Hello and welcome to my guide for Sona (most notably support Sona). I will cover most if not everything to do with not only Sona but support in general for beginners.

About me:
I am a permanent support in my 5v5 ranked team and will be for life, I love supporting and would like to help others support too :).

Whats covered:

In this guide I shall go over item builds, rune pages, mastery trees and summoner spells. Also covering why I pick certain items over others etc.

Pros:
+ Very bursty damage
+ Great utility in team fights
+ Smart casts
+ Her ulti has amazing potential to turn a teamfight around
+ Great with all champions
+ short cool downs

Cons
-Very Squishy
-Smart Casts healing the wrong person
-Very team reliant
-Can easily ruin a teamfight

The rune page I use for Sona may not be optimal to all players but it suits my play style and more importantly, my lane partner.

Marks -

I use armor marks ( Greater Mark of Armor) because of the survivability. Sona as a champion is very squishy and throwing bonus armor from marks can help you survive the focus from the enemy AD carry long enough for your carry to get an easy first blood. This is why I invest in armor seals, but if you want to use alternatives because you don't play an aggressive lane you can invest in Regeneration ( Greater Mark of Vigor) marks. The health per second isn't as useful as the armor but can help you out of certain situations i.e a fail gank without popping your health pots.


Seals -


I use mana regeneration seals ( Greater Seal of Replenishment) for the lane sustainability and just the ability to use my spells without running dry by the time it comes for the first blood. Not a lot of Sona players agree with the mana regeneration marks, but trust me if you are constantly trying to proc a power chord you will run dry... these runes help this A LOT.

Glyphs -

I use intellect glyphs ( Greater Glyph of Mana) to contrast with my seals. Increased mana allows for more casts early game, while your seals keep your increased pool high. These runes i can't see myself replacing, the bonus mana is too useful and helps a ton.

Quintessences -

For my quints I use flat ability power ( Greater Quintessence of Ability Power). I admit this aint too useful on Sona support but it does help me harass in lane and powers up my heal. If you do not want to get ability power quints, I would get cool down reduction ( Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction). This just means more heals and faster power chords.

this is just my 2 cents on Sona's rune page but again these runes fit my play style and lane. These runes are perfect for aggressive lanes that require you too cast a ton of spells in order to get early kills. As I say however not everyone is in this sort of lane, needing to replace runes if you are in a passive farm lane.



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My mastery page is very cookie cutter, easy to work through and work with.
Using a 0 - 9 - 21 build. Taking mana regen health regen and neutral buff duration for when the jungler is nice enough to give you blue.

Utility gives Sona everything she could ask for including bonus cool down reduction. The masteries should be fairly self explanatory and straight forward.

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Now my item build on Sona is typical in terms of support items, starting off with Faerie Charm and Sight Wards. Building into your Philosopher's Stone. Building very quickly into Boots and Heart of Gold. Now with 2 gold per 10's, you should have stable income, enough for your Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Shurelya's Battlesong. Buying Sight Wards in between is critical - wards win games so keep your team alert ward the entire map if you have to. The build from this point onward is very much down to personal preference I tend to build into an Aegis of the Legion and Spirit Visage but you can build into more AP if you think it is necessary (just remember you are not there to do damage you are there to help others do damage and secure easy kills, keeping people alive in the process). I will however say, I have played a lot of successful Sona builds that go for an early Rabadon's Deathcap... its nice but it only works if you are going full balls to the wall in your lane and since most bottom lanes don't usually dive in on each other and see what happens, I don't think a support doing more damage helps.

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The skill sequence for Sona is very situational, requiring a lot of thought and planning... whatever you max first could drastically improve the outcome of a teamfight... or ruin the teamfight entirely. Don't panic, this part will tell you how to make the choice easier.

Hymn of Valor-

This ability (as with all of Sona's primary abailities) has an active aura and an instant effect. When activated this ability damages enemies around Sona. The aura of this ability is the fun bit :) The aura increases the attack damage and ability power of nearby allies. Max this ability first if your lane is doing well and doesnt require a lot of healing.

Aria of Perseverance-

This ability/aura is the bread and butter support ability i.e a heal. The active effect is a smart cast heal (meaning it heals the ally with the lowest health you cannot choose who it heals). The passive aura increases the magic resistance and armor of all nearby allies. This ability should be maxed first if your lane is getting owned early game, the magic resistance and heals in quick succession really can turn a lane around :).

Song of Celerity-

This ability/aura is very interesting, think of it like a mini Shurelya's Battlesong. The active effect gives nearby allies a strong boost of speed for 1.5 seconds while the passive aura gives them a weaker boost of speed. I cannot recommend maxing this spell out first however, but take a point in it early for its utility.

Crescendo-

This spell is Sona's ulti and gives her the ability to turn team fights around. This spell stuns everyone in a cone infront of Sona for 1.5 seconds. Take this spell like all ultis at level 6 - 11 - 18. Use this spell mid way through the teamfight for max effectiveness. You can however use it to start a fight if the enemy are scared.

Power Chord

Power Chord is Sona's passive and just happens to be my favorite passive in the game. Every time you cast 3 spells/'auras' you get a bonus to one of your spells:

Hyhm of Valor - If you are in your H yhm of Valor aura your you auto attack an enemy you can get a lot of burst damage off on one target.

Aria of Perseverance - If you are in your Aria of Perseverance aura and you auto attack an enemy that enemy does 20% less damage. Very useful for hard hitting champions like Lee Sin... ugh

Song of Celerity - If you are in your Song of Celerity aura and auto attack an enemy you slow the enemy for 40% less movement speed. Great for ganks or when enemies are running away from your power.




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This is where it is very easy:

In my eyes the best support summoner spells are Flash and Clairvoyance. I can't recommend taking anything else apart from this and here is why.

Flash - Flash is essential to just about everyone but for Sona I see it being more useful than normal. Sona has no natural escapes apart from a minor speed buff) and flashing through a wall can mean the difference between life or death. You can also use Flash to duke silly AD carries and kite them around while your AD carry gets an easy kill.

Clairvoyance - Clairvoyance Is the support summoner spell. This spell could save your top lanes life, or your junglers time. I reccomend Clairvoyanceing every cooldown even in random places throughout the enemy jungle, JUST to keep tabs on what the enemy jungler is doing. Another use for Clairvoyance is to see where the enemy jungler is starting, seeing if you can get an easy invade on their red buff.

Now we take Sona into the Lane. Laning as Sona is very simple. From the second you spawn pick your Hymn of Valor, and use the spell to activate the aura... now do this every time it comes off cooldown to proc a Power Chord. Your early laning is harassing with your Q and the Power Chord we proced earlier. Now that they are fairly low... your AD carry can now do his job... getting the kill (please note be atleast level 2 before attempting kills... or it might not end well). when your AD carry goes in for the fight press your Hymn of Valor, for the quick damage and use your Aria of Perseverance for increased resistance and for the heal. Your auras stack (for a few seconds)so feel free to.

Now that you have drawn first blood you may want to Sight Wardward. Sight WardWard near dragon. This will protect your lane and dragon all at once.

So now your level 6... teamfights are in your favour, with your aoe stun. Don't inititate with the stun however leave it till the first death (wether on your team or not) and then kill them in the stun (not you personaly but your team will clean it up).

Laning from this point onward your lane is steady...stun and kill anyone that commits to a fight with you. Sona is fairly reliant on a team mate or 4, so don't try to do anything too extreme on your own.

I hope this gives a basic runthrough of how to lane and win fights :P as support Sona.

So this is where i call the guide to an end, please be sure to discuss etc.

So Sona in a nut shell is a very easy champion but can win or lose games. Like all supports your Sight Wardwards protect against ganks and enemy dragons. Sona is generally a support for aggressive lanes that want to get kills (that is why I refrence first blood so often). But Sona can be used for a passive farm lane, but be aware that Soracka is the support for that kind of lane. Sona's passive Power Chord is the only hard bit, but you do get used to using it:

Every 3 attacks switch to your Hyhm of Valor and auto attack the enemy for bonus damage. I only use power chord in Hyhm of Valor because bonus damage on a target can mean life or death for the enemy.

So I hope you enjoyed my Sona guide and took something away from it. Please be sure to vote it up and help me conquer the world one day Help more players.