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Sona Rework: Gains and Losses

Adrian Umbra·8/4/2014, 2:39:40 PM·5 votes·1,038 views

Since the Sona QQ seems to have died down a bit, I figured it might be a good idea to talk rationally about exactly what Sona gained and what she lost so that I can understand the ideas of the designers, the people saying she's OP, and the people saying she's UP a little better. Many of these changes are not direct nerfs or buffs, so it's up to the playerbase to decide what they mean. I'll be saying my two cents at the end.

Gains: 3 more base armor (12 -> 15) 7 more health per level (70 -> 77, offsetting the health she lost at level 4) Higher potential burst on her Q (with auto), especially in combination with at least one ally (10+.25AP damage at all levels for Sona alone, an additional 20-60+.25AP damage per ally in addition) % Missing health healing, changed scaling so that heal now has more base damage at level 5. A shield on W for 35-115+.2AP damage (AoE) that lasts for 1.5 seconds % speed bonus instead of flat (Easily more4 powerful as the old buff, though with MS decay) Higher scaling on E Crescendo now gives extra damage, healing, and MS NEW ANIMATIONS

Losses: "Permanent" Auras Tower Pushing Ability Aura Range (350 range versus 1000) +50% power chord damage with Q instead of +100% 27 health at base, offset by level 4 1 more second cooldown on Q (7 -> 8) 10-50 damage with a "safe poke" on Q Flat AP and AD 3 more second cooldown on W (7 -> 10) .05AP on W's ratio 10 higher mana cost at all levels Flat armor and MR 5 more second cooldown on E (7 -> 12)

Having played her some since her release (not going to claim mastery, so think of this as the concerns of a casual Sona player), my main concerns are highlighted above. First: the good news. The new Q is awesome when people remember to auto an enemy with it, as the damage is made up with a straight up auto. I am worried about how AP characters seem to have been shafted here (compared to 20 AP), but overall I like it. The new animations, especially Crescendo, are awesome. Loading some of her pre 6 abilities' power onto Crescendo was a strange move, but it also helps her to keep scaling throughout the game.

Now, what worries me. She lost permanent auras, which means that, combined with her higher cooldowns, she actually tends to have downtime where you're not benefitting your team at all. Unless you take Ryze-like consideration into account for skill rotations, you will likely have time where all your abilities are on CD and you have no auras up, which feels weird compared to old Sona. Many of my in game frustrations with her revolved around those much longer cooldowns and made me feel FAR less useful than I did with old Sona.

Your aura ranges are less than an auto range for any ranged champ, which means you pretty much need to have your face in a teamfight to give people your bonuses. As powerful as those bonuses are, I feel like a lot of their power is going to waste because you can never actually seem to reach people in time to get that extra length of time on your auras. While hugging people is nice, I don't really feel you should need to be hugging your teammates to give them your bonuses.

Sona lost her flat AD, AP, Armor, MR, and tower pushing ability. 20 AD was a very nice boon for pushing down towers that Sona no longer provides, taking away the utility she used to bring to a push or siege comp. She also loses fairly considerable durability, made worse with a mysterious 1-3 phase where designers decided she should be squishier. While this is somewhat offset by the personal armor boost and the shield, it's quite noticeable in lane when I get jumped because that Thresh just landed a flash hook or teamfights when my shield gets torn through like tissue paper because I'm shielding my ADC, who has no resistances.

Please correct me if you feel that I am wrong on any of these points, but based on what I'm seeing and my personal experiences, Sona is just too squishy to make this style work (5th lowest health at level 1, 7th lowest at level 18). Too much relies on her getting both AP (better bonuses) and durability, which isn't going to happen on a support's income. Any assassin is going to take her out in a second unless she's building full tank. The higher cooldowns make her generally feel less useful and while, yes, that's the price we pay for more powerful abilities, I'd rather see lower power on those abilities and lower cooldowns so that she can keep being useful as a support. I'd like to see higher durability on her because she's still squishy and now being put into the middle of teamfights to remain useful, which is a fact that should not be paired with a long range mage's squishiness.

While her level 1 teamfighting ability has gotten substantially better, I feel that Sona has gotten substantially weaker overall. She's countered by assassins, tanks, and AoE teams of all kinds and flavors. The bonuses she offers, while powerful, are so difficult to effectively apply, especially in chaotic environments like solo queue, that much of her power goes to waste. With the new Sona, I feel we need to get rid of (or reduce) some of those glaring built in weaknesses, polish up some of her strengths, and remove that recommended tag, as she's no longer the beginner level support she was.

Agree or disagree, please keep discussion civil and if you feel she was trashed, focus on what we can do to fix her problems instead of whining. If you feel she's already strong, feel free to convince me as to why. If you feel I missed anything from above, please let me know and I will add it in.

7 Comments

MooseChangerPat8/4/2014, 5:23:41 PM3 votes

You've brought up many excellent points that I'm seeing agreed upon by a good majority of the people who have discussed this so far. You were saying that he e was a percentage, but I was fairly certain that had actually been changed in a previous patch before the rework, because I seem to remember doing percentage movement speed before this rework :|a But perhaps my memory is simply failing me. I used to love using boots of mobility with captain enchantment, and making my entire team move so fast it felt like Sivir had used her ult on us. Though... now without the constant auras that's no longer really possible, because it's only really good for a few split seconds in pretty much emergency situations.

Her current play style is really much more fit for a tank than a squishy support/mage like Sona, and while there is the argument going around that Sona can buff her whole team with barriers... I find that her ability to do so it far less impressive than someone like Lux, or Janna who can barrier and increase the champion's attack hugely. One of the big things about her q that's really different is the lack of ap additions, so mage characters find the buff practically useless whereas before it could give them just that extra little kick they might need to their spells. Perhaps if her q's aura could boost her allies spell damage it might be a bit more useful, but everything feels like a hollow echo of what they once were. The cooldown times are just so damn long... and it makes her passive much more difficult to use effectively as a result. How do you get the three spells off for a powerchord when it takes 12 seconds for the e to come back, and 16 seconds to use her q twice.

I'm fairly certain she's going to see a bit more work in the days to come to help fix her up to the point where she's actually a bit more viable, but certain aspects I know are never going to be the same. I was half tempted to ask Riot for a refund for Sona and her skins, even though I found out somewhere that they no longer do that for reworked champions like they used to. Truth be told though, I'm still too attached to Sona, I have every skin for her and in spite of everything she is still my favorite champion, though her power levels definitely leave something to be desired as it currently stands. Most supports have the capability to be a solo laner if they really wanted to since they can be mages or fighters, but Sona doesn't really scale well enough with her ap abilities to really stand alone, and her abilities have and always will be meant to help her team. With the nerf to her power chord on q she no longer really has the personal burst potential she once had, when combined with a lich bane... or even a trinity force for those people who decided to use AD Sona. Ahh AD sona... those were some funny times. People could use her q's extra attack damage, her decent autoattack range, and her speed boosts and slows to use her as an ad champ with some bizarre utility. The current playstyle just shuts down so many roads and possibilities that could have once been, and while I know riot likes to keep characters in a certain niche, there's a part of me that really loves taking champs and using them in ways people never would think would be a viable way of doing things.

Leagues is indeed a team game, but I feel that every champion needs some potential to be able to hold their own without an ally, because sometimes your ally just isn't as skillful, or they get so focused with all their ults that you can't save them. There's quite a few champs that have the ability to really punish them for that, supports even, but I feel Sona has always been rather lackluster in that regard, but perhaps that's just me.

What I do know for certain is that Sona as she currently stands needs a lot of help. I keep trying to play her, and she is quite a bit different than she used to be, and some of it is actually pretty decent. However if the enemy team knows what they're doing it's all too easy to shut Sona down with her innate squishyness.

Khmera8/8/2014, 9:48:02 AM3 votes

Yeah I've posted a lot about her 350 aura range and the range on her E which both feel really short. Also I don't feel her E aura is as full of potential, but that's just me. 500 range on her aura should do the trick while still keeping her vulnerability. She has some liberty with that range. Also I thought her E aura could add a 5 - 10 - 15% reduction on movement hindering spells like slows and snares. Just food for though.

Pika3108/5/2014, 6:00:47 AM2 votes

Higher potential burst on her Q (with auto), especially in combination with at least one ally (10+.25AP damage at all levels for Sona alone, an additional 20-60+.25AP damage per ally in addition)

Correcting this misconception is getting old, but I'll do it again:

Players will only benefit from Hymn if they're able to auto-attack and only if Sona can get close enough to press her bosom against them to apply the effect in the first place. AA-based champions prioritize AS, they won't care much if a singular hit does slightly more, especially if it's unaffected by crit chance. Skill-based champs will string in an auto here and there, but the main source of their DPS is abilities which gain no benefit at all. On the low-end of the spectrum, long-range mages that can't risk getting into AA range at all have lost all boosts from Sona entirely.

And then there's this:

Her level 1 trade of Auto, Q, Auto as was calculated by at least 3 different people on opposite sides of the discussion. I'll assume a flat 5 AP from Spellthief's Edge to eliminate unknown factors like runes and masteries whilst still including some ratio.

New Sona: 50 x 2 damage from auto attacks 40 + 2 bolt damage (13 +1) x 1.5 damage from Staccato 20 + 1 damage from (non)aura effect 30 damage from Edge's passive = 214 total damage

Old Sona: +4 AD/AP from Aura (50 + 4) x 2 AA 50 + 4.5 bolt (13 + 1.8) x 2 Staccato 30 Edge = 222.1

ShadowGlaive2138/4/2014, 9:41:05 PM1 votes

Bring back the old kit and give it new VFX. A lot of old Sona's power was in her persistent auras, but it wasn't visible. I've said in many posts that I think the primary reason a lot of players didn't appreciate Sona's power was because they couldn't see it. Showing who is being affected by her auras would allow players to see and realize what she's doing, and appreciation would soon follow imo.