Board Thread:League of Legends discussion/@comment-25532677-20141013050627/@comment-1330314-20141013124904

Sion's definitely one of the most team-dependent bruisers now, but I think he's extremely strong right now, even if he's a little hard to pick up. He's not a particularly good duelist, and he has to work to get the same amount of health other bruisers do, but he also has far more tools than your average top laner (two instances of hard CC, map-wide near-instant mobility, etc.). What he lacks in reliability, he more than makes up for in zoning power, and if you're doing good you're going to be practically unkillable in teamfights.

While my Sion experience has pretty much been all about jungling and not laning, I'd say Sion would actually be a super-safe top laner: his health gain also doubles up as health regeneration, which on top of his massive base health regen gives him tons of staying power in lane, his E (which you should max out first in all situations) lets him poke for a fair amount at little cost, and his ultimate can be used like a mini-Teleport to rush back to lane before your opponent pushes it to your tower.