Sona Build Guide by Roccorii

Introduction

Just quickly, this guide is based on helping people to play Sona as a support. I often see people play her totally wrong, so i decided to make a guide myself.

*NOTE*
If there is gramma mistakes or spell mistakes, I am sorry, but my english is not the best but you are free to put it as a comment ^^

Let's get started!

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Pros / Cons

Pros
Very strong all game long
Good poke with and Very strong early game
Good aoe stun with
Good in any team comp if you play her auras correctly!

Cons
Can easily be focused down before team fight before you get the more tanky build!
If you miss she is much much weaker!
Very annoying to play against because her good poke with and her ultimate

Skills Explanation

Very good passive, and is always VERY useful!




I level up Hymn of Valor first because it gives you the strong early game damage, and if you charge up your passive in fountain. It also gives the AD carry more attack damage so he can get more farm more easily, and damage the opponent team. Also i level this skill up before the heal so I can poke in level one.




For the next skill, i level up Aria of Perseverance because it gives the heal for your AD carry that he needs, so it is very important. And then there is the plus that you get armor and magic resist from the aura. If you auto attack when you have your passive set to this attack, it will decrease the damage dealt by the target by 20% for 4 seconds. This ability is VERY underrated!! Trust me. If you imagine, you use this on an AD carry, it can bring their damage down from 300-240. This is very good if you can use it when it is needed.




I level this ability up at level four because you don't really need it until then, but what it does is, that it grants you and all friendly champions around you a little speed buff.
But what it is very useful for is its its passive effect. If you auto attack when you have your passive up with this ability on, it slows the target it hits. This is very useful if you use it wisely.




This is the key to every teamfight if you have Sona on your team. It fires off a line forward stunning every champion it hits for 1.5 seconds. If you can land a good ultimate with Sona, you can almost turn ANY teamfight around.

Runes Explanation

For marks I go with Greater Mark of Magic Penetration because it obviously gives you magic pen, so you can poke harder with Hymn of Valor

For glyphs I have Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist so I can survive the later game against the AP carry, or if the other support is very aggressive.

For seals I rock the Greater Seal of Armor for a obvious reason... You are a support at bottom lane, the AD carry is the one who hurts, so it is good to have armor so you don't take as much damage from pokes, and you can focus on your teammate.

And last but not least i use Greater Quintessence of Gold in the quintessence slot.
And the reason is OF COURSE that you are a support. You need to get gold because you dont get any farm at all!

Masteries Explanation

0/9/21

Defense

Summoner's Resolve I pick this to get the 10% extra heal.
Hardiness Put 3 points in this to get 6 extra armor! This will help you a LOT in lane!
Durability Very good to stay in lane with your AD carry and it will help you to survive!

Utility

Improved Recall You know the times where you need the recall to be 0.5 seconds less to survive.
Expanded Mind This gives you more mana to work with in lane, GREAT!
Meditation Gives you more mana regen which is always nice so you can spam your spells more!
Scout Increase the wards sight by 5% which is AMAZING! This can make you and your AD carry survive a gank by the enemy teams jungler because YOUR wards spotted them, so you can feel good :)
Greed Gives you more gold per 10 so you can get your key items faster!
Wealth This is REALLY underrated, think about the times when you need a single ward because you have stayed in lane very long time, you can get it from the start by getting the extra 40 gold!
Awareness I grab 3/4 in this because i don't find it very important, of course it gives extra exp, so just get 3/4 in that.
Intelligence Grab this to spam your skills more.
Mastermind 15% lower cooldown on summoner spells! Really key for Heal

Edit it as you want, but i feel this is the best!

Summoner Spell Explanation

Reccomended:

This just explains itself. It is a MUST HAVE since Clairvoyance got nerfed. You can have this if your AD carry does not have it. Of course you both can use it, but it is reccomended that one of you have a Ignite or Exhaust



The next summoner spell is must likely the MOST IMPORTANT summoner spell of all time! With this, you can Flash and Crescendo to stun enemies and win fights. You can also get the last hit on running enemies or you can Flash away from fights.

Viable summoner spells:

You can use this if your AD carry has Heal, then it is very good to catch running enemies!


You can also use this if your AD carry has Heal, this is used for dealing a little bit of damage AND shutting down the enemies healing.


You can use this in replace for Flash, well maybe you are not high enough level to have Flash OR you like ghost more. I don't see why you shouldn't be using Flash but if not, you can catch enemies, roam more easily and run away! Still not as good as Flash on Sona.


This is still pretty good if you put a point in Summoner's Insight so it lasts longer. It is good to spot jungle ganks, Baron Nashor or Dragon attemps.


NOT RECCOMENDED


This can be useful in a few occasions. NOT something I would use, so please skip this when you are thinking about what you should pick :)


This can be useful if you are in lane with a Ezreal so he/she can spam all day long.


Maybe useful if you want to use Crescendo but you get stunned? I don't know, but definitely not good.


DO NOT USE THESE!!!!!!


Why. Just WHY would you even THINK about using this summoner spell?


This thing SUCKS TOO! Please just leave these two summoner spells FOREVER!


Do not use this. It is totally worthless!

Item Explanation

Items from the start!

To get the extra mana per 5 so you can keep your mana up!
Take these to ward up so you don't get ganked!
Always good to get a little bit of health back if you get poked too much!

First couple of trips back

Always good with more health regen, mana regen and gold per 10!
More health to survive and more gold per 10 IMPORTANT!
For you to catch or flee from enemies.

Next items you should get

To get the 35% less CC durations!
Buy this to give your teammates the extra armor, magic resist and damage! It is quite expensive, so you can take it step by step with a Cloth Armor then Ruby Crystal and last Null-Magic Mantle
Get this if you have a little extra gold in your pocket! Always good to have since you can sweep wards! Of course don't buy this if you die all the time.
VERY good when trying to go into fights or get away from fights! It gives you a good speed boost and on top of that it gives you tons of health and health regen + 15% cooldown reduction!

You should get these items in late game

Very good! Get extra armor and health + health regen, AND on top of that you get a active ability which gives you and all your nearby enemies a shield.
Get this early to get the gold per 10 again, because it is one of the items you need to get Randuin's Omen
When you have enough gold you should get this straight away! It is awesome to have the extra 5% of cooldown reduction.
OR
Get these things if you have a bruiser top lane such as Wukong or Riven then get Zeke's Herald and if you have a AP top such as Kennen or Ryze get a Will of the Ancients

How to play Sona

This is just basically how to play her in-game

Early game

In the early game your role is in general to poke down the enemies with Hymn of Valor and Power Chord
You have to sit in the brushes and go in and use Hymn of Valor When possible, if you can hit both of the enemies it is VERY good!
Of course you have to ward at dragon when you are on blue side, and ward the Tri-brush when you are on the purple side!
At level 2 your AD carry can go in and exchange harass because you can give him a armor buff when you heal him with Aria of Perseverance and when you switch to Hymn of Valor you give him extra damage!
If it is possible, then when you exchange harass, focus on their AD carry and try to BE focused.
Remember that you have to set wards! It is one of the KEY things!!

Mid Game

Keep hitting them with Power Chord for some harass and to give your teammates the extra damage and ability power!
If you don't really die, you can buy a Oracles's Elixir and sweep wards, and if you are ahead down in bottom lane, you can roam around, help ganking and sweep all of their wards.
Of course use your ultimate Crescendo whenever going for a kill, it is a VERY strong ultimate that can hit their whole team!

Late Game

This is pretty much doing what you are best for, healing, damage/giving power to allies and movement speed! Remember wards at Baron Nashor and Dragon and many other places, it is VERY good to have ALOT of map awareness!!