Sona is most of the times played as a support with Aura items because of her skills, but if you do this all she can do is heal for minor health and stun them with ulti
If you build her AP, she can heal for a lot of HP and do tons of damage

It's preferred that she takes a duo lane to support your lane partner, but she can take mid pretty well and she can take a solo lane if you have a jungler, but it's a little bit hard

when i was still a beginner i've beaten vladimir in mid easy lol

I don't think a lot needs to be explained here, but I will anyways

Mark of Insight: The Magi Pen is great for any AP for that extra damage output early game

Seal of Clarity: Sona uses a lot of mana, this allows it so you don't have to take clarity because your mana regen will be covered by your 2 Philo Stones early game and late game by these runes

Glyph of Focus: This is great on any AP Sona doesn't seem to need that much CDR but it's great because she can spam more then lol

Quint of Swiftness: Sona is SLOW, before i got these runes i had to get boots of Mobility because she was so slow

9/0/21 is a very, VERY common Mastery setup for many champs
21 in utility is important for Sona because she needs the extra Movement Speed, like, really
and 9 in offense is nice for the Magic Penetration

Most Sona players will tell you to max out your Hymn of Valor (Q) first, I think differently

Sona isn't her old self anymore, her heal kinda sucks after she got nerfed, if you want to actually be a support early game, you should just max Aria of Perseverance (W) after getting Hymn of Valor (Q) to level 3

Song of Celerity (E) is great, but you don't really need it as much as the other 2 so just put 1 point in it to get back to your lane after you B

Sona can be useful with a lot of Summoner Spells

Flash: This Spell is VERY useful for Sona for getting kills early game
you Flash and use your ultimate and most likely you will get a kill if you communicate with your lane partner well enough
Also obviously it's a great spell for getting away

Clairvoyance: This Spell is great, you don't have to buy that many wards if you have this spell and you don't have to go and face-check bushes

Teleport, Ghost, Heal, Clarity, Fortify are also optional spells that are pretty good on Sona if you like those
only reason i don't recommend Revive is that people don't like it on Solo Queue lol, i legitimately use that Spell on certain champs but people queue dodge when they see that spell lol

Ok, Items, great lets get on with it

SO

I start off with 2 Faerie Charm, 2 Health Potions, and 1 Mana Potion
I do this because Sona is a pretty bad farmer and needs the extra gold from the Philosopher Stone and needs the Mana Regeneration too
You might think getting 2 Philosopher's Stone is dumb and a waste of money, but it's worth it, really, if you do this, you will almost never have to go town for mana or HP and you get tons of gold in the long run

I get Ionian Boots because Sona is a skill spammer, and her skills already have a pretty fast cooldown but it's really nice to have more, but it's kind of a waste of gold to go for the items like Deathfire, Morello's, Soul Shroud, etc.

Lich Bane should be obvious, it adds nice Movement Speed which Sona really needs because she's slow, her Power Chord will deal even more damage, to a point where she can basically carry the team

Deathcap is a necessary item on every AP champ, gives a nice boost

Abyssal Scepter adds nice AP, Magic Resist, and reduces the enemy Magic Resist which is nice for you and your team

Rylai's Crystal Scepter adds nice HP for survivability, AP, and slows the enemy with your skills which is nice for Sona because she isn't really a nuker that can kill a champion in 2-3 hits so the slow helps for kills

Banshee's Veil adds nice HP, MP, Magic Resist, and a Spell Shield, if your getting focused too often in team fights, get this item sooner


There are many other items that are viable on Sona

Mejai's Soulstealer: This item is viable on any AP, especially on supports, but I just personally don't like Snowball items so yeah lol

Archangel's Staff: If you really have mana issues, or you want to troll and stack it for massive AP, GO FOR IT

Zhonya's Hourglass: This item is good, if you get focused by those AD champs like Yi, this could be a good item because of the Armor boost and ofcourse the Active

Frozen Heart: out of all the aura items, this one is the best on Sona IMO, it gives extra mana, extra cooldown, and armor which would make Sona a bit tanky helping her against those AD champions

There are other items that Sona can be good with, but it's not the best

Pros:
-She's a great support
-Her ultimate can help a lot in teamfights
-She's easy to use generally

Cons:
-She's a bad farmer
-She's really squishy
-Her skills are really really weak early game

Early Game, her skills are really weak so play passively and focus on farming for most of it.
your Hymn of Valor (Q) won't be much of a harass until it gets to level 3 so just harass with Power Chord but even for that you have to be careful because Sona is super squishy, switch lanes if needed

Mid game she can assist kills with her ultimate and do her support duty by healing and boosting speed to assist chasing or running away. Now people might complain, but try to KS as much as possible, you really need those kills. If they complain, just tell them, KS is Kill Securing.

Mid game and Late game is where Sona shines, if you have your Lich Bane and Deathcap you can do a lot of damage and heal for enough to save your team mates and don't forget your Ultimate, it's great, just don't forget that your still a squishy and don't overextend too much unless your positive that you can make it out alive, or your team can wipe them out even if you die

on a side note, sona's power chord works on turrets too I think... would be great if someone can clarify on that one, she's not bad at taking down turrets.

Sona is great, she's pretty easy to use too.
Her Aura is pretty good, it's just my opinion, but Aura items are kinda outdated now, every supports should be played AP, but that's just my opinion so yeah

Have fun!