Hey, I'm Vexno, I have been playing Sona for a very long time. I have made this guide to enlighten new players to this champ even though it may not be the best support in some patches. I have made this build to assist those who have not tried her before and assist how to play this champ as I did not at first. I currently have 100k+ Mastery Points so I have a lot of experience with this champion and is my most played champion to date. Currently, this guide is directed towards sort of newer players and directed to the current meta as Sona is not as strong at the current point. She needs to be played in and AP variant as she is not as strong being played in her normal support state due to her last nerfs to her kit.

Sona has a big weakness of that she is very squishy and the key to playing her to is to position her around her being squishy. This would be useful to be used in team fight situations such as not being in the front of the firing line.

PROS + Strong Poke + Great AoE buffs with her W + Massive Ultimate (Good Crowd Control) + Good Mobility with her E + High Sustain

CONS - Very Squishy - She uses a lot of mana - Slow Scaling

FLASH Flash is a very good summoner spell to use to get out of situations as sometimes Song of Celerity may not be enough.

EXHAUST Exhaust can be used as an alternative to Ignite as it gives your adc an oppurtunity to catch up to whoever is running away or to reduce the amount of damage that you take. The slow is useful but it can be taken for champs that dish out a lot of damage.

IGNITE Ignite is usually the option you will take as you play Sona, the possibility of having this spell gives a lot of lane pressure it also is good as it applies grievous wounds which eliminate some of the healing that some supports can just spam out.

Passive- Power Chord After 3 ability casts, Sona's next basic attack will deal 15-235 (at levels 1-18) (+20% of Ability Power) bonus magic damage, with an additional effect depending on the last basic ability cast.
Q- Hymn of Valor Sona sends out two bolts of sound that deal magic damage 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 50% AP) to the nearest enemies, prioritizing champions.
AURA: Sona and tagged allied champions deal bonus magic damage 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+ 30% AP) on their next basic attack within 3 seconds.

Granting an ally (other than herself) the aura refunds 30 mana per cast.
W- Aria of Perseverance Sona heals 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+ 25% AP) herself and the most wounded nearby allied champion.
AURA: Sona and tagged allied champions receive a shield 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 (+ 30% AP) lasting up to 1.5 seconds.

Granting an ally (other than herself) the aura refunds 30 mana per cast.
E- Song of Celerity Sona gains bonus movement speed 20% (+ 3% per 100 AP) for 3 seconds, extended to up to 7 seconds if she doesn't take damage.
AURA: Tagged allied champions gain bonus movement speed 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14% (+ 3% per 100 AP)

Granting an ally (other than herself) the aura refunds 30 mana per cast.
R- Crescendo Sona forces enemy champions to dance (stun) for 1.5 seconds and take 150 / 250 / 350 (+50% of Ability Power) magic damage. The passive on this ability reduces Sona's basic ability cooldowns by 10 / 25 / 40% with each point in your ult.

Passive- Power Chord
Power Chord is what makes Sona very good in the early game as it does 40% bonus damage if it is paired with Hymn of Valor.
If you pair it with Aria of Perseverance it reduces the persons damage by 25% which can help with champions that high burst damage.
If you pair her passive with her Song of Celerity it slows the enemy by 25% which is useful for champions that will run at you such as Rammus.

Q- Hymn of Valor
Hymn of Valor is a great form of poke or even heavy burst if you choose to. I usually use this ability to pair with her passive as the amount of damage it dishes out is crazy, and it can be used to push the enemy back off the fight.

W- Aria of Perseverance
Aria of Perseverance scales very well when you have 3 points into it, as you will seem like you will be healing for larger chunks when you get more points into it, it is a very important ability late game as it can heal a lot of damage and if used effectively your teammates should not be without a shield for an extended time.

E- Song of Celerity
Song of Celerity is a very good form of peel as it can get your teammates into fights or out of fights very effectively as it pretty much guarantees a free escape from your enemies.


R- Crescendo
Crescendo is a bit playmaker when you are playing Sona, as if it is used as a combo with Flash it can create an impact if used right. One ult that lands on the entire team can impact the game as it could lead to an ace.

SORCERY

Summon Aery is the best rune for a large majority of Supports. Sona uses this due to her Aria of Perseverance as it gives an extra shield, which is larger than it normally would be.

Manaflow Band is just useful for the early game as it gives a good amount of mana as you are poking them and Sona is very mana hungry.

Transcendence is just a useful rune as you already pass the CDR cap and it just gives you the extra AP when you need it and you can take Absolute Focus but you need to keep above 70% HP for the rune to actually be useful.

Gathering Storm is a good option as well, but it only taken into effect post 20 minutes, it is good to pair if you have champions such as Ryze or Kassadin as they scale into the late game as well.

RESOLVE

Resolve is generally a good choice for Sona it helps when against heavy engage comps or assassins.

Bone Plating is extremely effective when against very poke heavy lanes, the rune helps with the small poke damage and reduces the damage you take in small trades. It helps if you get caught and also helps since Sona is one of the squishist enchanters in the game

Revitalize is also a good reason to be used for taking Resolve. It increases all shielding given by 5% and hence makes the heal on her Aria of Perseverance more effective when the target is below 40% HP, by an extra 10%.

Optional for Normal Sona Waterwalking: is a very uncommon rune, but it is very useful when roaming around objectives such as dragons and Baron Nashor. The rune is usually meant for roaming based champions but can be used to roam around the objectives to get vision.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity Ionian Boots of Lucidity is a good choice if you need to send out a lot of abilities and need the extra CDR, but you usually hit the CDR cap as a support that is why it pairs well with Transcendence

Ardent Censer Ardent Censer is useful if your comp uses a lot of attack speed champions, it is useful to maximize your carries damage while also having the benefit of being shielded, it also adds a small movement speed boost, mana sustain and 10% CDR.

Athene's Unholy Grail Athene's Unholy Grail precisely focuses on her Hymn of Valor as the item gives extra sustain to maximize the damage output of the spell. It works well with Aria of Perseverance as it increases the heal amount, the item gives CDR and extra AP which helps.

Seraph's Embrace Seraph's Embrace is a good pickup for Sona as she is very mana hungry and the item gives a lot of mana as well as extra CDR which is great with Transcendence and it also gives a shield that can be used to survive since Sona is a very squishy champion.

Rabadon's Deathcap Rabadon's Deathcap is my personal preference for the last item in my build. It scales all the AP that you currently have by 40% which then gives more AP then what you had before buying it, it then can make Sona able to one-shot people or burst them down late game.

For Taking Normal Sona

Redemption Redemption is a good teamfighting item, and is used for a lot of supporting enchanters. It has scaling on healing and shieling bonuses and is good when paired with Revitalize it is good to use in the centre of the fight to heal up your team a considerable amount.

Frozen Heart Frozen Heartit is a good item for a very AD based team and it goes well countering hard attack damage carries such as Vayne who can attack quickly compared to other adc's and dish out a lot of damage.

Ninja Tabi Ninja Tabi is a strong item of boots against AD dominated teams.

Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya's Hourglass is always a better choice over some other defensive that include Banshee's Veil as you can not get one shot from a fed AD assassin that may possibly dive you under tower.

Mejai's Soulstealer Mejai's Soulstealer is just an item that you can use when you are ahead, but if it is too much to commit to you can try Dark Seal instead.

Mercury's Treads Mercury's Treads is very strong for a choice of boots against high AP dominated teams, it is also effective against champions with a lot of CC or a long time for CC such as Morgana.

Mikael's Crucible Mikael's Crucible is also a very situational item as it is also only used in very high CC heavy comps and is also very effective against certain champions such as Lux.

Morellonomicon Morellonomicon is very rarely used in negating the team's healing. I only use this as an optional item when playing the AP Sona build.

Lich Bane Lich Bane is usually bought to be used to increase the offensive strength by a high amoung which totally makes sense even at higher AP. It is an effective *damage* item to build but it kind of negates some of the sustain that sona needs as she is still mana hungry. To get the most out of this is to use it with Sona's Hymn of Valor as Lich Bane works well on offensive abilities better than defensive ones.

Locket of the Iron Solari Locket of the Iron Solari is a good item to have if you are a bit "too" squishy as it provides 30 armor and 60 magic resist and gives you an extra shield for certain situations. This item is very useful as the current meta is based around helping the team as a Sona support and the Locket of the Iron Solari benefits yourself and your teamates.

Twin Shadows Twin Shadows is very good to keep up the AP portion of the build I have been making this guide towards. The item slows enemies so you can catch up to them or run away, it is also effective to facecheck brushes or when objectives are up.

ROAMINGWith Sona you shouldn't be that far away from your botlaner during and after laning phase. You should be staying with your ADC for about 90% of the time, if by any reason they die early you can go and look to roam or plant some deeper wards, but even then I usually won't end up roaming at all. Warding is very important however it is also good to ward the enemy gromp/blue buff. River warding should be helped with your midlaner/jungler as any champion such as Sona or Janna, you should not be walking anywhere alone. When doing this remember to ping and say things such as "I want to ward river/enemy jungle".

PICK POTENTIAL

Pick

+ Picks another squishy support + Benefit your team with Ardent Censer Build + Good synergy + If can't be one-shot

Generally when the other team picks another squishy support such as a Nami or Soraka because Sona does pretty even with them. Another factor could be if your team will benefit from the Ardent Censer Build, this item works well with champions that are very Auto Attack Based. Good synergy is always important because some ADC's are just to be good to have such as Miss Fortune as a good synergy can impact the outcome of the lane. Being not-one shot is very important as hook champions directly counter Sona and a single hook combo onto you can kill you so be careful in when you pick into a one-shot team in bot lane.

Don't Pick

- A typical Counter - Long-range ADC's - Heavy poke mage supports - Aggressive ADC's - If you can get easily caught out

You can pick her into a good amount of matchups but you need to keep in mind that you are very squishy and that some matchups can one shot, so don't get caught out. Typical counters will destroy you such as Blitzcrank or Thresh as a single hook can end you. Heavy poke or aggressive ADC's will just slowly run down your health even in the end game and even if you dodge most of it.

A good reason to play Sona is because of her ability to bully during the laning phase, if the enemy doesn't have a sufficient sustain you can build up a CS lead. Sona is not mechanically easy to win with. You need to micromanage your positioning and properly utilize your aura timings and your chords. Sona's main damage combo is aa+ Hymn of Valor+chordAA. This is an important combo to learn. Level 1-6 Level 1- walk into lane with 2 stacks of passive. Combo enemy adc with aa+Q+chordAA. poke enemies when you can and help your ADC push for the level 2 lead. Level 2 powerspike- if you hit level 2 before your enemies just run at them and zone them as far away as you can if they hit you activate your W for the shield. As shown above, the skilling order should be Q-W-Q-E. Song of Celerity at level 4 is important as it gives offensive and defensive capabilities for Sona. Having a 40% slow can be effective in getting kills or getting away. Level 5 powerspike- If you were able to dominate lane against a low sustain lane, you will have some kill potential now. If they enemy ADC is about 20-25% hp, you can burst them through his heal if you have a good Ignite+AA+Q+chordAA combo. Level 6- You can have a good 2v2 potential depending on the matchups and the lead, aim to make some plays and carry 2v2 fights. Snowball the advantages you acquired from level 1-5.

Sona has a very good laning phase because of her passive Power Chord and her Hymn of Valor . At the start of laning phase you can bully the enemy adc as you can use the Hymn of Valor to do a lot of damage at level 1. The Spelltheif's Edge quest can be done very easily as you can use your Hymn of Valor to get the gold for the quest so you shouldn't be caught out while getting the gold for the quest. Sona's Aria of Perseverance uses of a lot of mana so don't use it when you adc isn't that low. The trick you can use with this ability is to use it when your adc is about to be hit and you can apply the heal and the shield so they won't take nearly as much damage. Song of Celerity is not as important in the laning phase and you should prioritise the use of Hymn of Valor before her Song of Celerity as when you hit level 3 you do more damage with the extra point in Hymn of Valor. Crescendo is very important to utilize as you need it to set up the 2v2 fight down in bot lane but you need to set up the lane to use it and when doing this you can think about "Do they have summoner spells?" or "Are they stronger?" as these things need to be taken into account before you make a move with your Crescendo as it can win or end the game especially in the late game when there is a team fight.

During the mid to late game, the important things to keep in mind is positioning around your team by standing behind them and giving them health as shields as Sona. Setting up vision for objectives such as Baron Nashor is very important as any support and if you are feeling risky you can try to get some vision in the enemies jungle. At this point of the game healing with your Aria of Perseverance, as giving shields is important even when ahead. Using some of the items such as Redemption and the use of Sona's Crescendo is great to start up team fights as the AoE stun is very important. The use of her Aria of Perseverance cannot be emphasized anymore as the use of this and the item Ardent Censer and rune Summon Aery make massive shields for your teammates. The use of Song of Celerity can be used an engage or disengage and with it being used with Power Chord it helps in catching up to fleeing enemies. Even though Power Chord's use is determined on the situation I would personally use it as slow in this phase of the game. Positioning and peeling is important in teamfight situations and this can be done with your Crescendo. Your ultimate ability can be used to help your adc when caught in a bad situation, but keep in mind that you shouldn't help your adc if they are going to die either way. Control Ward's are essential in the late game to deny and secure vision around objectives and they should be bought when money is available and if you have enough having 2 of them on yourself is very useful.

*All pictures found from Link*
What are wards?
Their different trinkets you can choose at the start of the game and they are Stealth Ward and Oracle Lens. Stealth Ward can hold up to 2 charges, usually, you won't hold onto 2 charges. If you have extra charges use them. The other trinket is Oracle Lens it lets you see traps, unseen things and wards and you can destroy them when it is active. You will most always take Stealth Ward when you start the game, the use of the Stealth Ward is good in the early game to use to make sure you don't get ganked early. There is also Farsight Alteration but you won't be using it as a support as clearing wards in the mid to late game with your Oracle Lens will benefit your team more.

Control Wards
Control Ward's are another main type of wards in league. Unlike the other wards said in this guide these wards can stay in the map until destroyed but you can only have one on the map so if you place a new one the old one will be destroyed. They give vision, exposed unseen things and they deny enemy vision trinkets in the area. Most of the time new players don't see the benefit of the 75 gold purchase. If you think it about this way that 75 gold could spot an enemy and could lead to a kill and also avoiding yourself from being killed.


Warding In the Laning PhaseWarding during the 1:30 point of the game usually doesn't do much. If you do wish to make sure they don't invade you can position yourself to cover all the river entrances rather than using your wards. At 1:30 it can be good to ward the river brush when on either the red or blue side. These wards will catch an aggressive jungler when they try to level 2 gank you. Warding those areas help with invisible champions when they are trying to gank you such as Twitch or Shaco.

The laning phase is important as you need to think where to place your wards to protect yourself from the enemy jungler. Some junglers will try to gank you from behind such as the tri bish on blue side. For that possibility, it is good to have a ward in the orange star locations on the map. An alternative is to place a Control Ward as you don't have to reward that spot of the map every time you go there.
Warding Mid to Late Game
After the laning phase has officially ended there are not a lot of general wards that you should always ward. In this part of the game you need to outsmart your opponents in the position, you place your Stealth Ward's. Objectives need to be warded such as Baron Nashor and these wards can possibly pick them off lone champions and have them placed when they are about to spawn. At this stage tier 1 towers are vulnerable as they will be targeted so place some wards in the path they will take. When people can drain the dragon's health it is better to place wards on the path to the dragon because it will be hard to respond when wards are in the pit itself. When at Baron Nashor place wards around the pit as enemies will always try to steal thew baron from you last second. Using Control Ward's are particularly good to deny vision on the objectives.

Tips and Tricks

You can ward over walls as long as the ward it more than halfway over the barrier to the other side.

Warding inside brushes is better as it prevents vision from being obscured. The counter to this though is players will use Oracle Lens to clear these obvious areas. Some unexpected wards may last longer than obvious ones.

If you have 2 ward charges use them because if you don't you are wasting them and they are free anyway so why not?

If your enemy is warding around certain places such as Baron it means they will try to take it when it spawns so use that information to your advantage.

I hope you enjoyed and learned how to play Sona to a high enough level top get that juicy LP. This guide was made for even the lowest of the rank of players to hopefully give them insight into how Sona works and how to use her at a basic level. This is my first guide, please vote this guide and comment on what I can improve on.
This is from a current Sona Main.. signing out.