I've suggested in the past.

kDrakari1 votes

While these changes do support Sona's theme well, they seem very "musical" at the very least, but they don't seem all that fun. Basically, your changes mean that in a teamfight Sona will cast one ability, auto attack once, then just kinda hang around and still basically have the same "tag your friends" minigame that was one of the biggest complaints with her current rework, except you're forced to choose a single stance for the whole teamfight and can only apply it quickly to your whole team if they're extremely close together. In lane she just needs to sit in either Q or W depending on the matchup and there's really not much else she even could do.

A big problem with Sona is that her kit as a whole is very iconic. If I were to rework Sona the things I would change would be her Ult and her Passive, then have her abilities mostly the same (damage one, healing one, speed one) except adjusted to fit the framework defined by her new passive and ult. What I would do is have her ult be "Tempo", and she would probably start with it at level 1. Casting abilities would have roughly the same up-front effects as now, but they wouldn't have either the current temporary aura or the previous permanent aura, instead something similar to your idea except interacting with her ult instead of just a passive timer. Each cast of her ult would cause a pulse through the aura that gives the AoE buff, maybe a little changed from what they are now but roughly the same concepts. The more interesting part comes through how her ult's CD works.

The way her ult's CD works is a little complicated how I envision it, so I think it's easier to explain with some placeholder numbers. Lets say that her ult CD is "10" to start. After she casts it the first time, she can cast it again after 9 seconds for increased mana but increased effect, or wait and cast it after the full 10 seconds for the normal cost and effect. If she casts it between 9-10 seconds, the next time she can cast it between 8-9 seconds for even higher increased mana and effect, or between 9-10 seconds again for the previous increased cost and affect, or after 10 seconds to reset to the initial cost and effect, and then that pattern continues up to a point. A % reduction might be better than flat, but the point is that she can cast it over and over to reduce its cooldown and increase its effect, but sustaining that requires a huge amount of mana and getting to that point to begin with requires long preparation. It also can make her susceptible to well-timed CC since blocking her at the moment she would cast causes her to "lose tempo" and lose the stacks.

My suggestion includes the rhythmic Tempo minigame in a more interactive way, gives her interesting abilities in a teamfight especially a long one (if she has the mana) as well as the low-cost option of maintaining a single aura at a low tempo, and it also gives her distinct moments of weakness (being alone, low on mana, or when she doesn't have the opportunity to stack her ult first).

An alternative option would be to have a similar effect as her passive, and have it affect her basic abilities instead. They would share a single cooldown (significantly lower than 10 seconds, maybe start at 6 or something) but you could cast them at an accelerating pace essentially the same way I described above, and keep her ult the same as it is now except maybe add an effect to have it instantly grant max stacks of her passive. I actually think this might be the better option since it doesn't have an entire skill stuck into a boring upkeep minigame that holds a huge part of her power, instead spreading it out to her various abilities and encouraging more mixing of abilities over sticking with a single stance and spamming Tempo. If you want to encourage mixing the abilities up even more, you could have the stacking cooldown reduction mechanic only apply when switching to a different ability. In this case I don't think I would have a persistent aura at all, instead push more of the ability to the initial activation (e.g. her Q would act as on live, except it would only give the enhanced attack to people within range at activation rather than anyone who comes in range during a few seconds after). This would leave pretty much all of her capabilities intact other than removing the power chord mechanic that I think doesn't really work that well on her in the first place since it takes a really squishy mage on a support budget that is forced to build as much AP as possible because all her utility is scaling... and forces her to get in AA range frequently to get a lot of her kit off. It also has similar moments of weakness to the other suggestion, since she still has a lot of power tied up in her team buffs to make her 1v1 power terrible, and she also needs preparation time to stack her passive in order to reach her peak effectiveness, and it takes a ton of mana and constant casting to support her strong points so being low on mana or getting CCd at a bad time would reduce her strength considerably.

All that said, while I don't think she's really in a good place and she definitely could do a MUCH better job of relating to her musician theme other than just "having musical SFX and ability names", I do think she could end up in a healthy and balanced state with mainly number changes rather than a second rework.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

While these changes do support Sona's theme well, they seem very "musical" at the very least, but they don't seem all that fun. Basically, your changes mean that in a teamfight Sona will cast one ability, auto attack once, then just kinda hang around and still basically have the same "tag your friends" minigame that was one of the biggest complaints with her current rework, except you're forced to choose a single stance for the whole teamfight and can only apply it quickly to your whole team if they're extremely close together.

What was pre-rework Sona's teamfight pattern, and what was more compelling about it?

I tried to gather feedback ahead of doing this rework here but not many people responded, so I'm kind of flying blind at the moment about what made Sona more satisfying to play.

In lane she just needs to sit in either Q or W depending on the matchup and there's really not much else she even could do.

Presumably she'll still want to poke with her Q, heal up with W if needed (I might need to reduce its mana cost though, now that the shield is not an active), and use her power chords. Also note that 250 range is really, really small (melee range is ~150), so if she just sits on top of her adc, Sona's making them easier to hit with any type of skillshot or aoe.

A big problem with Sona is that her kit as a whole is very iconic.

My philosophy here is that Sona has a lot of distinctive things, but I'm willing to sacrifice some of those if we can zoom in on her core theme (which, of course, forces us to decide what her core theme is, and/or should be). So far I was focused on Auras and Music. Do you agree with those or are there other things that are more core to who Sona is, from a gameplay, or lore, or whatever perspective?

If I were to rework Sona the things I would change would be her Ult and her Passive, then have her abilities mostly the same (damage one, healing one, speed one) except adjusted to fit the framework defined by her new passive and ult. What I would do is have her ult be "Tempo", and she would probably start with it at level 1. Casting abilities would have roughly the same up-front effects as now, but they wouldn't have either the current temporary aura or the previous permanent aura, instead something similar to your idea except interacting with her ult instead of just a passive timer. Each cast of her ult would cause a pulse through the aura that gives the AoE buff, maybe a little changed from what they are now but roughly the same concepts. The more interesting part comes through how her ult's CD works.

The way her ult's CD works is a little complicated how I envision it, so I think it's easier to explain with some placeholder numbers. Lets say that her ult CD is "10" to start. After she casts it the first time, she can cast it again after 9 seconds for increased mana but increased effect, or wait and cast it after the full 10 seconds for the normal cost and effect. If she casts it between 9-10 seconds, the next time she can cast it between 8-9 seconds for even higher increased mana and effect, or between 9-10 seconds again for the previous increased cost and affect, or after 10 seconds to reset to the initial cost and effect, and then that pattern continues up to a point. A % reduction might be better than flat, but the point is that she can cast it over and over to reduce its cooldown and increase its effect, but sustaining that requires a huge amount of mana and getting to that point to begin with requires long preparation. It also can make her susceptible to well-timed CC since blocking her at the moment she would cast causes her to "lose tempo" and lose the stacks.

My suggestion includes the rhythmic Tempo minigame in a more interactive way, gives her interesting abilities in a teamfight especially a long one (if she has the mana) as well as the low-cost option of maintaining a single aura at a low tempo, and it also gives her distinct moments of weakness (being alone, low on mana, or when she doesn't have the opportunity to stack her ult first).

Interesting. Starting at 10 seconds seems a bit long. I'm also not sure that you'll achieve your desired effect. Like, when I play full mana AP Kog item 3027 item 3003 item 3174 item 3135 item 3020 item 3116 , it doesn't feel particularly musical to me, even though I'm spamming r on cooldown.

An alternative option would be to have a similar effect as her passive, and have it affect her basic abilities instead. They would share a single cooldown (significantly lower than 10 seconds, maybe start at 6 or something) but you could cast them at an accelerating pace essentially the same way I described above, and keep her ult the same as it is now except maybe add an effect to have it instantly grant max stacks of her passive. I actually think this might be the better option since it doesn't have an entire skill stuck into a boring upkeep minigame that holds a huge part of her power, instead spreading it out to her various abilities and encouraging more mixing of abilities over sticking with a single stance and spamming Tempo. If you want to encourage mixing the abilities up even more, you could have the stacking cooldown reduction mechanic only apply when switching to a different ability. In this case I don't think I would have a persistent aura at all, instead push more of the ability to the initial activation (e.g. her Q would act as on live, except it would only give the enhanced attack to people within range at activation rather than anyone who comes in range during a few seconds after).

I like this suggestion much more, because it changes her core satisfaction loop. Rather than feeling like "I'm playing Sona but now there's this upkeep game I need to play in the background," the upkeep game is what playing Sona is all about. Something like Cass' old passive might work well on her, too, to encourage her to use abilities on cooldown and maintain that rhythmic sense.

This would leave pretty much all of her capabilities intact other than removing the power chord mechanic that I think doesn't really work that well on her in the first place since it takes a really squishy mage on a support budget that is forced to build as much AP as possible because all her utility is scaling... and forces her to get in AA range frequently to get a lot of her kit off.

I'm pretty sure the AA range thing is intended. Otherwise Sona would just sit back and qqqqqq and you'd never be able to touch her. AA range gives her enemies a window to do something about her.

It also has similar moments of weakness to the other suggestion, since she still has a lot of power tied up in her team buffs to make her 1v1 power terrible, and she also needs preparation time to stack her passive in order to reach her peak effectiveness, and it takes a ton of mana and constant casting to support her strong points so being low on mana or getting CCd at a bad time would reduce her strength considerably.

Agreed, although I'm not sure that mana gating would be the way to go. If she had both this passive and Cass' old passive, you could make it so that getting a "song" started takes up a lot of mana but once you're "playing" you can maintain it without too much difficulty. Otherwise, I think you just incentivize her not to cast abilities until there's a big engage where she can cast over and over. Getting CC'd would still cost you your stacks and a lot of mana.

All that said, while I don't think she's really in a good place and she definitely could do a MUCH better job of relating to her musician theme other than just "having musical SFX and ability names", I do think she could end up in a healthy and balanced state with mainly number changes rather than a second rework.

Perhaps, but it's much more fun to theorycraft a rework xD

kDrakari1 votes

Well, in regards to "what made Sona better before her rework", I don't know; in fact, I actually like her better now than I did before, likely for a lot of the reasons that Riot chose their direction for the work: auras are actually strong, but they really don't feel like it. I actually enjoy live Sona just fine, and think the main things she needs to be strong are longer duration on the W shield and a shift from AP ratios to base values particularly on her E. There would probably need to be some power taken from elsewhere, personally I'd say losing some damage on her Q would be the way to go, but I think that could be better.

I agree that Music and Auras are definitely the core themes of Sona, which is why I find her R and passive the least important parts. Her R in particular is just... a big banana that shoots out and has some music note VFX. It makes people dance, but that's barely even noticeable within the duration. No aura or interaction with auras other than the near-invisible scaling it gives for some reason.

For the thing about forcing her into AA range, I don't necessarily say that's bad but I really don't think it's necessary. Q's range is substantial, but I wouldn't mind it being reduced as part of the rework. I do see a bit of a trend for long-range mages needing to sacrifice if they want to stay out of AA range, Lux being the most direct comparison because of how much damage she gives up without detonating her passive, Xerath being a lesser example because his passive is only Mana not damage and he doesn't need to use it on his target, so I guess I don't mind keeping it in there.

The main cost I have associated with only starting to stack after the fight begins is that it takes a long time to ramp up that way. If she doesn't do any stacking in preparation then she has to do cast -> wait 5s -> cast -> wait 4s -> cast -> wait 3s and only then does she start having her spells at their maximum strength and frequency. Only reaching full strength 12 seconds into a fight would be a pretty big deal, whereas the increased costs and the need to recast the abilities so frequently means that trying to stay fully stacked while waiting for a fight would be just unsustainable. It gives her a very strong focus on timing in addition to positioning. I personally think mana gating is a perfect way to do this, but that doesn't mean it's the only way. I actually don't know what Cass's old passive is though, so I can't comment on that.

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

I personally think the shared cooldowns will greatly reduce the availability of the active portion of her skills (most importantly: her poke and heal), and that does not seem like the way to go.

IMO it would be better if her abilities don't share cooldowns (they should still have the same cd), but she can't change auras until the ability she just used comes back off cooldown.

Eg. Sona uses Hymn and activates the blue aura. She should still be able to use Aria, Celerity and Crescendo, but her aura can't change until Hymn goes back off cooldown.

Would this be better? Of course that means Power Chord needs to go back to 3 casts. (The rest of the changes seem pretty well done though. Nice one :D )

Hyrum Graff1 votes

{quoted}

I personally think the shared cooldowns will greatly reduce the availability of the active portion of her skills (most importantly: her poke and heal), and that does not seem like the way to go.

It was my intent to reduce the availability of the actives. However, with the time and feedback since this was posted, I don't think that was a great direction, so I am going to back off of it in v2.

IMO it would be better if her abilities don't share cooldowns (they should still have the same cd), but she can't change auras until the ability she just used comes back off cooldown.

Eg. Sona uses Hymn and activates the blue aura. She should still be able to use Aria, Celerity and Crescendo, but her aura can't change until Hymn goes back off cooldown.

Actually, I think it can be achieved in a much simpler way: each pulse (pølse?) is based on the last spell Sona has cast. Each cast increases the range of the next 3 pulses. The range increase refreshes but does not stack.

I think that's a much more elegant way to encourage Sona to space out her abilities without actually locking her out of them. Heck, I can remove lock-out between abilities entirely now if I wanted to.

Would this be better? Of course that means Power Chord needs to go back to 3 casts. (The rest of the changes seem pretty well done though. Nice one :D )

Honestly I think the unique inputs of stacking power chord are interesting so I'd rather go back to 3 casts.

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000b0000,timestamp=2015-09-14T13:23:46.574+0000)

Actually, I think it can be achieved in a much simpler way: each pulse (pølse?) is based on the last spell Sona has cast. Each cast increases the range of the next 3 pulses. The range increase refreshes but does not stack.

This seems like a nice change. She can still change auras when tge need occurs but spacing out her ability casts make it more efficient. Nice one!

Thanks for listening to my suggestion :)

Photos of Ghosts1 votes

Riot won't do that because it'll be off with DJ Sona ;c dammit clubbers you ruined everything again

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Photos of Ghosts,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000c,timestamp=2015-09-14T13:43:48.141+0000)

Riot won't do that because it'll be off with DJ Sona ;c dammit clubbers you ruined everything again

How so?

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

Logged in just to leave this for you:

If you listen closely to Sona while she's sitting around, if I remember correctly, you can hear a little tune playing. I thought it would be interesting if this tune changed with which stance she's in. Also: she may cast spells within shorter windows, at the cost of extra mana similar to Kog'Maw ult but affecting 3 spells instead of only one.

Passive:

Tempo - Every (3.3->2) seconds Sona sends out a pulse aura at range (400->200) based on the length of time since her last spellcast. This aura provides a unique buff based on which song she is playing.

Power Chord - Every (10->6) seconds Sona stores a single charge of Power Chord (up to 3) - a supercharged triad. On her next spellcast, it does (n) damage and provides a unique effect depending on which song she is playing. After sending out a Power Chord, she can not send out another until her tempo has sent out 2 pulses (alternatively 5?->3? seconds. The numbers are questionable at best.).

Q - Hymn of Valor

  1. Refreshes the Passive - Tempo range (puts it back up to 400)

  2. Activates a Power Chord stack if available.

Power Chord - Hymn of Valor: deals bonus damage to target opponent.

  1. Deals damage to 2 nearby enemies, prioritizing champions and minions at low hp.

  2. Changes the Aura buff to Hymn of Valor. Sona's passive music also changes.

Hymn of Valor (stance): Allies touched by pulses of Hymn of Valor find themselves musically empowered. If they send out an auto-attack or damaging spell within a short duration of being tagged by this ability, Sona will add some bonus damage of her own to it, dealing (numbers numbers numbers) bonus damage. Will not apply multiple times on the same source of damage (e.g. Damage over Time).

W - Aria of Perseverance

  1. Refreshes the Passive - Tempo range

  2. Activates a Power Chord stack if available.

Power Chord - Aria of Perseverance: Reduces damage target opponent deals OR heal teammate (either/or... or should it do only one or only the other?) (unique case to heal allies)

  1. Directly heals Sona and target ally. If no ally is targeted, Sona heals based on %currenthp priority (similar to live, except offering the option to target).

  2. Changes the Aura buff to Aria of Perseverance. Sona's passive music changes.

Aria of Perseverance (stance): Allies touched by pulses of Aria of Perseverance are resolved to take a hit. They gain a shield guarding from (numbers numbers numbers) and are healed by (numbers%) of the remaining shield after (numbers) seconds.

E - Song of Celerity

  1. Refreshes the Passive - Tempo range

  2. Activates a Power Chord stack if available.

Power Chord - Song of Celerity: Slows target opponent.

  1. Directly speeds up Sona and target ally. If no ally is targeted, Sona speeds up all nearby allies for a lesser amount.

  2. Changes the Aura buff to Song of Celerity. Sona's passive music changes.

Song of Celerity (stance): Allies touched by pulses of Song of Celerity are enswiftened by her music. They are sped up (numbers numbers numbers) for (numbers) seconds.

R - Crescendo

  1. Refreshes and Enhances the Passive - Tempo range. (puts it up to 450 for 2 pulses before decaying back into normal values)

  2. Enhances the next 3 spellcasts. The next 3 spells within a short duration are free and on a much shorter cooldown.

  3. Does (essentially) live Sona crescendo. (numbers tweaking may be necessary).

  4. PASSIVELY increases the range of Tempo.

Hyrum Graff1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Willahelm Fulber,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e,timestamp=2015-09-17T07:42:08.742+0000)

Logged in just to leave this for you:

<3

If you listen closely to Sona while she's sitting around, if I remember correctly, you can hear a little tune playing. I thought it would be interesting if this tune changed with which stance she's in.

When I first heard about DJ sona, I thought her 3 songs changed based on which stance is active. Always thought that was kind of a missed opportunity.

Also: she may cast spells within shorter windows, at the cost of extra mana similar to Kog'Maw ult but affecting 3 spells instead of only one.

Passive:

Tempo - Every (3.3->2) seconds Sona sends out a pulse aura at range (400->200) based on the length of time since her last spellcast. This aura provides a unique buff based on which song she is playing.

Power Chord - Every (10->6) seconds Sona stores a single charge of Power Chord (up to 3) - a supercharged triad. On her next spellcast, it does (n) damage and provides a unique effect depending on which song she is playing. After sending out a Power Chord, she can not send out another until her tempo has sent out 2 pulses (alternatively 5?->3? seconds. The numbers are questionable at best.).

Hmm. So, if I understand correctly, power chord is meant to force sona to put herself in range to be engaged upon, so she doesn't just sit back and q-w-q-w-q-w-q-w, and E if you try to get near her. Not sure how I feel about allowing her to activate it at range.

Q - Hymn of Valor

  1. Refreshes the Passive - Tempo range (puts it back up to 400)

  2. Activates a Power Chord stack if available.

Power Chord - Hymn of Valor: deals bonus damage to target opponent.

  1. Deals damage to 2 nearby enemies, prioritizing champions and minions at low hp.

  2. Changes the Aura buff to Hymn of Valor. Sona's passive music also changes.

Hymn of Valor (stance): Allies touched by pulses of Hymn of Valor find themselves musically empowered. If they send out an auto-attack or damaging spell within a short duration of being tagged by this ability, Sona will add some bonus damage of her own to it, dealing (numbers numbers numbers) bonus damage. Will not apply multiple times on the same source of damage (e.g. Damage over Time).

Seems reasonable. What logic would you use for how the damage is applied on spell casts? Ie, if I'm karma and you're sona and I use a Q while I have your buff on, does every target get +x damage? Split evenly? What if I hit only champions? Only minions? Champions and minions?

W - Aria of Perseverance

  1. Refreshes the Passive - Tempo range

  2. Activates a Power Chord stack if available.

Power Chord - Aria of Perseverance: Reduces damage target opponent deals OR heal teammate (either/or... or should it do only one or only the other?) (unique case to heal allies)

  1. Directly heals Sona and target ally. If no ally is targeted, Sona heals based on %currenthp priority (similar to live, except offering the option to target).

  2. Changes the Aura buff to Aria of Perseverance. Sona's passive music changes.

I think the damage reduction is the way to go. IMO Sona should have a heal but not very much healing, or she causes game health issues.

Aria of Perseverance (stance): Allies touched by pulses of Aria of Perseverance are resolved to take a hit. They gain a shield guarding from (numbers numbers numbers) and are healed by (numbers%) of the remaining shield after (numbers) seconds.

So it's a shield that's also grey health. Interesting.

I don't like a heal on the passive because it means Sona provides a lot of passive regen to her carry in lane (boring). However, I think I like that mechanic on the ability's active.

E - Song of Celerity

  1. Refreshes the Passive - Tempo range

  2. Activates a Power Chord stack if available.

Power Chord - Song of Celerity: Slows target opponent.

  1. Directly speeds up Sona and target ally. If no ally is targeted, Sona speeds up all nearby allies for a lesser amount.

  2. Changes the Aura buff to Song of Celerity. Sona's passive music changes.

Song of Celerity (stance): Allies touched by pulses of Song of Celerity are enswiftened by her music. They are sped up (numbers numbers numbers) for (numbers) seconds.

Not much to say here.

R - Crescendo

  1. Refreshes and Enhances the Passive - Tempo range. (puts it up to 450 for 2 pulses before decaying back into normal values)

  2. Enhances the next 3 spellcasts. The next 3 spells within a short duration are free and on a much shorter cooldown.

  3. Does (essentially) live Sona crescendo. (numbers tweaking may be necessary).

  4. PASSIVELY increases the range of Tempo.

Up to what value?

Overall, I think there are some cool ideas. I'm not sure how I feel about allowing sona to target her abilities. I remember many sona mains saying the autotargeting is kind of an important thing about her, back during the rework.

What if it were forced quick cast on QWE, and the heal simply prioritized anyone your mouse is VERY near, and autotargets otherwise?

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) When I first heard about DJ Sona, I thought her 3 songs changed based on which stance is active. Always thought that was kind of a missed opportunity.

If you watch the preview videos back, there is a specific section of each "song" (from her formswap ctrl+5) playing during each stance's preview, but yeah that's partially where I got the idea.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) Hmm. So, if I understand correctly, power chord is meant to force sona to put herself in range to be engaged upon, so she doesn't just sit back and q-w-q-w-q-w-q-w, and E if you try to get near her. Not sure how I feel about allowing her to activate it at range.

Whoops! Meant it to be specifically activated as on next autoattack.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) Seems reasonable. What logic would you use for how the damage is applied on spell casts? Ie, if I'm karma and you're sona and I use a Q while I have your buff on, does every target get +x damage? Split evenly? What if I hit only champions? Only minions? Champions and minions?

Any AoE would spread the damage evenly. Perhaps (but perhaps not) turn it into a very small %hp value for the damage no matter how it's spread instead of a flat amount, meaning that if multiple targets are taking the damage it would be reasonably split instead of like 500 on a tank compared to 500 on a carry.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) I think the damage reduction is the way to go. IMO Sona should have a heal but not very much healing, or she causes game health issues.

The issue with naming it as a heal vs damage reduction is the same issue that caused the Sona rework in the first place: there's too much hidden power in just tweaking a few numbers. Visible effects are much more powerful.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) So it's a shield that's also grey health. Interesting.

This was my thought. It simply provides some extra power, especially if her cast times are limited (so if she can't cast w every 6 seconds w/o cd she can still heal allies).

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) I don't like a heal on the passive because it means Sona provides a lot of passive regen to her carry in lane (boring). However, I think I like that mechanic on the ability's active.

Understandable. However, I think as-is Sona's early game is extremely weak, to a point where extra regen would be nice. However, scaling to the lategame could be a problem.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) Not much to say here.

Aye. The only major change is that she can choose to give a target ally extra extra movement speed or speed up her whole team for a lesser amount.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000) Up to what value?

I'd say, if the maximum aura range at levels 1-6 was 300 (maybe 350 base, depending on how powerful her spells are early) then 6-11 350 (400), 11-16 400 (450). The ultimate's enhancement would always be 50 units for the next 3 ticks of Tempo. Additionally, it may be viable to add at this point that the stances overlap during the next 3 spellcasts (or something to similar effect).

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mp6Eje7u,comment-id=000e0000,timestamp=2015-09-17T18:17:56.091+0000)

Overall, I think there are some cool ideas. I'm not sure how I feel about allowing Sona to target her abilities. I remember many Sona mains saying the autotargeting is kind of an important thing about her, back during the rework.

What if it were forced quick cast on QWE, and the heal simply prioritized anyone your mouse is VERY near, and autotargets otherwise?

I somewhat agree that autotargeting is important, that's why I was trying to say it only targeted if your mouse was on target ally. Q is always autotargeted (prioritising opposing champions based on %hp). W is only targeted if you're mousing over an ally when you cast it (I've found a similar issue with Relic Shield, if you have 2 allies nearby you can't choose who it goes to.) E you can choose to target (say you're 2v5, and you want to run; or you want to give your tank the speed to rush in to engage) but if you don't it buffs up everyone on your team (3-5 people running from 5, getting everyone into position at the start of a fight). It gives Sona choices as far as how she can play.

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DoTs can feel impactful if you show how much damage they WILL do as soon as they hit
Gameplay356 comments
825
votes
@meddler @kateykhaos The dragon icons need tweaking for clarity
Gameplay155 comments
299
votes
Can we all agree that towers are in a pretty good spot right now?
Gameplay138 comments
194
votes
DQ has problems. So did the old system. Introducing Club Ranked
Gameplay182 comments
160
votes
ZED CHANGES ARE TARGETED AT FRUSTRATION, NOT POWER
Gameplay213 comments
146
votes
Small Ekko nerf: better counterplay through better ult clarity (QOL for enemies)
Gameplay90 comments
127
votes