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Sion's Nerf >>> Was it the right approach!?

MujinTengu·4/23/2018, 11:43:29 AM·1 votes·1,397 views

A bit before the start of the new patch notes came out (8.8), there was a lookup, by the devs, about a possible Sion's nerf coming. Well, it came alright, but in what way....lets look at what they did:

**Decimating Smash (Q) ** minimum damage increased from 20/40/60/80/100 to 30/48/65/83/100 minimum damage AD ratio changed from 65% at all ranks to 45/50/55/60/65% maximum damage increased from 60/120/180/240/300 to 90/143/195/248/300 maximum damage AD ratio changed from 195% at all ranks to 135/150/165/180/195%

A- Q damage nerf at early levels, that is most noticed on AD builds. Now, the question is....what exactly were Riot thinking? Does it do something to support the Champion or the game....no it is not.

Instead of making him more impactfull, they go with something I don't understand what is doing to his current state, does it weaken him a bit at early levels? yes, it does. though it changes nothing....and Sion is in a need for a change or some tweaks.

Here is an example, a nerf to his safe playstyle with a buff to successful Q landing :

EXPLAINATION: Empowering Sion's Q impact massively when charged up for more than 1s while increasing its cooldown and reducing its damage when released quickly. Making E more of a follow up ability rather then a damaging and super safe ability like it is now. Making his Passive useful even late game without increasing his stickiness, while reducing its supreme damage early on. Reducing his AD early and increasing it a bit late game. Overall Sion becomes less safe at lane, and less powerful at early levels, but has a very strong late game and a good mid game al the while need an understanding of when is the right time to use his Q, and getting rewarded for successfull hits.

Stats:

AD reduced to 59.25 from 68 AD per level increased to 4.75 from 4 Health per level changed to +90 from +73 Movement Speed reduced to 340

**Glory in Death (Passive) ** Percent damage changed to 5/10/20% (at levels 1/9/17) physical damage of targets Maximum Health from 10% at all levels

**Decimating Smash (Q) ** Cooldown changed from 10/9/8/7/6 to 16/15.5/15/14.5/14s. Cost changed to 45/50/55/60/65 Stun changed from 1.25s - 2.25s to 1.5s - 3s Maximum Damage increased from 60/120/180/240/300 to 100/200/300/400/500 Minimum Damage AD ratio decreased from 65% to 50% Maximum Damage AD ratio changed from 195% to 190/205/220/235/250% (NEW) Sion refund 60% of Decimating Smash's Cooldown whenever he stun at least 3 enemy champions with one of his abilities.

Roar of the Slayer (E) knock-back range changed from 775 to 425/550/625/70/775 Cooldown changed to 10/9/8/7/6s at all ranks. Cost changed to 30 mana at all ranks. Damage decreased from 70/105/140/175/210 to 50/70/90/110/130 (REMOVED) Minion bonus damage removed. (NEW) Enemy champions hit are marked for 4s, Healing Sion for 3/6/9/12/15% of his missing health whenever he stuns a marked champion with one of his abilities.

**Unstoppavble Onslaught (R) ** (NEW) cannot be reduced below 1 hp while charging.

9 Comments

doubleguac4/23/2018, 1:35:50 PM2 votes

I think it was a pretty smart nerf. Riot has said they're fine with E maxing, but they want Sion to make a real trade-off by doing so. I think the nerf pretty much accomplishes that.

Increasing the Q cooldown is a horrible idea IMO. The ability is insanely easy to dodge and cancel. It has a huge amount of counterplay already. It is gated by it's incredibly telegraphed nature; it doesn't need to be additionally gated by cooldown.

Dysnomia4/23/2018, 12:02:45 PM1 votes

They nerfed his Q while leaving all E bugs still ingame, nerfing him some more. GGWP

0 Hogapu4/23/2018, 1:23:56 PM1 votes

I like the E change, nerfing his poke but giving him some sustain. I'm for it However the R one would be just BS to face imo.

Kaioko4/23/2018, 3:21:32 PM1 votes

It was actually the perfect change that was needed the goal isn't so much so to weaken him in his early levels but rather to make him trade off between maxing E or maxing Q first.

Also your post is a bit off -- the Q ratio is calculated off of his total AD not his bonus AD. A Sion at level 9 for example with just natural AD has 95 AD -- the difference between 135% and 195% full charge is actually around 60 damage which further get compounded with any AD he builds on top of that should he choose to.

Jbels4/23/2018, 7:19:39 PM1 votes

How can you main Sion and not realize what this does to him? The AD ratio is based on total AD. By nerfing that scaling early, he doesn't get as much damage out of his Q as he used to. This means that he can't bully as hard when he goes E max. By the time you actually start putting points into Q again, you've built up quite a bit of base AD (which counts towards the total AD ratio). Sion doesn't need to buy AD to benefit from his AD ratios.