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Sona Build Guide by Encross

Support Soundwaves - Diamond Sona Guide by Encross

Support Soundwaves - Diamond Sona Guide by Encross

Updated on August 9, 2013
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Encross Build Guide By Encross 30 3 113,757 Views 42 Comments
30 3 113,757 Views 42 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Encross Sona Build Guide By Encross Updated on August 9, 2013
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Sona
    STANDARD
  • LoL Champion: Sona
    AGAINST PASSIVE LANES

Introduction

NOTE: Archived until I have the opportunity to update. This build was current up until 3.9, and a lot of the information within is still relevant post 3.10. Thanks for reading!

Hello! My name is Encross and I've played MOBA style games for over ten years. I only recently started playing League of Legends with the end of Season 2 and immediately gravitated towards Sona when looking at potential supports to play on a competitive level. I'm currently pushing for Diamond 1 and and would like to share my playstyle and approach to an extremely flexible champion that was instrumental in my love for this game.

Please keep in mind that this guide is primarily intended for use in solo queue play and due to the flexibility of the champion should only be seen as a primer and beginner's resource. While it should go without saying, do not hesitate to take the information below and spin your own take on it to better suit your inner chi.

I also just started streaming and do it pretty frequently. You're welcome to tune in at twitch.tv/encross if you'd like to see me in action.
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Pros / Cons

Pros:
Excellent and versatile laning presence
Generally considered to be a "safe" pick with no glaring counters
Crescendo is extremely powerful at all stages of the game
Pairs with every ADC


Cons:
Requires good positioning, especially during the laning phase
Takes time to master her Hymn of Valor's range
Quite mana intensive if spamming
Missing Crescendo can throw a team fight
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Summoner Spells Explained

Undeniably the best option available for Sona, taking Flash will facilitate big plays and has obvious synergy with Crescendo.



While in organized play other options do exist, you're expected to pick Exhaust in solo queue for its flexibility and strength during both the laning phase and beyond. Feel free to branch out and explore other options if queuing with a friend, but generally speaking this is what your ADC is going to expect you to come to lane with.

Ignite is an aggressive alternative to Exhaust that can swing early all-ins into your favor and secure kills against passive lanes. It also applies healing reduction in the event that your ADC (or "Marksmen") does not have Grievous Wounds built into his kit. It's particularly effective when paired with Graves/ Ezreal/ Draven as they are capable of killing the enemy at level 2 and lack the ability to provide Grievous Wounds.

One of the best late game options available for supports, Heal shines in team fights and is at its worst during the laning phase. It simply doesn't have the power to keep up with things like Exhaust and is hard countered by either Ignite or Grievous Wounds. You can take Heal if you're afraid of late game AoE and feel confident in your ability to win lane without better options.
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Runes Explained

greater mark of hybrid penetration Take these to maintain a solid Hymn of Valor game while keeping your auto attacks relevant against opponents stacking Greater Seal of Armor. It is also acceptable to take Greater Mark of Armor against aggressive champions like Leona or Blitzcrank, but far from ideal in terms of dominating your lane.

Best in slot for any denizen of the bottom lane. Your Aria of Perseverance compliments them nicely.

Ideal when team fights begin to break out and your mana pool is stressed. Choosing to run these often saves you the hassle of investing in oddball items like Chalice of Harmony or Crystalline Flask and keeps your sustain healthy throughout all stages of the game. These are preferential over Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration due to flat glyphs equalizing with scaling once we have our Crescendo.

Alternatively, Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist can be taken if you expect a strange AP heavy bottom lane or you're afraid of their team composition's damage output.

Best in slot for supports. While other options do exist, play it smart and ensure that your gameplay is supplemented whether you are snowballing or ridiculously behind. Greater Quintessence of Health can also be used if you're afraid of an aggressive laning phase.
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Masteries Explained

The generally accepted "all-around" metagame for Sona is to bolster your earlier defenses through a combination of runes and masteries to better aide your Hymn of Valor game and make trades less of a risk. While nothing is particularly flashy, if you're finding yourself unable to poke without taking immense harass and want to play a safer game, look towards at least 13 points in the Defense tree to meet your needs.

You are free to move the point in either Block or Summoner's Wrath if you would prefer Pickpocket for increased income in a passive lane.



Offense


Summoner's Wrath is taken for armor and magic shredding on our Exhaust.


Defense


Durability in combination with the later Veteran's Scars goes a long way towards making us less vulnerable in the early game.

Hardiness is maxed for the full 5 armor. Combined with our Greater Seal of Armor this gives us a combined total of about 18 free armor.

Resistance is the most worthwhile spare point for us to invest into in order to proceed down the mastery line.

Veteran's Scars provides us with 30 free health during the very beginning of the match and is one of the key reasons that we are investing into Defense.

Safeguard does a ton of work for a single mastery point and allows us to orchestrate tower dives with or without our Crescendo.

Unyielding is essential and allows us to proceed down the mastery line.

Block caps off our investment into the Defense tree and further mitigates a lot of the damage an ADC might deal to you during trades.


Utility


Summoner's Insight reduces the cooldown on our coveted Flash.

Meditation is essential to our playstyle and sustains us in lane.

Mastermind further reduces the cooldown on our Flash and ensures that we have
Exhaust up for more frequent all-ins.

Wanderer can be moved around or not depending on which negligible effect you prefer the most. I like having the extra movement speed because of our Song of Celerity.

Greed is free GP10 and should always be taken.

Wealth gives us more items to start with and lets us be adventurous with a Vision Ward.

Biscuiteer isn't quite as good as it was when it stacked with a Health Potion, but still offers us free sustain for ensuring we aren't forced to back before our philosopher's stone.

Explorer protects us from invades while doing double golems and can sometimes bait out the opponent's Vision Ward in lane.



Against certain passive lanes something like a full Utility build can be put to great effect if you expect their damage potential to be low and you can put the perks deeper in the tree to use without any need for Defense masteries.

While I don't recommend it in most scenarios, if I wanted to run Utility then I'd go with the following choices:


Offense


Summoner's Wrath is taken for armor and magic shredding on our Exhaust.

Sorcery is 4% CDR that has excellent synergy with the latter part of our Utility tree.


Utility


Summoner's Insight reduces the cooldown on our coveted Flash.

Meditation is essential to our playstyle and sustains us in lane.

Mastermind further reduces the cooldown on our Flash and ensures that we have Exhaust up for more frequent all-ins.

Wanderer can be moved around or not depending on which negligible effect you prefer the most. I like having the extra movement speed because of our Song of Celerity and later choice of Nimble .

Greed is free GP10 and should always be taken.

Wealth gives us more items to start with and lets us be adventurous with a Vision Ward.

Biscuiteer isn't quite as good as it was when it stacked with a Health Potion, but still offers us free sustain for ensuring we aren't forced to back before our philosopher's stone.

Explorer protects us from invades while doing double golems and can sometimes bait out the opponent's Vision Ward in lane.

Pickpocket is free GP10 and should always be taken.

Intelligence allows us to invest into Sorcery for a full 10% CDR.

Awareness compensates for those times when you're forced to walk out of lane to ward and gets us to Crescendo that much quicker.

Nimble caps off the Utility tree and should always be taken. You can put off buying
Boots until core items are completed with this mastery.
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Items Explained

For solo queue play, I highly recommend starting with sight wardsight ward . This covers all of your basic needs and allows you to either use your Vision Ward aggressively to assert lane dominance or defensively to open up potential ganks for your jungler.



Below is a line of items that roughly represent how your build might progress throughout a regular game. This build is intended for lanes that go mostly even, with neither side having any glaring advantage.

sight wardsight ward philosopher's stone

Fulfilling an extremely generic aura-related and 40~% CDR role, this build should function well within any level of play and sacrifices much of our own individual performance for the sake of improving our team's. If your opposing support attempted to snowball off of multiple GP10 style effects or simply has less gold income than you, then this take on a support build will outshine them during skirmishes for objectives or all-out 5v5 team fights.




Sona is notoriously squishy early game, and often times players will exploit that inherit weakness by picking characters such as Blitzcrank, Taric, Leona, or Thresh in an effort to all-in and blow you up before you can begin to attrition them out. Below is a build that may come in handy if you're afraid of an engagement going awry and just want to survive the lane with your KDA intact.

sight wardsight ward philosopher's stone

The key element to this build is the early Doran's Shield after your philosopher's stone is completed. For the price of a Ruby Crystal you gain incredibly powerful defensive stats while delaying your build path for the survivability. Once your Ruby Sightstone is completed, further bolster your armor and damage reduction with some Ninja Tabi. It's worth noting that while early Boots are generally bad, the times they are decent are when you're up against an aggressive lane. The rest of the build proceeds as normal, since beyond laning phase the bulk of their support's attention shouldn't be focused on you.



Kage's Lucky Pick

For 765g this item doesn't do us all that much. Flat Ability Power only really benefits our Hymn of Valor's activation and as a whole we're better off simply building a Kindlegem for the extra CDR.

That being said, if your lane goes well in your favor and you find yourself quickly acquiring your Ruby Sightstone, an early kage's lucky pick can pay most of itself off pretty quickly while you invest it towards the excellent Twin Shadows or Morellonomicon. Which item you choose to complete entirely depends on team composition and your own assessment of the situation.

Generally speaking, Twin Shadows is great for map control and additional peel while Morellonomicon gives us a whopping 20% CDR and some nice mana regeneration for more spamming during team fights. While the Ability Power isn't really needed, the items themselves are so powerful for us that it may just be strong enough to continue our snowball out of lane.





These boots are fantastic with our Song of Celerity and Nimble , allowing us to quickly roam around the map during mid-game when laning phase has ended but grouping as a full team isn't an emphasis. They excel with Oracle's Elixir and let us quickly assert dominance over the map if utilized correctly.

The major flaw in these boots is when team fights actually break out. Since our Ability Power ratios are so abysmal, we're forced to turn to a quick 40% CDR to maximize our potential and allow for more Power Chords in team fights. Mobility Boots not only completely shut off but are a 650g investment that isn't related to CDR, I only recommend investing in them if you were able to acquire an early Morellonomicon and have your CDR maxed already.

That being said, I recommend you build into Ionian Boots of Lucidity for most of your games much in the same way ADCs choose to pick Berserker's Greaves. CDR is simply our best stat to invest towards.



sight ward

Establishing vision of the map and your lane is one of your top priorities as a support player. While yes, it is technically every lane's job to have their own wards purchased throughout the course of the game, you'll save yourself a lot of frustration by operating under the assumption that the task is yours and yours alone.

Purchase additional sight wards or Vision Wards with the excess gold you will accrue throughout the game. Buying too many wards is hardly a bad thing, and I encourage you to continue to buy additional wards even when your Ruby Sightstone is completed.

In lane, Vision Wards act as pressure on the opposing support by denying them key vision of a certain brush. Purchasing a Vision Ward may just allow your jungler to come and gank your lane, ultimately paying off the investment and opening up a potential Dragon kill.

When it comes to Oracle's Elixir, treat it in much the same way as a Vision Ward except with more of an emphasis on objectives and grouping as opposed to lane dominance. You no longer lose the elixir when you die, so it's possible to buy much earlier in the game for map dominance during the more volatile phase of the game.





I see this item pop up a lot and most of the time I feel it's for the wrong reason. More MR through the Null-Magic Mantle is completely fine, but since we invest into Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration, you should (with practice) be able to operate without the 880g investment.

The only time I would consider this item is if they had a ton of Ability Power or we really need a Mikael's Blessing.





Mikael's Blessing was recently buffed to build directly out of philosopher's stone and consequently is now viable if your jungler is taking over building items like Locket of the Iron Solari and Aegis of the Legion.

I would only consider a first item Mikael's Blessing if their team was AP heavy enough to warrant a Chalice of Harmony. It certainly has its uses, but I'd recommend shying away from the item unless you're confident in your ability to acquire full CDR regardless and feel safe enough to do away with vital defensive stats.





Occasionally this upgrade can spark a really crisp initiate or potentially disengage from a risky situation. Most of the time, it's better to just hold onto the GP10 of philosopher's stone and invest your 1400g towards things like Locket of the Iron Solari or Runic Bulwark.

I recommend completing this upgrade eventually but not stressing the point of rushing it. Better items exist for the price and should take precedence over Shurelya's Battlesong until you absolutely need 40% CDR and have filled out your core. If your jungler is building both Locket of the Iron Solari and Aegis of the Legion then a quick Kindlegem after your core is completed can make Shurelya's Battlesong worth the early upgrade, specifically against compositions with hard disengage or tendencies to outpoke you in team fights.
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Utilizing Hymn of Valor

Your Hymn of Valor presents a constant threat in lane in ways that other supports often can't keep up with. It allows you to establish presence and in combination with Aria of Perseverance comes together to make you the king of trades.

A common mistake inexperienced supports make is mentally chaining themselves to the lane brush, waiting for their ADC to get initiated on so that they can retain their own health pool and be fully sustained when it's time to all-in. The problem with this mindset is that your ADC ends up being completely zoned and pressured by an opposing support that is actually taking part in the laning phase. As Sona your kit is designed to win trades and attrition the opponent's resources until they are forced to call for ganks or simply recall. How and why you use Hymn of Valor will ultimately determine the pace of your early game, so learning to properly use it will go a long way towards actually winning your lane.

Compared to other supports, Sona embodies this playstyle more than any other. While learning to apply pressure and stress out your opponents is quintessential to your role, many supports like Leona or Alistar can lure you into a false mindset by forcing you to view every trade as an all-in. Not every exchange has to result in a slain champion, much in the same way that a jungle gank can be perfectly okay if Flash is forced or an Elixir of Fortitude is popped. This is what ultimately separates experienced players from the mass majority and developing this game sense early on will go a long way towards bettering yourself as a player overall.



Hymn of Valor is actually fairly straight-forward. On activation you poke two targets (so long as you are in range!) and occasionally you will combine that damage with a Power Chord for some excellent burst. It prioritizes champions over minions in its targetting, allowing you to aggressively position yourself up on the creep line. The aura it grants you allows you and your ADC to enjoy free Attack Damage and Ability Power, making Sona a perfect fit for a character like Ezreal or Tristana. Its relatively short cooldown and synergy with Aria of Perseverance make it a generally accepted skill to max first, although I touch on the advanced play of a maxed Aria of Perseverance in the next chapter.

When using Hymn of Valor, do your best to at least hit one champion with its activation. Failure to do so will result in shoving the lane unintentionally or fighting your ADC for farm, neither of which are beneficial for our overall gameplan. Look for their ADC to go for a minion kill and capitalize on his attack animation being used to throw out yours. If played correctly, you should be able to apply free pressure barring any involvement from their support and any damage you might end up taking can be sustained off through either a Health Potion or activation of Aria of Perseverance. Keep in mind that certain supports have abilities like Dazzle or Zenith Blade that you should always be mindful of when playing aggressively.

Taking damage is natural, but a well piloted Sona can cripple an inexperienced lane and snowball her ADC far out of reach of the enemy without ever putting herself in true danger.
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Mending through Aria of Perseverance

Aria of Perseverance in its current state is best utilized as a compliment to your Hymn of Valor more than anything else. Its aura makes it worth maxing second over Song of Celerity for eventual grouped team fights, but as a whole its role is to sustain you in lane and offset some of your early game vulnerability with a mixture of resistances and raw healing.



When using Aria of Perseverance, it's important that you remember the bonus to Armor and Magic Resistance you gain on active use. While it seems somewhat negligible on the surface, an Aria of Perseverance with a single point invested into it grants four free Greater Seal of Armors and combined with the active use provides you and your ADC with almost another full set of armor seals for the duration of the active.

To best mitigate incoming damage in lane, look to time your Aria of Perseverance active in sync with their attacks to not only heal but provide the aura and activation for the actual damage occurring. You'll find yourself quickly running out of mana if your Aria of Perseverance is strictly being used as a heal after damage has occurred before you switch back to Hymn of Valor's aura to continue your harass. Don't stress it to the point of overhealing, but do your best to use it as optimally as possible.

In team fights and mid to late game, Aria of Perseverance is an excellent aura that in combination with our eventual Runic Bulwark greatly bolsters up the durability of your team. Its Power Chord trigger should always be spammed on whoever at that moment is presenting the greatest threat, whether it be a Caitlyn on the back line or a Zed diving your ADC. It takes precedence over almost any other Power Chord use save for clutch last hits that may secure a kill on a fleeing target or the potential peel of Song of Celerity's Power Chord.

Overall, Aria of Perseverance ties together our kit nicely and grants us an interesting combination of sustain and damage mitigation while also providing a key late game component to our kit in the form of its Power Chord: Diminuendo.
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When should I get Song of Celerity?

Your Song of Celerity perfectly exemplifies how flexible a support can be. For the majority of the champions in League of Legends, all of your abilities have at least a single point invested into them pre-ultimate due to their effect on your laning phase.

Sona, however, already has two iconic and powerful laning skills built into her kit before you've even reached Crescendo. This allows for a rare moment in design to occur where your third ability, Song of Celerity, is actually able to be prolonged until the need arises and the time is right.

So, when exactly is the time "right"? It could be a jungler ganking your lane while you're about to hit level 5 and need to panic skill Song of Celerity for that clutch Power Chord which secures the kill. It may be at level 8 when Dragon is being pinged and you anticipate a team fight to break out. Maybe you just backed to base and really need to run to your lane before the creep wave is denied to your turret. Did you just buy an Oracle's and want to be a little more mobile?

There is never a straight-forward textbook answer to any of these questions. It is up to you, the Sona master, to decide when and when not to deviate from your kit's inherit strengths to unlock something a little more fringe. Song of Celerity is a beautiful piece of design that flows together with your overall gameplan while being far less obvious in its impact.
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Carrying with Crescendo

Your namesake and splashy Crescendo is what defines you in team fights and all-ins. How and why you use your ultimate will end up shaping engagements and potentially carrying (or throwing) critical turning points in the game.

The obvious and desired effect is for a fight to break out and you to answer back with a Crescendo that results in an easy ace. While these moments do occur from time to time, the harsh reality is that you'll often have to either Flash for optimal positioning and land it on two critical members of their team or use it as an emergency peel for your ADC. An effect like Crescendo is extremely hard to evaluate in a vacuum and you shouldn't expect one game's situations to directly carry over to the next. This level of depth is what makes Sona such a well-rounded character for both amateur and professional levels of play.



In lane, plan your Crescendo accordingly and try to provoke an all-in as soon as you've unlocked it. Very few supports can handle a well placed Crescendo, and sometimes you've grinded their resources out so effectively that they may not even have access to their own ultimate yet. Generally speaking, you should be able to generate a kill in most solo queue lanes with any combination of Crescendo mixed with your Exhaust/ Flash, even if they are hiding under turret.

That being said, take stock of your partner's abilities and try to execute a plan that best utilizes their damage potential. Abilities like Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage can be set up perfectly while other champions like Caitlyn or Draven simply want the additional damage and suppression for a guaranteed kill.
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Match-Ups vs Support

Supports ultimately define the pace of the laning phase and control how and why you may act in a certain manner. Below are brief explanations of traditional (more or less) match-ups you may or may not encounter in the current meta accompanied by a general idea of how to approach the lane. I excuse myself from providing match-up recommendations for characters like Pantheon or Heimerdinger due to them being extremely uncommon and difficult to prepare for.




Medium

Alistar presents a difficult combination of sustain and all-in, particularly at level 3 when all of his abilities have a point invested into them. He tends to be heavily reliant on brush control and can be bullied (hue) around pretty early if you defensively use your Vision Ward to deny him vision of your respective brush.

Learn his threat range and be wary of his infamous Headbutt/ Pulverize combo. Chances are that in the early phases of the game you'll take far too much damage and lose out on a trade that involves both abilities connecting on you. You should win this lane so long as you force him to spam Triumphant Roar and deny him the opportunity to zone you, as your superior range allows you to stress his mana pool and abuse his melee clause.





Hard

Due to the recent rise of Thresh and a significant increase to the mana cost of his Rocket Grab, Blitzcrank has fallen far from his must-ban status of days past. That being said, he's still a common ban in solo queue due to the random and frustrating nature of his Rocket Grab dispositioning your team at critical points in the game.

In lane you pretty much have one goal: don't get Rocket Grabbed. As Sona you simply lack the defenses to deal with it pre- Crescendo and will be forced to Flash or die if caught out with it.

Blitzcrank brings zero sustain to lane and has a difficult time spamming Rocket Grab before his philosopher's stone is complete, so capitalize on his cooldowns to pressure his ADC with Hymn of Valor and smart Power Chords. If played correctly, his ADC will feel miserable and you should be able to pressure them to the turret. It's worth noting that targetting your harass towards the Blitzcrank will often end up in failure, as Mana Barrier makes him deceptively hard to kill and Overdrive can allow him to position a Rocket Grab regardless of his health pool.





Medium

More often than not seen in 2v1 lane swaps, Elise's Neurotoxin/ Venomous Bite does insanely consistent percentage based damage all throughout the game while she gets pseudo tanky off of items like Haunting Guise and Rylai's Crystal Scepter. To make matters worse, she benefits greatly off of building sheer magic penetration and will often invest into items like Sorcerer's Shoes to further increase the kill potential of her staggering all-ins. Her Cocoon/ Rappel offers her both powerful tools for disengage and harshly punishes any poor positioning on your end.

While her laning presence is frustratingly powerful, she suffers during actual team fights where her lack of a proper splashy ultimate helps to balance out the fact that she starts the game with one available to her. The key is to survive out of laning phase, where your Crescendo and grouped team strips away her abhorrently strong ability to bully a lane.

It's important that you respect her ability to tower dive you, especially if your wards are down and their jungler's location is unknown. Cocoon/ Rappel can easily lock you down and burst you regardless of if you're near a turret or not.

Approach this match-up with caution and survive until the team fights.





Easy

Fiddlesticks is relatively simple to lane against once you learn his tendencies and understand how to better play around the bounce of Reap. The match-up generally starts in his favor, falls out of his favor, equalizes when you both have your ultimates, and then finally results in you being the superior support once you've approached the mid to late game.

The reality is that Fiddlesticks heavily relies on building things like Zhonya's Hourglass or a quick Kage's Lucky Pick to keep his abilities relevant, specifically Crowstorm. Once your philosopher's stone is complete and the initial brunt of tanking Reap bounces is gone, your sustain and his lack of it (for his ADC) will come into effect and you should be able to play slightly more aggressive. Typically a Fiddlesticks will max out his Terrify while keeping his other abilities at one point, meaning that your base values will continue to rise while his will remain static save for the extended duration on his fear.

If you respect his Terrify's max level duration and prevent him from Crowstormming out of un-warded brush then this match will quickly turn around into your favor.





Easy

Janna specializes in keeping her ADC alive, with her kit packing four defensive abilities that have subtle implications for offensive play. All things considered this is textbook stuff on your end, Sona can simply play around Eye of the Storm and win out through superior sustain and poke.

Monsoon is effective at halting any Crescendo all-ins, so grind the match down and win it out through your shorter cooldowns and better pressure. Your ADC should have a creep score advantage coming out of lane if played correctly and that lead should carry over into team fights.

Be mindful of her Ability Power ratios. A Janna with an early Morellonomicon or Needlessly Large Rod is a force to be reckoned with.





Easy

Nothing about reworked Karma is particularly impressive and overall this is a fairly easy match-up for you.

Her Inspire generally isn't good enough to keep pace with your aggression and Mantra'd Inner Flame isn't frightening unless she has a lot of Ability Power. Overall you should stomp this lane and can pretty much have your way with her.





Easy

Support Kayle is picked for one reason and one reason only: Intervention.

Early game Divine Blessing will stress her mana pool while she struggles to answer back with Righteous Fury. It isn't until Intervention that Kayle's presence is felt and her potential skyrockets, so make her life miserable and keep her pinned down going into the midgame.

It's pretty much impossible to tower dive a Kayle lane once she has Intervention, so coordinate something early with your jungler through aggressive Vision Wards if you're planning one at all.





Hard

A common strategy when 2v2'ing a Sona lane is to pick a support that all-ins easily in order to take advantage of her inherently low starting health and armor. Leona is consequently a popular pick that forces you to respect the threat of a Zenith Blade at all stages of the lane.

It's important that you approach this match-up with a crystal clear plan of how you are playing out the first two to three levels. Leona becomes a force to be reckoned with once her level 3 is achieved and her kit is complete, so widdle her down and take control of the lane with your superior levels 1 and 2 until that point is reached.

None of your other lane match-ups place so much of an emphasis on the first two levels of the game as this one. If blue side, make sure you get golems (ask your jungler for dogs if purple) and try to rush an early level 2 by shoving the minion wave and taking control of purple side's lane brush. This aggressive position should allow you to poke and control the lane to a point where her all-in is far less scary and you're maintaining a solid level advantage.

Ward aggressively, play smart, and operate under the mentality that one false move could mean a quick feed and ultimately loss of lane.





Medium

Lulu's kit is very flexible and only lacks a source of sustain. Whimsy is a constant annoyance while Glitterlance allows her to come ahead in most trades when combined with the auto attacks of her ADC.

You're forced to approach this lane as a farm fest if you want to garner any success from it. Pick your fights wisely and try to Hymn of Valor as soon as her Help, Pix! is on cooldown. Wild Growth shuts down any Crescendo all-ins you might try to pull out, so expect to save it for the perfect moment and avoid forcing any engages.

You will often break even in this lane and possibly even come ahead through the sheer power of your sustain. Respect the potential all-in of her kit combined with Exhaust and you should be okay.





Easy

Support Lux has a scary level 6 due to Final Spark and Light Binding presents a constant threat if you're ever caught out of position.

That being said, this lane is otherwise a cakewalk and simply requires you to play around Prismatic Barrier while you ride your Aria of Perseverance to victory. You come out ahead in almost every trade pre- Final Spark so long as you're smart about it.





Easy

Much like Lux, Dark Binding keeps your positioning in check and Black Shield must be baited in order for you to profitably trade.

Otherwise this is a breeze and only requires textbook play on your end, just remember that Soul Shackles has roughly the same range as Caitlyn's auto attack and you'll be fine.





Medium

Nami is a lot like you except farther to the extreme of emphasizing early game trading while sacrificing a lot of her utility to do so.

Skilled Aqua Prisons can set up free kills and combined with Ebb and Flow guarantee that she will win any trade that all of her abilities are involved in. Grind her out and prevent Ebb and Flow from hitting too many people. You can often run out her mana pool and simply grind her down if too many of her abilities whiff.





Easy

Nidalee isn't a common support pick but presents an aggravating laning phase of "dodge the Javelin Toss / Takedown" combined with "don't step on the Bushwhack / Pounce!".

Her Primal Surge / Swipe actually gives her quite a bit of sustain in lane and offers free attack speed for her ADC. Prowl allows her to abuse brush control and get free auto attacks in if you aren't quick enough to respond. To top it off, Aspect Of The Cougar gives her insanely high damage potential at level 6.

Much like Elise, survive until team fights bust out and she is punished for rushing that Tear of the Goddess she's stacking up. It's worth noting that you should look to pressure objectives and close out the game as soon as possible, late game Nidalee is extremely frustrating to deal with in solo queue.





Easy

Nunu & Willump has fallen out of support favor due to the recent nerfs to his Blood Boil. It was common to see him picked with Caitlyn and many people attempt to replicate that lane even to this day.

All you need to worry about is Ice Blast training you down. Everything else is a breeze and before long their lane will be out of mana and hemorrhaging gold.





Medium

Outplay her and hope your team composition is better.





Easy

Soraka's early game is pitiful despite Starcall having a lot of damage potential in extended skirmishes and she mostly relies on Astral Blessing to survive into the team fighting phase, where she is actually quite good.

Take an aggressive stance and abuse the fact that her Astral Blessing is on such a long cooldown by shoving her constantly. Remember that Astral Blessing grants armor to whoever it's casted on, so try to coordinate with your ADC to swap targets until the buff expires.

Don't let her get into a position where you're shoved under turret and she's spamming Infuse for days.





Medium

Taric functions much like Alistar in the sense that he has a way to close a gap and connect a damage ability that results in a lost trade. Imbue, like Triumphant Roar, is an acceptable form of sustain and has built-in cooldown reduction and carries the lane away if not forced to spam it.

His mana pool is his own worst enemy in lane. Being melee, he's forced to Imbue almost every time it's off cooldown and if he's maxing Shatter to donk you then he'll be out of resources in no time. Your level 6 is far scarier than Radiance, so hold out and play it much like you would an Alistar until the time is right to strike.

Try to identify whether or not he's maxing Imbue or Shatter to determine his damage potential and learn the 625 range of Dazzle to ensure that you aren't caught out of position.





Hard

Thresh is currently one of the strongest supports in the game and with good reason. Death Sentence is powerful at all stages of the game and Dark Passage is borderline overpowered in terms of the sheer utility it brings to any team composition.

This lane isn't easy, so approach it like you would a Blitzcrank that has a ranged auto attack and a slower Rocket Grab animation. It is possible to come out ahead in this lane, but due to the sheer strength of the character relies a lot on your individual skill and his lack thereof.

Thresh relies on his passive, Damnation, to get his armor per level and must either throw a Dark Passage or walk up to the minion line to acquire the souls needed to do so. Take advantage of this early game drawback by constantly poking him and making him give up souls for the sake of his health bar. If he ever uses Dark Passage to simply collect souls, capitalize on the long cooldown and force a trade to try and establish some kind of lead.

Remember that The Box only does damage if you break the wall and continues dealing half damage for each consecutive one broken. Because of this it is possible to Crescendo him out if his The Box is poorly placed.





Medium

Zyra, much like you, is incredibly fragile and presents a terrifying zoning game in lane.

The majority of Zyra players rely on Grasping Roots + Rampant Growth to try and combo you out. Dodging a Grasping Roots actually gives you a pretty free window to operate in, just be wary of its insane range of 1100 and only force a trade if it's on cooldown.

Rise of the Thorns can quickly turn a trade around, so dodge the thorn and don't hesitate to burn a Flash to do so if it will save your life.
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Match-Ups vs Marksmen

ADCs are the backbone of your lategame and sustained damage throughout a teamfight. They also serve as your lane partner and typically occupy the bottom lane due to its close proximity to the Dragon global objective.

While Sona can pair with any and every ADC to great effect, it takes a true master to have the cajones to pick her into something like a Draven/ Thresh due to the squishy weaknesses outlined in this guide. Nonetheless, every lane is different and it's important that you understand the broad scope of her match-ups and how to win (or survive) them if you wish to be the one true leader of the Sona sisterhood.




Easy

Ashe presents a weak and one dimensional early game kit that revolves almost entirely around Volley and auto attacks. Her Enchanted Crystal Arrow allows for potential all-ins as an initiation but pales in comparison to most ultimate abilities in terms of sheer damage potential during the laning phase. She is primarily picked for her team fighting ability and powerful late game.

Her support will more or less decide how this lane feels to you. Ashe has the potential to perma slow with her Frost Shot and when combined with something like a Dazzle can keep you from ever backing out of dying range. That being said, nothing else about her kit is scary enough to deter your attrition game.

Keep in mind that Focus has the potential to completely swing a trade before it even happens. Don't get donked by it!





Hard

Caitlyn has one of the strongest laning phases out of any ADC due to her extremely high base auto attack range that allows her to turn almost any trade into her favor. Your Hymn of Valor will often be met with more damage on the backswing unless you cast it perfectly in time with her recently nerfed base atack speed when she spends it to last hit a creep.

Her oppressive laning phase is offset by her mostly bland team fighting. While characters like Varus have Chain of Corruption for initiation and Graves has Collateral Damage to provide splashy effects, Caitlyn is almost entirely based around auto attacks and critical strikes. Because of this, she often rushes an Infinity Edge to spike her damage as soon as possible and can quickly snowball out of control if one fight happens to go awry.

"Winning" this lane requires an excellent all-in on your behalf and careful awareness of what she has built towards in terms of items. A Caitlyn that rushes Berserker's Greaves for example has too much attack speed for you to Hymn of Valor after she attacks a minion while one who rushes towards a B. F. Sword can be carefully poked at max casting range. Learning the quirks of this match-up is crucial to your survival in the lane as Caitlyn is one of the few ADCs that presents nearly as much pressure as her support.

It's worth noting that a mediocre Caitlyn player will often get over-zealous with their 90 Caliber Net+ Piltover Peacemaker combo and open themselves up to a free kill or Flash via your Exhaust. Don't show the notorious lane bully that much respect and take advantage of any openings she might present.

Headshot gets double stacks while she attacks from the brush, it's important to have vision of the opposite lane brush at all times if you hope to survive the auto attack onslaught.





Easy

Despite recent nerfs hitting him hard, Corki's potential for all-ins is still pretty frightening and Valkyrie into Gatling Gun must be respected at all times as an initiation.

Corki's problem lies in his mana costs. Phosphorus Bomb is his only effective form of trading before Missile Barrage and takes a heavy toll on his mana pool. Being a champion that specializes in running her opponent out of resources, your kit can grind his out if executed respectfully and overall you can somewhat bully him around.

Commonly his build path is something like Bloodthirster into Trinity Force. Occasionally you'll see a really quick Sheen out of him which greatly increases his sustained damage output but as a whole the match-up is fairly straight forward and mostly in your favor.

It's worth noting that your Crescendo can stop him during Valkyrie.





Hard

Draven is the quintessential lane bully. He scales incredibly with every item purchase and does ridiculous damage at all stages of the game with little to no mana investment. His only fault is his lack of escape, making him less effective in big team fights when being dived upon but insanely oppressive during the beginning of the game.

You aren't going to win any direct trades with Draven so long as his Spinning Axe is rolling. Your best approach to this lane is defensive, as barring any misplays on his end he simply hits way too hard for you or your lane partner to engage in auto attacks.

Key points for this lane happen at levels 2 and 6. Skilled Draven players will hold onto their level 2 skill point until they absolutely need either the Blood Rush or Stand Aside. Recognize which skill they decide to go with and play accordingly. If they pick Blood Rush, you're slightly safer from all-ins but will have a harder time gap closing for any potential kills. Stand Aside is somewhat similar in application but leaves you more prone to straight up dying if you're ever caught out of position.

Level 6 unlocks Whirling Death and any hope for trading simply goes out the window. You're better off coordinating a jungler gank through a well timed Vision Ward than attempting to straight up fight him in a 2v2, but due to the hyper aggressive nature of Draven this is often fairly easy to accomplish. A successful gank into a Dragon can often turn around any advantage Draven might have built up while laning.

Your only window for Hymn of Valor is when he's catching Spinning Axe, but even then you're almost always better off playing the sustain game and breaking even in creep score. Survive the laning phase and beat him in team fights.

While it sounds like Draven is completely unbeatable, remember that all laning bullies share one major flaw - their subpar team fighting. Get to team fights, lock him down, and win as a group. You simply can't trade against even the worst of Draven players.

TL;DR Draven Draven Draven





Medium

Ezreal has one of the most flexible item paths in the game, from a first item Bloodthirster to a Spirit of the Elder Lizard.

Currently, the staple Ezreal build (or "blue build") is something like this:
Bloodthirster/ Spirit of the Elder Lizard -> Tear of the Goddess -> Iceborn Gauntlet -> Muramana -> Last Whisper -> Blade of the Ruined King

That being said, everything about the above build is subject to change. The only thing you can rely on when it comes to Ezreal is that he must close out the game earlier than other ADCs due to his late game scaling not being as effective as many of the more conventional Infinity Edge based ones.

In lane, his game is pretty predictable and heavily reliant on him connecting with Mystic Shot. Once he has Tear of the Goddess, you can expect a Mystic Shot whenever it's off cooldown to great effect and annoyance. If he ever gets a level advantage, that mentality warps into him wanting to all-in you with Arcane Shift and at level 6 Trueshot Barrage skyrockets his damage potential in combination with his support's abilities.

To beat him, you must force him to stay at max Mystic Shot range while laning and not let him cash in free harass without taking more in return. Despite his all-in being scary when in an advantageous position, he's far less intimidating if playing on the back foot and has a difficult time coping with pushy lane opponents. It's actually possible to run Ezreal entirely out of mana if their jungler isn't stopping you from pushing him in.

In the current meta, he's at his weakest while stacking Tear of the Goddess and piecing together Iceborn Gauntlet. Take advantage of this window and look to provoke team fights or coordinated all-ins during laning phase while his build is in its mid-game lull. Once his Iceborn Gauntlet is completed, absolutely avoid him and instead look to force objectives or Crescendo based initiates.





Medium

Graves has frightening pushing potential and can easily clear out waves of minions with Buckshot, making him extremely good at generating a quick level advantage for cheesy kills. Quickdraw into any combination of his abilities can spike too much damage for you to handle if he's enough ahead. It's important that (like any other ADC, really) you know what he buys on his backs. The difference between a B. F. Sword and a Vampiric Scepter is staggering.

His glaring weakness is his low attack range and speed, allowing you to Hymn of Valor him at every last hit relatively safely. His mana pool and Buckshot cooldown actually caps his trading potential, so take stock of the situation and press an advantage if you can ever get one.

A common strategy with Graves is to provoke a fight as soon as he hits level 6 and unlocks Collateral Damage. With True Grit fully stacked and all of his abilities, he can spike you down pretty easily and make his lead in lane almost insurmountable.

Play smart, punish his weaknesses, and don't get intimidated by his natural pushing power. As long as you aren't taking free Buckshot harass then you should be able to maintain a healthy mana pool.





Medium

While somewhat unconventional, Kennen is still a potent ADC and has one of the scariest all-ins in the game while being energy based. His weaknesses lie in the fact that all of his abilities (sans the passive on Electrical Surge) scale off of AP, leaving him very auto attack reliant beyond the laning phase.

During the laning phase, though, his poke and overall presence is actually really scary. He can Flash/ Slicing Maelstrom as soon as he hits level 6 and is one of the only ADCs in the game that has a natural stun due to Mark of the Storm.

Playing against him is much like playing against a Caitlyn in the sense that your harass will often be met back with auto attacks and you must be aware of his Electrical Surge passive in order to profitably trade with him. Look to play safe and understand that, much like Draven/ Caitlyn, his team fights are less effective than other conventional picks and in lane your job is to survive and at least break even.

Beware his Mark of the Storm. If he lands a loose Thundering Shuriken on you then he can immediately Lightning Rush into Electrical Surge and punish you hard. While I can't stress it enough, Slicing Maelstrom will almost certainly end up in you dying if you get over zealous with Hymn of Valor and position poorly.

The only reason Kennen isn't listed as hard is because his damage mostly falls off and late game he becomes more of an Infinity Edge reliant auto attacker with good survivability than a bursty AD caster. Play it safe in lane and respect his Mark of the Storm - you'll be fine if you get out of the laning phase without feeding.





Easy

Kog'Maw boasts one of the scariest lategames across the entire ADC spectrum. That being said, his laning is far less terrifying and possesses a lot of weaknesses against early game pressure.

Bio-Arcane Barrage completely defines his early game trading potential in addition to being why he's so monstrous during lategame. It increases his attack range while also giving him percentage health shred, meaning that any health stacking bruiser you might have diving him can simply get melted by any combination of Bio-Arcane Barrage and Blade of the Ruined King.

In lane, most Kog'Maw players rush Infinity Edge due to it spiking his damage as soon as possible. While it's not uncommon to also see a quick Blade of the Ruined King out of him, it's less likely than the former but should be noticed as soon as he picks it up. If he has a Blade of the Ruined King, his damage in early team fights falls off significantly while his dueling and laning presence spikes. Recognize which of the two items he decides to build towards and play accordingly. There's no need to die to a quick Blade of the Ruined King and feed him directly into his Infinity Edge anyways.

Living Artillery actually taxes his mana quite a bit, and the rest of his kit is bland enough to mean that you have free reign to all-in or bully him so long as Bio-Arcane Barrage is on cooldown. If it's up, don't take free damage and play smart. Feeding a Kog'Maw is just about the worst thing you can do in solo queue.

Win before lategame happens. Six item Kog'Maw is a force to be reckoned with and will chunk your entire team into the ground.

Burning Flash on Icathian Surprise is totally fine if it means you'll survive or not. Denying Kog'Maw as much gold as possible is never a bad thing.





Hard

Miss Fortune is much like Draven in the sense that her trading is simply futile to try and match. She is an incredibly strong champion in solo queue due to her independence as an ADC in team fights and extremely strong laning phase versus the majority of the ADC and support spectrum.

Double Up combined with Impure Shots makes her a menace to engage with. It's very possible to completely throw the lane if you and your ADC both take too many bounces of Double Up simply due to the spike in damage it receives from its second hit. In addition to the damage, Impure Shots also gives her a natural healing debuff, meaning that your primary source of sustaining your lane and winning trades goes out the window.

To play around Impure Shots, look to Aria of Perseverance while her auto attack/ Double Up is mid-air. If played correctly, you'll not only heal your ADC but grant them the armor/magic buff for the actual shot. It's difficult to time at times, but with enough practice you can perfect it to a science. It's also fine to simply Aria of Perseverance when the healing debuff falls off, but absolutely train yourself not to activate it while the debuff is on. You'll run yourself out of mana and lose a lot of effective healing by doing so.

During team fights, try your best to hit Miss Fortune with the end of your Crescendo to try and stop her Bullet Time. If you absolutely must use Crescendo for peeling or have someone like a Renekton who can disrupt her channel, then try and Power Chord your Aria of Perseverance onto her to ensure that you take as little damage as possible from the channel. Doing so mitigates a lot of the presence she presents in team fights, as she's relatively short range outside of Bullet Time and has no natural escape if her Strut is knocked off.





Easy

Quinn is a lot like a less effective Graves in the sense that her attack range is similarly as short while her damage potential with a level advantage is frightening. While she lacks his pushing potential, her Harrier passive gives her a lot of dueling potential while Blinding Assault makes her difficult for opposing ADCs to trade with in close range.

All that being said, tag team leaves her extremely vulnerable in both team fights and the laning phase by turning her into a melee champion until cancelled for her execute. Punish the fact that her effective range is so short with a swift Crescendo into Exhaust and make her life hell.

In team fights she falls off pretty hard. While tag team is pretty good for traversing the map quickly and split pushing, it falls off severely in team fights and leaves her prone to simply getting trained down if she foolishly gets into melee range of your front line. Don't underestimate her Harrier passive and naturally attrition the lane out. Without a lead, Quinn is essentially a wasted pick that automatically makes your team fighting and late game that much better than her own.





Easy

Playing against Sivir is actually pretty fun. Both her Boomerang Blade and Spell Shield require skill from her end and yours, making the lane an interesting (yet easy) one to play out.

Bait her Spell Shield out or wait for your ADC to force her to use it. Its cooldown is pretty unforgiving, so poke away with Hymn of Valor while its down and punish her inherently short auto attack range.

In lane she is looking to chunk you or your ADC with Boomerang Blade which actually hurts a fair amount. Without proccing her Spell Shield she'll actually run herself out of mana by using it though, so play smart and don't feed her any free mana.

On The Hunt is actually really good when combined with a jungler gank. It's wise to ward heavily against a good Sivir player as the movement speed buff and relatively short cooldown make it pretty menacing to play against if you position poorly.

All in all, this lane is pretty straight-forward and lax on your end. Sivir is in the process of being reworked, so enjoy her current state of weakness until she's given new tools to work with.





Medium

Tristana has one of the strangest yet effective kits in the game. She's an ADC that scales entirely off of AP with the exception of Rapid Fire, a spell so effective that it's actually good enough to forsake her scaling for the purposes of being a long ranged lategame ADC.

There are a few key things to note about this lane. Much like Miss Fortune, playing around Tristana's healing debuff is detrimental to your mana pool during the laning phase. Explosive Shot is pretty efficient harass with the only quirk to it being that it forces you to push the lane on a minion kill. You can mitigate a lot of her damage potential by mastering the fine art of Aria of Perseverance.

Rocket Jump, like Valkyrie, can be cancelled out by Crescendo. Quick reactions can remove her main option for escape and potentially secure a kill in lane for free.

Most Tristana players look to have their Rapid Fire maxed out in sync with the completion of their first item Infinity Edge. Much like Kog'Maw it's also possible for a Tristana to rush towards Blade of the Ruined King, but less likely in the current meta due to Infinity Edge spiking her damage out of her stereotypical midgame lull.

Lategame, Tristana is hard to match for sheer damage and independence due to her Draw a Bead passive and combination of Buster Shot and Rocket Jump. Take advantage of her weaker midgame and don't get baited into Explosive Shot deaths early in the game.





Medium

Despite being unique and slightly unconventional Urgot still presents a pretty terrifying laning phase with decent scaling and incredibly strong damage potential.

Acid Hunter is his entire game and gains lots of compliments from the rest of his kit. Terror Capacitor grants it a slow while Noxian Corrosive Charge grants it targeted lock-on, so dodging Noxian Corrosive Charge (which is a fairly slow projective) is essential to trading with Urgot. Often times simply hiding behind the creep line will force Urgot to try for a lucky Noxian Corrosive Charge to catch you unaware. Quickly dodging and then punishing him will mitigate a lot of the pressure his kit provides in lane.

His strengths lie in his armor shred, especially when combined with Black Cleaver and Last Whisper. Both his Zaun-Touched Bolt Augmenter and Noxian Corrosive Charge shred percentage based armor while Noxian Corrosive Charge also counts as physical damage for the full four stacks of Black Cleaver. This means that Urgot hits hard and is able to focus you down pretty quickly if you're caught out of position.

That said, his build requires a lot of wind-up to get going and as an AD caster he is forced to close out the game sooner than others in order to avoid falling behind more traditional Infinity Edge based ADCs. Either stall it to late or take advantage of his weaker starting build before his midgame kicks in and he's a monster.

Remember that Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser gives him a ton of free armor and magic resistance for 3 seconds after the channel. Focus his support in 2v2 exchanges if he uses it.





Medium

Varus is currently a pretty highly contested pick and with good reason. His Chain of Corruption provides a unique effect for an ADC and allows him to force team fights in ways that other ADCs simply can't.

His damage is also a combination of percentage based health shred and raw AD scaling, making him pretty impossible to build against. Look to see whether he's opted to build for a first item Blade of the Ruined King or not, as his options are pretty wide open and each of them forces you to play slightly different than the other. As a whole, Varus just hits really hard and is tough to win a trade with. Much like Miss Fortune and Tristana, weave your Aria of Perseverance around his Hail of Arrows like a wizard.

His weaknesses stem from his lack of a natural escape outside of Flash or panic Chain of Corruption, leaving him pretty vulnerable to jungle ganks or simply being dived on during team fights. In lane, a smart Crescendo into Power Chord + Song of Celerity can leave him out cold while in team fights your front line should be focusing all of their efforts into pummeling him.

Don't throw the lane to his trading potential and look to burst or lock him down if you're coordinating a kill on him. It's possible to win against Varus, but your windows of time to do so are quick and require fast reactions on your end.





Easy

One of the scariest lategame champions in the game, Vayne suffers from a weaker early game that requires a lot of wind-up to actually get going. Her flexible build order means that it's hard to predict what one Vayne player will rush towards from one game to the next, but as a general rule of thumb it's easy to push Vayne around until she has an item or two under her belt.

Once she has Final Hour she goes into playmaker mode and starts recording for her YouTube highlight reel. Put an end to her fun by using Aria of Perseverance with Power Chord and look to invest into an Oracle's Elixir to stop her Tumble from making her invisible. Removing her options leaves Vayne pretty vulnerable to your front line, especially during the early to mid game.

Lategame, Vayne is a raid boss that in combination with her team's peels will generate pentakills and abrupt endings to whatever gold lead you might have. A lot of this falls on the skill of the Vayne user, though, and one misplay on their end can result in a quick death and loss of game.

Overall, look to punish poor Tumbles and don't die for free to Condemn while you're in your lane brush. You're Vayne's worst enemy in lane and can make her feel miserable if played correctly.
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Patch 3.8 changes

Patch 3.8 brought with it a number of buffs and nerfs that Riot themselves summarized nicely in the patch notes.

"Sona is a consistently strong support, so after we fixed a long-standing bug with Power Chord: Diminuendo we felt she would be a dominant pick without additional balancing. On that note, we’ve reverted some of our older changes to Sona. These changes are designed to maintain her parity with other supports by lowering her early game burst and her late game durability while making her a little more forgiving in the early game."

Sounds pretty straight-forward, but lets break down the changes one by one.



  • Base Health increased to 450 from 410
  • Base Armor increased to 11.3 from 9.3
This combined with Veteran's Scars and possibly Greater Quintessence of Health goes a long way towards alleviating some of the tension in our unfavorable lane match-ups. I'm looking at you, Thresh.

  • Base Power Chord damage changed to 13/20/27/35/43/52/62/72/82/92/102/112/122/132/147/162/177/192 from 8 + (10 x level)
That's a lot of numbers! So, what do they mean?

Basically, our Power Chord now deals less damage. While on the surface it's a nerf, this in combination with the buffs to our base durability help to close some of the gap we have with our poor lane match-ups while making us less oppressive against the Jannas and Sorakas of the world. All in all, this isn't that bad.

I'm glad they fixed this bug. It now being something we have access to is nothing but upside, despite the nerf in duration seeming a little out of place given that we haven't seen the impact Diminuendo will have on this particular meta yet.

  • Bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to self and healed ally reduced to 6/7/8/9/10 from 8/11/14/17/20
  • Changed aura bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to 6/7/8/9/10 from 3/6/9/12/15
Ah, yes. These changes. The good news is that those of us who choose to max Hymn of Valor over Aria of Perseverance will hardly notice anything out of place. Rank 1 Aria of Perseverance is still quite efficient and actually grants a net total of one additional Armor and Magic Resistance with the change.

The problem with this change lies in the flexibility of the champion itself. It's no mystery that the pitiful ratio on Aria of Perseverance already made it less attractive than Hymn of Valor to prioritize in lane at face value, but through expert timing of your Aria of Perseverance activations it was possible to be a little more unusual and leave Hymn of Valor to be skilled second. While controversial, it's undeniable that the previous iteration of Aria of Perseverance was far more attractive to consider as your first maxed ability than this one.

I would have liked to see an increase to the scaling ratio on Aria of Perseverance's activation to make it a little more appealing as a point investment than it is in its current state. As is, we'll have to wait and see if Riot decides to address this in the future or leave Sona forever condemned to a life of maxed Hymn of Valor.
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Changelog

04/24/13 - Guide Release
04/25/13 - Main Build adjusted as an all-around template for the character, preferential build moved onto secondary, added "Utilizing Hymn of Valor" Chapter, added "Carrying with Crescendo" Chapter
04/26/13 - Formatting improvements
04/29/13 - "Match-Ups vs Support" chapter added
06/05/13 - "Match-Ups vs ADCs" chapter added
06/10/13 - Light formatting improvements
06/13/13 - Guide updated overall to Patch 3.8
07/24/13 - Basic updates across the board
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Conclusion / To be continued...

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