Build Guide by Poisonblades

Introduction

I wanna get this out of the way right of the bat.
I am new to the Mobafire Community, This is my first build and I would love some constructive criticism. That said this is my build for taking Sona into the middle lane of your 5v5's, or solo lane if you are into the 3v battles, and doing some damage. I'd like to add this kind of as a side note, Just because I named it off as going mid this isn't necessarily a mid build, it is just as capable of working along side allies in lane and focusing on dealing damage with them. I call it a mid build because it has very minimal Auras so it isn't as useful for support as other builds would be.

YOU MUST REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE SUPPORT!
This build is an attempt to allow you to have some good AP and power for going mid while having the ability to aid allies should you have a more suitable mid character on the team. Your Clarvoyance spell will be more useful early game if you are going mid because you can prevent early game ganks but it is just as useful all game as it is early. It won't seem like much at first but it is a very crucial help to your allies.

Runes

There are always alternates.
Greater Quintessence of Vitality x3
x9
x9
x9
I choose these runes because I felt the Sona was still super squishy, even late game with her W in effect, so this should help a little. You can always feel free to switch the Per Level runes out with flat rate runes, and vise versa, but seeing how I added these runes to aid her unfortunate squishiness I felt that the early game boost was more important than the late game, seeing how she is much less squishy later in the round.
I realize I put no CDR in this build, outside of the Summoner Spells, and that may bother some of you, "a ranged mage with no CDR, WTH are you thinking?" The problem is, for those of you who are considering playing her but haven't yet, her spells don't need it, but I'll cover this more in the Skill Sequence segment. I just wanted to get that said now because I know that some might want/perfer CDR, I'm telling you now, Sona doesn't need it.

Masteries

Offensive build with no Offensive masteries?
No you're not seeing things, this build is 0-6-24. The idea is that with the 3 points in armor and 3 points in MR from the Defense tree you will help, though it may be minimal, with making Sona less squishy. Seeing how her biggest fall back in fights is how easy she is to kill this will help ALOT in the early game. The rest of the points are placed through out utility for a couple of reasons.
#1. You are all about mana and recasting/stagger casting your spells as much as possible for bonus damage, with the extra mana and mana regen you will have plenty of spell casting capability.
#2. With this build you can get some better effect from Clarity, which will help if you have some nearby allies that are OOM, as well as a huge reduction on it's CD. The 1 G/10Sec isn't so bad either.

Items

Okay so this is about the current items
I realize that I basically listed out the ingredients for each of the items but I feel that it is a basic break down of what should help you the most. As I mentioned before, Sona is squishy. I wasn't sure at first about boots in general, in fact up until recently I didn't use boots at all because I misunderstood their effects, but I was hesitant about buying the because the effect doesn't sound like a super huge boost. I was very, VERY wrong. I like to think of it this way. If a stun, or snare or movement hindering effect of any type, lasts for 1 second then with these boots it will last for .65 seconds. Now the longest stun or movement impairing effect I've seen is about 2 seconds. You're now making it last for only 1.3 seconds. That's a huge change when you can make your speed faster so you have a chance to escape afterwards. On top of that little awesome effect this thing gives MR AND a boost of Enhanced MS 2. They are incredible.

Alternate Options
There are plenty of items in the game to give you some AP and Mana Regen so for those of you who would perfer to relocate the Clarity point of the talent tree for another summoner spell buff feel free to replace some items with more Mana Regen.
Philosopher's Stone seems the most useful to me because you can get some gold and health regen as well, so it might be a good idea to get this early game and sit on it for awhile. You can always sell it later to make room for the core items.
I know that there are some situations where it would be a better bet to buy Aegis of the Legion and in that case you should replace Soul Shroud with the Aegis and replace the Will of the Ancients with Soul Shroud, this situation is more for laning with a less mana intensive ally but it still will happen.
You may want to consider replacing the Abyssal Scepter with a Rabadon's Deathcap if you are soloing because it will allow you much more potent spells, could even work for laning as well, I just figured the scepter would allow for greater damage for nearby AP allies

Skill Sequence

Time for some skills

This is Sona's Passive ability and has no CD at all.
This is Sona's W ability. When activiated it ativates a 2 second Global CD on her other QWE spells, though I don't believe it effects your R, and has a 5 second CD of its own
This is Sona's E ability. This shares the same CD aspects of Hymn of Valor
This is Sona's E Ability. This shares the same CD aspects of Hymn of Valor
This is Sona's R ability. All of the spells descriptions can be seen if you scroll over the spells image.

So how should I be casting my spells in mid?
When I go mid I perfer to stagger the casts in order of followed by and finally . My reasoning for this is that you can flip through your E and W pretty fast, while sitting on your W you should be at 2 stacks for your passive, which will gain it's effect at 3 stacks, as well as have extra defense which will help you stay alive a little longer. Don't forget that this skill sequence up top is a reference, build between your Q and W based on which is most necessary at the time. Now whenever you're ready to attack your enemy you have a few options.
#1. Get in as close as you can and set of your Q, if you have done the set up steps, this will hit them for damage, as long as they are within your radius, and your Auto attack will now deal bonus magic damage, scroll over Sona's passive ability image for the exact damage bonus, and it will deal double damage as well from using Q last.
#2. (This option is used for a high damage opponent) Hit your W when you can, healing yourself in the process, and auto attack the enemy for some bonus magic damage as well as reduced damage from the Passive effect for using W last.
#3. (this option is used on enemies that you know are using flash or have a high MS/MS altering effect) You hit E, which will gain you a speed boost and some chasing capabilities, and auto attack for the bonus Magic damage as well as a Slowing effect which is caused by your Passive boost for using E last.
#4. (This option is best used if an enemy is more powerful/out leveling you.) When your Ulti is off of CD you push in as close as you can and ping them with your R, stunning them and hitting them for damage, and then using one of the above combos based on the situation.

A Note to remember
It is always a good idea to use CV on a side you're not attacking from, if you're ganking then CV the closest possible ganking position that you aren't in, if you're attacking head on then CV the most likely Ganking position, if there are MIA's then CV in that direction in case of an attempted ganking.

Summary

I understand that this may be a little dull or hard to read, just keep in mind it's my first build, but if you take the time, and actually test run this build, it should work out pretty well.
Over time I plan on editing this build with suggestions from readers and things I test out over time. Please Comment and Vote this as you see fit but keep in mind that I'm willing to listen to constructive comments and will interact as much as possible so your words won't fall on deaf ears. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my build. I hope you enjoy it.

As a final not I'll add some hard to 1v1 Champs.




I will add more, as well as add an easy to 1v1 list, as I fplay against them more.

Accomplishments/Edits

*Guide posted* ~ 5/5/2011
*Archived the Build* ~ 5/5//2011
*Reworked the item build so you can solo but have the ability to lane as needed* ~ 5/5/2011
*Re-released my build to the public with the modifications* ~ 5/5/2011