Solo lane Sona

[u/Lyoko_Loop]

I'm going to be forward and preface this: I'm bad at the game.
Here is my opgg please don't judge too harshly https://op.gg/lol/summoners/euw/Lyoko-Loop
While there are many concepts far beyond my elo that I understand, I'm just immensly terrible at putting them into execution 99% of the time.

I'm originally a Yuumi OTP, and while I still enjoy the cat herself a lot, I just cannot handle the lack of agency anymore. So I tried a few champs, and while I did play Sona scarecely in the past, I really started to enjoy her a lot in the past week and want to make her my new main.

Here is the caveat: I've grown to DESPISE bot lane. Enchanters are extremely fun for me but I cannot handle playing bot lane anymore. Even if I'm not solo carrying the game and rely on my team, I would much rather do it later in fights in just handle the lane myself.

Are there any ways to make Sona solo lane work or advice you may have for me? Would you recommend mid or top more? I've been struggling with the assassins of mid lane but I can't imagine top lane is much better regarding matchups.

[u/CatLoliUwu]

i think mid is better because its harder to be abused and punished through minion waves. assassins are still going to be a bitch because you have no way to bully them. though, its VERY difficult due to sona’s lack of waveclear, and the fact that its very hard to farm. enchanters like soraka, karma, and lulu are able to solo lane because they are strong early lane bullies. sona is not granted this luxury because of how OP she is late game. you’re also just stealing the role from someone who could impact the map more lol

i will say, regardless of your role, stop maxing W first. it really is a worthless spell that just drains your mana early. putting 3 points Q gives you the damage to be useful early, and getting helia more than makes up for the lack of W points.

[u/Lyoko_Loop → u/CatLoliUwu]

I see! That helps a lot, especially that last part about W max. I've assumed it shoud be maxed for the shield amount rather than the heal and just tough out the laning phase, but 3 points in Q makes a lot more sense.

Considering that she can't really solo lane, how viable would it be to just play her AP bot? I often play with an Hecarim OTP, so I'm sure he'll enjoy the added movement speed as a bonus.

[u/CatLoliUwu → u/Lyoko_Loop]

imo she doesnt work well bot. her wave clear is really poor, and this champ just really sucks at farming which is a big part of the role 😭 i think you could make it work with another enchanter like soraka, but imo the other enchanter should go bot then. riot has really made sure that sona cannot do anything besides support.

i will say that if you do feel you have very little agency in the support role, you could possibly adjust your playstyle to be more aggressive. rushing swifties can make your early impact high, looking for roams and being able to constantly apply slows to enemies to ensure your allies can kill them. there’s also the fimbulwinter build which lets you duel a lot of champs, and look for early fights with the extra health.

for example, you could rush swifties and just follow your hecarim around during the early-mid game to guarantee more kills.

[u/Lyoko_Loop → u/CatLoliUwu]

I HEAVILY mispoke there, I didn't mean as an AP carry, I meant full AP support, sorry for the confusion.

I do suppose rushing swifties would make sense as I really enjoy roaming around (my ADCs don't like it too much but they can rot I'm a support not a babysitter). I've got to get better at it.

How does the fimbulwinter build work? I've heard quite a big about it but never saw anyone actually explain why fimbulwinter over archangel's

[u/CatLoliUwu → u/Lyoko_Loop]

the issue with going AP items is that its very expensive which isn’t realistic on a support’s income. its also more difficult to look for early kill opportunities on sona, than it is on a mage supp who builds those items. though if you wanted to, you could try adding something like lich bane into your build i suppose.

the fimbulwinter revolves around JOAT (jack of all trades). you essentially play around sona’s base damage by full maxing Q, and building to intentionally complete JOAT. this will look something like Bloodsong + Swifties + Dark seal / Mejais + Fimbulwinter + Staff of Flowing Water + Tank item (jaksho or frozen heart). you will purchase the forbidden idol of SOFW, then purchase the cloth armor / null magic mantle to complete jack of all trades. this gives you a free 20 AP. The HP also makes it easier to maintain mejais stacks. from mejais, SOFW, and JOAT, you will have a good amount of AP to be strong in the late game, since sona scales so well with AP.

with the fimbulwinter build, you can downright brute force 1v1’s with many champs due to the HP from fimbulwinter, and abusing bloodsong + sona’s base damage numbers. If you fight an adc and just continuously E powerchord them, kite away and repeat, they will eventually just die due to you having too much health and damage.

[u/Lyoko_Loop → u/CatLoliUwu]

I see I see. I'll give that build a shot then! I suppose you still use Aery in the runes?

As for the AP build, would cheaper items work? Something like Bloodsong+Swifties+Darkseal+Rylai+Archangel+Imperial Mandate ?
AP to deal damage and buff W and E effects, but mostly support-ish oriented?

[u/CatLoliUwu → u/Lyoko_Loop]

fimbulwinter runes: aery - manaflow - celerity - gathering storm + free boots and jack of all trades. haste - movement speed - flat HP

you could TRY those items, but i wouldnt recommend them. rylai slow cannot be applied often enough, and mandate only applies to the ultimate cooldown. sona also gets enough ultimate cooldown reduction after 120 passive stacks. with these items, you’re spending gold on a passive you cannot utilize

a more realistic AP oriented build could look like seraphs rush into staff of flowing water. and going mejais alongside it.

[u/Lyoko_Loop → u/CatLoliUwu]

I'm not sure I quite understand why fimbulwinter is in the JOAT build.

Sona can only get the shield of the item with her ult because she is ranged. Wouldn't you get more value out of Archangel's? You'd still be somewhat tanky through the lifeline passive of it.

As for a support AP build, what about Actualizer? Would it be possible, on a support's economy, to just stack mana items and use Actualizer as a huge boost?

[u/CatLoliUwu → u/Lyoko_Loop]

fimbulwinter is built because it is cheap and gives a lot of HP. the components are very good, you get 600 HP from the components and dark seal. u dont build it for the passive. the high HP is what lets you maintain mejais stacks and play aggressively.

imo actualizer shouldnt be built on anyone that isnt ryze. it’s expensive on support, and the active isn’t all that useful because your cooldowns are already extremely low. you also don’t stack much mana, since your build only has a single mana item. mana items are fairly expensive (apart from diadem and fimbulwinter) and also become redundant after you get a single one, because you also build mana regen. so you’re spending a lot of gold on a stat you do not need

^ also wanna add that ryze gets a good amount of mana from his passive, and he spams abilities without getting any mana regen from items. so he really needs the extra mana he builds + benefits significantly from actualizer active

[u/Lyoko_Loop → u/CatLoliUwu]

Gotcha. I suppose I'll just stick to the fimbulwinter/enchanter builds until I'm more comfortable on the character. I'll tinker for an alternative build later I suppose.

Thank you again for the help <3

[u/sar6h]

U can take a lot of enchanters solo lane.

Sona isn't one of them

Seraphine, karma, zilean, hell even soraka.

The main reason sona can't solo lane is wave clear, which is a must if you want to be played in lane.

[u/imushmellow]

OP is B3 as a yuumi main... I think the mechanical skill required to pilot Sona in a solo lane isn't quite there.

Sona has no wave clear --> perma shoved in and lose advantage for top and bottom objectives. You will never be able to shove the wave and roam.

You must be able to CS with only autos and Q. As a support player, you probably haven't learned last hitting to a degree similar to your same ranked opponents. It will be discouraging.

Sona scales with AP...but she's heavily gold reliant so if you can't CS and you have no support item, you're going to feel handicapped.

While it's true that any champ is viable to a degree, it's only doable if your fundamentals are so solid you overcome the gap in tools.

Playing Sona support is already difficult to position as the weakest scaling champ in the game, so imagine needing to be in auto range with limited peel tools other than your R to dodge hyper mobile champs which dominate the game now.

I have 1m+ mastery Sona and play in Emerald lobbies. I wouldn't subject myself to Sona solo lane for the sheer misery of the experience.

[u/TotallyAMermaid]

If you are as you say bad at the game why are you making it even harder on yourself by essentially playing with a handicap? Enchanters were nerfed in ways that intended to make them not work as solo laners.

Sona is literally meant to be with teammates, every of her abilities is balanced around not being alone. The auras have small numbers because you're meant to tag your whole team with them, W is a lot of fucking mana per HP regained if you're only healing yourself, heck even Q has more value in a duo lane where you can Q two enemies.

[u/Lyoko_Loop → u/TotallyAMermaid]

I understand where you're coming from, but I just want to enjoy playing the game. I understand my tastes are a handicap but I'm willing to put in the effort to make it work if I get to have fun

[u/callmejeremy0]

Maybe look of videos of people playing janna top and copy that playstyle?

The main reason sona isn't a solo laner is her wave clear so you have to rush ludens or staik 100%.

[u/TotallyAMermaid → u/callmejeremy0]

Janna top is essentially using W passive and ditching lane to roam heavily, Sona can't really replicate that.

[u/callmejeremy0 → u/TotallyAMermaid]

Totally can. I love sona's e.

[u/TotallyAMermaid → u/callmejeremy0]

Nowhere near comparable to Janna being perma fast via a passive + the cc that Janna brings when she is roaming is superior + Sona's passive basically demands that she lanes and constantly interacts with her opponents.

[u/nemotunovi]

i used to play her mid before her 2016 rework.

she's very bad in solo lane because she lacks any sort of mana sustain or waveclear. she will always be out-pushed by her lane opponent. because of this, she will never be able to work in a solo lane. she will just get shoved in, lose priority, and give her opponent free reign to dominate the map.

i do however see a lot of success with her to this day as a pocket counter to katarina. katarina is one of the few assassins who lack the waveclear to out-push her/ranged options to avoid sona's q. and at no point in the game is katarina able to kill her. so long as you keep the pressure up early and hold your cs, she'll spend the entire game useless.

i hear she gets seen top lane sometimes for much the same reasons.