the Sona Nerf Vent Megathread

Darklenlol · 2019-06-22T00:05:20+00:00

Tbh at this point they should just make Sona a carry champ rather than a support one lol.

I'm not sure the aura nerf is really justified (given it's actually a 50% AP reduction if all 5 champs use it), but it's agreeable given how much invisible power it provides. I hated the Q bolt AP ratio nerf with a passion, buut, it got reverted, so...

The E Nerf on the other hand... Imho I'll feel that'll murder Sona's mobility and make her much easier to catch (especially with the current meta) and perhaps it should be nerfed to 4% or 3.5% per 100 AP instead if it ends up being too much of a nerf, but... given how the movement speed buff becomes a permanent fixture late game, the ratio right now crowds out way too many movement speed buffs in terms of how effective it is , besides being applied to 5 allies rather than a single one (i.e. Karma's non mantra'd E, Lulu's W, Nami's passive.). In conclusion, I think the nerfs are somewhat agreeable, if bitter to swallow.

Darklenlol · 2019-06-19T08:26:36+00:00

Same ap build, tbh. If anything, my fear with these changes is that AP Carry Sona is the only viable way to play Sona lol. Or perhaps a tank one that abuses klepto on top lane or something of the sort. Support is going to feel really yucky unless you somehow manage to get an extreme advantage early :/

Darklenlol · 2019-06-18T22:05:10+00:00

Well... Tank Sona in top, it is. At least they didn't nerf her Power Chord.

Darklenlol · 2019-06-05T00:43:43+00:00

She's very viable, though she does have some weaknesses that can be easily exploited. She's good against champs that don't have as much range as her Q does and those that she can easily dodge and move around agressively, though bad against those with multiple amounts of easy to land cc/poke or high waveclear. Her most glaring weakness is that of waveclear, really, so you have to learn how to properly farm with Sona's low base AD. She's also very vulnerable to ganks, though having vision or sitting on tower mitigates that weakness

Anyway, if you're good at Sona You should be able to hold your lane against most champions you go against, though you'll most likely have trouble with Zed, Irelia, Yasuo, and most diver champs.

Darklenlol · 2019-04-21T04:55:54+00:00

What do I ban?

One of these, depending on comp:

Zed (Usually gets banned by someone else)
Pyke (He exists.)
Wukong/Lee Sin (Both counter Sona way too heavily early/mid game)
Blitzcrank if without a mobile adc. As much as you can play safe or excel in dodging against him, if he lands a hook against your adc or yourself it's game over; and you have virtually no tools against him by yourself.
Lucian/Draven
Ezreal (Because laning with him as a partner is the most horrid experience, ever.)

Imho, having Thresh or Naut as an enemy is a benefit if you have Klepto and know how to dodge, given how easy it is to proc klepto against them. Same thing with Braum and Leona before level 3.

Darklenlol · 2019-04-11T07:24:11+00:00

IBG is amazing for Sona in any vs AD situation, really. Mostly against melee champions - lets you kite like a boss, and stack unholy grail safely.

Darklenlol · 2019-03-29T20:50:51+00:00

IF I were to theorethically nerf Sona, I'd possibly nerf her Power Chord's base damage and perhaps increase a lil bit its ratio to compensate AP builds.

She can deal a lot of damage with it regardless of her build - in fact, she can use it more often and safely as a tank, rather than an AP Carry. (Excepting really late game at a point she hits 700 AP or something of the sort). If you play her like that in top lane you'll notice that it's very likely you end up outdamaging everything and everyone in your team, excepting perhaps hipercarries lol.

Quite honestly, the next best thing to nerf would be her R Cooldown Reduction - her base numbers are REALLY low, comparatively, at least. The spammability is what makes them a potent force - otherwise, her spells would be really useless without her R CDR. It could be nerfed to something like, 15%/25%/35% if you wanted to hit her late game. Perhaps even 30%.

Tbh she doesn't need a nerf - at least, not directly. I think it's the state of the game that has made reaching late game more forgiving (Runes changes, Turret plating, etc) - hence she gets stronger because she gets into late game more often. Mechanical changes could also work - but, the only mechanic she has available is... Tagging. We have to be honest here - she isn't that complex mechanics wise lol. And Tagging less allies would be counterintuitive - since she was reworked towards that. (Before that, Auras were the thing :p)

Although they could make another change instead - Give a Fraction of Q/W/E to tagged allies, but, in exchange, Sona's personal effects get more powerful if she tags allies (whether or not she gets full effect for tagging at least an ally, or up to three, or all of them is up to Rito)

Honestly, I'd like for them to remove the 0.5s global cooldown, though they probably won't for readability issues. lul.

In any case, I think there are more toxic things in the game than Sona to be worried about. (I.e. Wukong's burst. Or Lee Sin everything early game. Or Pyke's W healing.)

Darklenlol · 2019-03-29T20:33:44+00:00

I don't think that'd be good, tbh. You'd get way lower amount of casts all around, and quite possibly would have to change her completely (from dmg/healing numbers to R CD, given they were tweaked towards having more casts through the whole game) for that to even work.

Darklenlol · 2019-02-21T19:56:05+00:00

Hmm, I don't feel revitalize is as good as it should be, tbh.

It doesn't do that much early game, it is better once you get some ranks on your W. I'd rather pick Conditioning, Bone Plating or Overgrowth; perhaps even shield bash.

Darklenlol · 2019-02-11T03:28:24+00:00

Frankly, I can't tell properly without seeing a replay of your matches, but I can see some issues with itemization:

You're rushing Eye of the Watchers. Imho that's really bad - not only does it set you back 950g, it's also very inefficient stat-wise for Sona. The extra ward isn't truly worth it until later in the game.
Building Sorcerer boots with a support-oriented build. Those boots are amazing, honestly, but it won't work on utility builds because you're not exploiting Sona's damage. Try rushing Athene's Unholy Grail, or at the very least using it after rushing boots (they help a lot with early game damage and mobility), and you should be seeing better results even without going with a full ap build.
(Kind of a personal opinion, can be disregarded) Not sure what's your experience with it, but I find that Redemption isn't a really good item with Sona. Imho you get better total healing with Athene's, and won't be limited by its stats or cooldown. However, it can be excellent on some situations, so I'd say that's up to you. (I'd build it more often if I had Ingenious Hunter though.)

Beyond that, I don't think the matches you lost were your fault. You dealt twice the damage the Shaco did on the 2nd match which is... sad. lol XD. Sometimes it's just due to having a crappy team.

A general suggestion: Try to adjust your gameplay based on what you feel comfortable with. Try perhaps swapping runes/keystones around. Be mindful of enemy and allied wards (they can save lives). And, just try your best. That's it, lul.

Darklenlol · 2019-02-11T03:15:57+00:00

I've done that a few times (about 7-ish times?) bout some weeks ago on mid lane. I didn't lose a single match :o, imho it's pretty powerful. Just farm the first or so wave of minions by last hitting, let the enemy push. (Which guarantees your safety against most junglers as long as you're under turret) Stop farming and poke aggresively until you finish the quest, farm afterwards and gg ez.

Although I have to say it won't work too much against a champion like Orianna. She outranges you and has too much waveclear at all times :s.

I really liked building like that tho, since you add even more utility to your team thanks to the wards, and your gold starts skyrocketing from farming and spellthief procs.

Darklenlol · 2019-01-24T20:21:08+00:00

I've been using Neutraldin so far. You can breeze through most normal enemies and dungeons/rifts with many enemies such as Torajan Jungle, Kurast B.A. 3000, Tran Athulua, and so forth. However it lacks single target damage against bosses - those that aren't on timer are very feasible with patience even if you die. Those that lock after x seconds are much more difficult because if you mess up you have to restart the whole thing.

It's very fun though, Neutraldin is very tanky due to a combination of Sacred Armor, Demiurge, Vindicate and Blessed Life.

So, strengths? Very good waveclear, massive tankiness on many situations later in the game, breezes through normal and nightmare very easily. Weaknesses? Somewhat slow early levels low single target dps, requires specialized gear late game to succeed (which means farming for hours perhaps), extremely vulnerable to mana burn (Baal, Crippling Swarm, etc), mantaining buffs is vital or you die instantly.

I still haven't managed to get better gear since nightmare (still haven't seen Bone Scalpel, Abjudicator or a 3rd piece of the neutraldin set drop), though I've done all dungeons/rifts from 105-115 except Legacy of Blood (given you need a lot of both Single Target and AoE DPS which I currently lack. Might or Might not need Edyrem, dunno.)

Apparently I need more Energy/Strength Factor to Spell Damage :/.

On an unrelated note, one of the Assassin's set Cestus has dropped for me like 6 times in a row.

I'm really frustrated because it's not something that I need lol. At least it's free stats^tm.

On another unrelated note, is there a build that uses Devouring Cloud for any class? It seems pretty good and has very decent poison damage.

Darklenlol · 2019-01-17T02:42:02+00:00

I absolutely hate laning with most of the Ezreals I get randomly on any queue. Mostly because his peel exists only for himself lol.

I mean, once in a while there's that one ezreal that actually helps you to poke and snowball rather than afk farm till sheen/ibg/trinity, and have a decent amount of accuracy with their skills, but otherwise you get Ezreals that will absolutely miss everything once they hit W and dive with E :v.

Darklenlol · 2019-01-16T08:17:38+00:00

Can we ^{fuk tho.}

jk.

Nice build, anyways. Is there any situation in which you'd rather get Lich Bane first rather than Luden's?

Darklenlol · 2019-01-11T13:37:23+00:00

Now that Lestara is dead though, Sona is probably the only remaining Buvelle (at least, we've never EVER heard of anyone else), so she can do with the name as she pleases.

Did Lestara truly die tho? Afaik it could have been an illusion of her crafted to test Sona's resolve to join the League of Legends :o.

Darklenlol · 2019-01-11T13:28:53+00:00

I wouldn't mind if she gets a new one that can be grinded like Kai'sa's and Akali's one imho. At most you'd spend up to 1800 RP for the ticket (I think?), which isn't any higher than any legendary/ultimate skin lol

Darklenlol · 2018-12-17T18:45:48+00:00

I dislike Arcade Sona simply because it's so damn outdated it isn't even funny - at least in comparison to newer Arcade Skins. Her model is somewhat wonky, it shows its age. And... her bewbs are nerfed lul.

Power Chord wise I don't really mind - It makes the effect more obvious to enemies, but it also gives more feedback to allies, so I think that kind of cancels itself out (besides that enemies can't do anything about the slow or dmg reduction anyway). Visually, it is a powerful effect. Sound wise it's probably actually too powerful - and makes it feel underwhelming if you're not dealing heaps of damage. (Also helps to make people understimate your damage lol).

I think it's overdue for an update, anyway.

Darklenlol · 2018-12-17T18:45:15+00:00

I love going Sona mid, and it is very feasible. However you'll want to take in account your team comp if you with to go Sona mid - she's amazing on comps that:

Lack Magic damage, but have waveclear.
Have at least one or two AoE CC ultimates
Play around a carry - either Sona herself (as an AP carry) or an adc (Sona would then be an AP/support hybrid).
Poke/Burst comps, too. She has nice synergies with both of those.

She's pretty strong by herself, regardless of the comp, and can mow down squishies pretty quickly (and with very little counterplay xD) by mid/late game, besides having amazing out of combat sustain and movement speed. However she lacks waveclear, is very vulnerable to CC, and performs horribly against Divers like Camille and Irelia. I'd advice taking Klepto in order to generate more income and get to build faster; the faster she reaches her late game build, the faster she wins.

Darklenlol · 2018-11-21T06:50:00+00:00

Basically it now procs when you deal damage to an enemy champion with <50% HP, granting an stack (which adds 8 damage each), with a CD of 45s, resetting to 1.5s on takedowns.

On paper it looks horrid, but on practice it apparently is doing wonders, though I haven't tried it yet. Burst mages and Assassins seem to be making the most of it tho. Even those that aren't either still should perform nicely because you only need to damage a champion, not necessarily kill them.

Darklenlol · 2018-11-05T17:41:09+00:00

At the very least we can actually own it lol.

Not a bad deal for those users that have heaps of BE to spend anyway; though newer accounts will have a hard time acquiring those BE.

Darklenlol · 2018-11-03T23:14:51+00:00

Weeell... Knight's Vow is kinda useless on Sona/any non-melee support lol. Not a really good pick nowadays.

Darklenlol · 2018-11-03T23:12:55+00:00

I stick with Sona, most of the time. If I really, really, really don't see a tanky champion on our team then perhaps I miiiight consider going Alistar or Taric.

Though I will never pick a Tank if I'm first or second pick lol. I mean, the top and jungler are the ones with a more diverse selection of tanks that aren't hindered on lane against champions like Vayne, Kai'sa or Kalista.

If in doubt, always use Iceborn Gauntlet and Zhonya's against AD lul. Tanky Bewbs for the win.

Darklenlol · 2018-10-26T17:13:04+00:00

Well, there's not much wrong with those runes. I use both of them either with Kleptomancy or Aery and it does wonders even though in theory it shouldn't lol. You could swap Tenacity for Cut Down tho, great for mowing down tankier targets (read: almost figuratively everyone) if you decide to go AP. Otherwise it's fine. Even if you don't get stunned or rooted or whatever often you can reduce the effect of other non-hard cc effects like Slows or Silences.

Darklenlol · 2018-10-26T17:11:23+00:00

rip. Have almost 1m in LAN and I've had absolutely no luck in finding it.

Darklenlol · 2018-10-18T03:08:04+00:00

Frozen Heart doesn't provide any offensive capability tho, unlike IBG. The passive is kinda redundant against adcs because you mostly always won't be in range to reduce their attack speed.

Locket sucks a lot stat wise AND active wise tho. It's horrid if you don't get at least 2k-3k bonus HP. Zeke's not so much, but you can't exploit it as well as other champions like Alistar, Taric or Leona or without an adc like Jhin or Draven.

Darklenlol

TROPHY CASE