~This guide is subject to change at any time.

This guide will entail how to play Sona in an agressive way, though, you'll need to adapt for passive times. Which there will definetly be.

I'm looking to get a good example of a Sona game for this guide, so please be patient if you want a video.

Let's get into the most important part of any guide. No, no the skilling, even though I put down MY STANDARD Sona skill points, you HAVE to adapt this to how YOU play, and WHAT you NEED. I'll try to be abit more indepth about that in the skill section.

But, this section is for items, as it should be.



Sight Ward
Buy a ward, stop a gank. (Will be getting a minimap to show you where good places to ward are)


Either You or the Jungler NEED to get this.



I know right away I'm gonna get atleast SOME flak for putting Boots of Swiftness as recommended. Though these are what I've found can work for ME, I imagine Mercury Treads will be better against AP heavy/CC heavy teams.

Philosopher's Stone
~Obviously Philo stone is an item you want on Sona. Due to the mana regen and health regen, aswell as being a key component to Shurelya's Battlesong which is amazing in combination with your E ( Song of Celerity). This is also an item you're gonna want to pick up because of the GP/10.

~Though double Faerie charm (1st build) is somewhat unusual. The reason I do this on the 1st build is to make it an easier, and cheaper, transition to Mana Manipulator, which is a component to Soul Shroud.


zeke's herald AND !?!?!?!?
~Calm down, Zeke's Herald is amazing, espicaly if you manage to get your AD fed, your AD is pretty strong, and you have another strong AD on your team, or if your team is heavily AD based.
~Iron Locket of the Solari... Well. Honestly I get this item just because it's cheaper then Randuin's Omen and a component of it is the GP/10 item Heart of Gold. You could probably find another item to sub it out for...



Yes.



Yeah yeah yeah, again I'll get flak for suggesting a support might want to pick this up. Though you should ONLY get this if your AP doesn't plan on getting it. I honestly am still TESTING THIS BUILD, so this may be removed/moved.



Honestly, I only build this amazing item when a good bit of the team are mana users. Other then that it's not a very good item and can probably be substituted for something else.

First off, I need to say something about her passive: Power Cord
Later on, you'll be able to spam your skills to be able to get the 3 stacks. You get 1 stack gained per skill,Q,W,E used, and your ult does not gain a stack.

Assuming you can waste the mana/use the mana, here are the combinations I use for each of my Power Cords.
For this I will assume you know what aura does what,there default keybind, and what the powerchord does. If not, please refer a little later down in this section for which abilties do what and there default keybinds. This will also not deal with using Sona's ult, because it is situational.

~Running away:
Q, W, E, use powercord on closest threat
This sequence makes sure you have your W aura (defensive aura) up for the duration of the E cooldown (assuming it was on a cooldown)

~Chasing:
W,Q,E, use power cord on E on target
You need to be able to keep the damage bonus from Q when your E is on cooldown while chasing.

~Damage:
E,W,Q, use power cord on Q on target
This sequence is based on doing damage to the target. Though the reason you don't do W first, then E is because, if Q is on Cooldown, which I will assume it is, then you WANT the defensive bonus from the W aura. You don't want to chase, you want to do damage, and take damage.

Diving under a tower with a teammate:
Q,E,W, Use power cord on W on the highest damage dealing champ nearby.
You need to make sure you're already taking the least ammount of damage while diving. So using the W power chord will ensure that for a second you have the oppurtinity to take the least ammount of damage while under the tower. So, with W also being the last Aura Skill you use, you not only get the bonus of the -dmg power chord, but you also get the bonus of the defensive aura.


~Team Fighting (Defensive):
Q,E,W FIND BIGGEST DAMAGE DEALER ON ENEMY TEAM AND POWER CHORD W THEM
As with diving, you need to keep the defensive aura up. The offensive aura (q) won't do you any good in a defensive fight.

~Team Fighting (Offensive)
Substitue the Defensive team fighting sequence, chasing sequence, or damage sequence for this one, depending on the situation. If they're running, use the chasing sequence, stnading and fighting with a weak team, damage sequence, and if any of them is strong, use the Defensive Team Fighting sequence.

This section will be focused on what Sona's skills are, what they do, and what skills you should prioritize.



Though I was going to leave level 1 skill open to get whatever you NEED. I figured it'd be easiest to just put my STANDARD skill sequence.

Alright, on to the skills, what they do, and why you'll level them. In this order:




As with most champions, you're gonna want to pick up your ult at every chance possible.
With Sona it's just as true. Her ult is ridiclously amazing. It's a 1.5 second stun with these stats
Cost: 100 / 150 / 200 mana

Cooldown: 140 / 120 / 100 seconds

Magic Damage: 150 / 250 / 350 (+0.8 per ability power)

At rank 3, with a 100 second cooldown+ all the CDR you'll have (going with build 1 for this), it'll be on a fairly short cooldown. Though this ult is a skill shot, it can be either incredibly useful, or a worthless skill if you can't hit it at the right time.

Ex: Gank stopping:
Enemy Jungler walks into side brush bottom lane, you're purple team, your ward died 15 seconds ago and you've been under heavy agression and can't go back without fear for tower dying. You hit 6 right as the enemy jungler jumps in. As soon as the jungler jumps in, the opposing 2 players in bot lane also jump onto your AD. Your AD's flash and cleanse is up and your ult,flash and exhaust is also up. You exhaust the enemy AD, and use your ult on the, now 3 person, pile that's on your AD. He cleanses the stun and flashes out, and you also flash back.

Of course this attempt at trying to describe, move for move, what could happen in a bot gank, it probably has a few errors that WILL be fixed as I get flamed for it.




Active Ability: Deals magic damage to 2 targets nearby. Priortizes nearby champions.
Magic Damage: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 (+0.7 per ability power)

Persistent Aura: Extra AD and AP to nearby friendly champions
Bonus Attack Damage & Bonus Ability Power: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20

Cooldown: 7 seconds

Power Chord: Staccato: Sona's next basic attack will do double damage

The bonus damage at rank 5 aswell as the damage done by this skill at rank 5 is reason enough to prioritize ranking up this skill first. Also, if you want to do any poke damage, you'll need to rank this up...Poking with this aura and a power chord will do a good chunk of damage.




[Icon=Aria of Perseverance size=64)
Stats:
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Persistant Aura Bonus:Bonus Armor & Bonus Magic Resist: 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15

Active: Heal: 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+0.25 per ability power)

Power Chord: Diminuendo: The target of this power chord has damage done reduced by 20% for 4 seconds.

As much as people think of Sona as a sustain support, she's more of a poke support.If you have to heal someone up, you can over the span of a minute. But unless you can grab a blue (hahahahaha) it's very unlikely you'll be left with more then 25% mana by the time you've finished healing.




Stats:
Cost: 65 mana
Cooldown: 7 seconds

Active ability: Nearby allied champions gain bonus movement speed: 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20%

Persistant Aura: Nearby allied champion gain bonus movement speed: 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 14%

Power Chord: Tempo: Target of this power chord has movement speed reduced by 40% for 2 seconds.

This ability is great for escaping. Though it's not a huge boost of speed, it can make a diffrence. The power chord is also AMAZING for ganks/chasing, or even just walking away from a melee champ that doesn't have his gap closer on the ready.

Alright,I've come up with 3 lane styles that CAN work with Sona.
Passive/Defensive
Agressive
Tower Pushing

~Tower Pushing:

To use this style, it's interesting. You're gonna want to focus on pokinng down the other team. So having a champ with you like Caitlin, Ezreal, or even Graves will do you well here. Your goal is not to get kills. You want to poke when they enemy is there, and almost completly ignore minions, and push like hell when the enemy isn't. In this style warding is ESSENTITAL. If you don't ward river/tri-brush and the other team is semi-intelligent and sends down a champ to help deal with you, you're pretty dead.

Again: Map of where to ward is to come



~Passive/Defensive

Sometimes you'll be forced to play passively. In this lane combo it's best to be with, say Cait. Because of Cait's long range, you'll be able to play more passively disengage from any attempts at ganks easily.

But say you're pairing with an Ashe, but the other team has a Janna:Graves combo that knows what they're doing. And after the first 2minutes in lane, it's clear you have to play defensively. You'll most likely be forced to stay semi-close to tower. But you still have to remember to ward. Otherwise a dive including the enemy jungler could end with a double kill and a dead tower.

*To clear up where to ward in this senario:

Purple team when pushed up to tower line:
Try to ward near dragon and the river brush. But whatever you do. Do NOT take chances for warding the river brush. If you KNOW you can get away with warding it, go ahead. But normaly in the scenario I'll head in my jungle and on the high ground toss a ward next to the brush. YOU CAN WARD OVER WALLS.


~Agressive

With this set up you're more then likely gonna want a champion like Graves, Cait, or Ez. You're going to want to set up a ward at around 1:35ish inbetween drag and the enmies blue camp, in the river. The time is to take advantage of when people tend to head back to help jungler at blue. If he isn't starting blue, even better. This time is to try to put you in the least ammount of danger possible, while still getting that ward there. Also, if the enemy jungler has a dash that they can use to wall jump, a ward at river brush might be useful aswell.

Now that you've done that, it's time to start harrasing with your Q and taking advantage if the other team pushes even abit far foward. Really all I can do is give an example of a lane match up for this in text, and hopefuly later in a video.

Ex: You're blue team. Matchup is you and Miss Fortune vs Cait Janna

You buy your starting items and make your way to sit at tribrush. At 1:38 you put down a ward inbetween dragon and blue camp. The enemy jungler is Skarner, so you figure you don't have to worry until level 6 for an effective gank.
3:16, you've been farming for abit and poking down Cait and Janna with your Q harras. MF has just been farming, and she outlevels Cait by a level. To try to catch up, Cait and Janna try to clear the wave, that was pushing against them slightly. As they do this they come just past the middle of the lane. Your exhaust is up and you exhaust Cait (who was at 70% health) and also Q her to get rid of the Janna shield that was on her, and Power Chord her down to roughly 65%. MF Makes it Rain for additonal slows and starts pounding on Cait. Caitlyn falls right before you use your next Power Chord Q on her. You switch to your movement speed Aura to make escape impossible for Janna and also Power Chord Slow her.
~DOUBLE KILL~

Thanks for reading my guide, give me some feedback. My first guide and I've also stopped playing League for awhile. So I'm getting back into it. If you see a mistake, or got a suggestion for what could be in here, tell me and it might (most likely) shall be done.

To come:
~More items/situational items/substituational items
~Summoner Skills expalined
~Map for wards
~Chapter on Warding
~Videos
~Runes (Explained)
~Masteries (Explained)