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Sion: How to Update a Champion Properly

AbiwonKenabi·4/2/2017, 9:44:30 PM·18 votes·3,522 views

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_qf3yyc7N_I/maxresdefault.jpg

Or, as I'm calling it "Sion: How to Update a Champion and Keep the Key Components of the Champion While Also Expanding Upon Them". But that's not nearly as catchy.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a post about how I think Galio's update failed as a proper update of the Champion Galio. To summarize my points briefly: New Galio does not retain enough of the key elements of Old Galio's character. Things like his serious yet determined nature, his strong connection to Durand, and his role as a more melancholic take on a Demacian are not present any longer, making him feel like another character entirely.

The post was not a call to change current Galio (as I know that is very unlikely) but to try and analyze what kind of changes are appropriate for these types of updates. Lots of change is expected, but Riot must also remember to retain some of the key elements of the original character that can still work for an up-to-date version of League of Legends. Now, this is all fairly subjective, but I write this to try and provide constructive criticism and improve future VGUs. And I want to open this up to civil discussion as well.

Without further ado, here is how to do a proper Champion Update: featuring Sion Sion, the Undead Juggernaut.

http://st.elohell.net/public/chill/0169441dde41422b778e13f207e30d01.jpg

Gameplay

I am no expert on gameplay, being a lowly Gold player, and I intend to focus more on theme and lore. I will briefly touch upon this and move on.

Old Sion was a bit of a mess. Half his kit was only effective if you built AP, the other if you built AD. His early game was difficult and if he got to late game, he was broken. My memory is fuzzy, but I distinctly remember AP Sion walking up to stun range, stunning for half your health and popping his shield for the other half. His E allowed his health to scale infinitely and was just otherwise an uninteresting Aatrox-esque skill and broken. Probably no other Champion needed a gameplay update as badly as old Sion. Add a "randomly reduces damage" passive and a mega steroid ult, and Old Sion was a Champion that was very annoying when strong, incredibly boring and frustrating to play when weak.

New Sion changed basically everything. He kept his exploding shield, his Q is still a CC but much more skill-based and his E helped out his laning phase. Old passive was dropped in favor of more thematic undead passive and the awesome new Ult just screamed "Undead Juggernaut". He still retained his health scaling passive on his W but because of the shift in the rest of his kit to be more utility and tank oriented, it made more sense and he didn't have an ability that ate up his massive health pool for tons of damage. Overall, I think thematically Sion's new kit knocked it out of the park, and keeping the iconic "CC then shield pop" play pattern went a long way towards a healthier but still fun Sion update.

Lore

Old Sion was an ancient Noxian hero who would wade through battles, practically unstoppable. He was pivotal in many famous battles, and, true to the Noxian way, fell in battle honorably. They revived his body using necromantic magics, which in Noxus is a high honor. Only the strongest, most respected warriors are given undeath, as it allows you the glory of being able to battle forever.

I'm happy to say that New Sion retains these basic elements I spelled out above. He is still a war hero of ancient Noxus, he even killed Jarvan I himself. He would wade into battle, and nothing could stop him. He fell in battle honorably. Grand General of Noxus, Boram Darkwill (who I'm glad to see still exists, Swain still gets his awesome rise to power storyline) built a memorial to him. Later, Darkwill decides to call upon the shadier side of Noxus Leblanc (The Black Rose) to revive him using necromancy. While it is successful in bringing Sion back to life, his undeath turns him into a relentless creature thirsting for battle, barely hanging on to his humanity. While Darkwill deploys Sion in many battles to some success, even his men and Darkwill himself come to fear what Sion has become: little more than an enraged beast. Darkwill seals Sion in his tomb, never to use him again. Sion stays there, fighting with his madness until Swain, the new Grand General, releases Sion to make use of him, as Darkwill once did. Sometimes Sion has moments of clarity, but quickly regresses back to his aggressive state, only able to vaguely follow the orders of his Grand General.

All of Sion's key points in his original story has some form here in his new lore. We did lose a subplot involving Katarina infiltrating Demacia to recover Sion's remains, but in exchange Sion has a closer connection to two Grand Generals, the Black Rose, and even several kings of Demacia. Riot kept the basics--the stuff that still had potential--and expanded upon them. I will say that the shift in necromancy being feared instead of commonly accepted form of magic like it was originally takes a little bit away from Noxus as a whole, but in exchange we get a deeper, psychological character out of Sion.

Compare this to Galio, where many of his distinct lore points were abandoned in favor of developing Demacia as a whole; instead of retaining Galio's character, they built upon Demacia's character. I find this focus on the greater good for this update rather ironic considering Demacian values, but I much prefer the approach to Sion's lore update: sacrificing some Noxus societal characterization to create a much better character. Call me a Noxian individualist I guess.

Personality

While I would normally abhor any large departure from a Champion's original personality via an update, I find myself being a bit hypocritical here as I praise that exact decision with Sion. But I really do think Sion is the perfect example of where this needs to be done.

Old Sion was little more than one big Arnold Schwarzenegger joke. As much as we all like Ah-nold and as much as I'm sure Old Sion's personality had fans, this had to change in order to have an actual character. Old Sion had no personality, he was just a joke. New Sion has a personality, he's an actual character. Save the jokes for /j (which I'm surprised they didn't end up referencing, missed opportunity there). There's nothing wrong with a joking character, but they need to be a character as well.

When he was alive, New Sion was an exemplar Noxian soldier. The Darius of his time, if you will. The necromatic magics that brought him back to life drive him to madness, and we have this broken man who wants to be that soldier he once was. In wanting this, he becomes a crazed killer, wanting nothing more than to see the next battle, kill the next Jarvan. It's what he wanted, but not quite how he wanted it, and every once in a while he realizes that, realizes Swain is not his Grand General. These flashes of humanity make Sion so much more than just a quote spouting machine. He's a character, with a history that influences his personality. This is something that was missing before: his personality made no sense, it had no basis on his history of being a Noxian soldier or being undead. And further, this brings him more in-line with other undead Champions like Kalista or Urgot: in undeath, you often lose something of yourself.

While I would say Riot should keep some elements of the Champion's personality in the course of a VGU, this is one of the cases where I think it was absolutely necessary and overall makes for a better character. This should be an exception though, but a notable one nonetheless

Visual Design

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jsUCUwBGcmg/VDZXjYYHNYI/AAAAAAAAajY/npAOTl9A1GU/s1600/oldvnew.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qA2Xx3Y.jpg

Sion's original design was by no means completely bad, but it was messy and unfocused. They obviously had a lot of cool elements they wanted to add that needed polish. He had pieces of armor that gave him a sort of barbaric look and a huge axe. In his updated appearance, Sion retains his axe, some of the details cleaned up to make it less messy, and the pieces of armor have been redesigned to line up more with other Noxian Champions like Katarina or Darius, who would of course have similar armor being part of the same army. In a brilliant design move, the arrows that jutted from Sion's shoulders--cluttering his appearance even more--was replaced with a dagger in his head where, in life, he had a ponytail. Add to that details like J1's crown in his jaw, some of his flesh being bolted back together, and you get an effective undead Noxian design. Gone are the green colors (which in-game looked more blue anyways) but instead we get this pale skin color contrasting with the black and red of his armor. The belly furnace was kind of a weird choice--I didn't need a source for his shield, I just sort of accepted that he had one--but the colors fit together great so it's not too distracting. They took away a lot of the clutter of his design but in exchange added cleaner, story-related details and lined up his color scheme with the rest of Noxus. Overall, very cool and really pushes the theme of the Undead Juggernaut.

Conclusion

Sion was the very first full VGU and I think he was executed very well. Riot took the core elements of Sion and threw all their resources into making those elements as cool and obvious as possible. Everything from design to personality to kit work together to execute a character that fits the description "Noxian War Hero turned crazed Undead Juggernaut". While these are some HUGE changes (much like the Galio update), the very basics of what made him "Sion" remain, and we get to see his originally intended fantasy fully realized. Which is a very good feeling.

I'll leave this with a quote by Riot Entropy from the Sion Design Insights Dev Blog that I think is the perfect mindset for these VGUs:

> Whenever we update a champion we begin by taking everything we know about them and paring down all that information until we identify the essential elements, the immutable traits that are so core to the champion that changing them might very well turn them into an entirely different character. It might have been easy to write off old Sion entirely and start from scratch, but at the end of the day the core concept of 'hulking undead warrior' has always been a solid foundation.

Remember this Riot.

Thanks for reading, and if you have something to add, feel free to discuss.

34 Comments

Extrasolar4/3/2017, 3:18:58 AM9 votes

I think what made the Sion rework particularly well-received was the fact that old Sion, well, didn't have much of a personality or presence. As you point out in the OP, he was a walking, undead Arnold Schwarzenegger joke. He felt more like meme or an inside joke than an actual character living and breathing (uh, figuratively speaking) in Runeterra. He didn't really fit into the world as a whole, never really did much past his own lore, and never really had much development. The most unique thing and recognizable thing about him was a bunch of references to action movies that didn't even exist in-universe.

There really wasn't much that old Sion that people could really object to if it was changed. Other than the fact that he's no longer a parody...and with the current direction of Runeterra and the lore (making everything more serious, focusing more on character and narrative for the champions as a whole), that simply would no longer work.

New Sion not only fits into the world, but has an actual role in the narrative itself, and as you pointed out, has characterization and development.

Reworks like Galio's are more controversial because old Galio had a defined character - somber, melancholy atoner whose greatest failure continued to haunt him. The update got rid of what most people recognized and attributed to Galio, and made him more upbeat and silly. They see it as a clash of the champion they always knew, whereas new Sion is the equivalent of a new and improved model of the same thing rather than a completely different character.

Warlord Dienekes4/3/2017, 3:38:39 AM4 votes

Yeah, I as well have been a bit critical of some of the updated champions, some design decisions really rubbing me the wrong way. But, I also look to Sion as a very well done update.

EvilUnicornLord4/3/2017, 12:49:56 AM3 votes

I was originally thinking this was a post whining about how they missed old Sion.

I was pleasantly surprised.

GreenLore4/3/2017, 10:02:02 AM3 votes

In general I think it is easy to say that Sion is such a good update,simply because his previous character was so extremely bland.

I mean you say that he kept all his core points,but I disagree about that.Old Sion was revived to honor him,wheras new Sions resurrection is seen as something horrible and disgraceful.

Sure new sion is also a war hero who was turned into a hulking undead warrior,but in the same way you could say that Galio kept just as much,as he is still an animated,gargoyle-like statue that protects Demacia.

Overall I think the biggest reason why the Galio update was so divisive is mostly because his character gives you a different feeling than the one he gave before. Warwicks lore was completely turned on its head when he was updated as his original lore painted him as a monster(even before he became a beast) that relishes his curse,wheras the new one is a former criminal who wanted to reform and was then turned into a werewolf against his will. But barely anyone complained about this change,because Warwick still felt pretty similar and honestly I doubt that many cared about his old character anyway.

Cubíx4/4/2017, 5:48:39 PM2 votes

I think what you wrote really hit the nail on the head. Sion's new design was quite on-point and held onto what makes Sion, Sion, while adding a more fleshed out character. I agree that riot missed the mark with Galio, and being one of the first champs I played a lot of really disappointed me. He truly felt like the epitome of "make a new champ and slap an old name on him". Personally I think new Galio is missing his main attributes in being an AP bruiser, more than just a juggernaut, as well as his key features that I appreciated like his old passive, his old ult and, of course, the bulwark. I also feel like his taunt is is now clunkier and too similar to Warwick's fear, as they essentially work the same way.

The other thing that annoys me with Galio is that he was somewhat a balanced champ, I mean statistically, he had en average win rate, though a low play rate, making him seem like a complete rework was overdoing it. Whenever I played him I felt like the main things that need change was his E and passive, in the sense that his old passive would be somewhere else in his kit and a new passive was made. his W and Ult worked well, and his Q could use some tweaking but the main idea could stay. But the full rework was unnecessary, in my opinion.

As for his personality and new design, I'm personally not a fan, I feel like they did a very similar issue that "sonic boom" did with knuckles. Riot turned a wise and like you said "melancholic" guardian into a somewhat dimwitted/naive brute in a sense. it was kind of a shame, and the actually model design is what really got me. I felt like they kinda removed the "gargoyle" from him in replacement for a general superhero look. I like the design of gatekeeper and enchanted Galio, because they stayed more on the path of what Galio was prior. All the champs kept their initial look to an extent: Taric- a fabulous man, Poppy- an armored yordle, and Sion- like you said still an undead warrior, but Galio he just didn't look or feel the same, and that, to me, was a let down.

Lastly I want to go back to what I said relating to his unnecessary full change, IMO. champs like Urgot or even Evelynn, who are on the list obviously, I think were more deserving of a rework because they don't really have a home on the rift, though Galio was very low on the amount of play he still had a good place, he survived well against DoT mages and had a strong teamfight/engage for teams.

OverpoweredSoap4/3/2017, 4:44:54 PM2 votes

"Sion was the very first full VGU and I think he was executed very well."

Karma

TRIGGERED

But anyways, yeah. I think Sion is probably the champion who's benefited the most out of the champion rework pool. His personality is frightening, somber and yet somewhat saddening.

His kit is 10x easier to balance compared to his old one (which is usually the goal of kit reworks) and his ult feels very fun to use and thematically makes a lot of sense.

So, just like you said, Riot built on the somewhat good parts that Old Sion had but also removed the parts that didn't work and made him into his own unique character.

Probably one of my favorite reworks.

Troll for Trump4/3/2017, 1:32:55 AM2 votes

Well...

Sion was supposed to be an undead juggernaut, but he's now a tank.

That's my only beef with him.

He doesn't do as much dmg as he should.

Dryditch4/3/2017, 3:56:46 AM2 votes

As much as I agree that Sion is a phenomenally recreated champion (note: recreated, not reworked), I just can't accept that this is the same champion that made me fall in love with League of Legends.

The Sion that I played from level 4 to level 30, unflinchingly, unquestioningly, was a massive wall of pain and death that built hydra into Zeke's herald and just murdered the shit out of the enemy team. Q's there for keeping your enemies close while you beat their asses. W is a nice little bit of shielding but who actually cares?

E just did more damage... but where Sion shone was his ultimate. Cannibalism was the core of Sion's kit for many players. You strode into a teamfight, surrounded by your squishy, half-as-tall team of Ezreal, Ahri, whoever the hell else was in the game with you, and you pressed R. You smacked the shit out of anyone dumb enough to get close. You ghosted onto anyone dumb enough to run away. Your entire purpose was to be the living embodiment of war...

And your teammates stayed alive because your power on the battlefield was enough to FORCE them to keep fighting. You want to die? Not on my watch. I still have use for you, puny ADC. RECEIVE THESE HEALS... And destroy your enemies for me.

There's no champion in the game that still feels like that. No one that gives that kind of inspirational team fighting power... and again, as good as new Sion is... he's just another tank now, but with a better W and an E that just feels hilarious and awesome to use. I miss my old engine of war... so for me, rework failed.

Baron of Bread4/3/2017, 6:05:59 PM1 votes

Everything outside of the kit was great. Not retaining any of the old playstyles is, however, not OK. That is why I have always considered (and will always consider) the Sion VGU to be, at best, mediocre.

Azteryz4/3/2017, 9:19:05 PM1 votes

if im not mistaken old galio didnt have a personality to begin with

12 lines that were all dull and poorly voiced (minus "a guardian is always prepared")

the only thing about his gameplay that was unique which was his ult and riot's rework brought it but in a basic ability and they even went above and beyond by making his tornado plus bomb combined into his new Q

his visuals make sense he is a statue/gargoyle/colossus in demacia and demacia is known to use white marble hence his colors and texture

his stiff and somewhat clueless personality now makes even more sense -he is a statue that freezes and misses huge gaps of time of course he is gonna have a clueless iron giant surprised demeanor to himself

old galio had nothing much going for him

and to all these people who so called care about galio when only 1% of the playerbase played him and continue to spam on how he was reworked into something entirely different thats incorrect

he was reworked into SOMETHING from nothing in general, if you look at his old playrate+reason for being reworked+new playrate you'll find that im right on that at least

btw i completly agree with your points about sion but galio isn't that far behind when it comes to being that good of a rework imo

Anags4/4/2017, 5:16:17 PM1 votes

Sion is basically a completely different champ especially when the rework first came out and you just spammed e from range to harass your lane opponent all day. He plays nothing like either of his prior builds really. I think he is cool but if you want a rework that is very similar to the original champ then that would be Warwick.

They just made Sion a champ with a completely different playstyle. His auto animation is so slow that you can't play him as an auto attacker at all. I love his crit animation but sadly you never see it unless you are messing around with a suboptimal build. The only thing they really kept was the shield. That is it. His passive is nothing like his old ult and it's probably the least fun/interesting thing on his new kit. Personally I wish he would have been redesigned as more of a damage threat than a tank with unreliable cc even though his current iteration is still cool.

Old Sion in either build wasn't about being a tank. He ran up and killed people. Tons of damage. That is what he did if he could farm enough or get fed. New Sion is a tank that locks people down in the hope that his team can kill them. He does have a strong early game but by mid game he really is just trying to setup fights for his team.

It's not the late game power you felt when playing Old Sion. It would have been nice to see him turned into an actual damage threat that was semi tanky rather than a full on tank. Think more like a Renekton/Darius.

That said they did a good job on him but he is more of a complete redesign than anything else.