ITEMS

Why don't I build

It too damn expensive

Presence of Mind

100% bonus mana regeneration

TLDR: I find the initial cost too high and the eventual payoff overkill, I'd rather be better earlier since my lategame is amazing either way.

Why do I buildevery single game?

Balling On A Budget

Why do I think buildingis a complete waste?

Let me show you a little excerpt from the league wiki:

As you can see, movespeed past 490 is pretty much gutted.

What boots should you get then?

Why do I preferover

Simply put: I mainly solo queue.

Why do I loveso much that I almost always build it?

It's a get-out-of-jail-free card!

Zhonyas

RUNES

is the one rune I would never go without

Why do I take

It really helps my bad level 1-3 damage

Why notfor damage?

What aboutfor damage?

The following is an OPINION

Do I disliketoo?

AA > Q > Passive AA reset

A tiny section on flat runes

+9 Adaptive damage

+1-10%CDR

Adapt your flats to what you expect from champ select

All in all, I prioritize runes that will make boost my early game poke and make any mana issues disappear by midgame

Archangel's staff is incredibly efficient once fully stacked, and the active shield is almost equivalent to an hourglass. I would love to build this and Lich Bane, but after a few hundred games I have found that by the time I no longer get gold out of my support item, I am left with a total of about 5500 gold at which point any further gold generation becomes considerably slower. This means I can afford to build one 3000 ish gold item as well as one 2000 gold item and have them both finished before 20 minutes. In practice, I found Athene's and Lich Bane to be a superior 2-item combination to Archangel's staff + Unholy or Censer. If I were to build Archangel's staff at all, I would need to make it my first item which would delay completion of my first item from 8-9 minutes to 14-15, at which point it would remain inefficient until fully stacked. Games tend to pick up pace considerably after turret plates go down, which means I would be very weak going into the midgame, on champion that's already weak early. If it's mana you want,alone takes care of all of your mana needs, and between theGrail andFrostfang you will getThis bad boy is CHEAP, it incidentally gives the same MR asMercury's Treads,it gives 60 AP with Frostfang, AND it turns your poopy lame heal 50W into a much more respectable heal 150-200 , provided you land aQ first. Thanks to the reworked support items, I can consistently finish this item before the 10 minute mark and get a considerable early powerspike, suddenly being able to sustain my ADC much better and packing a meaty punch. Easily the best 2100 gold spent in every match.Sona'sE as of patch 10.8 brings her to a speed of almost 400, without boots. Add a couple hundred AP andunupgraded boots, and she walks(floats?) around with a constant 450+ speed. This means the supposed 105 MS boost of themobility boots will suddenly be closer to 60, while still making you much slower should you enter combat. Not to mention they just upped their price to 1000 gold. Ew. Do not take these, I promise your E and any normal 45 MS boots are enough.This one depends on how confident you are in your survivability. This build just so happens to giveSona 25 extra MR and 45 extra armor (more if you choose defensive flat runes), which means you can forgo defensive boots and goSorcerer's Shoes. I usually do this, but sometimes opt for doubling down on a particular type of defense withor. This decision is very matchup dependentI don't have any friends who are god ADC's and I don't particularly like placing blind faith in every solo queue ADC I am paired with. While it's considerably more expensive,Lich Bane concentrates all of the bonus damage thatCenser could potentially do (and usually more) while giving you full control of where to shoot it. This item alone allows me to keep enemy carries in check and to easily rack up more champion damage than my midlaner, ADC, or both. If you are going to commit to building this, you absolutely must make use of the sheen procs whenever possible. This item is not for passive playstyles, but it makes me feel much more in control over the outcome of fights and I can't put a price on that. Bonus points for forcing enemy divers to choose between focusing my ADC and dying to me or focusing me and dying to my ADC.With my highly aggressive playstyle, I run the risk of getting myself caught out if I chase down too much, or becoming the target of assassins if I cause trouble for their backline.allows me time to get a whole extra use of all 3 base abilities, meaning an extrapower chord, as well as time for my team to come to my aid. I also sometimes bait out engages only to pop the active and then ult right out of stasis for an easy teamwipe setup. Get creative with this item! it is like giving yourself a 5th champion ability. It also allows me to reach exactly 40% CDR, and gives me some much-needed tankiness. I love this item, and I hope you will too someday.I am somewhat flexible with my primary rune tree choices but I simply will not budge on taking precision secondary withPOM andCut Down. At least as of patch 10.8 presence of mind alone takes care of all my mana needs by itself. No other rune can come close to being as helpful. Early game, the mana refund lets you stay in lane and heal up after winning a fight and lategame it gives you 1 or 2 full extra spell rotations for every person that dies. Take whatever you want on your primary tree but I can't recommend this secondary path enough. In fact, I won't even discuss any other secondary rune alternatives. P.S. Cut Down usually does as much or damage over a game than Comet.Sona's Q does 40 damage at rank 1. Comet (plus) more than doubles that amount, and sits on almost half the cooldownanddo. With a consistent Q + AA poke, it can quickly deal hundreds of damage at a point in the game where every point of damage counts. Sure, the rune becomes less impressive in the later stages compared to Dark Harvest but it always adds a 20% AP scaling to your burst which I consider more than worth it. Did I mention it can damage multiple people at once?In addition to the above, I greatly value the 10% CDR provided byas well as the 250 max mana + passive mana regen from. They allow me to build my specific 3 main items while still hitting 40% CDR and a healthy mana pool size.This rune prioritizes shielding allies over damaging enemies. all 3 of your basic ability auras can send aery to the first ally you touch with them. Yes, that includes your Q. This means that most of the time you think you're using aery to add poke you're really throwing a tiny shield on your ADC who does not need it at the moment. You should consider this rune strictly as a shield booster that you take in matchups where you simply can't be poking much, and just need to keep your ADC alive. With this as your keystone you can still takeand, which fit right in with this buildI personally consider dark harvest to be a win-more rune. The times when it does more damage than comet are when you were stomping your enemies so hard you really didn't need the extra damage. On games where you go even or fall behind, however, you won't even want to look at the damage it added. If you like kicking people while they're down, then go for it. But I don't believe this rune, or any small runes in the Domination tree except forare nearly as helpful to my overall gameplan with Sona as what the Sorcery tree can offer.I accidentally take this rune every time I forget to switch off myrunepage. It always works out just fine in the end, though, and you can instantly proc electrocute with acombo. I also take ultimate hunter on Swain, which definitely works on Sona as well. This is definitely an option, it's just not what I prefer.I almost always take doublewith a varying defensive rune depending on the enemy team comp. the starting 18 AP adds 4 healing and 5 shielding to rank 1 W, which is technically a 10% boost from its starting strength. You could also take theflat rune, which will eventually turn into 2-20 AP through transcendence.I also occasionally opt for taking double armor or double MR flats if the enemy is mostly or all one type of damage.