GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE
INTRODUCTION
Strong laning phase with her Poke damage. Massive AoE buffs for your team and an amazing ultimate to deny enemies / protect your teammates. Overall a great Support to win most of the teamfights. While Sona might look easy to play, there are things that you will find really interesting in this guide and that you never heard or try before.
PROS
- Strong Poke
- Great AoE buffs
- Massive Ultimate
- Good Mobility
CONS
- Very Squishy
- Mana Hungry
- Slow Scaling Kit
Squishy! Sona need items. She has huge issues with mana and tankiness early laning phase. Her skills are not amazingly strong until she gets her very first or two items. Can easily get picked early on, requires a lot of positioning and knowledge of cooldowns on skills and spells of your team but most importantly enemy team's!
RUNES & SPELLS
Default Rune page for most situations!
Flash is a must pick Spell for champion with no escape mechanism like Sona. In addition to that it can synergies with her Crescendo (R) for an engage or even disengage
Heal shall be your main option. This spell is extremely important mostly during laning phase as Sona needs a lot of mana to heal with her W, meanwhile is not really enough until she scales. It's really a great tool for you and your ADC to survive longer. Ignite can reduce following heals for the duration it lasts. Make sure you apply Heal before enemy's Ignite, by applying it early in an upcoming 2v2 fight (as soon as your ADC loses some HP, do not wait last HP bars).
ABILITIES & ITEMS
Power Chord (Passive) INNATE - ACCELERANDO: Sona generates a stack of Accelerando each time she hits an enemy with Hymn of Valor or supports an ally with Aria of Perseverance, which stacks up to 120 times. If she has maximum stacks, she instead reduces the cooldown of Crescendo by 1.5 seconds each time.
Power Chord ACCELERANDO: For each stack, Sona gains 0.5 basic ability haste, up to a maximum of 60.
INNATE - MELODY: Sona's basic abilities incur 0.5-second global cooldown on her other basic abilities, and cause her to generate a unique aura for 3 seconds that empowers herself and nearby allied champions.
INNATE - POWER CHORD: Sona's basic abilities generate a stack of Power Chord, which stacks up to 3 times. At 3 stacks, her next basic attack consumes them all to become empowered with an Uncancellable Windup, deal 20 − 240 (based on level) (+ 20% AP) bonus magic damage, and apply an additional effect based on the last basic ability cast.
Tips:
- Gaining Power Chord's empowered attack resets Sona's basic attack timer.
- Sona has a stack counter under her health-bar that is not visible to other champions.
- When Power Chord is ready, Sona gains a ring around her. This ring will have a different color depending on the last ability used (blue blue, green green or purple purple).
- The effect does not change if abilities are used while the projectile is in motion.
- The triggering attack will apply other on-hit effects and can critically strike as normal.
- Sona retains Power Chord's stacks when entering resurrection.
- The empowered attack will trigger but not be consumed nor apply its effects against wards.
Uncancellable Windup
A basic attack that is not Silence icon.png interruptible is classified as having an Relentless Force 2.png uncancellable windup. Basic attacks with uncancellable windups are only stopped by Death.png death, Silence icon.png polymorph, Quinn's Quinn's Vault Vault, and in some cases, Untargetable icon.png untargetability and range.
Hymn of Valor (Q) ACTIVE: Sona sends out bolts of sound to the two nearest visible enemies, prioritizing champions, that each deal magic damage and granting sight of the area around them for 1 second. She gains a stack of Accelerando for each bolt that hits an enemy champion.
MELODY BONUS: Sona and tagged allied champions deal bonus magic damage on their next basic attack within 5 seconds.
POWER CHORD – STACCATO: Power Chord deals 28 − 336 (based on level) (+ 28% AP) total magic damage.
Tips:
- The sight is granted of the targets on-cast.
- The empowered attack will trigger but not be consumed against wards.
Aria of Perseverance (W) Sona heals 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+ 25% AP) herself and the most wounded nearby allied champion. AURA: Sona and tagged allied champions receive a shield 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+ 30% AP) lasting up to 1.5 seconds.
Sona gains a stack of Accelerando whenever she Heal power icon.png heals a wounded ally or Hybrid resistances icon.png shields a minimum amount of damage for an ally with Aria of Perseverance.
Power Chord – DIMINUENDO: Power Chord reduces its target's damage output by 25% (+ 4% per 100 AP) for 3 seconds.
Tips:
- If no one is injured, Aria of Perseverance will target the closest allied champion.
- The projectile of Aria of Perseverance will follow an ally in stealth but will not reveal them.
Song of Celerity (E) Sona gains bonus movement speed 20% (+ 3% per 100 AP) for 3 seconds, extended to up to 7 seconds if she doesn't take damage. AURA: Tagged allied champions gain bonus movement speed 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14% (+ 3% per 100 AP)
Granting an ally (other than herself) the aura refunds 30 mana per cast.
Power Chord – TEMPO: Power Chord slows its target by 40% (+ 4% per 100 AP) for 2 seconds, capped at a maximum of 99%.
Crescendo (R) After a 0.25-second delay, Sona plays an irresistible chord in the target direction, dealing magic damage 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 50% AP) to all enemy champions struck and stunning them for 1.5 seconds.
These must always be your starting items.
EARLY GAME/LANING PHASE
You might get amazed of how much information you are about to read below as most people think that Sona is that simple and there are no hidden clues! Let's START!
Sona's laning phase is pretty solid. Her Power Chord from Hymn of Valor excels here. Starting of your lane you shall keep bullying the enemy ADC with your Hymn of Valor and auto attacks but keep in mind 3 things:
- You are in range for the enemy ADC but not the Support so 2nd Bolt of your Hymn of Valor might mess up and last hit your ADC's creep. Avoid that and try not to poke when the closest minion is really low HP.
- Enemy ADC is going back and forth and will move closer when a creep is critical HP for the last hit, try to time it and react, get closer to get that free Poke ( Auto and Q right after)! That way he is unable to poke you back since he goes for the creep.
- Watch carefully enemy's position and cooldown, you dont wanna get picked from any Crowd control while you are trying to get in range for the poke (Example: Poke when Blitzcrank's Hook is used. A good tip is to stay always around/behind your minions even if you go closer. Do not bypass your minions line always make a safe poke.
Don't forget that this tactic will get your Atlas Quest completed in the most safest way, you don't wanna get yourself in trouble for it. Hitting 2 enemies with your Q will benefit you with 2 stacks on Sona's passive (Max 120 stacks) but will only consume 1 Atlas stack. However, 2 minions can provide you gold if you last hit them with your Q.
Prioritize on securing your ADC's cannon or picking the cs for them if they catching up on lane.
Moving on Sona's Aria of Perseverance. Don't just use it to passively heal your ADC. What does that even mean? Lets say your ADC is low HP but not that critical low. Avoid healing him! Sona's heal isn't that amazingly strong and the mana cost is insane (80 - lvl 1) but it is strong when combined with the Aura that provides Shield. The trick is to try and stay tagged to your ADC and use Aria of Perseverance when damage is about to land on your ADC or even on you. That way you heal your ADC and also benefit with a shield that lasts for a small period of time. The heal and shield provides pretty much the same numbers on all levels that are pretty weak early on in the game, so try to always combine.
Not going to talk about Song of Celerity that much. If you are able to Poke against their bot lane hard you should go for another level on Hymn of Valor when you reach Level 3 for the extra damage. Again I'm going to give you 2 reasons why you should just go safely leveling E on 3rd Level:
- Enemy bot lane forced you to use your Flash at Level 2 or somehow you have it on Cooldown. Feeling risky get your E on level 3!
- Your game sense tells you that you are going to get ganked pretty soon and you don't have vision (while you actually should have placed a ward pre 3rd Level). Lane is also pushing towards them. Get that E on level 3!
Getting Level 6 you shall ask yourself if you are in position to win a fight as 2v2 with your Crescendo. Are you and you ADC in a good health/mana state? Are the enemies stronger? Most likely you are going to be the initiator even against their team. Don't use your Flash and R never do that combo mistake unless you know they are without summoners and you want to punish their miss position in no time. Always keep Flash to reposition yourself during the fight as you are extremely squishy. Don't be afraid to fight! You have to, at this point!
Always prioritize Hymn of Valor. You don't want to spam your Skills just to rush maxed Power Chord. Sona is mana hungry in early stages, max your Power Chord mainly through poking with Q. Don't forget those auto attacks pretty strong with Summon Aery too, to apply that extra damage.
During fights on a 2v2 you shall always use Power Chord from Aria of Perseverance to lower down the enemy ADC damage for the next 3 seconds! Avoid the other 2 options especially Song of Celerity.
If your jungler is coming for a gank while the enemies pushing towards your tower, you either use Power Chord - Song of Celerity (E) on your priority target if he is trying to move back or you simply go Power Chord - Aria of Perseverance (W) if he still does go aggressive on your ADC and deaper towards your tower.
Do I roam as Sona? Simple answer is NO. You don't go for a Mid-Lane roam because you are risking yourself getting picked from enemy jungler while you are squishy and not with amazing CC skills to lock down the enemy Mid-laner. Plus immobile early game (your E isn't enough to run). Also, you wanna make sure you use your Crescendo for a 2v2 on your own lane. While you stick with your ADC trying to give him an advantage the only small roam you can do is safely move around river when your jungler and/or mid-laner are there fighting or about to do something.
LATE GAME/TEAMFIGHT
Sona does largely become all about the ultimate as the game goes on. When laning phase is over and you start rotating Top or Mid you shall have your core items. You are really strong at this point and your main focus is always sticking with your ADC and other teammates ( Warding objectives, pushing, controlling vision ect). Don't get caught for any damn reason, you have to survive the most you can. Keep a distance if they have high mobility heroes like Hecarim, Zed and off their vision if possible as you don't want them to start the fight on you but on your teammates instead. You can always fast position yourself towards your teammates by using Song of Celerity.
When a teamfight starts your main focus on Skills is using your Power Chord from Aria of Perseverance to lower down the attacker's damage or Song of Celerity to slow down an enemy that is somewhat off position and not grouped with his team.
What about Crescendo? You have try to get as many people as you can with it primarily the strong damage dealers and threats like a fed ADC, an off-tank top laner or even an aggressive support before he engages. Sometimes you just have to pick 1 person or even keep it just for a good deny/disengage for your team.
Here are some questions you shall ask yourself before using Crescendo:
- Who is around me from my teammates? Do they also own a good CC to follow up? Do we have a high burst damage for the quick pick?
- Do enemies have Flash up and (most importantly the biggest threats like a strong Talon )?
- Does enemy team have a fed and strong Assasin or Engager like Zed, Rengar, Kennen and I have to just deny their ultimate/engage?
- Can I just use my ultimate aggressively by using or not my Flash and get someone caught off position without getting myself in trouble?
- Do they have a channeling ultimate champions like Vel'Koz, Xerath, Katarina that is a threat to my team and I have to interrupt?
- Does my team owns champions like Amumu Lissandra, Malphite that can also interrupt/disengage/deny enemies? What is their plan with it, what are they about to focus on, do they have cooldown on that particular fight? Sorry if all those questions annoy you, but trust me it does worth it!
EXTRA TIPS
- Use your skills in fountain to load once, twice or even maximise your Power Chord. Its free afterall!
- Even if both bolts of Hymn of Valor hit the same enemy they can only be damaged by one. Also, if the target gets out of sight before the projectile hits them they will still be damaged.
- Aria of Perseverance can heal stealthed ally champions without revealing them but the projectile will reveal their position on cast. Also it can heal clones like Wukong's Warrior Trickster, LeBlanc's, Shaco's ect.
- If no one is injured Aria of Perseverance will target the closest allied champion.
- Crescendo has a short travel time, and enemies will be stunned and take damage as soon as it reaches them, but if a target moves out of range as it is cast, the target will be unaffected.
ABOUT ME
Hello! Actioner here. I'm here to teach you the fundamentals for the Support role. I will surely try my best. So I've been playing League of Legends since late Season 3. I've been always a Main Support and I'm more than happy to share this passion and knowledge with you. I'm currently a high Master player with highest ever reached: Challenger Top 40(EUNE) and Master(EUW). I don't main a specific champion on Support, I can play 20+ support champs, so I always adapt to meta and what works best for me during that time. My secondary role is Mid-lane with a pretty small champion pool.
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