Talk:Sion/@comment-6281696-20141009225053/@comment-1330314-20141009232537

I recommend maxing E, regardless of whether you're jungling or laning, not just because it'll give you faster ramping damage and kill potentiall overall (your slow is a lot stronger), but also because the cost to Roar of the Slayer is a) minuscule and b) non-scaling, so maxing E first will ensure you consume the least overall mana with your spells and therefore not suffer as hard from mana issues.

Sion's lower base health makes sense I think, not just because it's compensated for by his W passive, but also because he can significantly increase his tankiness with his shield, which now scales a lot better with a tanky Sion than before. He's not going to be relying solely on his base health to take all the damage, and unlike pre-rework AD/AP Sion needs to build tanky to become truly tanky, as well as make full use of his passive. Additionally, in lane, Sion can ideally gain between 12 and 20 health per minion wave, which not only functions as significant base health gain, but functions like just as much health regeneration, on top of his very generous health regen. He's already designed to be extremely resilient even with his mediocre base health.