Hi there summoner! Welcome to my guide for Sona, the Maven of Strings. Note: This is a guide for aggressive game play supports.

Firstly, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Glxy.Vinny from the SEA servers. My current ELO is 1657 with 49 games on Sona in the new season so far. (61% Win Rate) The purpose of me doing this guide is more to ask for help on improving the way I play Sona. So bear with me for any mistakes, I'm sorry! ><

Also this is my first time doing a guide, forgive me if it sucks or I miss out a lot of things...

To me, Sona is one of the best supports in game. Her auras help a lot with early laning phase aggressiveness. She has a heal, making it ok for your AD Carry to trade damages with the enemy. Her E is fantastic for chasing down opponents. Last of all, her ulti can change the tide of a team fight and ultimately, decide whether you win or lose the game.

My Average ranked score for her is about 1/4/14

Aside from the usual Exhaust, Clairvoyance and Flash, other viable options include Heal and Ghost.

Heal is pretty much for taking on enemy aggression. However, I don't really like this spell since enemy AD Carries usually take Ignite making it kind of useless for the support to take it...

Ghost is a spell that can be used to get you into position for the perfect ulti. Who says only Flash can get you into such positions? The extra movement speed allows you to get closer to your enemies fast (though there's not much element of surprise compared to flash) to catch as many of them in your ulti as possible.

I start off with 1 Faerie Charm, 4 Sight Wards and 1 mana pot. You might ask why mana pot instead of health pot? Well, you can heal yourself. And testing out this aggressive play in game, you will need the additional mana as you will be constantly dealing damage with your Q. You can heal yourself back to health with W anyways.

Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick for gold gen. Kage's will give you that extra AP for even better harass. You will need Ruby Sightstone to save money. However, remember, you can only place 3 wards at any one time. So aside from this, you might want to carry extra wards. (Maybe a Vision for Baron/Dragon)

Runic Bulwark: Builds out from Aegis of Legion. Provides aura protection for your team and extra health for yourself. Considering how squishy of a character that Sona is, this will help you survive a lot longer.

Mikael's Crucible: The QSS for allies. Unless the enemy lacks CC or your main carry took Cleanse, this is probably the next item to go. Not only does it Cleanse your ally and heals them, it builds from Chalice of Harmony, meaning your will have good mana sustain. (Which helps a lot considering I spam all my skills XD)

Shurelya's Reverie: Health + That sick passive, even in season 3, it's awesome.

Twin Shadows: Used to chase down opponents. Good for chasing down the opponents you lost track of while chasing and let's you slow them down when your E power chord can't reach opponents.

Shard Of True Ice: To be used on your initiators to prevent their targets from escaping. Also allows the team to catch up with the initiator for team fights (More often then not, the initiator is too far ahead for the team to engage in a proper team fight. By the time the team gets there, the enemies would have escaped.)

Zeke's Herald: CDR + Health and Extra Attack Speed + Life Steal for your team mates, what's not to love about it?

For the AP items I don't think I have to explain much since it's pretty much self explanatory. There's hardly a lot of chances to go this route anyway.

Now, allow me to explain a little on the usage of Sona’s spells.

Hymm of Valor (Q): This is the most important spell in your arsenal for that early game aggressiveness. Q does damage to your opponents and the aura it provides adds additional AP/AD to surrounding allies. It’s power chord does double damage of your normal attack, the power chord used for harassing. In laning phase, this aura should be kept up constantly in order to help your AD Carry last hit better. I tend to hide in the bush, go out, Q, and run back in. I don’t Q from the bush cause this exposes me to follow up damage from the enemy team.

Aria of Perseverance (W): Your heal. It’s aura provides additional armor and magic resist to surrounding allies (Kinda feels likes a mini Aegis of Legion to me). The power chord lowers enemy damage by 20% for 4 seconds, a potential life saver. This is the power chord I would use on the enemy AD Carry when both carries are trading blows or when there’s an enemy right in front of your AD, threatening to kill him/her. W can also be used to charge up your power chords so that you can harass with your Q power chord in laning.

Song of Celerity (E): This is one of the best speed buffs in game. When casted, allies gain additional burst of speed for 1.5 seconds. The aura provides movement speed and the power chord slows opponents down. This is an aura that I will keep when bringing my AD Carry back to lane, won’t want them missing any CS. E aura should be kept up when chasing opponents. Slow them with the power chord to help your AD Carry get that kill. When being chased by a large group, use your power chord on the enemy with CC before making your escape.

Crescendo (R): One of my favorite support ultis in game! Enemies are stunned for 1.5 Seconds. That's a lot of time for your team to burst down the necessary carries or for them to run away from chasing enemies. There’s nothing much to say about this skill. It can be used as an initiating skill but that only works well when you have your flash. Either wise, use it in the middle of the fight when your enemies are trying hard to down your carry.

The two skills I switch between in team fights are Q and E. It’s important to be constantly healing your allies yet dealing some damage (coming from your AP Runes and Kage’s Lucky Pick). The auras are also very important, that extra damage or protection could save your carry’s life. Do not bother using your E in team fights, I find it quite pointless. It is more useful during chases and getaways.

Pros:

-Extremely good early game harass
-Aura for ALL allies! :D
-Good at chasing people.
-Ulti can change the tide of a losing team fight

Cons:

-Squishy as hell, lowest starting health among all the supports =\
-Weak against CC, even when you have your ulti.

Since this is an aggressive AP guide...

-Always stay inside the lane bushes and when you want to Q or use your power chord to harass opponents, LEAVE the brush and harass before going back in. I cannot stress this enough. Often, I will see people harass from inside the bush exposing them to follow up attacks from the opponent. You are squishy, don't risk it.

- As mentioned in skills, keep the Q aura up at all times to help your AD Carry with last hitting and doing that extra damage to the enemy when they trade damages.

-When there's a lane fight between both AD Carries and Supports, W chord the enemy AD Carry ASAP. The damage from your Q can only do so much. The next best thing you can do is lower the damage your AD Carry receives.

-When helping your team mate escape, use E chord for ranged opponents. For melee opponents that are onto your team mate, use the W chord repeatedly while switching with the E aura to lower the damage taken and make a quick escape.

-When your jungler ganks, pre-6, use your E chord on the opponent first when the gank starts.

-Against a lane with good CC, do not go harassing when their CC is up. For example: against a Blitzcrank, what you could do is time the cooldown of his hooks. You can go really aggressive when it's down and play passive ( hiding behind minions etc. when it's up.) Eventually, at low health, he wouldn't dare to grab you anymore.

-In team fights, keep your Q and W auras up. Keep switching between both spells. Use your E only for quick get aways.

-Flash + Ult is a trick you will have to master. Useful to catch your enemy for that free kill your AD Carry needs for his next item.

Well, do give me comments on what to add to the guide and how to improve my build, game play etc. If you use my guide to try out Sona, do SS me your scores if it went well. Thank you! <3