Honestly: Sona's current situation is a hot mess

I'ma be real when I say that I already made a "Honestly" thread with Sona as the topic, but there's a lot to touch on here. Besides, I know you guys hate whenever Sona mains, however niche they are, get all in your posts in all caps and long paragraphs about how a 53% win rate or so champion is magically the weakest champ in the game. So I'm making this thread for everyone's sake when I say that Sona's current state is a hot mess.

Whatever Sona does feels weak and meaningless for way too long. Look at Rakan and Taric. THOSE are how you make late-game scaling supports. Look at Sona. That's everything you DON'T do. Taric scales to late, and his early DOES feel shitty, but those ults feel super impactful even at level 6, and it only gets better as it goes on. Rakan also does well in the late game, but his W, E, and R make for climactic moments even in earlier levels if you manage it. Sona's kit is done in a way that people won't notice I'm doing shit until I'm sitting on core items or I killed the enemy champ. Now, this sort of changed up after preseason took out a lot of mr and buffed STE's damage while adding Aery and Scorch, so people at least notice her Q, but the general issue of having really wimpy, uninteresting game play generally persists.

Her current kit completely contrasts Riot's balancing goals. Riot balances around pro, high, and low elo. Sona's kit really only works for 1 out of 3 of these realms at all times in its current state. Right now she's tuned to be good in high elo, right? She's a fucking monster in Gold and below, and she's a fucking joke in pro play. Sure, we won't see a 1:1 translation between these three realms of balancing for most champs, but Sona's kit is just impossible to handle in a way that's appreciable. If she's OK for low elo, we get the other Sona before the mini-rework. This Sona's good for high elo solo queue, but bad for the other two. There's no conceivable way to balance this champ in a way that works for more than one general tier, but we're all content with this?

Part two of the previous bold-faced point. Riot has a music-based aura champion in a game where they removed every aura from it. When you guys made that move, wasn't that a good time to VGU this champ to not rely on the auras you guys hate so much, and do some other music-themed thing? Even now, a lot of Sona's contributions are hard for my allies to pick up on, and that was supposed to be one of the points of the initial VGU (clarity). If I Nami E my ally, they understand they're moving faster. If they hit someone and the enemy slows, they know to keep putting on pressure. If I have my little Powerchord on Sona and E an enemy, I have to flip a coin on if they'll pick up the message to charge or not, and I have to risk my neck and eat a ton of mana to just apply that slow in the first place. It's usually a coin flip on if my allies know I can slow enemies from the jump, honestly. My allies really don't pick up on what I do or what's the point of me being Sona outside of ults. This is frustrating for anyone.

Yes, there's MORE to talk about about contrasting Riot's ideals. Whatever happened to "decision making"? What happened to "mastery"? Even Annie has more crap she can mess up, miss, or master or in comparison to this champ. The only thing that really keeps Sona on a leash is her mana costs, but people buy tear and skate around that. Now she's just mashing in your face and as the game goes on, she gets more spells out. She doesn't even aim 75% of her kit. Like...I understand that Riot has other projects. Aatrox, Swain, Amumu, Rammus, Malphite, Nunu, Shaco if they're smart, LB needs another mini-rework, Rengar needs aid...I get it. Still, you guys HAD another shot when you guys went over Leona and Sona, and you did nothing but jumble a bunch of cds around and call it a mini-rework for the two. Idc if they're both strong atm, since that's mainly been caused by environmental changes after the fact (new itemization changes/new runes/etc.). Those two mini-reworks were disappointments. Honest opinion. In a game where we're supposed to weigh risks and reap rewards or eat shit, the main move for two champs was to make them more reliant on spamming moves off cd? Including one that doesn't aim her entire basic kit and passive? Am I crazy for thinking that was crazy? Am I really alone on that?

Sona's lacking a niche and has been for a few years now. There's no strong feel about when to play or not play Sona. There's not strong feel about when Sona's a good idea or a bad one. She's a massive generalist that just pumps numbers, but the way this is conveyed in the game makes people think she has a strategic niche. She doesn't, but she has a strong game play identity.

Compare to Karma, right? She has a well-defined niche as an early game bully that falls back into being an aoe shield/MS provider...but this game play doesn't resonate with Karma as a character. Her kit's visual and audio effects are flashy and satisfying, but the parts that make the whole are like generic brand nuts and bolts from Walgreens. She's like a super generic RPG mage...but she has a strategic niche. There's a point to picking her. You can say "We have little hard cc. I shouldn't play Karma atm since we can't peel carries well". With this said, what about Sona? All she does is spread effects all over everyone at a steadily increasing pace. I can't say for sure what she's really good at or good for, especially since that in and of itself changes drastically depending on the tier of play you're playing in.

If you ask me, my answer for "What to do for Sona" will always be "Rework the hell out of her, and put a skill shot in there this time". Idk if Riot's ever gonna be about that again, but in her current state...she's a hot mess.