Don't underestimate Sona
Many people including my friend think the same thing."Psh, Sona is trash/weak/underpowered. I proved them wrong, Sona is one of the weird supports that scale super hard compared to others. Well my friend jokingly calls me trash anyways but Sona has dangerous potential. Many low rank players fall victim to good Sona's.
But low rank Sona's suffer without proper knowledge.
Table of Content:
1: Sona's Potential
2: Playing as Sona
3: How to fight a Sona
1: Why is Sona one of the really annoying supports to go against
- She has a decent range on her Q, it's not a skill-shot so it cannot miss once it's activated (unless you avoid it using abilities or items). It's also has a rather short cooldown, allowing her to proc Spell-Thief often. Empowered Q autos hurt a lot especially when your a melee support who has to get upfront. Most Sona's will try to hide their power chord to animation cancel their basic attack which leads you to take surprise burst damage. Slap a Meteor or Aery's on that Q and you got yourself nasty poke support.
- Her W is a weak heal and protection spell at first, but once she gets into bigger fights, you will definitely notice her influence in team survivability. It allows her to heal allies from distance and provides a little bit of protection when their about to be smacked by an attack. Empowered W autos can make a decent trade to a really bad trade. It reduces your damage (all kinds of damage) by 25% for a few seconds. Which means you might even lose kill potential on important targets. Also, Sona's with the Guardian rune is probably one of the most annoying things when your whole existence is to poke early.
- Oh lord, here comes the whole enemy team. Good thing Sona is a friggen race car with her E skill. She can boost herself and teammates to get into position fast or get the hell out quick! She is especially dangerous when the tide turns into her favour. She can go from "oh nu my ADC is being attacked" to "okay time to DIE". She can assist allies in catching people either by surprise or getting that assassin the mega speed they need. Oh just to let you know, when her E aura runs out, she's doesn't lose it like her allies. She actually keeps the speed boost for an additional 10 SECONDS.Her Empowered E is simple, once it hits the target they get slowed.
- Oh boy, here is where she gets the power spike. Her ultimate is so dangerous that in a team fight, if she does it right she could royally screw your team over, and it has a low cooldown! Oh yeah about cooldowns, when she puts a point into her ult, her other abilities gain cooldown reduction. No not like maxed out cap 40% cooldown reduction. It actually makes the timer SHORTER overall. Which means she can have shorter cooldowns + 40% cooldown reductions. At this point, she becomes the ultimate utility support/sudden DPS mage. Also, you should expect to be Power-Chorded every 3 seconds.
2: Playing as Sona
-Recommended Runes: Against a hardcore poke lane. (Aery's or Guardian), against a tank or passive support. (Aery's or Meteor). Always have flash, ignite is really good on her, exhaust is nice if you love setting up kills or making the enemy ADC shoot pool noodles.
- 2 adaptive damage runes + either armor or magic resist rune depending on enemy bot comp.
- Early game: With spell thief, you can easily gain a coins with the assistance of Q. If your against support who hard engages or is a hook. Dance behind minions, stay out of their engage range and if the enemy support threatens by going in the bush, ward. If not, throw in a q and auto when they try to enter a closer bush. Remember that Sona is very fragile so being aware of what's about to possibly hit you is very important. Use W or E to get you and your ADC for something more favourable. OH yeah, I almost forgot, Sona refunds some mana when her aura affects an ally. Remember to hug your ADC to get that juicy mana back.
- Items: Athene's Unholy Chalice, it causes heals when you interact with an ally. Charge it up by doing damage. Yeah, I know what your thinking, it's exactly that good on Sona. Tear of the Goddess, mana refunds? More mana pool that is easily gained due to Sona's cooldowns? Built into an item that does damage and increases your survivability? Hell yeah, gimme that good stuff. Censer, every enchanter support gets this, who doesn't love attack speed and minor magic damage on auto boost? Boots, either get Sorcerers or Mobility boots. Both compliment her playstyle either way. Most importantly, Lich Bane, bonus auto-attack damage after using an ability. You get where that's going right? You know people get surprised when Sona suddenly drops their health bar into 1/4ths within seconds.
- Team fights: Please, stay behind the beefy bois. You cannot survive a burst attack at all without the help of items or someone else. In the fight, you check for two things. "Is my ADC in immediate danger right now? If not, where should I be to maximize our chances." Use your stupidly low cooldowns to provide and cause some hurt in the battle. If things don't go so well you can use E on and your whole team goes ZOOM. If your team is about to be hit by a strong AOE. Slap a W on them for increased chances of survival. You can also top off your teammates by spamming W constantly.
- The Dreaded... FLASH+R COMBOOOOOOO, the enemy team fears this, use this fear to force them to split up or back off. If they all squeeze up and your teammates can back you up. Boom, dance party of death. ANNNND the cooldown is short, yeah. Totally not annoying as hell. Just remember your mega squish, also don't blow the ult too early unless your very sure somebody on the enemy team will die.
3: How to beat up a mute musician
- Early, she can poke a lot yes, but from what all Sona's dread is taking soo much damage in one attack. Anything hurts Sona a lot, if you can prove that you can out poke her she will play passive all early game. Being in the bush is also a big advantage, she cannot target you if you cannot be seen. Unless she warded the bush she cannot do crap unless the jungle comes to help her. Also if you can hit her for big damage, she is forced to use up all of her mana. God damn her W is mana expensive.
- She lacks any consistent CC other than her R. Take advantage of this, she struggles to keep her ADC alive due to her crappy expensive heal. She could try to use E but if you or your ADC lands a stun/root. The likely chances of her or her ADC dying is very high. Once she gets to level 6, you might want to respect her "space". Also, beware of her Flash+R combo. It could 100 to 0 your health coordinated properly. The cooldown reduction from her Ult is scary too, but if you can stun her she cannot do much at all without the help of items or teammates. She can't spam if she's stunned.
- Her E is a useful tool for getting away or setting up an ambush. If she takes a little bit of damage from any source while her E is activated. It cancels her 10 seconds of retained speed. A good smack on the butt and shes slower than Ashe without boots. In team fights, she will use E to make her team harder to hit or allowing them to set up easy. Play defensive and deal with the others, if you can catch Sona, kill her IMMEDIATELY. She's a pain in the ass when it comes to her utility.
- "I hate healers", grievous wounds is your best friend. Her healing is kinda meh unless spammed. If you reduce the her healing, it becomes mega meh.
- Imagine a threat radius around Sona, remember it because once you memorize what's her engage range you can deal with her more easily. It's basically a big circle. Her W can only heal herself and an ally with the lowest hp. So deal with enemies who are too far from Sona to be assisted.
- Sona hurts, a lot. When she hits around.... 100ap. That's where she starts to hurt in every fight, her Q doesn't do too much damage, but being spammed by Q doesn't feel good at all. Lich Bane on Sona is very dangerous. She might as well be a weird... hybrid support adc... what the hell Senna no go away.
Cool to see you still posting(been following your blog since gw2 2014 era) , i'll read it when i get home.
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