Hello, I'm NirvanaBunny and this is my guide for Sona, Maven of the Strings. She is the first support I played in LoL and she's the reason I started playing this game. Up to this day I've probably played more than 2000 games as her, through seasons 1-4.

Sona is a versatile character that works well with pretty much every team and every adc. She offers both damage and sustain and also some crowd control so she works very well with many teams. I like to play her offensive, but she's also very good as a defensive support and even though she is vulnerable to CC, she's a very good support to have in your team.

Pro's + Decent CC + Versatile buffs + Pokes/damage are decent + Low cooldowns on skills + Crescendo stun + Good mobility + Great roaming for support & warding

Con's - Low AP ratio on heal - Cooldowns might get annoying and mana hungry - Easy to KS - Dies quickly and is squishy early game - Can't hold lane alone for too long - Low damage in team-fights

Sona is a versatile character that works well with pretty much every team and every adc. She offers both damage and sustain and also some crowd control so she works very well with many teams. I like to play her offensive, but she's also very good as a defensive support and even though she is vulnerable to CC, she's a very good support to have in your team.

Power Chord is actually a passive. Unlike on most other champions you can count it to be 3 different active skills: burst damage skill-shot, damage debuff or slow. It's also the most epic KS skill ever.


Hymn of Valor is your main harass and damage skill that will give you and your nearby allies nice damage buff (up to 20 ad/ap) and hits up to 2 enemies nearby prioritizing champions. Also known as the epic KS skill along with Power Chord.


Aria of Perseverance doesn't heal much at earlier levels, but it always heals 2 people - you and the closest ally with the lowest HP. It is a relatively spammable skill that also gives a defensive armor/magic resist increasing aura.


Song of Celerity gives a relatively small speed boost at earlier levels along with a movement speed aura, but now that it scales of AP the movement speed boost is even better throughout the game. I only take 1 point early for the slowing Power Chord and max it last.


Crescendo which will basically stun enemies for a couple of seconds while dealing nice damage. In teamfights it's quite crucial for you to land this spell on multiple enemies or if you're sure you're gonna miss it save it for chasing/escaping.

Keep in Mind

Power Chord is what makes difference between a good and an awesome Sona. You will need to be tactical when you see that you have your passive up and choose which Power Chord is most suited on the current situation:

• If the enemy carry is on your range in the middle of the teamfight, cast green on him/her to reduce their damage by 20%. This applies to dragons and Baron as well, so remember to debuff them to ease your jungler (or whoever is tanking it).
  
• If you are chasing with your team use purple slowing power chord to cut their escape in short. Also when your jungler comes to gank, go ahead and initiate with your slow.
  
• If you are finishing off someone or want to do as much damage as possible, then use blue for double damage, or use this for harassing.

Aggressive Runes

Passive Runes

AP Heavy Runes

Note

• For marks I'd get Armor Penetration runes depending on if they harass with auto attacks. The two other viable choices are the original old school Sona with Greater Mark of Magic Penetration runes.
  
• For seals armor is a must so Greater Seal of Armor, but you can use scaling ones also. In the long run they are better, but as Sona is a naturally squishy champion, you might wanna grab the flat ones for early game survivability.

Aggressive Masteries

Passive Masteries

AP Heavy Masteries

NOTE

These are only my preferred masteries, if you feel like they should be changed or if you have any suggestions for me, please comment or PM me.

zeke's herald
zeke's herald Zeke's Herald is slightly more expensive nowadays, because of the new vampire scepter Vampire Scepter cost and it doesn't give attack speed anymore - it gives attack damage. Still decent for a support for the lifesteal and ad aura, BUT I'd prefer this on those supports who auto attack more frequently like Taric and Leona.


Rylai's Crystal Scepter is my second favourite AP item on her because it gives her a nice amount of HP and 80 stable AP and a slow that will work with all of your power chords. So basically you can use your green power chord on a heavy damage character to decrease their damage by 20% and to slow them as well, like for example to Vayne.


Lich Bane is my favourite AP item for Sona. It's a bit expensive, but having Sheen early game boosts your harass power and the passive of the Lich Bane works well with Power Chords and Sona can trigger it often with her low cooldowns. Gives also movement speed boost so with Boots of Mobility and Song of Celerity you'll be almost like a Rammus. ;D


Most people have probably played AP Sona even once and if you do, you like Rabadon's Deathcap for those 200-300 heals and an epic damage. Most often you can't afford this, but if you play AP Sona mid (which this guide isn't about) go ahead.


Is not a very gold-efficient item, it is rather good when paired with AD champions who use attack-speed to deal more damage

Poke with Hymn of Valor, try to do it when the enemy is locked in an auto attack animation for a last hit so he can't retaliate,as well as with autos. If you're vs Blitzcrank or Thresh you should avoid doing this unless you know they've wasted their Hooks, else just stay behind your minion wave.

Use your trinket for bush control (either Red or yellow trinket,and keep the one on the opposite side warded to prevent lane ganks) and keep a ward on both river(On either the river bush or in front of the Dragon pit) and tribush, even if you're blue side.

Only heal with Aria of Perseverance when it is your ADC the one who needs the heal, or both of you. Selfish use of it will cause you to go OOM unless you have chalice, so it's way better to pop your pots than spamming your W for self sustain.

You go bot lane with an AD carry. If it's not AD, it changes nothing.

You don't take last hits when your ally is on the lane. You are allowed to farm as long as you're not farming when someone else is there. This means you can take last hits, when they go back and you stay behind, but don't push.

If you do farm when you're (hopefully) temporarily alone on the lane, don't push the lane. Just last hit. People are very sensitive about this even if it's the jungler, but imagine how they'll rage if you steal your carries farm.

Harass the enemy if you can, try to outzone them by harassing them to low HP and putting yourself in a position that forces them to go back outside the farming range. If you're the one outzoned/harassed hard, heal your ally and make sure he can last hit safely.

Buy and put wards and beware of ganks, inform your own jungler of the enemy wards and set up ganks.

Your carry is your 1st priority. Protect them at all costs, even if you have to sacrifice yourself to do it. That doesn't mean suicide though.

Don't be greedy. Don't take kills unless you have to or you're the only one who can. Don't killsteal intentionally, but sometimes it just happens with Power Chords, so be a nice guy/girl and apologize. Some buttlicking doesn't hurt with all these sensitive people around.

Watch whole map, not just your own lane and ping/inform your allies of approaching enemies. Pinging Miss-pings and maybe even writing on the chat goes to this section and even if your mid doesn't say anything, but the enemy is gone there, you can ping it instead. Support is the team captain, hence we got Captain enchantment for boots!

4/24/15
~Added "V.S. Champions"
~"Matchups/Counters" changed to "Matchups"

4/23/15
~Updated for Season 5

4/20/14
~Fully updated for now. Changes to Masteries page. Updated the Matchups/Counters page.

4/18/2014
~Made minor changes to the build itself.