When do we admit that Sona's design is just blatantly awful?

chipndip1··5 votes·768 views

It says something when a champ can have a 54% win rate in Diamond elo and people STILL think she's hot garbage and needs buffs.

Idk how many times I need to say it: Sona's design is bad. BAD. Character? Cool. Game play? Atrocious. There isn't any. Perception of her abilities in the game are probably worse than even Teemo. It leads to a major lack of satisfaction and understanding in what she does and how she's contributing to the team. There's no defining high points to what she does unless she's landing R. Outside of that, she's hardly even noticeable.

I'm not saying she's weak. If we limit our focus to simply solo queue (no organized play of any kind involved), she isn't weak. Actually, a lot of the time she's blatantly overtuned for solo queue, just to keep her players from rioting. I'm just saying her game play is garbage. What type of champion in the game makes you just feel like a useless wet noodle 85% of the time, even when you're not? Does that not say anything to people, or are there so few people that care that are left that no one bothers to bug Riot about like all these fucking Karma threads? If Karma's got a kit problem, Sona's got a worse one. At least Karma's issue is that it's bland, not that it's perceived as blatantly useless at almost all times.

What will it take to get a red to respond on this? I used to try to bring it up more often but I pretty much gave up on trying. I got the urge to try again after someone begged me not to play her...when she has a 54% Diamond win rate.

11 Comments

Ranmaru1 votes

Shes like mercy from overwatch, She remained one of the best characters with a low skill floor and managed to stay up there long enough to avoid a riot, Although mercy is balanced now :D

chipndip11 votes

I'm not talking about actual power. I'm talking about perceived power and its extremely negative impact on the champion's perception in the eyes of the community. Mercy being able to res her whole team from death is amazing, and healing isn't as easy to come by in Overwatch as it is in League. Do people want to play her? Probs not, but did people want SOMEONE to play her while they played Genji? Yeah.

In Sona's case, there is literally NEVER a time someone will want Sona on their team during a draft. We could say the same for some other champs, but in their cases, it's not because "they're useless" more than it's because "I don't want them to feed."

Infernape1 votes

I kinda want Sona to be like Invoker from DotA but with music. She mixes different notes to make a song and each song has a different effect.

Summonah123691 votes

MasterYi Most of his abilities are just buffs, the rest are an attack that doesn't even need to be landed as a skillshot and the other is a free heal.

Teridax682 votes

This is also true, Master Yi's design is lacking in real gameplay and interactivity, which is why he often alternates between being crappy or incredibly unfun to play against. His innate defenses aren't really implemented in a manner that lets him avoid all the damage he needs to, and because almost all of his power is put into autoattacks, there's not much his opponents can do to outplay him. He needs a rework too.

chipndip11 votes

Difference: Riot's shown interest in overhauling this champion. No one has for Sona...or any enchanter at all, honestly...

Teridax681 votes

I can agree with this, the problem with Sona is that while her theme is awesome, its implementation has always been lacking. Most of us are familiar with the bard archetype, who inspires allies with different tunes and bolsters their strength with their own presence, but no designer in League thus far has been able to truly capture that, with the power we've gotten mostly being just stat auras. The fact that Sona's design is diluted in just about the worst possible way only makes the problem worse: all of her abilities are made to be a) spammable, b) AoE, and c) split into three separate components, which means none of her power can truly feel all that impactful, even if statistically she's quite strong.

Personally, I think Riot should take a page from Lúcio in Overwatch, and give Sona a small yet persistent aura that she can toggle with one of her abilities, while giving her entirely different other actives with their own gameplay. Here's a quick-and-dirty example:

  • Innate - Song of Celerity: Sona is surrounded by a persistent aura that increases the movement speed of all allies within, including herself.
  • Q - Power Chord: Sona empowers her next basic attack to deal bonus magic damage and either slow the target or strip them of a portion of their resistances, depending on when the chord is struck in tune with her song.
  • W - Aria of Perseverance: Sona creates a barrier around her aura that lasts for a few seconds and stops all incoming projectiles, breaking after taking a set amount of damage. This does not block any damage done inside the aura.
  • E - Hymn of Valor: Passively, Song of Celerity's bonus movement speed is increased. Toggling this ability switches between the Song of Celerity and the Hymn of Valor, changing the bonus Sona provides within her aura. Hymn of Valor causes the basic ability cooldowns of all allies within, including Sona's, to recharge faster.
  • R - Crescendo: Same as now, without the passive.
chipndip11 votes

For some reason, Riot stated that Sona's current ult eats a ton of her potential power budget, so I'd honestly be fine with them changing it.

Also, if she doesn't have something she can effectively do without spamming AA's, she's gonna go round in a loop.

Main starting point for dealing with the champ is that her passive needs to be changed somehow. It's not good for a support champion. If a better passive and ult can be thought up, I imagine it can go from there.

Teridax681 votes

{quoted}

For some reason, Riot stated that Sona's current ult eats a ton of her potential power budget, so I'd honestly be fine with them changing it.

That's fair. Personally, I'd still want to keep Sona's ability to force people to dance, so if it needs its power budget reduced, Sona could just force everyone around her to dance, including allies, so basically pause the battlefield instead of just stunning enemies.

{quoted}

Also, if she doesn't have something she can effectively do without spamming AA's, she's gonna go round in a loop.

I think it's fine for Sona to spend a lot of her time just moving to allies, since inspiring nearby people with music is her thing. That's also why I still kept two of her abilities focused on her aura, even though she should still have more things to do overall.

{quoted}

Main starting point for dealing with the champ is that her passive needs to be changed somehow. It's not good for a support champion. If a better passive and ult can be thought up, I imagine it can go from there.

Agreed, Power Chord isn't really the best passive for a support and doesn't really achieve her musical theme well either. What are your thoughts on the kit I proposed?

La Bello1 votes

A big dream of mine was always that some day Riot would do some work on the enchanter class and I've been asking for it for about a couple years now.

Karma - lost all gameplay identity. Is the definition of generic. No more Ally links or Jebaiting people with last minute shieldbomb,nukes and heals ala Martyr from Heroes of Newerth (anyone remember that dude?) Lulu - Has the answer to everything and by far the most flexible support imo. bar none of the best supports in the game and this showed best during her reign of terror in the solo lanes. Also in my personal opinion Polymorph should not be a point n click. Jesus christ that ability is aids to play against. anyways her strengths should be narrowed. Why does E grant vision? Why does Poly Morph double as a ally castable speedup skill? Why not put THAT on "HELP PIX!" and have Poly be purely a enemy transmog spell? Should Lulu really give bonus AS when Help Pix already gives bonus damage on basic attacks? Lulu just does way too much.... Janna shield it to win it gameplay. ultra frustrating design that wants nothing more than to humiliate and blue ball the enemy repeatedly. Janna E is like the epitome of whats wrong with current Enchanter design imo (spam one Heal/Shield ability on your carry off cooldown to auto win which is further reinforced by the DESIGN of enchanter items which all increase shield and heal amounts). its like the antithesis of Braum Alistar Bard Rakan Taric Poppy who rely on careful timing,spacing and mechanics to keep their carry alive and kicking in the face of danger. Yeah fuck that shit. Im just gonna give my guy twice his HP in temporary health. Sona - Support Udyr made for scaling. Once the item 3174 and item 3048 + rank 3 ult + 45% CDR kicks in hoo baby are you gonna see the magic happen. She heals,she slows,she has exhaust as a basic ability,she amplifies damage, she stuns. Swiss Army knives of supports. Interesting thing here is that she shares a LOT of qualities with Nami however I think is far more interesting to play both with and against than Sona. Soraka - death of the laning phase. Without GWounds to stop her she feels utterly unfair and OP. AGAINST GWounds she feels neutered and useless. Not really a in between but then again thats kinda the entire design of G-Wounds and why Riot should just remove it and balance healing properly. OH also playing around her global R is ultra frustrating gameplay. They should honestly just yoink Wish from her kit and give her Kindred's R when Kindred eventually gets reworked. I think Kindred's no-death field makes 10X more sense on the pacifist goat. On a side note anyone else find is annoying that the counterplay to Soraka is to focus her BEFORE her allys BUT everything in her kit is dedicated to peeling herself ?

BONUS: https://youtu.be/6iY7q6OMTwg

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