Sonya Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ✓ ?
4	? ? ✓
7	? ? ✓
10	? ✓
13	? ✘︎ ✓
16	? ✓ ?
20	? ? ? ✓

Furious Blow is Sonya's only damage-oriented choice at this tier. In sustain damage dealing situations, such as while pushing or claiming Mercenary Camps, this Talent amounts to a 10% damage increase and a 6 Rage cost decrease to Seismic Slam. In practice, Furious Blow allows your fourth Seismic Slam to be used as a means of dealing "surprise" burst damage. In general, Furious Blow should be picked if you plan on getting Leap at Level 10, as it will greatly increase the burst damage dealt by you after the Stun.

War Paint provides you with a significant amount of self-sustain. Although Sonya's Basic Attacks are not particularly strong by default, many of the Talents we recommend focus on improving them, making War Paint a generally solid choice. In the early stages of the game, the Talent allows you to remain at a comfortable Health level while laning and clearing Mercenary Camps; later on, it outright allows you to trade favourably with many if not all Heroes. War Paint is of limited use against burst-compositions however, as it requires much uptime to payoff. In case you are going for a Whirlwind Build, you should prefer Tough As Nails over War Paint, as time spent spinning is time not spent attacking.

The mitigation provided by Tough As Nails is generally overshadowed by the amount of self-sustain provided by War Paint. The latter choice is also much more versatile, in that it has PvE uses. Still, Tough as Nails has niche use against Heroes with powerful Basic Attacks such as Greymane, Stukov, Hanzo or Thrall. It also has the advantage of being active while using Whirlwind, whereas War Paint has no effect of its own. See to use an Ability every 4 seconds to maximise Tough as Nail's uptime. Do not pick this Talent against Heroes with fast-hitting Basic Attacks (such as D.Va and Genji).

Shattered Ground is an excellent choice when paired with other Seismic Slam Talents. It is excellent against a Melee Composition, as Seismic Slam's splash damage can destroy multiple close Heroes. It also greatly increases Sonya's waveclear, making it excellent if your team composition does lack said waveclear.

Hurricane provides an important cooldown reduction to the Ability upon which Sonya relies to survive team fights. The crowd control removal is also a powerful aspect, though it requires proper timing to see a payoff.

Shot Of Fury is an excellent quality of life improvement for Sonya. It does not only provides a useful burst of Fury, but the extra damage provided by it will greatly increase your DPS against all enemies or Structures. Due to its versatility and synergy with other Talents, Shot of Fury is the standard Talent at this tier.

Poisoned Spear is a large damage multiplier for an Ability that deals a respectable amount of baseline damage, and that ends up further increased while Wrath of the Berserker is active. Outside of her Ancient Spear plus Seismic Slam combo, Sonya does not typically have much uptime against nimble Heroes; Poisoned Spear helps her maximise her burst damage and general ability to trade A notable side-effect of Poisoned Spear is that the damage-over-time effect prevents Stealthing. Poisoned Spear is generally picked against team compositions that only feature one Tank.

Life Funnel greatly improves Sonya's combat self-sustain, granted you are able to channel Whirlwind reliably. As such, it is a strong pick against team compositions that lack reliable means of interrupting.

Battle Rage is a more reliable source of sustain than Life Funnel. It is recommended if you cannot channel Whirlwind reliably. Besides that, the extra damage on Mercenaries is a useful addition that should not be underestimated.

At this Level, you gain access to Heroic Abilities. If you want to read more about them, check the dedicated section in the Abilities and Strategy page.

Depending on your team composition, you may wish to pick up Leap as an additional initiation tool, as a peeling tool, or as part of a combo piece. The Ability does come, however, at the steep price of having to give Wrath of the Berserker up. Leap could also be strongly considered when your team composition oddly features four other damage dealers, as may often the case in Quick Match situations.

Wrath of the Berserker is a core Ability for Sonya, making it much harder for enemies to deal with her. The extreme, raw damage increase provided by Wrath of the Berserker lets Sonya players threaten any Hero, though it is particularly devastating against isolated Assassins and Healers. The Ability also makes Sonya an outstanding at claiming Mercenary Camps and pushing with them. It should be remembered that Whirlwind and War Paint provide healing based on Sonya's damage output, meaning that Wrath of the Berserker also increases her survivability. It does reduce the duration of Slows, Roots, and Stuns. However, Silences are still a threat that you should be aware of.

Mystical Spear provides Sonya with an essential element that is missing from her Basic Ability kit: that of unconditional mobility. Mystical Spear makes disengaging possible. However, this Talent has no effect in fights if you hit your Ancient Spear consistently.

Ruthless amounts to about 40% increase to Whirlwind's damage to Heroes below 50% Health. This Talent is not good enough to compete with No Escape, as Whirlwind is never used to deal damage, only for self-sustain. If you want to deal more burst damage, it is better to just use Seismic Slam instead. It is worth noting that the damage increase does not translate into more healing.

No Escape, as its name implies, makes it impossible for Heroes with limited mobility to escape from Sonya. This Talent can be abused in diverse ways, and is the standard pick at this Level.

Giant Slammer adds a good extra damage and self-sustain for Sonya. In general, outside of a Siesmic Slam Build, the Rampage alternative is likely to yield more overall damage, though Giant Slammer gives you an interesting extra burst and healing.

Rampage is an excellent way of increasing your sustain damage output and mobility through the Ancient Spear's cooldown reduction effect. If you do not feel threatened by burst damage, making Nerves of Steel unappealing, Rampage is the way to go.

Nerves of Steel provides Sonya with the survivability that she needs to be able to withstand some of the heavy area of effect damage that commonly defines late-game team fights. The Shield provided by the Talent can allow you to replenish your Health through Whirlwind, as needed.

Arreat Crater is interesting on paper, and yet falls into the winmore category of Talents. Arreat Crater's effectiveness is directly proportional to how many players it manages to isolate in a perfect position for your teammates to capitalise upon. It may work well with certain Heroic Abilities such as Grav-O-Bomb 3000 and Graviton Surge however, provided you are coordinated.

Striding Giant provides a bit of survivability and an on-demand Unstoppable effect that is useful in preventing Whirlwind from being interrupted and at countering Heroes such as Artanis, Diablo, Garrosh, and Stitches, who rely on displacement and crowd control for kills.

The range increase provided by Composite Spear can be useful against range-heavy team compositions that tend to kite you to death before you can deal any significant damage. The added Armor is also notable. Composite Spear works particularly well with other Ancient Spear-related Talents.

Ignore Pain is the pinnacle of defensive Talents. Since Sonya relies on being in melee range to deal her damage, she often becomes a priority target. Ignore Pain allows you to severely punish this behaviour while being able to deliver your damage nearly unimpeded for as long as it is active.