Talk:Sona/@comment-7821545-20140219105244/@comment-7821545-20140222194534

As Krufix already mentioned, every support starts doran shield right now. EVERYONE. Even Sona. If you look at competitive games, or even diamond games, you'll see it's true. The current support buildpath is doran shield start, then coin, then sightstone rush, then talisman of ascension. The other support items provide too little gold generation and utility in comparison if you start doran shield, which is pretty much necessary for the laning phase.

Now, as to why I think the changes will benefit Sona. The doran shield nerfs should help sona do her job in lane: poking. Currently, doran shield makes tanky supports like leona very hard to poke down because it provides so much poke mitigation and health regeneration. The new spellthief's edge gives you extra damage on your spells and autos up to 3 times every 30 seconds (including turrets! which means that if you harrass your opponent out of lane, you'll still get gold). They also changed the new Frostqueen's claim -  the old really sucked. In short, doran shield nerfs mean your opponents take more harrass, and there's now a viable poke-oriented support item.

@Krufix just get health quints and you shouldn't be TOO squishy.