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Recommended Items
Runes: Until they fix the W stack passive aery is suboptimal
+8 Ability Haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order GOSPEL
Power Chord (PASSIVE)
Sona Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Nautilus
Honestly nowadays I hardly see people taking him as support, and he is no longer my permaban but I still have to be very afraid of him if he does get picked. Same deal as with other pull champs, play safe and boring in lane because you win the long game
Miss Fortune
You ult, she ults, 2 bodies drop, oh look! 600 gold
Miss Fortune
You ult, she ults, 2 bodies drop, oh look! 600 gold
Champion Build Guide
My name is Luiscencias/SirWeepsAlot and I have played a LOT of Sona. Seriously.
Between accounts I probably have around a million mastery points, and despite not playing ranked very much I got myself from bronze 3 to gold 1 in 60-ish games last season. I usually score an S- or above, and I find myself able to win many many more games with her than with any other champion. All of that is just to say that I have a ton of experience with her.



IS EXTREMELY GOOD, DON'T WASTE IT
I see so many Sona players treating her passive as a random boost every third ability without any regard to its MASSIVE utility and autoattack reset. There is so much power in this passive, as it allows Sona to essentially



Blue Chord
-
This is the chord I probably use the most often, because I am a very aggressive player.
When using this chord you will ALWAYS want to try to get the AA reset. That means if you plan on using this, walk up to the target while you have 2 stacks and AA right before pressing Q to get the passive proc. I mostly use this chord in lane when the enemy ADC moves in to last hit a minion, or when trying to finish somebody off, or simply to chunk somebody during the later stages.
Slow Chord
-
This babey right here is why Sona is one of the best chasers in the game. The slow may only last 2 seconds, but if you run up to your enemies with this chord already up you can easily chain a second slow, at which point even a flash won't let an enemy escape. Not to mention this would land you 2 Lich Bane procs. Learn to use this chord instead of your ult on individual targets. Use it to force an engage when an enemy strays too close to you. Use it on an enemy who is chasing you so you can get away. You can even use it to make it easier for allies to land skillshots on a particular target in a fight.
Small Chord
-
This is the chord I use the least often, but it may be the most important to use when needed. This chord considerably reduces the amount of damage the target deals for 3 whole seconds. Using this chord correctly could save you and your ADC's life. Assassins slapped with this chord will find themselves just short of the damage needed to instakill you, and enemy ADC's will find themselves outmatched. LEARN TO USE THIS CHORD.
STACK UP THESE
BAD BOYS
Every time you hit someone with you Q, you make the amount of money a melee minion gives AND you get a permanent .5-1 Haste. So make sure to stay on top of your quests by using max range Q's on the enemy ADC (and possibly the support too) when they go in to last hit, because the earlier you get wards, the earlier you can switch trinkets, and also this is your only real source of income and you have bills to pay.
Now that Sona's CDR passive is tied to a mini mechanic, you want to convert mana to stacks whenever possible! If your bar is full and nothing is going on and your ADC is missing at least 1 health and/or taking any minion aggro, turn that 80 mana into some Haste. Same for if you are both in fountain and they are not full health yet, just tap W and BAM. The faster you can get to 120 stacks the sooner you can start double ulting in fights
MANAGE YOUR MANA
As of patch 11.16, my recommendation for Sona's mana issues is to buy a Tear ASAP and take Manaflow Band. Between these 2, you will have 850 extra mana, which is a good 3 or 4 extra spell rotations. In its current post-nerf status, I no longer take Presence of Mind, and thus I have had to adapt to simply not blowing all my stuff right on CD during teamfights, and I back a little more often now. Really, it shouldn't be super difficult to always have at least 3-400 mana available for a full QWER rotation, and if you ever dip below that I suggest you book a trip to the fountain.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM!!



UNDERSTAND YOUR DAMAGE POTENTIAL
Here is a quick formula. With





CRESENDO IS A GAMECHANGER, VALUE IT AS SUCH
Don't use your ult on a single target that could be kept in place with a



YOU WILL ALWAYS BE SQUISHY, LEARN TO DODGE SKILLSHOTS AND PICK YOUR FIGHTS
This isn't a skill that I can impart onto you via text, so I'm sorry. But do remember your





A LOST LANE IS NOT A LOST GAME

VISION,
VISION,
VISION
Knowledge is power, and knowing where your enemies are while staying hidden yourself gives you a massive strategic advantage. As the support, you need to ward key areas for enemy movements and rotations at ALL times, using control wards and the red trinket to keep enemy wards out of your jungle, the river, and objective pits. ALWAYS LEAVE SPAWN WITH A CONTROL WARD AFTER BACKING. There is almost no situation in which you can't afford 75 gold for one, so don't let me catch you skimping on this.
ALWAYS SWITCH TO THE RED TRINKET AS SOON AS YOU GET THE

If you get nothing else out of this guide, at least take a look at the points above. I promise they have some thought behind them
ITEMS
Friendly reminder that we all have different playstyles and preferences! Feel free to use my build as a stepping point but understand that the best items for you to build depend entirely on how you want to play! If you don't like being aggressive don't build pure damage items, and if you want to kill people and nothing else then Renewer doesn't help you achieve that so you don't have to build it
You should not always build the same things, or in the same order!
I think one of the main goals of the preseason 11 changes was to encourage players to adapt their build for each game. You don't have to always go Moonstone Renewer if you feel that you can safely deal damage. You don't even need to always build a mythic item first! I have gone straight into Lich Bane just to maximize my damage before actually building a Mythic. Try to get a feel for what items will be most impactful in your game based on team compositions and how the early game pans out. To keep my options as open as possible, I have been getting a Dark Seal + Amplifying tome on first back.
Why am I always buying
Dark Seal?
Like a needlessly large rod on clearance!
I don't know whose idea it was to up the AP per stack on this item from 3 to 5, but as of 10.24 this little guy can give you more AP than the aforementioned

Why is
my default mythic?
Cheapest mythic plus massive healing
As of patch 11.7, I still don't love the fact that this item gives 200 health (nonbo with Cut Down and not enough to save you from much), or that it costs a whole 400 more than Athene's did. However, this item can turn all 3 of your abilities into pretty strong heals. That's right, with this item, every time you activate an aura, the lowest health ally that it touches will get a pretty meaty heal, which I think is too good of an effect to pass up. I love dealing damage, but at the end of the day I am playing support for a reason, and because Sona's W scales so poorly with AP I think buildin renewer is a necessity in any game where you aren't massively ahead. You can always keep your options open by first back buying a Dark Seal and Amplifying Tome and deciding whether you want this or

Why do I think building
is a complete waste?
Let me show you a little excerpt from the league wiki:

As you can see, movespeed past 490 is pretty much gutted.




What boots should you get then?
This one depends on how each game is going, and whether you want to prioritize damage, spamming, or surviving. I usually go




Why do I prefer
over
?
Simply put: I have a big ego and want to feel important.
I don't have any friends who are god ADC's and I don't particularly like placing blind faith in every solo queue ADC I am paired with. While it's considerably more expensive,


Why do I love
so much that I almost always build it?
I'm bad and It's my get-out-of-jail-free card!
With my highly


RUNES
got gutted, and now I no longer take it
Gone are the days where


Why do I take
?
It really helps my bad level 1-3 damage
Sona's Q does 40 damage at rank 1. Comet (plus



And now as of patch 11.16 I have an actual excuse for using this, since the Aery shield messes with your ability to stack passive on your W! I feel validated thanks Riot
In addition to the above, I greatly value the 10%


Why not
for damage?
This rune prioritizes shielding allies over damaging enemies. all 3 of your basic ability auras can send aery to the first ally you touch with them. Yes, that includes your Q. This means that most of the time you think you're using aery to add poke you're really throwing a tiny shield on your ADC who does not need it at the moment. You should consider this rune strictly as a shield booster that you take in matchups where you can't be poking much, and just need to keep your ADC alive. With this as your keystone you can still take


What about
for damage?
The following is an OPINION
I personally consider dark harvest to be a bit of a win-more rune. The times when it does more damage than comet are when you were stomping your enemies so hard you really didn't need the extra damage. On games where you go even or fall behind, however, you won't even want to look at the damage it added. If you like kicking people while they're down, then go for it. But I don't believe this rune, or any small runes in the Domination tree except for

Do I dislike
too?
I accidentally take this rune every time I forget to switch off my

A tiny section on flat runes
I almost always take double +9 Adaptive damage with a varying defensive rune depending on the enemy team comp. the starting 18 AP adds 4 healing and 5 shielding to rank 1 W, which is technically a 10% boost from its starting strength. You could also take the +1-10%CDR flat rune, which will eventually turn into 2-20 AP through transcendence.
I also occasionally opt for taking double armor or double MR flats if the enemy is mostly or all one type of damage. Adapt your flats to what you expect from champ select
All in all, I prioritize runes that will make boost my early game poke and make any mana issues disappear by midgame
Patch 10.9: Not much changed with sona so we are all good :)
Patch 10.10-12: They still haven't touched sona, so all the information on here should be up to date and relevant!
Patch 10.13-16: No changes to sona still!
Patch 10.17: Our dear lady has been hit with some nerfs :(. Her Q scales with 40% ap, down from 50. Her W scales with 20%ap, down from 25 (lol it was already awful scaling), and her E scales with 2% per 100 ap instead of 3 (50% reduction!!) Early game power will be just about the same but you will feel it in longer games. :(
10.18: Our girl got a very awesome new 1820rp skin!! Rejoice
10.19-22: no updates! At least they didnt nerf her again
10.23: Preseason 11 hits, gotta do science to figure out buildpaths
Patch 10.24: Renewer got buffed and bugfixed, yay! Also, science has been done and a tentative buildpath has been crafted.
11.1-11.15: no real changes!
Patch 11.16: Finally some attention was given to Harp lady! She now has a CDR scaling passive aspect to both her Q and W, as well as normal mana costs again. I won't sit here and try to convince you that the changes were for the better or worse, but I did update the guide somewhat to reflect the new reality. Also since we are well into 2021, the preseason section is now gone (REST IN POWER). I'm keeping the instakill clip though because it amuses me
I stream on twitch occasionally. If I happen to be doing my biyearly stream when you read this, feel free to drop in and say hi or ask me any questions
Here is a sample of the quality content you can expect from me once in a blue moon
Enjoy this clip of me instakilling a Kai'sa on PBE with Preseason 2021 Luden's, fully stacked dark seal and lich bane (do be aware lich bane has since been nerfed twice)
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