How I Improved My Lane Farming as Sion
A few days ago, I came up with a laning technique as Sion Top. I was never really that spot-on with my CS before, but I noticed in retrospect that my laning phase was remarkably easy (which is also in thanks to the build I chose). I never felt pressured to apply pressure to my laning opponent, but I never had to leave lane either. I only backed on my accord to buy items. I kept pushing and pushing to the turret, and just kept at it and beyond. The wards I always brought with me gave me enough forewarning to back off. I delegated to myself the task of playing defense for every tower on my team's side. If there was a building minion wave, I went to deal with it; if there was a wave already at a turret, I would port in and wipe them out. Thankfully, my team could handle themselves during teamfights, so I just kept playing defense. We only lost one tower that game, I'm proud to say.
In the aftergame lobby, I noticed I had an unusually high CS. So I kept at this technique of mine and repeated the build, getting similar results each time. I've been inspired to write a Mobafire Guide for Sion, and this is an excerpt from my draft. The excerpt is the first half of my Chapter dedicating to Farming. Tell me what you think of my technique.
Farming is a universal skill, but every champion has their own tempo. Some champs have a quick and responsive basic attack; others have a bit of a windup. Sion falls under the latter camp. Now, don't take that to mean that Sion has an unreliable basic attack. Far from it! But as I said, you need to lead into it. Otherwise, you may fall behind in lane and suffer for the rest of the game. Remember, your goal is to be an immovable object (well, one that moves on its own accord anyhow).
But it's one thing to stress the importance of efficient farming and another to teach it. Here's my technique: make an evaluation of the enemy wave. Take into mind which minions yours are targeting; which ones are getting damaged quickly, which ones are getting damaged slowly but are already low, which ones are tightly-packed and low health, etc. You make an order of operations from there. Make a plan in your head that says, "Hit that minion, then that one, then those last two". Do this for every wave you meet, adjust as needed. In case I haven't driven in that point yet, farming's all about management. There's a reason why farming in video games is actually called farming. You harvest your crops when the time is right, not as soon as you can.
As mentioned above, Sion has a slower basic attack. It takes some getting used to, and it can hamper your farming capability if you don't adjust for it. Here's a prime example of where Sion's basic attack might fail you. This happens most often you push a wave and your minions start to outnumber the enemy's. Whilst you're carving your way through an enemy wave, busily reaping the enemy minions, you may (correction: certainly will) spot an enemy minion that's taking a lot of damage from your own minions. That minion drops just below the kill threshold, but it's losing health fast. Delay too long, and you'll lose the minion (along with the permanent health and gold it'd give). Strike too early however, and you might leave it with a sliver of health that it'll promptly lose (most likely to your caster minions). It's all about prudence. It all doesn't seem like much, but my creep score started to make leaps and bounds once I started using this method.
Here are three captures of three separate games I've played Sion. Note the creep score. Take it as you will. I do not say this out of pride: I usually had the second highest creep score of all ten players in the match, and I was beaten only by a close margin. This method may not work for you, but it does for me. http://pre00.deviantart.net/43eb/th/pre/f/2015/161/3/0/sion_cs_captures_by_akantorking-d8wr6kv.png
