Sona is a ranged support version of
our lovely friend Udyr,
the animal spirit that runs around punching people in the face.
style=""> She has the same
passive/active effects on
all of her base skills, but she has very few of the problems Udyr runs
into. She has a
long range, fairly good
attack animation for scoring last hits when they come up.
style=""> She has a fantastic stun
with a fairly long
range, that can be aimed to hit behind walls or up cliffs.
style=""> She has none of the
scaling issues Udyr does
since all of her skills are enhanced by ability power and not attack
damage.
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style="font-style: italic;">The only thing Sona is lacking
is a real personality. It's difficult to taunt your opponents
without a voice.
So with a short cooldown heal,
movement speed burst, long
range nuke, and massive area of effect stun ultimate
we have by far
and away
the most valuable support champion in League of Legends at the moment!
Skills
Passive :
Power Chord
: Every third spell cast will cause Sonas next attack to do bonus
magic damage
based on her level.
Sona
has a very powerful laning phase, and this is one of the main reasons.
style=""> Her basic attack range is
long, and every
time this comes up, you can smack a hero for a good chunk of damage.
style=""> If you need to last hit a
melee or cannon
creep, this will make it a guaranteed kill as well.
Late game, when you are chaining spells as
fast as you can, you can occasionally do a quick attack during a chase
for some
good bonus damage.
Hymn of
Valor -
Passively increases attack damage and ability power of Sona and all
nearby
allied champions. When
activated, it
does damage to two nearby targets, targeting enemy Champions in range
if
possible. 6 second
cooldown.
Welcome
to one of the most annoying spells in the game to fight against.
style=""> If you are chasing Sona at
all, this will
likely hit you, even from a mile away.
The targeting on this is a little iffy when you are the
one chasing
them, as the spell seems to do the hit check a split second after cast
from a
location. So if
youre moving forward
towards an enemy, the spell hit check will go off a little ways behind
you and
possibly not hit the enemy when they should be in range.
style=""> Just the same, when
running away, it will hit
enemies that seem out of range when you cast it.
Test this when youre battling Sona vs. Sona
in a lane, and youll see what I mean.
Even if
youre ignoring ability power in favor of cooldown reduction and
support items,
you will want to blast this song every time its up and you have an
ally
nearby/enemy in range. It
basically
gives 500 gold in free damage/AP to every ally around you!
Aria of
Perseverance
Passively increases armor and magic resist of Sona and nearby allied
champions. When
activated, heals Sona
and a nearby wounded allied champion for 40/65/90/115/140.
style="">
This is the main reason Sona
is frustrating to play against. If
you
wound her but not kill her, she will immediately begin healing herself
and
nearby allies quickly. Wars
outside your
tower seem fruitless when your poking attacks are negated by her short
cooldown, auto-targeting heal. The
heal
will automatically target the most wounded friendly nearby, and has a
stunningly large range.
If everyone
isnt at full, you hit this skill when its up.
And even if they are, you hit it anyway to
get that defensive aura up!
Song of
Celerity
Passively boosts all friendly units movespeed by 8/11/14/17/20.
style=""> When activated, gives
8/11/14/17/20% bonus as
well for 1.5 seconds
Oh
look! Its a mini
team Ghost on
command! Leveling
this early will make
you invincible to ganks and give your lanemate a much more potent
offense, but
the other two skills are so good as well.
Late game, youll be hammering this constantly to give
your team the
speed to position themselves as
they see
fit, and chase stragglers with ease.
Ultimate
Crescendo
Sona blasts a tune that causes all enemies hit to dance for 1.5 seconds
and
take 150/250/350 damage.
This
hits everything in a wide line, and has a long range to boot.
style=""> The cooldown is massive,
but this can be used
to escape in a pinch, save allies, and set up an enemy team for a
beatdown. Basically
this is the best skill you could
ask for with the 3 base skills she already has.
It has a slight cast time, so be careful when aiming this
at people
chasing you or already meleeing you.
If
theyre expecting it, they can run by you and dodge it completely
and
likely
ruin your day a second later.
Playstyle and Recent Nerfs
All you have to do in team fights is
mash the hell out of your basic
skills and watch your positioning.
Stay
close enough to hit targets with Valor, but stay far enough away that
you dont
get singled out with a stun and beat down.
Dont blow your ultimate immediately and wait for the
critical moment to
turn the fight upside down. Keep in mind that your auras will
only stay active for two seconds, so you can only twist two auras to be
up at any given time. Make your movement speed burst count!
Key Items
Innervating
Locket A
chunk of health, a chunk of mana, and a self heal of both that is going
to
always be active when it counts. On
top
of that, one of Sonas main goals is cooldown reduction, and hitting
the 40%
cap is easy once you have this.
Shurelias
Reverie Health,
regen, and an active that stacks with your Celerity song to make your
team move
at 88 miles per hour for 2 seconds.
And
it has even more cooldown reduction!
Archangels
Staff Sona
casts more spells than anyone else in the game, so she will not only
get a ton
of AP from this, but a ton of max mana to keep those songs flowing.
Optional Items
Mejals
Soulstealer If you have an arranged team and you
think things will go well, pick this up.
Sona will not die a lot once team fights start (assuming
you win
them!) and this
will give you a ton of
AP in a hurry for a little cost.
Rod
of Ages A lot of key stats for Sona, but it suffers
from a high cost/build up and you dont have a lot of time to last hit
when
youre playing the best support hero in the game.
If you are being fed the Golem buff when its
up, then you can consider this instead of other forms of cooldown
reduction.
Aegis
of the Legion Sona will almost always be with her
team when it counts, and this will give her some much needed
survivability and
pass it on to her alliesand it stacks with her healing aura as well!
Masteries
9/0/21 is
the
most popular way to go. Take
the magic
penetration and cooldown reduction offensive skills, and then take the
obvious
skills on your way down to the bottom of Utility.
Save a point for Improved Clairvoyance if you
are planning on using it.
Runes
Reds are up to you, but magic
penetration will help a lot
early game. Take
scaling mana regen
yellows and blues, or take magic resist blues if youre not planning on
building any form of defensive item throughout the game.
Summoner Spells
You have the option of going for both
improved flash and
ghost, as well as the all-seeing clairvoyance.
Clarity is nice, but once your runes and items kick in,
will quickly
fall in usefulness. If
you dont have a
clairvoyance on your team already, take it and the survival skill of
your
choice, but otherwise take both Ghost and Flash.
Sona will be focused, and you dont want to
have to blow your ultimate every time to survive!
Conclusion
Sona is a powerhouse support hero
that will inevitably see
some serious nerfs when the balance team at Riot can figure out how to
do it
without ruining her completely, while still making the other support
heroes a
viable pick when she exists. To
play her
well is to do two things: position yourself in the best possible place
for
offense while not being too vulnerable and mashing the ever loving hell
out of
Q W E when in team battles.
Its so easy, but so good.
style="">
Udyr wishes he had his stance switching this easy!
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