Sona Build Guide : [12.17] THE ONLY SONA GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED

Why Play Sona?

SONA: THE MUTE PIANIST or something like that
I’ll be honest… I wouldn’t call myself a OTP or main, but DAMN her kit is so friggin OP. Sona is one of the best enchanters in the game––if not thee best––and no matter how the meta changes, healing and shielding will always be broken in my opinion and Sona excels at just that.

Sona is often sh*t on because of her easy kit. I mean, you could probably just smash your head into your keyboard while playing her and you’ll still be useful. But, her simplicity doesn’t take away her power as one of the strongest enchanters. She’s able to dish out decent poke in the early game, but as the game progresses and Sona keeps stacking Accelerando, she becomes a healing machine allowed to perma-spam her abilities, making her team basically unkillable. Despite having a simple kit, don’t undermine the nuances that Sona's kit has to offer, as learning how to play her at her fullest capacity will make you a much better support and Sona player overall!

Pros & Cons

✧ SONA'S PROS ✧

✔︎ Strong AOE buffs
✔︎ Basically infinite healing and shielding
✔︎ Easy poke
✔︎ Great scaling (easy to comeback)
✔︎ Easy to play

Sona is an insanely strong enchanter, and her entire kit is dedicated towards buffing her allies and being a teamfight hypercarry. I know everyone likes to brag about 1v9ing and solo-carrying games, but Sona has the power to make everyone on her team a carry which, in the end, is a much better win condition.

She has an incredibly easy kit, as her basic abilities require absolutely no aiming so it becomes pretty hard to screw up with this champion.

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Her two biggest issues are her squishiness and mana issues. In the early game, you really have to be aware about how you’re using your spells because her high mana costs can make her go OOM pretty fast. You also need to have decent knowledge on positioning and your lane opponents’ important cooldowns in order to survive early game and wait to scale.

Even though she’s an easy champ to play, she’s not the best in lower elo because you need at least one good player on your team that you can 2v8 with.

✧ SONA'S CONS ✧

✗ Very squishy
✗ Mana hungry
✗ No reliable CC from non-ultimate abilities
✗ Need time to scale
✗ Need at least one person with a working brain cell

Rune Choices

STANDARD SONA RUNES: SORCERY & RESOLVE/ PRECISION

S
U
M
M
O
N

A
E
R
Y

SORCERY Keystone: Summon Aery
// is the best keystone for since it synergizes perfectly with her kit and procs on all her abilities. It provides a great balance between damage and utility. Towards the late game, once you have a decent amount of AP, the aery shields will start getting really substantial, allowing this rune not to fall off for in the late game.

✧ MANAFLOW BAND ✧

One of ’s biggest weaknesses is mana in the early game. permanently increases your mana pool by 250 when fully stacked, so this is very helpful for minimizing this weakness. Keep in mind that Q is the only basic ability you have that can stack so use it wisely.

✧ CELERITY ✧

Positioning is really important on any squishy enchanter, which makes the best option for . is also a viable option since ability haste is always great, but honestly taking haste as a minor rune shard basically gives you the same value.

✧ GATHERING STORM ✧

You can’t really go wrong with as the scaling bonus AP will make you extremely strong late game, getting to dish out huge shields, buffs, and damage. Take when you’re with an aggressive laner so that you can get more damage off in the early game and help snowball your adc.

✧ CONDITIONING ✧

This branch is completely situational, dependent on lane matchups. Take when you’re in an aggressive lane that has strong engage, take against heavy poke matchups, or take for scaling.

✧ REVITALIZE ✧

has direct synergy with ’s W and other healing items you might buy like or

OR

✧ PRESENCE OF MIND ✧

The bonus mana regen from can make a big difference, especially in the early game. Every time you hit a Q or auto attack, you’ll get back some mana.

✧ CUT DOWN ✧

has one of the lowest base healths in the game, allowing this rune to proc and do extra damage on most champions. This is a great rune against tanky teams.

or

For your minor runes shards, take ability haste + 9 AP + either armor against heavy AD or magic resist against heavy AP. You could also take health, but I personally don’t like to take it to maximize ’s damage.

SITUATIONAL SONA RUNES: RESOLVE & PRECISION

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G
U
R
D
I
A
N

RESOLVE Keystone: Guardian
// is the best keystone against engage supports (i.e. or ) so you and your adc can survive your opponents all-ins. Taking will make you a bit tankier, compared to if you take instead, but keep in mind ’s cooldown as you will be extra vulnerable when it’s not up.

✧ SHIELD BASH ✧

is the best option on from this section, as it will proc on and .

✧ CONDITIONING ✧

Situational rune: take against engage, against poke, and for scaling.

✧ OVERGROWTH ✧

is useful for extra durability, but is also good if you want to maximize your healing/shielding power.

✧ PRESENCE OF MIND ✧

Same explanation as above––’s mana regen can be really helpful for ’s mana issues. is especially good for prolonged fights since it will continuously proc.

✧ LEGEND: TENACITY ✧

is incredibly important against teams with heavy engage. Keep in mind that you need to kill units in order to gain legend stacks, so you’ll only want to take this rune if you plan to take as your support item.

or

For your minor runes shards, take ability haste or 9 AP + 9 AP + health. You can also take armor or magic resist in the second row instead of 9 AP.

Summoner Spells

FLASH: You’re always going to take on . As a squishy, immobile champion, you need for its instant mobility.

IGNITE: is a great summoner spell for most supports when you want extra kill pressure in lane. is ideal for low elo because when your enemies make mistakes (which they will) you can punish them even harder with which can often lead to first bloods/early kills.

EXHAUST: is a viable option, although it is not a necessity because ’s passive E auto attack is basically an exhaust built right into her kit. Nonetheless, is great against assassins and burst damage champions because her E enhanced passive + can reduce up to 60% of damage.

HEAL: is another good option if your adc choses to go , , etc. instead. Don’t take the same summoner as your adc (not including , obviously).

Itemization

✧ STARTING ITEMS ✧

♪

SPELLTHIEF'S EDGE
is 's go-to support item in most matchups. She can easily proc its gold passive with her Q range and her auto attacks. Don’t forget 2x s to help you survive in lane.

♪

RELIC SHIELD
is a situational starting support item that you’ll want to take into difficult matchups where you’ll need to play ultra-safe in order to survive lane. Remember your 2x s too!

✧ MYTHIC OPTIONS ✧

♪

MOONSTONE RENEWER
is one of the best mythic options for since she is consistently able to proc it to keep her team alive, especially in prolonged fights. All of her basic abilities enhance allies, so the bonus healing and shieldingis really effective for ’s kit. When your team and the enemy team are both on the beefier side, is definitely the way to go as it will be way more useful in teamfights.

♪

SHURELYA'S BATTLESONG
is also a viable option for as it buffs all her basic abilities with bonus move speed whenever they interact with an ally. Build when the enemy team is composed of high damage squishy champions or has dive threats to keep your adc alive. Keep in mind, there is also an active component to this item, so if you’re not good with active items, opt for instead.

✧ BOOTS ✧

♪

IONIAN BOOTS OF LUCIDITY
are going to be your go-to offensive boots. Obviously, loves ability haste and the extra summoner spell haste is helpful so she can have access to her and (or whatever secondary spell you took) more often.

♪

MERCURY'S TREADS
is best into a heavy AP enemy team, or a good rush if you’re against a double AP botlane like and for example.

♪

PLATED STEELCAPS
is ideal against heavy AD comps, or again, a good rush if you’re against a double AD botlane like and for example.

✧ HEALING & SHIELDING ITEMS ✧

♪

STAFF OF FLOWING WATER
If you have an APC (i.e. , , or ), is a great legendary item after your mythic. This item is an ideal buy when you have two or more AP champions on your team.

♪

ARDENT CENSER
is best when your team is heavily auto-attack/ attack speed based (i.e. jungle or top). Since doesn’t benefit as much from as so I’ll typically buy this item when there are three or four auto-based champions on my team.

♪

REDEMPTION
is another great option on as it provides a giant AOE heal that also does true damage to enemies in the area. You can also cast this item's active when you're dead, which is helpful for having impact in team fights even when you’re dead.

♪

MIKAEL'S BLESSING
is ideal against heavy AP teams and champions that have one important CC ability (i.e. ult or ult). is like a that you can use on an ally, and can have incredibly high value for saving your adc if they get targeted in team fights.

✧ FINISHING/SITUATIONAL ITEMS ✧

♪

SERAPH'S EMBRACE
is a really important item to help ’s mana thirst, and she can stack it extremely fast. is a great item for perma-spamming your abilities, although the upgrade isn’t always necessary because in the late game your other items will provide a lot of mana regen.

♪

CHEMTECH PUTRIFIER
is the best anti-heal item for , and should be built into heavy healing comps (i.e. and ). If you don’t already do this, you’ll want to build and then sit on it until you have built three or four full items to finish building the item into .

♪

ZHONYA'S HOURGLASS
should only be built if you really need its hourglass stasis effect, which is incredibly useful. is a great counter-pick item for certain champions, such as or .

♪

VIGILANT WARDSTONE
is a bit of a weird item, but if you back with 1100 gold and are already/almost level 13 (your support quest will also most likely be done by then) it’ll automatically transform into and then it’s honestly not a bad purchase.

✧ VISION ✧

✧ STEALTH WARD ✧

Before your transforms into , you’ll want to take and keep as your trinket. Since is extremely squishy in the early levels and prone to ganks, setting up vision is important to make sure you don't int.

✧ ORACLE LENS ✧

Once your transforms into the warding item , switch for and keep that as your trinket for the rest of the game. Denying enemy vision is just as important as setting up your own.

✧ CONTROL WARD ✧

s are incredibly valuable for both you and your teammates and are definitely worth the 75 gold. A lot of times enemy roams will retreat once they know they stepped on vision, and even if they don’t, at least you know they’re coming!

"JUST SHUT UP AND WARD."

Abilitiy Run Down

P

POWER CHORD

ACCELERANDO: generates a stack of Accelerando each time she hits an enemy champion with and each time she mitigates sufficient damage or heals damaged allies with , which stacks up to 120 times. For each stack, Sona gains 0.5 basic ability haste, up to a maximum of 60. If she has maximum stacks, she instead reduces the cooldown of by 1.5 seconds each time.

MELODY: '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.

POWER CHORD: 's basic abilities generate a stack of Power Chord, stacking up to 3 times. At 3 stacks, her next basic attack is empowered to consume them all to have 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. 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 for , green for , or purple for ).

 ♪ 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.

Q

HYMN OF VALOR
COST: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 MANA | COOLDOWN: 8 | CAST TIME: NONE | EFFECT RADIUS: 825 SOUND BOLT SEARCH RANGE / 400 AURA RADIUS (CENTER TO EDGE)

ACTIVE: sends out bolts of sound to the two nearest visible enemies, prioritizing champions, that each deal 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 40% AP) 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: and tagged allied champions deal 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+ 20% AP) 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.

W

ARIA OF PERSEVERANCE
COST: 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100 MANA | COOLDOWN: 10 | CAST TIME: NONE | EFFECT RADIUS: 1000 HEAL SEARCH RANGE / 400 AURA RADIUS (CENTER TO EDGE)

ACTIVE: heals herself and sends out a tone to heal 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+ 15% AP) the most wounded allied champion nearby. She gains a stack of Accelerando whenever she heals a wounded ally or shields a minimum amount of damage (25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105) for an ally with .

MELODY BONUS: and tagged allied champions receive a 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+ 25% AP) shield lasting up to 1.5 seconds.

POWER CHORD – DIMINUENDO: Power Chord reduces the target's size by 8% and damage output by 25% (+ 0.04% AP) for 3 seconds.

♪ If no one is injured, will target the closest allied champion.
♪ The projectile of will follow an ally in stealth but will not reveal them.

E

SONG OF CELERITY
COST: 65 MANA | COOLDOWN: 14 | CAST TIME: NONE | EFFECT RADIUS: 400

ACTIVE: gains 20% (+ 2% per 100 AP) bonus movement speed for 3 seconds, which is extended to up to 7 seconds if she does not take damage during this time.

MELODY BONUS: Tagged allied champions gain 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14% (+ 0.02% AP) bonus movement speed for 3 seconds.

POWER CHORD – TEMPO: Power Chord slows the target by 40% (+ 0.04% AP) for 2 seconds, capped at a maximum of 99%.

♪ To achieve a 99% slow with the empowered attack via Power Chord, it would require at least 1475 AP.

R

CRESCENDO
COST: 100 MANA | COOLDOWN: 140 / 120 / 100 | CAST TIME: 0.25 | RANGE: 1000

ACTIVE: strikes an irresistible chord in the target direction that deals 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 50% AP) magic damage to enemies hit, which stuns and forces them to dance for 1.5 seconds.

♪ This ability will cast from wherever the caster is at the start of the cast time.

Matchups

✧ VS ENCHANTERS ✧

MATCHUP DIFFICULTY: ✦✦✧✧✧ Even
KEYSTONE: Summon Aery
SPECIALTY: Never die
Typically, enchanter matchups versus are pretty even. You’ll want to rush and hold onto this item until you have your core items before upgrading it to . Use your to poke the enemies out of their range to make favorable trades.

✧ VS TANKS ✧

MATCHUP DIFFICULTY: ✦✦✦✦✧ Hard
KEYSTONE: Guardian
SPECIALTY: Engage
Tanky engage supports tend to counter more than other supports, which is why it’s better to opt for the rune page over . The most important thing to keep in mind with these matchups are playing around important cooldowns, such as Q and Q . You’ll need to get good at dodging their skillshots since this is the key to surviving lane.

✧ VS MAGES/POKE ✧

MATCHUP DIFFICULTY: ✦✧✧✧✧ Easy
KEYSTONE: Summon Aery
SPECIALTY: damage
Mage matchups can be easy, if you don’t suck at dodging skill shots that is. Rush early tier-1 to dodge their abilities. When you see an enemy ability cast animation beginning, use to help you and your adc dodge their skillshots. Versus damage supports, you can also use your W-enhanced auto attack on them if you feel like they’re doing more damage than their adc.

Early, Mid, & Late Game

✧ EARLY GAME (<15 MIN) ✧

is decently weak in the early game compared to other support champions. However, she still has solid poke with her Q and her Q-enhanced which can harass the enemy bot laners quite a bit. Refrain from spamming your abilities, as you will run out of mana extremely fast. Here’s some tips on how to use your spells effectively in the early game:

♪ Make sure enemies are in range of Hymn of Valor so that the bolts don’t hit the creeps instead.
♪ Use the combo AA+Q+QAA to poke the enemy when they step up to last hit a creep.
♪ Don’t use your Aria of Perseverance just to passively heal your adc if they are not critically low. You want to save your Aria of Perseverance right before damage is about to land on you or your adc so the shield can mitigate its damage. This is incredibly important for persevering your health bar without wasting your mana.
♪ If the enemy laners engage, use your W-enhanced Power Chord auto attack on the enemy adc to reduce their damage. Its basically a mini exhaust, and can be the make-or-break to winning/ surviving fights.
♪ Song of Celerity is best used for running away or chasing down enemies. E-enhanced Power Chord auto attack is Sona’s only form of CC in her basic abilities, so use it to either set up ganks or for keeping enemies in range so your adc can finish them off for the kill.

♪ Due to Sona’s high mana thirst, never spam your abilities randomly in the early game just to set up your passive Power Chord.
♪ Keep in mind your level-6 power spike, as you now have access to your ultimate and main form of CC, giving you a lot more kill pressure. In the laning phase, look for a 2-man ult after the enemies are poked down a bit.

In the early game, you’ll typically want to stick with your adc because you are not a roaming champion, especially pre-6. Sona is extremely squishy and prone to being picked if she’s alone, so don’t put yourself in that spot in the first place. After destroying the bottom tower, you can roam mid with your adc and begin to influence other lanes.

✧ MID GAME (15-25 MIN) ✧

As you move out of the laning phase, becomes much more about healing and shielding than being a poke support. By this point, you are decently strong as you should have your core items power-spike You’ll want to stick with your adc and other teammates to avoid getting picked by the enemy team. Even though you are a support, which means it’s your job to set up good vision for your team, you’ll still want to have your team walk you into the river to get vision for upcoming objectives since you are such a vulnerable champion.

The mid to late game is centered around team fights and taking objectives. Proper positioning, just like any other enchanter support, is extremely important on . Look at your team and determine who the win conditions are. Once you’ve figured that out, now you know who your main focus will be for peeling. Also look at the enemy team and consider who the main threats are and which abilities specifically pose a threat to you and your carries. In team fights, you only want to use your W-enhanced on enemy threats as it will provide the greatest impact in team fights. Your ult is also an essential team fighting tool, and before you even enter the team fight you should have a good idea of who to use it on and when to use it.

✧ LATE GAME (25+ MIN) ✧

is a scaling god and becomes an incredible win condition for her team at this point, since she can basically dish out endless AOE buffs and heals for her teammates. Again, it’s imperative that you stick with your team at all times since you are a team fight hyper-carry, and is essentially useless when alone. Continue setting up vision with your team and take picks and objectives togethers. At this point in the game should have full stacks of Accelerando, so you can use your ult at the beginning of team fights and its cooldown will lower immensely and can come back up pretty quick. Remember, outscales basically all supports, so if you make it to the late game, it should be a free win.

[12.17] THE ONLY SONA GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED

[12.17] THE ONLY SONA GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED

Runes:

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Exhaust

Flash

Flash

Heal

Items

Ability Order

Power Chord (PASSIVE)

Hymn of Valor (Q)

Aria of Perseverance (W)

Song of Celerity (E)

Crescendo (R)

Power Chord (PASSIVE)

Hymn of Valor (Q)

Aria of Perseverance (W)

Song of Celerity (E)

Crescendo (R)

Champion Build Guide

[12.17] THE ONLY SONA GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED

✧ SONA'S PROS ✧

✧ SONA'S CONS ✧

✧ STEALTH WARD ✧

✧ ORACLE LENS ✧

✧ CONTROL WARD ✧

"JUST SHUT UP AND WARD."

League of Legends Champions: