So ive been maining her a bit. My main method of playing her is going down the CDR route.


Sorc Boots
Chalice
Morellios Tomb
BV

Thats pretty much core.

Other ways to play that im not sure how viable.
AP - Seems interesting but not massively powerful, but could be good with lich bane
Tanky - Not tried it myself. I can see how it would work, but then your pretty much a poor tank with some support.
Aura - Not really much use apart from carrying around items like Aegis.
DPS - I tried this a bit, did lots of damage but told it was a useless build.

how to play sona

step 1 masteries you want 9/0/21

step 2 skill order, sonas skill order should look like this WERWEQRQWERQWERQWERWEQWERQWE

step 3 roll your face on the keyboard

step 4 profit

For my part, I tend to prefer Mercury Treads with Sona. Her damage output will never be particularly great, and getting out of CC faster (and the extra MR) will help you stay alive to spam your abilities. I also tend to prefer Tear of the Goddess to Chalice (and eventually AA Staff, and with lower CDR you'll get that max mana quicker), but that may be more of a personal preference.

AP can work, but her scaling is not great on her heal, and thus is best to add additional damage if your team is lacking it. Though, at that point, I personally might recommend choosing another Champion instead (if available).

Tanky is a bit of a misnomer. It's really about just trying to stay alive, and means buying a few more Armor/MR items rather than CDR or AP items. You still won't be able to initiate, though you can bait. Soul Shroud, Aegis, and Reverie are all "defensive" items that lend to survivability, and, in my opinion, make for being very good items.

Aegis is good regardless, and fits into the increased survivability ("tanky") build, but works decently alongside CDR and AP builds as well as a defensive item, particularly if you play "back" more and don't leave yourself open to attack too much (which is ideal anyway). Likewise with Soul Shroud, though obviously that's best with a mana-dependent team. Spellvamp can also help with Will of the Ancients, and obviously helps the more aggressive AP build, and a Magic Damage dependent team. I would never bother with Stark's Fervor on Sona. Obviously, if anyone else has already built an aura item, building another is fairly questionable.

Like Stark's Fervor, I see little point in building AD on Sona. She has no "steroid" abilities other than her Q's aura to improve her damage (which is a relatively small gain being an aura), but her level gains to attack speed are atrocious, and more importantly, her attack range, mobility (even with E) and survivability are generally much lower than other ranged AD, and the gold and item slots could have instead improved her Q and R, which at least have decent range on them.

It can be done, but it can usually be done better with an entirely different Champion, and doing so reduces the effectiveness of what makes Sona good in the first place.

If you're going CDR, you have to do Ionian Boots. Here is a list of the cheapest CDR% per Gold cost in the game:

Elixir of Brilliance 25 (Consumable)
Ionian boots 70
Mejai's Soulstealer 82.333 (At 20 stacks)
Kindlegem 85
Glacial Shroud 101.667
Frozen Heart 111
Stinger 114
Nashor's Tooth 115.4
Morello's Evil Tome 117.5
Fiendish Codex 124.5
Brutalizer 133.7
Shurelya's Reverie 146.667
Spirit Visage 155
Deathfire Grasp 174
Youmuu's Ghostblade 179.133
Soul Shroud 228.5 (Aura)
Randuin's Omen 585


You should have at least 6% from Masteries (Utility), 6% from Runes (Flat CDR) and possibly 3% from Masteries (Offensive). That puts you at 15% base. You cap at 40%.

So Ionian is +15% which takes you to 30%. You just need 10% to finish up. If you go up Reverie (which gives you 15%), you can dump the 3% in Offensive Masteries and go down to 4% Flat CDR runes and put in more flat MR runes.

The way you play Sona is by repeatedly slapping your d!ck on the keyboard. No, really.

I don't know exactly what I would call my style of Sona play; probably something like beefy aura anti-anti-carry, but here's what I do:

Build:
Philosopher's Stone
Mercury's Treads (unless the enemy team is low on CC, then I'll take CDR boots)
3X Heart of Gold (seriously, these are amazing early game and with the gold/10 they barely slow your build down)
Shurelia's Reverie (unless I got CDR boots, then I'll skip this)
Soul Shroud
Sell HoGs -> Aegis of the Legion/Rylai's Crystal Scepter/Force of Nature (in some order depending on how the game is going)

Basically, Sona benefits her team just by being around, which is why I tend to dislike squishier builds. Sona really has no way of protecting herself apart from her ult (which you shouldn't be using to save yourself if you can help it), so this build provides the beef to keep yourself alive while still building high utility items. In a team fight, all you have to do is hang around with your carries and constantly switch between your Q and W auras to boost their damage and give defensive buffs. When the enemies send their anti-carries in to try and kill your squishies, start using E as well to help them with positioning (and don't forget about the active on Reverie, which is like double Ghost for a few seconds). When you've got a clear shot with your ult, take it.