This is my first guide on MOBAfire. I like to play Sona and figured I would share my ideal build with other members of the site in hopes for the best. If you dislike the guide, I'd request that you comment with constructive criticism. I'm open to changing my build and hope to get better.

I also apologize if any parts of this guide seem repetitive, stolen, traditional, etc.

Mana Regen and Cooldowns for aura stacking and staying in lane all day.

I see a lot of Support and Jungle guides calling for Greed. 1g/10sec is pretty bad. The difference between Greed and no Greed is so negligible that I see Greed as a waste of a skill point.

I took an 8/0/22 setup. I skipped the point in Archaic Knowledge because as mentioned in the runes section, Sona has hardly any magic damage. The point in crit chance is just to get the CDR. If you use exhaust...for some reason...you should put the point in crits in exhaust.

First and foremost, wardswardswards. If you play in normal, it's not _as_ important to ward, but still is important to ward at least river/brush. As a support, warding is one of your primary objectives.

2 Charms for early mana reg, Philo for reg/gold, mana manip to help your carry a little bit more, HoG for health/gold, and really, everything past that is situationally made. I just wind up buying Shurelia's and Shroud most of the time by coincidence.

Really, you should build every character based on the situation. Getting accustomed to one set build makes it easy to prepare for the wrong things.

One of the most important things to buy is survivability in the form of mana regen, hp regen, hp and mana. You'll be more useful if you're worried about surviving more than buying auras like Aegis.

If your team has a lot of magic damage output, buy an abyssal scepter.
If you're rolling over the enemies, a Rylai's can be good, but really, anything is good in that case.

I try to avoid buying Tear because it's just not worth the gold imo, but I will be trying it out over the next few weeks or so.

Some things to keep in mind when buying items include the following:
- Regen
- Utility in sense of the team (Shurelia's, Shroud, Randuin's)
- Importance to your ability to be useful (If you're getting focused, health and armor can take priority over mana regen.)
- Whether or not it suits the situation.

Regarding the last point, this is not so important because buying Mana and utility will fit most situations, unless your team is primarily non-mana-based. This won't happen often, but if it does, you might want to reconsider playing Sona in the first place. Soraka would be better for a health-team, and no supports can do anything for rage/CD/energy based champs.

You can never go wrong with Mana and useful team actives like Shurelia's and Randuin's. They're like two extra E spells. Combine all three and you should never fall victim to a gank or lose a kill.

R > W > Q > E.

Your heal is weak, so it's important to get it up early.
You don't deal much damage with Q, so don't worry about getting that early.
E isn't really that great unless you're chasing, so put a point in it at level 4 for Chords.

Learn to hit your Ultimate every time. If your team doesn't get at least a double every time you use it, you either need to get better or your team needs to get better.

CV is a mandatory summoner spell for support. There's no ifs ands or buts about it.

Flash is primarily for escaping/walljumps/etc. It's the most versatile summoner spell and can be efficiently utilized by any champ.

Ghost is not really necessary, because you shouldn't be so fast that you disconnect from the team.

Exhaust makes you rely entirely on E and actives to escape should your teammates not be able to hold them.

Ignite - no, not for sona.

Revive - no.

Smite - Jungle Sona is OP, go for it.

Rally - no.

Fortify - no.

Heal and Clarity - No, and here's why: Both of them have no effect by late game, when teamfights roll around. For the first ten minutes of the game, they're great, but once that's over, not so much. You might say "Well what about smite?" but smite is incredibly useful by late game to secure Baron/Dragon, not to mention how overwhelmingly important it is to a jungler's early game.

Teleport - Questionable, but I wouldn't use it because of how much of a better choice Flash is.

Cleanse - If CC is bothering you that much, swap Ionian boots for Mercs.

Pros
- Power Chords
- Buff stacks
- Ultimate has great utility.
- Great at keeping teammates alive without a good heal.
Cons
- Squishy (of course)
- Mana starved almost constantly until mid-late.
- Poor scaling.
- Slow early-mid movement speed.

R to stop ganks and steamrolls, to initiate, and to combo with AoE in teamfights.
Q to push, initiate, chords,
E to chase, escape, and chords.

First of all, when?

- Team fights
- Escape
- Ganks
- Finishing team fights
- Stopping pushes

This will mostly come with practice as Sona, but those are the proper times to use ultimate. Your ultimate has excellent utility, especially since it's a skillshot, and can go through walls. Use it wisely and don't miss. When you're experienced enough, you can try to be fancy and Flash-in/Flash-juke + Ult for those narrow escapes or brilliant initiations, but this is risky.

If your team is trying to escape, you shouldn't flash-juke + ult because you'd be more likely to hit your ult without flash and your team would be more likely to escape if you would pop ult where you are and press E/Shurelia's/Randuin's. I would only flash-in + ult to initiate if we pushed them back to base and you feel strongly that your team will win. Because you just popped flash and ultimate, you now rely on Shur/Randuin/E to escape/chase if need be. This is a massive crippling to your utility.

When sitting in fountain, pick Q, W, or E and press one based on the situation.
-If your team will need offense and you can sacrifice time to get there, Q.
-If your team will need defense and you can sacrifice time to get there, W.
-If your team will need to get there ASAP, E.
-If your team will need to get there ASAP and need defense, E until you reach the destination, then immediately W.

Really, the best thing to do is to E to get to lane, and then W or Q based on the situation.

W's power chord isn't really that good, so try to save it for your post-chord cast. If you need to heal, though, you need to heal, and if you need to heal that badly, W's chord may be what you need. Just target wisely. If you're using W's chord, for the love of god target the Carry, AP, or maybe the jungler. Don't target the support or tank. This should be obvious.

Q's power chord is okay. It's good to E to lane, and then two Qs while laning for those burst damage+slow chords.

E's chord is the most versatile. You can use it with any other and it will be a nice chord. Use it on the squishies so your team can pick up a kill.

Runes + Masteries + Items
- CDR
- Mana regen
- Usefulness to your team (auras, shurelias, randuin's etc.)

Ability leveling
R > W > Q > E (post level 6)

levels 1-6
W > Q > W > E > Q > R

Your goal as Sona is to heal, help zone/sustain in lane, and to not take kills/farm. If no one else can pick up the kill, it's better that you do rather than let it go.