Sona vs Xerath Counter Pick
Matchup Summary
What the Data Means
Sona, Maven of the Strings, meets Xerath, the Magus Ascendant, in the Support lane. Over 422 ranked games on patch 16.13.1, Sona closes out 58.5% of them. Being 8.5 points clear of the 50% line makes Xerath a favourable draw for Sona.
Both champions are ranged (Sona at 550, Xerath at 525), so the lane is decided by cooldowns rather than reach.
Shocking Orb (E) is the ability Sona has to respect, just as Xerath plays around Hymn of Valor. Whoever spends Crescendo or Rite of the Arcane first hands the other a window.
With Sona and Xerath both dealing magic damage, stacking a single stat answers most of it. Before items it is 550 HP, 26 armour, 30 MR for Sona; 596, 22, 30 for Xerath. Sona scales to 2097 health by 18 while Xerath reaches 2398. Base attack damage is 49 against 55, so Xerath wins the raw auto-attack exchange. Xerath covers ground faster from level one (325 against 340).
Riot scores Xerath at 8/10 for difficulty against 4/10, and that gap alone drags on the average. Pair 58.5% with its 422 games and patch 16.13.1 before calling the matchup settled. Stats for Xerath in this matchup are recalculated automatically for Support.
FAQ
Yes — Sona holds the statistical advantage in this matchup. Sona wins 58.5% of the recorded games.
58.5% from Sona's perspective, measured on patch 16.13.1.
422 ranked games at Emerald rank and above, across all regions.
The current Sona build — items, runes and skill order from the same data set — is on the Sona build page.