u/Osveros

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As the title suggests been playing tank pyke, finding great success. Worse to snowball with compared to traditional pyke, but less volatile - as in the game can actually be played if you don't end in 25 minutes rather than every stray ability wiping you out.

I rush deaths dance every game, because it's expensive and pyke gets most of his gold early on. It is a 'component rich' item meaning you don't get stuck holding components until you can complete the item, so it feels nice. Also has AD I can use for lane whilst keeping me on the "defensive path". Also have cashback so upon completion of a quite expensive item I get like 250 gold back.

Build path is the following: 1st item Deaths Dance > 2nd Locket if standard game/Frozen heart if Full AD/Kaenic if full AP >3rd item Guardian Angel

Keep in mind I am mechanically a turd, first timing pyke as a masters sona OTP - so if I can make this work, I think most people can.

https://preview.redd.it/ummv00krt5dh1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=a32de602940eb45b650b74f8d5bc6fdbba0fb8c6

I know that wpa is just a guiding stat and should be used with context and knowledge. But it's quite overwhelming how few lethality items are in the top pyke items on coachless. Does it tell a story? What these items have in common is that they either give pyke utlity or 'pseudo HP' in the sense that they increase the time it takes to kill you (frozen heart auto slow, randuin crit damage reduction, deaths dance burst reduction, GA revive, kaenic magic shield).

What explanation do you guys have?

The new patch does not bring a lot of changes for supports or Sona for that matter. The only thing is staff of flowing water (which is now quite strong). After playtesting on Ionia masters with different variations of items the last few days - I have landed on the build that feels the best to play but is also backed up by stats and output.

Firstly, her runes have not changed much:

For her primary runes: Aeri, Manaflow, Celerity, Scortch/Gathering Storm

Secondary: Magical footwear, Jack of all Trades

Scorth or Gathering depends on how you pilot Sona. Scortch has a higher WPA in higher ELOs. However, it has less to do with the ELO you are playing with and more to do with how you are playing Sona. If you can't play Sona such that you get Qs on enemy in lane and after game you have sub 400 scortch damage on average, then gathering storm is optimal for you. If you consistently get 450, 500 or 550 scorch damage then scortch will be more valuable for you (putting yourself in situations where you die just so you can spam Q for damage does not count).

Inspiration is (and has been for a while) Sona's strongest secondary tree. Access to free 300 gold and a potential 25 AP and 10 haste for free is unbeaten in many cases. Blindly going resolve such that you can access revitalize is not optimal, the rune is not good unless you have a way of accumulating AP, as healing and shielding power (HSP) only becomes good if you are multiplying a large base heal or a heal that has scaled with AP. Sona does not have a large base heal and therefore needs AP before she gets HSP.

ITEMS:

I value AP/AH --> HSP. AP is valuable early, HSP is valuable late. With that in mind, I prefer a build that accumulates AP and AH fast early.

Also, there is common cliche to say about Sona: 'I get haste in my passive, so I don't need it elsewhere - diminishing returns blah blah' or something along those lines. Wrong. If you can get haste and it does not sabotage your build, get haste - it is extremely valuable and increases you healing per second. A low haste build can expect a W CD of around 4.7 seconds; a high haste build will get something close to 4 seconds flat (sometimes below if you are lucky with drakes). Close to a 20% increase in cast rate. MEANINGFUL.

That being said here is the build:

Tear --> Helia -->Archangels --> Staff of Flowing Water --> Dawncore

Notes:

Helia: Strongest opener of an item for Sona, with its large base heals you have essentially taken a shortcut to 'pseudo scaled' sona, also you should complete first item before tear is fully stacked meaning going archangels - which as an uncompleted item - feels bad.

Archangels: Strictly the better tear item, Sona does well with AP and AH which archangels gives you a lot of. Diadem has a lot of stats that aren't good for Sona early. Diadem has synergy with helia, but with aerie Sona can spam ability and diadem synergy become redundant.

Staff of Flowing Water: Cheapest access to 25 haste and 75 AP in the game, really broken even if you don't have AP users on team.

After completing these three items, you have a large AP base AND 70 AH without leaning into haste too much in your runes. You can now pursue healing and shielding power.

Boots choice: Steelcaps if they have auto attackers and it has value (as a bonus it completes jack of all trades for you) or swifties as a fallback (cheaper and less of a speedbump when powering through items).