Heroes of the Storm Sonya

[Valks 2,379]

On 2/14/2017 at 10:44 AM, MurkyFelix said:

A heroic quest would be very interesting. As in, they make it a quest with 2 rewards (like Murky's slime quest) and the first reward is health based and the second damage based (talking about Leap). But forgo the level 20 upgrade. It would make it really high risk high reward but a cooldown reduction is very much needed in order for this to be viable. But a quest heroic would be cool

Judging by some of the new releases (armour, stealth for Valeera etc.), it does look like Blizzard are trying to find new ways to make things work - maybe a quest ultimate really has a chance of becoming a thing!

[Guest tmk]

https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/sonya#23.0!1141344

I also like to run this build on sonya, she already has base damage I usually focus on defensive/utility talents for ulti i usually go for leap it can be used both on offense or defense and a good leap can sometimes turn the tide of a team fight, if the enemy team has a lot of basic attackers i pick block on level 1 and imposing presence on 16, also on level 20 I pick nexus blades depending on how the game is going and i think the damage is more useful, also on level 4 hurricane if they have roots

[Guest Andrew]

Nice guide.

I think it's probably worth noting under the whirlwind description that it's her standard wave-clear ability. Kind of obvious, I know, but the discussion is entirely confined to its use against heroes. 

My major issue with the talent description is the dismissal of No Escape. I not only think its emminently pickable; I think it's by far the strongest at that tier. It provides survivability, as Nerves of Steel does (arguably more, I'd say), because it gives you a very strong escape provided you aren't stunned out of it. But it's also useful for chasing and positioning. Hotslogs win rates bear me out here, although I must admit Nerves of Steel is far more commonly picked.

I also wonder if block has been buffed since that guide was written; I don't think it's quite as bad as you think. It's clearly not as good for self-sustain as war paint, but Sonya has little problem with sustain anyway thanks to Whirlwind. And block is better anti-burst.

[Valhalen 1,484]

8 hours ago, Guest Andrew said:

Nice guide.

I think it's probably worth noting under the whirlwind description that it's her standard wave-clear ability. Kind of obvious, I know, but the discussion is entirely confined to its use against heroes. 

My major issue with the talent description is the dismissal of No Escape. I not only think its emminently pickable; I think it's by far the strongest at that tier. It provides survivability, as Nerves of Steel does (arguably more, I'd say), because it gives you a very strong escape provided you aren't stunned out of it. But it's also useful for chasing and positioning. Hotslogs win rates bear me out here, although I must admit Nerves of Steel is far more commonly picked.

I also wonder if block has been buffed since that guide was written; I don't think it's quite as bad as you think. It's clearly not as good for self-sustain as war paint, but Sonya has little problem with sustain anyway thanks to Whirlwind. And block is better anti-burst.

I say No Escape is more valuable if you have an outside source of damage reduction and/or a dedicated healer, otherwise it is really hard to keep Sonya alive during teamfights. However I do agree this talent is very valuable because it is a passive, rather than the 70 second cooldown Nerves of Steel.

My major issues with Sonya are that she is very squishy for a Warrior, and is very cooldown dependent to deal/mitigate proper damage. You're forced to micro-manage your resource (Rage) and cooldowns when playing as Sonya. And as the guide mentioned, your offensive cooldowns tend to be your defensive cooldowns as well, so timing if everything. I don't think that kind of gameplay really fits the flavor of a Barbarian (which should be mindless smashing), but oh well.

I generally prefer Shot of Fury over Block and War Paint, as I believe it offers the most of all her Level 1 Tier Talents. Honestly, Sonya's basic attack is ridiculously low enough for War Paint to have any impact in her self-sustain, specially in Team Fights. It might be good to clear mercenaries, but that's it.

[Niteshadow 20]

2 things:

1. She might have really fallen off in Hero/Team League, and I understand it isn't a viable talent, but when I was trying to learn her, I've had massive success using Life Funnel together with Wrath of the Berserker to shred enemy health pools. I can clearly remember going in on a 2v3 and wiping the enemy Uther and his pals. She's a really fun character, and I'd also love to see her get some love from the developers.

2. Last Rites! A quest ult as was talked about above this comment. Looks really interesting, and the fact you can kill 6 heroes with it and have it on a 5 second cooldown (which heals for 100% of the damage it deals) is absurd. Eats up a ton of mana though, so I can see it as a nice finisher after a good team fight. Don't believe me about the cooldown? Check out this: https://youtu.be/0-riz1hgBvI?t=34m41s

(PS. MFPallytime swears - Please don't click the link unless you're OK with that :) )

 

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Braxis Holdout and Dragon Shire are probably her best maps,  since winning the solo lane (usually top) is huge in these maps. Being the strongest solo laner in the entire game, Sonya can gurantee your team a beacon/shrine with her dominant lane presence. On Braxis, this can snowball really hard with the zergs. On Dragon Shire, your opponent cannot get the Dragon Knight pre 10. 

[Valhalen 1,484]

Hey @Oxygen, wouldn't you consider putting Composite Spear as a "Situational" talent as opposed to "Not Recommended"? Since you say yourself that:

Quote

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. (...) Avoid picking this Talent if you intend to pick  Leap, however, as it provides a reliable gap closer.

I personally love this talent. Although the DoT from Poisoned Spear IS GREAT, more range on Sonya's most important ability is fantastic for both engage and disengage, specially when combined with Mystical Spear. I cannot tell how many times this talent saved my arse from certain death or allowed to secure a kill when the opponent was fleeing.

I like picking those two regardless of going Leap or not. Furthermore, you said to avoid picking Composite Spear as Leap provides a reliable gap closer; however it's a 70 second cooldown VS a 13 second cooldown (10 if you pick Mystical Spear).

Edited January 15, 2018 by Valhalen

[MurkyFelix 51]

3 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I like picking those two regardless of going Leap or not. Furthermore, you said to avoid picking Composite Spear as Leap provides a reliable gap closer; however it's a 70 second cooldown VS a 13 second cooldown (10 if you pick Mystical Spear).

Just saying about Leap; I've always found it very strange that it's such a high cooldown for an ult like that. I kinda of understand why (though a stun and bit of damage seems a bit underwhelming when compared to her other ult) but at the same time it never feels worth it (maybe I just suck at Leap). 

Personally; perhaps something like a 35 second cooldown and a 0.5 second stun (not sure about damage) seems more appealing and has more utility attached to it?

[Valhalen 1,484]

3 hours ago, MurkyFelix said:

Just saying about Leap; I've always found it very strange that it's such a high cooldown for an ult like that. I kinda of understand why (though a stun and bit of damage seems a bit underwhelming when compared to her other ult) but at the same time it never feels worth it (maybe I just suck at Leap). 

Personally; perhaps something like a 35 second cooldown and a 0.5 second stun (not sure about damage) seems more appealing and has more utility attached to it?

A well placed Leap is a game-changer; you can pretty much define teamfights if there are proper setup/follow-ups. If you're facing a comp that has a lot of hard crowd-control, picking Wrath of the Berserker is kinda of a waste.

But indeed, the cooldown is obscene unless you pick Arreat Crater, and you'd have to give up Ignore Pain, which is usually a bad choice.

I personally love Leap, even though Wrath is more attractive as you can pretty much maintain the uptime enough for the CD to reset again.

[Guest New Sonya Changes???]

Anyone have thoughts on the new Sonya Changes?? Wondering if we are going to see an update to this guide since she's been revamped :)

[positiv2 953]

2 hours ago, Guest New Sonya Changes??? said:

Anyone have thoughts on the new Sonya Changes?? Wondering if we are going to see an update to this guide since she's been revamped :)

The update is ready, we just need to sort out some things before it can be released. Sorry to keep you waiting!

[Valhalen 1,484]

I've been waiting for this rework for a very, VERY long time (some of you can see in the previous comments of this thread). Finally they got rid of pesky generic talents and imbued Sonya with some real talent diversity. Now my dream has become true because you can have War Paint and Shot of Fury AT THE SAME TIME.

This is the build I like to roll with, and so far has been giving me some pretty good results. It gives Sonya a solid Basic Attack damage and great self-sustain, which synergizes greatly with some Seismic Slam talents. If the enemy team has more than one Warrior or other Heroes with high health, I tend to pick Giant Slammer over Rampage.

Also, is it me or did they improve her Fury generation? I feel she generates more Fury per attack done and damage taken. Maybe undocumented notes?

Edited March 9, 2018 by Valhalen

[Emergenza 6]

Ahoi,

just fyi: I've found a little error in your revamped Sonya guide: In the discussion for the T13 talent "Mystical spear" you wrote "The Talent is notoriously strong when combined with Poisoned Spear and Composite Spear."

The tooltip for "Composite spear" shows its old characteristic (T7, +30 % range,  + 20 fury), not the new one (T20, + 50 % range, +25 armor 4 4s after hitting a hero).

Thx 4 your efforts and always appreciated work!

[positiv2 953]

As far as I know, all on-hover tooltips that were changed appear to be out of date. This issue more often than not goes away by itself. Until then, sorry for the inconvenience!

[Oxygen 446]

3 hours ago, Emergenza said:

Ahoi,

just fyi: I've found a little error in your revamped Sonya guide: In the discussion for the T13 talent "Mystical spear" you wrote "The Talent is notoriously strong when combined with Poisoned Spear and Composite Spear."

The tooltip for "Composite spear" shows its old characteristic (T7, +30 % range,  + 20 fury), not the new one (T20, + 50 % range, +25 armor 4 4s after hitting a hero).

Thx 4 your efforts and always appreciated work!

We'll be fixing those shortly, but they're out of my control. Thanks for bringing it up.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

On 2018年3月7日 at 7:53 PM, Valhalen said:

This is the build I like to roll with, and so far has been giving me some pretty good results. It gives Sonya a solid Basic Attack damage and great self-sustain, which synergizes greatly with some Seismic Slam talents. If the enemy team has more than one Warrior or other Heroes with high health, I tend to pick Giant Slammer over Rampage.

I clicked on the link and it shows me a Maiev build. Anyone else have the same problem?

As for the guide itself, I have several points that I highly disagree on.

First, I really don't like Furious Blow and Shattered Ground. Furious Blow feels too inconsistant to be relied on, and the value is not high enough to be pick over War Paint, even in a build around Seismic Slam. As for Shattered Ground, the splash is really preculiar to play around. The splash is very linear, so you have to position yourself very carefully to have the desired angle to hit multiple enemy heroes. Besides, the splash usually hit squishy backliners if you cast Seismic Slam on enemy frontliners, so the value of the synergy between Giant Slammer and Shattered Ground is not as high as you think.

Second, Battle Rage is too good to be called 'situational', because Sonya doesn't have much defensive tools to available, especially at the early game. Battle Rage is verg versatile and will help her survive early game team fights. The added mercenery damage is also a nice thing to have and will always have value regardless of the map. I consider it to be the go-to choice for any non-Whirlwind builds.

Third, I think you seriously underrate No Escape. While Mystical Spear provides you with more burst mobility through the cooldown reduction of Ancient Spear, No Escape's power lies on its constant movement speed increase. Since Fury's uptime is very easy to maintain during team fight, you pretty much have an infinite 20% speed boost in team fight, which will allow you to constantly land your basic attacks and Seismic Slam on your target, and position yourself to hit multiple enemies with Whrilwind much easier. Therefore, No Escape can increase your sustain damage better than Mystical Spear.

Finally, your builds. So far, I've come up with 3 builds that have different strengths individuallly.

The first build is Ancient Spear Build which focus on deleting squishy backline with high mobility and burst damage:

Lv 1: War Paint/Tough as Nails

Lv 4: Battle Rage

Lv 7: Poisoned Spear

Lv 10: Leap/Wrath of the Berserker

Lv 13: Mystical Spear

Lv 16: Rampage

Lv 20: Composite Spear

The second build is Seismic Slam Build which improves your self-sustain and sustain damage without heavily relying on Whirlwind:

Lv 1: War Paint/Tough as Nails

Lv 4: Battle Rage

Lv 7: Shot of Fury

Lv 10: Wrath of the Berserker

Lv 13: No Escape

Lv 16: Nerves of Steel/Giant Slammer

Lv 20: Ignore Pain/Striding Giant

The third build is Whirlwind Build that aims to improve Whirlwind, which makes it a good build against teams that lacks reliable interrupts:

Lv 1: Tough as Nails/War Paint

Lv 4: Hurricane

Lv 7: Life Funnel

Lv 10: Wrath of the Berserker

Lv 13: No Escape

Lv 16: Nerves of Steel

Lv 20: Striding Giant/Ignore Pain

The Sonya rework has been very successful so far that makes her playstyle much more diverse than before.

Edited March 9, 2018 by ShadowerDerek

[Valhalen 1,484]

4 hours ago, ShadowerDerek said:

I clicked on the link and it shows me a Maiev build. Anyone else have the same problem?

Oh, thanks! I fixed it.

[Guest Firnblut]

Quote

One very interesting application of the Ability is that of being able to solo claim the

Boss Mercenary Camp from as early as Hero Level 10, assuming that certain other specific Talents were also chosen.

Is this still true with the latest patch (30.5)? Maybe it's me, but I can't solo a Boss at level 10. Any advice?

[ATM 0]

why does Sonya get her talent calculator updated and not medivh?

[bepri 4]

Small mistake? The level 4 secondary suggestion is Battle Rage, but that's level 7 talent. Also, Shot of Fury is a level 4 talent and that's the recommendation for the level 7 talent.

Referring to the Melee Punish build, to be clear

[ShadowerDerek 69]

1 hour ago, bepri said:

Small mistake? The level 4 secondary suggestion is Battle Rage, but that's level 7 talent. Also, Shot of Fury is a level 4 talent and that's the recommendation for the level 7 talent.

Referring to the Melee Punish build, to be clear

The patch is just online. Give them some time please. 

[bepri 4]

4 hours ago, ShadowerDerek said:

The patch is just online. Give them some time please. 

Sorry, I didn't realize there was a recent patch for her.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Uhhh, Ruthless's bonus damage DOES NOT generate additional healing. It's clearly stated on the talent description.

Also, I don't understand why you'd recommend Ruthless over No Escape. The additional movement speed is exceptionally helpful to stick on your enemy(ies), especially if you're gonna use Whirlwind frequently. 

[ArusVicious 156]

 Ruthless amounts to a 33% increase to  Whirlwind's damage to Heroes below 33% Health. Although this is a substantial damage increase, its unreliability makes it unappealing. It is worth noting that the damage increase also translates into more healing, as Whirlwind heals for a portion of the damage it deals. This may be useful if you have been struggling to survive in combat, granted no reliable interruption effects are available to your opponents.

The talent states that it does not grant extra healing, so this might need to be fixed.

[positiv2 953]

Thanks for letting us know. We must have missed it in the Sonya rework. I'll pass this onto Oxygen.