Sona is squishy ;_;

TonyTonyMordecai·Dec 4, 2014·4 votes·1,983 views

Hey All,

I just want to say that Sona, IMO, is too squishy to have the little damage/utility that she has, and she needs to get pretty close in order to land any of her skills, basically since her AA have some added effects based on the current tune she's playing... Either that or I just suck with her at the moment -_-

So with that! Any tips you can give me to become a better Sona? Item build paths would be nice to add as well, because I am more used to supports/supporty champs ( ) that have a little more base damage/late game potential... (I was gonna add Janna, but she is about in the middle; not too stronk, but has good escapes if things get rough)

Suggestions Please! And Item Builds!

Thanks!

23 Comments

CenturosDec 4, 20143 votes

Is she still squishier than a caster minion at level 1?

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

Sigh... No. But I mean if you were to try to go ham and then found out that you're a Support character and can't do real damage without help. But if she was, I'd cry, because I love Sona a lot. Sona She was actually one of the first few champs I got.

KeistoDec 4, 20143 votes

I believe the problem is that you're conditioned on these strong, mostly bursty, off-meta supports which is understandably harder to transition to somebody like Sona .

So let's lay out some important stats really quick Wiki Reference

Base Health: 482 +72.72 per level (1791 at level 18) Base Armor: 20.5 +3.12 per level (76.6 at level 18) Base AP: 0 Base Mana Regen: 9 per 5 seconds +0.38 per level (15.8 at level 18)

The way I see it is that you can play Sona 2 ways:

**High Poke: ** (Squishy- but more your playstyle)

With those stats in mind, we will want to improve Mana Regen, AP and Survivability. The whole shebang. Make sure you keep up the poke or you'll fall behind early.

Rune Page: 9x Magic Pen Marks, 8x Flat HP Seals, 1x Flat Armor Seal, 3x Flat MR Glyphs, 6x Flat Mana Regen/5 Glyphs, 1x Flat Armor Quint and 2x Flat AP Quints.

Masteries: Go 21-0-9

Start item 3301 and build typical support: rush item 2049 and finish item 3069 . Now go item 3028 into item 3222 and then item 3190 and/or item 3110 depending on if AP or AD is dominant on their team. Experiment with further itemization to suit it to your liking after that point.

Tank Healer (Survivability- Possibly what you're looking for, more of a team oriented Sona)

With the stats in mind, we will want to improve Mana Regen, and Survivability. Max heal and auto attack enemies safely.

Rune Page: 6x Flat Armor Marks, 3x Flat HP Marks, 8x Flat HP Seals, 1x Flat Armor Seal, 9x Flat Mana Regen/5 Glyphs, 1x Flat Armor Quint, 2x Flat HP Quints.

Masteries: Go 0-9-21

Use the same item build as the Burst build, but consider different further itemization routes.

Whatever you chose, I hope this helped you out. This took a few hours out of my sleep schedule so I'm gonna go pass out now.

Best of luck on the Rift, Afro

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20142 votes

Thanks so much for this! I think I'll try for the Tanky/Utility builds that you guys are suggesting here, that will definitely work for me, because I like to be in a fight, but I don't want to be the one to die first, but if I do, I would like to have contributed in some way. Yeah, the off-meta supports are more my tune, just because it's fun as hell to pick one of those, and still help win the game because I can be the second APC. Hope you got enough sleep :D

KeistoDec 4, 20141 votes

I only got a few hours of sleep, but it's worth helping a fellow league player out.

Really glad you enjoyed it!

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

Haha, yeah I would have to agree! I really appreciate it when other players give me advice on these things, even though I've been playing for so long, I still run into these issues such as item builds.

See You On The Rift!

FantasySniperDec 6, 20141 votes

Here's another mastery page to try. It's a good page for squishy AP supports, and doesn't sacrifice anything.

vortical42Dec 5, 20141 votes

I play quite a bit with Sona, and I'm not quite sure why you would go with coin for that first build. If you are playing more of a passive defender (build #2) then coin makes sense. For a more aggressive poke style though, spellthief item 3303 is a much better choice.

KeistoDec 6, 20141 votes

I'm just really biased. I hate item 3303 because I've never seen the item 3092 's active even remotely compare to that of item 3069 . Although the poke is slightly better on (10 extra damage), the gold return comes out to about the same w/ item 3301 , and you receive 5 hp per enemy minion death near you, which compliments the mana regen you're getting in the runes nicely. I've tried both options thoroughly when her rework popped out and this is what worked best for me. In the end, it's up to the player what they think is best to sub in for builds that I recommend.

FiendOfOneDec 4, 20142 votes

I just want to say that Sona, IMO, is too squishy to have the little damage/utility that she has,

'little damage/utility' No, she doesn't do a ton of damage. Instead, she provides a 700 range poke that buffs her allie's basic attacks, a sustain/shield, a huge move speed buff for her team, and a teamfight winning ult.

and she needs to get pretty close in order to land any of her skills

700 range is pretty decent.

It Is I EmotoDec 4, 20142 votes

her auras have a 350 range, her ult has 1000 range, same for her heal. Her Q has 850 range, wich is very gigantic, though you need to AA as well if you want to land the Q bonus. In my opinion, she has alot of range and that's good. She only lacks of escape, wich makes her really weak against champs with gap closers.

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

Exactly, but I am just used to some supports/off-meta supports that have some more escaping utility and range(Syndra's Q-E combo, Lulu's W either on herself/ally/enemy and Q, Lissandra's Q-W-R-E escape+attack combo) Sona is very nice, but I started this to help others who might be facing my problem, and I don't want to stop using her because she was one of the first champions I ever got.

Zen FuryDec 4, 20142 votes

Sona is fine the way she is. From your description, it sounds like what's wrong is how you play her. If you're engaging face to face with the enemy, you're doing it wrong. If you have no defensive runes or masteries, you're either godlike or you're a free kill.

Supports are supposed to harass, but sacrificing defense for offense is not a good strategy if your squishy. Sona is supposed to stay back, poke, and sustain. If you're taking a lot of harass, getting beat on by creeps, or the ADC is hopping on your face then you should look at how you're positioning.

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

Yeah, after looking at everything everyone said, I realize Sona is one of the Mage Supports that needs more defense in order to stay in the fight longer, and give a little damage at the same time, and give heals and speed boosts. Harass is something I like to make use of, but sometimes I go a little too ham if I know that the harass skill is more close-ranged, like Sona's passive, since it procs off of her AA.

It Is I EmotoDec 4, 20142 votes

Hm.. I've been recently experimenting around with Sona, and I've got some builds too. If you want a strong sustain Sona, I'd go with 4/5/21, getting first the 4 points of cdr (you don't need to though) Runes are, 9x flat Armor marks, 9x flat Armor seals OR scaling Mana regen per level seals, 9 Scaling magic resist glyphs/ flat AP glyphs (against AD teams), 2x flat CDR quints, and 1x scaling CDR quint.

I usually had good results with that build, keeping me alive at most situations, as well giving alot of utility. You'll start the game with 15% cdr and can get 40% CDR at late game.

I usually start either with item 3301 or item 3303 , depending if I can poke the enemy bot lane. After first back, upgrade your gold income item and start either on the item 3028 or item 2049 , buy 3 wards and replace the yellow trinket with the red one. You might've scored an Assist or two, wich allows you complete your sightstone/chalice , wich allows you to start with one of my favorites: the item 3010 . It gives you alot of sustain, and the item 3027 will give you alot of stats you need, AP, Health, and Mana. It will make you quite tanky, and allows you to sustain through a teamfight. After that, I'll rush the item 3222 and some boots, Then I'll start building a item 3025 . Yeah it's quite weird to build this item on Sona, but it gives you alot of stats you need, armor, mana, cdr, and it's passive synthesize very well with Sona, allowing her with each AA to slow her targets.

So far your build must be item 3096 item 3025 item 3027 item 2049 item 3222 item 1001 (any type of boots works)

Upgrade your boots and start to roam to other lanes to get some Assists. While I prefer the item 3303 , so you can poke enemies and earn gold while you earn assists, the item 3301 is more a passive item, wich is better if you're in lane. I usually don't bother to upgrade it to a full item and replace it with a situational item, that's needed for me or my team. (anyways, till that you'll have 40% cdr, meaning you can get an item without cdr, other wise you spend gold on nothing) If you don't use your CDR runes, you can replace them with AP, allowing you to build an item 3105 wich can be upgraded to item 3060 or item 3190 , wich are both great against a heavy ap team.

Against AD teams, I usually go pure armor, and not getting a chalice, since it'll get replaced by a item 3003 . (I usually don't get the additional mr if I'm laning against ad heavy teams. As well I don't keep the CDR runes if I know that I'm playing against a heavy ad team) My full build would be.. item 3110 item 3025 item 3027 item 2045 item 3117 item 3040 Wich would leave me really ranky, and benifiting of my mana items with the archangels passive.

It might be weird, but those builds did work very well for me uwu Sincere!

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

Thanks so much! I do usually try to go TotG item 3070 on Sona, just because she can spam all 3 of her main melodies in quick succession, and then pump a few more out in a few seconds. The tank builds that you guys have suggested will actually work nicely for me, because I like the survivability that a tank provides, but a lot of times I go too ham and think that I can deal pretty alright damage, and then it backfires on me( Leona I didn't build AD/AP Tank Leona, just pure Tank). I will definitely experiment with those, and then use combinations to benefit me everywhere! Thanks :D

It Is I EmotoDec 6, 20141 votes

I forgot to post the accurate masteries With the beginning gold, you can buy usually an support item, You can also go 0/9/21 if you get the item 3158 , harmonizing very well with the 5% from the utility tree. Though you can go also really risky with 10% cdr+ + an full stacked item 3041 , though surviving for the stats might be really hard..

Also if you're really gold dependent, you can replace your seals and quints with gold regen quints, allowing you to rush all the items you need. They helped me alot, since some items that I'm building are quite expensive :P oh well

sad gurlDec 4, 20141 votes

? she does NOT need to be close in laning phase you can q easily without even getting poked back out of lane it's more difficult, but her ult sets up team fights really well

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

She does need to be close to benefit your ADC in battle, and in escape. Sometimes Sona doesn't sync well with some ADC's, but I just have to do some research, and some experimenting!

poopoo peepeeDec 4, 20141 votes

I looked at your masteries and runes for Sona. Absolutely no defense. Nor amor, mr, or anything in defensive tree. Might be part of your problem.

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

Thanks, I'll try to add more defense for Sona in the future!

TonyTonyMordecaiDec 4, 20141 votes

I'm just gonna add this in here, but why is this post at 0? It's not like I'm saying anything bad, I admitted that I am probably just bad at Sona. That's why I posted this in Tips & Tricks.

See you on the Rift!

vortical42Dec 5, 20141 votes

A lot of good info here, but there is one item I'm surprised no one has mentioned. Ardent Censer item 3504 can be insanely good on Sona. If you buff all four of your team mates, you just added 3000 gold worth of offensive power to your team (25% attack speed =750 gold x 4 = 3000). With some CDR, you can keep that buff up permanently, as long as you have the mana to keep spamming your 'W'. There is nothing quite as fun as popping a heal and turning your team into a buzzsaw of doom.