@Riot How do you feel about Sion's current state?

I really feel Sion was heavily overnerfed. Back when the changes to the shield happened I said he was going to drop out of favor and not see much play. Turn out I was correct and he is down to 1.73% Played in lane and .44% played in jungle. (Numbers from Champion.gg)

So much power was lost from his kit incrementally that even when tanks where super in, there were just better options. And with the coming changes to tank itemization cost and stats, Sion's going to have a harder time than ever. I don't even think he's gaining armor like other tanks to compensate for the itemization changes.

One thing I would recommend it to return power incrementally until he gets to a good point, by reverting some of the changes. The E nerfs to damage and mana cost dramatically hurt his lane game, but his W nerfs pretty much took him out of the game. Three seconds over two made it just too difficult to activate in a teamfight, and made it just long enough that jungle camps could pop it in early levels so you didn't get the extra damage on your first clear.

I wouldn't try to be creative and come up with some new way in which you can improve him. Just return power that was lost in previous nerfs. He was over nerfed, instead of trying to add random buffs to compensate, just pull back on the nerfs until you get to the sweetspot you missed previously. Go to his patch history and go from the top down. W nerf -> E damage nerf -> Q damage vs JG nerf -> Q/E mana changes (This was a power shift that hurt his lane phase) Run through that until he gets to a good point again. If power creep was too much, then come up with small things to help him, but that's unlikely to be needed.

Also, I feel the level 1 cheese has always been something that riot has tried to compensate for rather than just get rid of it. I'd personally say just get rid of it. It's a strategy that trades too much of his kit's power budget for the sake of a level 1 advantage that detracts heavily from the play experience and ability of the lane opponent to respond.

I say it possesses much of his power budget, as I don't feel changes to the E and W would have been needed if Sion wasn't making it to the first wave at level 2 with a starting item, boots, and full pots, while then throwing E's and W's around like he was the Oprah of ass-whoopin.