Check out how one of the leagues most dated champions Sion was re-imagined in the latest League of Legends Dev Blog
League of Legends latest update finally saw one of its most dated champions Sion re-imagined from a undead mage with a axe into the Undead Juggernaut, and in the latest League of Legends Dev Blog we found out exactly how and why they did it.
Sion is one of the first champions that League of Legends ever had and it’s fair to say that he was a bit all over the place, because no matter how you built him you always had two useless abilities.
In order to make a better Sion, they had to pinpoint what they wanted him to be and they decided that he should be undead, an unstoppable juggernaut and represent the faded glory of Noxus.
Gameplay wise Sion is now a tanky slow and powerful juggernaut with telegraphed attacks and abilities, to give opponents a chance when fighting him.
For example, his new Decimating Smash attack has a huge swing arc but a very visible wind up which gives him a lot of zoning potential. While the visible wind up may seem to be a weakness, Sion players can use the ability early at the cost of range to catch out players.
Sions new passive plays on him being an unstoppable undead monster by giving him a chance “to turn berserk and take down enemies as he dies, just as he does in his updated lore” according to the League of Legends Dev Blog.
Sions new ultimate, called Unstoppable Onslaught turns Sion into an undead missile of destruction as he charges forward. The move has huge range but it has a trade-off to where Sion can only really move in a straight line, thought you will get limited control over him.
Plot-wise Sion was the first Hand of Noxus, (a position which popular champion Darius is now filling) and as a reward for dealing a crippling blow to a deadly enemy of Noxus, Sion was granted the gift of immortality. This gift however turned out to be a curse as Sion is now an instinct driven monster who feeds on life.
However the developers don’t want Sion to be a boring undead monster so they’ve tweaked his voice as well. When Sion is in combat now, his voice will act more alive as he starts acting like the warrior he used to be, while if his alone on the battlefield he’ll start to slip back into being an undead monster.
Compared to other champions from Noxus, Sion is much less armoured. The reason behind this is because according to the Dev Blog, if Sion wore more armour he would lose that undead feel to him.
The same goes for his lack of hair and in what’s a cool way to tie in his design to his back story, Sions jaw is actually the crown of that deadly enemy to Noxus that he dealt a crippling blow to and killed, Jarven 1’s crown.
In the latest League of Legends Dev Blog they talked about how the champion Sion was re-imagined, and his new redesign is now playable in League of Legends. If you want to read the Dev Blog for yourself then here’s the link. I recommend checking it out, it’s pretty interesting.
