If this was an item build... Well then you were right and the builds above were weird.

But you remember something? This is a guide and as such you want more than just putting some items there and call it a day.

So if you want to know why there are so many "builds" read the guide and you will know :)

If not, well then you don't have a clue what supporting is about :(
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I have created this guide to help people and make them better players. I put a lot of afford in this guide and if you like it or think that it might help others, please up vote the guide so it can get more attention and help other people just like it helped you :)

I'm open for any kinds of suggestions, questions or things you might want to see more detailed. I will try to adapt as much as possible and together we will make it even better

Hey guys,

this is Customtm with my new guide " Sona - The Goddess of Supports!".

This is not a normal guide but also a general thought about the role as "Support".

Let's face it: Nobody wants to play as support these days. There is a very small group of people that only play supports and exile at it. However every team needs a support.

That's why we have a group of 95% people that play support because they have to and they suck. They build some random items and call themselves a "Support". The truth is that they are ballast, a gold stealing, feeding, squishy thing without any purposes but getting the entire team's blame for anything bad that happens and nothing but silence if you save someone.

That is something I want to fix. First of all, this guide is for the 5% good supports, giving suggestions you may not have thought about and on the other side also for the 95% of the people that need how to learn to support.

Because supporting CAN be fun and you CAN carry with supports! No, don't stack AP and kill everyone on the map... The way a support carries games is a completely different one.

I want that YOU join a ranked game after reading this guide and first pick a support if possible, Sona because you want to have fun and can be sure that you can win the game. If you don't firmly belief you cannot carry with supports.

However let's get started and become a true support that wears this name as a title!

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Now you will ask yourself: Why you choose Sona instead of Janna, Soraka or (enter support's name here) who got more CC, healing power or (enter random supportive ability here):
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1. Sona is an easy but at the same time fun character to play
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2. She suits every play style from aggressive killing to excessive camping
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3. Absolutely underrated when compared to other champions
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4. She can do ANYTHING
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5. Her pure existence supports the team
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6. Most auras without items, some absolutely unique
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7. Powerful single target and mass CC
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8. Full automatic spells, besides Crescendo
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9. Most multi talented support
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10. Only support that brings own music with her
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11. Most beautiful support (look at those eyes!) with amazing skins

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What Sona separates from other supports is that she can do anything. She can deal damage, prevent damage, heal damage, provide AD, AP, armor, magic resistance, increase movement speed (even from minions), reduce movement speed and stun. That is not the end because everything besides her debuffs is AOE and at low cool down.
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Sure, Soraka can heal more. But can she heal every 4 seconds multiple targets?

Sure, Leona got more CC. But can she do anything else? Can she make people dance?

Sure, Taric provides more armor. But can he speed up and stun entire teams?
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The simple answer to all these questions is: No.

Every support is a specialist and better at what he does. But not Sona: She's a specialist at being no specialist and that makes her so special. She's the Zeus of the gods of supports because she can do anything and is above the others. She's an all around character that can adapt easily and brings a large kit of possibilities with her.
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I go 9 / 0 / 21 for:
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• Improved Exhaust
• AP
• Cooldown reduction
• Magic penetration %
• Shorter cooldown on Flash
• Mana per level
• Mana regeneration
• Movement speed
• Gold per 10
• More experience
• Even more cooldown reduction
• Even less cooldown on Flash and also Exhaust

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This setup aims for our very earlygame but works also towards endgame. What you need most at the beginning is mana, mobility and XP. Later on we need our summoner's back up as soon as possible to fight teamfights at will, same goes for Crescendo. Gold we need always and as early as we can.

Wealth is a difficult mastery: You loose 0,5% movement speed and 1,25% XP and get 40 gold at the begin of the game. But every time you buy a gold per 10 item you will get it 20 seconds earlier than normal. So you make another 10 gold every time you buy and profit from the items earlier than without the mastery.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Best option for early game damage

Greater Mark of Armor: The only other option if you need to be more tanky. Recommended for newer Sona players.
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Greater Seal of Gold: Need gold? Get some.
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Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: On level 6 it's on. These give us the aggressive touch we like.
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Greater Quintessence of Gold: Need even more gold? Get some more.
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These runes are a cocktail of aggression, paired with very defensive options. You are camping? No problem, let gold per 10 do their jobs and get an advantage. Going aggressive? No problem, got AP and magic pen enough. No matter what you do, you will always have income.

Power Chord, the Interlude of Doom:

• Every time you play another melody, you set off a global cooldown of 0,5 seconds
• The melody played before stays for an additional second after activation of the new one
• Crescendo is not afflicted by the Power Chord system
• Every time you play another melody (including Crescendo), you get a power chord stack (PCS)
• Upon reaching 3 PCS, your next auto attack will trigger 18 - 188 magic damage, depending on your level and will add a bonus effect based on the last melody played
• PCS cannot be lost without auto attacking and can be charged up to three stacks
• The kind of PCS is not the third melody played but the very last one before your attack
• This enhanced attack procs Rylai's Crystal Scepter with the full 35% slow
• The Power Chord got no own cooldown and is depending on the cooldowns of her melodies. The longest cooldown after using the last Power Chord is 7 + 0,5 x 3 = 8,5 seconds, the shortest at 40% CDR is 4,2 + 0,5 x 3 = 5,7 seconds.
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• Staccato doubles the damage of the Power Chord
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• Diminuendo causes the target to deal 20% less damage
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• Tempo reduces the movement speed by 40% for two seconds

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The Power Chord system is a very interesting passive.
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The first thing that separates good Sonas from bad ones is that they charge the Power Chord at the spawn. Remember that playing another song will change the charged Power Chord , so watch carefully when you use it but remember it is not wasted, even when you spamm Song of Celerity until lane.
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The second thing is that a good Sona has a hard choice which Power Chord to use. Newer Sona's tend to use the Staccato Power Chord because it deals the most damage. However in a real trade you should use either your Diminuendo or Tempo because these two will let you win the fights, especially when you are playing in camping mode maxing Aria of Perseverance.

Diminuendo is a damage dealt modifier, granting 20% damage less as debuff. That means this little spell prevents 20% damage of autoattacks, abilities, item actives and even Ignite. This is such a strong advantage in a carry trade that it's almost unfair. Use it to prevent huge amounts of burst damage e.g. Graves from taking full effect. Funny note: It also works vs. dragon!

The strength of Tempo lies in it's utility. If you partner is a skillshot based character such as Ezreal or Sivir this can have more effect than Staccato because the damage dealt by your partner will be greatly increased.

But don't think now that Staccato is not a useful Power Chord! When it comes to poking this spell is the best. Nothing else deals that much damage and the aura will enhance your own and your carries autoattacks to deal even more damage. You have to guess: Will I deal more damage than I will prevent with Diminuendo? If yes the trade is in your terms. Is my carry strong enough to profit from Tempo? If no use Staccato.

Last but not least, never forget that Staccato is the only effect that levels! Because the Power Chord damage is reliant on levels, the damage will increase later on. However Diminuendo and Tempo provide their full effect, regardless of the level of character or ability, at any time in the game. This cannot be overlooked when choosing the Power Chord in a fight.

Always think and adapt. The concept is simple, the usage is hard but if you are smart there is no way you can loose this lane.
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Finally the third thing is that a good Sona knows that the Power Chord resets your autoattack timer. Why is that important? Because when you try to harass with your Hymn of Valor you can add additional damage by autoattacking meanwhile. This also helps when you have to last hit under the turret. Also useful for the use of Frozen Mallet to keep the target slowed.

However, the Power Chord system has a problem: It is visible to the enemies. There will be a ring around Sona in blue, green or purple that shows what Power Chord will come. If your opponents belong to the 5% of good supports or read this guide, they will abuse this fact. If you plan something special it's better not to be seen and prepare in the brush or out of sight.

This was a long paragraph, wasn't it?

Well that's because Sona is so special and has more potential than it actually seems. And the best thing is: Nobody knows! Even the creators of Sona guides on this website know only half the truth when they play her. That's because Sona does this all allone. Everybody that play her knows she's great but has no clue why. There is not much needed from your side, just your brain and maybe the information I give you here, so you can become even stronger with her. But now, let's get finally to the first ability!
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Hymn of Valor, the Hymn of Destruction:

• Aura that grants 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 AP & AD
• No delay
• 700 Range
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• Two bolts each dealing 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 (+0.7 per ability power) magic damage
• (Should) prioritize champions
• Bolts can hit once
• 45 + 5 mana per rank mana costs

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This song will make your enemies and allies say: Omfg, Sona carry. It deals insane damage on two targets with a huge AP ratio. However you can hit someone with two bolts but only one deals damage. If they facecheck the brush Ashe and Sona are sitting in it's basically no summoners or/and first blood.
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Together with the Staccato powerchord and an autoattack, this is your main harass tool. The problem: You can't aim it. It should prioritize champions but everyone that has played Sona before knows that you have to be very close to your enemy to have the impression it does actually work. The range is less than your autoattacks.
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So use it when a) Your close enough b) One or no minion is around c) They come closer to you d) You Flash in their face. You can only shoot what you can see but when it has targeted someone, it will follow him into brushes etc.
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The aura is the one you always want to have activated when your carry is farming because the flat AD will make last hitting much easier. Also tell your carry to get Greater Mark of desolation if possible because they synergy with Hymn of Valor. Same goes for the champion itself, he should have decent AD or AP ratios to make use of this. Also remember that your autoattacks will hurt them a lot more than usual, so use this for free harass.
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Aria of Perseverance, Balm for the Soul:

• Aura that grants 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 armor & magic resistance
• No delay
• 1000 range
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• Two bolts each healing 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+0.25 per ability power) and Sona herself
• Their armor and magic resistance is buffed with 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 for 3 seconds
• Prioritize champions with the lowest percentage of health or the closest
• 60 + 5 mana per rank mana costs

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This melody is why you win all the trades. First of all it will prevent damage by the aura and the active will negate incoming damage with it's heal and the increased resistances. Use this right before incoming damage or afterwards for healing. It's a small heal but you can heal all the time. Don't spamm this too much because the mana costs were highly increased. Your heals are also not vulnerable to healing reduction because you can cast them all the time.

The aura is very helpful when you face a lane that pokes or plays agressive. It acts like a small shield that prevents damage before it's made and heals infflicted damage. This is your second preferred aura in the lane if your carry is under fire.
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Song of Celerity, Song of the flying Feet:

• Aura that grants 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 movement speed
• No delay
• 1000 range
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• All units around gain 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 % increased movement speed for 1,5 seconds
• That includes minions and pets
• Stacks with the normal aura
• 65 mana at all ranks

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This kind of music is not that important in lane but it has it's uses. If you have to flee from enemy ganks or speed up your own engages this is the right song to play. Also nice to avoid getting hit by skillshots such as Rocket Grab because the enemy won't expect the short burst of speed. If your minions are lazy ***** when you try to push a tower, give them a reason to run faster.

In team fights this skill really shines. It gives you the ability to send signals for engage and disengage, pushing really hard, slow single targets with the Greater Mark of desolation Tempo Power Chord and also enables you to engage with a Crescendo. Mobility is the key to victory. Very useful if people get caught or you want to kill wards and they are after your Oracle's Elixir.
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Last notes about all of them: Each skill has a 7 seconds cooldown that can be reduced to 4,2 seconds. Crescendo's cooldown lies at 60 seconds by rank 3. Don't be afraid to use them. Their cooldown is low, the mana costs acceptable and it's worse not to show up at all than showing up OOM because you still got your aura effects.
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All auras take effect immediately. So time the Diminuendo Power Chord with Aria of Perseverance's active while the projectile is flying. Same goes for Hymn of Valor because the stats are being calculated upon hitting the target.
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All auras passives and actives can stack. There is also no diminishing returns with any aura items like Aegis of the Legion or Will of the Ancients.
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Crescendo, the Masterpiece:

• Only ability that has no stance and is a skillshot
• It has both channel (0,2) AND travel time (0,5)
• Deals 150 / 250 / 350 magic damage and stuns all enemies in a 1000 range for 1,5 seconds
• The stun is ingame a commando to dance
• Huge (!) mana costs: 100 / 150 / 200 mana

Ahh, your best part. A special sort of CC for an entire team. Fair damage on a very high AP ratio and devastating if hit. You can use this to prepare the ground for a 5-man-hit- Unstoppable Force or chain it with other AOE CC or damage abilities.

In lane this can prevent both of your enemies from taking any action before they die and makes skillshots hit 100%.

But there are two problems: The massive mana costs and the time. Always take care whether you got enough mana for a full combo with fight and chase before you use this. Because this is a channeled skill shot it can actually miss and people can flash it while it's in the air. Nevertheless a huge threat and a good reason to focus you before it gets off.

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In general this order is right. Sona's dmg / mana is much higher than her heal / mana.
Flat AD also benefits the carry better than armor / magic resistance.
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If you carry is really bad or an absolute farming fan like Vayne or Kog'Maw you can go with Sona's Iron Mantle and max Aria of Perseverance over Hymn of Valor. This will give him the ability to farm all day long while you can still dish out some damage and he can even farm save and easy under his tower.
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This is the most aggressive way to play Sona in lane. You got early movementspeed or damage advantage paired to stomp your lane at will. Offers also highest mobility to escape ganks but leaves your heal at a inefficient mana / heal level. Note that the Song of Celerity has no increased mana costs, so there is no disadvantage to get it first.
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Camp that! There is no way that your carry can get killed because hes a rolling tank, beefier than their jungler and faster than their offtank. Not a turtle but a supersafe version.
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Weird but not stupid: Run for your lives! When you are basically only trying to safe your teammates ***es, you should consider going ambulance mode. Get fast to your target heal up, slow the enemy and get them out of there.
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Now that we know all about Sona and got our gear set up for a game, we should look back to the support section. What exactly do we got?
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Lulu's burst damage with Power Chord, Hymn of Valor's active and Crescendo

Taric's ultimate, smaller with Hymn of Valor's aura

Soraka's heal with less burst but a more consistent resistance buff.

Aegis of the Legion's / Taric's aura with Aria of Perseverance's aura and active

Exhaust with Diminuendo but vs every kind of damage

Shurelya's Battlesong's active forever and every four seconds stronger with Song of Celerity

Hextech Gunblade's active with Tempo

And finally Leona's ultimate with wider area of effect with Crescendo
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Not to forget that Sona is still a ranged character unlike Taric, Leona and other CC machines.

I think that is a pretty decent list for only one support and it shows what Sona can by just being herself without any items so far.
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Before we even can talk about the first item, let's get a closer look on the role as support:

Communication and Analysis

Before the match starts you must be aware who is who and ask them whether they plan to build certain items that might be supportive. If your Amumu says that he's going to buy an Aegis of the Legion you got already one item less to think/worry about before the match even starts.
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Check all your team members and decide what they need the most. Those attributes are:

• Armor / Magic resistance
• Attack damage
• Ability power
• Attack speed
• Lifesteal
• Health regeneration
• Mana regeneration
• Movement speed

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Then take a good look at the enemy team and decide what works best against them:

• Armor / Magic resistance reduction
• Attack speed reduction
• Reduced healing
• CC

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Now that you know your friends and foes better, you plan your preferred skill sequence, your ward coverage and your items. Your items have to include at least one item for health, armor and magic resistance and reach as much cooldown reduction as possible.

The reason behind this is the following:

Supports are nowadays mini tanks. The more they can peel for their carry, the better supports they are. And that is totally correct because no matter how fed a support is, he still doesn't deal the DPS. If a support manages to get focused and not dying within two autoattacks he has done the job of a tank at the same time.

Also Sona has neither escape moves besides her Song of Celerity and Flash nor strong tanking abilities. A dead Sona doesn't provide any help, so it's helpful to survive as long as possible, in order to support.

Cooldown reduction is necessary because the actives of all her abilities are much stronger than the auras and Crescendo has to be available in every team fight. Besides that the Power Chord effects are so strong that the cooldown must be as low as possible to reach the PCS faster and pump out more damage, reduction and slows.

Another weak point of Sona is mana. I solve this problem with a Tear of the Goddess which provides tons of mana but it's not always possible to build this and it has no supportive side but granting you enough mana to spam.

Finally the last thing and most important thing to peel: You have to be targeted. You got lesser problems than e.g. Taric because of your Crescendo,your auras make you a nice target anyway and natural greed but when your carry starts dealing damage, you need more reasons. That's why you should have an item that grants you a passive taunt.

Nearly at the end but something is missing: Where the hell do we get the money from to buy all that stuff we figured out? We can't last hit, should not KS and our income is small.

Another thing, regarding not your major items but consumables. In the current meta, the support is also responsible for the team's vision in lategame and also for the destruction of the enemies. That's why you always have to carry 2 - 5 Sight wards with you and, when you can afford it, buy an Oracle's Elixir.
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Now that we figured what our team and ourselves need, it's time to call items. There are actually not that much possibilities in some cases but our needs change a lot.
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Each item will have a color code that includes

1 X / gold
2 Effectiveness
3 Efficiency
4 Support character
5 Unique attribute

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Green is the best, red the worst. Remember that it is a comparison in their classes.
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Zeke's Herald Aegis of the Legion Shurelya's Battlesong Randuin's Omen Banshee's Veil Rylai's Crystal Scepter Soul Shroud Frozen Mallet

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Ninja Tabi Aegis of the Legion Randuin's Omen Frozen Heart

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Mercury's Treads Aegis of the Legion Banshee's Veil Abyssal Mask

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Randuin's Omen Soul Shroud Zeke's Herald Shurelya's Battlesong Morello's Evil Tome Frozen Heart

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A Sona that is out of mana is only as good as her items. That's why I have included here more than supportive items to keep our auras rolling. The best options are either Archangel's Staff or Athene's Unholy Grail. Both offer mana regeneration until the end but the Archangel's Staff also has tons of mana and a good amount of AP. Both have less priority and besides that he has no real use while Athene's Unholy Grail makes us more tankier with the magic resistance it provides but also because of the awesome passive that is really overlooked: It restores 12% of your maximum mana on assists which works great with our aura presence. I recommend to use one of these two or enough of the other supportive items to reach a good amount of mana regeneration. At this point I want to point at the Soul Shroud because it is the only item that can restore the mana of your allies, making it even more attractive. The list above shows the mana regeneration increase with the items and the icons on the left the order of gold / mana regeneration, both excluding Athene's Unholy Grail passive. Archangel's Staff dominates both in effectiveness and efficiency.

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Sometimes Sona has to do more for the team than supporting. If you lack magic damage this is the time to take a closer look at these items. They are all supportive in some ways. I will not talk about Malady and Mejai's Soulstealer because both of them will appear later on as items themselves. Just note that they are AP and belong into this section. New in this section is the Will of the Ancients. It provides some nice nice AP, costs not that much money and supports all the APs in your team with a 30 AP and 20% spellvamp aura. It stacks once with another Will of the Ancients but not a second time, so don't buy it when your team got two Will of the Ancients already. In general this is more effective with AP tanks or multiple AP lanes. Another well rounded item for AP teams is the Abyssal Mask. While it's pretty expensive it provides you a good amount of magic resistance while buffing your AP and a very useful aura that becomes more effective, the less magic resistance the enemy team has. But care: It does NOT stack with other Abyssal Mask aura effects. Again the Archangel's Staff is the most cost effective source to get AP, mana and mana regeneration. That's why I often build this item, even when it lacks support in general.

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It's time to piss the enemy team off because normal supports don't do this: All these items apply a kind of debuff to the enemy team, some even as AOE. Black Cleaver is the cheapest way to deal with low to medi armored targets and synergies great with ArP on your team's side. This can really mess up with the concept of assassins because you leave them without any resistances and because you want to follow them anyways to make use of your Oracle's Elixir and give them your Diminuendo ( no burst for you Talon ), so why not poking them constantly with a debuff they will regret to have on them. Synergies with Zeke's Herald, Malady and Hymn of Valor. Malady does the exact same thing, just that it destroys magic resistance and it's cheap as hell. The debuff stacks and stays for 8 seconds which is enough to debuff more than one target at the same time. Synergies with Zeke's Herald and Abyssal Mask. Abyssal Mask provides the Malady debuff for all enemies around you and it stacks with other sources of magic penetration. At the same time, it is a great defensive item. Randuin's Omen counters all attack speed reliant characters and if they start attacking you they get CCed even harder. The aura is AOE while it offers tons of resistances. Sweet versus character's like Irelia and Vayne because it is the only way to reduce true damage. Stacks with Frozen Heart's aura. Frozen Heart does the same but more constantly and in a larger range. And last but not least Executioner's Calling and Morello's Evil Tome to counter everything that gains life back. Not so many characters you say? Well, we got Dr. Mundo, Vladimir, Swain, Fiddlesticks, Mordekaiser... the list is even longer! But not only them: Every user of Bloodthirster or Will of the Ancients and that's basically every AD and AP carry will suffer under the debuff. Every support that's based on healing like Soraka will be 50% less effective. Morello's Evil Tome suits all your needs on top of that as it provides AP, CDR and mana reg while it's supercheap. Executioner's Calling also deals with people like Garen, Miss Fortune and Teemo that need to stay unharmed for several seconds in order to use their abilities.

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What does every support want? More CC, right! People don't realize it but you can actually buy CC and what would be better than a Sona that deals damage, heals, is a full tank, provides thousands of auras, reduces everything and now slows everything on sight? Nothing. Randuin's Omen has two ways to CC enemies: The first one is it's active. Press the button and you slow everyone in sight by 35%. The second is it's passive. There is a 20% chance to slow another 30% when you get hit by autoattacks. It synergies with everything that provides more resistances because the active is going to last longer. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a bit expensive but useful item. Unfortunately your Hymn of Valor will proc only the diminished effect of 15% but your Power Chord applies the passive with its full effect and slows the target for 35%. This way every power cord has the Tempo effect but it will also stack with the effect to a 75% slow. This can happen every 5 seconds and meanwhile you will slow them with Hymn of Valor. The Frozen Mallet is the beast of all CC items. It's pretty expensive but regarding the health / gold index in comparison to other health support items it's actually cheap ( look in the above list under health). Regardless this fact, it is the only way to stop the offtanks that try to chase your carry. It is a constant source of CC until your die and has no cooldown or costs. 30% slow each autoattack counters every melee character that can't completely ignore CC, even Irelia who would usually completely ignore any kinds of CC.

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Now that you are tanky and maybe even got a Randuin's Omen, the enemy might think: Why the heck should I attack that Sona? This question needs an answer! You got no taunt but the fact that people are stupid and greedy and will try to kill you anyway. But that's not enough to peel when you are standing next to a carry that ****s up their entire team. You must deliver them a reason. There are three tactics to do that: 1. Piss them off! Do something really stupid or / and annoy them with CC items. At some point their aggression will turn to you, either to punish you for your stupidity or to shut down the source of annoyance and move on without this disturbing, flying aura, platform thing. 2. Make them fear you! The more damage you can deal, the more people want to kill you first. Fear is always welcome. Try to act as if you were the main source of damage and just blew their heads off. 3. Bait them! And here comes the last item part, the "focus me *******s!" items: Mejai's Soulstealer is a lovely item for several reasons. First of all, it is cheap as hell. Second is you can stack it super easily by just standing around providing auras. Third it gives you increased AP which will help point two on our list, the fear. And the fourth point: Everybody wants to kill you, so your stacks get lost. This item turns enemies into total ******s when it comes to focus. But be aware, there is a fifth point: It doesn't work? Well then you got 160 AP and 15% cooldown reduction for 1200 gold! Amazing item! Oracle's Elixir is even better. This is a big sign with " I'm worth 400 gold, please kill me asap and under any circumstances " above your head. Anybody can see this and everybody wants it, the most your enemies support (Hes killing my wards! Get him!). However it gets even better: You want this anyways because you can clear their wards and detect invisible enemies. I once bought this item 4 times in a row. I lost it four times but I couldn't buy another one because the game was over after they lost the fourth team fight. My carry survived all of them. Rabadon's Deathcap finally found a fitting section, even in this hardcore support guide! This thing hurts! And they are going to feel that. There is no real reason to focus you for this because you cannot loose it but the unsolved thread remains and some stupid is gonna think that hat = damage anyways.

Are you getting tired yet? No worries, it's over. These are all items you will ever need as support. But the hardest thing is already waiting: What do we choose?

Enough of theory crafting, right here I'm going to show you an example:
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1. We ask our teammates what they are going to buy. Turns out that Skarner will run Frozen Heart while Darius wants Randuin's Omen
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2. We look what their characters like:
   
   Darius needs AD, AS, CDR, LS, CC and MS.
   Brand likes AP, SV, CDR, mana, CC and MS.
   Skarner loves MS, AS, CDR and mana
   Vayne wants AD, AS, LS, Res, CC and MS
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3. We look what hurts the enemies:
   
   Irelia hates CC, ASR, A/MRR
   Swain does not like HR, CC and A/MRR
   Shyvana suffers from CC and ASR
   Draven doesn't want CC, ASR and HR
   Janna is less effective versus CC and HR
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4. We summarize the needs and counters:
   
   4/4 MS, 3/4 AS, 3/4 CDR, 3/4 CC
   
   5/5 CC, 3/5 ASR, 3/5 HR
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5. We pick our items:
   
   Mercury's Treads versus Irelia, Swain, Draven and Janna
   Shurelya's Battlesong for Darius, Brand, Skarner and Vayne
   Zeke's herald for Darius, Skarner and Vayne
   Frozen Mallet versus Irelia, Swain, Shyvana, Draven and Janna
   Randuin's Omen versus Irelia, Shyvana and Draven
   Athene's Unholy Grail versus Irelia, Swain, Shyvana and Janna, for mana
   
   Optional: Aegis of the Legion, Mejai's Soulstealer or Morello's Evil Tome for more resistances for Vayne, more focus on ourselves and to destroy Swain or Draven's sustain, especially if we got no Ignite or Draven runs Heal.
   
   I also check my runes and masteries. In this case I would run MR / level glyphs and armor marks and a defensive tree mastery setup. Always think and adapt to the situation
   
   If Skarner got brain, he will buy Shurelya's Battlesong anyways.
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6. We look at ourselves:
   
   Health: 3300
   Armor: 150
   Magic resistance: 120
   CDR: 40%
   Mana: 50 mana / 5 + 1% per % of mana missing
   Focus: Oracle, CC
   Price: 14820 gold
   
   Now you have to ask yourself: How much do I have to peel and will it be enough? Your carry is Vayne who should deal enough damage but both Darius and Skarner will be busy
   to chase and shut down Draven. Brand cannot peel anything, so it's on your to stop a dragon, a giant morphed raven and someone that cannot be stopped by Crescendo or anything. That's why we need health, resistances and tons of utility to deal with them.

The above created build will take 14820 gold until it's completely finished, not including sight wards, Oracle's Elixir or other elixirs.

That is a lot of money for someone that can't kill or get minions.

Before we start with the things we do, we have to figure out where the gold comes from:
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• Characters get gold / time while they are ingame,
• there are Greater Seal of Gold and Greater Quintessence of Gold as runes,
• Wealth , Mercenary and Greed as mastery options,
• Philosopher's Stone, Heart of Gold, Kage's Lucky Pick and the Avarice Blade providing gold per time.
• Killing champions, minions, neutral creeps, towers, dragon and baron provides gold bonuses

The first thing we do is picking all the masteries and runes we can to get a income of 2,1 gold / second when the game starts at 1:30. This means if the game went 55 minutes, you got 7000 gold just by standing in the spawn. That's nearly the half of what we need to get full item build.

The second thing to do is not to buy as many wards early in the game as others do because this will slow down our gp10 items. While we haven't finished those items, it is no problem to get a kill because we will transit that in even more gold. Always secure the kill!

The third thing is rushing Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold, then Boots and right after a Kage's Lucky Pick to increase our income to 3,6 gold / second. This will add another 5 000 gold income to our 7 000 afk gold.

The fourth thing is that whenever we see that farm is wasted we are going to last hit with 100% hit chance and clear camps that would be wasted in the jungle. Always keep dragon and baron control, they are going to be a very important gold source for you and your team. This should add another 2 500 gold at least, depending on how many dragons and minions you got.

The fifth thing are your assists and enemy towers. Join every fight to pick up assists or even secure kills and pressure your team to push on towers if that's possible. It all belongs to your income.
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If you are doing okay you should have enough money for sight wards and Oracle's Elixir and finish your build around minute 40.

How stated above, the current meta defines the support as the one that's responsible for keeping up the team's vision and destroy the other wards.

If you got no clue how to ward first read this guide:

Warding helper - More than your eyes can see

All credits go to Panglot who has created this tutorial. Give him a +1!

But now some advanced stuff: Almost every player knows these spots now. A soon as the enemy bought an Oracle's Elixir these spots become useless. That's why you have to be more creative about your ward placement than the guide.
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In order to learn this, play the "Ward Game".

You get only gp10 and buy as much wards as you can. You will roam over the map and try to "hide" wards. They have to cover an area but they should not be detected. If you are doing it right, your opponent should find only 50% of your wards and catch you never.

Your friend rushes an Oracle's Elixir and tries to clear the wards as fast as he can. At the same time, he will try to kill you while you are warding.

You win the game when 10 ( or less/more if you want) wards are on the map and one of them is timing out. That means your ward coverage is not only great but you found spots, he will never check.

Another thing is: If your jungler has to gank bot but it is always warded buy a Vision Ward and destroy the enemies vision.

The other possibility is that they got invisible champions. In this case ALWAYS carry a pink ward with you. It will provide a larger area and works even after you have died.

However outside that two possibilities DON'T use random pink wards. They are too expensive to just destroy the enemies vision in a random brush. Get an Oracle's Elixir instead. It is much more useful and mobile when it comes to ward cleaning.

Another thing you can do with sight wards is baiting Oracle's Elixir owners into clearing the ward on a dangerous spot. This is called "ward bating" and works best with Blitzcrank but in my example you can also use Darius or strong CC to lock down the target.

Always remember that even when they got an Oracle's Elixir and they are heading to baron that they have not much time. Abuse this fact and place a ward more to the side, so you can see them still but they will refuse to take the time and check.

If you are at the other side of the baron pit also put more than one ward at the same place, so you can buy your team more side while they waste damage on the wards.

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Exhaust is our first choice for several reasons: It is a free CC. Helpful when you are getting chased or chasing yourself and want to slow things down. Second is that it reduces the physical damage output of an autoattacking champion extreme and the damage of casters hard. If possible always keep their AD carry CCed with this but it is also great to prevent high burst damage. And last but not least it reduces armor and magicresistance which is really sweet in the early game. Flash is your only gap closer you can have. While hovering over the map is fun, slows will hurt you a lot and to solve this problem we got Flash. It also works very well when chained with Crescendo to initiate perfect situations or get away a 100% in ganks. Ignite is basically a counter spell. It destroys lanes and setups that rely on their healing power. But not only that it can also net you early kills that wouldn't be possible. It becomes more powerful with the game going because it deals true damage that levels with your own. Use it when you get neither Morello's Evil Tome and Executioner's Calling. Clairvoyance is a very useful spell for map presence. It can screw up ganks everywhere on the map and allows you to face check much more safe than usual. While it offers great utility, it lacks offensive powers. Use it when you know your lane is going to be about camping and playing safe to safe your teammates and keep the vision going.

Are you still with me?

If yes, congratulations, you can use Sona at her full potential, counter every team composition that is playing against you and keep vision for your team.

This last part will be about your general gameplay, behavior on the bot lane and the itemization against every champion in the game. If you feel that you don't know enough about playing as a support and about all the counter mechanics to champions or you just want to check whether you do, go on reading.

However to all of those that play LoL enough, you can stop reading here. I want you now to start LoL, select "Ranked game" and write: Hi guys, I would like to play support if that's fine with you. Please tell me whether you plan to build supportive items such as.... Enjoy the game and have a free win.

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Look at your enemies in the loading screen and scan for unusual summoner spells or combinations like Cleanse or Ignite / Heal. If there is no Flash on their AD carry or support (usually Tristana or Ezreal) tell your jungler to gank early.

Take one level in Hymn of Valor, charge the Power Chord in the spawn, use Clairvoyance at 7 - 9 seconds and move to the lane.

If you are on the blue team move to the double golems first. On 1:40 they are spawning. Autoattack and Q the big one and drag it sideways until they let go. Meanwhile your AD carry should hit them, so they will not regain health but focus your carry instead. Be wary that the enemies might try to stop you from taking them and that your AD carry may loose some health.

Try to take your side of the bot brush but do not facecheck after you have done double golems. If you got Clairvoyance just pop it and show them that you know about them. They will stop it, even when there is no reason. If not just dance at your tower until the enemies show up in their lane. Always expect that the support might be still in the brush. Be extra careful when it's Alistar or Blitzcrank because their CC is pretty strong on level 1.

If the enemy is a melee character bully him around until level 3 because they will have all their abilities now. Take your time and do nothing dangerous. Keep poking the AD carry when you can but never out of a brush. Always move out first, harass then and go back inside. This way he won't have the chance to trade with you. However when he's actually coming close enough, mix a Hymn of Valor in the harass to be even more annoying.

At the same time you have to analyze your AD carries behavior. Is he super aggressive or is he only last hitting? Adapt with your skill sequence to meet his needs.

At 4 minutes you should ward the river on blue side and the tribrush on red side. You can do this earlier or leave it completely when your are pushed or you are sitting under your tower. If they push the lane ask for ganks from your jungler.

Right before the gank be extra cocky to drag attention to yourself. If you have a pink ward with you set it up now and clear the river / tribrush ward. Try to give them the opportunity to kill you. The more aggressive you have played before, the better the bait will work. Ping the target you want to Exhaust, so you don't waste it.

Once the gank is happening you play your Aria of Perseverance, then Hymn of Valor until they start running and then the Song of Celerity right after. Now you should be able to use your Tempo Power Chord on the exhausted target. This should force at least a Flash or Cleanse because the slows will stack to a 75% slow which is basically a stun. If you are really experienced you have Tempo ready and can get a second Power Chord off while the gank is happening.

If they use any summoners, write down the time that they will get them back. Always count as if they had the masteries up. Most important are Flash and Heal.

A soon as you got money for your next gold per 10 item or boots, tell your carry "brb" and port to your base. Don't ever leave without setting up a ward when there is none.

Always try to take as much damage as needed. Your carry has to farm while you just have to exist, thx to our runes and masteries. So sending you back is fine if the carry can still farm meanwhile. If you AD carry really has to go back you have to kill every minion that goes low but you don't spamm Hymn of Valor to get them low. Just last hit and make sure you miss not a single minion. It will pay off much more.

If you manage to get their carry out of the lane or he dies PUSH the lane into his tower and go back. He will loose all the gold and XP while you come back refreshed and with new items. Don't stay in lane, the longer more gold you have in the bank, the worse are you trades are going to be.

If the enemy is a disruptive initiator with range like Blitzcrank, Leona and Alistar you have to keep their brushed warded. Not that they are dangerous for you because you can dodge all their skillshots ( hopefully...) but they might initiate on your carry who is paying no attention while last hitting or they could try to chain their CC with a lane gank.

Brush control is very important in lane because it can be used by you and the enemies support to zone you or your carry from XP and last hits. Don't give up brushes, always fight for them!

Your job is also major map awareness. You should know where their jungler is and warn whenever you see a gank incoming, even when it's warded. People usually don't ward but if they do it there is still a 50% chance that they won't pay attention. That's why jungling without oracle still exists. A retreat ping and a short "FO!" can do wonders.

If you are doing well in lane don't take their tower, if you are doing bad take it as soon as possible. Once the tower is down the laning phase is over
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Now your main priority is taking dragon. On blue side cover their blue and the mid sideway with sight wards, on red side get one in mid sideway and at the river brush of bottom lane and clean the dragon pit with an Oracle's Elixir. While you are doing it, keep a Tempo Power Chord ready to stop the enemy jungler from stealing it or debuff the dragon with Diminuendo to help your teammates. Keep the Hymn of Valor aura up in between.

If dragon is down your next objective is pushing mid tower. Build up pressure and try to force a team fight if your team is strong enough. Meanwhile scan for wards and farm you can nick. Always have 2 - 3 sight wards with you to keep the vision up. Buying more wards will make sure that you don't have to go back so often and will grant you additional XP and gold. You have to buy them anyways, so why not getting five?

25 - 30 minutes in the game, you have to make sure that the baron pit is warded and free of enemy wards. If you manage to win a teamfight or the situation just suits you, there is no time to do that. Instead do it in between when you got the time. If your team is going to do it ward the brush on the other side of the pit and both sideways from top and mid or their blue and the left sideway mid. If the enemies approach try to drag their attention onto you. Check your Flash before doing so. Buy your team as much time as possible but don't die in the process. The Oracle's Elixir bait works very well here.
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Now your team either has baron buff or theirs. If you have it push in mid. Use your Song of Celerity to boost your minions. Poke the enemies tower while Hymn of Valor is activated]] and use it's Power Chord Staccato for even more poking. Wait for initiation and don't chase at any time. Stay nearby your AD carry and care for line dives. Don't keep your actives too long, they don't cost something and have short cooldowns. Use Song of Celerity and Shurelya's Battlesong's active for initiations, Hymn of Valor meanwhile and Aria of Perseverance when the incoming damage is the highest. Use Diminuendo against the most damage dealing enemy that attacks your AD carry. If possible Exhaust their AD carry or someone that relies on autoattacks.

If you don't have baron buff stay defensive and protect your towers until the buff wears off. If they initiate on your use Song of Celerity and Shurelya's Battlesong's to make sure your carry doesn't get dived, Randuin's Omen against AS reliant characters, activate Morello's Evil Tome whenever you can reach someone that heals himself because the cooldown is at 20 seconds which is nothing compared to other item actives cooldowns and finally activate your Aria of Perseverance to block incoming damage. CC everyone that keeps diving for your AD carry. If you got Black Cleaver or malady keep refreshing the stacks on them with autoattacks and try to get aggro from them. If you have debuffing auras, try to be right in the crowd to reach the maximum effect. The range of the auras is not very long, so you have to stick with them.

If the fight does not go in your favor use Song of Celerity and your CC to save teammates in trouble. Sacrifice yourself if necessary to save them. Alway remember that you are useless without a team anyways, so it's more worth to have another member alive than you.

I will list here every character in game and what items / strategy works versus him. AD carries and supports will be discussed longer because you may face them in lane, also junglers and how and when they prefer to gank.
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Don't waste Crescendo or Tempo for her, as Spirit Rush will bring her in safety anyway Try to bait her ultimate earlier with other sources of CC, such as Frozen Mallet If she buys Will of the Ancients get Morello's Evil Tome or Executioner's Calling and use it right before Essence Theft would take effect to counter the gain spellvamp. Her orb will turn green when Essence Theft get's active You can bodyblock Fox-Fire because it prioritizes nearby champions Buy Banshee's Veil and body shield your AD carry from her Charm and take reduced damage with the gain magic resistance

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Twin Disciplines and spellvamp items make her vulnerable to Morello's Evil Tome or Executioner's Calling Try to bait her giving you the Mark of the Assassin instead of your carries As soon as team fights begin purchase an Oracle's Elixir or a Vision Ward if she focuses you to counter her Twilight Shroud Twilight Shroud will give her improved resistances still, so try to scare her out the shroud Use strong CC to deny her the range for Shadow Dance with Rylai's Crystal Scepter Akali is not easy to kite but she has no CC herself, so try to waste her Shadow Dance stacks with constant CC Remember that Akali can use you as diving board with Shadow Dance, so stay away from your AD carry after you CCed her As snowball champion you can easily bait Akali into charging at you

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Harass Alistar before level 3 because he won't have his Headbutt - Pulverize - Combo Don't face check brushes because he will do his Pulverize - Headbutt - Combo which is even more devastating Don't get walls in your back and Alistar in front. The Headbutt - Pulverize - Combo will keep you even longer CCed when he bumps you into a wall Ward his brush to safe your carry from the Headbutt - Pulverize - Combo. While it is a mini gap closer, it has only little range. Also prevents lane gank chain CC Stay away from him as Trample will damage you constantly Neither Pulverize nor Headbutt can be reduced by Mercury's Treads Pulverize and Headbutt have long cooldowns. If he wastes them punish him with constant autoattacking and Hymn of Valor Constantly harass Alistar's AD carry. Thx to the nerfs to the range of his Headbutt and Triumphant Roar's unbelievable high mana costs he cannot trade properly Fight him between minion waves or in the river. Triumphant Roar's cooldown without dying minions around is massive. Don't use valuable CC like Crescendo or Exhaust against Alistar when he has Unbreakable Will up, as he can instantly remove it. Don't focus him when Unbreakable Will is active. He will take no damage. After the activation of Unbreakable Will Alistar is extremly vulnerable to CC. Use your Tempo Power Chord and items like Frozen Mallet or Rylai's Crystal Scepter to kite him easly Unbreakable Will makes Alistar a potent tower diver because it will reduce tower damage. However meanwhile he has no protection versus CC at all, kite him under the tower Ignite counters both Triumphant Roar's heal and Unbreakable Will's damage reduction because of it's true damage Tell your team to spread out in teamfights because Pulverize will knock up entire teams

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Cursed Touch, Despair and Tantrum require Amumu to be in melee range to deal damage. Use Tempo Power Chord and items like Rylai's Crystal Scepter to kite him easly Bandage Toss is his only form of gapclosing. Stay away from minions! If he misses the skillshot he won't go forward because he hits nothing Don't go in melee range with him! He's devastating with Cursed Touch, Despair and Tantrum and takes no damage early Despair scales off your maximum health, so don't stack health without magic resistance Don't autoattack Amumu as Tantrum's cooldown will decrease. Don't use Frozen Mallet! Aegis of the Legion counters Cursed Touch, Despair, Tantrum and Curse of the Sad Mummy as it negates the MR reduction for your team and lowers his overall damage output Be aware of the Curse of the Sad Mummy + Bandage Toss combo once he has reached level 6 Good ward coverage can avoid his ganks easily as he got no MS steroid Spread out in teamfights because Curse of the Sad Mummy has a huge range and his initiation is easy with Bandage Toss If he has landed a sucessful combo use Shurelya's Battlesong's active and Song of Celerity to disengage. He has no CC after this Buy Banshee's Veil or Mercury's Treads to block or reduce Curse of the Sad Mummy and counter with Crescendo

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Anivia is naturally slow, skillshot - combo based champion. You can outrun her with Song of Celerity and Shurelya's Battlesong's active and dodge her skillshots easily Rebirth makes Anivia a weird tower diver. Expect suicide moves from her Flash Frost flies really slowly and should be easy to dodge Banshee's Veil CAN actually block the entire Flash Frost effect, as the projectile doesn't pop spellshield Crystallize can cut your way off. Stay away from walls and smaller terrain Flash Frost / Glacial Storm and Frostbite are one combo. CC her with Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Frozen Mallet Anivia meanwhile so she can't use her chill debuff DO NEVER even touch Glacial Storm as it applies her chill. Crescendo CAN cancel her Glacial Storm. Wait until she has used it to get it on full cooldown Aegis of the Legion is a good choice versus Anivia because the deals AOE damage to the entire team as long as she got mana Mercury's Treads reduce her effectiveness extremely because she cannot keep up with you and her combos are much harder to perform

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Annie is a combo mage that relies on Pyromania's stun. Buy Banshee's Veil to avoid getting stunned and use Crescendo right after to destroy her full combo Annie has cooldowns after her combo, so buy Banshee's Veil, Athene's Unholy Grail or Aegis of the Legion to survive and escape You can see her stacks on Pyromania when clicking on her and when it's about to happen as a white circle around her Disintegrate and Incinerate are very short ranged. Use Shurelya's Battlesong's active to avoid getting hit and Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Frozen Mallet to kite her Incinerate has a huge range in comparison to the animation but the cone is not very wide. Dodge it to rather by side than walking backwards Don't autoattack her when she has got Molten Shield active. It does loads of damage because it's damage is reliant on her AP Summon: Tibbers has a huge range and can stun. Spread out to not get stunned with all your teammates Summon: Tibbers deals massive damage and does even apply Rylai's Crystal Scepter's slow, don't stand next to him! Try to last hit Summon: Tibbers if possilbe. He's worth 50 gold Use Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Frozen Mallet to slow Summon: Tibbers while he's summoned

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Don't face check brushes or try to give her your Power Chord at level 1! Wait until she has to last hit a minion, so that she can't use her crit that she got thanks to Focus on you Don't get caught out of position, she can catch you easly with her Frost Shots Use Shurelya's Battlesong's active to avoid the constant CC from Frost Shots Volley can be blocked. Try to stay behind your minions and catch Volley's for your carry by body tanking Volley costs plenty of mana. Try to bait her to use it while your harrass Your are not safe in brushes! Hawkshot can reveal you easily and take your brush control Right before a gank, try to bait her into using Hawkshot and Volley on you Enchanted Crystal Arrow can be bodyblocked but remember that the slow is applied to your allies if they are close to you Always tank Enchanted Crystal Arrow while ganks to let your allies flee or chase Buy a Banshee's Veil to tank incoming Enchanted Crystal Arrows safely Shurelya's Battlesong's active can safe your teammates from getting hit Buy Frozen Heart to reduce her damage output or Randuin's Omen if she targets you in fights Kite her with Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Frozen Mallet. She has got no escape mechanism at all Black Cleaver works very well against her, especially when she bought Guardian Angel which is very often the case

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Mana Barrier is a very strong passive if he knows what he's doing. DO NOT focus him when he has it ready and plenty of mana! Mana Barrier has a very low cooldown. Always expect him to have it once he returns in the lane. Don't use Ignite on him unless it is down either. Rocket grab can be blocked by minions. Stay behind them or out of range Ward the brushes to avoid your carry from getting Rocket Grabbed Use Song of Celerity and Shurelya's Battlesong's active to dodge his Rocket Grab Purchase Banshee's Veil to tank Rocket Grabs safely Be wary when Blitzcrank uses Overdrive. He will try to engage or a lane gank is incoming Be aware that he can use Overdrive and Power Fist before he's even using Rocket Grab. Disengage with Song of Celerity Bait him into using power first on you if you fight The key to win versus a Blitzcrank is buying early boots and constantly harass him. If he fails his Overdrive - Rocket Grab - Power Fist combo he will run out of mana soon Static Field offers tons of damage and has close to no cooldown. It will strike nearby minions with lightnings, so be careful then Static Field also applies a short silence that can stop you from using Song of Celerity. Don't let him come close! Blitzcrank can be easly kited with strong constant CC. Buy Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Frozen Mallet to prevent him from using his CC Don't build Mercury's Treads against Blitzcrank! Both his abilities send you airborne and won't be diminished by the tenacity effect Blitzcrank's damage is hybrid. You will need both armor and magic resistance to counter him

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Remember that his passive Blaze can kill your carry even afterwards. Keep Aria of Perseverance up His Sear is a linear skillshot, so you can bodytank it Purchase Banshee's Veil to block the damage, his passive and the chain combo following Use Song of Celerity and Shurelya's Battlesong's active to dodge Pillar of Flame. It has a slightly delay The area of effect is huge, don't group and fight in smaller areas Conflagration will spread if he hits you while is active. Stay away from your teammates! Pyroclasm does BOUNCE. STAY AWAY FROM YOUR TEAM if he targeted you and the fireball is flying! Banshee's Veil CAN'T stop Pyroclasm. Stay next to minions to stop the bouncing. If you are ablaze it won't work Flash away from your team if Pyroclasm is targeting you Because Brand deals almost 100% AOE magic damage, you can buy Aegis of the Legion to support your team Brand gets easily kited by Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Frozen Mallet but don't die to him in the process! Brand relies heavly on a skillshot based burst combo. If you bait him to use it on you and successfully dodged them he's completely useless

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Don't let her stay in brushes! It will highly increase her overall damage output because of Headshot Piltover Peacemaker has a long range but a channel time and reduced damage per unit passed. Watch her carefully and stay behind minions to dodge or reduce the damage You can kinda body tank it for your carry but remember it will deal a ton of damage to you instead Yordle Snap Traps are extremely dangerous when paired with CC supports However: If your jungler wants to gank, there is no better bait than stepping into a Yordle Snap Trap Always tank them if you can but never face check brushes you got no vision on Ward the enemy brushes to prevent her from using a sneaky Piltover Peacemaker or step in a Yordle Snap Trap Remember that Yordle Snap Trap grant them vision on you, even in a brush or the fog of war. Stay away from your teammates to not give their position away Always tank 90 Caliber Net to make sure your allies can flee or chase You cannot interrupt 90 Caliber Net's knock back with Crescendo Ace in the Hole got such a uberrange that you have to stay miles away Yordle Snap Traps enable her to target you or allies next to you Ace in the Hole can be body tanked if you step in the line Ace in the Hole CAN'T be interrupted by Crescendo! Buy Banshee's Veil to tank it unharmed Don't try to harass Caitlyn! Her range is so high that you will probably loose more health than her Caitlyn is less vulnerable to CC thanks to 90 Caliber Net and her long range allows her to stay far away from you Don't buy Frozen Heart against her, she will out range the debuff aura pretty hard. If she focuses you buy Randuin's Omen instead to slow her AS and MS at the same time with it's passive

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There is a very easy tip to avoid nearly any damage that she can deal: Do not touch her poison! You cannot body tank any of her abilities and Banshee's Veil doesn't work at all Cassiopeia is one of the few DPS casters, getting Aegis of the Legion for you team and Athene's Unholy Grail for yourself is a must because she has no cooldowns to waste and deals high amounts of AOE damage Her Noxious Blast grants her movement speed when she hits you. Dodge it to deny her the mobility Her Miasma can be countered by not stepping into it, use Song of Celerity and Shurelya's Battlesong to get your team quickly over it and purchase Mercury's Treads to lower the slow effect Twin Fang resets if the target it poisoned. If you dodge her poison, it's useless Petrifying Gaze stuns only when you are facing her. Turn around and counter the stun with Crescendo afterwards Try not to CC Cassiopeia with Frozen Mallet. The risk is too high getting hit by Noxious Blast and speed her up. Also would leave you vulnerable to Petrifying Gaze. If you have to kite her with Rylai's Crystal Scepter's proc on Hymn of Valor If she is running Will of the Ancients think about purchasing a Morello's Evil Tome or Executioner's Calling. Otherwise her Twin Fangs can easly make up for lost health

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In early game, don't fight Cho'Gath in a crowd of your minions. Carnivore will heal him for a ton while his AOE abilities will eradicate them Rupture is the only thing he has and needs to gank. Dodge it or die Use Song of Celerity, Shurelya's Battlesong's active or even Flash to avoid getting hit Rupture has a clear animation: He will stomp the earth. Ward all brushes and if not look into them to see the little smoke cloud to prevent him from landing it Rupture is often a form of engage. Use Banshee's Veil to stay safe Feral Scream is one of the longest silences in the game. You have to dodge it while he's ganking, otherwise you cannout use Song of Celerity. Best is to use it right before Vorpal Spikes can hit you while hes hitting a tower. Come closer to give him turret aggro Vorpal Spikes's range is small but increases with his size. Stay away from the direction he's facing Feast deals true damage, means getting resistances is useless. Instead get a large health pool Feast can only be blocked by Banshee's Veil's spellshield Feast's stacks are lost upon death. Kill him to make him waste it on minions Pre 6 Cho'Gath is not tanky at all. Turn around and kill him if he gets into turret range. Due to his magic AOE abilities and on hit effects, it is viable to buy Aegis of the Legion against him. Cho'Gath is pretty fast but very easily kited with constant soft CC. Use Frozen Mallet to CC him, especially when he has landed a Rupture. The slow will stop him from using Feast

I'm working on this section but it takes some time and testing. I will keep updating it until there are all the champions here that you want to counter :)

Now that was a long ride. But if you really read it until this point you should be able to play Sona as the support she can be. There is really no lane that you should be worries about, no teammates, money problems belong to the past and there is no way that it will be boring because you watch the entire map and work constantly on harassing, checking items, timing wards and a lot other stuff.

I would like to thank you for reading this guide and hope you enjoyed it. I know it is long but to reach the quality I have been aiming for it is necessary.

If you like it rep me or give it a +1, if you didn't give me the reason why and I will work on it. Be fair and rate how you like :)