(Previous Articles: LustBoy's Lulu | Wickd's On-Hit Irelia)

Welcome to another one of my articles about champion builds. In this article, I'll be talking about support Sona with magic penetration.

How is this different from normal support Sona builds?
Support Sona typically builds double GP10 and then auras like Aegis of the Legion, Zeke's Herald, and Shurelya's Battlesong. This build emphasizes her nasty passive damage and builds for magic pen early on rather than auras for lane dominance.

Why does this build work?
Sona is incredibly strong at level one due to her magic burst damage with a charged Power Chord and Hymn of Valor's double damage effect. If your enemy lane opponents are stupid enough to use Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist instead of Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, you will do quite a bit of damage to them at level 1.

Power Chord scales only with 2 things: Sona's base level, and her magic penetration. By stacking more magic penetration, you'll be able to do true damage to enemy laners. Assume an AD carry is using 9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist and has 2 points in Resistance . With Greater Mark of Magic Penetration, Haunting Guise and Sorcerer's Shoes, you'll have 48.5 magic pen and reduce all of their magic res. With this kind of damage, it will be simple to zone and whittle down enemies for your carry to pick up kills.

Sona is very squishy, but part of why you can pull this off is because of Haunting Guise's health. Heart of Gold or Kindlegem can also be purchased for a health boost. After your magic pen items, you can build like a normal support with auras, or you can continue building more magic pen/reduction items like Abyssal Mask or Void Staff.

Why not just build AP items?
AP doesn't increase Power Chord's damage, and Power Chord makes up a sizable amount of her damage early game. At level 9, Hymn of Valor = 250 damage, and Power Chord = 98 (196 with double damage effect). Also, having more AP = more damage on Hymn of Valor = you can kill minions faster/push wave while using it.

Can you focus on building magic pen items while still adequately warding?
Yes, of course. If you go back to base with 600-700 gold, you can buy a Ruby Crystal or an Amplifying Tome and a few Sight Wards. Then the combine cost on Haunting Guise is only 575.

What if this doesn't work out and we're getting stomped/zoned in lane?
The good thing about this build - the runes, masteries, and early items - is that if things aren't going in your favor, you can transition into a "normal" support. Things like Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and defensive masteries are pretty normal on Sona. Buying a Ruby Crystal is also completely normal.

Conveniently enough, the ingredients for Haunting Guise are also ingredients for the other 2 GP10 items. So, if you're behind, you can turn your Ruby Crystal into a Heart of Gold or Kindlegem, and you can also turn your Amplifying Tome into a Kage's Lucky Pick.

Required Runes
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Common sense with the focus on magic pen.
Greater Seal of Armor: For trading damage and taking harass from the AD carry in bottom lane.

Rune Options
All of these provide benefits and none of them are really right or wrong.
Greater Glyph of Replenishment: Sustains your Hymn of Valor poke. Flat, not scaling - you need the benefits of the regen immediately.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: For laning versus magic damage champions like Leona. Flat, not scaling - you need more mres before your enemy lane opponents hit level 6, not after.
Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration: These also give you even more magic pen, but you can use your blue rune spot on something else.
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration: Also more magic pen.
Greater Quintessence of Health: More health for surviving burst and taking/trading damage.
Greater Quintessence of Gold: Supply you with gold generation. 3 Greater Quintessence of Gold + max Greed = Like starting off the game with a GP10 item.

Masteries
Despite the focus on magic pen, you should use defensive masteries that allow you to trade damage like 1/15/14 or 1/11/18. On the 2nd setup, 1/11/18, you'll have max Awareness , and you'll hit level 2 slightly faster, have +10 base damage on Power Chord, and be able to heal with Aria of Perseverance before the enemy laners have their level 2 skills.

Early-Mid Game Items
Starting: Typical support starting items
Early Core: -> + ->
Optional: or philosopher's stone or
Your early core items are the Haunting Guise and Sorcerer's Shoes. Philosopher's Stone is still useful for the additional mana regen for poking. Heart of Gold is useful for the tankiness. Kindlegem is also nice since by focusing on these items you don't have any CDR.

Mid-Late Game Items
Other sources of magic pen:
Transition into a normal support: Zeke's Herald
Later, you can continue building magic pen if you're stomping, or if the game is closer, start building like a normal support. If your team is behind (and you're not stomping your lane), you shouldn't be building like this anyway.

Example Builds