Ultimate Sona guide: Best League of Legends builds, runes, tips & tricks

Sona is League of Legends resident champion of harmony, as the support enchanter has been a favorite of players for many years now. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran, or just trying her for the first time, we have the ultimate guide to mastering the Maven of the Strings.

Released in 2010, Sona is one of League of Legends’ oldest champions. Throughout her time, Sona’s identity has mostly remained the same.

Regardless if you’re Mastery level 7, or have never played Sona before but want to give her a shot, we’ve got the guide so that you can know everything there is to know about her, including best builds and runes.

Who is Sona?

Sona was raised in an Ionian monastery before ending up in Demacia as a refugee. Although magic in Demacia is taboo, she charms with her ability to create melodies with her weapon known as an etwahl.

Sona doesn’t speak but communicates with the sounds she creates through her etwahl, which is said to be an artifact created thousands of years before the founding of Demacia.

On Summoner’s Rift, Sona is a support enchanter that shields and speeds up teammates in a pinch.

Sona abilities and gameplay

Sona abilities are meant to help boost surrounding allies by providing shields, movement, and a small amount of damage.

As a support champion, her job is to protect her fellow bot-laner by shielding as much as possible in order to survive laning phase, while providing poke damage when possible. Her strength is mostly outside laning phase, when she can provide massive heals and shields to her team in team fights, and stun enemies with her ultimate, Crescendo.

• Passive: Power Chord – Accelerando: Sona gains non-Ultimate ability haste permanently for her basic abilities as she uses her abilities well, up to a cap. Beyond that cap, further successful uses reduce her ultimate’s remaining cooldown instead. Power Chord: Every few spell casts, Sona’s next attack will deal bonus magic damage in addition to an additional effect based on what basic Ability Sona last activated.
• Q: Hymn of Valor – Sona plays the Hymn of Valor, sends out bolts of sound, dealing magic damage to two nearby enemies, prioritizing champions and monsters. Sona gains a temporary aura that grants allies tagged by the zone bonus damage on their next attack against enemies.
• W: Aria of Perseverance – Sona plays the Aria of Perseverance, sending out protective melodies, healing Sona and a nearby wounded ally. Sona gains a temporary aura that grants allies tagged by the zone a temporary shield.
• E: Song of Celerity – Sona plays the Song of Celerity, granting nearby allies bonus Movement Speed. Sona gains a temporary aura that grants allied champions tagged by the zone bonus Movement Speed.
• R: Crescendo – Sona plays her ultimate chord, stunning enemy champions and forcing them to dance and dealing magic damage to them. Each rank reduces the base cooldown of Sona’s basic abilities.

Best League build for Sona

Sona is best built with support items that increase her AP and healing and shielding power.

Her best Mythic item to build is Moonstone Renwer. Although the item has received nerfs in Season 11, it is still very powerful for champions that are constantly applying healing and shielding to their teammates.

Another Mythic item to consider is Shurelya’s Reverie, as its active ability is quite strong as it gives teammates movement speed briefly, but more often than not Moonstone is going to be your best option. For your second item, there are a handful of good options. Buy Chempunk Putrifier if the enemy team tends to heal a ton, or go Ardent Censor if you’re teammates benefit from an Attack Speed boost.

Beyond that, support champions typically don’t reach a fourth or fifth item, but Redemption was buffed in patch 11.16, making it a great purchase.

Top meta items for Sona in Season 11

• Mythic: Moonstone Renewer
• Boots: Ionian Boots of Lucidity
• Chempunk Putrifier
• Ardent Censor
• Redemption
• Staff of Flowing Water
• Mikael’s Blessing

Best runes for Sona

Sona’s runes aim to help her apply more damage and boost her shielding ability.

Summon Aery is great for applying more damaging and slightly boosting Sona’s shields. It also gives her access to the Sorcery tree, which has great secondary runes for her. Manaflow Band is huge for her, as she constantly uses mana to rotate through her spells. Transcendence and Gathering Storm help her to scale into the mid and late game.

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For her second page, Precision provides some great options. Presence of Mind helps with Sona’s mana regeneration, and Cut Down is valuable as she has the fourth-lowest base-HP in the game and doesn’t build any HP items.

You could also opt for the Inspiration tree, and go Cosmic Insight and Biscuits for more help in the early game.

Sona skins in League of Legends

• Muse Sona – 975 RP
• Pentakill Sona – 975 RP
• Silent Night Sona – 520 RP
• Guqin Sona – 975 RP
• Arcade Sona – 1350 RP
• DJ Sona – 3250 RP
• Sweetheart Sona – 975 RP
• Odyssey Sona – 1350 RP
• PsyOps Sona – 1820 RP

Sona is a great champion for those learning to play the support role, and always provides value to her team as an enchanter that can keep teammates alive.

In the hands of a seasoned player, Sona is a difficult champion to go up against, and this guide should give you all the tools to be a master of the Maven of the Strings.