Hello, I am Luxxum,a non-ranked player of League. I have been playing a good deal of Sona recently, to the point where I feel I could make a guide for beginner players. This is the build and playstyle which works for me in around silver/Gold elo. I cannot say how it will work in a higher elo then that. I personally play Sona like you would Annie support, which is to try to snowball lane and build damage. IF you are looking for a designated support Sona build, I would suggest looking at another guide.


Sona Is a very fun support, with a very strong early-mid game, and snowballs very well in lane. Sona can be a pubstomper, and you should use her demoralization potential when you can. For the purposes of this guide, Sona's powerchord (her innate) will be shown by parentheses around the Ability currently affecting it (so (Q)AA for an auto with the powerchord affected by her Q)


I should start this by explaining the difference between acting aggressive and being aggressive. Acting aggressive is placing yourself in such a way them if the enemy wants to get cs or move up, they will have to go through your poke. Being aggressive is doing this while putting yourself in danger.

You should always watch how the enemy reacts to your poke and position yourself accordingly. If they keep moving up, back off. If they back off, move a little bit farther foreward for a little while to show who is control of the lane, and make them less likely to try to get cs while you are near it.


Note: for some reason, the support build won't come up. I will try to fix this.

You should start Q almost always, and should stack it twice while buying. This allows you to set the tone of the lane with a Q>(q)AA from the brush onto the carry or their non-tank support.

In lane, the most important part of playing Sona is distancing. You are one of the squishiest champions in the game, and should act as such. Be opportunistic with you poke, darting into and out of the brush, or being just close enough to the enemy carry for them to have to take poke to get their farm.

If you are against a bot lane with good engage or, God forbid, a Leona, forget about poking with autos to begin with and use Sona's Q's fairly large range to poke instead. Once you learn her damage, and the way the enemy is playing, you can start getting opportunistic Q>autos in now and again when they get out of position. Punish them whenever they get just a little bit too close.

If you are against a bot lane without good engage, you can take a more aggressive stance in lane (This DOES NOT mean to be aggressive, just to look it by hanging around your cs, and forcing the enemy carry to get through your poke to get it). ALWAYS be ready to back off. Once you hit level 2, you can be a little more agressive, and set up some engages for your carry with a (w)AA or (e)AA.

Your damage spikes once you get your Sheen, and you start to do around a quarter of the enemy carry's health with a Q>(q)AA. This will take people by surprise 99% of the time. THIS DOES NOT MEAN TO BE OVERLY AGGRESSIVE. Your Q is on an ~7 second cooldown with masteries, and you do no damage until it is up. However, the enemy does not need to know this. After you have hit them with the first Q>(q)AA, take a commanding role over you creeps, and try to force them away from them with your positioning. If they do not back down, hit them with a Q(q)AA. If they still don't back down, you back down. wait for them to try to take the cs and poke them again.

Here is where you will decide your build.

If you are very behind, then build support.
If you are about even or ahead, build carry.
If your adc is doing very well and is AA based, integrate an ardent censer into your build. If they continue to carry, go support. If not, build carry.

You also need to decide what your team needs. If your team will be better off with the utility items over your burst, go for the support instead of the carry build.

If you are going carry, you should finish your lich bane and begin building the ludens. During this time, finish your trinket, as you are no building a sightstone.

If you have forced the enemy to back and they are pushed to tower, try to roam mid.

Now the fun begins (provided you built carry). If you are ahead or carrying, you should be doing anywhere from 40% to 80% of the enemy carry's health with a single Q>(q)AA, or around 30 to 60% of a not-fed enemy bruiser.

If you get fed enough, you are capable of one-shotting the enemy carries. Again, use this damage to your advantage in scaring the enemy. When 75% of their health disappears instantly, they tend to not want to fight you, despite the cooldown for your Q being so high. However, if they continue to fight, exhaust them and w to survive their damage, e to get proper positioning, and wait for Q. At this point you are no longer a supoort. position yourself relatively close to the front-line so that when they engage, or you are engaged upon, you can hit as many of them with your ult as possible.

If you are ahead, you can now begin to act agressively in 1v1 situations against enemies you know you can fight. a single Q>(q)AA from you will force them to go to fountain. The combo I use is generally E>W>Q>(q)AA, as it lets you get in, soak damage, then birst them.

In 2v2 or 3v3 situation, if you are not doing 75% of the enemy's health with a (q)AA, you might be better served using a (w)AA>exhaust on the most damage-dealing enemy instead of trying to burst them, as your team will be able to get a cleaner fight out of it.


You tend to fall off late game, as enemies are now able to destroy you due to your squishiness and relatively low range. You must play as reserved, if not more so, than in lane, and take up proper support positioning, during teamfights. You still do lots of damage, but you must be careful when to go in.

You fill the traditional support role. Try to stay with teammates while they push. You can get into slightly riskier positioning thanks to your tanky items, but you are still fairly squishy.

I would like to point out a bug I have found with Sona's powerchord. I only play Sona with the DJ skin, so this might be a skin exclusive bug. When you have a w or e powerchord active, your Q will only change the powerchord after it hits a target. However, your powerchord indicator will show that it has been changed to the q version before the Q hits. If you auto before the Q hits, your auto will remain affected by the powerchord which was active before the Q was used.
This only seems to happen when a target is nearby, as I have not had it happen which I just used the Q to change the powerchord.

I hope this has helped you learn a bit about Sona! As this is my first guide, any and all criticisms are greatly appreciated.