Hello, and welcome to my first guide. Ever. I think it's appropriate to do one now, especially on my favorite champion, since the Dominion game mode did a lot to .

Sona's always been pretty awesome. But the recent buff she got concerning her damage potential makes her one of the most aggresive support characters in Lol. That, and she has a sideways harp!
Now, a lot of the support characters' roles changed in the shift into Dominion. They went from side-liners and back-players in Summoner's Rift to being magical Swiss Army knives to fill roles other... most characters can't dream of doing right, let alone well.

Whereas characters like Lux and Janna found new and exciting places in the line-up, Sona just received an upgrade. In other words, she does the same stuff she would in the Rift, just better, faster, and less explode-y.

Im not claiming to be a Dominion expert, or a Sona expert for that matter. This guide is just to share a build that has been successful for me. Often. :D
Here's Proof. I'll post more later :D.

Many people scoff when they see Sona as my first Dominion choice, and I understand why. Squishy, slow at first and just all-around supporty. What they don't realize is that Sona's potential as an AP Burst Beast is second only to characters that are originally meant to be Burst Beasts, like .

So as Sona, you're basically playing the aforementioned Swiss Army knife role. Excellent burst damage with low CD, a speed boost and slow, an AOE stun, and Heals (albeit nerfed.)

Primarily, though, your role is to double as a capturer and disruptor. Your Song of Celerity, even at level one, is enough to move you fast through the map to capture unattended CPs, or to get there in time to assist your team to defend it.
Your Hymn of Valor, aside from being your main poking/assassinating tool, is perfect for disrupting Capturing attempts when there's more than one player involved.(But more on that later)

Pros:

•Incredible Burst damage with Hymn of Valor and Power Chord
•High Mobility in mid-late Dominion
•AoE Stun? Really?!?!? <3
•Really Team-worthy. All spells affect more than one player.
•Slows, damage mitigation, and other nifty CC tricks.

Cons:

•2-second Global cooldown sucks
•Really squishy when playing full-on AP
•Very prone to being focused.
•Semi-team reliant late game (more so than most)

Main Picks:

Ghost is really better than flash in Dominion for two reasons. 1) Since Dominion is meant to be fast-paced, speed is crucial. A clever Ghost, with or without the speed shrines' boost can get you to a CP incredibly quickly, possibly enabling you to change the tide of an important fight. And 2) Although Flash is an excellent escape mechanism, it serves less uses in Dominion than it does in the Rift. Besides, you're only dead for 25 seconds, and Sona has plenty of stall/cc potential to either outrun or outwit followers, so you won't be doing much of that unless the opposing team REALLY wants you dead at all costs. (More than the usual, I mean.)

Promote is my second choice for tactical reasons. A gigantic juggernaut minion is like summoning another player to help you bring a CP down quickly.

But clever players know better than that. The Promoted minion is strong enough that if a lane has been pushed towards an enemy CP even slightly, the CP will sure enough fall with no intervention.

So you give the opposite team a choice. Promote a minion to attack one CP and head over to capture another. If they attack you, chances are you'll get away and the other tower will be lost (to them). If they defend the tower being seiged by minions, You're left to capture a tower and defend it afterwards.

And you're right. The opponents are a team and can try and defend both. But you've got friends to, guy/girl. Use them wisely.

Flash and Garrison are also lucrative choices. Sona's team dependency lets Garrison shine in team CP seiges/defending, and Flash provides a quick escape from more troublesome foes like LeBlanc or Kassadin,or even Tryndamere, your worst enemy.

Greater Seal of Replenishment

The runes are standard AP burst mage runes, but with per level AP runes instead of Flat AP ones. The quick leveling in dominion

really

lets per level runes be taken advantage of, and Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power and Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power give your already awesome burst damage some more bruising potential.

For the two last build up top, you'll notice that they use Flat AP runes rather than the Ap/lvl ones. This is due to the fact that these build would need more straight up burst damage than the first, since you'll be building harder burst with items.

Mastery-wise, you want to get 9/0/21 as shown above. The Sorcery and Intelligence CDR masteries replace the need for cdr runes, and the Archaic Knowledge magic pen lets you postpone items like Abyssal Mask or Void Staff.The Mana regen is always nice, seeing as you'll run into the mana problem early on. But you need the burst!

My Usual Sequence is as Follows:

-> -> -> x3 -> -> -> -> Hextech Sweeper -> -> -> or or or (Depending on enemy builds).

Your Core Build:

It is important you build these items first. with the aforementioned masteries and these items, you will be fast enough to pace the map quickly and your CD will be low enough that your EWQ cycle is ready to begin again by the time you blow out your Power Chord.

Notice that in the top three builds, Fiendish Codex and Kindlegem end up building into different items in different builds. This kind of versatility is PERFECT, letting your build be as versatile as you need it AFTER your core build is done.

Hextech Sweeper's Unique passive is particularly useful, because when you hit someone with Hymn of Valor, you can still get them with Power Chord in the bushes without having to facecheck. This is crucial because, as it is with most mage supports, the best shield you have is the distance between you and any incoming DPS.

Raw DPS

Rabadon's Deathcap is usually my next choice because it capitalizes on the AP from Morello's Evil Tome and Hextech Sweeper. On occasion, I will take a Sheen before Rebadon's if I see that my opponents take substantial AD damage. But it's really preference.

The best thing about this build is that it's relatively inexpensive and easy to complete fast, letting you get Rabadon's Deathcap or Lich Bane before other mages, while still maintaining considerable burst to stay formidable.

The Next items you choose are, of course, situational. If all conditions are good, in other words, your Kill-death ratio is acceptable and your opponents aren't building MR, finish your Lich Bane and roar.

Cry Me A River?

Some people feel that getting a Tear of the Goddess at the base and cycling your skills for mana is a good idea, and it is! You're able to sustain yourself more while out on the map. However, be aware that this'll postpone important parts of your build, and might limit your versatility as a whole. If you get the Tear of the Goddess, i suggest you don't build Kindlegem at all, as the cooldown you get from it wont be as necessary, and the CDR from Morello's Evil Tome or Deathfire Grasp should be more than plenty with the masteries above.

But I Digress...

If the opposing team has plenty of MR, or you've fallen behind on gold a bit (which I find hard to do, actually), you may want to build Rod of Ages before Rabadon's and Odyn's Veil after, and take a more supportive role to heavier DPS. if this is the case, I would recommend getting Quicksilver Sash and Priscilla's Blessing and begin to focus on Capturing instead.

Players don't start building MR until they see your AP burst is legit, so take this into consideration when finishing your build.

Abyssal Mask and Void Staff essentially play the same role, which is to drop the enemy's MR to hurt them further. Pop their kidneys, even. However, Abyssal Mask obviously has more team potential, as it's MR reduction is a flat 20 and it applies to the enemy directly, not just by your attacks. This way, your team cashes in on your build even more.

As per survivabilty, it's really unnecessary in Dominion. It sounds noobish to say, but truly, as a good Sona you won't be dying often and if you do, the damage you did before your death makes sure it wasn't for nothing. If it's popping your ult and devastating the enemy team or healing an ally in time to save them by the skin of their teeth, chances are that every time you die, it'll hurt you opponent more than it hurt you.

HOWEVER, should you feel in a position where the enemy team is hellbent on making sure your input is void, in other words, they make sure you're always the first to die by any means necessary, here are my recommendations.

Survival

With this, you take on some bulk while keeping up your AP aggression. That and the mana you get is always helpful.
This will help mitigate how much melee dps hurts you and may even score you a kill on glass cannons like Vayne, Master Yi, Non-tanky Gangplank, etc.
Truly, is an eccentric choice for the likes of Sona, but the 700 HP and the full slow from physical attacks puts it ahead of Rylai's Crystal Scepter. The Scepter's slow is cut down to 15% on multiple-target attacks, and Sona's Hymn of Valor hits two people.
This is a really great item for Sona. It keeps you resilient to incoming magic damage AND it let's you burst harder. The only thing keeping this from the core build is how much better Hextech Sweeper matches Sona's gameplay.
Quicksilver sash is an amazing getaway device, making you as slippery as butter-covered butter. Build this when the enemy team is high on CC and focusing you. You role changes immediately, and you become more of a capturer than anything. :D

The cool thing about this is that many of Sona's ideal items play both offensive and defensive roles on her. So truly, most items that I recommend here play dualistic roles and will lead to similar, although situationally different results.

Super Sona Surprise! In Several Simple Steps

These are a few things to remember about how to fight with Sona:

Your Power Chord charges every three spells.
Your Power Chord does the most damage after a Q Hymn of Valor
Therefore, ALWAYS cast W Aria of Perseverance and E Song of Celerity BEFORE you Q.

If your're smart, you'll use your as you're roaming the map, charging up your passive and moving faster through the jungle. So by the time you encounter someone, you can do either:

> Power Chord or Power Chord>

The difference is that the first one changes your aura to Hymn of Valor before you attack, thus doing more damage with your Power Chord. The second one uses Power Chord with Song of Celerity's passive, slowing the person before you . This is a good way to poke and get away with it, or to simply keep more distance between you and your victim.

In battle, you should always be cycling through your spells, charging up your passive. Naturally, we want to do lots and lots of damage.

So usually, it'll be like this: > > > Power Chord.

Remember that your W Power Chord lower's the target's damage output by 20% and your E Power Chord slows an enemy by 40%. Consider this as you go into a fight and remember that damage is great, but sometimes saving an ally by lowering enemy damage output or slowing a chaser might be more valuable.

IN COMBAT

, you always want to make sure that you are farther away from minions than you are from your target. Your Q attacks the nearest two targets, and it sucks to think that you're about to do some major ***-kicking, but then your Q attacks the wrong thing. For Sona, balancing your distance and position is everything, and it takes practice to get it right.

Also, your Ultimate charges your Power Chord as well, without changing the effect of the previous spell.

Therefore, you can or > > > Power Chord> ,, because Hymn of Valor will be refreshed by the time the stun ends.

By the time you get your Lich Bane, you can just E>attack>W>attack>Q> Power Chord to devastate enemies. OR just Q>attack>W>Q> Power Chord for shorter bursts. Your global cooldown basically ensures that you won't waste a Lich Bane charge, so in a way, Lich Bane turns something otherwise negative into a positive.

More things to remember:

Distance between you and your enemy is automatically an advantage to you. Since none of your spells besides your ult stop your movement, Sona is one of the most amazing kiters ever. Just walk away, Cycling your spells as you walk, until your opponent is low enough that a Q+ Power Chord will kill him/her. Ta-dah!

~EDIT~ Another thing to take into consideration is that the damage from Power Chord is still magic damage, even if your auto attacks use your Power Chord. Therefore, even if you decide to build AD Sona, which is silly a tad silly in my part, you'll silly need magic penetration. And LOTS of it. Especially if your team is primarily AP and the enemy team is building MR.

The main problems for Sona are few, but constant. Melee DPS with some form of CC can be a pain to get away from, especially if theyre building tanky. the worst two are Blitzcrank and Tryndamere, but Talon and Xin Shao are also annoying.

Another problem is her defense. When left by CPs by herself, especially late-game, she's susceptible to assassins and 3+ ganks. If a Sona is smart, she will allow the enemies to "take" the tower while harassing with Q and her ult.

The range for both spells is slightly greater than the diameter of the CPs, so if an enemy decides to try and attack her, she can easily waltz away. Unless of course, youre baiting assassins like LeBlanc or Akali, which will pretty much tear you to ribbons. :P

This is a short section because truly, if you do not understand the concept of teamwork, you shouldn't be playing team-based games to begin with.

That said, it is important to always have teammates, not with you, but in close proximity. Sona is good at baiting, as most characters are overly confident about being able to kill her. However, their lifebars can disappear fast when she's allowed to cycle through her E>W>Q> Power Chord Combo.

Therefore, it is important to always have an ally near you, especially when defending CPs. You will bring the guillotine down on their health, and your teamate will more likely than not mop them up, resulting in double/triple kills for you or your ally.

I found this and it highlights my point exactly. Your burst is amazing, but you need teamwork to be effective as any champ.
Play Video
Whenever you and a teamate want to capture CPs, make sure that you, as Sona, get the one closer to the enemy base. This allows you to inevitably call attention to yourself, and therefore kite stupid enemies right into the jaws of your hungry team. You probably won't get to fully take the CP, but you buy your ally enough time so that he/she takes theirs, and your team gets a kill out of silly little kited DPS's dumb enough to follow you around.

All in all, Sona is that magical Swiss Army Knife ready to stab through the enemy team. Once you figure out all of her tricks, you become a primary contributor to your team's domination.

Just remember:

You're a burst mage.
Distance is your best defense.
You've got a mother f___ing harp!

Thank you for reading! Please comment and vote! <3