Except her heal is pitiful compared to Taric's and her stun is line-based AoE instead of a PBAoE like Amumu's. It is also a worse version considering the length of the stun.

Her nuke truely isn't terrible, but it just doesn't have enough umph to make it a viable offensive ability. It seems they nerfed it for the aura.

I'll give you that, her heal may technically heal for more than 250, but how much of a difference is 20 armor/MR going to make at level 18? Its arguably her best ability, and even then its still not that good compared to other spells.

My reasoning as to why I prefer to be with my entire team is because (with enough CDR, 5 valor buffs, 5 preserve buffs, 5 celerity buffs, 5 locket buffs all on all the time. To me, it is about getting the most out of my aura. The more players present, the more total dmg increase, the more total armor and magic resist increase, the more total movement speed increase. with and AoE spell (including auras) its always good to get the most out of it (ie more targets). My teammates are able to shift to the back of the fight to come to me for heals (since my movement buffs are up, this can be done with relative ease). I will agree that heals are less effective in team-fights, but the benefits my team receives is worth it. the movement speed alone allows your team to cycle through and not get focused down, allowing me to just spot-heal to keep everyone with reasonable hp.

I disagree with getting a locket. While yes, it does (mostly) fix your mana problems, it doesn't bring anything meaningful to your team. The hp/5 aura is awful (nobody builds emblem of valor just to have the teamwide hp regen aura, for example), and the mp/5 aura isn't anything to write home about (plus nobody on your team is really going to make use of it by the time you have it). The power of the locket lies soley in the proc. And the proc is self-centered, not team-friendly. This is why I'd rather go with Reverie or maybe DFG as my second CDR item, since both offer more than spammability (since Tear is sufficient to allow you to spam) and still cap your CDR out.

True. I'll make a note of this in the guide, thanks.

Her ratios aren't actually all that bad if you think about it. Her nuke may feel weak on scaling, but the ratio is not that terrible when stacked against some of the more popular nukers. And when you consider it hits 2 targets garunteed, and not 1, combined with having it on a 4.2 second cooldown later on, it's actually pretty good. However, this guide doesn't really focus on cranking out the AP to use it. Even if you did, it's still just the 1 nuke beside the ult (which doesn't scale very well compared to a lot of other ults). Her heal is fairly weak, but due to spammability, it's decent enough. The only downside to it is you can't select whom to heal

With adequate CDR, you can have all 3 auras active most of the time, since the 2 second global cooldown is also reduced by CDR.

If you find yourself dying a lot with her, you need to try and hang back more often. Sona is extremely squishy, so you're not the right person to be leading the charge. Your job is to be that omnipresent champ that sits behind everyone else buffing and healing them while poking the enemy team with your spells and power chord procs by the late game. It may feel underwhelming, but it's the ultimate fate of a support champ. Taric's the exception here because he's tankier than the other supports.

And yes, she is easy to kill if snared since she lacks an escape mechanism. This is precisely why I take Flash, to give her a small one.

Have you tried Sheen on her?

I've been building her thusly:

Mana Manip
Sheen
Boots of choice
Soul Shroud
Aegis if no one else gets it
Shurelya's or Locket

With flat MP/5 Seals, MP/5/level Glyphs, and Clarity, she can spam her Q and W in lane all day.

Sheen is quite powerful on her, as her Q, Passive, and Sheen in quick succession does a great amount of burst to someone, and hitting your other skills in between Q's to build you passive back up can give you another Sheen hit or two to play with. It lets her farm amazingly, push towers well, and even take golem, which makes you a goddess of teamfights. With golem up, you can literally spam Q W E Q W E every time they come off cooldown and give you whole team all of the boosts at once, while keeping your members healed up and out of reach and their chasers get plinked.

Updated the guide with a new item build. I am no longer hating on the new Locket as an item choice for Sona. After trying it a few times, I've decided it's a much better option than settling for just a Tear for mana. Soul Shroud might be better for the team, but the Locket lets you do your job properly instead of relying on having the golem buff.

Pretty much how I play her.

Mana Manipulator (starting)
Mercury Threads
Soul Shroud (MP regen, CDR, health is all she needs in my experience)
Mana Manipulator (most games near the end)
Innervating Locket

Shurelya's Reverie (for ... stuff, though it should put you over 40% CDR, oh well)

Though my runes are MPen and all out MP/5 for better early / mid game staying power.

I tried the soul shroud rush route (this was actually in the old item build), but found it lacking a lot in mana regen for lengthy pushes. The shroud has the superior team aura compared to the locket, but the locket lets you do your job, which is more valuable IMO. The locket also has a slightly more friendly buildup for games where you don't do so well in laning.

In my games with her so far I have to agree the locket really lets her do her job as she was clearly designed to do. Once I have the locket my endurance out in the field is great and I can keep hammering away at my auras when in fights pretty easily.

She is a pretty scary mana hog but once you get the locket it allows you to unleash her good stuff.

consider the rylai"s crystal scepter as a good item? like after deathfire?