Supporter Sona is in for a bit of a change of scenery in the middle of the year – although not a fundamental rework. League of Legends developer Riot Games wants to make the champion more popular through buffs.
Support champion Sona has been left behind in the Summoner’s Rift for quite some time. Jeevon Sidhu, Riot Games Lead Game Designer, therefore announced upcoming updates for the Virtuoso back in late March. His tweet said the changes were already set and would hit the live servers “later this summer.”
Update for Sona changes that we have been testing internally: the design is locked, and we're in the process of allocating art resources. We're aiming to get her to players on live servers later in the summer.
— Jeevun Sidhu (@JeevunSidhu) May 5, 2021
Self is the supporter
The reason for the upcoming update is said to be item changes that have made a big impact on the LoL meta. In order for Sona to fit into this better, the development team at Riot Games wants to look at her mana mechanics in particular. According to Sidhu, these are supposed to grant bonuses for supporting allies and thereby encourage team play – instead, Sona didn’t do well without said bonuses and thus had no choice.
Hey all, the Summoner's Rift Team's Medium-Scope Champion pod – the crew that most recently looked at Samira, Akali, and Xin Zhao – is taking a look at Sona over the next few patches.
Preaseason's itemization changes have not been great to Sona. At the same time, she is (1/5)
— Jeevun Sidhu (@JeevunSidhu) March 26, 2021
So, in order to strengthen Sona in solo play as well, Riot Games wants to lower the mana cost of her abilities on the one hand – but Sidhu hasn’t revealed exact numbers on this yet. In addition, Sona should be able to enjoy a new passive ability: “Resonance” will collect increases for Ability Haste through Basic Attacks and eventually even magic damage to give the supporter more bite.
Sidhu explained on Twitter that Sona’s kit is designed for “hyperscaling” – which, however, has so far remained just wishful thinking. The upcoming changes are meant to change that and finally make the Supporter a serious threat in the late game. After not really being a valid option in the meta lately, Sona could make her comeback with the update – and no longer be dependent on shield bonuses only.
