2 ideas to make Sona more satisfying and skill based
I want to preface this by saying that, as a Sona main, she is in a good spot right now. These changes aren't meant to buff or change her, but just make the interactions between her spells and her passive more interesting.
- Passive: When Sona performs a non-power chord basic attack, if she uses a basic ability before the attack reaches her target, and she gains her third stack in the process, the attack gains that power chord effect.
Basically, a normal basic attack transforms into a power chord attack mid-flight if she quickly uses one of her abilities. It doesn't affect her power level, but it adds an interesting interaction where a good Sona player can react quicker with a damage reduction power chord or slow if they know what they are doing. In fact, something like this doesn't even have to have its own tooltip; it can just be a hidden mechanic for Sona players to discover.
The next one is basically an extension of the first part as it involves using abilities while the attack is mid-flight.
- Passive: If Sona performs a power chord empowered attack, and uses a basic ability while the attack is mid-flight, the attack gains 66% of the effect of both power chords.
The important thing is that this doesn't increase her poke damage in the laning phase (which is already very good), but is more geared toward the later parts of the game, giving her more options besides "always Q". Now, it may seem like giving Sona a power chord which is 133% as effective as her normal power chord (66% of each power chord effect times 2) would be OP, but I will explain why it isn't. First of all, it doesn't multiply the damage by 1.33, but actually reduces her damage and then adds a slow. Second of all: Every 3 basic abilities she casts adds 1/3 of a power chord charge. So we can think of each spell she casts being worth 1/3 of a power chord. So an empowered power chord takes a total of 4 spell casts to pull off, and gives 1.33 effectiveness, meaning that each spell is still contributing .33 of a power chord, the same as before.
I would be really happy if changes like this were added to the game. There is nothing more satisfying than discovering a new mechanic for your main and mastering it and using it in game. That's really the drive for this post. Adding a sub-layer of mixing your power chords and having precise timing on your autoattack would add some variety to playing Sona, and also some satisfaction (like the kind you get from mastering riven's techniques and pwning people with them in-game).