not cool

Hey nackerboss,

It varies from game to game. High elo you wanna W max, low elo you wanna Q max. The reason for this is that lower elo players misposition alot more often, thus you can poke and harass. Higher elo you wanna max W because you get targeted alot as the most squishy champ. In terms of E, you usually delay it to lv4 but some scenario's you take it at lv3 in cases of a sudden gank or something.

Hope this clears things up!

Want to learn more? You can always tune into my streams on twitch.tv/swelteringmuffin or join the Discord https://discord.gg/RM23954

Much love,
~SwelteringMuffin

Hey BullBornBroken,

Spellthief's Edge is correct. Eye of the Watchers used to be the previous Spellthief's Edge upgrade. I'll have things updated a little bit more when preseason hits and all the new items come out so I can do it all in one go.

Want to learn more? You can always tune into my streams on twitch.tv/swelteringmuffin or join the Discord https://discord.gg/RM23954

Cya around :3
~SwelteringMuffin

Hey Irish Coffee,

Thank you very much c: that's very kind of you <3

I agree that maxing W first on Sona consumes alot of mana. To be honest I've always been maxing Q first on Sona untill I started playing alot more Nami. On Nami I max W, I noticed a similarity and started maxing W on Sona aswell since around season 7/8. I've found it to be more useful utility wise (healing/shielding), your damage will be delayed to mid game but I think the trade off is worth it.

There are some reasons why I'm maxing W aswell as some great benefits:

Sona as we all know is a very very squishy support, moreso than some other AP supports. By maxing W first you will heal more and have a bigger shield to prevent yourself from dying when being targeted for your squishyness. I've surprised many opponents (including champs like Khazix) that try to focus you down but don't have quite the damage because you maxed W, keeping yourself alive (as the opponents are in confusion why they were not able to have enough damage lmao) while your team finishes them off.

So the surprise factor is a big deal as opponents miscalculate their damage (people automatically assume Sona players max Q).

Second, since you're not maxing Q your opponents are more likely to ignore/disrespect your Q's, this leads to more safe Tribute proc's for more gold income.

Third, in certain matchups where you're being zoned/outranged in laning phase (for example Jinx) it's difficult to constantly proc your Q's.

Overall in mid game/teamfights I've found that the big shields from W max that are applied to everyone are much more of use than the Q max that I've been doing in the past.

The only real downside as you already mentioned is the high mana toll. You can't spam W as much as Nami during the laning phase because Sona's W is like 50% shielding and 50% healing, meaning that you should only use it during trades. However once you get your Frostfang/Tear it only starts getting better.

Hah you call that a long post? :P You should check my Soraka guide discussion section XD don't sweat it ^^ thank you once again <3

Hope the explanation/reasonings are understandable and maybe it can change your perspective, give it a shot if you haven't already? Who knows maybe you may find the utility more useful, it's upto you :P

Cya around!
~SwelteringMuffin