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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Glory in Death (PASSIVE)
Sion Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Graves
Graves is the hardest matchup by far. In a 1v1 situation early it is almost impossible to beat him. He can dodge your charged Q with his E pretty easily and once he gets Death's dance and Phantomdancer to lower his received damage, i can ensure you with utmost certainty, that there won't be any chance at all to beat him in a 1v1. Best advice i have is to build full tank, max E and play passive or group early and focus him with your team.
Introduction
This guide will hopefully teach you some interesting tricks and give you an insight on this great champ Sion.
I beforehand already excuse for my bad english, as it is not my mother tongue.
I think the armor/mr glyphs/seals are pretty self-explaining.
I take hybrid pen for the marks, because a good portion of Sion's damage comes from his W Soul Furnace and his E Roar of the Slayer.
I, however take flat AD quints as I build Sion to primary deal physical damage.
Pros
+ Very high unexpected burst
+ Great CC
+ Due to beeing underplayed, people won't expect what he is capable of
+ Great tankiness, due to his W Soul Furnace passive effect.
+ Best ult engage in the game
+ Hybrid damage
+ Good early game laning
+ Insane waveclear
Cons
- Farm reliant for full potential
- Ult can be interrupted easily
- Ult can fail pretty easily
- A wrong engage can cost you the game
- Passive is only useful, when dead
- Ult warns the enemy globally
- No gapclosers early
Early game:
Corrupting Potion:
It seems just too good not to buy it. The sustain it offers is insane for the early game and since the enemy top laner will most likely buy one, you kind of have to aswell, or else they can have an advantage over you by having more sustain.
Substitutions:
Doran's Ring:
A bit cheesy, but a fine choice for early trades with your E and W.
Doran's Shield/Doran's Blade :
It is up to everyone themselves if they prefer sustain or combat stats during the laning phase. I like the potion more, but if you fight more often, it's fine to go a Doran's item.
Mid game/Core items:
Titanic Hydra and Black Cleaver
My 2 favorite damage items for Sion. I like them both for their Off-Tank stats and the Hydra especially for the insane waveclear it provides. Both in combination can allow you to sometimes 2 or 3-shot and ADC in the mid game when you are hitting them in your passive form, Glory in Death. Black Cleaver might be seen a bit rarer than Titanic Hydra, but I personally think that it is a really great item for Sion, because it provides tank and damage stats and it can stack with your E's armor shred for some really insane damage. It also gives Sion a bit more dueling potential, as you deal more damage the more stacks you can get onto the enemy, making you sometimes unbeatable in a 1v1 or even 1v2.
All in all Titanic Hydra and Black Cleaver provide good waveclear and duelling potential for Sion throughout the mid/late game.
Late game/Defensive Items:
For late game items i usually pick up something with more tanky stats, because getting more damage isn't going to be as useful in the late game or teamfights as tanky stats are. The best defensive items for Sion in my opinion are:
For MR:
Spirit Visage against champs that deal damage over a longer period of time in a fight like: or or even
or/and
Maw of Malmortius against champs that have one important burst of damage like:
or or even
Note: Against multiple AP-champs you can get a Locket of the Iron Solari
For Armor:
Sunfire Cape is really good, because you are a melee champ and your R and Q require you to be close to the enemy and some extra damage is always nice =) .
or/and
Iceborn Gauntlet is a really good item in combination with Sunfire Cape. They both provide primary tank stats but also give you some sort of Utility and minor damage. Iceborn Gauntlet also has a nice synergy with your passive, Glory in Death as your speed up counts as a spell which will therefore proc the passive effect of the item. All in all it provides solid stats and has a nice synergy with your champ, but is still rather passive, so if you snowball your opponent in the lane i recommend picking up a damage item and add this item to your build later on in the game.
or/and
Randuins Omen against crit heavy comps, that have champs like Yasuo, GP or more than 1 ADC.
or/and
Thornmail against comps that are more attack focused than spell focused.
For Health:
Normally I am not in need of any health items, because i always buy some Off-Tank items that already provide some Health, and your W-passive will most of the time give you more than enough health, I even had some games where i got more than 1100 HP only from the W-passive ability.
ZZ'Rot Portal
I haven't build this item more than 2 times, as i consider it more to be a cheesy one than one to be taken serious. I am just the wrong person to ask about this item in general. I will try to experiment around with it and maybe then add a section about what i have experienced about it in the near future.
=
or
= most other tanks
However if you want to know a specific matchup, add me on EUW: TheMadSiontist ; or ask me in the comments
I think the "Lane camping" is a really important aspect of Sion. It is one of the reasons that encouraged me to skill my Q Decimating Smash up first. The first "camping" i do, is right after i pull my jungler. I walk into the 2nd lane brush and I channel up my Q Decimating Smash to get the first 3 melee minions. In the best case scenario, it also hits my opponent who is trying to get his creeps, with the full blow. Afterwards i walk up to them and use the time they are stunned for 2 autoattacks which proc my thunderlords. If everything was according to the plan, you get the enemy down to 1/2 of their max hp and you only take 1-2 autoattacks from them.
The next time i usually camp in a brush, is when my jungler makes a successfull gank, and kills the enemy top laner with me. Afterwards i tell my jungler to stay in a brush with me and wait for the enemy to tp back top. It works 70% of the times i'd say and it is definitely worth trying out, because the enemy won't expect you to be still there camping with your jungler. Always pre-charge your Q Decimating Smash. It is your most important spell when you want to pull of a successfull camp.
Another really great spot to trap for the enemy team is when you are about to fight for an objective, such as Dragon and you have enough vision to wait in a vital spot for the enemy and charge up your Decimating Smash. To accomplish the vision, i like to get the Red Trinket, Oracle Lense, as soon as i am at lvl 9 and buy a Pink Ward, when I'm about to group up for an objective.
The last, but most important one, is when you siege their side lane turrets as a team. Tell your team to let the enemy push up to you. If you position yourself in the lane brush between their tier 2 and tier 3 turret, the enemy will alomst certainly not expect you in there. I can right now think of about 3 games that were instantly won, because i hit a fully charged Decimating Smash onto multiple people when sieging a side lane. A really underrated and really useful trick.
[*] How to master Sions Ultimate Unstoppable Onslaught :
Sions ultimate ability Unstoppable Onslaught is one of the best ultimates in the game in my opinion. It is a great engage tool and has an insane amount of cc and damage potential. Without further ado let's get started.
1.) Different ways to ult and how to:
First of all there are 2 ways to use your ultimate, short range when you are in battle, and long range as an engaging or escaping tool.
I personally like using my ult short range, as an extension for cc, i.e. if i hit my Q Decimating Smash from a brush and then instantly close the gap with my ultimate. It extends your cc and allows you to close the gap to your target.
For long range usage there are 2 times when you should ult, when you need to escape from the enemys, or when you use it as an engaging tool. I think the escape partis pretty easy. Make sure to ult early enough though, or else the enemy can block you and cancel your ultimate. As for engaging, i like to wait for someone else to engage usually. A giant Sion that rushes at the enemy, can most of the times be easily evaded with a single dash. That's why i like my team to start the fight, because when there is the chaos of a teamfight already starting, the enemys can't focus on dodging you as easily as they would when you are the one engaging alone.
2.) Things to watch out for:
There are certain mechanics of the game that you will have to look out for, when ulting. Even though you are able to walk through minions, you are not able to pass the following things:
Anivia's W, Crystallize ; Trundle's E, Pillar of Ice ; Azir's Emperor's Divide ; Jarvan's Cataclysm ; Turrets ; Inhibitors ; Nexuses ; all walls of the map ; a really rare occuring bug with Ryze's Rune Prison which makes you stand in place in your ult animation when used at the same moment you use your Ultimate.
It is also important to sometimes cancel your ult, to stay as close as possible to enemys that have dodged or evaded your ult in some way. Canceling your ult early can be vital vs the following:
Vladimir's Sanguine Pool ; Fizz's Playful / Trickster ; Zhonya's Hourglass; Bard's Tempered Fate ; Master Yi's Alpha Strike ; Lissandra' self cast Frozen Tomb ; Elise's Rappel .
For wall-drifting i suggest you check out a video from a funny Youtuber called "DBlackjack21". He made a video about how to wall-drift with Sion's ultimate, where he explains it, right here -->GTA Sion
For the last part, just a little trick. It is possible to use Sion's ultimate to bring aoe-damage onto multiple enemy members by "Flash Ulting". So when you see the enemy team stacked up you can "Flash Ult" onto them. Your ult will knock them all close enough for you to get your titanic hydra attack of onto multiple members and your Q, which should be short-casted as you will alomst certainly get some source of cc against you, to stop your Q-channeling. This can get multiple enemys to about 1/2 % of their HP, making it very easy for your team to kill them afterwards.
[*] A last small tip:
Infinite health from your W-passive, Soul Furnace through the exploitation of the mechanic of ZZ'Rot Portal.
Maybe some of you have know this already, but Last-hitting a Voidspawn, does count towards your Creep Score and therefore to the amount of Health you are granted from your W-passive Soul Furnace. That means you can farm your MAX HP at a position where a Voidspawn from an enemys ZZ'Rot-portal is easily killable for you. Just stand there and get every Voidspawn that walks up to you. This is really useful and pretty cool, for some extra MAX HP.
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