PBE Preview: Stop Being a Bonehead! - Sion Rework

Sion has been Riot's best example of a champion with an identity crisis. He's seen a streak of show in professional play, but after his last set of nerfs - which were a long time ago, incidentally - he's fallen out of flavor from every queue. For a long time, he's seen a pick rate of hardly over 2%, and a winrate of about 50%, which is quite meager from all angles. And it's not strange that it should be this way. There's no clear build pattern because he's on two different sides of the spectrum and both sides are equally problematic when ahead, but equally negligible when behind. Let's get cracking.

First up is his most prominent build pattern, the AP burst caster. Focusing on his Q, Cryptic Gaze, and his W, Death's Caress, AP Sion is based around farming up and being a lane bully with a 600 base damage and 1.8AP ratio spell rotation. Sad part is that it all kind of stops there. Those are the only two magic damage dealing abilities, and the only two to scale off ability power. What it does has going for it, is that he's quite strong against poke-focused mages. Getting to CDR cap with 3200g (Morellonomicon (2200g) and Ionian Boots of Lucidity (1000g)), means Death's Caress packs about 400 damage/shield value and rests at a comfortable 4.8s cooldown, meaning you can waddle in, clear the creeps with Death's Caress (and/or poke with Cryptic Gaze), and walk out unharmed, waiting for a next creep wave to come or for a roam opportunity.

What's bad about this build pattern is that it's just about as much of a one-trick pony as a one-trick pony can get. AP Sion's job is to rush in, Q-W-Lich Bane someone (sometimes with the aid of a Deathfire Grasp), and then walk out. If Death's Caress gets popped before he can stun someone, he loses about 40% of his entire burst rotation, and his job failed. And it doesn't end there. Not building Lich Bane means you'll hardly ever get close to 1000 mana, and with Death's Caress costing 110 mana, you'll run out really fast if you don't have a Blue Buff backing you up. Additionally, Cryptic Gaze does not have a long range. It's quite close-combat, really, so getting it off means you're most likely in harm's way, running the risk of having Death's Caress destroyed.

The second build pattern is the most annoying one in my opinion, and I'm glad to see it gone. This build pattern revolves around abusing his free 65AD from Enrage, in combination with the free health stack on minion kill, and build plentiful amounts of Movespeed, Attack Speed, Attack Damage and Life Steal to put those all to use with Cannibalism. This monstrosity of an ultimate provides up to 100% lifesteal for up to 20 seconds, as well as 50% Attack Speed. In addition, any damage Sion deals while it's running heals surrounding units for a percentage of the damage dealt, making him an up-to-5-man healing drain tank with monstrous amounts of AD and sustain. 

The problem with that build, is that it thrives on being in the fight. If AD Sion doesn't get a chance to get in the middle of both his team and the enemy team, there's no chance of him ever succeeding in his job, and it basically all goes to shambles. Kite comps and long range poke/siege comps work wonders against AD Sion as he won't ever get in the middle of things without TP/Homeguard. In addition, AD Sion's use is limited to the 20 seconds Cannibalism lasts. Disengaging as soon as he pops it and immediately after re-engaging is an effective way of countering AD Sion.

So where does this take us? It takes us to 3 years of identity crisis and a long standing history of rework promises, but as of the 4.18 PBE Patch Cycle, Riot has delivered to us the long awaited Sion rework. And while the kit doesn't make 100% sense to me, I am glad that Riot has decided to finally push Sion into one direction once and for all. So let's get covering.

The old Sion passive was an RNG-based damage negate on incoming basic attacks. While it, from the core, made him innately resilient to auto-attacks, it was purely based on RNG and as such gave no reliability as to whether he could win a trade or not. New passive has a nice link to the REBORN-trailer Riot released, prior to Sion hitting PBE, and it's named Glory in Death. Upon dying, Sion is placed in stasis for 4 seconds, after which he re-emerges with full HP and a stripped set of abilities. He attacks at 1.75 atk/s, deals an additional 10% of a target's max HP as physical damage on-hit, and he gains 100% Life Steal. On the flip side, he loses a percentage of his max HP every second until he's finally really dead. I personally don't like another revive passive, and I hate seeing one with no internal cooldown, but thematically, it's quite sound and as far as gameplay goes, it's not quite as broken as it sounds. The HP/s drop he's punished with takes quite the toll on him.

Sion's new Q, Decimating Smash, charges for up to 2 seconds. Think of it as a Vi ult without the movement. When he releases his charge, he deals damage in an area, both dependant on how long he charged. If he crosses a 1s threshold, he knocks up targets before stunning them, and by fully channeling, he increases the stun duration further. I don't like the immobility and it feels terribly clunky and easy to get out of - if you don't charge it a bit, its damage is meh at best, and no-one's gonna stand in an increasing AoE with a big axe-swinging dude standing at the edge of it. But thematically, it fits, so it's okay by me.

Sions W, Soul Furnace, is pretty much the same functionality as his old W, albeit with a few changes. It's still his shield and AoE damage that increases in size with AP, but it now also takes his bonus health into account upon creating the shield, and it takes the enemy's maximum HP into account upon detonation. Additionally, upon ranking the ability, Sion gains 2 bonus HP for each unit slain, with the amount increasing to 8 for big creeps, big jungle monsters, and champion kills/assists. It's a lot of free HP, considering it was 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 on his current Enrage, with the amount doubling on big unit kills, but the shield is significantly reduced in size and damage and now applauds a tank build more than it does an AP build.

Sion's E is named Roar of the Slayer. It's a line skillshot (visually remarkably similar to Cryptic Gaze) that deals magic damage to the first target it hits, based off Sion's AP (resemblances, eh?). If the first unit hit is a champion, they are slowed for 2.5 seconds in addition to having their armor reduced by a percentage. If the first unit hit is a minion, however, that unit is launched backwards (I wanna scream and shout and let it all out?), and that unit then deals 40% more magic damage to all units it passes through. While I once again feel that funcionally is lacking, it is a thematic match and I think the mechanics behind it are hilarious (you shout at a creep and it flies all the way back xD). In any case, it's significantly better than an all-passive stat boosting toggle ability (Enrage)).

Sion's ultimate is the biggest change of 'em all. It's called Unstoppable Onslaught (which I think is a bit lacking, UNSTOPPABLE Force and ONSLAUGHT of Shadows?), which kind of functions like a big cumbersome Rammus Powerball. He charges for up to 8 seconds during which he picks up speed but has a hard time turning himself. Upon colliding with an enemy champion (or wall), he slows all units in the area and deals physical damage to them, with the first target hit being stunned instead. This crowd control and damage increases the longer he stampedes. A strong initiation move that renders this big ogre immune to CC, but if the enemy team disperse well (high mobility comps for the win), then it's a pain hitting it ever. Name needs to change, but other than that, it's a glorious ability to see.

So my final thoughts... I'm intrigued. Sion no longer has an identity crisis, and I in fact believe he's going to be really strong in both SoloQ and competitive play, as well as a great addition to teams that want to force a fight or make a wombo combo. He's also going to be ridiculously entertaining to see run in a revival comp - imagine Sion repeatedly running at you with a Zilean at his side. But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below. Coballz out.