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(Note 11-23-16 changed very slightly 12-27-16) Reasonings outdated for the build. I switch between three builds now, pure assassin, tank, and balanced poker depending on who I play against (e.g. I don't use pure assassin vs Olaf or Kha'Zix). This is pure assassin and it still works very, very well, so don't worry, you can still follow everything said on how to play Sona and not have a problem, but the justifications for them are incorrect. This is a non-update update for the new season.
THE EDIT at 12-27 (removed the mention of full healer):
Ew. No. I don't know why I said full healer but it does not work. Anyone who goes full healer Sona is gross. I can't go into full detail here since its just a tiny comment edit, but basically healer Sona's most effective when you do Athene's and max heal, then just do the rest of the build non-healer style. Don't get Windspeakers too. You NEVER go FULL healer, as in you never use a build fully dedicate to JUST heals. You lose so much effectiveness. Its completely inefficient. There has been a lot of changes to my build. The only reason this is not archived yet is because this is still my most recent version. I'll archive this when I start the next one when I feel like it. This may or may not be the last edit but I intend it to be. Thanks all.

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Welcome to my In-Depth Sona Guide. This guide is designed to cover as much concepts as possible, and can be understood by and useful for both beginner and advanced Sona players. The end result that I wish to accomplish with this guide is that you become a master Sona player. This guide is also designed to be useful to non-Sona players as well. This guide covers topics that are not limited to Sona, such as warding and poking. This guide also includes ideas that are limited to Sona, such as skill combos, runes, masteries, and abilities.

This build is difficult to master because of your unforgivable squishiness. You must also learn to find the balance between being aggressive and being too aggressive. To master this build, you must take your time to read through this guide carefully, and practice sufficiently.

Features in this guide

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Analysis

This tab will appear in certain sections, and is an analysis of the possible alternatives of the given buildpath and discusses why these alternative build paths are less efficient, and may even be very harmful to the player.

If you seek to master this build, you may find it useful to play a game trying out these alternative build paths to confirm the provided conclusions. This may help you get a better insight on what this build can provide. For example, you may begin to notice some opportunities you weren't taking advantage of, as well as the risks you can take, etc.

Ward Maps

General Ward MapRed – Crucial objectives
Green – Defensive buff wards
Orange – Offensive buff wards

This guide will include ward maps. All the ward maps are Blue Side, meaning that it assumes that you are playing on the Blue Team. This is a general ward map pointing out all the objectives. In the future ward maps, though a ward at baron and dragon may not be included, keep in mind that these are key objectives, and you should still consider warding them when deemed necessary. Some concepts, such as key points you should watch out for will include an explanation but will only be explained in-depth once, which is when it is mentioned for the first time to avoid a copy-paste mess. If you are skipping through ward maps disregarding previous ones and something seems vague, this may be the reason why.

Video Clips

I've added video clips. The idea behind including video clips is that so you, the reader, have as much examples and references as possible. This will include interesting high-level plays that shows you what Sona can and cannot do, as well as general clips to provide an example for certain concepts, such as roaming.

Video clips for reference on solo plays with Sona

Play Video Play Video Play Video Play Video Play Video Play Video Play Video Play Video

What to expect from this guide

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• Important general concepts that are useful for all supports, such as warding.
• In-Depth explanation of ALL concepts so that it is useful for both beginner and advanced players, including (but not limited to) how to lane with and poke against various champions specifically, as well as an explanation on why you get and don't get certain runes.
• An aggressive playstyle and build that will allow you to make solo plays, but still does not change anything on how you function as a support, including buying key items such as sightstone and warding, and working with no CS.
• NOT a passive Sona playstyle. If you expect this guide to be that of an extremely passive healer, you are wrong. This is the wrong way to play Sona and a waste of Sona's potential. Even if you go with a heal build on Sona, it requires you to actively take advantage of the effects of Athene's Unholy Grail, which still requires this particular playstyle of constant (but careful) poking and not a passive one. The only change being that you are able to spam heal due to a large increase in mana regeneration as a result of your build items, as well as a greater focus on the other power chord effects in teamfights as you take on a more peel-like role as the result of having less damage, use of the utility items that induces various effects (such as Locket of the Iron Solari), and a stronger heal.

Key Masteries

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These materies are the most important aspects of your mastery page.

Intelligence – To reach 45% cooldown reduction

Thunderlord's Decree – This will give you much stronger poke and burst damage.

Percentage Damage bonuses ( Sorcery Double Edged Sword Oppressor Merciless ) – This will greatly increase your poke damage, and scales with you as they are all percentage damage increase.

Analysis

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This will give you insight on why some masteries are better than others on Sona.

Do not take Windspeaker's Blessing -
Doing this will greatly hurt your damage, and will harm your ability to roam and pick enemy champions, as Thunderlord's Decree 's damage is very strong and missing it is comparable to missing an ability/skill.

If you want to go healer on Sona, you do not build half-a$$ed. (Sorry, this is the most accurate term I could come up with that doesn't sound awkward in a sentence) You need to follow an entirely new build. Suddenly changing one aspect of this build will only make you bad at both healing and damage. This build has bad heals, and so you need to follow a different build. Take Thunderlord's Decree on Sona. At least, in this build. As shown:

This build's heal:

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I attempted this again considering the difference in playstyle. Even after spamming Aria of Perseverance much more at the cost of a large amount of mana, which largely affected the build's damage output, there was only a minimal change. Though technically, it improved by an extra 20%, which is a large change percentage-wise. 20% more on a low 5k heal is not large.

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A Sona heal build's heal:

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As shown, the difference is large and is not viable to be a half-a$$ed heal build. This build only healed ~5-6k, while a heal build, through the effects of having ALL the correct masteries, runes, build, skill path, etc, healed for much more (30+ k). There is a large difference in heal. Note that, through the same logic, this also applies to the consideration of taking an alternate build path that includes a random heal item. A good heal is the result of the combination of the many factors, not one or two.


Merciless VS Meditation -
Both scale since they are both percentage bonus, rather than a flat bonus, and so both are strong, however I prefer Merciless over Meditation because Meditation is based on percentage missing mana and are more useful to champions who take items such as Tear of the Goddess. Since you cannot fully utilize the advantage of Meditation using this build, Merciless is stronger. It also gives you stronger pokes and bursts.

Vampirism VS Natural Talent -
Both provides a small of bonus, and they are both good. Using Sona however, Natural Talent is much better since Vampirism 's strengths are insignificant to Sona, since Sona has Aria of Perseverance.

Runes Explanation

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Greater Mark of Magic Penetration – These marks will help you deal more magic damage.

Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration – These seals will help you take advantage of every opportunity to poke, with less worry of running out of mana. For example, without these, you may think twice of poking a tank support in an attempt to conserve mana.

Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction and Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction – These glyphs and quintessence will allow your abilities to be up sooner allowing you to have more opportunity to poke down enemies. These also gives the build a stable structure by allowing you to reach exactly 45%, no more and no less.

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power – These quintessences will give you extra damage, allowing you to profit more from the risks you take trying to poke.

Analysis

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Do not attempt to make this build your own by making the following tweaks, as these tweaks are not improvements, but instead will make your build more inefficient.

Replacing the cooldown reduction runes with ability power runes, Greater Quintessence of Ability Power and Greater Glyph of Ability Power –
The extra damage is not worth it. The benefits of the 10% cooldown reduction is far greater than that of the ability power runes. The extra 16 AP becomes insignificant once you reach late game 600 AP, while 10% CDR is useful throughout the game. You would also be impacting the solid structure of the build which allows you to reach exactly 45% CDR with no more and no less.

Replacing the seals and glyphs with defensive runes, Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Magic Resist –
If you've read the one above, you know why the glyphs are important. As for the seals, if you remove the mana regeneration seals, you will run out of mana very quickly, and it will make you think twice poking the tank support. You will end up in a situation where you are poking well, have full health, but have no mana. As Sona, this will make you completely useless as you rely on your abilities. Defensive runes give you defensive bonuses, but not to the extent of when you run out of mana, you can just miraculously switch playstyles and play as a tank. This champion in particular, without your mana, you will be completely useless. Mana regeneration seals are far more useful.

Key Items

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Eye of the Watchers – This item has multiple benefits. It builds from your starter item and gives AP as well as extra damage from its unique passive. It's also a sightstone and it gives you 10% CDR.

Lich Bane – This is your most important item on Sona, and has the biggest benefits. The extra mana from Sheen is useful early in the game. Combined with your Power Chord, you can do insane damage with the finished Lich Bane. It also gives 10% CDR and a slight movement speed buff.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity – This item solidifies the structure of the build. The 10% CDR is necessary as it ensures that you have the full 45% CDR bonus.

Luden's Tempest – This item increases your overall damage. The passive allows you to burst people down much more easily. It's movement speed bonus combined with your E is very good and makes it easier to pick people off or roam.

Skills Explanation

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Max Hymn of Valor first then max Song of Celerity second.

Put one point on Aria of Perseverance at level 2 and use it when the enemy tries to trade back when you try to poke.

Hymn of Valor – This is your most fundamental skill. This is the skill you use to deal damage, and so, if you want to deal damage, it is only common sense to max it first so you can deal as much damage as possible making the results of pokes and trades more rewarding. The base damage of a single point in Hymn of Valor is 40, while a maxed Hymn of Valor is 160. This means that if you have a single point in Hymn of Valor, you need to successfully poke 4 times, to do the same damage as a maxed Hymn of Valor. This is 4 times the risk, and a waste of a lot more mana. This shows that it is more efficient to max Hymn of Valor first.

Hymn of Valor's Power Chord should be your most used Power Chord.

Song of Celerity – This skill has many uses, and so you max it second. It functions as a scaling homeguards (as the result of the self-only 7 seconds or until damaged rule), allows you to roam better, and is a good gap closer. It scales well, has a short cooldown, low mana cost, and is AOE, making it better than Talisman of Ascension. Talisman of Ascension has a 60 second cooldown.

By mid game, this skill will reach around 30% movement speed, making it only 10% less than Talisman of Ascension. By the time you reach full build, it is greater than 50% movement speed, as shown in the picture below, making it better than Talisman of Ascension by 10% movement speed and is spammable with a cooldown of less than 4 seconds, unlike Talisman of Ascension which has a 60 second cooldown.

This is the reason you max Song of Celerity second. It makes movement speed items seem like a joke, and since it is spammable, it has many more uses all of which are stated on the first paragraph. For example, can you spam Talisman of Ascension so that you can reach other lanes fast and roam easily or use it as a quasi homeguards? No, because it is not spammable. It has a 60 second cooldown.

Aria of Perseverance - Aria of Perseverance is used to defend yourself from counterpoke. After you poke, you can heal if you see that they may try to get a skill or an empowered autoattack off on you. Aria of Perseverance has high mana cost and should not be spammed to maintain a full health bar. This will result in you running out of mana very quickly. Instead, it should be used efficiently. This means that you are also using the short shielding effect of the skill. You can use Aria of Perseverance to recover from damage if you see that you have full mana. You can also activate it if you are rushing to get Power Chord.

Aria of Perseverance is inferior to Hymn of Valor and Song of Celerity. Hymn of Valor is a fundamental skill that is crucial for poking, while Song of Celerity has many uses which surpasses Aria of Perseverance in usefulness, especially since this is not a heal build, making your heals very weak. The large effect on your heal as a result of not being a heal build is shown in the Masteries chapter. For this build, the most useful aspect of Aria of Perseverance for you will be its Power Chord due to the scaling effect on Power Chord from your large AP, stopping assassins in their tracks and to be able to use this, you only need one point on Aria of Perseverance. These are the reasons you max it last. Below, you will see just how useful Song of Celerity is.

Video clip showing the strength of Song of Celerity

This video shows that you can be a lot faster than Ghost. This is >30% bonus MS. Your max is >50% MS, yet you are still able to outrun someone who has Ghost. Play Video

Summoner Spells explanation

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Ignite - With the extra damage of Ignite, you will have more opportunities to make plays. With ignite:

• You can secure kills that you would not have gotten due to the enemy being too far away or lack of damage.
• You have an insurance of extra damage when you engage in the case that the enemy uses Exhaust or Flash.
• You have an ability that renders Heal practically useless by negating a good amount of its heal effect through the Grievous Wounds effect, allowing for fights that feel like the enemy has one less Summoner Spell

Flash - Flash is a great gap closer, allowing you to make plays such as Flash followed by a Crescendo for an engage, or Flash followed by burst such as Hymn of Valor followed by Power Chord to get kills. It can also be used for escapes or surprises by using Flash over a wall. With the many uses of Flash, it is a good Summoner Spell for all champions.

Video clip examples for reference on the uses of Ignite

Play Video Play Video Play Video

Now that you've understood the fundamentals, much of these will make sense.

Pros

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• Damage-based champion capable of poking and assassinating means that you are not dependent on your ADC. A strong advantage in solo play such as solo queue, since most supports rely on having at least a half-decent ADC
• Great at roaming due to the strength of Song of Celerity, giving you more opportunities to make plays
• No skillshots, except for Crescendo, means that your skills will follow someone even if they Flash or use a dash allowing you to get kills much more easily
• Strong movement speed buff ( Song of Celerity) that is great for catching people out and force engaging
• Outstanding escapes, capable of outspeeding Ghost due to Song of Celerity
• Very early, non-overflowing, 45% max CDR that does not harm your damage output, as the items you build are not unnecessary, unlike others who get max CDR by building unnecessary items such as Morellonomicon. At the very least, you still need to build Eye of the Watchers, your particular type of sightstone (you cannot be a support without a sighstone), and Lich Bane, the core damage item, which both gives CDR.
• Many options available through the various Power Chord effects. This includes Hymn of Valor's Power Chord for burst, Aria of Perseverance's Power Chord for a quasi-exhaust when peeling (base of 25% decreased damage and scales with AP), and Song of Celerity's Power Chord for a slow when chasing.

Cons

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• Very squishy nature making it unforgiving towards mistakes, and hence is difficult to learn
• Weak heals (except late game due to the effect of 600 AP, making even a weak skill decent through scaling), and incapable of tanking due to Sona being squishy.

This will be a guide on how to play during laning phase, which includes an in-depth guide to poking, and a ward map for laning phase.

Ward Map

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Bot lane laning phase ward mapRed – Crucial anti-gank wards. Always ward.
These are general wards to prevent ganks

Blue – Bush wards.
These requires warding if you want to poke back or be ready for Thresh hooks, or Leona E’s. Choose one of the two for your third ward.

Yellow – Caution point. Ward if necessary.
This is an area that requires attention for those junglers who can make plays by taking advantage of that point that is not warded often. For example, Zac Jump, Fiddlesticks ultimate, and Lee Sin ward hop, or a gank utilizing Bard’s portal or Thresh’s lantern. Keep this is mind.

Poking

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General Poking

Generally, when poking you’d want to use your minions as a shield from enemy abilities, and you’d want to poke the adc when they are trying to go for minions.

Specific Poking – Notable Champions

ADCS

Ezreal

• When poking an Ezreal, just hide behind minions so that he cannot poke or counterpoke you with his Mystic Shot.
• When he goes to CS, you can easily poke him without getting hurt if you have a minion in front of you. The only time when you will be unable to do so is if he instead chooses to CS with his Q, which has a bigger range, or if the support is doing something that is preventing you from doing so.
• Be aware of the range of the AoE effect of Iceborn Gauntlet if Ezreal chooses to buy this item. Do not get hit by it.
• Choose where you recall carefully so you do not die from an unexpected Trueshot Barrage

Jhin

• Do no try to poke Jhin when he has his 4th autoattack up. Its much easier to just wait for it to disappear, than to deal with the damage he dealt to you using his 4th autoattack.
• When poking, be aware of his Dancing Grenade and position yourself accordingly. If you notice that it is about to bounce on you, activate Aria of Perseverance so that the shield effect negates the damage
• Be aware of Jhin's combo with his Deadly Flourish. This includes lockdown synergy with his support, where Jhin takes advantage of Deadly Flourish's range, or combos by himself through the use of traps.
• Do not stay when you are very low vs Jhin. He has Curtain Call and will kill you.

Tristana

• Do not hug low health minions, unless you want to take splash damage from Explosive Charge's passive. Position yourself behind minions if necessary, such as when playing against Blitzcrank, but only be behind the minions, do not hug low health minions.
• Be aware that Tristana has a strong all-in. Play accordingly if she uses Rocket Jump to goes all in, and ready your Crescendo. Do not get caught by hard CC, such as from Leona or Blitzcrank, since Tristana has a strong all in.

Jinx

• Keep in mind which weapon Jinx is using{ Switcheroo!). If she is CSing using rockets, do not hug the minions she is trying to hit (this positioning mistake can be done subconsciously), as the splash damage will hit you.
• Do not try to poke her when she has rockets, since she has increased ranged, and will be able to counter poke.
• Do not get trapped between Jinx’s Flame Chompers! and the enemy team because you tried to poke and went in too deep.
• Keep in mind Super Mega Death Rocket!, and choose your recall spots carefully.

Caitlyn

• Do not poke Caitlyn when she has headshot up. She will counterpoke with good damage.
• Do not go in deep when poking Caitlyn. She will simply do 90 Caliber Net followed by Headshot, and due to the slow effect on you and knockback on Caitlyn, you would not have even touched her.
• Always be aware of Caitlyn’s Yordle Snap Trap. Stepping on them will result in heavy damage if followed by Headshot.
• Block Ace in the Hole for your ADC, or hide behind your ADC so that they can block it for you. It depends on which one of you is low.

Here is a video of a Caitlyn's Net Headshot Combo. Allowing Caitlyn to do this combo is a misplay. Keep in mind that the only reason that I did not take a lot of damage is because I was very ahead, but if you are behind or pretty even, you will lose a lot of health.

Video clip of Caitlyn's Net Headshot Combo Play Video

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Ashe

• Be aware of her Volley. Always hide behind minions. Do not, however, hide behind a group of low health minions. If volley kills the minion or minions, the remaining arrows will go through and hit you.
• Always keep an eye out for her Enchanted Crystal Arrow. It is a good setup for a lockdown play. For example, one strategy is for Ashe to use it from afar, hit you with the stun, get locked down by, say Leona, and then finally get killed by Ashe.

Supports

Soraka

• When poking, being too aggressive may lead you to being unable to dodge or having no choice but to get hit by Soraka's Starcall. This will negate your poke damage, resulting in an outcome where Soraka remains undamaged, but you are damaged. Position properly and poke carefully.
• Soraka should be the priority of your pokes. If she’s not in range, then go for the ADC, otherwise, if she is in range, she should be your focus.

Analysis
This is an analysis of the second point.

Why should you do it?

Think of this mathematically. Soraka will heal the ADC anyways.

Proof
(Read the description for Astral Infusion)
Soraka loses health by healing the ADC.

Case 1: You poke the ADC, Soraka heals the ADC, Soraka loses health from healing the ADC. ADC is now undamaged.

Case 2: You poke Soraka directly, and Soraka loses health. ADC then remains undamaged.

Since Soraka will take more damage from Case 2, than Case 1, then Case 2 is more preferable.

By poking Soraka directly, you are making her lose more health than
poking the ADC, Soraka healing the ADC, resulting in Soraka losing health.

When to consider not focusing a Soraka?
In a fight, usually with your team or a companion (I say usually since sometimes you can do this yourself), where you are able to burst down your target before Soraka can heal them multiple times.

{Note: I say multiple times because it is difficult to stop the first Astral Infusion, and the Wish, but if your team has the burst (i.e. Kha'Zix), then it is possible to kill your target before the next Astral Infusion. Of course, if you have an out-of-position Soraka, they may not even be able to heal the target or react fast enough to use Wish. You can also stop the first Astral Infusion, and the Wish by using a stun on Soraka. In this case, you should try to hit Crescendo on both the intended target and Soraka, then proceed with the rest of your combo on the intended target. This is what you should be attempting in teamfights against a Soraka, or focus Soraka herself.}

Nami

• When poking Nami, do not let her counterpoke. Poke her using the range of Hymn of Valor without letting her counterpoke with Ebb and Flow. Since Ebb and Flow both heals Nami, and does damage, letting her counterpoke will result in a lost trade.
• Be careful of Nami's Aqua Prison. When combined with the slow from Tidecaller's Blessing, landing Aqua Prison is much easier. Do not get too aggressive and be out of position. If Nami lands a good Aqua Prison, you will take heavy damage.

Blitzcrank

• Always have minions in front of you. This will prevent Rocket Grab from hitting you. If the current minion wave only has 1-2 minions left, back off and wait for the next one.
• If a fight starts, circle around your minion wave to avoid getting pulled by Blitzcrank. This will buy you time allowing you and your ADC to deal more damage. If the only way Blitzcrank can pull you is by being in melee range, you've kited him well.
• Make sure your ADC is nearby when poking a Blitzcrank. If you are alone, Blitzcrank will be able to engage using a movement speed item, or by using Overdrive and will result in your death.
• Poke when he tries to use his Relic Shield. This is a free opportunity. Go aggressive when his Rocket Grab is down. He will not be able to do anything.

Leona

• Poke and position carefully. Do not give Leona a good engage through Zenith Blade. Poke when it would be bad for Leona to go in on you. (i.e. Factors include: Distance from tower, position of ADC compared to Leona, and size of your minion wave compared to the enemy) You can also poke the ADC when Leona's Zenith Blade is out of range.
• In fights, avoid Leona's skillshots. Don't get hit by her Solar Flare. Focus the ADC, not Leona. Leona is the tank.

At the end of the laning phase, you have two choices. You can either continue pushing bot, or you can start roaming and helping other lanes. This largely depends on whether or not the enemy jungler has been ignoring your lane or you can 2v3 bot with the enemy jungler, which will happen if you are ahead and you know how to play correctly. If this is the case, you can continue pushing bot, otherwise, it may be better to roam and group with your teammates.

Bot Lane Pushing
Ward Map
Bot lane pushing ward mapRed – Crucial wards
Black star – destroyed turret

If you are going to continue pushing bot lane, you will need this map.

Stealing blue buff
Sometimes the enemy blue buff is there, and the enemy is dead. Take it. You can solo it given that you have atleast completed Lich Bane by now. It will screw up the enemy jungler, give you good exp, and will allow you to spam Lich Bane + Power Chord to melt turrets.

Grouping and Roaming
Grouping
Given that someone is with you, if a squishy enemy steps in too close, like the enemy Syndra, you can immediately ult if they are alone. You have the burst to bring them down to at least half health. Having your ADC and your mid laner beside you when you’re pushing mid, they can easily finish her off.

Ward Maps
If you are going to help push other lanes, these are some helpful ward maps.

Pushing to destroy mid outer turretRed – Crucial wards
Yellow – Caution point. Be wary of Zac jumps, Fid ults, etc. Ward if necessary.

Blue – Caution point #2. Ward if necessary.
You need wards at these points if an enemy may try to come from behind. For example, top or bot is mia, and may try to trap you from behind.

Pushing to destroy mid inner turret
Red – Crucial wards
Black star – destroyed turret
Yellow – Caution point. Be wary of Zac jumps, Fid ults, etc. Ward if necessary.
Blue – Caution point #2. Be wary of getting trapped from an attack from behind. Ward if necessary.

Pushing to destroy top outer turret
Red – Crucial wards

Pushing to destroy top inner turret
Red – crucial wards
Black star – destroyed turret

Roaming
Do this if you see a low hp enemy at another lane, then use your E to try and go there to kill them. You have enough burst to do this. How low they need to be depends on how ahead you are, what items you have, and how squishy they are. These clips are here to give you a reference of what you can and cannot do.

References for roaming plays
Note that some of these video clips already appeared in the introduction Play Video Play Video Play Video Play Video

When a teamfight is about to start, there are a few things you need to look out for.

Ward Maps
These are helpful late-game ward maps.

Winning ward map – Pushing to destroy inhibitor turretsBlack star – destroyed turret

Blue – Situational crucial wards
These wards are necessary, but which of the 4 points you will ward will depend on which lane you are pushing. For example, if you are pushing to destroy bot’s inhibitor turret, you ward the 2 blue points closest to bot.

Orange – Offensive buff wards
Keep in mind these buffs, as with this big of a lead, the enemy’s jungle is now your territory. Do not let them get those buffs.

Losing ward map
Black star – destroyed turret

Black triangle – territory now owned by your enemy
If you are losing this hard, you’ve lost control of those territory. Move with caution in these areas unless you want to be picked off.

Purple – Dangerous to ward.
Do not try to ward unless someone is with you or you know for sure you will not encounter an enemy when you try to ward these points. Now that you’ve lost control of your own jungle territory, it will result in your death if you try to ward these points recklessly as the enemy team is probably in your jungle.

Red – Relatively safe ward points.
These points are relatively safe to ward, though it is possible for the enemy team to be hiding there waiting to kill the next person to get close to that bush, especially on the red point closest to red buff.

Green - Defensive buff wards
Try warding these points if the buff is almost up, but remember to proceed with caution. Who knows. Maybe your team may even be able to pick someone off when an enemy tries to go for those buffs.

Looking for a good ult
There are two things that are considered a good ult, an ult that picks someone off, or an ult that catches atleast 3 people.

Immediately ult when a squishy enemy goes in too close while trying to poke. They will be instantly deleted before a teamfight starts. The enemy will either back off, which is the smart move, or go in on a 4v5 right after one of their teammates dies. In this case, you are guaranteed to win the fight.

Look for at least a 3 man ult, but have at least one squishy caught in it. This will guarantee that the squishy person will die, by either the squishy assassin going in by himself after 3 of his allies are stunned, and resulting in him getting focused and dying, or by your team going in and focusing the 3 people you just ulted.

Following Up
Remember that you are not the only one looking for a good ult. If say, your ally Malphite gets a good 4 man ult, go in and follow up with your ult, even if that means you have to flash, because by following that up, it is a guaranteed Ace. It is worth the flash if you can get Baron, or destroy multiple towers and inhibitors because of the Ace, and possibly even end the game.

Warning – Going in alone
Always keep an eye out on where your allies actually are. If you get a 5 man ult, but no one is behind you to follow it up, all you did was waste your ult.

End of Teamfight – Pushing/Objectives
After a teamfight and you are still alive, you can easily push with your Lich Bane, or help melt Baron/Dragon very quickly. Just remember that you should take advantage of blue buff, if you managed to kill someone who had blue buff, or had it prior to the teamfight.

Ward Maps
Taking dragon ward map (as blue side)Red - Pink ward goes here. Make sure you plant the pink ward deep enough so that you can see even wards on the edge of dragon's pit.

Blue - Ward here. This is where flash plays and jump plays will occur coming from the enemy team. Watch carefully.

Orange - This is where bush plays happen. When a teamfight starts, you may end up losing the trade because you didn't have vision on the bush and the enemy took advantage of it. Ward them.

Taking baron ward map (as blue side)
Same ideas as dragon.
Red - Pink ward goes here.

Blue - Ward here. This is where flash plays and jump plays will occur coming from the enemy team. Watch carefully.

Orange - Ward here. This is where bush plays happen.

Skill pattern with blue buff
E, autoattack, W, autoattack, Q powerchord autoattack

Skill pattern without blue buff
E, W, Q, powerchord autoattack, E, W, Q, powerchord autoattack

That’s it. I hope you found this useful. Leave a positive rating and share it with your friends if you found it helpful. Thank you for reading this far. This guide is as thick as a textbook. For you to reach this far by reading normally means you trust me. Don't worry, when you master this guide, you will be a better Sona than anyone else out there (besides me).

Hopefully you can master this guide and become a Sona God like me. Practice hard and don't give up.
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2016-10-04
- Nami, Blitzcrank, Leona better information and format on poking section.

2016-10-03
- Soraka in poking section, new information + format upgrade

2016-09-30
-Irrelevant changes to Vs. Champions

2016-09-28
- Improved information about poking ADCs (Supports not yet). Improved format, including changing the format to point form/list so that it is easier to read
- Slightly more info in Pros and Cons chapter

2016-09-27
- Changed information regarding heal in accordance to newly discovered information.
- New on how to poke Ezreal
- Slightly more info in Pros and Cons chapter
- Made conclusion less cringy

2016-09-18
- 'Big change' now on 'Summoner Spells' and 'Pros and Cons' as well. ('Big Change' is the huge revamp that a lot of sections have already gotten)
- Laning Phase and Poking section - Name change, format improvement, and spelling/grammatical error corrections on Caitlyn's information. No information improvements yet on the other ADCs/Supports. That will happen soon, but not right now.

2016-09-17/18
- Made big changes to Skills. As usual, it is better format, better clarity, and more information
- Small, irrelevant format change in Items

2016-09-16
- Made big changes in Masteries, including better format, better clarity, and more information
- A paragraph addition to the introduction as well as slight format changes
- Big format changes in Runes
- Changed Items's information and improved its format

2016-09-14
- Made changes to runes, so that it is slightly clearer, as well as better use of headers and formatting
- Introduction had a slight change to its formatting

2016-09-13
- Made big changes with the introduction. Explained important ideas much more clearly through better organization and use of various headers, lists, and overall a more in-depth explanation. (Look how beautiful it is!)
- Changed a sentence and modified the clips in Roaming tab. (i.e. Instead of pointing out that some roaming clips are included in the introduction, I just repeated those necessary clips)
- Changelog is now in reverse-chronological order. It is a much better format to use when keeping track of recent changes.

2016-09-10
- Added Bard in counters
- Edited Thresh in counters
- Moved Nami and Soraka down a level in counters
- Moved Jhin up a level (Keep in mind, as stated, this level is the WORST CASE SCENARIO). To emphasize this, I added two Jhins. The yellow one is the normal case and has the same description, just a different lane comp.
- Same thing has also been done to Leona

2016-09-09
- There's been many changes since the beginning of this new version of a guide, but I'm starting a changelog now so people who want to track the progress of this guide can easily do so now
- Added more videos in the introduction tab as well as a few extra sentences
- Added a sentence in the roaming tab
- Added more information regarding Void Staff in build
- Added a few extra sentences in the conclusion tab
- Added more as well as purely editing vs Blitzcrank's information
- Added more as well as purely editing vs Leona's information
- Added a video and edited a sentence in the summoner spells tab

Note: If you notice that I am saving and publishing in rapid succession, it means that I am in the middle of debugging a big change that just got implemented. Keep this in mind if you noticed that a big change has just occurred, since it may change a little the next time you refresh the page to correct small errors, such as formatting and/or spelling/grammatical errors.