Riot has recently announced the rework of Sion, which is available on the Public Beta Environment servers. Sion has been around since the beginning of League of Legends and has been showing age as a champion. Riot has seen this, and is giving him a complete overhaul, from appearance, to gameplay mechanics. The original spirit of Sion is still there with his iconic shield and health gain, but with a fun new take on his concept.
Sion’s new spells, with analysis.
Passive: Glory in Death
Sion turns berserk once he loses all his health, gaining a full life bar along with significant attack damage, attack speed and lifesteal as he bleeds out. His abilities are all replaced by Death Surge, which gives him a huge but brief movement speed boost. Sion dies once his health drains out.
Previously on Feel No Pain, Sion had a chance to ignore an amount of damage from basic attacks. Glory in Death makes Sion much more interesting, as his passive is no longer just a passive number. You will now actively get to continue to attack, even after you have been “slain.”
Q: Decimating Smash
Sion plants his feet, rooting himself as he winds up and swings his axe in a broad area before him. Decimating Smash deals increasing damage the longer it’s charged, and once it’s at least half-charged, knocks up all caught enemies when unleashed.
One of Sion’s classic moves, “Cryptic Gaze” was a simple stun that only required a click, meaning it didn’t require too much effort. However, now you will have to calculate wind up time and aim to stun opponents. While this may seem like it requires more work, it does give you the opportunity to stun more than one enemy at once at close range.
W: Soul Furnace
Passive: Sion earns bonus max health every time he kills a unit.
Active: Sion creates a bloody shield around him. If the shield stays intact for its duration, it explodes, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies. Sion can also detonate the shield early by reactivating the ability.
Not much has changed for Sion’s signature shield. However, the new passive was brought over from Sion’s previous spell E: Enrage, freeing up a spell slot which wasn’t too interactive with something new.
E: Roar of the Slayer
Sion bellows in a target direction, damaging, slowing and shredding the armor of the first enemy struck. If Roar of the Slayer hits an enemy minion or jungle monster, Sion’s scream also knocks them back a significant distance. The thrown minion or monster then damages and slows all other enemy units hit.
Sion’s new slow ability will greatly help him get onto enemies and stay there. Against minions and jungle monsters, this spell will really shine. This gives Sion the extra damage that could solidify his spot as a jungler to be reckoned with, as his speed in clearing the jungle will be greatly increased.
R: Unstoppable Onslaught
Sion starts charging in a target direction, building up speed as he moves and trampling enemy minions along his path. He can cancel his charge early, at which point he slams the ground, dealing area of effect damage to all nearby enemies. Otherwise, Sion charges an extremely long distance, only stopping once he hits an enemy champion, wall, or reaches the end of his charge. If Sion charges into an enemy champion, he knocks them up and deals area of effect damage; if he hits a wall, Sion stuns himself briefly and deals area of effect damage around him.
This will now be the ability Sion is known for. The speed increase is similar to Rammus, meaning that there will be a slow wind-up time before hitting maximum speed, but he will still be able to cover a considerable amount of distance. Combined with the knock up for hitting an enemy champion, Sion will be a very difficult jungler to deal with when he comes charging into your lane.
Overall I am quite pleased with the changes to Sion. He shines like a brand new champion, but still feels like the same old Sion. This is definitely a step in the right direction and I look forward to see how he plays out on the Field of Justice.
Published: Sep 28, 2014 01:54 pm