Sion is not that bad of a jungler

Mecha MaIphite·Dec 29, 2015·12 votes·1,522 views

He has a very solid win rate in the jungle. Of course, his pick rate is also low, but for those games he is picked, he is doing quite well. His win rate has been climbing steadily.

The fact is, Sion is not an easy champion. Sion mains have a 60% win rate with him in jungle and an even higher one in top, while new players have 40% to 45% winrates. It's the same reason why Azir has a bad win rate and is still regarded as strong;. Azir's win rate is just so much lower because he's more appealing than Sion, who also takes time to learn but perhaps isn't as fun for some people.

40 Comments

TruckFump2016Dec 29, 20154 votes

I've been having a lot of fun with Sion lately. In the jungle (unlike in lane), I can start %hp quints and yellows with armor reds and MR blues. The 9% extra health really kicks in bigtime lategame along with cinderhulk and his W.

If games last long enough I can get over 6k HP, all the while super tanky.

IncognonymousDec 29, 20154 votes

It's not that he has a bad jungle, it's that it could be better: -His shield reactivation time feels really awkward, and makes the actual AoE unusable early without activating between camps. -His base armor is relatively low -His base health is absurdly low -His ganks rely on channeling a Q knockup or at the very least, landing an E to slow. Nothing point and click on him. -His passive... whew boy. Something needs to be done.

Disruption tanks have classically held disproportionately high winrates though. Teams that have tons of CC concentrated on one champ tend to win more often than teams that went five squishies without CC.

JbelsDec 29, 20153 votes

{quoted}

It's not that he has a bad jungle, it's that it could be better: -His shield reactivation time feels really awkward, and makes the actual AoE unusable early without activating between camps. -His base armor is relatively low -His base health is absurdly low -His ganks rely on channeling a Q knockup or at the very least, landing an E to slow. Nothing point and click on him. -His passive... whew boy. Something needs to be done.

Disruption tanks have classically held disproportionately high winrates though. Teams that have tons of CC concentrated on one champ tend to win more often than teams that went five squishies without CC.

Yeah, and the only reason his base health is so low to begin with is to compensate for his POTENTIAL to stack a lot of health, which I think is BS at this point considering ADCs now have LDR. It'd be a nice buff to give him a bit more base health now that tanks are dropping like flies whenever an ADC gets an LDR

kile147Dec 30, 20152 votes

To reactivate his shield you just need to time it right. Early game the shield can take roughly two hits before risking being popped by the jungle camps. Start it right after you get hit, and make sure you stun them with your Q and you should be able to reactivate it right before it takes the third hit and pops.

RalanrDec 29, 20154 votes

He's my main jungler (and my main). Not bad at all when you can land your skills and know how he works.

CasterGilgameshDec 29, 20151 votes

what's your favorite sion skin familiar summoner i see on the forum.Mine is barbarian sion still trying to learn him but i think i just about got him pinned down.

RalanrDec 29, 20151 votes

Personally I don't like his skins due to the splash arts. If they were updated then it'd be barbarian because of the awesome beard (which is not given justice).

CasterGilgameshDec 29, 20151 votes

i find it sorta unfair that poppy gets new splash arts but not sion....QQ i also hate his spalsh arts they are just sooooo....meh

RalanrDec 29, 20151 votes

To be fair, updating all of those splash arts was an unexpected move. I'm sure they'll update his eventually.

Or give him a new skin.

CasterGilgameshDec 29, 20151 votes

i hope his next skin is pre death sion but i wont hold my breath sion will most likely ignore him since they seem to ignore every champion i like unless its nerfs Talon Soraka Veigar Cassiopeia Graves Kassadin

RalanrDec 29, 20155 votes

Predeath Sion is the dream.

kaltenashesDec 29, 20151 votes

thats one of the reasons i didnt buy skin for him, and i dont like the others =/

sion support is awesome dat chesse e, its almost beautiful ='), the peel he offers, i die but adc gets a double, and it makes me happy

RalanrDec 29, 20152 votes

It's best with an ADC you can trust and trusts you.

So much CC.

Starfish HDec 29, 20152 votes

Personally I love LumberJack due to the beard he has in-game.

kile147Dec 29, 20153 votes

Also a hard counter to Maokai

MunchCrunchLunchDec 30, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Also a hard counter to Maokai

isnt everyone almost a hard counter to maokai? hes really weak now

kile147Dec 30, 20151 votes

Was more of a Lumberjack beats tree joke, since in reality Maokai would probably win that matchup. Balance wise though Maokai might be a bit weak but I don't think he's that bad off (though I can't look up data right now to back that up so I could be wrong).

shalexadeDec 30, 20152 votes

Hextech Sion.

Cause hitting things with a mighty hammer is awesome

SpecterVonBarenDec 30, 20151 votes

Best Sion skin.

zlurp77Dec 29, 20152 votes

we need train conductor sion, his ult is changed to "choo,choo" and his axe is a broken piece of railroad track

TheDeviceDec 29, 20152 votes

I main sion and 90% of the time take him jungle.

His scaling with item 1401 is just really nice and his ganks are amazing.

Lots of people who jungle Sion I feel as if try to wait for lv6 sorta like ww to gank. This is a mistake unless you're just super uncomforatable with the champ.

Sion has a very long range slow and closing the gap before Q'ing will usually either end with a kill (success) or a flash (success).

Poppy Top and Sion Jungle is an amazing duo.

Usually if you lock in Sion the enemy team will try to stick to high mobility/ dashing champs. If you also have poppy, then they are kinda screwed either way.

TurquoiseYoshiDec 29, 20151 votes

Sion jungle has the same early problems as Amumu jungle, without the eventual profit of Level 6 ganking and early teamfights. He's very counterjungleable, and has basically no good ganks throughout the entire game. If you want to wait for the eventual time when he's the tankiest thing on earth, so be it, but he cannot do anything until then.

RalanrDec 29, 20152 votes

A well placed slow is sometimes all it takes.

TurquoiseYoshiDec 29, 20151 votes

Sometimes, that's true. Much of the time, the person will be able to run/mobility/Flash away. And, whether they would die from the slow or not, it's still hard to land his two CC abilities because you have to be so close to the enemy. Even at Level 6, his ult is pretty unreliable so you can't really assume the gank will work.

RalanrDec 29, 20151 votes

But then they've wasted a flash (if they have no dashes or blinks) which can be pretty successful.

Plus his ult is incredibly effective point blank if you have someone follow up. It's too risky to ult from a good distance away and expecting to hit someone.

With enough CDR, your ult can work like a transportation tool.

shalexadeDec 30, 20152 votes

"Basically no good ganks"

That's like saying that Nocturne has no good ganks.

Sion, ulting down the lane, will generally be on top of the laners, laying down CC before they have time to react.

Yes, there are a lot of youtube videos of Sion, hilariously running past people, but that's part of the exact skill cap that OP is talking about.

His ganks are phenomenal, and his ability to snowball lanes is great.

Remlap1223Dec 29, 20151 votes

The thing I think most people complain about is the fact that they made him clunky as old Sion to play in the jungle after the nerf to his W detonation duration.

Don't get me wrong, it is textbook boards hyperbole, but there was no reason to make Sion clunkier to play since his abilities were already hard to use.

sirwaterflesDec 29, 20151 votes

I picked him up at the start of the preseason. I havent lost a single game with him in the jungle. All you need is cinderhulk and frozen mallet.

RalanrDec 29, 20151 votes

Frozen mallet is beautiful on him.

sirwaterflesDec 29, 20151 votes

It works even in his passive if you click an ability so i dont get what the big problem with his passive is.

RalanrDec 29, 20151 votes

On hit effects work with his passive. The complaint I can see is that he needs an over 3000 gold item to be effective in his passive and frozen mallet is rarely a first buy.

sirwaterflesDec 29, 20151 votes

Y but it its not like the enemy got that many escapes early and just having to kite your death spirit in tf offers a lot of time for your team to kill of their frontline. I would say i do more damage and get more kills with dead sions then i do with dead kogs or zyras.

RalanrDec 29, 20151 votes

Honestly I use it to get objectives half the time. It's really good for that.

BluePolarizerDec 29, 20151 votes

I actually think that Sion is one of the premier initiator tanks of league. He isn't as reliable as Amumu but about as reliable as Wukong on a lower budget. Also deals surprisingly high mixed damage burst.

sirwaterflesDec 29, 20151 votes

He is also amazing at peeling. With a tresh or naut the diver wont be able to move for 3 sec.

CoasterslolDec 29, 20151 votes

The keystone, cinderhulk, and your W passive, alll the bonus hp, i get up to 3k at 20 mins, its ridiculous

MunchCrunchLunchDec 30, 20151 votes

yeah you stack stupid health. good ganks with ult. cc. hes really good. hes meant for jungle. he doesn't have that great of sustain. but hes good. he needs some sustain

RalanrDec 30, 20151 votes

Biscuits work well with the sustain issue.

FrickendaChickenDec 30, 20151 votes

My favorite thing is when you ult down lane, and your malzahar ults the enemy mid laner, and the two of you just burst him while he is NEVER able to move.