Talk:Sion/@comment-25131274-20141005095508/@comment-3308937-20141005192948

It goes a little deeper than what Akumaryukendan's comment leads on.

The lowering of base stats to accommodate for these passives is part of balancing but the actual passives themselves and the idea behind them is to help promote a certain playstyle or add extra counterplay for their enemies if they play smartly.

In the case of Heimer, his passive doesn't just affect him, it affects his turrets and allies. It is at its fullest strength when Heimer is around his allies and weakest when Heimer is alone. It gives Heimer an incentive to group up and use his turrets defensively/more intelligently instead of split pushing solo and just using turrets as throwaway damage sources.

For Thresh it gives some counterplay options that normally don't really exist in his kit, it dissuades him from just sitting back waiting for hooks and disengaging by making him have to get close to the action and opening him up for potential harass/zoning. If Thresh does actively collect souls he has the option of becoming stronger than other other champions while if he doesn't he naturally falls behind a little.

For Sion I'd say it's more as a way of allowing the health stacking that's iconic to him to stay in his kit by adding a tradeoff that's visceral and can be abused by enemies or played into by Sion.