Sona; A Gamplay Update
So Sona right now is a champion that requires no skill or thought process which makes her insanely easily to pick and play, but has no mastery curve whatsoever. A champion with no mastery curve means you can never make a champion like this ever super strong and can never gain power within her kit, whether she needs it or not is besides the point. My ideas are to give Sona a mastery curve, keeping in mind a somewhat easy to pick up and play champion, to allow Sona more interesting and unique elements and make her easier to balance with giving her the ability to allow someone with a hundred games on Sona be vastly better than someone with 10 games or less.
One idea is making her Q a "V" skill shot where the two bolts explode upon contact in a small AoE or end of their range and then release a single target homing missile in a slightly larger area prioritizing champions; something like this will add a skill element to Sona, keep her easy to play, and allow better balancing for the spell since rather than "just don't be near Sona" the counter play is just do not be near where the bolts explode - on a Sona aspect it will allow for some cool trick shots you can do with it and feel more rewarding than simply "press Q and face roll".
NOTE: Numbers are to give a better idea of my ideas and of course nothing is set in stone so take nothing to absolute heart.
Basic Attack Range: 550 units Movement: 335 units per second
Echoing Strikes (Passive): Range: 1000 units Whenever Sona or a nearby ally champion basic attacks a target they mark it for up to 2.5 seconds.
Every different friendly champion, including Sona, that basic attacks the marked target deals 1%(+1% per 150AP) of its maximum health as bonus magic damage on-hit stacking up to 10 times as long as basic attacks from different friendly champions keep alternating on that enemy. The value resets back to zero if friendly champion basic attacks stop alternating or the enemy stops being attacked by a champion basic attack in the last 2.5 seconds.
Hymn of Power (Q): Cooldown: 7/6/5/4/3 seconds; Cost: 60 Mana; Range: 750 / 75 / 400 units Sona sends out two powerful bolts of sound in a V-skill shot to explode at the end of their paths or the first enemy they struck in a small areas to deal 80/105/130/155/180(+50%AP) magic damage to struck enemies and then release a homing missile, prioritizing champions, to the nearest enemy in a larger area to mark it for up to 2 seconds.
Sona's or a friendly champion's next basic attack against these marked enemies consume the mark to deal 30/40/50/60/70(+20%AP) bonus magic damage on-hit.
Aria of Perseverance (W): Cooldown: 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds; Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 Mana; Range: 400 / 1000 units Sona heals a target friendly champion for 30/45/60/75/90(+15%AP) health, if the target is the most wounded champion within 1400 units then the heal doubles in value. Additionally shield units for 60/90/120/150/180(+50%AP) health for 2 seconds to all friendly units within 600 units of the target.
If the target was not Sona, then Sona gets healed for the same amount and is able to cast Aria of Perseverance again within the next 2 seconds sending a bolt of sound in the target direction based on the target's location to reduce all damage of the first enemy struck by 15/20/25/30/35%(+1% per 50AP) for 3 seconds.
Song of Celerity (E): Cooldown: 30/26/22/18/14 seconds; Cost: 85 Mana; Range: 650 units Sona plays a very motivating song lifting her own spirit and the spirits of nearby friendly units granting them 50%(+1% per 20AP) bonus movement speed for 3 seconds.
While the movement speed persists for friendly champions, including Sona, their next basic attack is charged allowing it to slow their target by 25/30/35/40/45%(+1% per 50AP) for 2 seconds.
Crescendo (R): Cooldown: 150/125/100 seconds; Cost: 100 Mana; Range: 1000 units Sona plays an irresistible chord in the target direction to deal 150/200/250(+40%AP) magic damage and cause struck enemies to dance for 1.75/2/2.25 seconds.
