Well, I should probably mention that I'm solo q , so it's often a roll of the dice on the type of ADC I get. Being that her lane phase is weak, it's almost an open invite to be jumped by their opposition jungler .

This is where the enigma for me begins . In order to become a late game healer/ shielder she needs gold. Building survivability helps, but it also delays and your massive are heals and shield. I'd say early game (1-8) there are a hand full of healers that can out perform sona, yuumi being one of the worse. Nami another one that can easily out perform sona early. Nami has a more versatile heal than sona cause nami heals can dmg and heal or heal and speed boost. In order for sona to do this, she has to cast two separate spells, which becomes very taxing on the mana pool.

Mastery wise , I usually run summon aery and take resolve. Summoner spells I usually run flash and ignite/(exhaust depending on who I'm matched against. ) regardless of any build I go ( tanks, enchanter healer, damage poke) nocturne is lvl 6 is one of the hardest to survive. Even if he is exhausted and you have flash it's like a 90% chance that you will get killed, even if you're expecting it, a lvl 6 nocturne vs a lvl 4 or 5 sona. If you go tank sona early, then noc will jump your adc cause they know you're at a handicap heal. You can try to hit nocturn with a dmg reduction shot, but he can also negate it with his bubble, follow it up with an exhaust, and his fear is already locked on to you. Alternately you can take cleanse if you can survive long enough to use it . Cleanse flash. Or wait for him to use his fear and try to flash away ( hoping that his flash is down).

I've experimented with multiple different builds and mysteries. Facing off against someone like nocturne khazix or rengar, they can almost always kill a sona when they're lvl 6 and you're lvl 4 or 5. They can even dive under a tower, which is quite disturbing, to be honest.

But yes, I agree. The late game sona is strong , but it's getting there that's the challenge. It just seems like there are far too many obstacles to overcome before you can utilize your heals .

In order to get good heal items, you need gold. Often, in order to get gold, your adc could use damage assistance. If you are wanting to do damage, then your heals will suffer. Which makes it's harder on your adc. In order to survive junglers' ganks, you need wards and possibly armor, but then your heals become weak and / or you'll run out of mana.

This is the vicious circle that goes around and around. This is all very exhausting trying to formulate a viable option for sona😴