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Why do people still think sona is worthless?

NiamhNyx··13 votes·2,492 views

------ I have had quite a few people tell me in team builder "Sona is worthless, lowest stats and no sustain". But in the right hands, Sona is a powerhouse.

------ I feel like the people that think shes worthless as a support only build her as Full AP with a rushed Lichbane. A lot of people don't know how to counter a Sona since her rework since a lot of people stopped playing her. It may just be my experience with Sona, but if you build her as a support, not "FULL AP YOLO", shes extremely strong out side of ARAM.

------ You don't need to build full ap for Sona poke to dominate early game, my poke is still relevant mid-late game cause i know what I'm doing. Every sona i have faced this patch (four of em to be exact) rushed ap and lichbane, yes they hurt like hell early game, but late game they fell off to being nothing but a small annoyance. Build her right and play her smart and not many other support champs will stand a chance.

------ I have plenty of games with Sona that prove this. 67% win rate and i bounce around from 5:1 - 6:1 KDA. ill even show my last 4 games with Sona, http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2012083523/201886191?tab=overview 0/1/25 WIN http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2011854446/201886191?tab=overview 1/0/6 WIN http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2011766394/201886191?tab=overview 0/7/18 LOSS http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2011539234/201886191?tab=overview 1/6/29 WIN The last one here was kinda unfair, they were having a bad game and Kali was just going to town. The two tears were for Diana, she kept focus killing me so I just put up in chat "Diana you make me cry" lol.

------ But as you can see, Sona is not worthless if you know what your doing. Ardent Censer : To any champ you heal or shield: Boosts attack speed by 15% and gives them 30 magic damage on hit. Guess what, Sona can heal one person but shield EVERYONE. Other supports don't really have that option on a 7 second cooldown. RIOT DON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM US SONA MAINS. Sona can now heal pretty well with the heal increase on the Keystone mastery.

----- For Sona all you really need for the base build is Eye of Watchers, Ardent Censer, and your choice of Mobi or Swift boots. I usually go swift just to counter slows but I do get mobi when I want to be race car Sona. Err, well you don't need to rush them, but they are very good for Sona. After that depending on the team your facing, Heralds, FH, Locket, ect. Mines usually like Watchers, Censer, FH, Swiftboots. If your team is undoubtedly gonna win when you get that far, the last two items can be like Rabadons+Ludens, or Rabadon+Lich, or Ludens+Lich. I have pretty much full mana regen runes if your wondering why I dont get chalice. I have 10 mana per second after I complete the Eye of Watchers (my first full item).

30 Comments

Uiraya10 votes

Person on boards: "guys I think Sona is usable" Riot: "Thanks for the tip" Next patch: /sona nerfs

NiamhNyx3 votes

{quoted}

Person on boards: "guys I think Sona is usable" Riot: "Thanks for the tip" Next patch: /sona nerfs

i will go to riot head quarters and throw a brick through their window if they nerf her

TheHypeGoku7 votes

Looking at your match history, you lose when enemy ADC is higher rank and win when your ADC is higher rank. Looks like you're just kind of jumping on the messed up matchmaking from team builder. Do this in ranked and see how well it goes. Also, considering that games don't last more than 25-30 minutes, yes Sona stays viable. But past that? Have fun. Playing team builder and saying Sona is viable (While playing mostly against silvers) does not mean jacksh*t.

Also, your ranked history suggest you are a bronze level player. A lot of picks are more viable in lower elo than in higher elo.

NiamhNyx2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Great Saint Paul,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ywf8qME8,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2015-11-17T15:01:05.331+0000)

Looking at your match history, you lose when enemy ADC is higher rank and win when your ADC is higher rank. Looks like you're just kind of jumping on the messed up matchmaking from team builder. Do this in ranked and see how well it goes. Also, considering that games don't last more than 25-30 minutes, yes Sona stays viable. But past that? Have fun. Playing team builder and saying Sona is viable (While playing mostly against silvers) does not mean jacksh*t.

Also, your ranked history suggest you are a bronze level player. A lot of picks are more viable in lower elo than in higher elo.

God i hate people like you. I dont play ranked unless my friend wants me to so who give a shit about that. Sona may not be viable for YOU, why? cause almost all you at "higher elo" blindly follow the play styles deemed as the right way to play by the pros.

I play games with silver to plat in normals. Me not being ranked does NOT mean that I have no clue what im doing.

If you really want to try and be the one that only cares about stats ill give you my normal win percentage, again since i don't play ranked unless asked. (added team builder and normal queue) 918 matches and won 567 of them... hmm 61% win rate, so i obviously dont seem to know what works for my play style, all the gold and plats i face must have bought their accounts from ebay and maybe i need to start blindly following the pros too... not.

Get the hell out of here if your gonna be one of those ass holes who thinks just because someone is unranked they have no say in viable champions.

Amelie4 votes

I don't think you understand; he wasn't trying to be insulting. Teambuilder is just fancy blind pick. Try playing Sona in draft or ranked and you will see that you get hard countered very easily. Utility builds vs those types of teams are beyond useless, and only AP Sona has a chance to provide anything to her team. Unless her team is already very good and outclasses the enemy.

I used to main Sona, but gave her up after the rework. I loved to build her utility, as you do, but it simply doesn't work well enough in my Plat+ games. The enemy knows how to utterly destroy her, and it feels horrible.

NiamhNyx1 votes

{quoted}

I don't think you understand; he wasn't trying to be insulting. Teambuilder is just fancy blind pick. Try playing Sona in draft or ranked and you will see that you get hard countered very easily. Utility builds vs those types of teams are beyond useless, and only AP Sona has a chance to provide anything to her team. Unless her team is already very good and outclasses the enemy.

I used to main Sona, but gave her up after the rework. I loved to build her utility, as you do, but it simply doesn't work well enough in my Plat+ games. The enemy knows how to utterly destroy her, and it feels horrible.

Thats why you find a playstyle that works. Seems 90% of league players lack the ability to do that. The pros found theirs, people just seem to copy and get blinded. You will eventually find a way that works. about 100 of my losses in normals are all fails to play sona. My current playstyle doesnt work against tahm at all, im not just gonna give it up, im gonna rework it till i find that sweet spot.

and when i say playstyle i dont mean just the build incase that what anyone is thinking.

Dominick Destine1 votes

{quoted}

Seems 90% of league players lack the ability to do that.

Talks trash about 90% of the League community's skill. Is Bronze level.

What even are you.... if you're going to talk smack about other players, at least have the courtesy to be skilled yourself....

NiamhNyx1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dominick Destine,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ywf8qME8,comment-id=00050000000000000000,timestamp=2015-11-17T22:09:17.008+0000)

Talks trash about 90% of the League community's skill. Is Bronze level.

What even are you.... if you're going to talk smack about other players, at least have the courtesy to be skilled yourself....

Im not ranked. if you think rank is all that matters go back to your 5 champ pool you damn sheep.

BastionKross2 votes

I would agree with this. Sona got quite a few indirect buffs with the new support items and that mastery that strengthens heals and shields, but she still needs more to be viable and competitive in most elo ranges.

The main thing wrong is that Sona needs to get dangerously close to an enemy to poke with her passive, since that (and a lichbane proc) is going to be a major source of her damage. The problem is that Sona is so delicate that any sort of cc will mean a swift death at that short of a range. Most competent opponents will recognize their opportunity when they see Sona has her passive charged, and a single Thresh hook is all that's needed to secure a kill.

Sona's got no mobility outside of her laughably weak E, and her W won't be enough to save her in an all-in situation. She's almost a free kill if she gets nabbed, and in order for her to poke she needs to put herself in range to get nabbed. An evil catch 22 that was purposefully built into her kit by Riot in her rework.

Sona needs either more safety, more durability, or a meta shift away from tanky/cc supports. I don't see any of those happening anytime soon.

TheHypeGoku1 votes

{quoted}

God i hate people like you. I dont play ranked unless my friend wants me to so who give a shit about that. Sona may not be viable for YOU, why? cause almost all you at "higher elo" blindly follow the play styles deemed as the right way to play by the pros.

I play games with silver to plat in normals. Me not being ranked does NOT mean that I have no clue what im doing.

If you really want to try and be the one that only cares about stats ill give you my normal win percentage, again since i don't play ranked unless asked. (added team builder and normal queue) 918 matches and won 567 of them... hmm 61% win rate, so i obviously dont seem to know what works for my play style, all the gold and plats i face must have bought their accounts from ebay and maybe i need to start blindly following the pros too... not.

Get the hell out of here if your gonna be one of those ass holes who thinks just because someone is unranked they have no say in viable champions.

lol being viable in general means being able to do well against all kinds of picks. She starts out with low health and is susceptible to being dove. Yes, she works in lane if you can get the positioning right but you're not playing against good players who are mechanically proficient. You want to talk about playing golds and plats in normals? Are you numb? That doesn't mean ur all of a sudden a gold/plat player LOL When I play team builder I get matched against plat-diamonds because that's when I try in normals but for normal blind pick? My win rate is low (mostly cuz if my friends are on, I"ll play with them and their silver and if I don't feel like trying I'll play normal blind pick) and I get matched against silvers. Does it mean I'm a silver player or the people that match with me are all plat elo?? NO. All queue's have different MMR's. You're talking out your ass, I tried to be civil and show you why you're wrong but if you're going to be hostile and pretend you're better/smarter than 90% of the player base, then there's no talkin sense to ya.

colesy5 votes

considering how popular the tankier supports are, sona literally just has to get caught out once in lane and she just loses on the spot.

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

Not to mention soraka outclasses her in nearly every regard; seriously soraka is chore to deal with, while sona you just have to wait our her mana pool.

runedara1 votes

The new support items really fixed that issue.

Catastrop3 votes

Because they obviously fail at Sona. Seriously, these are the same people who keep saying, "She needs AP to be good." I build Sona as a normal with a Lich Bane as my last and only AP item and I've always enjoyed the results.

Int then Flame2 votes

As a support main for the last two seasons, sona lost face for being a jack of all trades and master of none. She could do a lot of different things ie poke, heal, and give a movespeed buff along with her power chords but she wasnt very good at any of them and other supports could do them better. The increasing game length also did her no favors as tank supports are much more useful in the late game than poke or heal based supports. The final reason i could tell you is that as your rank rises people start playing those hard engage supports like blitz and thresh (I'm a thresh main myself) and in the lower elos many sonas dont know how to properly position themselves to not get punished heavily by these types of supports, and being as squishy as she is, tends to die to them a lot. i personally see sona as a free win whenever i see her locked first but thats just me. I believe she's becoming viable again due to the new windspeakers mastery tho

NiamhNyx1 votes

{quoted}

As a support main for the last two seasons, sona lost face for being a jack of all trades and master of none. She could do a lot of different things ie poke, heal, and give a movespeed buff along with her power chords but she wasnt very good at any of them and other supports could do them better. The increasing game length also did her no favors as tank supports are much more useful in the late game than poke or heal based supports. The final reason i could tell you is that as your rank rises people start playing those hard engage supports like blitz and thresh (I'm a thresh main myself) and in the lower elos many sonas dont know how to properly position themselves to not get punished heavily by these types of supports, and being as squishy as she is, tends to die to them a lot. i personally see sona as a free win whenever i see her locked first but thats just me. I believe she's becoming viable again due to the new windspeakers mastery tho

positioning isnt a problem with me, i tear apart thresh, blitz, leona, ect when i play. only sppt that i cant seem to get around with sona is tahm. Nami, taric, leona, and lulu, i have no problem against a tahm, but dam he just shuts me out as sona.

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Her poke did really increase with the new season and updated spellthiefs, wich is of course in her favor tbh. I am still not a big fan of Windspeakers, since the heal increase is not really that big imo

I go with Thunderlords as keystone mastery + Utility Mage build against teams with that can be strong ap carries item 2301 item 3060 item 3100 item 3110 (for some sustain) item 3020 and a item that'll help me out in anyway, wich can be one of these:item 3157 item 3001 item 3089 item 3116

against pure ad depending teams, i rather go with a build like this: item 3025 item 3110 item 3047 or item 3020 item 3040 item 2301 and another item that can help me out item 3116 item 3157 item 3027

not exactly in the same order, but these builds really worked well for me as a bursty Sona,

If they'd buff her W or E that'd be great, or at least let her W focus on shielding or healing..

Though, the preseason changes are in her favor wich is nice.

Bergk5 votes

Windspeaker's Blessing is too good to not take with Sona. Thunderlords has a 30s CD. But Windspeaker's you push W and you entire team gets +30% resistances because her W applies a heal AND a shield. That's insain!

It Is I Emoto1 votes

Thunderlords get's buffed appearantly (heh I'm really glad bout that), and windspeakers sure seems useful, though if your ad carries are glass canons, the buff would be only like... 5 or 6 extra resistances. The 10% stronger heals at late game is though extremely great, I don't deny that, but I rather play her as poke support recently wich also has strong impact! (also the buff is 15% extra resistances, or did they buff that too..? not sure)

Bergk6 votes

Windspeaker's Blessing: Grants 10% stronger heals and shields. Additionally, heals** and** shields increase your target's armor and magic resistance by 15% for 3 seconds when used on an ally other than yourself.

Aria of Perseverance ACTIVE: Sona** heals** herself and the most wounded nearby allied champion, increased by 0.5% for every 1% of target's missing health. AURA: Sona and tagged allied champions receive a shield lasting up to 1.5 seconds.

It might be not be intended, but because her W applies a heal AND THEN a shield. It applies the +15% twice.

NiamhNyx1 votes

{quoted}

Windspeaker's Blessing: Grants 10% stronger heals and shields. Additionally, heals** and** shields increase your target's armor and magic resistance by 15% for 3 seconds when used on an ally other than yourself.

Aria of Perseverance ACTIVE: Sona** heals** herself and the most wounded nearby allied champion, increased by 0.5% for every 1% of target's missing health. AURA: Sona and tagged allied champions receive a shield lasting up to 1.5 seconds.

It might be not be intended, but because her W applies a heal AND THEN a shield. It applies the +15% twice.

When its still early before laneing ends, i use that to my advantage, i heal my adc when hes attacking then shield him about 2 seconds later for the extended buff :P

It Is I Emoto1 votes

wow, that's actually pretty broken. I thought it would not apply twice, but that'll prob get fixed in future, otherwise... I should really consider picking up windspeakers if that won't get fixed 0:

NiamhNyx2 votes

{quoted}

wow, that's actually pretty broken. I thought it would not apply twice, but that'll prob get fixed in future, otherwise... I should really consider picking up windspeakers if that won't get fixed 0:

Hey now >.> dont give riot the idea to remove that. Other supports have their perks, sona needs some more too. janna can do it too, but on a very long CD for her ult.

It Is I Emoto2 votes

Oh lord, let's not start again the 'better nerf sona' thing again

Dominick Destine1 votes

I dislike bringing this up, but I checked your stats and it says here that you are unranked... and judging from your performances , you are actually about bronze level. It's fine if you like Sona, but Sona is only really good against terrible players, like other bronzes.

I am Diamond and I can tell you that Sona is better now than she was pre-patch, she's somewhat viable compared to her being utter garbage previously.... but she's still way below Thresh, Alistar, Blitz, Leona, Soraka, Annie, etc.

TheEvilQueen1351 votes

I used to main sona but she is an incredibly squishy support so i couldn't always keep my adc's from dying if they weren't competent. I still love her and find her reliable, especially when I play with friends. You just need to build mana regen to keep her viable throughout a long game and supplement that with ap damage while staying in the middle or the back of fights.

though I do think she is viable in ranked I would only use her if i trusted my adc not to be a potential feeder. but she did get me from b5 through b4 with a 50% win rate so like i said, still viable in my opinion.

Rysophage1 votes

People are REALLY BAD at sona. All they know how to do is power chord Q. that's like 10% of her kit.

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

Mostly comparing her before & after her rework, they cut her aura ranges down to 1/4 their original range with negligible compensation.

IAMS4T4N1 votes

that new mastery helped her and the spellthiefs changes are pretty good too quit bitchin lol

DJ Di01 votes

No offense but I don't really advise using Ardent Censer unless you have a Kog'Maw on your team, because of his W.

And yes, Sona's much better this patch; lots of indirect buffs, and with games lasting longer she doesn't get to reach the point where she falls off(especially if you don't go ap).

{quoted}

Windspeaker's Blessing is too good to not take with Sona. Thunderlords has a 30s CD. But Windspeaker's you push W and you entire team gets +30% resistances because her W applies a heal AND a shield. That's insain!

Errrrr, I don't think the bonus resistances stack? Or they aren't supposed to afaik. Goes into a custom game to see

Looks like you might be able to refresh the duration, but you can't stack the resistances.

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