Sona 101



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Quick Sona AP Support Build

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Summoner Spells

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Starting Items

Best Overall Build

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Intro

I am a casual league player and basically only play support. I come from MMOs where I typically played healer or tank roles, so I enjoy controlling the fight and augmenting my allies. I primarily play enchanter supports (Sona, Soraka, Nami, Yuumi) which are all similar superficially, but play very differently in practice.

Assuming you want to play enchanter support - why Sona? Isn't she just about spamming buttons while you zoom around? Well.. yes! Sona is very forgiving to play as R is her only skillshot, but you have to be smart about positioning, and early on she has mana issues. Later in the game she scales extremely well and can even carry, as her aoe healing and buffs provide some of the best team utility and her R can decide a team fight.

Runes (Loadout)

Aery is a mainstay of enchanter supports. Manaflow is basically obligatory due to her early-mid mana issues. Transcendence and Gathering Storm either help you catch up later if you had a rough lane phase (such as against a pokey ranged or hook champ) or they help you finalize your victory as Sona scales absurdly well. Sometimes if I am confident the game will be short, Scorch is an option if you're playing casually and want to play more AP than enchanter - but generally Gathering Storm is the right choice.

Conditioning provides some needed durability once you get to team fight, and Revitalize is again an obvious choice for enchanter supports. Double adaptive force is usually your best option for the first two due to her great AP scaling. For your third, go magic resist or armour - depending on who you're facing in lane. If in doubt, I prefer magic resist.

• Rune Page

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Summoner Spells (Loadout)

First spell is always flash. For second either Exhaust or Ignite can work. Ignite is better, but I recommend Exhaust while learning as it is more forgiving in lane phase, particularly against engage/hook champs.

Skill Path

Q->W->E then max W->Q->E, getting R upgrades as you can. The initial E speed boost is great, but the upgrades are pretty marginal until late game where the slight speed buff can help pursuits or escapes for a fully itemized team.

• Skill Path

Sona

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Item Builds

You always want to start with Spellthief, try to use your Q to get multiple gold but watch your mana. Get tear as your first item back then start building Moonstone. Pickup basic boots then complete tear into Archangel's Staff. Complete your boots and then get Chemtech if you need anti-heal, or go with the typical enchanter Staff of Flowing Water/Ardent Censer. Rarely do games go long enough for additional items, but if so get Redemption if you didn't need Chemtech.

Matchups and Synergies

Sona can play with many champs, but she doesn't work as well with hard engage champs that need a setup because she has no CC until level 6 and then it's a relatively long cooldown. That said, you can play with these champs just fine as long as they understand that you can't hard engage until R at 6, and that you may be darting back and forth to buff them, so they cannot just rush in without you - especially since you're slow early on.

In terms of counters, anyone that keeps Sona too far to the backline will starve you of gold. However, there aren't really any hard support counters to Sona and she can win against almost any support.

General Strategy

The most important tip on playing Sona - don't get hit! If you are getting hit, you are doing something wrong. She is very squishy. Don't get hit and you will win... at least most of the time.

The main reason you're likely getting hit is either you're playing too far forward, or you're not using the cover of creep correctly. Basically you want to backline then occasionally dart in for a few attacks or to buff an ally. You should be constantly moving and you need great map awareness not to get caught out of position.

A great benefit of backlining, especially early in lane is you'll have lots of health, so you can block for your ADC if necessary to save them. Later on, this isn't effective as your health won't scale up and you'll rely more on shielding and healing to keep your team up.

Early on you will have a lot of mana problems, and don't use W to heal people up because it's not very efficient in early lane for single target healing. Use E to help your team escape or for you to dart in for a Q/W combo. Flash + R can be a game changer, especially if you run ignite, or you can R defensively to save an ADC.

SInce your team will hopefully naturally congregate around you, you can often influence their positioning and effectively lead your team around - useful if they're a little lost or not practicing map awareness.

Lead your team to victory... in song!