Let's Talk Sion

So let's talk about Sion Top. Sion top is a champion that...

• Can build pure tank, and still dish out enough damage to be a threat; 
• Has amazing initiation and team-fighting potential as a crowd control oriented tank;
• Scales well via his permanent health passive, 20% armor reduction ability. and 10% max health on-hit passive on death;
• Deals both physical and magic damage, making him difficult to itemize against in lane;
• Easily clears a camp for an early level 2 using his passive;
• Has strong waveclear with low mana costs; and
• Has the 14th highest win rate in the game as of this post (had to throw this in here).

However, the thing I really want to emphasize on are his game-changing ultimate and his 20% armor REDUCTION ability.

Game-Changing Ultimate

Anti Split-Push
Defensively, in a meta-game that focuses strongly on top laners split-pushing while the rest of their team groups mid, Sion has the ability to take advantage of this with his superior map control abilities and flexible strategy. With his powerful waveclear abilities, he can stop pretty much any champion from successfully split pushing. Even if they TP to another lane to avoid him, he can follow up rapidly with his ultimate.

Split-Push Power
Offensively, that same extra "quick movement" ability allows him to go on the offensive by getting to any lane he wants, quickly pushing that lane, teleporting to push another lane, and still use his ultimate to get to a team-fight just in time.

Initiation Power
Again offensively, his ultimate is perfect against teams that like grouping mid (and who doesn't?). As the lane makes navigating his ult very easy and the is shorter that the other two, catching opponents is a breeze. His CC lock also gives him the ability to quickly take down squishies before a split pushing top laner can complete their TP.

Armor Reduction

His 20% armor reduction may not look like much at first, but the fact that it's an armor REDUCTION skill is extremely important, as it means it also works for his allies around him as well. This is really what gives him his late-game killing power, despite building tanky.

It's not quite as good late game as Jarvan's Q since it's single target, but definitely better mid game as it gives a far stronger slow (for chasing/kiting) compared to Jarvan's W.

Possible Nerfs

Despite being incredibly strong utility-wise at the moment, be on the lookout for any of the following possible example future nerfs that could quickly drop him out of FOTM and into obscurity:

• Slight nerfs to his waveclear ability;
• Speed reduction on his ultimate; and
• Any cooldown or mana cost changes.

Conclusions

As of the latest patch, Sion is definitely incredibly strong in the current meta, and although his skills seem "easy to dodge" on paper, in actuality the hit boxes as he is now actually create a situation where he's very reliable for the damage and crowd control he provides. With recent nerfs in Patch 5.4 on Jarvan, I think he'll continue rising in strength as a front liner.