Some ideas on my favourite champion

Well, I'm bored, life kinda sucks and I don't really want to do my homework right now so... yeah! I'd much rather post my ideas in hopes someone at Riot will take them into account (even if it won't happen).

Hello there people. I really like this game and I've been looking at the new reworks Riot has done to certain groups of champions. They have made the juggernaut update, marksmen update, the mage update and probably an assassin one is coming soon. Riot also announced an Enchanter overhaul might be coming, which would probably change the likes of Janna, Nami, Lulu and other utility supports. While I do have some ideas for changing these champions, I really just want to talk about the one I love the most. I want to talk about Sona.

First I should say that this isn't by any means a rant or complaint. I think there are already enough posts out there talking about how Sona sucks and what not. I'd much rather give some ideas on what Riot could do to her to make her feel better, more impactful, but most importantly, more musical and awesome!

I'm also doing this because, even though I would love to work at Riot, I can't. I'm at school and finishing it for now is a priority for me. I would give anything to just apply as a designer, but there's still much to learn before that. I would like to be a game designer some day in the future however, so I might as well just give it my best shot even if that means making this post. Without further ado, let's begin.

(Sorry if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes, I'm not American/British. Feel free to correct me!)

SONA, THE MAVEN OF THE STRINGS

For me it has always been complicated to define what kind of support Sona really is. She is an utility support, but also kinda works as a carry support. She does damage, she heals, she shields, she gives movement speed and she has one of the best ultimates in the game (that stun dance is awesome). All of that is nice, but I believe it just makes her don't really have a clear identity since she doesn't really excel at anything. It only becomes worse when people say that Nami is a better version of her, but Nami herself deserves her own post to talk about.

These problems, to my eyes, have to do more with the feel of her gameplay rather than the actual gameplay itself. Let's take some champions for example. Janna sure feels windy and peaceful since she doesn't do much damage and she is amazing at pushing people away from your allies like the wind would. With Janna, the wind is truly by your side. Lulu feels crazy and fun since she can do so many things! Lulu can go top, mid or support and she works well. Nami, while she could be cooler, does feel like this mermaid that calls this huge wave to absolutely reck you. Sona's problems lie on her fantasy not being accomplished through her gameplay.

What should Sona do? In my opinion, she should do these while you play her:

Inspire : Music is meant to inspire people, and Sona should do that by playing music to her teammates. I think the auras work pretty well, but they don't really feel as inspiration. Still, I think that an aura is great to making the players understand that being near Sona makes you feel inspired! Enchant enemies/Make enemies dance: An excellent example of this is Crescendo, her ultimate. It is the only ability that actually makes enemies fall into Sona's music magic and dance without control. She should move the enemies' souls and body while she plays her beautiful melodies. She should play music: I mean, you can't make an ability lasts forever because that would make it broken, but the current Sona doesn't feel all that musical. While you play her, YOU should play and press the Q, W and E as she would play her Etwahl. She should have presence: Sona, being someone who plays music, should have an important presence in the game she's in. Sona, her teammates and the enemy team should all be aware that Sona is important as long as she plays music. While this sort of stays true in her current state, it doesn't really feel like that when you consider that for most of the community she tends to be just an easy kill. She should be intimately connected to her instrument: Everytime you play her, you should feel that her instrument is EVERYTHING to her. She can't talk and that is the ONLY WAY she can "communicate" and get things done.

That said, I've come up with MANY ability changes Riot could possibly make for Sona. Some of them are bad, some of the are awesome, but I should say that I really just search for her to feel all the more musical and impactful without making her broken (although some of the changes might be a little bit too strong).

PASSIVE: In my opinion, Sona's passive is great EXCEPT for the fact that it doesn't feel all that musical to me. I've come up with these two ideas for what it could be.

• The Guitar Hero Passive: This is, in my opinion, the BEST idea I've come up with. This passive would literally be that, a mini Guitar Hero inside League Of Legends. Every 10 seconds or so, a string of keys would appear just above Sona's ability display to show which keys she should play with her Q, W and E. If all played correctly and with the correct tempo, Sona will gain a buff that will make her next ability cast stronger. Since she used abilities before to activate the passive, her Q, W and E cooldowns would be reset or something. This would accomplish the goal of making her feel musical, fun and more interactive overall. I really should add an image to show you how it would look like, but I really don't know how :(. I hope you understand it.

• "Inspire" - Make the auras the passive, not the active: This is somewhat lackluster, but I feel that the auras feel awkward as part of the active. Making the Power Chords part of the active would let them become more interactive by becoming a three hit ability or something like that. I should also mention that I think the auras would work better if they became more powerful the closer you were to Sona, sort of like receiving a minor "Inspiration" buff when you're 350 units away from her and gradually receive a more powerful buff, the most powerful being when you're right next to her. This would also help make her feel a bit more musical, since music most inspires you when it's loud!

• "Remix" - Overlapping abilities: No, this doesn't mean Sona can stack auras, that's just lame. What this passive would do is that any time you activate an aura, you can activate one of the other two auras to make a new aura with a completely different buff. For example, let's say Sona activates Hymn Of Valor, the damage aura. If she casted Song Of Celerity, instead of giving the movement speed and damage buffs, the aura would give an Attack Speed buff. This would work better if the buttons could be pressed at the same time, but I don't know if you guys can do that. This would make Sona have 7 abilities total, which I don't know if it is completely OP, but it does make her feel all the more virtuous since she knows many songs. Ideas for the abilities' buffs are:

• Q = Damage
• W = Heal/Shield
• E = Movement Speed
• Q + W = Lifesteal/Spellvamp
• Q + E = Attack Speed
• W + E = Tenacity Maybe some of the buffs I mentioned are too OP, but I mean, they don't have to be that, they could be any other.

Q - HYMN OF VALOR: This ability is what people normally think about when talking about Sona. It is great for poking, it does nice damage (especially with and Powerchord - Staccato) and it boost your team's damage output. I think this one is the nicest ability, but I would spice it up a little more.

• "Dancing!": So, for this to happen, I have to mention that I would use the Guitar Hero passive, not the other ones, otherwise it would be too OP in my opinion. I'd also nerf a little bit its damage, since I will be giving it more utility. This new Q consists on Sona having 3 casts when activating this ability. The first cast would shoot a bolt of music, the second cast would do the same and the third one would make a shockwave of music come out of Sona that makes enemies who got hit by the volts dance for a second or so. This ability sort of accomplishes her musical theme since the ability has three casts, making the player play a full song to make the enemies dance (if pressing 3 times the same key can be considered as "playing").

• "Three hit boom": This version of the Q uses the "Inspire" passive. Since the aura isn't part of the cast anymore, we can transfer the Powerchord to the cast and make it more rewarding for Sona. For a few seconds after Casting Hymn Of Valor, Sona will gain 3 basic attacks that deal more damage each, the third one would make the enemy target acquire a debuff which makes them more vulnerable to your allies' attacks. To my eyes, this makes Sona enchant her enemies, making them take more damage just because they want to listen to her delightful masterpiece. (If that makes any sense)

• "Inspired for Power": This is the most mediocre idea. It just consists on making the damage aura increase the damage dealt by your allies' next damage ability instead of just making your allies gain bonus magic damage on their next basic attack. This is potentially OP, but to me it's just boring. I would set this Q if I were to use the "Remix" passive.

W - ARIA OF PERSEVERANCE: I must say that this is ability is underrated by many Sonas out there. The heal is decent, but the shields are SUPER impactful and the Power Chord is a life saver. However, people don't notice this because the power of this ability's Power Chord is practically invisible (unless you're using arcade Sona, that is).

• "Shield, then heal": Similar to the first Q proposal, this one would make Aria Of Perseverance have two casts, separating the shield from the heal. I must say that to spice the ability up, I would make the heal shoot out, and the bounce like a wave. The heal shoot by Sona would heal the targeted ally for a good amount and the wave that comes out of it would heal nearby allies for a small amount. The shield would also be more powerful the closer you were to Sona.

• "Three hit relax": Similar to the second Q proposal, this would make Sona get three auto attacks that would reduce the enemies damage a little bit and the third would make their attacks barely hurt for a few seconds. It's basically the same as before, just with an amp up since you separate the power of one power chord into three.

E - SONG OF CELERITY: Probably Sona's most underrated ability. It aids adcs' to kite, helps your team escape/catch people and makes you better at positioning yourself. However, I also think it is Sona's most boring ability and would definitely change it quite heavily.

• "Etwahl Solo": This is probably the craziest idea I've had, but I'm putting it anyway. This would make Song Of Celerity have 4 casts total. The first cast would cause Sona and her near allies to move faster as she activated the movement speed aura. The second cast would make her shoot her Etwahl, knocking away/up enemies hit. The third cast would make either the Etwahl return to Sona or Sona reunite with her dear instrument. The fourth cast, which is mostly optional and maybe unnecessary, would make Sona shot a wave of sound that slowed enemies in front of her. Sona would still be able to cast her Q, her W and her E, but the aura would emanate from the Etwahl, not from her; the Etwahl would also have a life bar and if you broke it (killed it), it would instantly return to Sona and make her kit's abilities weaker for a few seconds. In my opinion, this is also the best idea I've come up with besides the Guitar Hero passive. It does feel weird on Sona, but if you think about it, it does emphasize on how Sona and the Etwahl are intimately connected and how the Etwahl being damage makes her vulnerable and weak. It also makes her have a huge reward for landing it correctly, since you could possibly follow up with Crescendo. However, if missed, it would absolutely punish you for a few seconds and make you think "why did I do that to my instrument?!". I would make Sona have the Guitar Hero passive if I were to put this ability on her kit. I took inspiration from Rosalina and Luma from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and since they're my favourite character from that game, I thought it could fit with my favourite character from League Of Legends. I wouldn't be surprised if this ability wasn't taken into consideration FOR SONA, but I would love to see it on her or on another, possible new champion. Ideas for debuffs Sona would get if her Etwahl broke are:

• Q would deal less damage
• W would heal/shield for much less
• E wouldn't be possible to cast
• R would be an AOE slow, not a stun :(

• "Three hit DANCE": Again, Sona would gain 3 hits that slow her target upon activating her E. The third hit would stun the target and make it dance for a few seconds. Nothing special, but it makes sense with the other three-hit abilities I proposed.

R - CRESCENDO: I don't have much to say about her ultimate. It is iconic, it is great, it is beautiful in every single way. I would just maybe say one thing, but it isn't as relevant as the other ability changes I proposed.

• An actual musical Crescendo: Maybe a good way to change Sona's R would be to make it similar to Riven's R. Sona would activate her R to play music much louder than before. After Crescendo's initial cast, her next ability cast, including her second R cast (the AOE stun) would be empowered. Her Q would deal more damage, her W would shield and heal a ton. Her E would accelerate you and your allies even more and her R would be slightly bigger in size, coming out as a wave instead of a straight line. I think this change isn't necessary. Her ult already conveys the musical enchantment. Besides, this feels way too similar to Karma, making it less appealing overall.

Closure

So yeah! Those were some ideas I've had on my head. I really love this champion, but she could be so much cooler! There really isn't any other champion like her. She is the one with the musical theme going on, and you guys should really exploit that. My dream would be to actually design her myself! However, I think you guys make an awesome job and I would really love to see you make her awesome, and if I can help, even a little bit, I'd be more than glad.

I also have similar ideas for champions like Nami, Blitzcrank, Rengar and some other champions. However, since Sona is my favourite champion, she is the one I've been putting most thought on. I also have some champion ideas, but that's a story for another day. (Shameless self promotion even though I'm not even a game designer [SOMEDAY I WILL])

Thanks a lot for reading. I hope I helped somehow. Comment whatever you think about my ideas! I would be more than glad to see what others think!

Hope you rework my girl sometime in the future!

-Sincerely, a Sona fan!