Alrighty. It does really help. I thought the aura bonuses looked really small, and I guess I'm following the wrong champs.

The biggest problem, I suppose, is its hard for me to really see the benefits of auras as opposed to other champs, like Lulu. I love Lulu, but I've used her speed boost active to hasten champs like Master Yi, enabling him to ravage a fleeing enemy. So far I have not been able to use Sona's active + aura speed buff on a friend and help him catch anyone.

I'm not saying the speed buff is bugged, but I can't see any difference between people's speed before and after Sona's speed aura. I most certainly never seem to be able to outrun anyone. Like I said, with boots of lucidity and rank 3 speed son (can't remember all these spell names) and Annie managed to stay on my rail and auto attack poke me for 32 seconds. I could NOT shake her and also could not figure out why.

Not sure I agree with a number of Cenerae points.

She has been nerfed repeatedly. Her Q and power cord poke used to be very strong. This allowed her to zone well, as she would win trades. The nerf to powercord greatly hurts this ability. As Q is a bit unreliable in actually targeting champs as you desire. you need to get closer then is safe to Q and make it target a champ over minions. While her AA has a longer range. So a powercord was a much stronger poke. The two combined used to let you get close enough to Q, as it was enough damage to justify the risk. now it is not. trying to zone with Q is very very dangerous.
You are better off with a much more passive role, of healing, and being auras.

The heal is weak on burst, however, the heal over time is actually much higher then most/all as well. Soraka's heal is strong, and gives a huge AR buff, but its cooldown is also massive.

Alternating heal and damage auras burn her mana too much for my liking now, given their nerfed values. I find she runs oom faster then most other sustain supports.

E speed buff should not be ignored. It may not seem like much, but it denies kills, by allowing kiting.

Her ult is her saving grace atm I feel. She would be very subpar if it were not for that ult. Aoe stun is game winning. It can be used many ways. To initiate. Typically in lane. you probably won't be safe doing it later. but charging ahead as soon as you hit 6 to tag, opposing ad carry/support with crescendo is very often a double kill. Timed to use after an ashe arrow is just lol. you can use it to save an ally. gank incoming, creshendo, heal, speed buff. everyone lives. Or to wait, and unload on top of a team fight, after the init has been made.

The long attack range, but slow travel time of auto attack, as well as Q slow animation, and damage over time of her ult. sona LOVES to killsteal. Its a bit annoying playing as her sometimes. kill secured and all that.. but its really easy to get 5-6 kills on sona, that you don't want.

I dont have any special builds for her. wards, phil stone, hog. t1 boots, kindlegem. then oracles/aegis/ironsolari/shurs/ionian as you can.
Now, bear in mind, Im not saying shes bad. But I think soraka, alistar, janna, taric, blitz/sona, leona is kindof the lineup of best to worst, save specific combos. None are bad. its just soraka is better.

It is a myth that Sona sucks at healing. Soraka starts out a little better at level 1 but Sona starts to outpace her in terms of scaling and the only reason Soraka beats her overall in terms of heal-per-second and burst heal is because of her ult. Sona is able to heal more frequently than Soraka.

Healing is never going to outdo damage. That's not what it's for, it's for keeping people sustained over long periods of time. It's for patching up between team fights and trades. A clutch heal can sometimes save people from death or bait people into over-committing, but it's not some RPG heal that makes you immortal.

Secondly, Sona's defensive aura is quite good. A point of MR or Armor is exactly 1% increase in effective HP against their damage types. So if you're stacking Aegis of the Legion on her "W" she can really make her team more durable. It synergizes particularly well with champions like Graves, whose passive gives him defense stats. Also pretty good for just making beefy tanks beefier (on top of the healing you're also dropping on them).

Sona was my first champ I played when I started LoL

She doesn't particularly excel at any one thing, the playstyle on sona (and any support for that matter) should be based on who your facing.

Examples
(aggressive enemies) When I am laning against a graves he tends to harass my ad carry a lot, to compensate I max out heal first while alternating between speed (start with that also) and dmg spells. Why? because if you can get your ad carry out of the range of the skill shots you have a higher chance of saving their spree, a chance of improving ganks for the jungler. This also provides you with a much needed slow for escaping or closing in.

(farm happy enemies)
If i know its a champs like ashe can be harassed, her naturally low ms and low starting dmg (without runes/masteries, take those into account you need to determine if you can exchange or not) makes her ripe pickings for a blue power chord, if she tries to volley harass you can throw out a green power chord to lower the damage, your ad will love you.

(aggressive supports)
this is where I have a lot of trouble particularly with alistar, again I find it important to max green because of the amount of poking and zoning he will do, most alistars ive seen are with a vayne which is nasty if they ward the bushes because you are food for them. This is when you need cv to monitor what wards hes getting, if hes attempting to counter ward you early make sure you are prepared, turn it into a sustain battle.

Important note: on sona the new gold seals are helpful, I start out with a 5gp10 at lvl 1 and it makes getting that phil stone + wards the first back much easier. Also note, a tankier mana fed sona is much nicer than an ap sona, but again sona is situational as are all supports, just take your time to figure out what will work best for your current lane, coordinate with your partner, and above all don't spam heals, do it periodically. I generally dont spam until I have chalice and phil stone (chalice is good to ward off the spell spam from their supports, and it allows you to spam as well).

Good luck to you!

Early game Sona is good for short burst fighting, and sustain over time. If you use your power chord properly, you should be able to do a good burst of damage, but you wont be able to sustain an entire fight. Practice using your power chord and then retreating. Dont go "all in" on a fight until you have them sufficiently softened up. If the two opponents bottom are both at half health and you have your power chord up, then you are in a position to zone them. Make sure you partner is only last hitting and hide in the bush in a position to attack them if they get too close. You have to play a little cat and mouse game with her to be effective.

Remember that Sona's strength is that her aura's affect multiple targets. This means you are more efficient healing yourself and your partner than just your partner. Figure out how to be aggressive without getting yourself killed. If anyone dies, it should be you, though, not your partner in lane.

Also, melee bottom with a healing support just doesn't work most of the time.