This is my first time posting a build on MobaFire. I felt that in order to become a better LoL player, I should put my main builds on the line and see what my peers of LoL players think of them, be it criticism or praise.

In short, this is a Sona build that is made for supporting the rest of your team instead of doing the fighting yourself. Your job with this build is to keep your team powered up to win team fights and quickly take down towers.

A few keywords I use for Sona are-
"Heals" - Her "w" ability, Aria of Perseverance
"Zaps" - The damaging wisps from her "q" ability, Hymn of Valor
"Jolt" - The early rapid movement bonus from her "e" ability, Song of Celerity
"Dance" - Sona's ult, Crescendo

Alright, I'll just jump right in to it.

Marks of Insight: Alright, even though this build is all about helping your teammates, you still need to be able to fight alongside them effectively. These Magic pen runes allow you to-
A: Harass effectively early-mid game, and
B: Help out with your team's damage output late-game.

Seals of Replenishment: These seals are probably the most important runes on the entire rune page. Not only do these help you lane longer with your team, they work extremely well with your beginning-game Meki Pendant and Meditation masteries. With these seals, I only remember having to recall for mana once in my life with these seals, and that was an extremely difficult early-game. Against two tanks.

Glyphs of Focus: Cooldown is important when playing support. You don't want to hit W to heal your dying teammate, only to lose them thanks to your ability still cooling down. Your skills need to be rapid-fire to keep healing and buffing your team without having to wait a thousand years for them to come back online. These glyphs help that a lot.

Quintessences of Potency: Yeah, yeah, I hear you already. "Flat AP? Are you dumb?" No, I'm not. Or at least I think I'm not. These Quints help your heals and zaps become more effective early game when you and your teammate are most vulnerable.

Here, we're going to visit each and every item in this build, and discuss why they are important to your team in the order of purchase.

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Meki Pendant: This item is extremely important for you to have at the very beginning of the game for two reasons. One, it works with your masteries and runes to make sure you (almost) never have to recall for mana purposes. Two, it easily builds into a Tear of the Goddess, which builds into your most important item, Archangel's Staff.

2x Health Potions: You probably noticed that this Sona build does not take the heal first. Because of this, health potions are extremely helpful for when you take damage at the beginning of the game, and you don't want to waste a heal on yourself. In short, it lets you lane longer, and keeps you alive.

Tear of the Goddess: Let's face it, this build relies on casting a LOT of spells. Why not get rewarded for doing your job anyway? The tear gives your Max Mana a boost every time you cast a spell, maxing at 1000. Yeah, that's a lot. Having all this mana and mana regen is going to help you stay with your teammate longer in-lane, which in turn, keeps you both and your turrets alive. Also, it builds the Archangel Staff.

Boots of Speed: These are common sense. After building the all-important Tear, grab you some boots so later you can build the Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Or else.

Archangel's Staff: This is single-handedly your most important item in your entire arsenal. It has it all: Mana, Mana Regen, and AP. Everything a good AP support champ needs. This item will keep your mana in check, and make your AP rise as the game continues simply from you using your abilities and gaining more Max Mana, which in turn makes your heals and zaps really effective and helpful. This item will keep you with your team for as long as they need you. Which is usually all the time.


Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Since you did yourself a favor and already bought the plain boots, upgrade to the IBoC to get more cooldown reduction, and a little more spring to your step. Cooldown reduction, as stated before, is very important for you to have so you can spend more time casting abilities, and less time looking like a durp while you stare at your cooldown timers.

Aegis of the Legion: By now, team fights have probably started erupting all over the place. Aegis helps you and your team with these with its aura. The added Armor, Magic Resist, and Damage will really help your whole team survive (and win) ambushes and laned team-fights...just as long as they stick around.

Soul Shroud: This item will also help with team fights, letting your teammates pop off their abilities quicker thanks to the Cooldown-reducing aura this thing emits. They can also do it more often, thanks to the mana-regen portion of the aura. Basically, this item aids in your team becoming more aggressive, due to everyone not having to back off while their abilities cool down so often.
Added note - This and Aegis also give you health bonuses, which help keep you alive when the other team decides to focus you, which if they're smart, will happen a lot.

Will of the Ancients: This item is simply an added bonus, really. It helps your teammates deal more damage with their abilities while buffing yours up a little more as well. This item can easily be traded for Rabadon's Deathcap if your team is mostly DPS-oriented, but it's still an item to be considered.

I have a lot of people asking why I don't take the heal at Lvl 1. It's simple, really.
Harassment is more useful at Lvl 1 than healing is. The ability to zap an enemy champion and make them back off is a key way of staying alive at the beginning. It also lets you last-hit an unlucky enemy champ that got caught up in your teammate's gank.

Here's a little list of the Summoner Spells I use as Sona, and why they can help the flow of battle.

Clarity: This spell is absolutely bonkers on Sona. It fixes your early-game mana troubles, it keeps you in lane longer when you need to farm minions, and it keeps your teammates at peak mana as well because of your "Insight" mastery. I consider this spell an absolute necessity when playing this build.

Exhaust: This spell is useful throughout the entire game. Not because you alone are going to kill off champs, but because, when used, it keeps high-value targets from getting away from your team.

Teleport: Sometimes, you die. When this happens, sometimes you need to get back into the fray RIGHT NOW. With Teleport, you can! Using this spell lets you get back with your team quicker so you can help out on the spot instead of having to run all the way back to them.

Cleanse: When in a team-fight, or in lane with your partner early-game, you might have to fight against someone who can stun, slow, or silence you. This makes it easy for them to focus and kill you quickly. With cleanse, you can save yourself that trouble.

Clairvoyance: If you're confident that your team will be able to stun and slow your opponents without your help, and you think you won't need any of the other spells to keep you alive or get you into the fight, Clairvoyance is a huge help to your team. Seriously, other team. Nice bush-hiding.

Pros!

-Extremely good team-support
-Good staying power
-Good at turning around difficult fights
-Effective early-game harassment

Cons...

-Weak health-wise
-Ineffective without teammates
-Primary target in team-fights (which you can actually use to your advantage)
-If not careful, can feed other team badly