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Sona, Maven of the Strings [Rework Concept]

ThornsOfTheRose··18 votes·9,497 views

Note: Before anyone criticizes me for drafting a Sona rework concept even though I have no matches in my Match History, I moved to the Garena server two years ago since it's closer to home, so lower ping and whatnot.

I'm back again after three years with another Sona rework concept! This rework mainly aims to give Sona some complexity and decision making capabilities (raise her skill floor and skill ceiling a little bit), but should also give her some early game survivability while keeping her late game strong but counterable. This rework also introduces some changes that will hopefully make her burst damage more manageable for enemies, but should also greatly boost her team's overall damage when played right. Without further ado, have a look at the rework and tell me what you like/dislike about it.

Aim: • Make auras feel like auras again • More "musical" theme • Shift power from Power Chord and Actives into Auras • Keep more or less strong late game • Make early game standard strength • Emphasize on her strengths in extended engagements • Emphasize on her weakness to hard CC • Hard CC pre-6

Health : 492 (76) Health Regen: 4.5 (0.55) Mana : 340 (45) Mana Regen : 11.5 (0.4) AD : 40 (2) Att. Speed : 0.64 (2.3) Armor : 28 (3.3) M. Resist : 30 (0.5) Range : 575 Move Speed : 320

*minor stat changes

(NEW) PASSIVE: Maven of the Strings “Sona plays her Songs with a certain tempo. A Perfect Song occurs when a Song is played within 5 (affected by Cooldown Reduction) seconds to 6 seconds after playing a Song, granting a stack of Consonance. Each stack of Consonance increases the power of Sona’s Melody Auras by 100% of the base value, up to 5 stacks.

Sona can gain Consonance stacks out of combat, but only up to 2 stacks of Consonance can take effect when out of combat with enemy Champions or jungle monsters. If Sona plays a Song off-beat, she loses all stacks of Consonance.

Additionally, after every three Perfect Songs played, Sona’s next basic attack is a Power Chord. Power Chords deal bonus magic damage and apply different effects depending on the last Song played.”

Bonus Damage: 10/20/30/40/50/60/70/80/90/100/112/124/136/148/160/172/184/196 (+ 0.2 AP)

Staccato: deals even more bonus magic damage over 4 seconds. (Hymn of Valor) Damage: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/18/20/22/24 (+ 0.02 AP) per second.

Diminuendo: reduces target’s damage output by 25 (+ 0.05 AP)% for 4 seconds. (Aria of Perseverance)

Fermata: target is Snared for 0.7 (+ 0.007 AP) seconds, capped at 1.75 seconds. (Song of Celerity)

“Playing a Song puts all of Sona’s basic abilities on a 1 second static cooldown.”

(UPDATED) Q: Hymn of Valor “Sona plays the Hymn of Valor. If the Song is perfect, her next basic attack within 2 seconds echoes, damaging enemies near the target and applying on-hit effects.”

Cooldown: 1 second Mana Cost: 40 mana Range: Self Echo Damage: 50% (+ 0.1 AP) AD

Tune: “The Hymn of Valor buffs nearby allied Champions. Nearby allied Champions' next basic attack or spell within 6 seconds deal bonus magic damage. Area of effect spells apply 33% effectiveness.”

Aura Range: 350 units Damage: 12/24/36/48/60 (+ 0.15 AP)

Melody: “Sona then continues playing the Hymn of Valor for up to 6 seconds. Allied Champions in hearing range deal bonus magic damage on every basic attack.”

Aura Range: 500 units Damage: 3/4/5/6/7 (+ 0.03 AP)

(UPDATED) W: Aria of Perseverance “Sona plays the Aria of Perseverance. If the Song is perfect, her next basic attack within 2 seconds heals herself.”

Cooldown: 1 second Mana Cost: 40 mana Range: Self Self Heal: 15/30/45/60/75 (+ 0.15 AP)

Tune: “The Aria of Perseverance buffs nearby allied Champions. Nearby allied Champions gain a shield for 2 seconds.”

Aura Range: 350 units Shield: 35/55/75/95/115 (+ 0.4 AP)

Melody: “Sona then continues playing the Aria of Perseverance for up to 6 seconds. Allied Champions in hearing range receive a small heal every second.”

Aura Range: 500 units Heal: 3/4/5/6/7 (+ 0.015 AP)

(UPDATED) E: Song of Celerity “Sona plays the Song of Celerity. If the Song is perfect, her next basic attack within 2 seconds slows the target for 1.25 sec.”

Cooldown: 1 second Mana Cost: 40 mana Range: Self Slow: 21/22/23/24/25 (+ 0.08 AP)%

Tune: “The Song of Celerity buffs nearby allied Champions. Nearby allied Champions gain a burst of decaying movement speed for 1.5 seconds.”

Aura Range: 350 units Decaying Move Speed: 32/34/36/38/40 (+ 0.08 AP)%

Melody: “Sona then continues playing the Song of Celerity for up to 6 seconds. Allied Champions in hearing range receive a persistent move speed boost.”

Aura Range: 500 units Move Speed Boost: 10/15/20/25/30 (+ 0.15 AP)

(NEW) R: GRAND FINALE “Sona plays her ultimate performance, cleansing nearby allied Champions from crowd control and protecting from further effects for 1.5 seconds.

While Grand Finale is active, all Tune and Melody auras gain increased range, and Power Chord has enhanced effects. Additionally, playing a Perfect Song grants two stacks of Consonance instead of one.

Grand Finale does not interact with Maven of the Strings' tempo.”

Cooldown: 70/65/60 sec Mana Cost: 100 mana Cleanse Range: 350 units Duration: 18/19/20 seconds Tune Range Bonus: 50/75/100 units Melody Range Bonus: 100/150/200 units Staccato Bonus: Adds 1/2/3 ticks Diminuendo Bonus: Also lowers attack speed by 15/20/25% Fermata Bonus: Stuns instead and increases damage taken by 10/12/14% while stunned

Explanations: Consonance should add some depth to playing Sona since she now needs to be aware of her positioning and her surroundings, while also keeping track of the tempo timer (should be seen above skills bar). The tempo mechanic highlights her musical theme by drawing comparisons to a rhythm game. The escalating effect on Melody auras means that Sona is weakest at the start of a fight, but gradually builds up power the longer the fight lasts. The double stacking on Grand Finale should help Sona keep up the pace in quick teamfights. Additionally, the CC cleanse and immunity on Grand Finale grants Sona some pro play-worthy high moments that make Sona players feel good about themselves.

Since Consonance requires Sona to play Songs at specific times, she's now weaker to hard CC since hard CC can cause her to miss her windows of opportunity.

Only two stacks of Consonance take effect while Sona isn't in combat with champions or monsters, so she can't effectively passively heal or grant movement speed to her allies while waiting for an engage or rotating. If she's good she can, however, preemptively stack Consonance so she has max stacks right off the bat when a teamfight occurs. Consonance also gives Sona decision making capabilities, since she has to decide on whether to empower her Melody auras or play a Song off-beat for the clutch shield/movement speed.

Power Chord now takes longer to stack in the late game since it needs at least 9 seconds to charge. The change to Staccato from 40% increased damage to damage over time (still with respectable damage) is done with the intent to lower her burst damage and give some counterplay. After all, Sona is a support, not an assassin. The nerf to damage and uptime also allows us to buff Diminuendo and Tempo Fermata. Tempo is now Fermata, which Snares instead of Slows, with the slow being moved to Song of Celerity's active.

The loss of actives and Crescendo might weird some people out, but Perfect Songs now grant "actives" to Sona's basic attacks (now with 25 increased range) which should help her during laning. The loss of Crescendo's stunning potential (pun intended) is partially compensated by Fermata's Snare, which is upgraded to a Stun and damage amp under the effects of Grand Finale. Grand Finale also has the added benefit of extending Sona's aura ranges, which should help her stay safe in teamfights.

Something I find cool is that this version of Sona boost her entire team's damage by adding up to 630 damage per champion, and can heal up to 252 HP with just one ability. That's almost Lulu levels of damage and Soraka levels of healing, which IS ALSO AoE! However, that is assuming she can stay safe, not get blown up, maintain five stacks of Consonance, keep up with her teammates, and play her Songs to completion. Pretty high risk high reward if you ask me.

So that's my Sona rework concept. Please tell me what you think of it. All upvotes/downvotes/constructive praises/tips/criticisms welcome. Plain old flaming will be ignored. If it's good enough hopefully a Rioter can read this? :)

TL;DR:

  • Higher survivability while laning
  • Much, much stronger in extended engagements
  • Improved musical theme
  • Higher skill floor and skill ceiling
  • Higher synergy with AA based champs
  • Improved situational healing
  • Hard CC pre-6
  • Higher utility (CC cleanse)
  • Less burst damage
  • No more "actives"
  • More micromanaging required
  • Less Power Chords thrown at enemies
  • No more Crescendo :(

[sona-playing] Thanks for reading this far!! :D

*Some numbers and effects edited based on feedback.

28 Comments

Supreme Senpai695 votes

On one hand I'm against any Sona changes. Personally, of course. She's probably my favorite champion and she's outrageously fun to play. But, I feel like her passive doesn't need to exist. In higher elo she's not all that great due to lacking consistent CC but in lower elo you can just spam abilities and not worry about the passive. Something to make the passive stand out more like you suggested would be great.

Other than that though honestly I'm not so sure she needs a rework. I upvoted for the sheer work and thought put into the post though. Very nice read

ThornsOfTheRose2 votes

To be honest she is pretty fun to play right now IMO. This is just to add some complexity and address some of her problems a lot of people think she has. Hopefully be being more complex and having more CC she'll have the same pro-play potential as Nami.

Like, Nami's basically Sona 2.0 and she is played much much more than Sona. :( Feels bad man

Thanks for the feedback!

SpecterVonBaren5 votes

The issue with so many rework threads is that they don't actually rework the champion but make various stat adjustments and secondary effects for the already existing abilities. This one is no different.

Arakadia1 votes

That is not an issue by default. Some champions may only need that.

HeimerLmao4 votes

One thing to note. With 500 ap Sona would be able to e powerchord snare for almost 4 seconds. And it scales even further. Add a cap on the snare duration.

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

Yea slipped my mind a bit there. Would a 1.75 second cap be enough?

Thanks for the feedback!

HeimerLmao1 votes

Propably, but keep in mind that it is point and click as it is an auto attack. I would lower the scaling a little bit because of it.

Felvyne1 votes

This looks a hell lot of complex. And I like it. I think that Sona needs to be a lot more complex if she has to be THE musician of LoL. Give her tempos, give her music, give her the ability to orquestrate the battle from behind and unable to do something big by herself, let her strengh the instruments that are her teamates and rise them into a chorus with her own music.

And this may archieve that. I like it, and I like the idea. I wish I could give this a try to get a feel.

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

Thank you so much! Glad to know you find it interesting! :D

FilDaFunk1 votes

Some of her melodies remind me of prework sona. That time, Sona got changed to put more power into actives because auras were quite powerful but not noticeable.

Elphrihaim1 votes

I don't think this kit would be fun to play with because it has a huge portion of its power built around a thing that only activates while she's in-combat-- which is slightly at odds with having flat healing.

But outside of that single case, I like it because it... succeeds both at being Sona-like and at actually incentivizing musical rhythm? also it completely 300% breaks sheen so I automatically call it best kit

Staccato from 40% increased damage to damage over time (still with respectable damage)

This, however, is a blatant lie. 4 x (Level + 1) + 8% AP is not a respectable amount of damage.

(but that's literally a numerical issue instead of an actual issue)

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

The idea for Consonance to only be in combat is to avoid Sona full healing her whole team while rotating or waiting for an engage. Maybe if only two stacks of Consonance can take effect out of combat, she would still be able to heal somewhat and grant decent movespeed for rotations. Would that solve the problem?

This, however, is a blatant lie. 4 x (Level + 1) + 8% AP is not a respectable amount of damage.

What I meant was at level 20 Staccato will deal 100% AD + 61 + 0.2 AP + [4 x (19 + 0.08 AP)] But it seems I did mess up base powerchord values lol (235 at live). Maybe I'll boost it to [10-200] and the DoT to [2-25] per tick?

Thanks for the feedback!

LightningShado1 votes

Pretty good.

FakeGravity1 votes

the passive is a nightmare to read, i think it should be simpler, i like the idea but i was thinking something like

consonance stacks for changing the song then tune effect when a song is user and a melody effect when a song is held beyond consonance perfect time

this way she gets an immediate effect from playing a song, and then can decide if she want to earn consonance by changing the song, or wants a powerful aura by playing the same one. make the melody effect start weak and increase as the song goes long maybe?

also make this effects part of the passive and separate each skill in three parts, the tune effect the consonance reward or the melody aura

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

This could work but I'm mostly afraid that if the Song gets stronger the longer it is played Sona will just move around with a strong heal aura and not spellcasting at all. Besides Riot said that they won't bring persistent auras back, so her auras need a duration, which I think would not work well if she needs to let the Song play to make it stronger. Sorry if I misunderstood your point.

Thanks for the feedback anyway!

DynamiteGazelle1 votes

Consonance isn't really a musical term. I think you're thinking of resonance

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

English isn't my native language so I had to resort to searching google for musical terms and that came out as the opposite of dissonance. But I might need to look around a bit more.

Wanted to name it Harmony at first but was afraid people would confuse it for Crucible's passive

PokladnicaZla1 votes

I love the new R and the passive,but wish you changed her Q and W to ot just be auto targeted. Tho, the Ultimate passive mana recovery seems a bit too much. Shouldn't mana management be one of her weaknesses?

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

Yeaa maybe the mana regen is a bit too much. Might remove that in future iterations.

Q and W buffs her next auto attack now though, so I guess it's still kinda auto targeted? But in a different way. I'm kinda against putting skillshots on this version of Sona since aiming and dragging the cursor around can mess with the timing for her passive.

Thanks for the feedback tho! I had to think really hard for about half an hour thinking whether to keep Crescendo, give her a new ult, or just give her a 4th basic ability haha.

Arakadia1 votes

I feel like Sona's burst is part of the reason people play her. If it proves too troublesome it should be removed, but imo her burst is fun and makes her a little different from the Soraka, Janna, and Lulus.

ThornsOfTheRose1 votes

The plan was for this Sona to still burst, just not as hard as before. The damage over time effect is mainly to give people time to react and shield the remaining damage or heal up.

Thanks for the feedback!

sKz Aaron D1 votes

"The Garena server"

Which one? Each country has its own that is IP locked and most VPNs cause you to have higher ping than you normally would anyway. Are you playing from like, American Samoa, Micronesia, or Guam?

ThornsOfTheRose2 votes

The Garena Indonesia server to be exact. Playing from JKT, Indonesia. Much much lower ping (from 200ish at NA down to 30), but so much more toxic people here. Like, NA's toxicity is nothing compared Indo's toxicity IMO.

sKz Aaron D1 votes

That makes more sense. The phrasing was somewhat ambiguous.

chipndip11 votes

  1. All of this is way too much complication for a glorified gutting of the champion. Her healing on W especially.

  2. These changes are one big gimmick with zero point to them. They don't make her more functional, nor do they really address her game play issues.

  3. No one, neither the community nor Riot, gives a rat's ass about Sona. Why do you think they updated Demacia's lore without her when she lives there, then updated Ionia's lore without her when she was born there? I personally say just don't even bother. No one really cares.

ThornsOfTheRose2 votes

1 + 2) Sorry if this rework doesn't hit the spot. May I ask what exactly what makes it a gutting? Is it the numbers or the mechanics? Additionally, what are her gameplay issues and how do you wish to solve them? Let's trade ideas here.

  1. Sona mains do care about Sona. I've seen enough proof. Riot's attention on Sona, on the other hand, is debatable, but at least they care enough to make a Guqin Sona icon and a golden chroma. We can always dream, man :(
chipndip11 votes

  • Turning Sona's aoe stun into a cleanse and replacing it with occasional AA-range snares is a massive gut to her team fight. Sure, you can't be cc'd, but you lose the ability to stop the offensive of up to 5 people. The things returned don't really make up for that.

  • The whole thing is confusing. The extra passive on top of the current passive makes Sona's overloaded kit EVEN MORE overloaded, but doesn't necessarily make her more desirable of a pick.

  • Sona's game play issues come in a few forms. She lacks skill expression and if it weren't for the nature of solo queue, her dependence on raking up ap in a 30 minute game to be useful would make her a shit-tier support as a whole. Her powerchord passive makes her play too heavily into her main weakness, but because she literally cannot miss her basic kit, her base reward for doing literally anything is pretty lousy unless you're grouped up with 3+ people at all times, buy you can't do anything about her individual impact because then her aoe impact would be BEYOND broken (and it's already pretty damn strong). Sona needs more game play depth, not more complexity. She already has more than enough going on in her kit right now, but its execution is 1-dimensional, scatter-brained, and simple-minded. That's the problem.

  • The ONLY people that care about Sona are Sona mains. Look at someone like Morde or Urgot or Yorick. People that didn't even play them were rooting for their reworks. Same for dudes like Nunu and Aatrox. Now look at Sona. No one really cares about her, and of the few that do, there's no real consensus on wanting a rework or not. Riot has no interest in giving a large scale rework to ANY support, let alone Sona, for years to come. Just listing shit off my head, they've shown interest in Nunu, Akali, Aatrox, Rammus, Malphite, Mundo, Yi, Amumu, Cho'Gath, Skarner, Kayle/Morgana, Wu Kong, and Mordekaiser, to the very least. Only reason Morgana, who's a flex pick for support/mid, even gets a chance is because Kayle and Morgana will be done at the same time. Nobody gives a shit.

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