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Sion: The New Darius

Killzerz·10/12/2014, 6:19:26 AM·12 votes·2,609 views

Overview: Maybe I'm bad and I should feel bad, but I feel that Sion is very weak right now. I'm a jungler that loves to play Kha'Zix and Gragas jungle, and after having fantastic success with these two (who play very differently) it seems that Sion is really, REALLY weak. I recently tried him and there was a general feeling I was having: Sion's strengths don't get better the more skill you have, but get better with the less skill the opponent has.

Contrast: I am contrasting him with both Kha'Zix and Gragas because they are FANTASTIC playmakers that get way better with skill. Kha can assassinate and Gragas can...well, do a lot of things (pick, siege, protect, initiate, disengage, flexible build path).

Issues: Sion has a couple issues that hinder him: Q is very hard to land even if you charge for only a second (good luck against escapes!), shield is useless for damage and the tankiness doesn't matter because the rest of his kit is pretty terrible (elaborated below), E does fairly low damage and hard to get off on high-priority targets, R is easy to dodge (escapes make me a sad panda), and his passive is easily kiteable but eats up a lot of power budget because he murders things IF HE CAN ACTUALLY GET TO THEM.

Easily Telegraphed: The biggest problem is he is completely telegraphed. A lot of power in his kit is in both his Q, ultimate, and passive. Q is VERY hard to hit, even if you only charge for a second and it feels really negligible before that. His ultimate not only lets out a roar that signals he is initiating, but ultimately is extremely hard to land especially against escapes. Literally the only time it felt good to use was when you are in the middle of a teamfights and want to stun people around you. In other words, if the opponent is too stupid to move out of the way of his Q or somehow cannot dodge his ult OR just sits around and lets you auto them in your passive then you win. If they actually know how to use escapes or walk sideways, they win.

Tl;dr- He is too telegraphed, which means if the opponents are not skilled you hit them and do incredible amounts of damage, or they are skilled and use their escapes/sidestep you and win easily. In this sense, Sion doesn't really get better the more skill you have but the less skill the opponents have.

If you can, please prove me wrong: I love PvE with him but PvP feels clunky and unrewarding (but he could be so much fun...).

34 Comments

Gunpoint10/12/2014, 5:51:52 PM5 votes

If you miss his Q, theres 2 seconds of channeling wasted, you did absolutely nothing.

BastionKross10/12/2014, 2:44:20 PM4 votes

He's got too much counterplay built into his kit. Q is telegraphed like a mofo. His passive is shut down completely with just about any movement impairing CC and/or good, old fashioned kiting. His ult makes a global sound so you know it's coming and can be juked easily since you're expecting it and Sion can't turn on a dime like a Rammus.

If you get your rear beat by a Sion it's not the skill of the Sion, it's you playing badly. And you should never have a champion that relies on his opponent's bad play to come out on top.

The Storm Dragon10/12/2014, 6:30:04 AM3 votes

You can look at my match history, I get crazy fed basically every game I play Sion.

The problem is that, as you said, everything Sion does is slow and telegraphed. He can't carry, because he has too much counterplay baked into his kit.

I recognize the need for counterplay to make the game feel satisfying to play, but they went too far with it on Sion.

Blade of Justic10/12/2014, 9:13:20 PM2 votes

That's all the rework did.

It put counterplay in his kit.

They just cleverly cloaked this objective in a flashy new champ so that they could get more of the community on their side.

Sion was so much more powerful in his previous form than he is now. Especially if you build him crit and attack speed.

Voidgolem10/12/2014, 2:00:32 PM2 votes

step 1: 40% CDR

Step 2: Tank

Step 3: VICTORY.

Sire Hippington10/12/2014, 2:20:18 PM2 votes

while i agree on Sion, i somehow fail to see how that is conected to Darius.... anyway, i think sion is just to hit and miss in every aspect off his kit.

Passive has massive damage potential....but u rarly will be able to even a single time with it Q has good damage and massive cc.....but vs not disconected enemys, it'S highly unlikly to land a fullcharged Q W can give lote of health, give a huge shield and good aoe nuke.....but thx to low base health and low base shield, u are extremly squishy if u fall behind and drop in farm, and if the shield is weak it will mostly get popped brfor u can explode it for the damage. E: actually the only fine part off his kit, but the 'minion-kick' somewhat lacks impact later on R: massive basedamage and cc....but hard to land, impossible to use within the jungle(and sion is meant to be a jungler) and therefor seldome ususes the potential.

I'm not sure what to do with the passive, i just don'T like it at all... Q: He should be able to move with 10%ms while chargeing, this would alow him to reaim duering the prgress so ine can't easyly sidestep the Q. the max-charge cc should go down from 2.25 to 1.75sec, but the ad-ratio up from 1.8 to 2ad. and a instan cast should have a 1.0 ad-ratio, so it atleast hits as hard as an AA W: more basehealth, bit more shield/rank, less hp/lasthit(1.5/6 instead of 2/8 for exapmle), and it would be nice if the W deals atleast halve damage then the shield gets popped. R: either don'T sop on terain, or improve the maneuverability off it, but therefor reduce the dmage a bit.

TL;DR: nearly all off his kite hits to hard if it works, but is also to easy to outplay.

Valaran Nara10/12/2014, 3:00:11 PM1 votes

So, am I the only one who goes into the enemy jungle to walk around their turrets to ult? Nobody, and I mean NOBODY expects a Sion ult from THEIR TURRET! Unless the person has really good map awareness, they'll look at the MM and focus on my team's side of the jungle instead of theirs.

Centuros10/13/2014, 12:55:10 AM1 votes

Not only is his Q rather visible, but every time he activates an ability (besides his passive? I've only played 2 bot games, and only died once, but I don't remember there being an announcement that I had revived) he shouts "HEY EVERYONE, I'M DOING SOMETHING, SO WATCH OUT!"

Seriously, he's too noisy. Can you imagine if every champion was like this? Teamfights would be an even more confusing clusterfuck.

Troll for Trump10/12/2014, 6:24:32 AM1 votes

Not really...His q is not difficult to hit if you are in bush, and if you arent pointblank or in a bush while ganking utilizing it... well, that is your own fault. His W increases clear time, gives technical permanent hp, and has large range. Never underestimate a 60%slow with armor shred. Most Sion's never get Last Whisper (Black Cleaver more common), so the armor is great. THe slow can go with his q. His ult is somewhat fine, and takes skill to use to its max potential.

rtbf21127951810/13/2014, 3:08:22 AM1 votes

I don't really know, I like Sion's Kit, but you are right about him being too telegraphed. Everything he does, except E, can be seen, and it's not the greatest. And, if you do have to rely on the enemy team doing badly to win, it doesn't make for a very skilled champion.

Arch Mage Magnus10/12/2014, 6:32:49 AM1 votes

You are using him wrong. You cannot compare him to Gragas and Kha jungle. Kha generally needs very good teamwork to land his burst. Gragas needs good timing as well and and is good at getting enemies off of your team mates. As for Sion Q is only good at clearing camps, the only other time it is going to be useful is if you manage to land your ult. If you time your Q right they should not be able to escape. This lets you follow up with E which should kill your opponent if your team mate is helping.

His shield is also used for clearing camps. His E is something you might want to level up if you want successful ganks. The only other option is to play him like WW and depend on your ult to do ganks. Also he is good for counter ganking. Not many junglers will want to one on one him. You can also hide in a bush, start you Q and wait for them to get nailed (rare but possible). Even if you die in a one on one jungle fight, usually you will kill your opponent with passive, or in the very least take the buff from them if that's what you were fighting over.

Regardless he is a group battle character at the end of the game that scales quite good.

MakersF10/12/2014, 9:35:45 AM1 votes

A single slow destroy Sion. I actually like the new kit, but I agree that in team fights it's hard to actually channel the Q, especially because it is so visible. And once you die, a single slow make you completely useless. Making him immune to slows would give a big boost of power, but only in "bad" situations (you just lost a team fight, so you are trying to bring as many people down with you).

I don't see him as a great jungler (haven't tried him in the jungle yet), but I guess that when he wants to gank he just goes at 2° turret and starts the ulti

Xocolatl10/12/2014, 10:39:12 AM1 votes

It feels like with new Sion, people are focusing too much on his low base HP and trying to bulk him up and exploiting his base combo too much. I think he ought to be built with a pure focus on damage, etc. And just leave the defensive stat to farming. If you start getting a lot of AP or AD, you can clear a wave safely in no time flat. The problem then becomes that he needs a LOT of farming to become a monster--like Veigar or Nasus. That makes him terribly boring during early game.

UnicornPurple10/12/2014, 11:12:12 AM1 votes

55.5% win rate at GOLD ELO or higher tells me he is fine.

TwoD10/12/2014, 11:50:10 AM1 votes

Couldn't disagree more.