Hello, my summoner name is Prime Miniature and I have mained Sona since season 5. Currently, I am Diamond IV in solo queue. I have over 1 million mastery points on Sona with that spicy level 7 mastery spam. Disclaimer: This guide is not meant to explain Sona's ins and outs to beginners, but instead to provide players with an interesting strategy that is as fun as it is effective. Though if you would like some tips check out the Quick Tips chapter.

AP Sona scales super well and has amazing burst with Hymn of Valor Hymn of Valor and Power Chord while also being able to keep herself healthy with her Aria of Perseverance. Though a big downside to this is that her low base AD and lack of wave clear abilities make it almost impossible to farm up so she can generate enough gold for expensive builds. Now with the combined power of Kleptomancy and Frostfang, she can get the income she deserves without the pain of CSing. The other benefit of this build is to ignore the minions and poke the enemy out of lane, denying them any way to get ahead in the game (more on this in the General Strategy section)

Some helpful combos and info to get you started

Power Chords

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Diminuendo

This power chord is like a mini Exhaust. It is best used on the enemy marksmen or Assassin . I would avoid poking with this since its affects are better seen in prolonged combat situations.

Tempo

This is great for chasing enemies down and keeping enemies in place for early ganks. I will also use this for early poke to get in a few extra auto attacks by keeping the enemy from running too far. Be wary of using this to run away since Sona has little attack speed. So I would stick with just Song of Celerity and not autoing for the slow.

Staccato

This Power Chord is super important when trying to burst an enemy, since the extra damage given is often necessary for the kill. Other than that it's great for poking and killing cannon minion

Basic Combos

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Let's one shot the squishy: + + + +
This is your best combo for bursting. Be cautious of using your Flash though, since if you end up in the enemy team you might not make it out.

Early poking fun: + + +
Personally I like using this early since it keeps the enemy in range long enough for you to get both you Hymn of Valor and its mini auto attack buff.

Lichbane PSA: [ANY ABILITY] + +
Lich Bane synergizes extremely well with Sona's kit but thats only if you rember to use it. I find Song of Celerity + Lich Bane + Attack Speed a great way to clear waves. Due to its mana costs, avoid using Aria of Perseverance just to get a Lich Bane proc.

In essence you are a support, but you do ~TONS~ of damage. You're gonna want to poke a lot early to get those Spellthief's Edge + Kleptomancy stacks. Then later focus on bursting people with Power Chord + Hymn of Valor + Crescendo.

Lane Match-Ups and Synergies

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For your lane partner you will generally want a supportive tank such as Taric, Braum, or Leona. This way your support can peel for you, absorb damage, and pass you those spicy Relic Shield stacks. Though don't let this keep you away from trying out other things! I've seen success with Pyke and Jarvan IV. The main thing is that your support can help keep you alive and provide lots of early pressure.

Now on the flip side: your opponent. Be aware of super aggressive early game champions such as Lucian who can poke you out of lane if you don't play smart. The same goes for hard engage like Blitzcrank. Later in the game your main worry will be assassins since you don't have many escapes, save for Flash.

Early Game

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Your main goal of early game is to poke the enemy out of lane. Do not worry about killing your opponents, just keep them off of the farm, and preferably out of exp range. Though if you can't zone them off don't worry too much there are more ways to play this match up.

Generally, you will want the wave in one of two places. Either, under the enemy's turret (with proper warding) so that it is harder for them to get CS, and you can poke whenever they try. Or under your turret. Since losing CS is not a big worry for you, this makes the enemy susceptible to ganks and you can still poke.

Early game is a very tricky time for Sona, her Power Chord will do a solid chunk of any ADC's health bar, but any engage on her will at the bare minimum chunk her health bar, but will usually blow a summoner or worst case, Sona's death. This can be avoided by using minions as living shields and waiting for your enemy to blow their poke before going in (since cool downs are normally quite long at this point).

Since you are still trying to complete your quest, at this point you should take as little cs as possible. A general rule is to take only the cannon minion. You may also take about 2 cs before you back, although take too many and Frostfang's cool down will be too long.

Note: Once you complete your quest begin to farm normally.

Mid Game

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At this point you should have completed your quest and have hopefully been able to take turret. Since the enemy ADC should behind in exp and gold you will have a much stronger roam than they do. Begin causing chaos around the map with the help of your support >:).

On your own you won't be able to one shot anyone yet (just do a large portion of their health) so stay close to your support/ other team mates. Also take advantage off Eye of Frost and Oracle Lens to keep your map lit up and the enemy's map dark. This will only further your lead by making roams and objectives less obvious.

Late Game

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Now is your time to shine. Use Crescendo to catch out squishies or to start good team fights. Power Chord + Lich Bane + Hymn of Valor should be able to deal 90% of any squishy's health bar.
Tip: use Hymn of Valor to proc Banshee's Veil since it has a low cool down and the majority of your damage is from Power Chord + Lich Bane

At this point it is important to stick with your team. You have terrible wave clear so pushing out a lane will take forever and leaves you vulnerable to being caught out. You will be quite slippery with Song of Celerity and upgraded Slightly Magical Boots, as well as protection with Seraph's Embrace, Aria of Perseverance, and Banshee's Veil (if you have it). Crescendo can be used to help you get a way, but keep this in mind next fight if its still on cool down.

Early Items

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Start your early game off right

Spellthief's Edge

A staple among Sona supports for its gold generation and extra damage. Since you will not be CSing (for the majority of the game) this item is key in granting extra gold generation. It can easily be procced with either Power Chord or Hymn of Valor for high damage results.

*Don't forget to upgrade to Frostfang on the first back since you gain 20 extra gold per proc and can complete the quest*

Tear of the Goddess

Normally, Sona can thrive without tear by using carefully timed spells (for an AP mid versions) or mana regeneration (for support versions). Though since 0cs Sona combines an AP mid build with the poke of a support, tear is an essential item to allow for constant aggression with Hymn of Valor and heals with Aria of Perseverance

The Core Build

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Essential items to build every game

Seraph's Embrace

This is you first full item. When completed it should give you about 130 AP (50 base + about 80 from its passive) as well as a beefy shield and 20 cdr. Since Sona thrives when she can spam her abilities you can usually stack a Tear of the Goddess around 20 minutes. Building Archangel's Staff first allows you to speed up your stacking by increasing the mana given per stack to 8 from 4.

Lich Bane

This item synergizes well with Sona's Power Chord and turns Aria of Perseverance and Song of Celerity into damaging abilities with its passive. The extra mana will also boost your AP with Seraph's Embrace and the 10 cdr will get you to the 45 cap with Transcendence and Cosmic Insight. While Lich Bane is apart of your core build, it will probably be your third major item (excluding Mejai's Soulstealer(if you roll that way) and Frostfang). Often times building a defensive item after Seraph's Embrace will will be more beneficial to securing Mejai's Soulstealer stacks than more damage.

Sorcerer's Shoes

Boots are an essential item on almost any champion. Even though Sona already gains a lot of movement speed from Song of Celerity, boots allow her to better catch up to opponents and run away when she gets into a sticky situation. Since you won't be roaming too much Mobility Boots are unnecessary. Your runes and build should be giving you enough cdr, so Ionian Boots of Lucidity are not needed either. Seraph's Embrace and Aria of Perseverance should give you enough sustain so defensive boots aren't super useful. This leaves just Sorcerer's Shoes (Though this is more just to explain why we don't go with the others. These boots are not a last choice, since flat magic pen works wonders on squishies.)

Offensive Items

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More damage is more good

Rabadon's Deathcap

Hat is the perfect late game item. It is expensive, so it will minimize the amount of gold you have sitting around. It gives you a **** ton of AP and increases the AP you already had at a point when your only goal is to burst down the enemy's carries and tip that last team fight in your favor.

Void Staff

Magic Resist: the bane of any burst mage's existence. If you end up against a particularly tanky team, Void Staff's 40% magic penetration will shred through their MR like a cheese grater. This will often be built instead of Rabadon's Deathcap.

Morellonomicon

Flat magic pen is not the best against tanks, but it does wonders against squishes' measly defenses. It also gives you a little bit of health for when you are taking a lot of damage but not necessarily getting bursted or cc'ed. Greivous wounds are also a great solution for any high healing enemies such as Soraka and Vladimir.

Defensive Items

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Help avoid that pesky burst and keep from getting caught out

Banshee's Veil

This is my preferred defensive item. The spell shield passive will make any champion think twice before engaging on you while its up. It forces burst champions to lose an entire ability if they try to one shot you, allowing you to either kill them or run away and heal up.

Zhonya's Hourglass

Zhonya's is a little more tricky to use than Banshee's Veil since it not only requires you to actively use it but also expects you to be able to save yourself after two seconds. This item is obviously great against Zed or any team with a lot of ad burst. Though its active can be tricky since it allows the enemy time to line up cc and gather around you. Though it also allows you time to wait for your cooldowns to come back up or your teammates to arrive/kill the enemy.

~ * What's Life without a little risk? * ~

General

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The Mejai's Soulstealer line is super gold efficient, which synergizes with 0 cs very well. Though it is a very high risk/ high reward type deal. So if you keep dying its not gonna benefit you much. The other draw back is that buying a dark seal early will set your build back a little bit since that 350 g could be going towards your core build. My general recommendation for this item line is either if you are smashing (and even then this can throw off your pacing) or if you are playing this strat for fun. As for when to build it, Dark Seal is generally bought around the same time as Tear of the Goddess and Frostfang and it should be upgraded around 7- 8 stacks. But its never to late to start stacking!

The Items

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Dark Seal

This item is super efficient. It will help a ton with your early sustain since it gives 100 extra mana and increases healing you get from potions. Of course its stacking is amazing since Sona can tend to keep herself alive and thriving in the backline with her range and healing, as well as pick up easy assists along the way.

Mejai's Soulstealer

Fully stacked, Mejai's Soulstealer is super efficient granting 10% ms and 140 AP. As mentioned under Dark Seal section, stacks are super easy to come by and not too hard to maintain. Although unfortunate circumstances do happen, so if you are getting focused to death every fight and cannot consistently keep about half of its stacks, sell this for another item.

Warding Totem

This is the standard starting trinket. It will allow you to ward bushes to keep tricky laners from using them for unexpected engages and the river to keep that enemy jungler from succeeding their gank.

Control Ward

These are great to simultaneously give you team vision and deny the enemy vision of an area. They also work wonders early when vision is limited or your jungler wants to sneak a drake. Try and buy one of these whenever you have room and gold to do so.

Oracle Lens

One you complete Frostfang's quest, keeping the Stealth Ward around is unnecessary. Sweeper is nice since it allows you help you team clear out enemy vision and provide you jungler with easy paths to gank from.

Farsight Alteration

Around your fourth or fifth item inventory space gets tight. Since Frostfang has paid its self back and then some by this point, selling it is often for the best. It is a cheap item and does not give any key stats. When you do this, buying Farsight Alteration will allow you to get vision on the map and ward far away objectives, such as baron nashor.

Inspiration

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Bend those rules to your will

Kleptomancy

This rune synergizes well with Power Chord and Lich Bane and is the bread and butter to this build. Since you will not be farming, you need to make up for lost income. Kleptomancy allows for you gain gold from harassing enemy. It will also occasionally drop Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will and Mana Potion that allow you to sustain the lane better.

Note: On average you will gain more from gambling you sacks of gold instead of selling them.

Magical Footwear

Free boots allow you reach your core build faster and give you some extra movement speed in the process. Since Song of Celerity gives Sona some movement speed when active she can wait the 12 minutes for a free pair of boots and be perfectly fine. (This is still one of the best runes in this tier even with the recent nerfs)

Biscuit Delivery

Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will give you amazing sustain early. Though since it is based off of missing health and mana, save it for when you are super low. Often going through Health Potions and Mana Potions first is recommended. The other benefit to Biscuit Delivery is that it will increase your mana pool every time a Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will is consumed (even ones from Kleptomancy)

Cosmic Insight

This rune is great since you'll almost always get 40 CDR. So the little extra is pretty nice, especially since Tear of the Goddess gives you a near infinite mana pool. The other benefit is the extra CDR on your summoners, allowing you out of sticky situations more often or to Flash + Crescendo for kills a little sooner.

Sorcery

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Nothing a little magic won't fix

Manaflow Band

This rune gives you 250 extra mana and then increases your mana regeneration, allowing you to spam more (while also gaining some AP thanks to Seraph's Embrace).

Gathering	Storm	Transcendence
	This rune has great scalings and will give you a little extra oomf when you hit that spicy late game. Though due to the time it takes to ramp up, its best saved for metas with long games.		For metas when the game is decided well before late game, I would recommend this rune. It comes online faster and Sona never complains about extra cdr ;).

6 March 2019 4:52 AM EST: Guide Posted
6 March 2019 1:57 PM EST: Strategy Updated
6 March 2019 5:27 PM EST: Matchups Updated
7 March 2019 10:30 PM EST: Jarvin Explanation Added
7 March 2019 11:19 PM EST: Fixed Spelling and Grammar
7 March 2019 11:59 PM EST: Matchups Updated
8 March 2019 1:28 PM EST: Fixed Starting Potions
11 March 2019 12:37 PM EST: Lich Bane Description Updated
24 March 2019 8:17 PM EST: Synergies Updated & Jarvin Chapter Archived
5 May 2019 12:46 AM EST: Updated Runes & fixed typos
5 May 2019 10:56 PM EST: Updated Introduction & fixed typos
6 May 2019 1:34 AM EST: Matchups Updated
6 May 2019 2:33 AM EST: General Strategy updated
10 June 2019 9:50 PM EST: Mejai's line Chapter added & Mejai's updated
10 June 2019 10:04 PM EST: Grammar & boots updated
16 July 2019 10:21 AM EST: Runes Updated
17 July 2019 7:58 PM EST: Spelling & Grammar
17 July 2019 8:15 PM EST: Match-Ups better explained
19 July 2019 1:50 AM EST: Synergies Updated
19 July 2019 2:05 AM EST: Grammar
31 July 2019 11:39 PM EST: Quick Tips added
16 October 2019 12:56 AM EST: Intro Updated

This section is just so that early parts of the guide can still be seen. These are not maintained.

Why Jarvin IV?

Jarvan IV is a surprisingly good support for a 0 cs Sona lane. By building a Spellthief's Edge early and transitioning into support (e max), j4 can provide powerful poke in the early game using his flag while transitioning into a useful utility tank for the midgame. Jarvan IV's ability to empower Sona's strength early and protect her weakness after laning phase makes him quite powerful.