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Sion needs a buff, here are my suggestions

BaginaBoy··4 votes·1,454 views

Playing Sion in the past several matchs has been extremely underwhelming. Personally, I consider Sion to be a "juggernaut" type champion, but due to his nerfs between his rework and the other top-laner reworks, he lost his luster. Sion is honestly hard to play in the top lane versus many other traditional top-laners. Many of these champions have movement speed built into their kit (Poppy, Fiora, GP are a few) and nearly every champion can out-damage Sion in a fight. If Sion pushes towards an enemy tower, it's a long, slow walk back to safety if a duel breaks out. I'm not saying Sion should be able to out-damage these champions, but when comparing Sion's damage compared to other juggernauts, there's not much competition. Overall, Sion needs the most help late game. Something needs to be done to make him less of a complete meat shield, and more of a threat.

With that being said I have a few suggestions:

Scenario 1: replace Sion's stats to around what they were originally after his rework. This will give Sion back his damage and make him more a of a threat in a duel.

Scenario 2: Add a movement speed bonus to Sion's Soul Furnace and either increase the shield amount or increase the damage. Sion needs something to make him less kitable. Yes, his ultimate is great for closing gaps, but it's extremely easy to dodge at medium to far ranges. Adding more damage to his shield brings back some aspects of the old Sion.

Scenario 3: Change nothing about his stats and make Decimating Smash uninterruptible by many other champion abilities. Certain abilities should stop Sion from casting Decimating Smash altogether (poppy ulti, Gnar ulti, ect.). Other abilities should not cancel decimating smash altogether; it should force Sion to cast it earlier or stall it's cast time (Bard ulti, Zillean double bomb, ect.)

Scenario 4: Change Decimating smash to if the spell is canceled early by an opponent, the cooldown for recast is lower & the cast speed is slightly increased.

Hope this feedback helps you in making Sion more competitive again.

22 Comments

MasterSomething3 votes

Option 3 seems the only one that wouldn't break him, and even then it's pretty damn overpowered. Sion IS a threat late game. He is a giant juggernaut meatshield that's going to break your face if you let him.

Veraska3 votes

I think the issue is your seeing sion as a juggernaut when he's very much a tank, a tank with high potential damage yes, but a tank nonetheless, the high damage on his Q and W are only high because of the difficulty of using them.

Sion is my favorite tank and I wouldn't want him to be changed. I don't play him top that much simply because tanks aren't very good up there right now.

Q isn't about the damage or even the CC it provides I feel, I think it's more about the zoning potential and aggro it draws (cc wasted on you is cc not used on your carries) sane goes for his W, their payoffs are insane if you land em and that's why they're on such long delays.

And in truth sion has the potential to lock down people for a really long time, R-Q combo is really devestating and an aoe so having him be a good duelist feels like a little to much of course in his champion spotlight they said he was a lane Bully so that might be just my opinion

BaginaBoy1 votes

You definitely bring up some great points here. If he is considered solely a tank and not a juggernaut, I personally think he doesn't compare to other tanks in the game. Once Sion's Ultimate is on cooldown, he doesn't offer much other than being strictly a meatshield. Other tanks, such as Alistar and Naut, have much more in their kit for disengage/re-engage, which I believe is one of the most important aspects of a tank. Once Sion enters a fight, he has no choice but to either die or win the fight entirely.

Ralanr3 votes

His Q and E are CC tools. Just because you have problems hitting them (if you don't then why are you complaining on not being useful in a fight?) doesn't mean they don't exist.

BaginaBoy1 votes

Sion is obviously useful in a fight. Every champion can be "useful" even if they are known to be under powered. Sion is relatively easy to use in a team fight. The problem is that is tools are not that great. Why rely on Sion and his kit when you can use many other tanks in the game, which have better CC tools.

Ralanr2 votes

Because I like Sion in comparison to a lot of other tanks.

Veraska1 votes

Very true all though I don't think tanks in general have easy way outs, nautilus hooks in, walks out, Alistair combos in walks out, etc. If you mean your team fights and then walks out and then tries to reingage there's some merrit, tanks like malphite suffer from a similar problem he's all about the in and not so much the out.

I think son's Q does a good job of being a disengage tool personally it's a massive aoe stun with a clear zone of threat if the enemy is chasing you through a choke point it's a good deterent, not as good as other tanks but not bad.

Also yea once sion in he has a hard time getting out unless, I think that's why he has the passive he has, to give him something to after his inevitable death

Olath Quortek3 votes

Ehh... I disagree completely. He doesn't need a buff right now. He is not a Juggernaut, he is a Tank. He doesn't do Juggernaut levels of damage because he brings a monstrous amount of CC to a fight when he lands his abilities. He is good at tanking and has very good zone control.

His stats are fine the way they are; he shouldn't be more of a threat in a duel.

I really don't think Sion needs any more mobility than what he has with his ult and passive. He especially doesn't need MS on his W as his Q and E bring enough CC to help him maneuver around the targets that he hits. It doesn't need to be bigger because it scales indefinitely and it doesn't need to deal more damage because base+ap+14% of their maximum health to each enemy is some ridiculous damage for one shield... And he doesn't need to be less kitable because being kitable is a weakness he needs to be balanced...

Two things... First: That would be annoying and broken because you're essentially removing a pile of counterplay options. Second: Why would we want to take away a reason to get focused? If CC can't knock me out of my Q then why are people CCing me instead of my carry? It's called aggro for a reason... because there's a reason to have aggro... XD Not to mention sometimes it's actually a good thing to get knocked out of Q so that you can redirect it...

And last but not least Sion's Q already goes on a 2 second cooldown when he gets interrupted... I certainly don't think it should be longer but any shorter and once again your taking away reasons to hold aggro and be focused... Same deal for changing it's charge speed...

All of that is to say that he doesn't need a buff. He is debatably the healthiest champion in the game as far as Strength vs. Weakness or Power vs. Counterplay goes. He is hard to play but very rewarding when played well.

Ralanr2 votes

Option 3 is the only one I'm ok with.

Baintha Brakk1 votes

Gotta agree, Sion's dueling potential is extremely low because he is easy to kite. Having to stop while using Q is ridiculous. It should be like Varus or Xerath's charge up skills where they can move but are slowed while charging. His damage is too low for split-pushing.

The passive on W is not that powerful anymore with all the % hp weapons and passives out there. Ever try to fight a competent Tahm Kench as Sion? It isn't pretty. Fed Vayne? Forget about surviving more than a few seconds.

MasterSomething1 votes

item 3748 He can now splitpush.

Both Tahm and Vayne counter Sion...

BaginaBoy1 votes

Yes, but who does Sion counter? No one.

MasterSomething1 votes

He counters idiots. End of counter picks.

Ralanr3 votes

Apparently he counters Illaoi if Champion.GG is anything to go by.

He doesn't need to counter anyone in my experience. He just needs people to follow up his plays.

MasterSomething1 votes

A champion doesn't need to counter anyone despite contrary belief. A champion just needs to be well designed with clear points of counterplay. The clearer the counterplay, the easier it is to nerf it.

And before someone tries to bring Fiora into this, it's her tank build that's the problem, not her.

Anags1 votes

Sion does okay in lane and is good in team fights. He does require a team to follow up. If you want to carry from top lane just play quinn. Tanks will always need follow up.

Lańce1 votes

sion needs set up

veigar baby cage, bard ult, that type of stuff to set up his ult.

EcchiOtakuTM1 votes

They just gotta make him immune to CC while charging up Q, that's it and boom sion will be good.

Paroe1 votes

Sion buffs: give him his pre-rework base stat for HP get rid of the Q damage reduction on minions and monsters.

BaginaBoy1 votes

I'm not sure what his base stats pre-rework were. But the second part about Q damage is a great idea.

Paroe1 votes

{quoted}

I'm not sure what his base stats pre-rework were. But the second part about Q damage is a great idea.

he lost 500 base HP or so in the rework.

Dominick Destine1 votes

Sion is pure garbage and absolutely does need a buff.

Inb4 people claim he is "so good". Play Sion in Plat or higher, you will get destroyed by players that will laugh at your entirely/heavily conditional abilities while they use their reliable damage on your slow ass.

I would be fine if they buffed his atrocious ultimate and slightly buffed his passive.

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