I mean seriously, she doesn't really fit a niche anymore. There are other champions that can do what she does, but better.
Her poke is mediocre at best.
Her heal is underwhelming, especially considering it's mana cost.
Her identity.. well who the hell is Sona anymore anyway?
sk0 buffs22 votesI miss the old sona tbh
Rew7112 votesI'm not saying the old Sona wasn't nice but when I think hard into it, her heals out matched every champion. They were affective and short. The only competition was original Soraka, who I miss more, who could do better as support and gave back mana which was a nice thing to have. Zilean got hit the hardest because of his Q, and now he must use half his mana to deal the Q+W+Q to deal any good damage. It was his only attack spell, with the rest being a time reset that should just be his passive or another passive, his speed/slow, and revive. Taric was the second most gutted support. He can still heal, but not like Sona still can, gives some armor to allies (close) and to Tarice, and he has a stun plus a nice AD + AP boost. Now, if they need to gut all supports so they cannot go to other lanes like Zilean mid, then they should gut Braum so he cannot top like he does. I will also say that Lulu got it worse than Sona in power reduction.
I will end with this; Sona was only nerfed, and though it should stop and they should undo a few, she is still playable. Also, until I see more fair nerfs to champions like Fizz, Blitzcrank, and even Zed or buffs to champions like Dr Mundo, Zac, and Shen, I will just have to say we need to see how far this will go until they themselves realize the stupidity of all the nerfs in general.
rinsujo8 votesThey were supposed to - She's a traditional support. That;s who she is supposed to be. She didnt bring reliable CC, like taric. She didn't get tanky, like taric or braum. She and Old Soraka were the traditional supports. Heals, buffs, and one poke ability. Then Riot decided they didn't like that, so they reworked Soraka and gutted Sona.
Pika3103 votesThe only competition was original Soraka,
...and Nami. Nami was already better than Sona before she got nerfed on July 30th, this has only extended Nami's lead exponentially further ahead.
Taric was the second most gutted support. He can still heal, but not like Sona still can,
Taric heals himself + ally for 60 HP apiece, Sona only 30 HP. That and Taric has better AP scaling on his AND a bonus HP scaling. Taric has stronger abilities than Sona, he's more playable than she.
Rew7111 votesTaric has no better AP scaling. His heals go up from 80 to 120 mana. His cool down lasts longer than Sona's, so Sona can heal 60 HP faster than Taric and gives a bonus shield.
Nami, though, is still very new. I know she is in good competition but even her kit isn't as useful as Sona's.
Pika3103 votesYou do realize it's pointless to lie when the numbers are publicly available? If you're gonna continue propagandizing falsities, at least use ones that aren't so painfully transparent:
Meanwhile, Nami has 2x as much damage/healing as Sona, hard pre-6 CC, a longer duration/more accessible slow, greater spell range, more frequent MS boosts, lower mana costs, higher base mana/MS/base HP/armor-per-lvl/AD and a stronger ult.
Vesarixx2 votesA lot of people miss the old Sona, Fearless is definitely not everyones favorite Rioter
Diostukos21 votesWhat I found funny was that they said they felt Q was pushing out her other abilities from being leveled as much; so instead of buffing them they nerfed Q...without any compensation nerfs.
Pika3108 votesThis and they gave it the lowest cooldown. It's hilarious how Riot is the one creating the same issues they themselves are crying about.
Alljoy2 votesAre they nerfing her Q again or..?
All I heard about were the MS speed and W nerfs.
Pika3107 votesStaccato is being nerfed AGAIN. From 50% down to -> 40%, an entire fifth of what it has left from the July 30th nerfs.
Alljoy3 votesAw.
At this rate.. but I don't want to find another main. : (
Pika3108 votesGonna have to just bite your lip and give up on Sona. That's what Riot wants for us, to stop playing her.
Demonsolder213 votesNuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Are we to sit down and watch as Riot takes away our waifu?! NO! Are we sit down and not say anything as they destroy our waifus identity?! NO! Are to not act as Riot slowly sends her into oblivion?!
Is no one going to defend our Sona?
Today its Sona but tomorrow it will be your favorite champion that will be next! What will you say than?
rinsujo7 votesLook at Cassio. You think we have a choice in this? They rework whoever they please and ignore the mains until new players come and say 'she's ok, why are people complaining?' And then they go "see, she's fine."
If they screw up Diana when they rework her, I'll have lost more champs than I've kept. And that's probably what will get me to quit playing.
Demonsolder212 votesBut but but don't we have a say in this? If not than what is the point of the PBE.
rinsujo7 votesExcellent question. But Riot Jag said in another thread last week MS nerfs are going live, screw what you guys think. Forgive my cynicism, but i don't see riot listening to us much anymore.
Demonsolder212 votesSo what am I supposed to sit down and watch as they transform my favorite support champion into something thats weaker.
rinsujo5 votesIf you can think of a way to get riot to change her, be my guest. I just got tired of talking to a wall. If you have the tenacity to talk to a wall, be my guest. I'm just getting bitter and cynical about the whole mess. I wish you the best of luck.
Pika3106 votesThe unanimous feedback on PBE was that the Sona "rework" was a terrible failure. Riot blatantly ignored them and prematurely rushed it to live. Fearless said he intentionally ignored feedback because the new visual effects were more important to him than her viability.
Hard Penetrator16 votesSona used to be quite fun when you could actually poke enemy adc. Now with targon heal it feels terribly infective. Her ult used to be one of the most powerful in the game, now its just "meh". Her "aura bot" during Bulwark "must have year", felt pretty plain but hey, at least your team was actually much stronger with you around. Sona playmaking options are really limited to flash ult. Her only defence is also ult, i don't even know how to pick her and have a good time.
Hèrmit1 votesHaha, her ult was COMPLETELY unchanged. Anyway read my top post you silly goose.
Pika3108 votesHe didn't say it was changed. It's just not as useful anymore due to power-creep. He even said it's the only playmaking she has left, which it is.
Hard Penetrator7 votesChampions changed, back then Sona was going against champions like annie, chogat, galio or xin now she has to go against really mobile champions with dashes that can not only easily get to her but its much harder to pin them down. What's more there are currently 3! tanky supports with dash that just beat sona at any stage of the game. Braum, Thresh and Leona have multiple forms of HARD cc, aoe, higher base dmg, ability to peel AND they can initiate.
It's really hard to feel useful when you see braum going in after ult, shielding some big projectile with his e and stun your carry with his passive while having 150 armor/def thanks to his W.
Meanwhile sona is like: I am pressing buttons guys, they don't do much right now but im doing my best, just wait 3 min and I will heal you all.
ImpossibleGT16 votesHer cooldowns are too crippling. Even with max CDR she can't stance-dance fast enough to use multiple power chords a fight. She is literally the definition of a one-trick-pony now: use ult, spam skills, power chord once, run away and hope you didn't get blown up between steps 1 and 4.
rinsujo12 votesI'm going to repost something i posted on a thread earlier this week about the nerfs - I posted it late enough it got buried so no one ever saw it.
The way I used to play Sona was as a big blue butterfly. I flitted around the edges of the team, keeping them carefully in range of my auras, while still being very careful not to get flanked, caught out, or on the front edge of the fight. I wanted to stay in range of my carry foremost, but also keep close enough to the front so that my limited range heal could aid my tanks who were (hopefully) taking most of the damage. I needed to be close enough to my Assassins to give them movespeed to get in (and if i could position well enough, OUT sometimes too) to the other team - and i had to cover the backlines with my damage aura all while looking to position for an ult. IT WAS INSANE - BUT I LOVED IT. Support Sona is what i mained in late s2 and early s3. PASSIVE wasn't the way she played. It was situational. When i heard about the changes i was actually happy - Visible auras would make all that positioning easier! Changes to her abilities was ok - I had a 95% win rate in ARAM with her - ARAM nerfs were justified. And a shield would probably counteract the heal nerfs, right? Then i got to see the changes in game. "So... where's the range indicator for the FULL range of her Aura? What do you mean 'That's it.'??! Why isn't my heal going off? I CAN SEE THE MANA COST WHERE'S THE HEAL?!! I've barely played her since. That wasn't a rework, in my opinion, it was a total gutting. Inexperienced players probably do benefit from the rework - visible auras make her easier to play, removing global cooldowns makes it easier to spam switch abilities, and if you die every 30 seconds you dont have to worry about running out of mana. For the experienced Sonas though? You destroyed her. You took her from situational adjustments to teamfights and turned her into "Either sit back and let your carry farm, or all in and hope your carry survives after you flash-ult-q-auto and then pop in 1.25 seconds." And the 'snuggle zones' arent very snuggly against- (and i'm only listing supports here) Thresh - close positioning increases the odds of his flay and hooks hitting. Nami - small bubble? no problem, just aim for sona! same with her w. and ult. Fiddle - silence crow - aim for sona, free damage onto the carry! or ult. Morg - pool for two please. (ult) Zyra - plants, plants everywhere. aoe q. aoe ult. if she's good at positioning (like a former sona main) she can root you both. Leona - because aoe damage and an easy target to jump to - also, ult. Taric - aoe armor shred (implying sona has armor) - also ult. Alistar - double knockup Annie - aoe stun is strong enough without taking into account her insane damage, ability to get tanky, or tibbers. Blitz - see thresh. substitute 'ult' for flay. Karma - mantra'd q, anyone? Janna - double or nothing tornados New Soraka - Aoe silence - aoe q. Zilean - can he bomb-reset-bomb faster than your w? of course he can. Lux - see Morg - add a second snare.
She isn't fun anymore Riot. I didn't play Trundle. I rarely played Karma (still upset). I rarely played Cassio (still upset). I didn't read the JoJ (still upset). But I used to be able to say I was a Sona main. That one really hurt.
I miss my old Sona.
iConcy9 votesSona is useless. If you want heals, play soraka they're far superior, if you want poke play morg or janna, if you want freelo - i mean cc play leona. I dont even see thresh much anymore.
GaleWinUnleashed6 votesI would argue that Janna's poking ability kinda sucks. I love playing Janna, but I really don't do much damage in lane. Fantastic utility, yes, but damage is not her strong suit.
Pika3104 votes...and yet she still has higher damage potential than Sona, who's meant as a poke support... Sona can't even do the one thing she's meant to anymore.
worldwar1 gunner1 votesWill you guys have never play Janna mid her damage if you build damage is good.
Pika3102 votesI've played Janna mid, it's really fun and hilarious to see her grab triple kills. That and laugh as the enemy team desperately tries to push when each wave dies in 1 Q.
SexyTaylorSwift9 votesWell yeah. Thresh is dominating bot lane, so the obvious solution is to nerf Sona. I don't get why people don't understand rito logic by now.
Rinky Dinky6 votesSona is inferior Nami.
Overused r00d dude response aside, Sona wont have a purpose until her aura's actually get unique buffs,
61413860_DEL5 votesHonestly, as much as I like playing Sona, I have to admit that it's not a great laning phase early, especially not if you're against a blitzcrank or leona (or just all-in champions in general). Braum is also pretty hard to deal with. Her early game q doesn't do as much damage as I'd like to do, and sometimes champs with knock ups, or just cc makes life so much harder. Most matchups I play as Sona don't always go that great anymore, mainly because sona's always been pretty squishy and it's pretty hard to use your abilities before going oom. I just rush a chalice now, even before the sightstone... Idk that's just me, though. Everyone has different opinions.
Rainbowgasm5 votesmake her have no skills, instead, people who play her will play random songs guitar hero style.
the better they do, the more awesome the music she plays becomes.
oh wait she's supposed to be useful.
Pika3106 votesI don't know, that sounds pretty useful to me. With lively music playing, her teammates' morale will probably make them a lot stronger than her weak abilities currently do.
#BetterNerfGuitarHero
Lystrates4 votesThe Main and undeniable problem is that Sona is super weak until late-mid or late game. She can poke a little bit, and that's it. She is the only Support that needs to be carried to late game because she does not really offer anything herself.
Once Sona has a lot AP, the heal/shield is actually useful, the speed boost is actually useful and the Q does serious damage.
But that does not justify the fact that the heal/shield is non-existent early game, her speed boost is the worst of any other movement skill in the game, and her only semi-useful skill is her Q.
Furthermore, all AP Supports should have a spamable hard CC (Nami bubble, Morg bind, Lulu polymorph, Zyra root).
Right now there is no justification for picking Sona unless you want your team to carry you to late game - and the meta has nothing to do with it. Sona is just plain weak early game.
I am honestly not sure how she went through a rework and is in that terrible state. When you do a rework and do it wrong you are supposed to go back and fix it. You don't say "ok I am done with the rework, even though it was a failure, but simply because its done in name only, we will never go back again and fix it". What is really frustrating is that other champions get multiple balancing changes until their are just right, but when they make changes to AP Supports (Lulu anyone?) they give it one try, and then move on even if it totally fails and destroys the Champion.
Pika3103 votesbut when they make changes to AP Supports (Lulu anyone?) they give it one try, and then move on even if it totally fails and destroys the Champion.
...and yet Lulu still sees far more professional play than Sona, even to this day. Even Lulu is more viable in the support role than Sona, which says a lot.
Tin Tarantino4 votesI'm going to keep posting this in the hopes that Riot will actually be able to balance Sona properly instead of just nerfing her to the ground. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/abXPdY0E-riot-an-open-letter-on-fostering-a-healthy-playstyle-for-sona
worldwar1 gunner2 votesthis post is bitching about a champ that has one of the most oped ults still even with the nerfs over the years. Also her poke is nerfed, but she isn't meant to be played with every adc anymore. She is still good with champs like 
these adcs match her play style really well and when playing against a champ with low poke or a sup who is squishy or lack of ingage she does well. I think people are just mad that she does not do over powering damage anymore, but really she still does a lot.
commit an hero6 votes[{quoted}](name=worldwar1 gunner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=uIQBmQes,comment-id=0014,timestamp=2015-01-14T14:07:08.241+0000)
this post is bitching about a champ that has one of the most oped ults still even with the nerfs over the years. Also her poke is nerfed, but she isn't meant to be played with every adc anymore. She is still good with champs like
If her ult is all she's got then that's pathetic.
She is squishy as fuck yet has to literally be next to her team's balls to make a difference.
She is completely lackluster.
Anti14601 votesgo ap and get a lich bane. sona then will rape ppl
It Is I Emoto6 votesYeah her Q would do tons of damage, yet her w and e would be even more bland compared to Q with lich bane.
Hèrmit1 votesHuh? Lich Bane helps Sona a lot. You do realize that all of her abilities and her utility scales off of AP? You also realize that Chalice scales off of missing mana and she's quite mana hungry now?
rinsujo3 votesShe's always been mana hungry to people who just spammed spells. That's what distinguished the Sona MAINS from the people who owned Sona. Lich Bane isn't really viable on a support, unless you're going full ap mage support, in which case Annie, Morg, heck even Lulu work a lot better, with more than a single damage ability each, and decent scaling of utility too, instead of a decent Q and lackluster W/E. It's annoying that - as a former Sona main - a build that was reserved for games where you had your adc 10/0 by 7 minutes is now considered the default. S3 gold changes made her stronger, but she didn't deserve to get gutted for that.
ImpossibleGT4 votesShe's always been mana hungry to people who just spammed spells. That's what distinguished the Sona MAINS from the people who owned Sona. Lich Bane isn't really viable on a support, unless you're going full ap mage support, in which case Annie, Morg, heck even Lulu work a lot better, with more than a single damage ability each, and decent scaling of utility too, instead of a decent Q and lackluster W/E.
I think that's what Riot is going for, though. They seem to think she should be built full AP and are adjusting her accordingly. I don't know about you guys, but the only time I bought AP was if something went DRASTICALLY wrong during the game, like my ADC disconnected. Yeah, her old auras had a lot of invisible power, but without them she's seriously lacking. She lacks the damage potential of mage-supports and the utility of actual supports so she's just sort of... there. She can do things, but she can't do anything better than others.
Pika3103 votesI don't know about you guys, but the only time I bought AP was if something went DRASTICALLY wrong during the game,
Either that or if something went extremely well. Pre-July 30th, an average Sona game for me would be back-to-back double kills bot lane and I'd instantly be the most powerful champion in the game. I'd proceed to be the true carry, ending games with 18 kills and 1v1ing anyone on the enemy team.
This Sona can't do that, she's been nerfed too many times and lacks the necessary tools and damage to be of any use anymore.
DPRKSpy1 votesDat muse sona loading screen doe :D
squirrelah1 votesbuild AP
commit an hero6 votesbuild AP
That's not even remotely a good decision to just how lackluster she is.
And you can't just "build AP". If you do you'll miss out on all the utility from the support items.
All she is at this point is a flash ulti bot. There is nothing else really to her.