Back in the day, full AP Sona mid was one of the most common off-meta mid lane picks in League of Legends.
Nowadays Sona is still a powerful champion, but far too few people take her anywhere else besides the support role.
If you’re looking to try full AP Sona and carry your team, you’ve come to the right place.
This post is a full guide on how AP Sona works, which runes and items you’ll need to play with, as well as additional tips on how to win your lane.
For now, know that AP Sona has a decent damage overall. Her Q and empowered auto-attack in combination with her R can assassinate a squishy enemy, so her kit often works as well as that of a mid lane mage.
Additionally, Sona has a few other tools that make her a valuable pick in League, so let’s dive deeper and see how you can take advantage of this champion in your own games.
Is AP Sona Good or Not?
AP Sona can be a good off-meta pick for countering certain champions in the mid lane. For example, she’s pretty good at poking champions like Fizz or Akali out of the lane.
However, she struggles to survive if they get fed and she definitely loses against aggressive long-range mages.
However, things aren’t always that simple. And depending on your own skill, knowledge, and determination to make AP Sona work, she can actually be a pretty useful pick.
Let me explain.
So, Sona’s strengths are high damage during the early game and a lot of poking power. You can create gold and XP advantages with her by getting the opposing player out of lane.
Additionally, you can sometimes even one-shot them when level 6 comes around due to Sona’s damage.
Tools like Summon Aery and Luden’s Tempest make your job a bit easier. And when you get your Lich Bane, your damage is actually high enough to delete squishy enemy champions from the map.
However, Sona’s biggest weakness is a lack of mobility and defensiveness.
She’s a squishy champion herself and with no dashes and jumps to get away from assassins and fighters, she can be an underwhelming carry to play.
At the beginning of each game, you’ll probably be amazed at how much damage Sona can actually do and you’ll wonder why more people don’t play AP Sona.
But once the late game kicks in and more powerful champions start to shine, you’ll know the answer for yourself.
Of course, if you play to Sona’s strengths and build the items I laid out below, you increase your chances of success. It’s important to know how they work and how you can take advantage of the champion.
So, read on!
Read Also: Top 5 Best ADCs for Sona
The Best Runes for AP Sona (S13)
- Summon Aery
- Manaflow Band
- Transcendence
- Scorch
- Cheap Shot
- Ultimate Hunter
Summon Aery
Summon Aery is the best keystone for Sona in most situations. It fits her overall kit perfectly and boosts her strengths.
What Summon Aery does is that it deals extra damage when you strike an enemy champion with an offensive spell but it also shields your ally when you cast a heal or a shield spell.
Obviously, both of these effects are valuable for Sona because she’s an enchanter as well as a mage. Aery has a very low cooldown and it scales with level as well as your AP. So, it’s a great keystone to have.
Manaflow Band
Manaflow Band is a valuable rune for all mana users, especially Sona. Sona tends to spam her spells and anything that increases mana or mana regeneration is a welcomed bonus.
Well, this rune does both things. Manaflow Band increases your maximum mana by 250 and grants a permanent 1% mana regeneration.
For this, you’ll need to stack the rune by hitting your lane opponent with abilities.
But stacking Manaflow Band won’t be a hard thing to do on Sona because of her poking playstyle.
Read Also: Full AP Blitzcrank One-Shot Build
Transcendence
Transcendence offers free ability haste and overall cooldown reduction.
On levels 5 and 8, this rune grants 5 ability haste. On top of this, it resets the 20% remaining cooldown of your abilities when you score a kill or an assist.
This rune can be extremely broken during a team fight where you can spam Sona’s spells as though you’re playing the piano.
Scorch
Scorch is a simple rune that works well in combination with Manaflow Band and Summon Aery.
Simply put, each time you go to poke the enemy laner, Scorch will do extra magic damage. The rune actually burns your target and helps you secure more kills overall.
Its cooldown is only 20 seconds, so you can abuse it during the laning phase.
Cheap Shot
You mainly pick Cheap Shot for Sona’s ultimate – Crescendo.
Cheap Shot deals bonus true damage to enemies that are crowd controlled. This effect perfectly lines up with Sona’s R.
And the simplest way to think about it is that every time you use Crescendo the spell will do a bit of extra true damage.
Ultimate Hunter
One of Sona’s strengths as a champion is the low cooldown on her abilities. And when you’re playing Sona in a carry role with a full AP build, you want as much cooldown reduction as possible.
Well, Ultimate Hunter grants a total of 31 ability haste when it’s fully stacked. And the way you stack it is by collecting unique kills or assists.
This is actually very easy to do on Sona since a single cast of her E and Q is enough to get an assist.
Read Also: Full AP Thresh Build Guide
The Best Items for AP Sona (S13)
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
- Luden’s Tempest
- Lich Bane
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Void Staff
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Ionian Boots of Lucidity are one of the cheapest boots in League of Legends but they provide a lot of value.
By purchasing them, you get 20 ability haste for a price of 950 gold which is a pretty good deal. I already mentioned how important cooldown reduction is for AP Sona, so make sure you put these shoes on.
Luden’s Tempest
Of all the mythic items, Luden’s Tempest is the one I choose in 99% of my games as AP Sona. It’s one of the hardest-hitting items in the game and it definitely fits Sona’s playstyle.
Luden’s Tempest does a little bit of extra magic damage when you first hit an enemy champion and this effect has a very short cooldown.
Additionally, it buffs you with all the stats you need such as AP, ability haste, mana, and mana regeneration.
Read Also: AP Braum Build Guide
Lich Bane
Lich Bane is an on-hit magic damage item that also works ideally for Sona. Since a large portion of Sona’s damage comes from her empowered basic attack, Lich Bane empowers it even more.
So, Lich Bane gives you bonus on-hit magic damage after using an ability. And by building it on Sona your damage will almost double.
The cool thing here is that Lich Bane’s effect also scales with AP, so it can stay relevant until the end of the game.
Zhonya’s Hourglass
Zhonya’s Hourglass is the only defensive item in your build and I always recommend getting it, no matter who you’re up against.
Obviously, it’s a must-have item for any squishy AP champion that faces assassins, but it’s a useful item to have overall.
Zhonya’s Hourglass grants a bit of bonus armor as well as AP, but we mostly get it for the Stasis active effect.
It allows you to become invulnerable for 2.5 seconds and dodge all the key attacks coming from the enemy team.
Void Staff
Void Staff is one of the strongest ability power items in the game and you’ll definitely need it towards the late game.
With Void Staff you’ll reach 40% magic penetration which is enough for Sona’s abilities to hurt even tanks. It’s actually a cheap item to buy relatively speaking, so make sure to put it in your inventory.
Rabadon’s Deathcap
And lastly, the best way to end the game with AP Sona is to build Rabadon’s Deathcap.
Rabadon’s Deathcap gives you 120 bonus ability power and increases your overall AP by 35%. This is a huge boost in power regardless of what you already have, so you should purchase this item.
Read Also: Full AP Nami Build Guide
Conclusion
Playing AP Sona is actually tons of fun. The champion doesn’t require too much skill and can be easily played even by people that aren’t Sona mains.
And with my AP build, you’ll be able to do much more damage than normal, so you can even carry games by yourself.
I hope my guide helped you learn more about AP Sona’s state in League of Legends and how you should approach the build and the playstyle.
Good luck to you and I wish you win all of your games!
