League of Legends - Sona Champion Strategy and Item Build Guide

Sona

Basic Information

Champion Stats

Lore

Skills

Icon	Description
	Power Chord (Effect Radius: 400)After casting 3 spells, Sona’s next attack deals bonus magic damage in addition to a bonus effect depending on what song Sona last activated.
	Hymn of Valor (Effect Radius: 850, Cost: 45/50/55/60/65 Mana, Cooldown: 8/7.2/6/4.8)<br. ACTIVE: Deals 40/70/100/130/160 (+50% Ability Power) magic damage to the nearest two enemies (prioritizes champions) and changes her Power Chord bonus to Staccato.MELODY: Sona gains an aura for 3 seconds. Allied champions that enter the aura will gain an additional 20/30/40/50/60 (+20% Ability Power) magic damage on their next attack.
	Aria of Perseverance (Effect Radius: 1000, Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 Mana, Cooldown: 10/9/7.5/6)ACTIVE: Restores 35/55/75/95/115 (+25% Ability Power) health to Sona and a nearby allied champion (prioritizes most wounded) and changes her Power Chord bonus to Diminuendo.MELODY: Sona gains an aura for 3 seconds. Allied champions that enter the aura will gain a shield that prevents up to 30/55/80/105/130 (+30% Ability Power) damage within the next 1.5 seconds.
	Song of Celerity (Cost: 65 Mana, Cooldown: 12/10.8/9/7.2)ACTIVE: Grants Sona [0]% movement speed for 7 seconds (or until damaged) and changes her Power Chord bonus to Tempo.MELODY: Sona gains an aura for 3 seconds. Allied champions that enter the aura will gain [0]% movement speed for 3 seconds. Sona’s personal movement speed increase will always last at least 3 seconds.
	Crescendo (Target Range: 900, Cost: 100 Mana, Cooldown: 140/120/100)ACTIVE: Strikes an irresistible chord, stunning enemy Champions and forcing them to dance for 1.5 seconds and take 150/250/350 (+50% Ability Power) magic damage.PASSIVE: Reduces the base cooldown of Sona’s basic abilities by 10/25/40%.

Strategy

• Sona is a ranged support champion that specializes in area-of-effect combat and assistance. For example, during the laning phase, she can harass the enemy laners with her (Q) Hymn of Valor while boosting the Attack Damage of her lane partner. She can also heal and provide a shield for her lane partner with (W) Aria of Perseverance to help them recover from being harassed. Moreover, you can also use (E) Song of Celerity to provide a small movement speed buff to you and your teammates, should you need to close in or get away from opposing champions.
• Be wary not to over-spam your skills during your laning phase. Given that Sona’s skills have generally low cooldowns, they tend to drain your mana if you get overzealous in using it to harass and heal your teammates. As a general rule, it is better for Support players to heal their lane partners than to harass their lane opponents.
• Keep in mind that all of Sona’s abilities have a small area of effect. When using your skills, it is best to cover most if not all your teammates with your auras, especially your carries.
• Take note of the last skill you’ve used when her Power Chord (passive) is active. Whenever you use three skills, your auto attack will be empowered by the last skill you’ve activated. First, when you use (Q) Hymn of Valor, this will trigger Staccato, and your next auto attack deals 40% more damage. Second, when you use (W) Aria of Perseverance, it will trigger Diminuendo, which makes your next auto attack will reduce its target’s damage output by 25% (+ 4% per 100 AP) for 3 seconds. Finally, when you use (E) Song of Celerity, this triggers Tempo, wherein her next auto attack will slow the target by 40% (+ 4% per 100 AP) for 2 seconds.
• You can use (R) Crescendo offensively and defensively. For instance, you can Flash into an enemy champions and cast (R) Crescendo, effectively disabling and leaving them open to your team to follow up. Good Sona players usually cast (R) Crescendo to capture as many enemy champions possible, or to disable high-priority enemy champions such as their carries in order to win clashes. On the other hand, defensively, you can use (R) Crescendo to save teammates who were caught by the enemy team and assist your teammate back to safety with (E) Song of Celerity and (W) Aria of Perseverance.

Runes & Masteries

COMING SOON

Summoner Spells

Standard Support
Flash	Exhaust

or

Offensive Lane
Flash	Ignite

Item Builds

Support

Starter Items
Spellthief’s Edge	Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation x3	Warding Totem

Early Items
Eye of the Watchers	Locket of the Iron Solari	Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Redemption

Eye of the Watchers – This Sightstone upgrade provides bonus Ability Power, Health bonus, cooldown reduction, additional 2 gold every 10 seconds. Apart from this, Tribute rewards Sona with 15 gold each time she damages opposing champions with a skill or auto attack, for up to 3 times, or as long as you have stacks for it.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity – This item upgrade enhances Sona’s ability to spam her skills to aid teammates and harass the enemy team during the laning phase and clashes.

Locket of the Iron Solari – Another good item option, Locket of the Iron Solari provides Sona with bonus armor and magic resistance, as well as enables her to cast an area-of-effect shield for her teammates. This makes her team harder to route during team fights.

Redemption – This item provides bonus health, mana regeneration, cooldown reduction, and more importantly, another healing skill she can use for her teammates. Redemption synergizes well with Locket of the Iron Solari, as you can both heal and shield your team during clashes.

Full Build
Eye of the Watchers	Ionian Boots of Lucidity	Locket of the Iron Solari
Redemption	Ardent Censer	Athene’s Holy Grail

Ardent Censer – This item gives your (W) Aria of Perseverance and other shielding items additional potency, an added effect that lets your team gain bonus attack speed as well as a set bonus attack damage that heals for the same amount.

Athene’s Holy Grail – This item greatly bolsters your (W) Aria of Perseverance, so long as you can stack Blood Charges. Oftentimes, this is usually the final item for Sona, as her other core items cover her needs in-lane or during team fights. However, if you still have a free item slot, get this to increase your heals during team fights.

Situational Items
Mikael’s Crucible	Ancient Coin / Eye of the Oasis	Needlessly Large Rod
Mejai’s Soulstealer	Lich Bane

Mikael’s Crucible – This support item enables Sona to protect her team’s carries against disables and crowd controls from the enemy team. However, you have to be on your toes when to use it, as some players will either wait for you to use this item’s active skill on your teammate, or try to beat you to the punch.

Ancient Coin / Eye of the Oasis – Another Sightstone upgrade, Ancient Coin and Eye of the Oasis are good options for Sona players, as their passive makes enemy minions drop coins you can collect for gold or mana replenishment. In fact, when you foresee that your bottom lane match up will be passive one, it’s better to get this item first in order to get your core items faster.

Needlessly Large Rod – For Sona players who want to add more damage to her (Q) Hymn of Valor and (R) Crescendo, they can opt to purchase this item. Moreover, Needlessly Large Rod provides a huge Ability Power bonus and can build into more powerful AP items such as Rabadon’s Deathcap and Luden’s Echo.

Mejai’s Soulstealer – This item makes you a glass cannon, as you gain additional AP each time you gain kills or assists during team fights or skirmishes, up to a certain stack. Given that Sona is a Support champion that ideally gets more assists in games, it can potentially make your skills more potent.

However, each time you get slain, you lose a good portion of your AP stacks, and given that Sona is not that tanky to begin with, beginner Sona players might have a hard time getting their stacks. Nevertheless, if you feel that you can compensate her squishy nature for more damage, then you can try this item out.

Lich Bane – Similar to Mejai’s Soulstealer, this item takes advantage of Sona’s tendency of spamming her skills against enemies. Most AP Sona builds recommend having Lich Bane as a main item because it provides bonus Ability Power and empowers Sona’s next auto attack after she casts a skill for 2 seconds. Furthermore, this item synergizes well with her (Q) Hymn of Valor, and for players who tend to take the more offensive route, Lich Bane might be a good item to look into.

Playing Against

• Sona has strong poke and harass with her (Q) Hymn of Valor. During the laning phase, it is best to hide in unwarded brushes to limit her damage.
• Sona is extremely squishy in the early game. It is advisable to coordinate ganks with your team to take her out early and often.
• Make her use her skills often during the early game. Her mana pool and regeneration cannot easily replenish and a Sona that has no mana is an easy target to eliminate. For example, harass her and her lane partner to force her into using (W) Aria of Perseverance more often. Once she has little mana, you can press the attack and focus on her.
• Sona is susceptible to hard Crowd Control effects such as Stuns, Fears, Roots and Displacements. Therefore, you can opt to eliminate her first, if your carries have the capacity to kill her quickly.
• Avoid clumping together with your teammates during clashes. Her (R) Crescendo can effectively disable your entire team and wipe you out if you are not careful.
• Yasuo and Braum players can block Sona’s (R) Crescendo with their Wind Wall and Unbreakable skills, respectively.

Hard Counter

• Alistar – Alistar’s Crowd Control skills such as Pulverize, Headbutt and Trample makes Sona’s laning phase a hard one, especially when Alistar initiates small skirmishes. Unbreakable Will also makes him tanky and removes the disable of Sona’s (R) Crescendo, enabling him to throw his combo at their high-priority targets.
• Braum – Braum can use his Winter’s Bite to counter harass and potentially stun Sona during the laning phase, thanks to his passive, Concussive Blows. Likewise, his Unbreakable can block most of Sona’s harass such as (Q) Hymn of Valor and her auto attacks enhanced by Power Chord (passive) and (R) Crescendo. Furthermore, Glacial Fissure provides a knock up and slow that can aid his teammates in eliminating Sona.
• Blitzcrank – Blitzcrank can displace and punish Sona with his Rocket Grab – Power Fist combo should he manages to hook Sona. After he hooks her, Static Field extends his crowd control chain by dealing decent damage and, more importantly, silencing her.
• Leona – Leona has strong engage with her Shield of Daybreak, Zenith Blade and Solar Flare, all of which either stuns or slows enemy champions who get caught. Good Leona players who have strong lane presence and can out-zone Sona players during the early laning phase especially if Leona plays aggressively.
• Thresh – Thresh can hook Sona with Death Sentence, and continue the punishment with Flay. If Thresh uses and manages to hit Sona with The Box, it will greatly hinder her movement, leaving her open to the Thresh’s partner to deliver tons of damage to her.
• Nautilus – Nautilus can hook Sona with Dredge Line, and can root her in place with his Staggering Blow passive. He also can deal significant damage when he is auto attacking her when Titan’s Wrath is active in conjunction with Riptide. Furthermore, Depth Charge also bypasses Sona and hit its intended target such as the enemy team’s carries which can be seized by his team to engage and potentially win the clash.
• Taric – Taric can mitigate Sona’s harass with his Starlight’s Touch and bolster his lane partner’s magic resistance and armor with Bastion. Offensively, he can engage Sona with Dazzle, potentially stunning her and her lane partner. Furthermore, good Taric players also use Cosmic Radiance to counter Sona’s (R) Crescendo, rendering their team immune to any damage during team fights.

Strategy Video

COMING SOON

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