Sion Build Guide by Mythikos

General Info

***** This is my second build here on mobfire.com. As I receive feedback on this build as well as personal experience with the champion, I will tweak the build until it is in my eyes, complete. Be sure to check back at a later times to see if any edits have happened with the build. There is a change log at the bottom of this guide if you wish to know all the changes that are happening as they happen.

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***** Before we start into the guide, there are a couple of things about Sion and this build you need to know. First - This guide contains two builds. Solo Top / Lane Sion and Jungle / Gank Sion. Second - Sion is an amazing champion and is fairly versatile considering. Third - You need to know that Sion's ultimate is extremely over powered if you build Sion correctly. His ultimate can allow you to dive into a 1v4 and come out victorious like nothing happened.

Just remember...

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***** Sion is attributed as a melee / fighter. Sion is (if you follow my guide) great at beginning / middle / and end game. Many players see Sion as a terrible champion early game, I however do not. Trust me when I say Sion is one of the most OP champions in League of Legends. Too many people underestimate the power of Sion which is actually a good advantage for the player using him.

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The Story of Sion, The Undead Champion

rior to the creation of the League of Legends, the city-states of Demacia and Noxus were locked in a brutal series of on-again-off-again wars that spanned the course of centuries. Both powers sought an advantage over the other, but Noxus was the city-state willing to forego conventional morality to achieve its goals. Only brute strength and the will to use it mattered to Noxus, and this is best exemplified in the murderous warrior, Sion. Used by the Noxians as a human battering ram, Sion would be sent thundering ahead of Noxian troops. He would mercilessly slaughter foes with his large double-bladed axe, ''Chopper''. His complete disregard for caution ultimately cost him his life, as he was captured and summarily executed by Demacian forces.

he Demacians thought that the beheading of Sion would be the end of his bloodthirsty ways. Death, however, was merely the beginning of Sion's rise to power. The famed Noxian assassin, Katarina, recovered Sion's remains and Noxian necromancers reanimated the behemoth to serve Noxus once again. Sion's reanimation actually bestowed new powers on him and increased the potency of his existing abilities, making him even more of a terror to behold on the battlefield. The Noxian High Command had a powerful new weapon in their hands - one they have brought to bear as a champion in the League of Legends. Even though Sion's increased powers would make him a powerful tool for the High Command's use outside the Fields of Justice, Noxus no longer risks losing one of their greatest champions in the League to chance or circumstance; Sion's days as a front-line fighter for Noxus' military conquests are at an end.
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Pros / Cons / Tips

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Pros +Good stun +Ultimate heals teammates +High damage early game +Stacks health +Great early/mid/late game +Has a giant axe that glows +Ultimate gives large amount of life steal and attack speed

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Cons -Not much health at start -Slow movement speed -Not good at escaping -Doesn't share teh cookies * * *

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<-> Using Enrage early helps Sion in the late game. When Sion kills something his health is increased permanently and Enrage makes it easier to last hit resulting in better gold farming.
<-> Cryptic Gaze and Cannibalize can both be used in a defensive manner to save allies and sustain pushes.
<-> Picking your battles and knowing the enemy champion's moves will help you greatly in ganking and lane defense.

Masteries

***** I have designed this Sion build to focus on attack damage, life steal, attack speed, critical damage, and critical chance. This is because Sion has and incredible ultimate that utilizes all of these. Without attack damage you wouldn't life steal enough. Without life steal you wouldn't be able to heal of minions for prolonged lane endurance. Without attack speed and critical damage/chance you wouldn't be able to make the fatal blow.

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Runes

Quint
Greater Quintessence of Strength x3
Grants 2.25 attack damage per quintessence. Math | 2.25 * 3 = 6.75 attack damage increase.
Mark
Greater Mark of Strength x9
Grants 0.95 attack damage per quintessence. Math | 0.95 * 9 = 8.55 attack damage increase.

Seal
Greater Seal of Resilience x9
Grants 1.41 armor per seal. Math | 1.41 * 9 = 12.69 armor increase.
Glyph
Greater Glyph of Warding x9
Grants 1.49 magic resistance per glyph. Math | 1.49 * 9 = 13.41 magic resist.

***** Just to let everyone know, I do not use specialty runes for Sion as this rune build is referred to as an "AD General" rune set.

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Quint
Greater Quintessence of Alacrity x3
Grants 3.4 attack speed per quintessence. Math | 3.4 * 3 = 10.2 attack speed increase.Greater Mark of DesolationMark
Greater Mark of Desolation x9
Grants 1.66 armor penetration per mark. Math | 1.66 * 9 = 14.94 armor penetration increase. Seal
Greater Seal of Resilience x9
Grants 1.41 armor per seal. Math | 1.41 * 9 = 12.69 armor increase. Glyph
Greater Glyph of Warding x9
Grants 1.49 magic resistance per glyph. Math | 1.49 * 9 = 13.41 magic resist.

Viable / Non-Viable Summoner Spells

Heal
Heals Self and Allied Champions
I see heal as a tactically advancing summoner spell. It allows you to trick or "Bait" enemy champions into thinking that you will be an easy kill. In many cases this allows you to pick up a kill early game. Although considered cheap by most players, having an immediate form of health regeneration (other than potions) can be extremely useful in more ways than one.
Flash
Teleports Self A Set Distance
(Recommended) Flash is a good spell for Sion taking Sion's slow movement speed into consideration. Flash grants you the ability to teleport through some walls (excellent escape routes), teleport away from the enemy if you are weak, or even teleport towards the enemy if they are getting away.
Ignite
Deals True Damage Based On Level
(Recommended) Ignite is a great summoner spell for Sion. Taking his movement speed into consideration. Ignite allows you to kill low health enemy champions that move faster than Sion that would otherwise escape. Taking all this into consideration, Ignite is a viable summoner spell for picking up kills.
Ghost
Movement Speed Increases and Ignore Unit Collision
(Recommended) Ghost's primary function is to allow you to A) flee from a bad situation or B) chase down fleeing enemies. The decision to use ghost over flash is entirely up too you. I can not bring enough evidence into this guide to prove that one is better than the other.

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Exhaust
Exhaust Target Champion
Exhaust's primary use is to slow enemy movement. If we use the recommended summoner spells, Flash and Ignite, we dont need to slow the enemy down as we can catch them and cause damage over time. I can't find any logical evidence that says exhaust is worth the summoner spell. Based on my findings, exhaust has no real use within Sion's dynamic thus leading me to deem it a Non-Viable Summoner Spell.
Revive
Immediately Revives Your Champion At The Summoner Platform
Revive's primary function is to cut your own death timer. I don't really have much to say about revive. The only thing I can say is that is does not help Sion in any way. Because it does not help Sion, it is a waist of a summoner spell, and there for I deem it a
Non-Viable Summoner Spell.
Surge
Increases Attack Speed and Ability Power.
Surge gives the user attack speed and ability power for a short time. Now I am already expecting to have to argue this point to some of you. Although the attack speed surge offers Sion is part of our build, the ability power offers nothing to this build. In addition to this Sion has a slow movement speed making the summoner spell surge nearly useless as he won't be able to keep up. The only way I see surge being handy is if you were ganking the enemy team. Because I am not giving you a build to gank, jungle, or anything of the sort, surge has no real use and therefor I deem it a
Non-Viable Summoner Spell.

***** The other remaining summoner spells ( Clairvoyance, Promote, Clarity, Teleport, and Cleanse) I do not recommend what so ever but neither help nor conflict with Sion's build or playing styles. These spells won't hurt you but do not benefit Sion in a way that makes them viable summoner spells.

Ability Explaination

Feel No Pain
Sion has a 40% chance to ignore up to 30/40/50 damage each time he is attacked.
Cryptic Gaze
Sion's stare terrifies a single enemy, dealing damage and stunning them.
Blasts a single enemy, dealing 70/125/180/240/300 (+0.9) magic damage and stunning for 1.5 seconds. Cost - 100 Mana | Range - 550
Death's Caress
Sion surrounds himself with a damage-absorbing shield.
Sion surrounds himself with a shield which absorbs 100/150/200/250/300 (+0.9) damage. If the shield is not destroyed in 10 seconds, it will explode, dealing 100/150/200/250/300 (+0.9) magic damage to surrounding enemies. Cast again after 4 seconds to manually detonate.
Cost - 70/80/90/100/110 Mana | Range - 1
Enrage
While active Sion gains Attack Damage at the cost of Health on each basic attack. Additonally, he permanently increases his maximum Health whenever he kills a unit.
Toggle: Sion's Attack Damage is increased by 25/35/45/55/65 and he permanently gains 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 maximum Health per kill. Total Health gained: + Costs - 6/8/10/12/14 Health per Attack | Range - 1
Cannibalism
Sion consumes some of his enemies' life force on each attack, leeching health to himself and nearby allies.
Grants Sion 50/75/100% Life Steal and 50% Attack Speed for 20 seconds. Additionally, Sion's basic attacks heal surrounding allies for 25/37.5/50% of the damage dealt. Cost - 100 Mana | Range - 1

Ability Sequence

***** The first ability we want to max is Enrage. You will want this ability toggled on ALWAYS as it is everything as Sion. Enrage is an AD Sion's most crucial ability as it grants a huge attack bonus as well as allows you stack health per kill. You will want to take Enrage at level 1 and max it by level 9.

***** The next ability we want to take is Cryptic Gaze. Cryptic Gaze is Sion's stun and will be your most useful tool in killing enemy champions. Sion's stun only increases its damage not its duration every time you level it, for this reason we want to take it at level 2 and max it last as the stun will always be 1.5 seconds long.

***** The next ability we take is Death's Caress. Death's Caress is Sion's shield and a pretty good one. The shield is useful in two ways. It can A) protect you a great deal and B) cause good damage to surrounding units. Because of this skills usefulness I take it at level 3 and max it by level 13.

Items / Situational Items

***** In the world of league, the item build is everything. Here I will explain the Solo Top / Lane item build as well as inform you of conditional items that may be needed during a fight. If you want to apply the situational items to the Jungle / Gank Sion, simply replace the Executioner's Calling with the Wriggle's Lantern as those are the only two important changes between the builds and then take it from there.

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Recommended items for Sion... *****
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Of course there are few situations where you can just stick to one particular build and call it good so we need the situational items as well.

The items that are a must for this Sion build are Berserker's Greaves, Phantom Dancer, and the Infinity Edge. The rest of the items can be dropped as they are not as crucial for his build. Items that can replace the Warmog's Armor, Atma's Impaler, and Executioner's Calling / Wriggle's Lantern are listed below and with the situations that best require them.

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Situational items for Sion... *****
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It is recommended to go for the Tiamat if you are farming well, the enemy team is focusing you in team fights, and you have already bought your Berserker's Greaves and Phantom Dancer. The Tiamat applies splash damage to Sion's basic attacks. This mixed with his ultimate, Cannibalism, causes crazy life steal as you are not only life stealing the target your hitting but of those surrounding you as well.

It is recommended to get The Bloodthirster if you are having a good early game. If you have already bought your Berserker's Greaves, replace your Executioner's Calling / Wriggle's Lantern with The Bloodthirster as it will give you more life steal based on stacks.

It is recommended to get the Sword of the Occult if you are dominating mid / late game. I would not even think about getting this item until you have bought your Berserker's Greaves, Phantom Dancer, Executioner's Calling / Wriggle's Lantern, and Infinity Edge. The reason why it is recommended is because of its ability to give you attack damage stacks per kill / assist.

This is one of the most looked over items in LoL. It is fairly cheap and gives a quite a bit of magic resistance. The Quicksilver Sash also doubles as a debuff remover if you find yourself against a team with a lot of crowd control. It is best to take this item when the enemy team is doing a lot of magic damage early in the game (early / mid game) or has a lot of crowd control. Take this item when you decide it is needed.

The Thornmail is recommended if the enemy team is either all or majority AD / AD Carry champions. It does not matter when you obtain the Thornmail so obtain it when you need it. It is best to replace the Warmog's Armor in place of Thornmail. If you are buying a Force of Nature as well, drop the Atma's Impaler.

The Force of Nature is recommended if the enemy team is dealing a lot of magic damage. It does not matter when you obtain the Force of Nature so obtain it when you need it. It is best to replace the Warmog's Armor with the Force of Nature. If you are buying a Thornmail as well, drop the Atma's Impaler.

It is good to buy this item in the event you are fighting a really tanky - armored team. I recommend that you buy the Last Whisper only after you have obtained Berserker's Greaves and the Phantom Dancer. If you can, even wait till after you get either the Executioner's Calling / Wriggle's Lantern or The Bloodthirster. I would probably take this item over the Warmog's Armor as Atma's Impaler will help you more with Sion's build.

Farming

***** Farming is important for Sion. When it all comes down to it, farming will make or break the game for you. It is important to realize Sion has a decent early game but needs the farm to be viable late game. Try and avoid 1v2 situations until mid game and farm like crazy.

***** Another important thing to point out is Sion's Enrage. This is another reason why you NEED to farm. Remember that Enrage permanently stacks health per kill. This means if you farm well with Sion, you will be unstoppable.

***** Some people think you should use Death's Caress as a tool for farming. I say don't. It uses to much mana early game and can leave you defenseless in the event a gank occurs. You need to have you stun ready at all times and your shield ready at all times when farming as this will be your key to escaping the gank.

In short: ALWAYS use enrage to farm as the health stack will help late game, don't use your shield or stun to farm as they will burn more mana and leave you defenseless, and farm as much as possible - safely.

Jungling

***** Jungle Sion is interesting to play in the sense that he is really good at it. If you do bad the first time, just keep trying. Jungling is one of the hardest League of Legends tactics to master but one of the most rewarding tactics in any PvP environment. A good jungler will usually make or break the game. Of course none of this matters unless you have the right jungle strategy.

***** Jungling with Sion isn't incredible tough. Using the image below will help you map your movement path through the jungle. It is vital that you stick to the jungle pattern as much as possible.

***** You will first want to start at The Ancient Golem (Blue Buff). When fighting for blue buff, try to get a teammate to leash him but don't fret if you can't. The instant you are hit, pop your heal, and focus blue buff and use smite to finish the kill. Move immediately to the wolves, then wraiths, then golems. Make sure to use healing pots as needed and recall if necessary although experienced junglers will clear the entire jungle before recalling. One you have cleared wolves, wraiths, and golems, move in to kill The Lizard Elder (Red Buff). Use the same tactic as you did on blue buff. Pop an hp potion the instant you are attacked and use smite to finish the kill.

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<-> Do not use smite other than to kill red buff, blue buff, or to secure the kill of a contested creep.
<-> Make sure to use your HP Potions! They will help you clear the jungle.
<-> Use your shield and stun smart. It is good to some degree to use them to farm creeps although you want to save mana for ganks.
<->If possible, clear the jungle before recalling. It will give you an incredible early game boost that will significantly increase your ability to gank.

Success Using Build

Below are pictures of people's success using this build. Pictures will consist of Solo Top / Lane Sion and Jungle / Gank Sion.

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Conclusion

***** I hope you all enjoyed my full guide on how to build and use Sion and reasoning for why I build him the way I do. Feel free to leave feedback by commenting below as feedback is the only I can improve this guide for the public. Please keep all comments respectful and nice. Thanks for reading my guide and I hope it helped!

Glossary of Terms

Here is a glossary of terms used in League of Legends as well as in parts of this guide.

General terms, and important items/creatures-

• Oom: Out of mana.
• Lom: Low on mana.
• BP / Blue Pill: Recalling.
• Ult: Ultimate ability. The R key Ability.
• Aoe: Area of Effect.
• TP: A summoner spell teleport that can be used to travel to any position on the map that has friendly minions or structures.
• Ms: Movement speed.
• AP: Ability Power, the stat that boosts the effectiveness of abilities.
• Unique: In League of Legends, certain auras and passives gained from items are unique, meaning they do not stack. Any item marked "Unique" will not, and thus should not be stacked.
• Buff: A temporary increase to some stat(s). Examples, Crest of the Ancient Golem, Blessing of the lizard elder, Rally etc.
• Passive: An ability that is not activated but helps a character. For example, Jax's passive allows him to gain an extra 15% from weaponry items.
• Aura: A passive affect emanated from one champion that boosts not only to the Champion who has it, but also to Champions within the given range for the aura. A shareable passive. Examples: Stark's fervor, Aegis of the Legion, Soul Shroud.
• Lizard: The Lizard Elder neutral that holds the red buff.
• Golem: The Ancient Golem neutral that holds the Blue buff.
• Dragon: The neutral monster that grants a global bonus of 130 Gold.
• Baron / Nashor / Worm: The big worm-like neutral monster that gives a powerful buff to the whole team when killed.
• DD: Direct Damage ability. Typically unavoidable, point and click projectile abilities, for example, Nunu's Iceball.
• Skillshot: An ability that fires a projectile that can be dodged. For example, Morgana's cage, Ashe's ultimate arrow
• Tank: Champions who can soak up damage and try to be the attention hog. They are to be a distraction and help there team. The Tanks go for Health and Armor. Maybe Health Regeneration and Magic Resistance.
• Carry: Champions who are highly dependent on items and thus farming. After a certain time of killing minions and enemy champions, they become very powerful and can win the game for the team.
• Support: Champions who try to help the team as much as possible. They can heal there allies, protect them, increase there damage, or stun the enemy.
• Mage / Caster: Champions who are highly dependent on there abilities to hurt the enemy. However, these champions are very squishy..

Actions, Orders, and informative alerts-

• B: Back, get back, the enemy is coming to gank you.
• D: Defend, to sit at a tower and/or inhibitor and attempt to avoid a battle while stopping the enemy from killing the structure.
• Gank: To go and (often with more than one player) to try to kill an enemy champion, usually by surprise. "Lets gank mid"
• Mia: Missing, missing in action. Commonly used to announce when a Champion is missing from a lane. It is meant to let the team know that a gank could happen.
• Farm: Farming involves the massing of gold for a player. This is usually best done by killing many creeps and killing them very quickly.
• Last hit: Getting the very last hit or killing blow on an enemy Champion or minion.
• Care: Have care, be careful, enemies are missing in action and may be coming to gank you.
• Push: To gather up a minion wave and attempt to destroy an enemy tower either by you or with other teammates. "I'm going to push bottom" / " Let's push bottom"
• Jungling / to Jungle: To stay in the Jungle instead of the lane killing neutrals.
• Harass: To annoy the enemy with bursts of damage, (generally Direct Damage abilities) often forcing them to go heal or to set up a gank.
• Disable: A Disable is a debuff that prevents some kind of action on the player. Stuns, snare, and silences are all examples of disables.
• Stun: A debuff which prevents any action by a champion.
• Snare: A debuff which slows any movement by a champion.
• Silence: A debuff which prevents any abilities being used by a champion.
• Bait: To purposely appear in a spot to be easily ganked so you can lure one or more enemies to be ganked by your team.
• BD: Backdoor, to attack the enemy’s towers and base without the cover of your Minions there, often a sneak attack.
• FF: Focus fire, to focus and to target a particular enemy champion player. Used to dictate which enemy to kill first in team fights.
• Shop: To go back to base to go buy an item.
• Juke / Juking: When being chased, juking is to trick your pursuers. Normally this happens in the jungle. A successful Juke could range from avoiding the enemy by exploiting line of sight, or dodging a skillshot.
• IP: Influence Points, these hefty points allow you to buy Runes or Champions without using real money!

Map terms-

• Lane: The road-like areas that contain towers and lead to and from the bases in a straight line.
• Top / Mid / Bottom: Lanes in League of Legends. Usually one-person “solo's" the middle lane whilst the others go in pairs to the top and bottom.
• River: The river that cuts through the map Summoner's Rift perpendicular to the lanes.
• Jungle: The mass of trees and paths that exist between the lanes and contain both neutral creeps and buff creeps.
• Creeps: All AI controlled minions and neutrals.
• Neutrals / Creeps: The monster creeps who spawn in the jungle, can be killed for gold and some grant global bonus's (the dragon, Baron Nashor), others grant sing player bonuses (The Lizard Elder, Ancient Golem).
• Brush: The large grass (usually on the side of each lane) in which causes your Champion to be stealthed to people outside of the brush.

Miscellaneous-

• KS: Kill steal, to last hit something an enemy that you may not have actually helped to slay.
• Feeder: A player who dies repeatedly and feeds the other team (via the gold/ experience reward for killing someone). Being called a feeder is not a compliment. A player who has been fed has many kills.
• Gg: Good game.
• Gj: Good job.
• Gl hf: Good luck, have fun, usually said before a game.
• Xp: Experience.
• Hp: Health points, life.
• Cd: Cooldown.
• Tryhard: Try-hard, to try hard, a term used to designate a team who stick to certain champion composition and strategies with the goal of winning being superior to all other motivations. Often derogatory.
• Channeling: A spell that has an interval or preparation that can be interrupted before the affect is unleashed, example, Nunu's Sub Zero.
• Nuke: Any ability that does a substantial amount of damage in a single go.

F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)

Question: Why do you choose AD Sion over AP Sion?
Answer: Sion was originally designed to be a AD fighter. Some of his skills do scale off of AP ill give you that. The main reason why we want AD Sion is because of Enrage. With a proper build, the DPS rate is much higher as AD Sion than that of AP Sion. So in short, AD Sion has more DPS, higher attack speeds, and less mana starvation risks while AP Sion only has high burst rates and often suffers from mana starvation.

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Change Log / To-Do List

03/25/2012:

1) Added new items to the Situational Item's List

03/23/2012:

1) Added Jungle / Gank Build
2) Added Item Block
3) Added Situational Item Block
4) Started to populate the F.A.Q.
5) Made adjustments to build
6) Fixed grammatical errors throughout the guide
7) Added more pictures and color
8) Added a rune explanation for Jungle / Gank build
9) Added masteries and mastery explanation for Jungle / Gank build

03/22/2012:

1) Release

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This is a list of items I want to incorporate into the this full twitch guide.

1) Create a PVP Block
2) Situational Items Block
3) Item Explanation Block
4) Add a Jungle Sion build
5) Video that shows Sion's playing style. (If you wish to make the video for me, contact me here on mobafire or on League of Legends)
6) Populate the FAQ

If anyone has ideas for additions, please comment on the guide below.

Special Thanks

Thanks to jhoijhoi for the templates used in this champion guide, which you can find here.

Thanks to HTC-Clan and all of its members that helped me build this guide. Visit them by clicking here.

Thanks to The LoL Community for help, tips, hints, and other related items that helped me compile this build.