WHY DO PEOPLE BUILD SONA LIKE AN AP NUKE?

[quote=Slowjack]Mr Team Captain guy has a point. I'm sure he also knows that you need HP to take advantage of resists. That being said, resist auras are only key in the early and mid games (where I consider getting started on other items more important than an Aegis for Sona's CDR, AP and survivability). In the late game, carries should have a defense item so that they aren't blown a part in team fights (assuming high level play where people regularly prioritize targets). Just like building a tank, you can't really just go "half way" on resists. Something little like a Heart of Gold doesn't count, because it's not an item anyone keeps long term. You either push your Armor/MR into the 100-150+ range, or you don't. The way resists are dealt out on items doesn't really allow for "just enough" to make the amount from aura/Aegis put them in some sort of sweet spot. To be honest, I could be wrong there. But I don't think I'm too far off. If carries are building a defensive item, I suppose an aura beacon allows them to make that item HP oriented. But if aura and Aegis don't even provide 40 to each resist type, then I don't see why said carries can't assess which damage type is blowing them up, and build the proper item to counter that on their own. I know the AP ones, I don't know the AD ones. I regularly take care of my own hp and resists as tank, support or ap carry. The aura/Aegis is going to fall into that diminishing returns range, further reducing the reason to even maintain it as a keystone to the 5 man comp. If going aura beacon is what you consider to be the "most" that an aura based champ can bring to the table... then I can see where you're coming from. Synergy and all that. But there are other supports who aren't Sona, and they can fill the support role without an aura beacon mentality. Sona doesn't need to let awesome design pigeon hole her effective gameplay. Not at all.[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]Sona's W aura and Aegis provide over 50 armor and mr. I said the actual number earlier in a post.[/quote]

[quote=Slowjack][quote=Mowen] I guess it doesn't matter if your whole team has +32 armor and +35 magic resist in a team fight (That's just her W and Aegis). Nope... won't make a difference...[/quote] That post? 32 and 35 are a lot different than 50+. So I'll find it out myself. Self: 18 Armor, 24 MR Aura: 12 Armor, 15 MR, +8 AD W: 20 Armor, 20 MR. You were accurate the first time. Over 50 to the Sona? Sure. Not bad for 1950g. But the purpose of an aura beacon is to be beneficial to their allies. Do I see merit in it? Certainly. RoA for HP, Aegis for some resists and WotA to keep up with the aura idea. That's nice for mid game, but then what? A L18 Sona has a base of 67 Armor and 30 MR at L18. 117 Armor and 89 MR with W/Aegis. I just don't think that's enough to rely on, tbh. Not for any sort of long term thinking (past the 40m mark). Those are average stats. They aren't the "I want to defend myself against this damage type." kind of stats. Take some random AD carry with 30 MR at level 18. BoV? 80. Sona's W? 100. Aegis? 115. If MR was an issue, I'd rather a Force of Nature. If armor is an issue, I'd rather a Frozen Heart. That extra 15 MR from Aegis saves how much? About 4%. Assuming it isn't negated by Sorc Shoes, Haunting Guise or Abyssal Sceptre. If Poppy smacks you for 1000 dmg, that 4% translates into 40 damage. If they have any more MR then it's subject to even more diminishing returns. Her heal (despite its limitations) has a .35 AP ratio. I don't know... the difference is uninspiring, really. Especially when AP doesn't have diminishing returns at all. All of this isn't to say that AP Sona > Aura Sona. It's just my thoughts when someone says Aura Sona is more effective at a support role. Her W + Aegis isn't enough to justify it to me. Any champ can pick up Aegis/Will/Shurelia's/whateverauraitem and run around being beneficial to their team. Sona brings nothing more than an extra 20 Armor/MR. You can't build around that. It's not enough to justify not buying your usual defensive items anyway. Edit: In retrospect, all the game's penetration items could be argued to increase the value of Aegis on a Sona even further because the point of significant DR is even harder to reach. But there aren't a multitude of armor/mr aura items in the game. So it still stands that when late game rolls around, your damage and healing are both forgettable and the auras you provide are like a splash in the pond of benefits that items deliver. Maybe this kind of thinking is why I'm not some top ELO player? /shrug[/quote]

[quote=Searz][quote=Slowjack] Maybe this kind of thinking is why I'm not some top ELO player?[/quote] Spot on :)[/quote]

[quote=Slowjack][quote=Searz] [quote=Slowjack] Maybe this kind of thinking is why I'm not some top ELO player?[/quote] Spot on :) [/quote] Challenge accepted. I'll aura bot some Sona matches... since it doesn't seem like anything concrete can be provided outside of, "auras are nice for everybody". Makes me wish I wasn't working during the Dreamhack qualifiers so I could see if the top players in the world think similarly. Any champ can do it, but apparently the 20 Armor/MR from Sona's W is enough to bring it into OP status....[/quote]

[quote=KyleeRayne]Cuz it's so much fun =DDDDD[/quote]

[quote=deathalo44]Most people prefer getting 200 kills over to saving your teammate 2000 times. So they try to ks, getting painful items instead of being nice and saving teammates.[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]Ah right, when you said 50 for some reason I remembered incorrectly, haha. And if you would have watched Dreamhack, you would've seen no AP Sonas, in fact they really had nothing but gold gen items and CDR (the one I remember the most was [[ionian boots of lucidity]] and 3x [[heart of gold]] at the end of the game). The team was effective and went very far in the tournament, I believe I remember aAa using this particular build but not positive.[/quote]

[quote=JunSupport][quote=Mowen] Ah right, when you said 50 for some reason I remembered incorrectly, haha. And if you would have watched Dreamhack, you would've seen no AP Sonas, in fact they really had nothing but gold gen items and CDR (the one I remember the most was [[ionian boots of lucidity]] and 3x [[heart of gold]] at the end of the game). The team was effective and went very far in the tournament, I believe I remember aAa using this particular build but not positive. [/quote] Problem is, that kind of direction is only viable in the top 20% of the ELO, where people have clear cut knowledge. The allies have to know how to make proper use of a good Support player. Everywhere else, especially in solo-queue and TT, no one gives a dam.[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]But that doesn't change the fact that support Sona is the most effective build when everybody is playing their best. Like you could say "I'm never going to build items to help my team because I can't rely on them" otherwise no one would play tanks or supports, and we know that when you have a tank and support on your team your team has better composition and is therefore more likely to win. If you want to support, play a support, if you want to carry with a mage, play a mage. And if you're going to say I can't build this way in solo queue, then play a mage and not a support. And if you say Sona can be a mage, well quite frankly, if you're going to play a mage play a better mage that can actually target their Q.[/quote]