Cameron 'AP Sona' Bates is a multi-season Master tier Sona main known both for his aggressive playstyle and for missing Crescendos when on professional players' streams. Cameron is a skilled mechanical player and a brilliant theorycrafter. His Sona and Blitzcrank guides have over two million views and he designed and taught a course on League of Legends at the University of California, Berkeley in 2015.

Season six is coming and with it a wide array of item, champion, and general meta changes. What are your first impressions after a few weeks of preseason play?

AP Sona: I believe that Riot has gotten much more aggressive recently in terms of patching LoL to facilitate viewership. The recent changes have shortened games and, more importantly, included massive buffs towards ADCs. We haven’t seen a hypercarry meta like this since season 2, and I think Riot’s goal is to increase the number of pentakills and big plays in order to drive higher viewership.

Notably, ADC itemization has become much faster, since there are now other alternatives to Infinity Edge that allow for early crit chance (which, combined with warrior’s bloodlust, will allow ADCs to single-handedly shred through opposing teams). Essence Reaver is an exceptionally strong rush item, and it’s additional CDR passive is huge for helping ensure that ADCs can scale into late game monsters as well.

With nerfs to teleport more top and midlaners are taking selfish summoner spells like heal, barrier, and ignite. How has that affected the bot lane meta?

AP Sona: In solo queue, the bot lane meta now consists of a lot more lane bullies, because aggression in lane isn’t countered by a 4-man gank. This is the reason that Graves is a common ban in high rated games - his laning damage is exceptionally high, but he must be in close range to apply it. In the old meta, this would be abused - but because of the changes, ADCs are much more free to harass in lane regularly. This has also brought back more abusive supports like Soraka and Sona, who are highly vulnerable to ganks. Between the warding/trinket changes (that make it easier to get more wards earlier) and the lack of TP from mid laners, these champions can easily out-trade their laning opponents without being punished.

A lot of players, myself included, are unsure of which attack speed item to build when playing Marksmen. What are the comparative advantages and disadvantages of Phantom Dancer, Statikk Shiv, Runaan's Hurricane, and Rapid Firecannon? On what characters and in what situations should we build these items?

AP Sona: In order to best utilize the passives, Shiv and Firecannon are best on highly mobile champions, such as Lucian or Vayne, who will also benefit from the increased range in order to kite out teamfights. Runaan’s is a weak item if it’s your only attack speed item, but it is strong on champions such as Quinn or Kog’Maw who often rush a BotRK, since the AOE damage from Runaan’s scales more efficiently with attack speed than attack damage. Phantom Dancer is good for ADC’s such as Ashe or Caitlyn who will be dishing out consistent damage in teamfights from far range. As for build paths, I think the standard pattern of primary AD item → primary AS item → primary life steal item (if ahead)/primary armor penetration item (if behind) applies to ADCs just as it did in season 5. However, armor penetration in this patch is less important because of the tanky bruiser meta (who tend to not stack that much armor) so life steal may be more valuable to keep ADCs save enough to dish out reliable damage in fights.

How do you feel about Sona in patch 5.22?

AP Sona: The way I play Sona is pretty weak in the new patch. I build her and play her very aggressively, and the introduction of more bursty lane opponents means I can get punished very easily in lane. Most players play Sona defensively (with a 0/18/12 mastery set in the new patch) - this version of Sona has been buffed heavily thanks to Windspeaker’s Blessing, which is particularly effective due to Sona’s AOE shield. If you play Sona, you should probably start playing her the “boring” way, with an emphasis on survivability and mana regen so that you can spam heal in lane. I don’t foresee AP Sona being a particularly strong strategy in this current meta.

Do you feel like the buff to Spellthief's Edge has affected Sona's gameplay?

AP Sona: Spellthief’s change hasn’t affected Sona much, since people were going to get it on her + play her like a pokey support mage regardless of how the item shifted.

Many players have expressed serious frustration regarding the indirect nerfs to mages due to various item changes. Do you feel like mages were too strong in previous patches?

AP Sona: I don’t think mages were too strong in previous patches - in fact, I believe that ADCs were too strong in previous patches. As I write this, three of the top four solo queue players on the ladder in both EUW and NA are ADC mains. In season 5, the ladder closed with KeithMcbrief (another ADC main) at the top. ADCs are dominant in solo queue because even last season they had the potential to snowball games and singlehandedly carry. I can remember a ton of games in season 5 that were won by a fed Vayne or Kalista, yet very few where a fed mid laner (except for the occasional Leblanc, or mid Sona :P) was able to single-handedly win a game. I don’t think the item changes have affected Mages in season 6 - they’re just boring compared to the number of options available to all the other roles. Just because you are locked into one path doesn’t mean you are necessarily weak - however, I also believe mages are weak simply because ADCs are so dominant.

How has the addition of the Rift Herald affected the solo queue meta? Is top lane less of an island because junglers are drawn toward that objective?

AP Sona: In theory they should be. People constantly discuss how crucial the Rift Herald is to snowballing games, yet there is very little ward control placed over it and more often than not it remains uncontested compared to dragon (despite, in my mind, being just as valuable if not more so). In my personal experience, top lane has still largely remained an island, as junglers have shifted towards heavy damage champs (Yi, Rengar) who tend to power-farm and then gank more squishy targets such as mages or ADCs after reaching level 6.

In patch 5.22 we have seen a huge rise in the power of hybrid champions like Jax, sSyvanna, and Kayle. Why is that?

AP Sona: All three of these champs are really strong duelists after getting a single item, and the patch made Rageblade really effective for hybrid champions who auto-attack really quickly. This is why it’s also been picked up as a niche item on Kog’Maw, who of course is designed now to auto-attack insanely quickly. The issue if you’re playing against these champions is that there is no clear itemization to counter them because they have multiple sources of damage. I think Malphite is a good pick into them because of all his attack speed slows, but another meta might build out as people learn to counter these characters.

Do you have any predictions for champions that might be contested competitive picks on this patch?

AP Sona: I’ll stick to solo queue, since I don’t think many competitives games will be played on preseason 5 patches.

Supports: Thresh (because his kit has been overloaded ever since his release), Soraka (because of healing buffs).
ADCs: Graves (because his laning is oppressive), Vayne (because she snowballs very well with crit items and increased peel).
Mages: Leblanc (because of her high kill potential in lane), Yasuo (because of his windwall, which can negate a lot of ADC damage).
Junglers: Master Yi (because of his snowballing potential), Rengar (because of his snowballing potential).
Top Laners: Jax (because he is oppressive with 1 item), Malphite (because he can counter the AS meta).

Any tips for your fans and aspiring challengers to climb the solo queue ladder?

AP Sona: Having fun is more important than having a high rating! It’s a video game.