Hi there! I'm sir monsieur of RU server. I'm playing League since 2012 with long breaks but great pleasure, but I'm not usually playing Zed mid, Darius top and all that meta usual ********, you know. I love this game for it's flexibility. I had Platinum on EU West in s7 and I wasn't hardstuck there, but it wasn't that interesting to carry on. I know there is a skillcap I'll not be able to reach because I'm having fun of this game, not like challenging and daring it for perfection. Although I'm usually doing some nasty things on my RU account (like this apparently troll guide), I still have 57% toplane winrate in Ranked and 66% winrate on Toplane Sona in normal, and I will continue to test this thing and update this guide. And yeah, I plan to bring it to ranked games (Gold II so far).

Prepare to have some fun reading this guide and keep in mind that it isn't a 100% trolling. It really works.

Pros + Very surprising + Super annoying + Hard poke + Good sustain + Best Kleptomancy rune abuse in entire game + Very mobile mid-late game + Good ganks synergy + Good roaming + Sudden effect of midgame appearance

Cons Very squishy - Hard to master (unlike support Sona) - Doesn't forgive mistakes - Weak in close combat - Weak in sudden jungle duelling - Useless if behind - Useless in various team matchups - Your team will hate you -

When to play

When your team support plays tank, mage or any other role that is not pure utility support. Supports like Yuumi, Nami, Janna, Lulu are only good if your team has enough tankiness or damage to support, you know, something. Remember, that picking Sona on top lane means not picking Galio or Ryze for your team.

When enemy toplaner plays tank. It's not like you must avoid to face other champions, but tanks are perfect to stand against. Champions like Sion or Garen will suffer a lot for they have no possibility to reach you and they need to approach minions to farm. They will also be a great source of income for they have nothing to do with your Hymn of Valor and Kleptomancy.

When you are ready to have fun. I mean - nobody will take it seriously, at least in the beginning. If you will try to prove something to somebody, you will most likely damage your ego and mood. This build is hard to master but fun to play.

When NOT to play

When your team support plays Yuumi, Nami, Janna, Lulu or other utility support. In this case your pick will weaken your team for reason, as you may have noticed, there were no meta for two utility supports in one team yet. No more comments.

When you cannot recognize your role in teamplay and only wanna boost KDA for any cost. Remember that kills aren't your main farm source, you mostly farm with minions and Kleptomancy procs. You are still support, and if you can give a kill to your jungler or midlaner - do it. That's one of the unique factors that makes Sona different from other toplaners - she's absolutely not kill-hungry and can concede 'em to those who really need 'em

Inspiration

Inspiration is the only viable option for this build. More than that, almost all main runes have no alternative, but it is for a reason. Sona has a hard time with farming, especially after Spellthief's Edge is no longer procs it's gold effect when you're solo. As Sona you'll not be able to take all the minions for sometimes it is too dangerous for you to approach caster minions. Also it's not easy to farm under tower with her (which you will most likely do a lot). From my experience 70-80 CS in 10 minutes is a very, very good result. Average 10 min CS is 50-60. However, Kleptomancy will help you a lot.

Kleptomancy is your playmaker. While Glacial Augment will provide you an additional slow on-hit effect, which is perfect for additional safety and your jungler ganks support (especially with Song of Celerity Power Chord), it cannot beat amount of sustain/safety consumables and hundreds of gold given by Kleptomancy. Unsealed Spellbook's bonuses like changing Teleport something more useful later aren't near as good as that. And the reason is: you'll be able to land 2 charged auto-attacks (which is homing, goes through minions and has a 550 range) with your Hymn of Valor every 8 seconds for only 50-70 mana.

Every Kleptomancy-charged auto-attack gives you 5 gold; Every Kleptomancy-charged auto-attack has ~20% chance to give you a consumable. It may be one of those (in the descending order of chance): Pilfered Health Potion, Mana Potion, Pilfered Stealth Ward, Pilfered Potion of Rouge, Sly Sack of Gold, Looted Oracle's Extract, Peering Farsight Ward, Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will, Control Ward, Travel Size Elixir of Iron, Travel Size Elixir of Sorcery, Travel Size Elixir of Wrath, Elixir of Skill.

I didn't found any trustworthy sources of exact chances, so maybe later I'll do an investigation on this subject. Anyways, frequency Sona can abuse this rune with is scary, same as usefulness of consumables it provides for lane sustain.

Magical Footwear wins over Perfect Timing for faster early game scaling, where this 300 gold economy may be important and for small but essential movement speed boost for such move sspeed dependent character as Sona on top lane. Perfect Timing may seem to be working with Zed, Talon, Nocturne jungle and other bursting champion matchups, but the Replica Stopwatch will become active later than all these champions reach their lvl 6 power spike. You need it earlier.

Minion Dematerializer will help you a lot with farming, both giving you additional auto-attack damage (which is very weak with no AD champion like Sona) and an opportunity to CS 3 more minions - I hardly recommend to use the item only when you see that you will lose CS. As far as you want to use it on 3 minion types, it will save you ~100 gold. Biscuit Delivery is a viable option only if you feel that you will need more sustain or spend a lot of mana: the trick here is that if you gain Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will by Kleptomancy, it will also increase your maximum mana same as biscuits provided by rune, if it is selected. Another use for it is combining it with Time Warp Tonic to gain sudden healing boost versus bursting champions (consuming Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will & Health Potion with this rune will instantly heal you for 5% of missing health + 75 HP.

Cosmic Insight seems to be the best choice here. The reason is not only CD reduction itself, but also the fact that Sona needs to use 3 basic abilities to activate Power Chord effect. The faster you can do it, the more you will be able to land your passive effects on enemies, which is a big part of Sona usefulness. However, you may also pick Time Warp Tonic for healing bursts if you feel you need them. As described above, consuming Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will & Health Potion with this rune will instantly heal you for 5% of missing health + 75 HP. Combine this with Aria of Perseverance's healing and shield, and say if you're half down on HP, you will preclude ~150 true damage, which is more than Nullifying Orb can provide against physical damage only. If you have a Dark Seal, this "combo" will make you feel like a freaking uber- Volibear.

No other runepage will provide you with that amount of sudden op lane cheating.

Sorcery

Sorcery is the most comfortable option for secondary runepage. But if you dare, there is a Resolve alternative with it's own sort of fun.

Manaflow Band helps a lot with early game mana issues. No other option in this line is any useful for Sona. Nullifying Orb is not of that much use even in AP matchups since they are pretty rare on top lane and Sona has many other sustain tools.