sion max q or e?

I'd figure q since it scales with your ad, and e I think only off ap.

But if you find you just aren't landing Q's on a mobile champ in your lane, might not be a bad idea to try w or e instead. I'd recommend w.

Q. I max Q even on Doran's Ring start with E at lvl 1.

E for easy farm and safe harass

Q>W>E. The mana cost on E just gets absurd when you actually start putting points into it; you're better off just letting it deal small poke damage in lane and shredding armor in team fights.

After e nerfs its been q. Bit w is viable on a passive farm lane

Statistically, E max has the highest winrate in high elo. It might not be the best in every scenario, but I found that it's a pretty safe choice.

sion max q or e?

Q has a shorter cooldown, lower mana cost, higher damage, and a larger AoE. If nothing else, it's great for CSing for that max HP so you don't end the game with the same HP as Sona.

That said: Q is pretty heavily telegraphed and makes you really easy to counterbuild in lane, which is a pretty big concern in top-lane seeing as that's the bulkiest lane within the current meta with the best access to counterbuilding. If your lane opponent is exploiting your telegraphs and coming out with good trades on the back of using Q and going straight into heavy armor, you might want W or E for greater responsiveness and better mixed damage.

If you have the upper hand in lane Q is a great option, but if you're opponent has strong control of the lane you probably want to switch priorities to W or E instead.

Q if you actually want a chance to kill your enemy laner.

E is actually the worst right now. (W would be better in almost every way for both wave clear and brawling) the thing about E is that it scales up, and what scales up just isn't damage anymore, making it just a shred tool and its not that important early on.

I used to max W for more durability, but I max Q first now since the mana cost is a flat 45 at all levels and is great for farming and zoning. E is fine if you can hit your enemy reliably, otherwise it is a waste of mana.