Welcome to my guide to AD Sion.

AD is not the only way to play Sion. If you are a careful player, a good farmer, and can trust the team you are with, AD Sion is much more versatile than AP and a great asset late game. He plays the role of DPS via huge damage on his auto attacks, tank via his >100% lifesteal and inherent toughness, and support via his health giving auras. When built and played the right way, Sion can fulfill all of these roles to the highest standards.

In this build I focus on balancing the three elements of DPS, Tank, and Support to achieve strong results from all. This version of AD Sion has supportive auras, life steal, high damage, and survivability while his ult is OFF, and even more so while his ult is ON. Enjoy.

Because of Triforce movement speed and your stun, flash becomes more useful than ghost, since it allows you instant reposition or escape over walls. Taking exhaust allows you to cut any given enemy's damage roughly in half. This allows your ult to work even harder for those few seconds while you completely clutch a fight. It also adds to your escape and chase kit.

Greater Mark of DesolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation
The choices I made should be self explanatory. Armor pen is the only thing I'm not buying in items so I'm using as much as I can from the runes. Armor is very strong in lane and the scaling magic resist glyphs are very strong and hard to pass up as a tanky champion.


Going defensive on Sion is kind of a principle of mine because it eliminates more options for your enemy. You really do not need any more damage than what you get from this item build and Sion's kit so you want to cut down the possibility that you will be blown up under focus if stunned long enough. These masteries also do a lot for your max health which in turn fuels your Atma's.


Skill sequence is straight forward. Try to get as much damage and health out of your e as early as possible. Which skill you scale at level 2 will depend on your matchup, could be either shield or stun. I usually prefer maxing shield after enrage. The stun always gives you the same utility at level 1 and the shield just feels more efficient and versatile for laning.

Triforce rush. Rush to sheen works great because you can harass for a huge chunk with your stun and then walk away and keep farming, and starting sapphire crystal lets you use a few more skills before your first back. Zeal is also a viable option to rush because of Sion's low movement and attack speeds early. Either way Triforce truly is for the whole bag of tricks, every single thing it gives you is extremely welcome. He does not proc it as much as some but his damage with a proc is huge.


As far as I'm concerned, you should always take merc treads unless there is a specific reason not to. If they have no crowd control, I'd consider taking berserkers greaves. If they barely have any magic damage i'd consider taking ninja tabi.


You get a ton of base damage from E, and when you have stacked up health by farming E, you get a ton of damage from this. Atma's is the core of AD sion and is why Sion is called a 'crit tank.' It is less efficient for your auto attacks to build only pure base damage or only pure crit or only pure attack speed. The highest damage is achieved by a balance between the three. You have such huge base damage with only this item, that from this point on your needs are crit and attack speed.


This is his last core item. You shouldn't be finishing a build without it.

After Infinity Edge the core of your build is done. More damage is welcome, however it is not necessary. You can be as effective as you need to be while your ult is up and with some care while it is down as well. What I suggest at this point is building one more 'situational' offensive item and one purely defensive item. I have never finished a Sion build from this point with 2 more offensive items and i recommend against it. After a point where you have a certain amount of damage, defensive items make you much more dangerous than more damage could. I will list a bunch of offensive items and a bunch of defensive items seperately.


Each game is different and as long as you either build some attack speed or crit in this slot you will add to your core damage output well. Every item listed above does something that can be crucial in different circumstances.


Determine what kind of hazards the enemy team poses and buy accordingly. Consider that some items only help you, and some items also help your teammates.

Teamfighting:

Don't initiate teamfights with AD sion. You need somebody else to eat their crowd control first. This is EXTREMELY important. Even if one or two of your teammates are on the verge of death, the moment you get in there with your ult, and they can't crowd control you, you will save those teammates and win the fight by a landslide.

The ideal situation is that You stun the AD carry and knock them out of the fight fast. AD carries should never be allowed to sustain damage. AP carries generally do less damage over time, but you will need defense against them to get rid of the AD carry faster. Things do not always work out this way; sometimes their AD carry will be free to wreck you, or their AP carry will be far more dangerous. Chances are you will NEED Quicksilver Sash, Force of Nature, or Thornmail to accomplish your task. Your last two items should be purchased according to the teamfight dynamic of the current game, since 1v1 should never be a real problem for you.

More coming...

Thanks to everyone who came before me as an AD Sion player. I am not the first to do any of the things in this build.

Thanks to my friend Dom who always enlightens with new points of view or critique that forces reevaluation.

And thanks to all of you for reading this guide.