There are plenty of AD Sion guides out there already, most of them are broadly right, but they make some silly errors along the way, meaning their DPS, their team-play and their survivability is not as good as it could be. This guide shows you how to stomp face with Sion consistently and make sure your team gets the win.

Reading the detail in this guide will turn you from a good Sion player into an Excellent Sion player. I have included as much detail and relevant thought as possible and where I disagree with other guides I explain why and why my build is better :P

This build is designed to be used against a balanced opposing team, as always think for yourselves and alter builds according to your own team and your enemy's team. I assume that you know how to play Sion reasonably well and are perhaps normally building AP but curious about this AD nonsense!

I have taken a lot of time over this build and have shown mathematically why some item and strategy choices are better than others, please rate positively if you think this build has helped you!

SpicyRice

Comments and Feedback: Lots of you have written some interesting suggestions concerning different items to build, I am currently playtesting these and will update this guide with the results soon.

Sion received a decent buff which made him viable again:

Base Mana increased to 240 from 200
Mana per level increased to 40 from 25
Between them these buffs will make it easier to harass and survive in lane for an AD Sion who can't afford to stack stack Doran's rings.
Base Attack Speed increased to .625 from .591
Base Movement Speed increased to 320 from 315
The increased movespeed will make it easier for Sion to get in range and the attack-speed buff puts him in line with other AD carries. These buffs make him better all game long since attack speed items scale off base attack speed and Trinity Force scales with base movement speed.
Now gains 1.25 Magic Resist per level
A good buff to Sion's mid and late game survivability; at lvl 18 this is 22.5 extra MR. Resistances are especially valuable on AD sion because Enrage gives him extra health and Cannibalism gives him ridiculous lifegain once he starts hitting enemies. These both scale multiplicatively with Resistances so a small increase actually goes a long way. Magic resist is especially useful because it helps Sion survive the initial burst that AP champs will lay down at the start of a teamfight; if you're alive when you start hitting the enemies then chances are you will gain a whole load of that life back before their cooldowns come back up - and they should definitely be dead by then! :P

+ Extremely Effective Tanky DPS
+ Insane damage late game whilst healing yourself and allies for thousands makes Sion almost unkillable
+ Very strong ganker, especially with ignite
+ Strong laner, with good staying power after lvl 6 using Cannibalism and is able to take minion aggro well with passive Feel No Pain
+ Fulfils offtank role very well
+ Is viable in solo top or duo lane
+ Works well with a lot of aggressive laners to get early kills, e.g. Annie, Xin Zhao, Garen
+ Great combo in bottom lane with Taric; double stun and burst will let you kill or zone most enemies.
+ Strong farmer and pusher with Death's Caress
+ AD build + Cannibalism will see you go straight through towers and keep yourself and allies alive even when you are taking huge damage
+ Difficult to gank: Naturally tanky + 1.5 seconds stun Cryptic Gaze will let you survive all but the best ganks.
+ Cryptic gaze is a good interrupt to cancel channeled ultimates like nunu's Absolute Zero
+ Shield to protect against things like Karthus' Requiem and Ezrael's Trueshot Barrage
+ is one of the strongest additions a team can have to a lvl 1 teamfight over jungle buffs using Cryptic Gaze on an enemy caught out of position will almost always get your team a first blood.

- If put against two ranged characters when he is solo lane he will struggle and have to last hit at tower
- Has no escape ability; he is normally committed to any fight he enters. This means good knowledge of other champions and their items, as well as positioning is key.
- Shield now bursts quite easily without AP.
- Expensive build requires you to be very good at last hitting and staying in lane.
- Takes a little while until you get high DPS with purchase of Infinity Edge and again with Black Cleaver. Unfortunately these items cannot be rushed because Sion's survivability, utility and ability to finish enemies suffers too much.

Sion is currently outshone by better AP casters; at the time of writing there are at least 5 other champions who will beat him in lane, mid game and late game. They do more damage and provide better utility to their team. He is a mid-low range caster right now. While it is certainly possible to play him this way and enjoy success, there is a reason he hasn't been seen at top ELO play for months. I think Sion is currently more viable as an AD carry.

For those of you new to the game, champion selection is perhaps the most important few minutes of any game; how you build should depend on your team and the enemy team:

AD is better if:
- your team has strong mid game carries (e.g. nidalee) but only one late game carry.
- your team already has most of it's damage coming from AP sources. (If you go AP too, smart enemies will pick up an early negatron cloak or two and you will lose you the early teamfights and the game will snowball away from you.)
- you have a few slows or an aoe slow (anivia... kassadin...). Sion is a melee DPS so needs to be in 125 range to do decent damage... you have your stun but you will normally only be able to use that at the start and end of a teamfight, some decent slows on your team will enhance your ability to output high DPS without enemies getting away with ghost and flash. This mostly applies early game before you have Trinity Force.

AP is better if:
- you already have a strong late game physical carry (trynd... trystana... ashe... corki)
- you don't have enough cc on your team already (AP gets to 40% CDR by mid game which makes all the difference)
- your team needs a stronger mid-game

SEALS: Sion is quite mana intensive, I find 7 Greater Seal of Replenishment are enough to sort his mana problems when you take a Doran's Ring too. I then take 2 Greater Seal of Attack Speed because they add between 0.8-0.9% to his DPS depending on if his ult is on.

MARKS: Standard armour pen Greater Mark of Desolation are best. Some other crit builds suggest Greater Mark of Critical Chance, but this does not give you as much DPS. There is genuinely no reason to take them.

GLYPHS: Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction and Greater Glyph of Magic Resist are my preferences; you can change between them depending on how much your team needs your cc on low cooldown and how much magic damage opponents are likely to do.

QUINTS: As a melee DPS Sion really needs movespeed Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed x2 really helps out here, and a single Greater Quintessence of Desolation adds a little extra bit to his damage output.

I go 9/21/0. These masteries fit the role of sion in the team best; in teamfights he is a DPS-offtank with high health but not overly high armour or MR so the higher part of the defense mastery tree is more useful to him, especially the 4% decreased damage received and increased bonus attack speed and AP.

I then go up the Attack tree, taking Crit Chance, Attack Speed and armour penetration. If your team is a little low on cc, take the 4% CDR mastery in offense. You will need a little extra mana to cast more frequently so and don't take any Greater Seal of Attack Speed, just go 9 Greater Seal of Replenishment. You will have about 3% less DPS but will be able to cast your stun that little bit faster.

Going full 21 in offense means you have higher DPS but cannot play the offtank role so well, remember you join the fight as soon as the tank initiates and it falls to you and the tank between you to shut down their team's nukes and carries. You should be following the tank in immediately and if you are too squishy to do this YOUR TEAM loses out. If you are too squishy to fulfill the offtank role and stand inbetween your squishies and their tanks it could cost you some early teamfights and eventually the game.

A lot of other guides make the mistake of levelling Enrage at lvl 1 followed by Cryptic Gaze and then Death's Caress at levels 2 and 3.

The problem with this is it really limits what you can do for the first couple of levels; if you don't have your stun or shield you will not be able to harass or put up a decent fight if either a) they try to kill you, or b) there is an opportunity to kill them.

Without the decent harass of Death's Caress and the protection of Cryptic Gaze you will likely be dominated in lane, meaning you won't be able to last hit much anyway and may even be zoned out completely.

Don't level up your first skill at the fountain; wait until you know who you're against in lane or to see if there is a lvl 1 teamfight over Jungle Buffs. Make a better decision once you have more information. If you think you can get an early kill and have a strong laning partner, go straight for cryptic gaze. If you are in an easy lane against melee characters, take Death's Caress. Then get the other one, then get Enrage whenever you can.

I focus on Death's Caress after Enrage because it is useless if an enemy pops it before it can be used, so splitting levelling points between it and Cryptic Gaze is counter-productive since it gets growing returns from being focused on. If you need the CDR on cryptic gaze then go for that all the way, but don't split focus between them.

Obviously level up your Cannibalism at lvl 6, 11 and 16.

Flash is OP. Riot would have taken it out by now if ranged AD carries weren't so completely dependent on it to be viable. You can use it to escape or ensure a kill. You can also use it with your stun to initiate on an out of position target (note not a tank or offtank).

Ignite is useful for early game kills and healers like Soraka, Nidalee, Tryndamere and Dr. Mundo. I prefer Exhaust because it has a little more utility - shutting down their AD carry in a teamfight, or slowing an enemy to ensure a kill or ensure you can get away. With exhaust and Sion's ultimate, he is one of the strongest 1v1s in the game.

Cleanse is also viable, take it with Flash if you see they have a lot of cc on their team.

Teleport can replace Exhaust if you foresee a tough solo lane and need to get back to tower quickly. I think each team should have at least one Teleport for things like backdooring (attacking or defending), protecting towers from huge minion waves and occasionally teleporting to a friendly minion or ward when a lane-fight or dragon is going on. Sion is particularly good at this because you can load up Death's Caress right before you start the teleport to have it and a stun ready when you arrive. Great stuff.

None of the other summoner spells are appropriate for Sion except Ghost if you strongly prefer it, otherwise do not bother.

I have been trying out a rush on Philosopher's Stone and it is now my preferred starting route. The Regrowth Pendant and Health Potion will let you stay in lane for long enough to farm Boots and Philosopher's Stone. This helps deal with harass and the life you lose from Enrage at early levels. Get the Philo stone as early as you safely can - push your lane and go back to base if you can. If you need health potions and a ward wait a little longer. With the two movespeed quints Sion's movespeed will be 381 as he comes back into lane, this is faster than any other character who isn't also using movespeed quints.

I then go for Trinity Force at this point because it gives Sion everything he needs and is a very good value item if a character can use all of it's benefits. The slow and damage amplification proc are both really useful to sion since he has a high AD but no slow of his own. Use your judgement when deciding which item to start with; It is often best to start with Sheen because a lot of sion's damage will be done by Cryptic Gaze on an enemy and then running to hit them, this activates the Sheen proc and will up your DPS by a lot because it scales off your Attack Damage which by now will be pretty high thanks to Enrage, it also gives you extra mana which is great. Phage is useful if you aren't likely to get lizard buff (your jungler wants it) and are against a ranged laner who can't 1v1 you with your ult up and prefers to pick away at you with harass. The extra health is also good against bursters. Zeal will add more to your movespeed than level 2 boots (416.25 vs 407.55) at this point so don't get your Mercury Treads unless you need the MR or are worried about a strong ganking jungler and you need the Tenacity.

Next buy your Mercury Treads since you will need the speed (438!) to get into combat, the Tenacity to be able to stick onto your chosen target and the MR to avoid being bursted down.

At this point mid game is finishing and Sion's build can move into Atma's Impaler, Spirit Visage or Infinity Edge. I chose these items because they have great synergy with Sion's current items and kit, the order in which you choose them depends on the enemy team's damage.

Atma's Impaler: They are dealing a lot of Physical Damage and not much magic damage. There is a ranged carry who is smashing Sion as he is running into combat.

Spirit Visage: They are dealing a lot of magic burst and not much physical damage. Sion's stun is very important to the team and needs better cooldowns.

Infinity Edge: You are not getting focused and have no problems getting into combat alive.

If you are against a balanced enemy team, you should probably pick up the Chain Vest and Null Magic Mantle to give you a strong defense. At level 11 with Trinity Force, assuming you have farmed 100 creeps, your defensive stats should be:

Health: 2085
Armour: 105
Magic Resist: 99

Use your judgement when deciding the order of the next few items. At this point I would recommend finishing Atma's Impaler and then getting Infinity Edge. At this point your damage will be extremely high.

Why the items are brilliant:

Atma's Impaler:

This item was made for characters like Sion; he has one of the highest base health characteristics (2345 at lvl 18) of all champions, let alone AD carries. Add to that the 250 extra from Trinity Force, another 250 from Spirit Visage and another 300 from Enrage and Sion can easily be 2,500 health by mid game and 3,200 by late game. This means the passive on Atma's Impaler gives Sion between 50 and 65 extra damage. This scales with the proc from Trinity Force and the crit chance from Infinity Edge, Atma's Impaler and Trinity Force. Consider that it also gives 45 Armour (scales multiplicatively with all that health) and provides more Crit Chance and you have a great item for Sion.

Spirit Visage

This is a cheap item for the stats it gives: 30 MR will help Sion survive the initial burst of enemy mages, 250 health is great since it scales with Sion's MR and the Armour and Passive from Atma's Impaler. The passive on this now works work on lifesteal, of which Cannibalism is a ridiculous example. This item is obviously great later in the game when Sion reaches 100% lifesteal; it will increase this further to 115%. The Cooldowns are great because
Sion's sun can really be key to a teamfight and lets more Trinity Force procs go off, further increasing DPS.

Infinity Edge

The best DPS item at this point is Infinity Edge which is superior to Black Cleaver following it's buffs on April 11th Patch. Your damage increases very quickly when you have this item which means lots of damage and lots of healthgain from the lifesteal.
Some other builds recommend getting Phantom Dancer or Bloodthirster next. This is an oversight; Infinity Edge is vastly superior to both of these, Black Cleaver is the next best DPS item after Infinity Edge but is less of a priority than Trinity Force, Infinity Edge, Atma's Impaler and Spirit Visage.

Below is a graph I made which shows the DPS comparison between items when combined with Infinity Edge. I have not cut any corners with the calculations and have modelled the average DPS as accurately as possible, accounting for Cannibalism, Tri Force Procs, crits, Tri-Force procs which crit and armour penetration. If you are interested, the calculations are here (seehttps://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhzS2MBhETapdDI1LWgtZGFCcTM1TTRoMUo3RmR5NXc&hl=en):

The Y axis is Damage done over an 8 second period, the X axis is the armour of the target.


Black Cleaver has two lines; one shows DPS when an average of 2 stacks have been applied (i.e. the DPS rate when you only hit the enemy 3 times before attacking another enemy). This is a good guideline since between you and your allies, you should be able to kill a squishy enemy within 1.5 sec. This is especially true if you have another high phys DPS character on your team, since the Black Cleaver decreases the enemy's armour rather than increasing your Armour Pen. This means that your physical allies do much more damage than they normally would! The second Black Cleaver line shows DPS rate when you have an average of 3 stacks, this is the highest DPS rate of all the items. Contrary to popular belief, the Black Cleaver is actually more effective against squishies than armour-stacking opponents. Why? because it uses what is effectively flat armour pen, which gets diminishing returns against high armour enemies. In practice, when using this item your DPS rate will be somewhere between the two lines shown.

As you can see, the Armour Pen from Black Cleaver more than makes up for it's lack of crit chance, pick it up after your Infinity Edge. It is built from a Dagger and a B.F. Sword. The Dagger adds about 9% to your DPS, whereas the B.F. Sword adds about 14%. The Dagger is clearly better value for money so don't save for a B.F. Sword if you find yourself at base with enough for a Dagger but not enough for a B.F. Sword, if however, you can afford the B.F. Sword, then buy that first.

Youmuu's Ghost Blade offers less damage for about 800 less gold. It crucially however provides movespeed and CDR. I recommend getting this if you feel you need these a lot in a teamfight. If your team doesn't have much cc and you are against competent tanks/offtanks this item is very valuable because it allows you to quickly get to the enemy squishies in the back of their group. After the 8 seconds it is active (what this graph shows), it drops down to the same DPS rate as Phantom Dancer and Bloodthirster. Bear this in mind when considering the trade-off.

Phantom Dancer does less damage than both Youmuu's Ghostblade and Black Cleaver and it's increased movespeed doesn't make up for this since Sion is already very fast and gets diminishing returns from any extra increases. I didn't include Bloodthirster in this graph because it isn't really competetive with the others; it's about 7% below Phantom Dancer and 26% below Black Cleaver in DPS terms even when fully stacked, the extra lifesteal doesn't make up for this since sion has ridiculous lifesteal anyeway. Calculations are on the lvl 16 tab at (seehttps://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhzS2MBhETapdDI1LWgtZGFCcTM1TTRoMUo3RmR5NXc&hl=en)

It is worth getting Elixir of Agility once you have your Infinity Edge so you can take advantage of the 250% crit.

Other items: what's viable and what's not

If the situation calls for it:

Thornmail Use it if they have a lot of Phys damage which is wrecking your team. Check in your Death Recap that it is phys damage. Note this is preferable to Frozen Heart because you don't take advantage of the 500 mana and you go 6% over the CDR cap if you take it.

A Negatron Cloak If you go up against an all AP team. This will greatly increase the amount of damage it takes to kill you. For 740 it's phenomenal value. Don't feel like you have to build full items all the time, Negatron Cloak is great value MR.

Quicksilver Sash Use if they are cc heavy. This is especially useful if you are being singled out as a target for suppressions like Malzahar's Nether Grasp and Warwicks Infinite Duress, or blinds like Teemo's Toxic Shot.

Guardian's Angel: When you are (somehow) the least tanky on the team. You shouldn't get it otherwise because it causes people to not attack you. This means they attack your team, including your squishies. With your high HP, decent MR and Armour and Ridiculous lifesteal, you actually want to take quite a lot of fire to make sure you win the teamfight. You will get a better score with this item, but you will win less games.

Last Whisper: If the enemy stacks armour, pick up one of these and go right through it.

Executioner's Calling: if they have a Jax, Mundo and Fiddlesticks then maybe. Chances are though someone in your team will have Ignite which does the job just fine. Just don't attack the jax until everyone else is dead.

Do not ever get:

Boots of Swiftness Why? These only give you 20 extra movespeed. Trinity Force gives you a permaslow as well as movespeed, Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed gives you movespeed and you have a 1.5 second stun. If you think this will make getting at squishies easier, think again: you will be cc'd and will go no faster than if you had Mercury Treads.

Mobility Boots Sion is not a roamer constantly looking for ganks and needing to zoom around the map. As such he is better suited to Mercury Treads.

Zeke's Harbinger Except for the 20 Armour Pen your Cannibalism does this much better. You need other items more.

Frozen Mallet is used in some builds, but the truth is you should almost never get this; It is about 800 gold cheaper than Trinity Force which does SO MUCH for sion and is integral to his late game power. The slows are equivalent with Sion's high AS, so you are trading in 550 health and 800 gold for 12 move speed, 250 mana, 30 AP, 10 AD (the difference between them), 15 crit chance and a massive attack damage boost which scales with AD and crit chance. It's just not worth it.

Warmog's Armor is used in some builds because it synergises well with Atma's Impaler and makes you more tanky. Unfortunately you only pick up about 20 AD off the synergy and Sion already has high health from Trinity Force, Spirit Visage and Enrage. You should be on about 3,200 between these. If you want to be tanky, build MR and Armour, which have growing returns the more health you have.

Bloodthirster: Don't ever take it. Sion has more than enough lifesteal and AD. He needs AS, crit chance and Armour pen. This item gives him less DPS than: Youmuu's, PD, Black Cleaver and IE. Don't ever get it, period.

Phantom Dancer as above, this offers much less DPS than all the equivalent items. The increase in movespeed isn't enough to compensate for this. Avoid.

Laning

Laning vs Jungling: Sion is a moderate/weak jungler; there is a guide somewhere on Mobafire which shows that Sion can jungle and I agree that it works. The problem is that the Rune/Mastery setup and purchase of Madred's razor etc. hit his late game usefulness too hard because he is not getting optimal items for his skill set and he is not getting enough farm. He does not make the most of enrage because you kill fewer monsters in the jungle than minions in the lane. Sion is a very strong laner, with his stun, shield and ignite you can farm, harass and get kills in lane. There is simply no need to jungle. Leave it to someone who is better at it and whose skillset matches the items better.

Sion should definitely be laning:

Which Lane?

If possible get a solo lane to get more creep farm and levels.

Your carry should be in mid, if there is no-one appropriate/willing, you can take it if you are experienced enough with Sion. In general (not all the time) people will go mid if they are experienced and confident with their champs, so you can expect a tougher time there.

You are best put in solo top or 1v2 top. 1v1 you should be fine, if you are taking 1v2 you will probably have to be quite passive to begin with since any exchanges they will most likely win. Fortunately you will level quicker and once you get level 6 you can stay in lane indefinitely with the lifegain from your Cannibalism.

Sion is slightly better top than mid because he can use the bushes very well to aid his harass, discussed later in the guide.

Sion is an excellent 2v2 bottom lane champion. He works particularly well with other early game champions, especially if they have a slow or stun. E.g. Xin Zhao, Annie, Garen, Swain, Dr. Mundo, Cho Gath, Irelia, Nunu & Willump. A stun can also be used to ensure allied skillshots land, e.g. Nidalee's Spear, Lux's Cage. and can allow for very strong harass, just make sure no minions will block the shot before you stun. Lanes like this are very strong and you can esily get some kills if you play it right.

Following his recent buffs I would recommend Taric to go bottom with Sion; he has decent sustain and the stunlock they can lay down between them is properly filthy; if one stuns and they both run in, auto-attack and cast their spells then stun again and continue attacking it is easy to get a kill or lower the enemy enough to be able to zone them out.

If you have a teammate with an appropriate champion who says they are good and up for early kills, esp if they have either Ignite or Exhaust, then you can lane 2v2 Bottom. Otherwise try to get one of the other solo lanes.

Laning tips and strategies

Sion has a small mana pool which is quickly used up at early levels. Once you have your Mana Crystal or Sheen this is a bit better. But don't blow all your mana straight away unless it will definitely get you a kill.

Whenever you are laning, make a note of what summoner spells your opponent(s) and laning partner has. Make a note of whenever they use them and use this to your advantage. E.g. if they have Exhaust they will be stronger 1v1. Also if they have Flash/ Ghost/ Cleanse/ Heal they will be harder to kill. If they have are casters with low mana but one has Clarity they could be baiting you.

Also consider what items they have:

Cloth Armour & 5 Health Potion : More resilient to Phys attacks & minion Aggro, can stay in lane a long time.

Boots: Faster than you, can get away/chase better than you.

Doran's Shield: More resilient to phys attacks and minion Aggro, decent health regen.

Doran's Ring: Decent mana regen enough to harass you with spells. Additional AP to make them hit a bit harder.

Doran's Blade: Stronger in a 1v1 fight, relies on lifesteal to regain health.

Vampiric Scepter: Relies on lifesteal to regain health.

You can exploit the weakness of these last two items by harassing them very hard immediately and then playing aggressively to keep them away from minions; if they are at 1/3 health and you have 3/4 health they cannot fight you and win, so position yourself between them and your minions to zone them out of gold and even experience if you can. When you are doing this, do not push the lane; only last hit. This will let your minions be damaged as much as possible by the enemy minions; some will die, the rest will die in one tower shot. This means you deny your opponent lots of Gold and make it very hard for him to deal enough damage to get his life back up. He either has to go back to base or call for a gank, so be wary of ganking junglers and people going miss from other lanes when you use this strategy.

Harrassing

Very important, if you don't harass, your enemies will dominate you because they know they can win in a 1v1 fight if you have lower life. Co-ordinate with your laning partner if you have one to decide who you will harass. Generally anyone without a heal or lots of health potions is a good choice. Especially if they are squishy and weak early game, e.g. Ashe. Focus your harass on them and only harass the other if the opportunity presents itself and the other is too far away.

Sion harasses better in side lane because the bushes are closer to the minions; hide in the side bushes and activate Death's Caress after 4 seconds, when the time is right, run out, stun the enemy hit him a few times and pop your shield. You should be able to put some serious damage out with this. If you can, do it when most of their minions are on low health, that way, when you pop your shield you will kill them, picking up last hits but importantly, you will take much less minion damage when you do this. If after this the enemy wants to stand and fight, you will have minion advantage (i.e. he will take more minion damage than you) and with ignite you might be able to get a kill.

Try not to let them see you put Death's Caress on as it's very easy to just keep your distance from Sion until he uses it. If you must you can use it to block damage especially from projectile skillshots. E.g. you see Ezrael's Mystic Shot coming towards you at close range, hit your shield to take it and stun him, hit him a few times (keep your shield up if minions are attacking you) and then blow your shield. If you have the advantage keep attacking him and force HIM to run. If you run he can attack you with range as you walk away, if he runs then you win the exchange by a big margin.

You can also use your shield to avoid damage from Damage over Times, like Ignite, Toxic Shot etc. or if you see a stun incoming like Taric's Dazzle, hit your shield so you don't take so much damage when they auto attack you and you have your damage ready when you come out of the stun to retaliate.

If they have a strong ganking jungler, you will need to ward if you want to push the lane. Most Junglers can gank only when they have red buff and are lvl 4, they are normally about the same level as the duo lane champs at this point. So if you see your duo lane champs are lvl 4, it might be better to stop pushing the lane.

Farming

This is an expensive build so Sion needs to kill a lot of minions to pay for it all. This is why you want to have a solo lane. Last hit minions wherever possible, whether by attacking them or using Death's Caress to get a bunch at the same time. Farming is very important to Sion.

Last hitting under tower: if your opponents have pushed you back, you can still pick up those last hits:

until you have levelled up enrage a fair bit it takes the following number of hits to kill each minion:

Combat Minion: 2 from Sion, 1 from tower. So hit him first, let the tower hit him, then hit him again to get the last hit.

Caster Minion: 1 hit from Sion, 1 from tower. So let the tower hit him first, then auto attack to pick up the kill.

If you are being harassed while you do this, use Death's Caress to avoid damage.

In mid game you are a very quick farmer: go up to a group of minions, turn on Death's Caress and then hit each minion individually and then pop your shield. This will give you the kill on every single one.

Avoiding Ganks

Get some map awareness! Glance at your mini map at least once every 10 seconds to look for people who are missing from lane, especially your closest lane. Ask your allies to call miss by pressing "Shift + G" and then clicking the map several times to indicate the direction they think they are going. Writing "ss" or "ss Xin Zhao" in chat is not good enough because it doesn't make a sound and people may not notice it if they are in the middle of a harass war. If an opponent recalled and another lane is vulnerable to a gank from them, ping the map and say "Xin Zhao not returned from base yet, care".

If everyone calls miss like this you should not give away any kills from ganks from other laners.

Get a ward or don't push the lane if you want to avoid getting ganked by a jungler/roamer.

If you leave your lane for whatever reason (e.g. Red Buff or recall)it is still your responsibility to call miss from your lane. So keep an eye on it and inform allies promptly.

Buffs

You are middle-high priority for both Red and Blue buff in early game.

Be a team player, if there is someone with higher priority then offer it to them if they really do need it more than you. For example, blue buff is essential to Anivia who is very mana hungry and Nidalee who needs it to spam spells and snowball to a mid-game carry.

Red buff should be yours until you have built your Trinity Force which has a decent in-built slow, let another phys champ take Red once you have your Tri Force.

If no-one is taking blue then you are more than happy to use it - especially mid-late game once mages have their mana problems sorted out; the CDR will be great for getting 3 stuns off in a teamfight and proccing your Trinity Force twice more than you usually would.

Sion's Ult + DPS make him ideal for tanking dragon at early levels with only one more teammate. Co-ordinate with your team (especially your jungler) and try to take it each time it is up and you can safely get it. Dragon is normally only taken by the jungler, mid lane and bottom lane champions. It's too far for top lane to get involved (this is why bottom lane normally has 2 people in it - it controls dragon better). Take dragon if between your jungler, mid lane and bottom lane you can win a fight if you had to. Normally this involves having more of your team nearby than the opponents. So if you get a kill, or force a recall, get Dragon while the enemy can't stop you.

With his ult, Sion can initiate on Baron if the tank isn't around, don't be afraid to start before your teammates have all arrived.

Warding

A team which wards is more likely to win. I won't go into huge detail here, but I really recommend reading this guide http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/warding-helper-more-than-your-eyes-can-see-54337 it's very helpful.

Warding should normally fall to a jungler early game and then a support late game. If no one else is warding and haven't started despite you asking them to, then it is worth Sion doing some basic high priority warding - Dragon early game, Baron Late game.

Make sure you have Ghost off cooldown and Cryptic Gaze ready if you are going into hostile territory, if you think they might be baiting in a bush for you don't go without your whole team. Try to wait for a time when you can see most of their team somewhere else on the map.

If you have the money, get a sight ward when you first go back to get Bezerker's Greaves put it up if they have a strong ganking jungler, otherwise hang onto it until for whatever reason your laning enemy leaves his lane (perhaps he has taken your tower and gone to gank). At this point go up towards mid and put it in the river, covering Baron/Dragon, but slightly more towards mid. This lets you push hard for their tower, and if someone comes from Blue Buff or Mid, you will see them on their way and can make a timely exit without dying.


Teamfights

First of all: don't let yourself get into a situation where the enemy can initiate a teamfight that you can't win, go back to your tower with your group if you have to, ping the tower with "Shift + G" to let them know.

If you have a numerical advantage and can win the fight, initiate immediately with your stun; you will either get one kill or several depending on whether their teammates run or stick around.

Before you initiate, ping the target with "Shift + G" to let your team-mates know what's about to go down, otherwise your stun could wear off before they get involved.

Only initiate if your teammates are close enough to immediately capitalise on your stun. i.e. you are in a close group.

Don't initiate if the tank is there and is a good player; if he is a ****** then you may have to do his job for him. It seems obvious but never initiate if your team can't win the fight. If the enemies are at tower, bear in mind that it will be much easier for them to chase nearly-dead champions than for you to, so if it's an even chance, don't fight. If they win they Ace you, if you win you may only get 2 kills.

While teamfights are brewing press tab and look at the enemy team, don't look at kills, look at items and levels; if you know the character's skills and the items and levels you can quickly work out who is the biggest threat to your team (i.e. the one who does most damage). Tell your team in chat, in CAPS if you have to, who to focus. e.g.

Katarina has a Rabadon's Deathcap + Rylai's Crystal Scepter + Void Staff.
Ashe has B.F. Sword + Phantom Dancer,
Lux has Rabadon's Deathcap + Rod of Ages
Nasus and Malphite are both built tanky with Sunfire Aegis+ Banshee's Veil etc.

write in the chat:

FOCUS: KATARINA > ASHE > LUX. DO NOT ATTACK: MALPHITE OR NASUS

if everyone follows this instruction you have a huge advantage in the teamfight. Splitting damage between champions is a great way to get your team aced while your enemies all walk away on 1/4 health.

NEVER ATTACK THE TANKS UNTIL EVERYONE ELSE IS DEAD. If someone like Mundo is bumbling around in front of you away from his team, don't take the bait, punish him by auto attacking him but don't use any spells and immediately be ready to change targets as soon as the fight starts.

If you have a choice between attacking a full health Ashe and a 1/3 health Malphite, many people go for malphite. This is a Classic mistake: Malphite has more MR, Armour, higher Max Health and an ability Ground Slam for helping him stay alive. So even though he is on 1/3 health he will take longer to kill than a full health ashe, in addition, Ashe will do more damage while attacking you while you focus malphite than malphite would do if you focused ashe.

If Malphite has 900HP out of MAX 2,700, 150 armour, 100 MR, it will take longer to kill him than an Ashe with 1,400HP out of MAX 1,400, 60 armour and 30 MR.

Assuming everyone has the right penetration runes and magic damagers have sorc boots hey have the following effective HPs:

Malphite:
HP against Magic sources: ((((100 - (20 + 8.5)) * .85) / 100) * 900) + 900 = 1 446.975
HP against Phys sources: (((150 - (14.94 + 6.66 + 6)) / 100) * 900) + 900 = 2 001.6

Ashe:
HP against Magic sources:((((30 - (20 + 8.5)) * .85) / 100) * 1 400) + 1 400 = 1 417.85
HP against Phys sources: (((60 - (14.94 + 6.66 + 6)) / 100) * 1400) + 1400 = 1 853.6

Always go for the squishy unless the tank if VERY close to dead.

Using your stun as an interrupt

If you are against an enemy with a channelled ult, any fear, stun, silence, knock-back, knock-up or taunt will interrupt it and stop it right there. This means Sion can use his ult to shut down Nunu's Absolute Zero, Katarina's Death Lotus etc etc. Co-ordinate with your team before hand and make sure only one person is allocated to use their cc as the interrupt.

Sion is a fun character to play, who doesn't like walking around doing crazy damage and being unkillable and sounding like Arnie? Sion is the Terminator of League of Legends.

If you think this guide has helped you at all, please rate it positively :)

SpicyRice