Talk:Sona/@comment-23838403-20140613075414/@comment-24073465-20140613151205

the trick to playing her is it's ALL about positioning....

Sona's spells are all fire-and-forget (with the exceptions of R), but for maximizing efficiency, you have to know the ranges by feel....In the current meta of Tanky, In-your-face kill supports (Leona, Thresh,Blitz, and also maybe Braum to a certain extent), and high damage mage supports (Annie, Morgana), it is best you see how they play and decide your play style as such...

Should they be highly aggressive or your lane partner be passive (such as Ashe, Vayne or Tristana), focus more on healing from their attacks and attack only where you can get away with it (This is where knowing the ranges by feel comes into play...at the right point, you should be able to harass them without worrying about retribution since you're firing WHILE MOVING AWAY FROM THEM)...try to have your W power chord up whenever possible, so that if the enemy Leona or something engages on your adc, you can use it on their adc to significantly reduce their power output...remember, 20% damage decrease for 3 seconds on an ADC can be monumental, even in early game.....

On the other hand, should their lane be passive, focus on harass as much as you can....her early game damage is quite good, especially when using Q+Q power chord to give nice burst, so harassing is often worth it....always be careful though, since Sona is Ultra-squishy early game (and becomes only squishy by late), so getting caught out of position could mean death at times EVEN if you use summoner's spells....

While E isn't bad, it's leveled up last since it doesn't really show active benefits (Sure it boosts speed, but most people don't see that as easily as seeing damage or heals), and is used for only 3 things...1) Helping your allies chase enemies....2) Helping your allies run away from your enemies....3) Getting you to your allies faster so that you can heal them/damage and/or stun enemy....

Depending on your play-style, you can go R>Q>W>E or R>W>Q>E....Often, I usually take the former instead of the latter, simply because I often focus on harassment....

Runes I take are usually a mix of Magic Pen and defenses or Mana Regen, however those recommended by most are the usual support runes (defense and gold generation)...Masteries are 9-0-21...Items are a mix of defenses (HP, Armor, MR...usual support items like Sightstone, FH, Randuins, Locket, etc.), magic damage (Sheen and it's derivatives work well with her power chord; other than that, AP items like Athenes, Abbysal Scepter, Morellonomicon, or even Mejais (if you are doing really well, and know that you'll continue to do so and get assists) can work on her....try to get items which get you to 40% CDR asap.....otherwise, if you're literally stomping the other team, you could go the AP sona way, dealing crazy damage with Q,R and powerchord, while healing back damage easily...only problem is you are INSANELY susceptible to burst then, and if the other team suddenly wakes up, they'll take you out before you can even twang your instrument...

now get out there and Rock the Rift...and always remember: POSITIONING, POSITIONING POSITIONING....it's the one thing that'll tell if your team gets an ace or if you're on the wrong end of Xin Zhao's spear.....