I went 9-6-19 my first game sona jungle. I looked at the guide briefly before. but I went with ludens+raba. and I got to say, I could chunk down tanks, and kill any of the squishies instantly

Honestly, this build is meant to be pretty flexible. The upgrade on smite isn't meant to be a core; it's just there for the later game when you have gold to throw on the upgraded smite. You can also change masteries in the beginning to get rid of the 5% CDR (which inhibits your early jungle) OR you can buy different boots for Magic Pen or Tenacity. I'd recommend playing with WOTA because of the 20% SpellVamp that you get from it, so you heal not only from W but also from Q. Thanks for commenting, I'll try the deathcap thing you suggested :)

Bro, there is only 65 cdr ^^ i'll admit, that is still quite a lot, but the overall effectiveness still proves to be worth a lot more than the loss of gold. The WOTA is there for the sustain, while athenes is there for the late game manga regeneration. I'll admit, having the end game damage is pretty strong with deathcap/voidstaff, the over all presence from Sona should be a long lasting persisting aura.

You build a whopping 80% CDR with this build, wasting a lot of gold. I'm pretty sure WOTA and Athenes could be switched out for a Deathcap/ Void staff.