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Spells:
Exhaust
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Power Chord (PASSIVE)
Sona Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Blitzcrank
Retaliate with force after he misses his grab. Rush boots (of mobility). Consider taking E @lvl3 for dodging and escaping.
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Introduction

Sona with her

Each ally buffed by




Of course in practice the benefit will usually be much less, but still powerful enough to make a big difference. Together with

There's one small problem: your
Aria of Perseverance has a prohibitive 100 mana cost at max level.
The solution:
Tear of the Goddess. For a very modest 750g you get the awesome power of "manaless" Sona. To just name a few advantages that come with "manaless" Sona:
To illustrate how relatively little gold 750 is: Redemption's HP and Mana regen stats (which are both unneeded for this build) have a combined worth of 850g.
Many supports like to build
Warmog's Armor on
Soraka, because it pretty much offers limitless heals.
Tear of the Goddess on
Sona is similar in its endurance. Instead of raw direct healing, she delivers a combination of 7 combat buffs (speed, shield, healing, armor, MR, attack speed, two sources of on-hit damage).
For damage-oriented Sona builds I would not recommend Tear, because they don't need as much mana. Unfortunately DMG Sona has a hard time with tanks, because she usually can't get penetration soon enough. Furthermore she has to take risks for full Lich Bane effect.
With this utility build you stay farther back. So I see no reason to buy anything else than
Tear of the Goddess! That's after experimenting with many different builds over the past years. No other 750g investment would give comparable power and flexibility.

The solution:

- Roam with your team around the map at +15% speed or more whenever you want
- Use your Diminuendo (and other
Power Chord) much more frequently (almost-exhaust every 6 to 18s, without slow, but 0.5s longer, gimme that!)
- Keep everybody healthy when taking (or attempting) objectives or pushing after a won fight
- Use W pre-emptively when you think a fight may break out, to
Ardent Censer buff allies
- Less time wasted backing with a few hundred gold
- In general you'll be able to do things not possible with a limited or depleted mana pool
To illustrate how relatively little gold 750 is: Redemption's HP and Mana regen stats (which are both unneeded for this build) have a combined worth of 850g.
Many supports like to build




For damage-oriented Sona builds I would not recommend Tear, because they don't need as much mana. Unfortunately DMG Sona has a hard time with tanks, because she usually can't get penetration soon enough. Furthermore she has to take risks for full Lich Bane effect.
With this utility build you stay farther back. So I see no reason to buy anything else than

Nothing is set in stone here. Usually you want to have W maxed first though, because it is the core idea behind this
Ardent Censer build, so you want full strength on
Aria of Perseverance ASAP.
Putting a few points into Q early is useful for stronger poke. Grabbing E earlier may be wise against a bot lane with high kill pressure.


Putting a few points into Q early is useful for stronger poke. Grabbing E earlier may be wise against a bot lane with high kill pressure.

Since this build focuses on utility, I put no points in the Ferocity tree. I prefer




Personally I like

Usually I finish the core build with
Seraph's Embrace before building for the 2 remaining slots. The extra 110+ AP will increase the power of all your abilities significantly, while also giving you a nice emergency shield. Notably
Song of Celerity will feel absolutely amazing for you and your team mates. And you can spam it :)
If the game isn't finished at this point I like to build a defensive item. The old Banshee's Veil would have been ideal, because it also offered health and MR (the two stats Sona lacks most, besides speed). New
Banshee's Veil is still good on her of course, if there are strong AP threats.
For this build I would not recommend
Redemption because the HP regen is virtually useless and also further mana regen isn't needed at this point.
Locket of the Iron Solari is gold inefficient (76%), so making good use of the active is key. On the other hand Locket's brother
Banner of Command is 116% gold efficient, while the 400 mana give you an extra 12 AP worth 261g (due to
Archangel's Staff).


If the game isn't finished at this point I like to build a defensive item. The old Banshee's Veil would have been ideal, because it also offered health and MR (the two stats Sona lacks most, besides speed). New

For this build I would not recommend




- In team fights you want to stay a bit further back and use mainly W and E, because Q will usually have little effect on their front line and temporarily disable your Boots of Mobility
- Often
Song of Celerity is better at mitigating damage than
Aria of Perseverance, because the speed helps dodging skill shots
- Speed is your main defensive stat. With
Mobility Boots,
Ardent Censer and
Song of Celerity you are likely to be the fastest thing on the map (despite low 325 base speed)
- Diminuendo (Power Chord - W) is a very powerful ability, as already said. Don't forget to use it, usually on the closest target trying to engage. With your finished core build (~230 AP) it reduces its target's damage output by about 35%! That's just 5% less than Exhaust but 0.5s longer!
- Since you have no mana problems, use
Aria of Perseverance whenever you think a fight may break out just to buff your team with the
Ardent Censer stats and charge Power Chord.
- With boots of mobility you are often able to place a good enough
Crescendo without flash. As a rule of thumb I'd say use flash to either save your skin or make a very decisive impact, but in case of doubt save it.
- When clearing minions 1 or 2 W on your allies is often enough to restore them to full HP, thanks to the
Ardent Censer 6s long health drain
- Sona loves long, back and forth fights, especially with this build. Champions like
Ekko or
Lee Sin have good synergy with such an approach.
- Starting
Spellthief's Edge plus
Faerie Charm is usually fine, because as long as you have mana you also have healing available
- A part of the strength of this build lies in its late game power. It is a ticking time bomb, a bit like Nasus. When your grouped, healthy and buffed team swarms and probes enemies with +20% speed and constant shields, dances back and forth... sooner or later an opponent will lose patience. Right into your R, Diminuendo and Exhaust. Time plays in your favour. In many aspects, not only the sustain and natural Sona CDR scaling.
- Like a Thresh who throws back his lantern to fake a gank, you can sometimes use
Song of Celerity as a psychological tool, to gauge their strength & willingness to fight, make them less alert when the real gank comes etc.
- As a utility support in a typical match 3 deaths or less is just fine
- In general try to be safe, but ready to react to engages, while ideally also being in a position to support your initiator(s) with buffs, Diminuendo de-buff or
Crescendo
There are many good build paths for Sona.
Tear of the Goddess builds have been around forever, but it is the addition of
Ardent Censer which makes them really shine.
Sona plays music, magic energy is her fountain and while the tears of the Goddess pour down she plays her tunes on and on and on...


Sona plays music, magic energy is her fountain and while the tears of the Goddess pour down she plays her tunes on and on and on...
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