Sona Build Guide by notions11

Intoduciton

Hi, my name is notions11 and this is my first guide on MobaFire. Im a silver III player on the NA server who mains support. One of my favorite champions and probably one of my best is Sona. Sona is very strong support, with her amazing poke, sustain and most importantly, the game changing ult that could stun an entire team.

Pros & Cons

Pros
High poke champion
Kill potential at level 6
Powerful buffs for her whole team
Heal automatically selects lowest targets, can't be missed
High sustain
Game changing ultimate

Cons
Hard to gank for pre 6
High mana costs
Very Very Squishy
Weaker than most supports in team fights if ult is down
Does little damage late game

Runes

x9 Pretty standard on almost all champions. Due to Sona being so fragile. Armor in a duo bot lane against another AD carry is very important.
x9 Same reasoning as above
x9 Just for extra resistance against the damage in late game. When you face against other AP champions.
x3 Compared to the rest of the team, supports probably get the least amount of gold out of all. These runes will help you keep up with your teammates so that you can buy your items too.

Mastieries

This is the mastery tree that I prefer to run when playing Sona. This gives me a lot of gold, while at the same time, more mana, health and defense to stay in lane longer. An alternative is to run 9/0/21, if you feel like doing more damage. But Sona is more of a utility champion rather than a damaging one. Therefore, in team fights, you want to be staying alive as long as possible to help your team out as long as possible.

Items and Builds

Starting Items

Stealth Ward - Wards = Vision 'nuff said

Spellthief's Edge - Gives you gold for every auto attack you do. Combined with the Bandit Mastery, gives 7 gold on every autoattack.

Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation - Gives you extra sustain in lane. You are able to get this with the Culinary Master Mastery.

Will Work on This later. For now there are notes in the items sets above. This section takes a really long time to type out and design

Abilities

Power Chord - Your passive that separates the good Sona players from the best. If you can, always keep an eye on your Power Chord so you know which one you are casting next. Remember, Sona is all about utility. You need to know which kind of utility you are going to be using and need to be aware of when its coming up

Hymn of Valor - This is your bread and butter. Your main damaging spell. This ability helps you poke in lane. A cool combo to do with your Q is, when you have your Power Chord up, cast your Q on an enemy and straight after, autoattack them, doing double damage.

Aria of Perseverance - Very useful spell because it heals both you and the lowest ally. Its perfect for duo lanes cause it heals both of you at the same time. When in duals, try to cast the Power Chord on the enemy champion who does the most damage, this will make sure that they don't kill you as fast. Also, don't spam this spell or you'll find yourself out of mana in no time.

Song of Celerity - A movement speed buff that really doesn't do much. It speeds according to your AP. But since you aren't really building much AP until late game, this should be maxed last. However the one aspect of this ability that makes it really good is its Power Chord and how it can slow an enemy champion. This is really useful for setting up ganks, and also chasing.

Crescendo - The one, the only Crescendo. Probably one of the best ults in game. An ult so powerful that it is capable of stunning an entire team and could change the tides of battle completely around. Many unexperienced Sona players tend to use Crescendo right when the fights breaks out. Don't. Use it when the time is right. It might not be worth it to use it on person that is threatening your carry. Remember, possibly the entire team fight may rest in the hands of your ultimate.

Ability Sequence

This is my standard ability sequence when playing Sona. Max Q for the extra poke and damage. Another path for abilities is maxing Sona's W first. Do this if you are getting poked down a lot and need a way of sustaining in lane. Also, if you feel that you are getting a gank early or are going to be ganked early. Take a point in E early so that you can both, help your jungler gank and escape ganks easier from an enemy.

Laning with Sona

With Sona, you have to analyze whether you are going to play aggressive or passive. This is one reason why Sona is such a good support. Because she can be aggressive if your team is ahead. While on the flip side, if your team is behind she can help her team sit back and farm, while supplying sustain to stay in lane. If you are playing aggressive, max your Q and poke with your Hymn of Valor, Power Chord combo. If done correctly, can bring enemy champions down an entire 1/4 health. On the other hand, you teammate in bottom lane wants to just sit back in farm, you might want to max you W fist and try to prevent as much damage as possible to be applied to both you and your carry. Watch your mana and try not to spam spells until you build your tear. Coordinate with your jungler and don't forget. WARD.

Team Fighting with Sona

In team fights, you want to pretty much spam all your abilities when they are up. But be sure to keep track of your Power Chord so you can use the correct one. Save your ultimate for a good time and always protect your carry with and defensive items you got. A mindset I like to take when playing support is to treat your carry as a child. (Remember, your carry doesn't have to be your AD. Your AD might be having a horrific game. Your carry is the one who applies the most damage on your team.) You will do anything to keep them alive, with our getting yourself absolutely desolated in the beginning. Block Lee Sin's Sonic Wave and proc your Seraph's Embrace. With these tactics, it will be hard to beat your team in team fights.

Synergy

Sona works well with almost any AD carry due to her versatility. However, some of the best combo's include her along with Miss Fortune due to their AoE ultimates. Essentially all you do is Crescendo and Miss Fortune uses her Bullet Time. This is almost always a guaranteed kill unless summoners or many costly abilities are used.

Counters

Sona is countered by champions that can do isolate her on her own. This because Sona is very squishy and once alone, cannot escape and/or do much damage. Some champions that do this are Thresh and Blitzcrank. Try to avoid their skillshots as much as possible. Other counters to Sona are ones that are ridiculously tank (e.g. Leona) or supports that have a lot of sustain so that your poke is healed up (e.g. Soraka).

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my Sona Guide. I know that it is probably pretty bad, the fact that it is my first guide that I have made on MobaFire. But please don't hate. Please check out my guides in the future. I will be making other support guides and possibly guides of other champions that I love playing. That is all for now. Bai!