Hi again, this is my second guide on mobafire. Seeing as though all of those trollvoters decided to vote me down on my graves guide simply over appearance probably without even reading it, I decided to make one with a format. I thank all the people who downvoted but gave a good reason for it, I appreciate your comments.
Anyway, this is my guide to the Maven of the Strings, Sona. She was the 1st champ I ever bought, and still my favorite support to play. She is the most powerful support in the burst apartment next to Lux. But the fact that she assists her team with her mere presence makes her a powerful ally and a horrible foe.
She can do it all, give a speed boost, heal, attack, stun, debuff, slow, give armor and magic resistance, attack power and ability power and more. But in spite of what her character description says she is not an easy champ to play. I will try to show you two ways of playing her, as carry and support, either way she does extremely well when played correctly and can easily snowball her team into victory.

I will probably note this in every guide I make. I am not a high elo player or some beta tester. I am not the best by far, so I won't pretend that I am. But what I can tell you that I have watched how most of the best players play Sona and have played Sona enough to know her do's and don'ts when playing as this
Her champion spotlight:

credits/shout-outs to:

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here. My bro Kanna the Agony for encouraging me to buy her, and crispykreem's sadly outdated guide which taught me how to play Sona can be found here http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/sona-epic-heals-epic-dmg-epic-win-updated-1-21-11-19367. While outdated, it is still an excellent guide and I suggest it if you guys want to learn to play Sona better, as he is much better than I am. Simply look at his k/d/a ratios to see for yourself.

spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace

Pros + Works with nearly any team composition + Flexible, can go carry/support or full support + Powerful burst damage + Auras can buff your whole team + Packs plenty of CC + Teamfight changing ult + Excluding your ult you don't even have to aim your abilities

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Cons - Squishy as hell!!! - Easily focused - CC spam can ruin her potential in a fight - High Priority Target - Hard to Play Efficiently - Mana starved early-mid game - Almost useless without a teammate nearby

The recent patch crated massive changes to how you build sona in terms of masteries. Here is how I do learned to do it when going full support. I borrowed from Mowen's Faceroll Support sona guide. It is a 0/9/21 mastery build. You put a point in MR, max Armor, and grab the health masteries. I go 21 utility points for summoner spells, grabbing mastery points for summoner spells, the now useful Expanded Mind , 2 points in movement, maxed mana regen, spell vamp, buff extension, exp, cd, and mastermind

Offense Masteries
Mental Force Obviously for the little bit of extra ap.

Summoner's Wrath Boost ignite or ghost depending on what you are taking. I mean, better than taking ad right?

Sorcery A bit of extra cdr to help spam your spells

Archaic Knowledge Magic pen for that extra oomph in your spells :)
Note: Only use when going carry

Defense Masteries
Resistance Bonus MR why not?
Hardiness Bonus defense, sure.
Durability More health, great for survival as a support.
Veteran's Scars Even more health, sure.


Utility Masteries
Good Hands As i said in my sadly trollvoted Graves guide, this is better than perseverance. Now you might say, omg but you are sona you need the extra regen. But let's do the math shall we. 3 points in perseverance gives you 4% bonus to hp and mana regen. It sounds like a lot, but let's put it this way. What this translates to is for every 100 regen you get, you get 4 additional regen, or even more simply, 1 regen per 25. That is almost NOTHING. But good hands can save you up to 10% of your time dead. That time can be used to save a turret or run back to the fight. Therefore Good Hands>Perseverance.
Not as needed with the new mastery page but still very viable.
1 point of Perseverance is all you need.

Note: Perseverance is so far down the tree now all you can take is good hands, so take it.

Summoner's Insight To boost your Clairvoyance and Flash spells, a mandatory pick.

Awareness Extra exp, who wouldn't want that?

Meditation Three points in this for extra regen. Hell, at least it's better than perseverance.

Runic Affinity Adds another 22 seconds of cdr and mana regen when you have blue buff, why not?

Quickness Adds a little extra movement speed for chasing and escaping.

Intelligence Yay more cdr for spamming! XD

Mastermind The most powerful mastery on the tree. I lowers the cdr on all of your summoner spells. That means with Blink of an Eye you can use flash from every 255 every 202 seconds. Your Clairvoyance can be used from every 55 to every 41 seconds with this and Mystical Vision . Even Ignite is reduced from 180 seconds to 153 seconds. Think about it. With this mastery you can get that Ignite faster to kill someone just about to get away, or use Flash to get the hell out of a 5 man gank, or save a teammate from an impending gank with Clairvoyance. An awesome mastery indeed.

The difference between the two is we put 9 points into defense for survivability over the damage of the offense tree.
I am having trouble getting the masteries to work on moba so here is the link:


support sona masteries:

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner#&tree1=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree2=0-1-3-0-4-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree3=1-0-3-0-2-3-0-0-3-1-0-4-0-0-3-1&v=2

carry sona masteries:

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner#&tree1=1-0-3-0-0-4-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree2=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree3=1-0-3-0-2-3-0-0-3-1-0-4-0-0-3-1&v=2

• : These are better than MrP early game when runes are strongest. It gives flat ap to give your heals and damage a bit more oomph. It helps a little into late game too. Pretty much the standard choice for every single caster excluding Ryze
  
• : MrP for early game damage and late game ownage.
  
• : Extra ap for late game doesn't hurt
  
• : Combined with Morello's Evil Tome and Tear of the Goddess gives you all the mana regen you need for mid-endgame. Also helps when their jungler or greedy ap carry takes your blue.

Spells that make you say Bravo! Encore!:

[Flash]: Currently called THE best summoner spell in the game. Seriously, it is an extra escape ability in a can. This has saved my *** countless times and it will save yours too. Also great for chasing. Sadly, it is going to be nerfed in Season 2, we will jsut have to wait and see.

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[Clairvoyance]: The best support spell in the game. You will inf this in every higher elo match when their team has a support. This is for good reason. For champs who must face check a bush otherwise like Sona, this can save her or a teammate from a gank. This can also be used to track their jungler or to check if they are attempting Baron Nashor or Dragon. It is funny how people react to this spell. Once i used when they were attempting Baron Nashor and they all ran for the hills while I calmly strolled in and stole Baron. We LOLED the match away soon after. Easily one of the best spells next to Flash But sadly, like flash, they are going to nerf it in Season 2. Might as well enjoy it while it is still awesome.

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[Ignite]: Every ap carry's best friend. Combined with power chord and a bursty/high sustained damage teammate like Pantheon or Tristana can easily decimate the most powerful of tanks and squishies alike. It also keeps those pesky enemy healers/regeneration/lifesteal spammers (looking at you Soraka Dr. Mundo and Vladimir from healing themselves to the point that you can hardly hurt them thanks to the healing reduction of Ignite allowing you to burst them down. Some spells are still viable but these are my favorites.

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Power Chord:This is the single hardest thing to utilize correctly on Sona and seperates the good Sonas from the pro Sonas. What it does is that every three spells she casts next auto attack will deal bonus damage and add an effect based on what spell you used last, based on this the attack will have the following effects:
All: Sona's next attack deals extra 14 + (9 x level) magic damage
Hymn of Valor, Staccato: It doubles the bonus damage of your next Power Chord. It is your main harass combined with the initial damage from Hymn of Valor and part of your burst combo as carry sona which I will go into later.

Aria of Perseverance, Diminuendo:Lowers the damage output of all of the attacks and abilities of the target by 20% for 4 seconds. A sadly underused effect. But a very powerful one. Throw it at a powerful enemy channeled ult like Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero, Fiddlesticks's Crowstormor Katarina's Death Lotus or burst combo like those of Ryze, Annie, or LeBlanc to severely hamper their effectiveness. These are only a few examples, but in a nutshell generally you will want to throw this at carries about to do a lot of damage.

Song of Celerity, Tempo: The afflicted target will be slowed by 40% for the next two seconds. A powerful slow in fact. Use for chasing/kiting/escaping your foes.
But be careful, you can't use this passive when silenced so be warned when going against characters such as Kassadin and malazahar with silences and other hard cc.

• As carry, spam your staccato power chord to deal maximum early game damage before going in for the kill.
  
• To help gank carries, lure a carry towards you (without being too reckless) with two charges into power chord. Then when your teammate is ready, burst that carry down as your teammate will jump from the bush/stealth/ with ult to beat the **** out of the cocky carry's ***.
  
• Remember to harass with this as much as you can without going oom to zone them out of experience and gold.

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Hymn of Valor: As carry sona the ability you max first, on support you max this second. The reason why you max this first is to maximize your early game harass with this ability. It is unique is while you don't aim it, you have to be within a certain proximity of an enemy champion to target him/her. This can either be dangerous or not so depending on your foe. But remember it's ad and ap aura boost. When your lane partner or other teammate wants to burst someone down, get within aura range and blast your opponent while staying close enough to your bursty teammate so they can benefit from the aura. The reason why I still max this earlier than song of celerity on support sona is because this simply has more utility. What is better, a measly 20 movement speed boost or a huge 250+ damage nuke with a .7 ratio that you don't even need to aim. Yeah, easy decision.

• As your main damage skill, remember to spam it often.
• Unless you are close enough to the enemy champion you want to hit your hymn of valor won't target becasue it might target a minion instead. So when poking with this, Song of Celerity in before firing your q and quickly rush out to avoid counterattacks.
• When enemies are chasing you, don't be afraid to try and deter them with this if you have the mana. It has a low cd and high damage so in a dangerous situation remember to use it between the cd of your other spells.

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[Aria of Perseverance]:This is your support aura that you max first when going full support. It gives an aura that boosts armor and magic resistance. It also shoots out a ray that hits the most wounded allied teammate and heals them while granting double the bonuses of the aura for 3 seconds Along with the diminuendo power chord use this to brace for a combo or ult you know you won't be able to outrun. You can also use to save a fleeing teammate by healing them and getting close enough so that your aura and the bonus stack to give the person a maximum of 45 ARMOR AND MAGIC RESIST that is enormous to save an oversxtending teammate's tail from being focused down by their pesky junglers. Don't forget to turn it on when you see something like Karthus's Requiem or Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage Sadly, the heal is less than all of the other healers with only a .25 ratio. In addition, they just increased the mana cost which makes it even weaker of a heal as it's only strength before was that it could be spammed without fail in order to catch up in healing. I hope Riot buffs this in the future. Because in spite of riot thinks, they are making sona underpowered at this point =(

• Spam this with with Song of Celerity while fleeing to maximize your chances of you or a teammate surviving.
  
• Brace your teammates for a global ult or large aoe like Karthus's Requiem or fiddlestick's Crowstorm by sitting near them with the passive aura of this ability. That bonus magic resist can take up to 13% of the damage off the dang ult for your team, and 31% for you and your most wounded ally as long as you are close by. Not too shabby eh?
  
• This heal has a deceptively long range. When you put your mouse over it, the aura range is the same as the heal range. the heal can be used on allies through walls so spam away when an ally is getting away.

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Song of Celerity: Helpful, but probably your least important skill. It gives a small speed boost early game but a fairly large one late game at 20 bonus. But generally, unless saving a teammate's *** you generally will not find too many uses for it except getting to an objective, running, or helping teammate chase. When getting away, spam this with Aria of Perseverance and shoot tempo power chords at your chasing foes to slow him down. When chasing with this, charge into them with a teammate and slow them with the tempo power chord so what ever team mate you have can burst him down. I grab at level 3 or 4 as carry and support sona to get access to the slow and chasing, but leave it there until level 14.

• The powerful slow off this thing is very neglected. Take advantage of it to kite foes are to simply get the hell out.
  
• When your team wants to engage or retreat, don't forget to activate this. It can make all the difference when getting away for running after them.
  
• Spam this when getting back to lane once you get your Tear of the Goddess to build stacks and get back to lane quicker.

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Crescendo: Your game changing ult. It is a skillshot nuke that stuns all foes in range by forcing them to dance for 1.5 seconds. You can interrupt channeled abilities with this, stop those charging gankers,or simply stun them for your team can make them cry for mercy without retaliation. It works wonders with other ults like Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy, Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero, or Fiddlesticks's Crowstorm just to name a few. This is the sole reason why people decide to ban sona in ranked is because of this aoe stun and her nuking/saving power.
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This can be used as an escape tactic when fleeing from a gank or a bad teamfight. Simply shoot it behind u so that it is easier for your entire team to get away. Just try to make it hit as many enemies as you can and tell your teammates what you are doing (I've seen idiots take this as an initiation signal when fleeing)

[*] On a team full of devastating aoe channeled ults ( Nunu & Willump, Katarina, Fiddlesticks, Pantheon e.t.c) or simply champs with mighty aoe damage ( Veigar, Brand, Annie, Anivia) Remember to use this when they activate or make sure they follow you in order to deal maximum damage.

[*] Inversely, if no one on your team has cc ready to disrupt a champion like one of the above, you can use this to interrupt it. Use this only if your team can't stop it/them, because it is ideal to have this ult ready just in case.

Core build:
: This solves all of your mana problems by mid-late game assuming you don't spam your spells unwisely. Mind while you gain mana by spamming your spells, the mana regen is still equal to a a Meki Pendant. So don't get cocky and spam spells until you go oom when you need your spells most. Try to get this to max as fast as possible so you'll be ready for mid game teamfights. This is always 1st priority to build and rush it ASAP.

: A more reliable version of the Mejai's Soulstealer. I used to take mejai's until I get to a high enough elo that they are smart enough to focus me. I just kept losing stacks. I found this to be a better choice because of 1)20% cdr will help make sure your ult is ready when needed 2)It only buffs your mana regen further. 3)Still provides a good deal of ap that does NOT go away when you are killed. If you are confident and are pwning go ahead for mejai's, but I still personally prefer Morello's.

: Well duh, they are boots

Note: Do not follow this build to the T. Buy your items according to how the game is going and change accordingly.

Support Sona
Core build:
There are only three core items on support sona because you have to be flexible. As support, you are often semi-tank, supporting and protecting your teammates while beating the wrath of god itno the enemy team. Therefore you'll have to be able to adapt. However while not as burst empowered as carry sona you will still deal a lot of damage.

When going support here is your basic early item sequence:
+ The potions are for healing in the case you get harassed. While the Meki Pendant is to rush your tear of the goddess.

First trip back:
+ Boost of speed and your mandatory tear of the goddess.

Mid game goal:
+ + some kind of boot upgrade. You need your codex to build into morello's if you are grabbing it. Aegis is also very useful.

End Game goal:
Congrat's you have finished your core and ready for other items.

Carry Sona
Carry Core:
Unlike support sona the core build is much more rigid for carry sona, as you need the oomph to deal damage, and these are often your best choices for most situations. But your last item is up to you. You'll see some I recommend later.

This starts off the same but branches off from support sona.
+ The potions are for healing in the case you get harassed. While the Meki Pendant is to rush your tear of the goddess.

First trip back:
+ Boost of speed and your mandatory tear of the goddess.

Mid game goal:
+ Now here is where things differ, insteasd of getting an aegis you get a sheen for extra mana and burst.


Which boots......
If you are facing heavy cc and/or ap heavy teams. The magic resist will make you more tanky and the tenacity is always helpful.

Great for icnreasing your burst damage as carry. If their squishies are dum enough to not build any mr they are going to be hurting in the thousands once you get your full build.

Boost cdr to help with spell spamming. It is possible to go without these boots though, as blue buff/elixir of brilliance will bring you close if not exceed the cdr cap when combined with masteries. But helpful if you decide not to take morello's.

Late Game: Things Branch off from here:

: Excellent choice when you have a heavy ap/aoe heavy team. This will help them heal up after fights, pushes, and duels. The extra ap helps nearby allies counter mr if they have ap scaling skills. But the spell vamp works for all spells.

When going against a heavy ad team this is very viable. The extra hp regen, the armor, and the bit of cdr will help you survive. The acitve is extremely useful as it will help shut down their carries. Tell your team when you are going to use it for maximum effectiveness.

Gives you a 'GTFO!" button in an emergency (most prominent use is to escape Karthus's Requiem) while giving plenty of armor and ability power for survival and support.

When going aginst an ap ehavy team with an ap heavy team, this is a good choice. It increases your magic resist by a lot (36% reduction not including magic penetration) some ap, and an awesome aura that lowers their magic resist.

This is an excellent final item on carry sona. It provides plenty of magic penetration in the case that they are smart enough to build magic resist against you. But because it stacks multiplicatively with Archaic Knowledge , so you'll only squeeze out 49% penetration instead of 55%, but it is still nearly half their magic resist.

A good all-around item for support sona. It's aura stacks with Aria of Perseverance. At rank 5 the two together gives 8 ad, 27 armor, and 30 magic resist to all teammates around you.. Actually, you should get this around mid game if you want this item, as it is inexpensive and very effective. But don't get this if your tank is going to, then it just becomes rather redundant unless your whole team is a bunch of carries who don't know how to build survivability. But i find this to be a core item on a support sona.

As support, you may have to babysit a carry at bot. So in that case grab a Philosopher's Stone early and you many want to build it into this. It gives a lot to support sona. CDR, health, mana regen, health regen, and killer active for helping you and/or teammates get away from ganks or teamfights, or simply to chase when combined with the flat bonus from Song of Celerity. It has maximum effectiveness when near teammates so stay close.

sight ward So badly neglected in lower ELO. Later on your best friend once you start hitting the higher elos, as the wards will either save your dragon/baron from being taken, or could save you from a gank. Always but these until you get your full build.

Remember to buy these through out the game. An Elixir of Fortitude can save you from pesky Ignites and other healing reduction dots. Elixir of Brilliance is mandatory later on in the game. CDR and a good amount of ap and is basically a temporary cheaper Blasting Wand. A Elixir of Agility is basically something you'll just buy with spare cash later on. I've gotten a few kills with lucky crits though XD. But it still helps when pushing towers. Oracle's Elixir is mandatory to purchase if they have any kind of stealth. It can save your life from a Shaco, Evelynn, Twitch, or Teemo lurking about, as well as allowing you to kill pesky mushrooms, boxes, and wards.

Early Game (levels 1-8)
Most of early game is generally rather passive. Just give the last hits to your carry, or if going carry, just last hit. Try to dodge whatever harassment they try to deal at you. Harass them back if needed. But don't put yourself too close to the fight. Remember, don't push the lane until they are dead. Generally, from around mid-high ELO onwards, the teams will generally be smart enough to gank you if you push the lane, resulting in an easy first blood for them. But if they start to get cocky nad making mistakes, show them who's boss with a nice burst from Hymn of Valor + Power Chord. Push their tower if you can but just try to keep yourself and your teammates alive. But if you have a jungler starting at one of the buffs, remember to give him a leash with Hymn of Valor

Mid Game (levels 9-14):
Laning phase is over and it is time for ganks. You'll want to coordinate with your teammates to ganks on their main carries. But don't get yourself killed either like usual. If needed, go help a stuggling teammate in another lane. When the teamfights start coming be ready. As carry stay back and pelt them with Power Chords and Hymn of Valor, and try to stun as many enemies as you can with Crescendo so your team can't hit them hard.

End Game (levels 15-18):[/b]
If you and your team played their cards right, you should be winning. You should have most if not all of of your build by now. You should either be nuking hard or supporting your teammates and keeping the alive and making them practically immortal. As carry sona help back door by staggering your spells while firing an auto attack each time to make the most of the lich bane bonus. To help push as support, simply activate Hymn of Valor to boost your fellow teammates ad. Keep it up and you will probably win.

This ends my Sona build. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, this game is like a battle of the bands. The band that plays better by working together instead of clashing wins. I hope you do well in all your games. Happy pwning!