Senior Editor Chris Tom checks out Sona, Maven of the Strings and League of Legends' new resident bard.

Before I begin on the guide, a hearty congratulations goes out to Riot Games and League of Legends for winning an astounding five awards at the Game Developers Choice Online Awards! The team earned awards for Best Online Game Design, Best Online Visual Arts, Best Online Technology, Best New Online Game and the Audience Award. This means that this weekend will be a great chance to check out any Champion you want, as all Champions will be going free-to-play this weekend in celebration. And now, on with the Buyer's Guide to Sona!

It was only two weeks ago that Riot Games first introduced Sona, the Maven of Strings, but she has already made herself quite comfortable within many top-tier premades around the world. I've  been playing Sona with great success - so much to the point that she has become my new go-to support champion when my team really wants to get that win of the day (it used to be Zilean, to give you an idea of the role I play her in).

For players who are not yet familiar with Sona, she is Riot's attempt at creating a bard-like champion for League of Legends. Featuring three songs that she can play (these basically operate as 'stances,' similar to Udyr's stances), Sona is a fantastic early game damage dealer who easily transitions to a powerful late-game support.

Her first song "Hymn of Valor," deals damage to the two nearest targets while also granting a nice little damage buff for teammates around her; this skill prioritizes enemy champions who are nearby, and the range of the spell is surprisingly large, so it's not uncommon to see Sonas who play very aggressively during the laning phase, dipping in and out of range and popping enemy champions in the face with her Hymn.

Sona's second song, "Aria of Perseverance," heals her and a nearby ally for a small amount (it prioritizes the lowest health teammate nearby), although it has a very low cooldown, so it can quickly stack up to a sizable heal.

Sona's third song, "Song of Celerity," is partially why Sona can remain effective, regardless of how long a game has lasted. This song buffs all of Sona's teammates with a speed boost and, upon activation, grants an additional speed boost to a nearby champion. What this means is that Sona is one of the best 'kiting' heroes in the game, capable of chasing down heroes and harassing them with her "Song of Celerity" and "Hymn of Valor."

Finally, Sona's ultimate, "Crescendo," is essentially a large, rectangular skill shot that fires out in front of Sona and forces all of the caught opponents to dance for a few seconds while taking damage over time. Crescendo is, to be honest, not very strong on its own - it has a low stun duration and it deals fairly low damage, but its startup cast is near instantaneous, and since it is a ranged cast, it is a fantastic tool for initiating those big team fights. You won't be able to "catch" a champion like Amumu can with his ultimate, but the brief stun duration should give your team time to jump in, to place a slow or a stun that is more permanent. I'll tell you this right now: Sona + Amumu + Miss Fortune can kill virtually any team that gets caught.