No one's ever changed someones mind on the internet, especially to someone who won't listen because they're convinced they cannot possibly be wrong, but I'll leave on this note:

No, people wouldn't assume things because people who assume based off the others signature is indeed idiotic and unrelated.

Good day.

Getting a skill ranked up is important yes But then again two of Sona's abilities are very important early game, the heal becomes less useful at higher levels past 6, necessitating at least one level up before level 9. It's actually by level 11 where one of the other skills is level 3 and the third is level 2 at this point. The point of poking is to do decent damage to the enemy ADC and supports to dis-encourage them from approaching and denying them cs. Dealing more damage early game is therefore very very good but shouldn't be done at risk of yourself and the ADC,the heal boost is important for that reason. I level the E again in preparation for the oncoming teamfights and/or ganks that come your way. At level 10 your Ap is big enough that there is a meaningful boost provided by the E that can help in moving yourself and your allies around the map. OF course no guide is going to be exactly what you want in a champion, if you feel getting a level 5 Q on Sona is more important than escaping a gank or healing your ADC then sure, level it up first above all else.

Potions are nice. They can give you back mana or Hp or give you buffs if you buy the more expensive ones. However, Sona can heal alot of Hp fast when played with decent Ap (so no need for health pots) and with the Unholy Grail or Chalice of Harmony doesn't need mana regen potions unless you spam abilities alot. So the alchemy while beneficial to a support using the reusable potion item (whose name escapes me right now) isn't really as viable on Sona. The extra gold income is helpful, yes it's a very small increase but it's still a bit of extra gold that can be put towards a ward or another item. Sona isn't going to get a massive amount of gold with Spellthief's every time so getting just that little bit more passive gold can be very helpful. I would value an extra ward over a bit more health regen on potions anyway and I say it in the guide. If you want to argue about elixirs then yes I do occasionally use them, the Ap boost along with a tiny bit of cooldown is good, early game the 250 gold should not be wasted on it when wards or other items can be bought. Late game you'll probably have the money to spend and 3 minutes is plenty of time for one or two teamfights at which point you may find yourself going back to base anyway.

Following the response to Soulstealer here I have been playing Sona without it a couple of times, I lost one game, won another and did very well on another but lost because of a truly terrible ADC and tank. Yes Soulstealer's is a risk, duh. I explain exactly why Soulstealer's is better with Sona in the guide, her E and Q together allow her to build up alot of assists with little effort along with a few kills. By the time she gets 13 charges her Ap is larger than it would have been with any other item (aside from Rabadons but that's part of the build anyway). At this point your Heal is going to be huge aswell as your E giving a massive speed boost and your Q dealing alot of damage. Unless the enemy decides to target you alot because of it then you'll be fine.

Alternatively you can be clever with Soulstealer's and bait the enemy if they decide you're important enough to target exclusively. Soulstealer's isn't always going to be the smartest buy but it's a fairly common buy for me right now and has worked very well at my current level, hence why I recommend it. Your arguments about the cooldown are irrelevant as they aren't the reason I get the item. It's purely for the Ap gain you get, the 5% extra cooldown is nice but definitely not the most important part of the item. I mention in the guide that the cooldown gained at 20 charges isn't always good because it requires you to stay at 20 charges and a death will set you back alot more than just Ap. Mejai's is there to buff your Ap and it's cheap which makes it a quick buy, especially just before the teamfight stage starts where you will have had to be careful with your gold.

If you're not a huge fan of Sona I'm not sure why you're reading this guide to begin with. If you're having difficulty with her then perhaps it's your attitude to how to play her, you seem to think one dimensionally for every champion, levelling one skill exclusively works for most damage carries and tanks like say Malzahar or Heimerdinger but isn't always going to be the best choice on a support. For instance with Blitzcrank I may decide to get both the the W and E after my Q is about level 3 so I have more chasing and capture potential with the grab.

Try my tactics out in normal ot CPU games a few times if you like. You might be surprised.

I wouldn't use the other Sona guides on this site as a standard to how to play Sona. There are very few (if any) that are a good guideline on how-to Sona. And, in fact, many players (including many Diamond and Platinum players) agree that the Plat guide you refer to in question is actually a pretty bad guide.

In any case, you fail at some basic things - maxing abilities, for instance. Max an ability by level 9, whether this be Q or W. Some people forgo an early point in E altogether in order to get extra points in Q/W whilst being able to max the other. Then you should have a second ability maxed by 13.

Mejai's Soulstealer is a poor item to keep into the mid-late-game, since you will have Frost Queen's Claim and Athene's Unholy Grail, along with masteries for a total of 35% CDR, meaning the CDR on a FULL-stack Mejai's is pointless, especially since there are better AP items to get. In other words, after you have the two aforementioned items, Mejai's is pointless. Which makes it a very weak buy in the first place, because both those items are EXTREMELY easy to get. Thus, a more efficient purchase route would be to skip Mejai's altogether. That's the reason no-one should buy Mejai's - you are essentially buying stats you don't use when there are better alternatives. It delays the TRUE core items of your build.

Also, no top-rated guide buys Mejai's anyway, so evidently buy your own inference, it's clearly not a good idea to build it.

The random 0.5 gold in Greed is also really ineffective compared to Alchemist .

So-saying, I can't begin to agree with your guide. I'm not a huge fan of Sona in the first place, even less so with AP Sona. And the fact that anyone who gets their skill sequence incorrect will always earn a downvote from me anyway.

It doesn't matter if you're a Homestuck fan or not, it says you're a "professional troll" and anyone who doesn't watch Homestuck (or read or whatever because I don't know it) isn't going to get the joke and the assume exactly what I did.

Sona is fragile to begin with yes, so a Khazix is probably going to kill her regardless of how much armour she has (in a fight without Ultimates and she can't escape) so why then build armour anyway? I prefer the tactics of "fight to run away", it's why the E is so useful during the teamfight stage because they can't catch you (and your team) without a leap+slow combo or a stun, what's the point of armour if you don't get hit to begin with? I didn't need to use my first health potion in my last game because the enemy couldn't catch me to deal more damage than I healed back on myself when healing my ADC.

"Sona steals kills" is mostly a joke, I'm not trying to steal kills it just happens, if you're using your Q enough then you're going to get a couple of kills throughout the game rather than assists in teamfights just based on the odds of getting a last hit in. What's more important, getting a lot of gold or killing three enemies and then taking another turret? instead of maybe just the two kills and no turret. It's not like your allies are going to be completely deprived of gold anyway, they will still receive assist gold somewhere around 150-180 and anything from any other kills they get.

OMG magic resist! I didn't think of that, my entire plan has fallen apart... If I'm forcing them to build magic resist to counter me how do you think my ADC will feel? bloody fantastic I'd wager and he'll probably be getting a few more kills as they focus on countering me. The Q damage is merely a bonus, the large frequent heals and speed boost along with the ultimate stun are probably more useful and important anyway so I wouldn't actually worry about them building Magic resist if they decide that's more important. The number I gave was not going to be the exact damage, it is simply a method of describing the damage that can be done though compared to other abilities, if you deal 600 damage with the Q (remember 2 hits) then that's an extra 600 damage that will assist in a teamfight. If you don't use your Q as Sona during a teamfight you're wasting an entire ability and all the benefits that go along with it.

Interestingly I have read a few Sona guides and there was a Platinum player describing all the approaches towards playing Sona, both tanky and with heavy Ap, he warned about the same things as I have but never said it was a bad build so clearly it is still an option to play a heavy Ap "Glass cannon" Sona. If Soulstealer is indeed bad at a higher ranked level and I find that it is a genuine disadvantage down the line I will adjust my build, right now where I am as Silver ranked it's doing fine so changing it isn't needed. Constantly telling me the theoretical disadvantages I haven't seen for myself yet isn't going to change my mind.

Soulstealer probably is a risk with other champions who can't escape as easily but with the speed boosts leaving you somewhere around 500 units per second, escaping isn't that hard. I've outran Yasuos and almost escaped a Teemo, only dying after a chase halfway across the map. With a good surprise on their part and no flash or crescendo on your part then yes you'll probably die but if you were stupid enough to put yourself at risk to begin with then you probably deserve the loss anyway.

I didn't mean for it to come off as rage but as constructive criticism, though sadly I'm not known to chew my words so I apologize.

However, Mejai's Soulstealer is still very obsolete as an item and if you try reaching the higher rankings you will get destroyed, that's the basics of it. Mejai's Soulstealer is too much of a red flag and if you spend most your time running to not get killed, then fantastic, you probably won't, but any team with half a brain will then re-focus on vital targets, turning this into a 4v5, and if you return the carry is either dead or we're back at square one.

Plus we're not pulling any Magic Resistance into the calculations that, for the sake of debate let's say you do get it stacked, they WILL build, crippling your damage depending on what they build, that or they can simply CC you to hell if you truly are the only threat.
And if you become too much of an issue a wild duelist will come your way with said prepared build to end you, someone who will most likely deal more damage than you by a long shot then afford to help the team.
Sadly I'm not extremely swayed by your current matches especially when, by the way, I don't believe a support character that should be helping others get kills have that many for themselves unless mistakes were made.

The main point being is that your damage can be severely reduced and if you stick around too long you'll get crushed because when you face a huge damage dealer backed by a great medic, which do you target first? Speaks for itself.
That and with that amount of damage you can steal away kills necessary for your team, and depending on the game, has the potential to starve them, especially since your Q sadly isn't targettable.

On another note, and this may be interpreted as rage, it's even sadder to decipher one's motivations by the signature they have which, by the way, is a Yahtzee Croshaw and Homestuck reference, not an internet troll one.

tl;dr: Don't try to identify people by their signature if you don't know the motivation behind said signature, and if your build works for you then fantastic. It doesn't mean it's right and that it'll work in the higher rankings which you will soon find out for yourself I would assume.

Wow that's alot of rage on your part. I just came out of a game 8/5/14 with this build so apparently it does work pretty well. Yes positioning is important, blimey it isn't with any other champion is it?

I did a bit of basic math a few seconds ago. Sona will hit about 270 Ap without the Deathcap boost at level 18 and without any charges on Soulstealer's giving her a whopping 360 Ap when Deathcap is added in, add in few quints and one or two Soulstealer charges and this probably hits more like 380+ and I have had 700 Ap and higher often during late game.

Positioning isn't that big of an issue when your speed is going to be around 400 before the 15%+ speed boost from your E, escaping an attack is therefore pretty easy as I find regularly. Unless they come from all sides to kill you your escape is very likely, in which case that's 3/4 champions trying to kill one support during which time my teammates are taking turrets and inhibitors.

The thing about Sona is that with Soulstealer' she can build charges very quickly when her E is initiated near allies which pretty much guarantees her assists in teamfights and hence half a charge on Soulstealer's each time. I managed to have 4 charges left after a death (admittedly due to poor positioning) last game just after I bought Solustealer, meaning I had 6 before the death. Positioning really isn't really that difficult, stay about 1000 units away from your allies, then strafe with your Q and spam E and W, it's really that simple.

By your last paragraph you either think that I am trying for a mid Sona, or that Sona doesn't have enough power to survive confrontations. I wouldn't try to start a fight solo dummy! I emphasise in the guide that this type of Sona is Squishy, don't solo unless you're guaranteed a kill. However, the damage is actually pretty good and when I checked last game sometime when my AP was about 420, I dealt around 450 damage with my Q (which is a hit every 4.55 seconds) along with the passive Power chord and the heals from the W (which was 225 Hp) you're gonna do a bit of damage at least, never mind the ultimate.

Honestly, try it out once or twice maybe you'll be surprised by the epically large and fequent heal, the pretty good damage, or maybe the incredible speed boosts.

I see from your image that you're a "professional troll". Firstly, that's kinda sad, but secondly thankyou for giving some half decent points because some people are going to have these questions and I can get them sorted here and now.

Thanks for the feedback :)

As said: No coding, suggesting Mejai's Soulstealer, not enough support capacity in the build to be a proper support, not enough power to be an APC, you basically just occupy space with that build and that's pretty much the extent of this Sona's usefulness.

If you think this isn't extremely viable due to your general opponents ( Silver ), then maybe you should wait until later. I have heard countless recommendations in the past to be at least Gold to make a guide.

Ranking aside, if you expect yourself to always make perfect plays no matter what, all day, every day, then you are either incredibly conceited or sorely mistaken.

You will get caught out, you will lose plenty of games with this later down the line, and it will not work.

Mejai's Soulstealer, by the way, is a horrific item in it's respect. It's only to be built if you're dominating everything late game and even then it's a really tough 'MAYBE'.
It's you essentially pinning a "Focus Me" tag on yourself, and if they don't now, they will later.

In your final build, you will have roughly have 240-300 Ability Power in the worst case scenario, and with the aforementioned focusing you will suffer to stop you from building the stacks, you will probably end up there fairly often.
240-300 Ability Power and 101 Attack Damage?
That's not contributing much to the late game.

In the late game APC's tend to reach around 400 ( much more if you're Veigar ) not to mention them having obviously better late game skills ( commonly at least ).
Syndra will eat you, Thresh will destroy you, Blitzcrank will go down to town on you.

You have Mejai's Soulstealer and you depend horrifically on positioning for it to even slightly work, you'll have to be a clairvoyant for this.

I've rarely had issues with being targeted, perhaps because I'm still silver. You don't stick next to your teammates that would be asking for trouble, there's a big range on the heal (1000 units) and the speed (also 1000) so it's not as big of an issue as you think. Rather stay close and let the team do the engaging and hit taking whilst you undo all the damage they take from a safe distance. When an enemy breaks off to chase you, escaping is easy with all the speed boosts unless you get stunned in which case a flash will probably still get you to safety. This has happened to me a few times, I escaped and my team immediately capitalized on it and the would be killer doesn't last very long afterwards.

Getting targeted shouldn't happen anyway if you play smart, they can't get to you if you have two or more teammates between you and them. Worst case scenario when they appear out of the brush pop a crescendo and run away, it could be the case you get a kill with a quick Q chord combo if it's someone squishy like the adc or assassin. I've been caught like that before, by their ADC and got the kill solo easily.

It can be a risk being so squishy I agree, it is indeed a matter of positioning but if it works most of the time for me who is still fairly new to LoL then it can't be that bad.

If you're looking at the cheat sheet as the game loads it's too late to fix the runes. I actually made the notes shorter because they were so big. I'll see about giving them enough detail.

A matchup section is a good idea thanks for the reminder.

- I did notice. However, the majority of people who click on guides only look at the cheat-sheet while their game is loading. Even if you just include an example and explain alternatives in the guide itself, it's better than leaving them off completely.

- And yes, but one or two lines isn't helpful to people who want to understand your reasoning. Fine for the cheat sheet, include a slightly more in-depth explanation as well in the main guide. Are these always the items you must get? What if you're far behind? Do you still get Rabadon's Deathcap even though it's a 3300 gold item? Are there any alternatives? Your sixth variable items are good, but 5 core items are very limiting and unflexible.

- Since I've read it you've split your Tactics chapter into Early Game and Mid/Late game, which is great. Much more useful and in-depth.

- Mejai's, at most level of play, will get you killed. Yes, you have a lot of AP, but as soon as people notice you have stacks then you'll get targeted. In order for it to work you need to have perfect positioning and to NEVER get caught out or ambushed. As a support you need to be standing next to your carry to peel/buff/heal them. Which makes you incredibly vulnerable to AoE damage and people targeting you because your Crescendo is a threat. You are super squishy as Sona. You will probably die.

- And while that's admirable, it will protect you from people who'll down-vote you and not tell you why or to troll you.

A match-up section on which ADCs Sona works well with and which enemy ADC/Support combinations you should avoid would also be nice. For example, Sona pokes well and has sustain, so teaming up with all-in champions isn't a good idea.

Ok a couple of pretty major flaws:
-You missed my explanation why I didn't put Quints in, hover your mouse over the text called "notes"
-I have explained masteries and items the same as with the Quints
-There was an entire chapter called "Tactics" detailing advice on what to do at certain times

-It's a heavy Ap Sona, Mejai's gives alot of Ap if you don't die alot which I tend to do (or rather not do), if people don't like it that much i'll stick in a chapter if necessary, it works on Sona pretty well
-I didn't put comment to vote on because I don't like pressuring people for feedback
-Don't know what archiving is yet, still pretty new here but thanks for mentioning it (whatever that is)

Ok, a couple of pretty major flaws:
- You missed your Quints off your cheat sheet
- Zero BBCoding
- You haven't explained your Masteries, Summoner Spells, Runes or Items
- No real mention of any fine tactical detail, other than 'poke with Q & powerchord'
- Mejai's
- You haven't turned on Comment2Vote

Good points:
- You've put a lot of detail into explaining the abilities

I recommend you archive your guide, read this jhoijhoi's Guide to Making A Guide, work on it and then publish it again.