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Sona Build Guide by

[11.3] Pixel Pocket's Guide to Sona | With Video

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Sona Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Sona Guides

Runes: Standard Runes

1 2

Sorcery

Summon Aery

Manaflow Band

Transcendence

Gathering Storm

Resolve

Revitalize

Bone Plating

Bonus:

+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starting

Early

Boots

Core Items

Situational Items

Example Full Build (Standard)

Example Full Build (Behind)

Ability Order

Sona Passive Ability

1. Video

And in-depth video guide to Sona covering everything here and more! Check it out on youtube.

2. Sona!

Who is Sona?
What can she do?
Why should I play her?

3. Runes

A in-depth look at rune choices to help you decide what to play, when to play it and how to use it best

4. Builds

A look at your build choices, why each item works and how you can itemise according to matchup and gamestate

5. Tips and Tricks

Some helpful little tips and tricks that will get you well on your way to mastering Soraka Support!

6. Thanks

A big thank you!
To everyone who visits my stream and watches or reads my guides!

Hi guys! My name's Pocket and I'm a Diamond Support Main in League. I usually play enchanters, but I really love some other niche picks like Sett and Senna too! I make video guides on YouTube as well as doing VOD reviews with an assortment of high ELO co-hosts on Twitch, and sometimes I even get chance to play the game myself. If you want to check out my YouTube, Twitch or come hang out in Discord click the links below!

This guide comes with an In-Depth video!
In it we go over some of the more abstract concepts that are harder to convey over text to really help you master Senna and I suggest giving it a watch!

Sona!

So if you're here you've probably already decided to play Sona, but lets take a little to time to talk about what Sona can do and why she works! This section will go well with the Synergies tab above, which I will be fleshing out over the course of S11!

Passive - Power Chord
Sona's Passive is Power Chord. Each basic ability that Sona casts will give her one charge of Power Chord. At 3 charges, Sona's next basic attack will be empowered and will deal bonus magic damage as well as applying an effect based on which ability she cast last.

Sona also has a secondary passive, Aura, each ability Sona casts creates a circular Aura around herself that will empower both her and her allies based on which ability summoned the Aura.

Q - Hymn of Valor
Sona's Q is Hymn of Valor. Sona sends out two bolts to the nearest enemy units to her. These bolts automatically target the units and will also prefer Champions, if any are in range.

Power Chord Effect - Power Chord deals 40% bonus damage

Aura Effect - The next basic attack will deal bonus magic damage

W - Aria of Perserverance
Sona's W is Aria of Perseverance. Sona heals herself and the most wounded nearby allied champion.

Power Chord Effect - Reduce the target's damage output by 25(+4% AP)% and size by 8% for 3 seconds

Aura Effect - Shield all allies inside the Aura for 1.5 seconds

E - Song of Celerity
Sona's E is Song of Celerity. When cast Sona gains 20(+2% AP)% Bonus movement speed for 3 seconds, extended to 7 seconds if she doesn't take any damage.

Power Chord Effect - Slows the target by 40(+4% AP)% for 2 seconds

Aura Effect - Allied Champions that enter the Aura gain bonus movement speed for 3 seconds

R - Crescendo
Sona's R is Crescendo. Sona plays a wide chord in the target direction, dealing magic damage and stunning all enemy champions for 1.5seconds

Sona's R has no power chord or aura, as it is not a basic ability, but it does have an important passive!

Passive - Reduce the cooldown of basic abilities by 10, 25 and 40% depending on R ability level

SORCERY

is a fantastic tree for Sona and is a fantastic keystone. It offers you better in-lane poke with both abilities and auto-attacks/power chords and it also grants a shield to allies that you use abilities on (this can only be granted to one ally at a time, but works whenever you tag an ally with any Aura!). It also gives you access to some fantastic runes in the tree, as we will see.

is a great rune on Sona. You have many ways to use your abilities both offensively and defensively and you also like to spam abilities during teamfights. Manaflow band keeps your mana pool healthy, allowing you to use your abilities with less worry about going OOM (out-of-mana) and being relatively useless. A must take in every single game!

Another must have on Sona right now for me. It gives consistent Ability Haste scaling at level 5 and 8 and the passive that activates at level 11 allows for more ability spam during teamfights. This is especially useful for your W that has a big impact but a long cooldown and once again it just works great for ability spamming during teamfights!

Finally we take gathering storm. Sona has AP scalings in almost every single facet of her kit, all of your Auras, Power Chords and Abilities, both for you and your teammates, scale with AP. For that reason Gathering Storm is a great pick! Sona is also a late game champion, scaling incredibly well due to the MASSIVE passive CDR on your Ult level, so playing for late game with scaling runes is a great synergy.

SECONDARIES

For our secondaries we will usually choose the tree. This is to access , which is a fantastic pick on Sona. You do a lot of shielding and healing via your W and items such as Moonstone Renewer and Redemption, it also buffs shielding via Aery and incoming heals and shields from self cast abilities or allies such as Shen! Basically, it's great all round and a seriously good option on Sona!

Our second rune in this tree will be either or .
Choosing between these two is easy, if the enemy has lots of poke then is better, if the enemy has hard engage then is better.
If the enemy has neither than usually you will pick .

ALTERNATE SECONDARIES

For alternate secondaries we can take the Precision Tree and access . This rune pretty much completely solves your mana issues both early and late and can be great for ability spamming. You miss out on Revitalize, so it's a compromise to say the least, but I find that this is better for lower ELO players who have poorer mana control and back optimisation. If you're having mana issues, take this tree!

We will then choose cutdown as Sona is extremely squishy and it is the highest damage output rune in Precision for her!

Boots

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Core boots for Sona, offering both summoner spell and ability haste is really nice and they are also the cheapest boots in game! I will buy these every game unless the enemy has an incredibly one-sided damage comp, in which case you should look toward the fitting defensive choice.

Plated Steelcaps
The first and most common defensive choice. Personally I only build these into full AD comps but I always build these into full AD comps. Even when ahead these are just a fantastic build when the enemy are all physical damage auto-attackers and bringing your own damage and healing down a little to absolutely nuke their kill potential on you is an awesome trade, so don't be afraid of this even when you're ahead!

Mercury's Treads
Honestly, I find myself building these very rarely in this meta. While they do give you the only buyable tenacity for an enchanter, full or even heavy AP comps are becoming more and more rare. For that reason I find little use for them and often Ionian Boots of Lucidity are the better pick to reduce the cooldown on your abilities for better dis-engage, or Mobility Boots to make you speedier and make dodging skillshots easier! That said if they do have a double AP botlane, then just like with Tabis, pick yourself up some Merc Treads!

Core Items

Moonstone Renewer
A fantastic item for Sona as it adds a significant amount of healing to your kit. It's cheap, has a great build path and just synergisies super well with your supportive kit. Sona is very strong in teamfights, and so is Moonstone, so a perfect synergy. It is very easy to use as it auto-targets it's healing, so it drives itself and you don't need to worry if you're newer to Sona, it's on auto-pilot! Also as you are able to stay in combat with your auto-targeting Q it's almost always active. I build this in every game!

Staff of Flowing Water
The so-called 'AP Ardent Censer'. This item costs the same, has the same build path and the same stats as Ardent Censer but instead of granting allies attack speed it grants them AP and movement speed. Therefore this is better with AP allies, or those that prefer movement speed to attack speed! It should be noted that the AP and movement speed is granted to BOTH you and your ally, and as we talked about in the Runes section, Sona loves AP and that makes this item even better. If you are struggling to choose between Ardent Censer and Staff of Flowing Water, choose Staff!

Ardent Censer
A genuinely fantastic item on Sona as it offers both attack speed and on-hit damage, which almost every ADC adores. A great buy as a second item, especially with hyper carries such as Twitch or Vayne.

Situational Items

Dark Seal
Okay I may be sounding like a broken record by now, but I really do mean it, Sona LOVES AP and there's no cheaper way to buy tonnes of AP than Dark Seal. Due to your relatively safe playstyle and long range, AOE kit you can stay alive and stack this by picking up assists from your allies. When fully stacked it offers 65 ability power, for just 350 gold! Of course you should always be considering upgrading to Mejai's Soulstealer, especially if you have more than 8 stacks!

Redemption
A great option if you are teamfighting a lot, or contesting many objectives. It will heal all allies and damage all enemies in a huge zone, which will likely encompass the entire fight. It also offers a massive +20% heal and shield power. Not great if you are splitting a lot though, so a situational pick!

Vigilant Wardstone
A great item to finish off with, it offers the ability to hold 3 control wards and also the ability to place an extra control and stealth ward, for 4 steralth wards and two control ward sup at one time. This vision advantage is huge, but it's less useful in the lower ELOs because your team will not use it wisely.

Mikael's Blessing
Mikael's Blessing is a situational support item offering a potentially game changing active ability that allows you to cleanse all CC* currently affecting an ally champion and give them slow immunity for 2 seconds after. It take's time to learn when and when not to use this, but taking core CC off your ADC and allowing them to continue to DPS can be very useful indeed. It also offers haste, magic resist and a further 20% heal and shield power!

*doesn't work on knock-ups, groundings or disarms.

Thanks for reading!

I really hope this has been helpful to you and if you've got any questions come hop into my twitch stream or my discord server and I'm sure I can help you out!