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Sion: The New Darius

Killzerz··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

Gunpoint5 votes

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

BastionKross4 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.

Gunpoint1 votes

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.

Singed.

The Storm Dragon3 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.

iamthegoatofwar1 votes

I think you just need to hope you team helps you more in locking someone down for the beat down fest. The new sion is easily countered with smart play but if you get cc'ed by his team he will destroy you instantly.

Killzerz2 votes

Precisely! He has so much power if he is allowed to just wail on the enemies, but if he doesn't (and he rarely is allowed to) he seems pretty useless compared to Jarvan, Kha, Elise, Gragas, Amumu, Rammus, Rengar as they have play making abilities.

iamthegoatofwar1 votes

Risk rewards mate. It comes down to "how good is our morg at landing her snare?"

BastionKross4 votes

It comes down to "can I count on my team to provide CC for me?". In soloq, the answer is almost always "no".

Kuroi862 votes

Sounds like a similar play style to Taric top, or Nasus.

Who do I CC? The squishy carry that can kill me? Or the tank that can kill me?

Voidgolem2 votes

step 1: 40% CDR

Step 2: Tank

Step 3: VICTORY.

Sire Hippington2 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.

Killzerz1 votes

Darius doesn't scale with your skill; he scales with how badly your opponents skill is. Same with new Sion. :)

Sire Hippington1 votes

thats somewhat true for all bruisers and offtanks, and ultimatly to some extend for all champions. The difference is that sion really needs dumb enemys to work, a good Darius can punish already small mistakes rather hard

Blade of Justic2 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.

chumbler1 votes

He already had counterplay. Just not the type Riot is smart enough to understand. This rework wasn't done with the intent to make him a viable champion. Either that or they were too incompetent to do it. Hell, I doubt they even intended to make him better. Sion isn't one of their pet champions, so who gives a shit?

Troll for Trump1 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.

The Storm Dragon7 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.

Even if Sion is in the bush, you can still see his Q indicator.

Hawkefire1 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.

Even if Sion is in the bush, you can still see his Q indicator.

Didn't they fix that?

Gunpoint1 votes

Yes

Killzerz2 votes

Great points! I'll try to discuss my views on this subject:

  1. Although using Q in bush is appealing, this seems very niche. When I gank, most people in my games do not wander THAT close to bushes in lane unless they are warded. Not only do I think this opportunity would be extremely rare, but its compounded by the fact his ult does not reward this type of play! When ulting, you pretty much have to use it in lane or going up and down the river, not in the think of the jungle with lots of bushes! And believe me, I tried using it point blank. Even a 1 second channel makes it impossible to use against a smart opponent.

  2. W does increase clear time: I love that! But outside of PvE it struggles. It's range is decent, but in most cases you will either use it for damage or shielding in a teamfight so there are a lot of cases where you aren't quite sure what the best option is. Usually just a shield as and AoE damage will ruin it. Permanent HP sounds amazing! Too bad Riot made his HP scaling per level one of the lowest in the game even among squishy casters/ADCs so it takes about 200 minions before it levels out...

  3. I agree that his E is strong. I just feel it's too hard to hit on priority targets but it is IMO the strongest of his abilities and possibly the coolest (YOU GET A MINION TO TE FACE! AND YOU GET A MINION TO THE FACE! EVERYONE GETS A MINION TO THE FACE!)

  4. Escapes ruin EQ combo. :/ Unless they are a tank. Then they just don't care you hit them with the combo (unless you team has snowballed so hard they can facemelt them in 2 seconds).

  5. Ult can only be used in lanes and the river. Ult is easily dodged. Ult is telegraphed with his roar signalling, "Just hop in the jungle/behind a tower and I can't follow." Or point blank where it seems most effective for a decent stun, which seems to go against the running mechanics of this ability.

I'm not trying to start a flame war, but these are my opinions after having played him and seeing (good) opponents reactions. 5)

Arch Mage Magnus1 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.

Killzerz1 votes

I can compare the impact of their jungle to his though. Do I have a better chance to win if I pick him or another character?

Kha is actually a fantastic ganker and very good at securing picks. For teamfighting, I would argue with an evolved W he actually enable his team to set up an initiation. And who doesn't need SOME level of teamwork to work?

Gragas does need good timing! This is where his skill comes in! And he doesn't JUST need to get your opponents off your teammates; he can also secure picks, siege, gank pre-6, gank god post-6, scatter teams, disengage, and much, much more!

If a characters ability is only good vs. monsters/minions, it needs to be looked at and possibly changed (Nunu's Q is godly at stealing camps, securing objectives, and sustain so it passes). And if its only good with your ult...well its only good every 140 seconds 6-10 right?

Shield is useful for camps, check. And people like Lee Sin, Elise, and Kha can probably easily counterjungle HIM or kill him if he tries to duel. Gragas just high tails it; good luck killing him.

Scales well? I would argue differently, but this also would mean that you actually reached endgame. Because he is so easy to snowball against, I personally doubt that is possible.

Again, these are just my opinions! I don't want to be rude, I just want to point out what I'm seeing! :)

PaladinNeph2 votes

I hate this mentality. you can compare any champion to any other champion, and by playing matches, you will.

suppose you're a jungler in yolo queue, and you recognize the other jungler as one that literally only plays kha'zix. suppose you get first pick, your team is giving you no intel, and trading's not gonna happen. would you pick sion?

if so, why?

if not, why do you think sion isn't weaker?

because, you see, this example cloaks a deeper question: kha or sion- which choice would be more likely to earn my team a win?

games are won and lost in champ select based on that question, and by ignoring it- insisting that it can't be answered, you're taking a huge amount of depth out of the game and handing the advantages you should be fighting for over to your opponents.

Gunpoint1 votes

Yeah but who honestly plays yolo queue.

MakersF1 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

Xocolatl1 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.

UnicornPurple1 votes

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

AHeroNamedHawke6 votes

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

That was his pre rework win rate

He dropped to 42% in diamond

Sire Hippington2 votes

going with lolking, he has a below 50% winrate in every elo, beeing at ~47% in bronze and going lower the higher the elo gets till it reaches ~38% in challager...

TwoD1 votes

Couldn't disagree more.

Valaran Nara1 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.

Centuros1 votes

They can still go sideways once they see you, though.

But hopefully it will be enough of a surprise that they won't see you on the minimap until too late...

Centuros1 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.

rtbf2112795181 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.

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