Sion, the Undead *Juggernaut*

Sion's rework was a resounding success. Across the board, almost everyone loved what Riot did with him. He was almost a perfect champion - He had strong abilities that synergized, his thematics were all perfectly matching his abilities, his visuals and audio are both stellar, and, almost best of all, he was meta. You could take Sion into top or jungle and consistently find success.

More recently, however, nerfs to Sion (Which were needed) have shifted his play pattern. Before, Sion was indeed a juggernaut. He was a damage force who's sustained damage and crowd control in a teamfight could not be ignored. However, people started to build him as a super tank, and indeed, Sion was just a wall of flesh and iron that could not be broken through. This became his most dominant identity, which it is to this day, but I have to question if this is the direction Riot had planned for Sion, for a few reasons.

Anyone remember when Sion's rework first came out? He was tagged as a 'Fighter'. Now, he's tagged as a 'Tank'. This shift shows that Riot settled for the new 'super tank' playstyle some players had adopted with him.

Remember his champion spotlight? One of the suggested items is . I've rarely seen it built to this day, but we saw it being used in the spotlight.

Perhaps most evident, Sion has purchase quotes for SO MANY offensive items. . Even .

Which Sion, in their right mind, would buy ?

Anyways, back to the point. Riot clearly had a vision for him, a vision of him not just being a big wall, but also a damage threat, which he was originally before nerfs. This vision matches his personality and thematics, and I think it's a vision that should be reiterated upon.

Make Sion a Juggernaut. Like Garen, Darius, Skarner, and Mordekaiser. Hell, it's right there in his title.

How would we promote this? Well, Riot would need to be careful. Too much damage, and he'll become super dominant again. Not enough, and people will just use whatever is given to him to tank more effectively. I have a few suggestions:

1. Tie most of his 'Juggernaut'ness to his passive. When Sion dies, currently, his passive isn't much of a threat. Sometimes it can net you a lucky kill, but mostly, you'll just pick up some extra CS. I would suggest: Slightly increase the Attack Speed bonus. Make Death Surge remove crowd control. Increase his base MS by a small amount while he's raging. Make kills and assists reset the cooldown on Death Surge and reset the health decay rate. This way, Sion will still be kitable, but he has a chance to actually catch someone and rip them apart. The enemy would need to stagger their CC, and the Sion player could cleverly use Death Surge to avoid CC.

2. Increase his base AS a little bit. This wouldn't stack with the set AS during his passive, of course, but I think it would promote building . Would also make CSing a bit easier, which helps promote Sion's strong laning phase.

3. Increase the scaling of his W. Currently, it's 6/7/8/9/10%. I suggest 7/9/11/13/14%, while nerfing the base amount to 30/50/70/90/110. This will promote building the health-heavy items that Juggernauts favor, like and . Early game, the shield will be similar, but late game. when detonating it isn't as practical as letting it absorb damage, it'll account for much more.

4. Lastly. Make it so he can detonate his shield after 2 seconds again. Currently, it's really difficult to pull off the Decimating Smash+Blood Furnace eruption combo in lane, because it takes so long to detonate. Combined with the fact that the shield is really easy to break at early ranks(A minion wave can break it), and he almost never gets to use the detonation anymore. This, combined with the change in #3, will let him effectively pull off that pushing/lane bullying combo. The counterplay is simple - Stay away from Decimating Smash. Maybe buy some early boots.

TL:DR: Make Sion a Juggernaut, instead of a wet noodle-hitting tank.