Champions who are capable of being useful to their teams with their skill set and few items take up the role of the support. They let the carry get all the minions and offer their team vision. They are usually a little under leveled since they leave lane to place wards while their carry farms. In team fights, they contribute with aura items like Shurelya's Reverie and help protect their carry.

In this guide, I will discuss one support: Sona. She's valued for her ability to do a little bit of everything. She has low cooldown poke, heal, and buffs. She has an AoE stun ultimate which is quite powerful and very useful for AoE team comps. However, she's a very fragile support with low armor/health and little mobility. To allow her to do her job, armor other and defensive stats help her immensely.

Flash works on Sona as it does 90% of all other champions in the game. It gives her a gap closer and a way to go over terrain. She can also make big plays with Flash + Crescendo. Exhaust is strong in team fights to mitigate damage from assassins. However, it can be Cleansed. Typically, weaker early game carries (e.g. Ashe) will take Cleanse. Heal is much better now that it heals everyone equally. It team fights, it's good versus AoE damage and you can even use it while crowd controlled. In lane, it's good versus burst damage, but weak versus strong carries who typically take Ignite or who have innate healing debuffs (e.g. Miss Fortune). No verdict on Clairvoyance yet. Its usefulness will depend on how the jungle plays out in season 3.

Recommended

• Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration
• Greater Seal of Armor
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
• Greater Quintessence of Gold

Other Options

• Greater Mark of Armor
• Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration
• Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration

Explanation
Use hybrid penetration marks. Sona's damage is a mix of magic ( Power Chord/ Hymn of Valor) and physical (autoattacks). Next, Sona has incredibly low base defenses. Armor seals are required for laning against an AD carry, and magic res glyphs are useful when laning against other AP damage supports like Zyra. Flat > scaling because flat is stronger at level 1-2 when people start getting their basic combos and level 6 when people get their ultimates. Gold quints give you some income to buy items since you aren't farming. For a more passive approach, you can take Greater Mark of Armor. If you're not concerned about early magic damage, there's magic pen glyphs or mana regen glyphs to help with your mana before you can buy a Philosopher's Stone or Chalice of Harmony.

Hybrid Pen vs Full Mpen
DiffTheEnder made an excellent write up comparing the two at Reign of Gaming:
http://www.reignofgaming.net/blogs/a-different-view/diff-the-ender/23126-hybrid-penetration-marks-analysis-by-difftheender
Overall, hybrid pen marks are quite effective if you're autoattacking and doing magic damage, which Lulu will do a fair bit of because of her passive. Sona is similar again because of her passive.

Defense
0/13/17 masteries are focused on reducing champion damage in lane when you autoattack harass and get Pickpocket gold. The points in Defense gives you some health, armor, and having Unyielding and Block will reduce how much damage enemy champions do to you. Perseverance , Relentless , Resistance and Hardiness can all be used as filler to unlock tier 4 of the Defense tree. For the rest of your Mastery points, Sona benefits from going deep in Utility for the various supportive masteries.

Utility
Start off the Utility tree by taking Meditation for more mana regen. In tier 2, taking Mastermind means you can make plays with your summoner spells more frequently. Artificer is pretty powerful for supports. They usually build a couple active items. You can put two points in each or whatever combo you prefer to unlock tier 3. Greed means more GP10, and Wealth lets you start with four Sight Wards. Biscuiteer is a bit weak, but it gives you another source of HP/MP regen and it opens up Explorer , both of which can be crucial in the first two minutes of the game. Pickpocket is nice to have on Lulu because a lot of her harass is also autoattack harass.

Summoner's Wrath
Even if you take Exhaust, Sona's low base health warrants going 9 in Defense and skilling Veteran's Scars instead of Summoner's Wrath for the improved Exhaust. Here is a chart which demonstrates that Sona has the lowest base health at level one:

Start With:

Start off the game with a Faerie Charm, Sight Wards, and a mixture of potions. In more organized play or versus stealth champs, you can also buy a Vision Ward instead of a Faerie Charm.


Then Buy:

Sightstone is like the "new meta" for supports. With the removal of Heart of Gold, it fulfills the need for both health and wards. Other items for early game are Philosopher's Stone for regen to sustain your pokes (and to turn into Shurelya's Reverie later), plus Boots of Speed to help against skill shots and ganks.


Early game optional items:

These are some other items which help in lane phase. Chalice is a useful item to help with your mana consumption, and it turns into Mikael's Crucible later on. The magic resist also makes it nice to have in lane versus enemy laners that do magic damage. Kage's Lucky Pick turns into Shard of True Ice, Twin Shadows, Morellonomicon or Will of the Ancients. AP is not that beneficial for Sona's early game. Her Power Chord harass damage is dependent on magic penetration and levels. But if you want to build an item that Kage's upgrades into, you will need to pick one up sooner or later. If you are dominating your lane and/or you "accidentally" stole a kill, also consider Haunting Guise. Because of her Power Chord damage scaling on magic pen, Haunting Guise is pretty good early game on Sona, and the health makes her tankier too. But this is really a luxury item. It goes well with Sorc Shoes to dominate the enemy lane through the amount of burst your Hymn of Valor and double damage Power Chord does.


Core Items:

Ruby Sightstone is just the upgraded Sightstone. Ionian Boots of Lucidity are for the boost in cooldown reduction. If you need tankier boots, there's Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads. Shurelya's Reverie is built for the stats and active. The active is a useful all around supportive active for initiating/chasing, escaping, countering kiting, and helping out carries who don't have mobility skills. I prefer Aegis of the Legion as my other core item for its mixture of both armor and magic resist because Sona benefits from having the tanky stats to get off a good Crescendo.

With these items, you have a solid combo of health, cooldown, armor, magic resist, a defensive aura to compliment Aria of Perseverance's aura, plus a very useful active.


Highly Recommended Final Items:

I suggest these items as your last items.

Mikael's Crucible is a situational pick versus annoying crowd control teams. The active combines Heal and Cleanse. It's excellent against focus fire in mid-late game team fights, and to remove statuses when your carry gets initiated on. The active can save your carry while they're still going through "puberty" in mid game, especially carries who don't have blinks.

Zeke's Herald is a good source of cooldown reduction, but the aura was nerfed during the preseason patch. Regardless, I find it particularly effective on Sona because it'll double her Hymn of Valor AD aura (!!!). In this particular build, it also provides more cooldown reduction (since I recommend Aegis of the Legion over Locket of the Iron Solari).

Lastly, Aegis of the Legion can be upgraded to Runic Bulwark for the additional magic resistance. This is useful against a fed AP champion, especially one with AoE damage, or versus teams with double AP.


Decent Alternatives:

Kage's Lucky Pick turns into Twin Shadows which is strong for initiating if you happen to spot someone who has overextended. There's also Shard of True Ice, which helps you support your initiator. I find Twin Shadows more generally useful/broad in use between the two because it also gives you movespeed for chasing and escaping.

Locket of the Iron Solari can be built as your tanky item instead of Aegis of the Legion if you'd like. You'd want to build Locket of the Iron Solari instead when the enemy team has no AP (double bruiser comp). In contrast, you'd definitely want Aegis of the Legion/ Runic Bulwark versus double AP. Every team benefits from having both items in team fights though. If your jungler is building Aegis of the Legion, you could buy Locket of the Iron Solari instead (and vice versa).


Enchants:

This is my primary recommendation for a support enchantment. The description for Enchantment: Captain is a little misleading. Your allies don't need to (literally) be running toward you. They can be facing you (even from the side) and they'll receive the buff as long as they're within 1100 units of you. I also recommend Enchantment: Distortion because Sona can make big plays with Flash and Crescendo. The generic recommendation is Enchantment: Homeguard to defend your base easier.


Early Game Lane Dominance:
Sona's harass scales very well early game with magic penetration because of Power Chord. So, if you're fed/ahead early game, the Sorcerer's Shoes and Haunting Guise item combo will make you nearly do true damage to the enemy carry/support who only have 30-45 magic res, you'll be able to dominate them with your poke damage, and you'll still gain flat HP from the Haunting Guise.


Other Items:

These are some other possible/situational items. These are some other possible/situational items. If you took Heal, you can build Eleisa's Miracle. Buying it too early might set you back (it's nearly the same price as a Ruby Sightstone). You don't want to buy it later than level 15 though because of the passive.

If you're fed/ahead during mid-late game, Athene's Unholy Grail is an alternate build option for your Chalice of Harmony. You get a cooldown reduction boost and a lot of mana sustain during team fights. It's very easy to get assists on Sona with her auto-target spells. Iceborn Gauntlet is a tank version of Shard of True Ice. It's incredibly expensive for a support, but works hilariously well on Sona because of her low cooldowns and quick, smooth autoattack. It's another option for you to consider if you're turning into Sona Moneybags-McDuck.


Bad Items:

Tear of the Goddess is not supportive, and it has very little impact on your team compared to other items. For 150 gold more, you could buy a Kindlegem instead. If you're really having mana issues, get Chalice of Harmony which turns into the supportive Mikael's Crucible. And because of how the Morellonomicon passive is applied, it has low synergy on Sona. Your Hymn of Valor is autotarget, and your ult will apply it in an AoE, but that tends to be used on people who are above 40% health to initiate fights.


Questionable Items:

These items sound like something a support would build, buuut...

Banner of Command compliments a fast push team. Lulu is often combined with Caitlyn for a strong early lane push, but that relies entirely on their AoE damage with Glitterlance and Piltover Peacemaker. It'll be far past lane phase once you get the gold for Banner of Command. It has poor base stats for the cost, but the active makes a siege minion go Hulk mode. Outside of push comps, it can be powerful to have a promoted minion wailing away at bottom tower while you and the enemy team have a Mexican standoff at baron, but that's a very specific use.

Ohmwrecker is an "anti-turtling" item. If the enemy team has a fast wave clearer like Morgana or Anivia, minions die too quickly at towers. Ohmwrecker removes the threat of the tower and forces action on teams that are trying to turtle. Like Banner of Command, it also has one very specific use.


Consumables:

Use Sight Wards in addition to your Ruby Sightstone when you need to heavily ward up an area such as Baron. Vision Wards are powerful early game versus stealth characters and to clear enemy wards, but buying too many Vision Wards can set you behind. Later, buy an Oracle's Elixir before going after objectives to clear out enemy vision. And when you know you're going to group up and try for an objective, there's always Elixir of Brilliance and Elixir of Fortitude to boost your stats.

After casting 3 spells, Sona's next attack deals 14 damage + 9 x lvl in bonus magic and a bonus effect depending on Sona's last song played.

Additionally, Sona's Auras persist for 3 seconds after deactivating and set off a 2 second global cooldown.




Power Chord is Sona's passive. After casting 3 basic spells (QWE), her next autoattack will do additional magic damage. Unlike Diana's Moonsilver Blade which also scales based on her AP, Sona's Power Chord's magic damage scales linearly based on Sona's level. Having levels and magic penetration is the only way to increase Power Chord's damage. Sona's autoattack will also have an additional effect based on what her last used spell was. Once Power Chord is charged, Sona won't autoattack nearby minions or champions, so she can purposely save the Power Chord charge to use a specific effect.

Q + Power Chord = Staccato

Staccato's double damage is very good for harassing enemy laners since at lower levels, bottom lane AD carries and supports have 30-45 magic resistance and 500-600 health. The double damage effect also works on towers. The damage falls off late game as HP pools get higher and enemy champions start building magic resistance.


W + Power Chord = Diminuendo

Good if Sona can autoattack someone who does damage. Early game and in lane phase, it's incredibly easy to use this on an enemy jungler or enemy carry. Late game and during team fights, Sona is more of a backliner and will likely use it on assassin-type characters who dive into her team.


E + Power Chord = Tempo

The 40% slow effect is useful all game to slow enemy champions. Potentially, it can help setup kills. It's also her only crowd control pre-6. Sona shouldn't use it when she's running from someone unless she's with others since attacking will slow her down.





Sona and Udyr both have an additional passive stance mechanic. In Sona's case, this affects her basic, non-ultimate skills. After using Hymn of Valor, Aria of Perseverance, or Song of Celerity, Sona sets off a 0.5 second global cooldown which prevents her from using her other two skills. Depending on what skill she used, Sona will emit an aura which buffs her and her nearby allies. The aura will last until one second after she uses a new skill. During that one second window, her previous aura and her new aura will stack,. The aura buff will take effect immediately after casting a spell, so, for example, Hymn of Valor will always take the AP from the aura into account.




Persistent Aura: Sona plays the Hymn of Valor, increasing nearby allied champions Damage and Ability Power by 8/11/14/17/20.

Activation: Sona fires bolts of sound, dealing 50/100/150/200/250 (+70% ability power) magic damage to the nearest two enemies (prioritizes champions).

Power Chord - Stacatto: Deals double power chord damage

Cost 65 Mana
Range 700


Early game, this can be useful as both an aura to buff Sona's lane partner and as an attack to harass people with. Versus weaker laners, it's beneficial to max Hymn of Valor first, as it will help Sona and her carry harass better thanks to the damage and the aura buff. Hymn of Valor has 2 ranges. A "max range" of 700, and a "champion priority range" of 550. It will hit the closest thing within 700 range, but it will only prioritize enemy champions standing among minions if they're within 550 range. When you hover over the skill icon on the HUD, it will show you the 550 champion priority range. 550 range also happens to be Sona's autoattack range, so keep in mind that being in autoattack range also means that Hymn of Valor will target champions.






Persistent Aura: Sona plays the Aria of Perseverance, increasing nearby allied champions Armor and Magic Resist by 7/9/11/13/15.

Activation: Sona sends out healing melodies, healing Sona and the most wounded nearby allied champion by 40/60/80/100/120 (+25% ability power). Grants double her passive aura bonus to her heal target and herself for 3 seconds

Power Chord - Diminuendo: Debuffs the target to deal 20% less damage for 4 seconds

Cost 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 Mana
Range 1000


A minor heal which heals both you and your nearest most wounded ally while providing a short defensive buff that's twice the strength of Aria of Perseverance's passive aura. The double resistances is a bit counter intuitive since you would want to use a heal after someone gets hit rather than before they get hit. Since Aria of Perseverance heals both you and your nearest ally, you would be wasting mana if you use it to heal only yourself. Health Potions or Crystalline Flask help you conserve mana. It's nice to have versus aggressive laners. The downside to maxing Aria of Perseverance first is the higher mana cost - it's preferred that Sona use Aria of Perseverance twice to stack Power Chord, then use Hymn of Valor and autoattack for the Power Chord double damage effect.




Persistent Aura: Sona plays the Song of Celerity, granting nearby allied champions 8/11/14/17/20 bonus Movement Speed.

Activation: Sona energizes nearby allies, granting them 6/8/10/12/14% Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds.

Power Chord - Tempo: Slows the target by 40% for 2 seconds

Cost 65 Mana
Range 1000


Movespeed is incredibly useful for running back to lane, chasing, escaping, kiting, and just giving more mobility to your team. This skill synergizes with champions that have strong initiation and champions with gap closers or chasing ability making it a powerful skill to have during team fights. Combine with Shurelya's Reverie for even more speed. At max level, Song of Celerity effectively upgrades Sona's team from movespeed 2 to movespeed 3, but it's more of a max 2nd or 3rd skill. Due to the auras and other effects of Hymn of Valor and Aria of Perseverance, it's likely that Sona will use them more than Song of Celerity during team fights.




Sona plays her ultimate chord, forcing enemy champions in a line in front of her to dance, taking 150/250/350 (+80% ability power) magic damage over 1.5 seconds.

Cost 140/120/100 Mana
Range 1000


Nice ult for team fights. It synergizes well with other AoE ultimates. Since Sona isn't the tankiest person in the world, it's best utilized as a secondary initiation after the main initiator does their thing. Early and mid game, Sona can afford to casually use this on one guy (like when your jungler comes to gank bot lane), but late game Sona should really save it for team fights, or use it for tactical retreats when her team doesn't want to be pursued.

Take Hymn of Valor at level 1 for the burst damage. It's useful for level 1 fights and harassing right when you get into lane. You can force people to chug potions before they hit level 2.

Your first skill priority is to level Crescendo at 6/11/16 for the reduced cooldown. Your second priority is to max Hymn of Valor for harassing in lane.

If you are getting owned, you can max Aria of Perseverance instead. Even if you max Aria of Perseverance first, I recommend getting Hymn of Valor to level 2 early on because getting it to level 2 will double the damage.

After, max the skill you didn't max first. A single point of Song of Celerity is good enough for the Power Chord effect. It can be maxed 2nd for additional movespeed if you are running some high mobility comp, but I advise against ever maxing it 1st.

During the early game lane phase, Sona's job is to poke enemy laners while her carry farms. Versus more aggressive laners, she can play defensively and heal. There are certain carries she does well with, others she does not so well with. Even though you might lack particular synergy with your carry, you might have synergy elsewhere on your team with other members, especially with other forms of AoE. For more about general support gameplay, check out the supplementary guide.

Level 1 Power Chord
Some advise charging Power Chord on the fountain by casting Hymn of Valor 3 times. If you have to leash for your jungler, just cast Hymn of Valor twice so you don't waste the Power Chord proc on jungle mobs.

Synergy
Because of the magic burst on Power Chord, Sona has strong lane synergy with other carries who have high poke/burst damage early game. Together, they can create potential kills. In example, Corki's Phosphorus Bomb or Miss Fortune's Double Up do high damage early game.

Strengths
Sona is easily capable of being aggressive or passive. However, because of her strong burst at level one with Hymn of Valor and Power Chord's double damage, she excels at harassing early (pre-level 2) and taking an early advantage. With her burst damage, she can zone out weaker enemies and control bushes. But when things don't go so well and she's forced into more passive situations, she can support any carry by healing them while occasionally poking.

Weaknesses
While Sona has high damage early, she lacks defenses. She has low base armor, low base health, and is fairly slow. It's very easy to blow her up in lane. "Kill" supports like Blitzcrank can Rocket Grab her and create instant kills for his carry. Additionally, Sona lacks good peel and crowd control outside of her Crescendo. At level one, Leona can be easily abused and poked because she won't have her full combo. But at level two and beyond, Sona can't peel Leona off her carry when she goes all in with her skills.

Ganks
Sometimes, you will be able to tell you're getting ganked based on how the enemies act. Taric randomly Flashing and stunning your carry is usually pretty telling that a gank is going down. Once you get Crescendo, stopping ganks is simple. If you and your carry are full health, you can save it until enemies chase you back to your tower so you can try to stun them under tower. Before you get Crescendo, it's a bit harder to deal with ganks. You can slow with your Power Chord + Song of Celerity slow, and there's also Exhaust or Heal to protect your carry. If you've built items already, Shard of True Ice helps peel, or Mikael's Crucible can remove a stun or slow and allow your carry to escape.

Match Ups
This is some basic match up info. There are too many factors (jungler, level 1 fights, getting to level 2 first, top/mid ganks) to definitively say "you counter [x]" or "[y] counters you". Match ups are sorted based on threat level and what they can do to you. "Threat level" does not mean "do not pick Sona versus this enemy support". You might be trying to run a certain team comp, or you might have a better late game anyway. Rather, it indicates how reckless or how conservative you can be when facing a certain champion. As usual, if you know a certain skill is on cooldown, that's usually a greenlight to go in and harass even versus a threatening laner.

Low Threat:
These supports pose little threat to you, though they can inconvenience you with their silence/knockup/shield/etc.

Unknown Threat:
The performance of these supports is carry-dependent. Their skill-sets focus on enhancing and preserving their carry.

Med-High Threat:
These supports are also ranged, meaning they're squishy and can be poked down. However, they have strong crowd control pre-6 and can easily get Sona killed.

Danger Zone:
You can poke them down, but they're all tanky and can get you killed when their cooldowns are up. Bush control helps.

Counter Mechanics:
These AD carries and supports have skills that can actually counter some of your skills. E.g. Varus can reduce healing.

High Damage:
These AD carries hit hard early game. You might want to max W first unless they have a heal debuff too.

Gap Closers:
Running from these AD carries when you're low on HP is hard. They all have gap closers.





Sona is good at harassing enemy laners with Hymn of Valor and Power Chord. As explained in the skills section, Hymn of Valor will seek out enemy champions when they're standing around minions up to 550 range, which is Sona's autoattack range.

A typical harass skill combo is:

• Have 2 stacks of Power Chord ready
• Autoattack an enemy champion
• Use Hymn of Valor to fully charge Power Chord and damage the champion
• Your autoattack animation timer will reset when Power Chord is fully charged
• Autoattack the champion again to trigger Power Chord's double damage effect

If you're using Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and enemies aren't using Greater Glyph of Magic Resist, they'll have a large chunk of health taken off.

During engagements with the enemy carry and support, it's important to use your skills intelligently. In example, Aria of Perseverance's Power Chord effect will reduce enemy damage by 20%. Use it on the enemy carry instead of the support. Don't stack Exhaust and Crescendo on the enemy carry at the same time. They won't be moving during Crescendo's duration anyway. Similarly, if the enemy carry has Cleanse, wait for them to Cleanse Crescendo or Exhaust before using the other.

Part of harassing and picking fights is being able to read what's going on, and knowing your enemies. Say for example you are playing Sona and you're laning with Kog'Maw versus Caitlyn and Zyra. Caitlyn and Zyra have a significant range advantage over you and Kog'Maw. If you walk up to autoattack, Zyra can easily root you with Grasping Roots because of how fast the animation is compared to your own autoattack animation. And if Caitlyn reacts in time, you could very well die because of her long autoattack range.

When the enemy carry and/or support use their summoners, take mental note of this, and tell your jungler too. When your jungler ganks, remember who's Flash is down and focus on that person. Also remember that if an AD carry Cleanses your Crescendo, your Crescendo will be up long before their Cleanse. Make another engagement happen before their Cleanse comes back up. And lastly, during engagements, always remember to help your carry damage the enemy. Don't just sit there and do nothing or run away.

Early game is also called "laning phase" because you go into a lane and farm minions. But as a support, your job is not to farm minions. You "support" your ranged carry while they farm minions through warding and harassing the enemy laners.

Behavior
So if you aren't farming minions, what do you do anyway? It depends on the support you're playing. Some are playmakers. They have crowd control and look for openings to use their crowd control (usually a stun or snare) to setup a kill for their AD carries. Others have poke damage. They keep range and do harass/poke damage over time to whittle down the enemy laners, *or* they have buffs that allow their carry to poke better. Others are sustainers/healers. Their job is to keep their carry alive. For gameplay on specific supports, you should consult a guide for that support. This text dump is for basic generic support-ish things only.

Vision
One of your duties as the support is to ward around bottom lane. Vision will help you spot ganks from the river or the lane bushes. Having wards in lane bushes will also allow you to see the enemy support using skills.



How do these warding spots help?

• Purple bush: Control bush, spot bush ganks
• Blue bush: Control bush, spot bush ganks
• River bush: Spot jungler, pink to counter ward #5
• Tribush: Spot ganks, highly contested bush, pink to counter ward
• Lower river: Spot ganks, see blue buff and dragon area traffic, “budget” ward to cover some vision around 6/4/3 with only 1 ward
• Dragon: Spot general traffic, spot dragon attempts
• Inside dragon: Stick a ward in the pit behind the fence to avoid it being seen by a pink ward outside of the pit
• Mid-bot river bush: Spot enemy jungler ganking mid, spot blue’s jungler stealing purple’s blue buff
• Bush near red buff: Spot enemy jungler going mid/bot, enemy mid going bot/doing wraiths, pink to counter ward the ramp
• Buffs: For counter jungling and invading with a coordinated team

Explorer
Explorer might not seem like much, but it's quite useful. It gives you a mini- Sight Ward, and usage of this mini-ward can act like a substitute for Clairvoyance within the first couple minutes of the game. Say the enemy support is Blitzcrank. Leave the fountain immediately and pop your Explorer's Ward in a bush near your buff to look out for his team invading. Or, if your team invades the enemy blue buff, you can leave your Explorer's Ward at your own blue buff to spot to see if the enemy team had the same idea as you.

In lane, you can use it to bait out Vision Wards from supports who start with them. They will often drop Vision Wards asap to try and control bushes, but if they use it to destroy your lesser Explorer's Ward, then you know they used their Vision Ward, you know when and where they used it, and you still have your regular full duration Sight Wards.

Awareness
Take note of when enemy champions use summoner spells like Flash, and take note when you see them place wards. Enemy wards will temporarily show as little red dots on the map, wards make noises when they're planted, and minions will also attack you in bushes if the bush is warded. Observing these things will make your life easier, and also your jungler's. When your jungler ganks, you can let them know what area is warded so they know not to go that route, and they'll also know to focus the person who's Flash is down.

After laning phase, both teams have farmed a little and the champions are all stronger. During mid, the game becomes more about objectives (buffs, dragon, towers, baron) and fighting for control of them.

Vision
Mid game wards vary depending on if you're pushing into the enemy's 2nd turret, or if the enemy team is pushing into your 2nd turret.



How do these warding spots help?

• Dragon: Spot general traffic, spot dragon attempts
• Inside dragon: Stick a ward in the pit behind the fence to avoid it being seen by a pink ward outside of the pit
• Blue: Are you pushing into blue’s 2nd turret? Ward around these areas to spot incoming ganks and secure an escape path
• Purple: jungle Are you pushing into purple’s 2nd turret? Ward around these areas to spot incoming ganks and secure an escape path
• Mid-bot river bush: Spot enemy jungler ganking mid, spot blue’s jungler stealing purple’s blue buff
• Bush near red buff: Spot enemy jungler going mid/bot, enemy mid going bot/doing wraiths, pink to counter ward the ramp
• Bush near baron ramp: Pink to counter wards on the ramp, spot traffic in the upper jungle
• Baron: Spot general traffic, spot baron attempts
• Inside baron: Stick a ward in the pit behind the fence to avoid it being seen by a pink ward outside of the pit
• Mid-top river bush: Spot people coming to baron and going towards blue buff

Buffs
Blue buff is a highly contested buff because mana-based mid laners rely on it during early and mid game. As purple side bot lane, you can help protect and secure your blue buff for your mid lane. As blue side bot lane, you can help steal the enemy blue buff and deny it from their mid lane. Vision Wards help for both protecting and stealing.

Babysitting
As the support, you should continue to watch your carry during mid game even after towers go down. If you've taken the enemy's outer turret and your carry is stronger and has frozen the minion wave to deny the enemy carry, you can typically leave them alone for a few minutes while you ward important objectives or help other lanes. If your carry is weaker and has frozen the minion wave at the inner turret for safety reasons, you should stay near them and ward up to spot incoming ganks and tower dives.

Dragon
Your job is control dragon through ward coverage. Junglers will (should) help you with it too. Vision Wards help with dragon coverage since you'll be too weak and too poor for an Oracle's Elixir.

During late game, towers are gone, and the game becomes more about objectives (killing the nexus, baron) and closing out the game.

Vision
Well, the image kind of speaks for itself.



Baron
Your job is control baron through ward coverage. Hopefully you'll be able to afford an Oracle's Elixir before you leave base. If you have Twin Shadows and you don't have the baron area warded, remember to use it to check the bushes for you, or you might walk into the enemy team.

Buddy System
When I say buddy system, I mean general "strength in numbers". Getting caught alone is bad for your team. Even if you're only worth 15g, your team is missing your ult/auras if you die before a possible team fight. Be careful when you ward, as you could get caught out. It's very typical late game to ward up, catch someone out of position, kill them, then go push a tower or get baron because the other team is now down a member.

Team Synergy
Sona's Crescendo is very powerful and gamechanging. As an AoE stun, it compliments other forms of AoE damage like Rumble's The Equalizer or Miss Fortune's Bullet Time. It also compliments other forms of AoE crowd control like Curse of the Sad Mummy. Additionally, having people stunned can help any of your team mates who have channeled abilities.





Initiation
If you're a little tanky and you have a good opening, you can Crescendo on enemies to start team fights. If you haven't built very tanky, stay by your carry to help them in case someone jumps on them, and try using Crescendo as a follow up initiation or ranged initiation.

Using her ult as secondary initiation is especially important when trying to chain crowd control effects. In example, if your team has Galio, it would be redundant for both you and Galio to ult the enemy team at the same time. Because her ult is also a stun, it can be used as a counter-initiation to cancel and interrupt spells like Katarina's Death Lotus if she jumps in and starts spinning.

If your carry gets caught out by a form of initiation, remember to use Mikael's Crucible to cleanse and heal them. If you have to Shard of True Ice, you can also use that to help peel off attackers so that your carry can gain some distance and hopefully re-position themselves.

Fighting
Due to her auras and low cooldowns, you don't just use your ult then become useless. Sona can help do a little damage with Hymn of Valor and provide the aura for her team. She can use Aria of Perseverance to help sustain and for the defensive aura. Remember to use your active items too. If your carry is stunned and they don't have Cleanse or Mercurial Scimitar, you can use Mikael's Crucible to remove stuns and heal them. After the main bulk of the action, she can help her team chase with Song of Celerity, the Power Chord slow effect, Twin Shadows if you opted for it, and Shurelya's Reverie.

• Set wards in ways that maximize your vision on an area. http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9762/wards.jpg - This image made by AwwGasm, though old, shows you how much vision you gain through certain ward placements.
• When enemy wards are placed, you see the ward for a couple seconds before it vanishes. If you are playing a character with an autoattack reset (e.g. Leona's Shield of Daybreak), you can do 3 autoattacks and kill the ward in this time period.
• The ramps near dragon and baron have been changed in season 3. There's no small wall/ledge obscuring your ward vision anymore. Setting a Vision Ward in the bush near the ramps will allow you to counter ward people who are used to warding the ramp specifically. (Image)
• Warding behind the rocks in the entrance to baron or dragon will avoid your wards from being seen by Vision Wards that are positioned in front. (Image)
• Targeting a ward will give you a white health bar which represents how much longer a ward will stay up.
• Try to ward in an not-so-obvious manner so the enemy doesn't have a clue about you warding. This is important when you're babysitting on bot lane. I always make it a point to check enemy items when they come back and see if they have wards. If those wards magically disappear after they go out to the river, you should let your jungler know.
• http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6602/wardguide.jpg - This visual placement guide for by weenerlikewoah gives some good general placement advice, but some stuff I disagree with. In example, there's nothing wrong with warding inside dragon or baron.

When you play support, note what time dragon and baron die so that you know when they'll be respawning. There are various programs you can use for timing - overlays, computer apps, even smart phone apps. You can also turn on chat timestamps and note when baron/dragon dies in chat. Having the time lets your team setup for dragon/baron beforehand. Instead of, "Oh hey, dragon is up, let's go kill it", it's "Oh hey, dragon will be up in a minute, we should start heading down there".

The "Free" Gold Myth
The point of building GP10 items is not to "get free gold". You don't "get free gold" until after the item pays for itself. Meaning a Philosopher's Stone, which costs 700 gold and generates 5 gold every 10 seconds, will not pay for itself until it has generated 700 gold. This takes 23 minutes and 20 seconds. But after it has generated 700 gold, it will actually start giving you "free" gold.

Why was GP10 built in season 1/season 2? Why is it different in season 3?
In season 1 and the beginning of season 2, the meta game revolved around the AD carry literally farming for 40 minutes before team fights and such. With such a long period of farming, the support had plenty of time to pay off the cost of their GP10. Supports like Janna and Soraka were considered the strongest supports because of their safety. They are now considered weak because of their passive laning. For AD carries, Kog'Maw was considered strong because of his late game and Ezreal was considered weak also because of his late game.

But as season 2 evolved, Exhaust became the new summoner spell for supports, bot lane became focused on hard engages ("dunking") and dominating your lane with early game strength instead of passively farming to be strong later. Ezreal became a top AD carry for his early game strength while Kog'Maw became a liability for his early game weakness and lack of escapes. This has carried over to season 3.

Basically, the situation has changed. Supports are no longer in lane for 40 minutes while their AD carry passively farms, and as such, itemization has changed as well.

So why would you build GP10 now?
Basically, if you want an item that a GP10 upgrades to, you would definitely want to buy the GP10. This way, you refund a bit of the item cost before you upgrade it. If your Philosopher's Stone generates 400 gold before you upgrade it to Shurelya's Reverie, then it technically cost you 400 gold less.

Also take into account the stats. If you are playing a poke support like Sona or Lulu, having the mana regen from Philosopher's Stone is quite handy for laning. If you are playing Zyra, who doesn't have many mana regen issues, Kage's Lucky Pick would add to your early game damage. In the past, kill lane supports would build Heart of Gold to be tankier for engages. This has kind of been replaced by Sightstone. Similarly, a squishy support could buy Ruby Crystal and turn it into Sightstone later if they need to be tankier versus burst damage.

As a rule of thumb, if you don't want anything that Philosopher's Stone or Kage's Lucky Pick upgrades into, I would recommend against buying them. Work on getting other items instead. Making items like Locket of the Iron Solari has a more immediate effect on your team compared to aimlessly buying both Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick.

Then there's the option of building them if you expect a long, drawn out game. This is fairly self-explanatory and you can also associate this as to why pros sometimes build double GP10 in tournament level games.

Sightstone
Sightstone has a 950 gold price tag, and it gives health worth 475 gold. Of that remaining 475 gold, Sightstone will "break even" with buying regular Sight Wards after you've placed 6 wards with it. Assuming you are using your wards to their full duration, this will take 9 minutes since you can only set down 2 wards from Sightstone at a time.

Ruby Sightstone
Ruby Sightstone can be viewed similarly. It costs 1550 gold, and has around 946 gold in health. Of that remaining 604 gold, Ruby Sightstone will "break even" with buying regular Sight Wards after you've placed 8 wards with it. But unlike Sightstone, you can place up to 3 wards a time from a pool of 5 (technically 2.5 wards per 3 minutes). You would need to use up all 5, then return to base and use up another 3. After that, you are getting "free" wards from your Ruby Sightstone.

Vs GP10
Alternatively, you could look at the items as GP10 items. Sightstone generates 4 wards per town trip and allows 2 out at a time. Money-wise, that's 150 gold (2 sight wards) per 3 minutes, which is 50 gold per minute. Ruby Sightstone generates 5 wards per town trip and allows 3 out at a time. For simplicity's sake, this can be 2.5 wards per 3 minutes, which is 188 gold per 3 minutes, or 63 gold per minute. For comparison, Philosopher's Stone gives 30 gold per minute, and Kage's Lucky Pick gives 24 gold per minute.

How does Sightstone fit into a support's build?
This will vary from person to person. Treat Sightstone like it's Heart of Gold from season 2 - kind of a GP10, and also a flat HP item. What flat HP does for a support is help them trade damage in lane, or survive burst.

In organized arranged games where it's vital that you have as much survivability and vision as possible, you might want to go Sightstone into Ruby Sightstone ASAP before even buying any other items. But in less organized games, your item order can be more flexible. In example, if you're playing Sona, who uses a lot of mana to poke, you could go Philosopher's Stone or Chalice of Harmony first for poking in lane. But if you're getting bursted down easily and not able to do much, it would be smarter to go for the flat HP boost from Sightstone before Philosopher's Stone.

When you equate Sightstone to Heart of Gold, you can also understand why it might look silly for you to buy Sightstone in addition to Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick - that's like 3 GP10 items. In season 2, supports would only buy 2, then start working on bigger items for team fights.

Sightstone doesn't cure cancer
In some games, just the wards from the Sightstone and a few Vision Wards might be enough to ward the map because you're incredibly dominant. Who knows. But in general, just because you have a Sightstone doesn't mean you should quit buying regular wards all together. In example, when you need to ward baron, you should definitely use some extra Sight Wards to secure the area. Always remember that it's an HP item that also gives you wards, not a replacement for Sight Wards.

That concludes the guide. Thanks to my friends and guinea pigs for their assistance in taking screenshots and such.

Check out my Lulu guide:

• http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=39094-astrolia-lulu-build-guide