Patch 6.14 in League of Legends has been out for a few days and we are already starting to see the meta shift. Ryze has been doing pretty poorly after his rework, either because nobody knows how to play him yet or because he’s just plain weak. The biggest winner of this patch has to be Sona, the musical support who got a pretty big rework. Her win rate has skyrocketed: it’s nearly over 55 percent from Diamond to Bronze . What exactly makes the new Sona so powerful and why should you ban her in your games?
A Sublime Duet Summoner
Sona has always been a difficult champion to balance. Her goal is to be a walking aura – essentially a good Sona should be buffing her allies so that they can do the work. She should play a lot like Janna; throwing down shields, peeling for her allies and poking down enemies in fights.
This rework increased Sona’s aura range, cooldown reduction and damage all without limiting her mobility. She’s a floating aura machine that can get 67 percent cooldown reduction, lower than any other champion. She’s a magical machine gun, throwing out bolts of blue and green as much as her mana allows. You are going to see a lot of broken keyboards from Sona mains once the dust settle on this patch.
What really pushed her into OP territory is her new E, Song of Celerity. Before her rework, the speed boost it gave decayed quickly over three seconds. Patch 6.14 doubled the AP ratio on her speed and increased the non-decaying duration to seven seconds. With some Mobility Boots and the Homeguard buff, you can make it to the middle of mid lane in seconds.
Poke support mages like Zyra and Karma have become staples of the season six meta. Sona should have dominated the scene, but Soraka and Janna did her job better. Now that those two have been nerfed to the ground, Sona can finally ascend to the S-tier rank of supports. Nobody heals, peels or pokes better than Sona and that’s why she’s super OP.
There’s nothing Sona does badly, but that doesn't mean she has no weaknesses. Engage supports still destroy her in lane, a Blitzcrank or Leona jumping on top of her will wipe her off the map. Your auras might be bigger, but you're still the same squishy maven of the strings.
Build
Ability Power, Ability Power and more Ability Power. Frost Queen’s Claim is a great item on Sona, it gives her AP, mana and spooky ghosts for chasing down enemies. Ardent Censer got a minor rework last patch and is a must buy for Sona. It increases her heals and shields and gives her CDR; skipping out on it is just irresponsible. Other good items include Banner of Command, Sightstone (duh) and if you are super ahead buy a Rylai’s Crystal Scepter.
There isn’t an agreed upon Rune page for Sona yet, some people prefer full Ability Power while others value tanky stats. Scaling CDR is a must though, you want to spam your abilities as much as possible.
Is there some other reason Sona is so astoundingly powerful this patch? Tell us in the comments!
