Welcome to the Sion Pubstomping guide!

Let's see here; well first off, you've picked Sion. This already puts you ahead of the curve. After all, who doesn't like a hard stun, shield, Infi-health, and of course, 100%+ lifesteal?!

This guide is explaining the way that I build Sion, so that I can dominate most Normal Games. Please keep this in mind; this guide is not specifically for ranked games! (of course, many principles still apply!)

This is my first guide. I realize that there are quite a few blocks of text, and I will be putting in some pictures, and hopefully some in-game footage to better explain the jungle route.

Also, to clear up some confusion, a pubstomp is a situation where your very organized team rolls over the opposing team!


Alright. So, there's the great debate between AP Sion and AD Sion. I play both quite often! I'm personally just a fan of AD Sion, though. With AP, your ult, and your E go to waste. 100% lifesteal and 50% attack speed is just strong! If you're fed, and you pop your ult, you can do crazy things! For example: this is a video I took in a recent game!
Play Video
I realize this isn't necessarily the best or most impressive thing ever, but you can do this on a fairly regular basis with AD Sion, following my guide. I know, because I do it!

Recommended Summoner Spells

Ghost is a wonderful skill for Sion. It's a better gap closer than flash, and still has decent escape. Being a melee DPS, having that gap closer is important, as Sion has none in his skill bar.


Exhaust is also great. Really want a kill? chain your exhaust and your ghost for staying in range for a crazy long time! Drop it on the opposing AD carry in a team fight. Seeing as Sion pumps out massive damage, ignite isn't as necessary for a kill.

Other Good Spells

Flash is one of the best skills. Feel free to use this over ghost, as it gives much better escapability, which Sion rather lacks!


Ignite is great for getting first blood, and is a decent counter to opposing supports, because of the heal de-buff.


This skill is VERY underrated. Pop your ult, and watch them all burn their CC on you. Pop your cleanse, and suddenly you're free to wail away again!


Teleport is always nice for quick, unexpected ganks, backdoors, and just getting back to lane faster!

Spells to Avoid


Honestly... die less!


Surge is used mostly for getting tower kills. Sion can easily kill towers without it! Much less of an offensive tool than exhaust or ignite!


Let's face it... this skill is pretty bad. It auto-pushes your lane, which you don't want to do early game!


Just leave these to your support or carry with heal. You don't need heal with your massive lifesteal, your mana isn't a huge deal. Buy lots of potions!

My Favorite Runes!


These are godly for Sion; he has to be in range to attack. What better early advantage than being faster than the other champs? Also, Sion has a very high base movement speed of 320, giving a pretty decent percantage boost early, mid, and yes, even late game!

Greater Mark of Desolation
Basically, if you don't pick these as an AD character... well... yeah. Flat AD are ok, but don't add up to the same damage.


I'm a big fan of flat armor runes. Not only is it basically necessary for early game jungling, in lane it gives a great advantage over any ranged opponents; being able to soak up a few pokes without needing to b is very, very helpful.


With blues it's pretty standard to go with shielding runes for carries, and there's no reason to not use them on Sion. The MR can help immensely late-game, as the only way to kill a Sion is to have quite a bit of burst damage.

Other Good Runes!


This is basically the same reasoning as with the glyphs of shielding, but gives more of an early game buff, and scales back a bit late game. Both are acceptable!

Greater Quintessence of Desolation
These are also perfectly acceptable quints to use. The massive armor pen really helps to boost damage early/mid game.


These are just great runes to have and use. If you have 'em, you can use 'em. Good chunk of health really helps early game when ganking.

Of course, if you're really feeling ballsy, you could always go with Greater Seal of Critical Damage and some blues to give CDR, mana-regen, or even more armor pen, but frankly, I believe it's better to have a beefy Sion than a glass-cannon Sion (if there were such a thing!). I'll get more into the strategy and mentality of a Sion later, though!

Proficient Pros

-Extraordinarily strong 1v1 champion
-Hard Stun (non skill shot!)
-Nearly infinite health with E
-Gamechanging ult (see below)
-Voice is similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger.......

Cons

-Relatively weak in lane till level 6
-Fairly CC-intolerant

This Section is divided into two; Laning and Jungling.

Laning Items
Starting out with a Dagger may seem strange. Most Sion guides, even AD Sion guides, recommend starting out with a Doran's Ring. This is a good item, but frankly, by simply not spamming spells, you'll find that you don't run into too many mana issues early game!

I go with the Dagger because it gives a great advantage to early game creep farming. At level two, grab Enrage, and you'll already start to build your health pool. Not to mention, if the opponent decides to get close to you, you can use your Cryptic Gaze to get a few auto attacks in! In both farming and doing damage, the attack speed is a little better than say, Boots.

I have received a few comments about the choice of a dagger as the first item! Again, the most popular items are boots or a Doran's Ring. I will admit that the Doran's gives better sustainability very early game. However, there are quite a few advantages to building attack speed as your first stat. First of all, especially when you hit level two, it makes farming considerably easier. By virtue of having very high AD and a pretty good AS, you can last hit creeps wonderfully! Farming is very, very important on Sion; again, for every creep kill you get, you increase your maximum health. By only last hitting minions, you can run into trouble if you don't have the attack speed to keep up with your creep's damage. As such, starting with a Dagger will virtually guarantee you a better early game farm! Also, Sion has a very high base movement speed. With the your movement quints, you should have a movement speed of ~330 or higher! Although this does not make up for a lack of boots, you're already considerably ahead of most slower champions (i.e. Ashe, Nautilus). This is also fast enough to dodge most pokes, even those from Caitlyn! Seeing as early game you should not be pushing your lane, you should (hopefully) not run into too much of an issue with ganks. Of course, most opposing junglers won't start with boots, and if you're not the first gank target, you'll have enough money for boots!

Of course, Boots or a Doran's Ring are both great starting items. It's all about your playing style!

That being said, any of those three items are very strong to start with for Sion, and your build should be focused around who you are laning against! Lots of AoE? get boots!

At any rate, once you have 500g with your dagger, go ahead and b to get your Berserker's Greaves. Make sure to grab extra health pots and mana pots! These will allow you to push kills much better; there is no feeling worse than committing to a fight and realizing you have no mana!

Because Enrage gives Sion so much AD, I find it to be a good idea to rush Attack Speed and perhaps a little Lifesteal. Over your next few trips back, you'll want to get Zeal, a Vampiric Scepter, and ultimately Phantom Dancer and Bloodthirster. Rushing a bloodthirster may seem rather counterintuitive, as your ult already provides you with massive lifesteal. However, until you hit level 11, your ult will provide with 50% lifesteal. In addition to that, when your ult is on CD, much of your sustainability is reduced; by having a bloodthirster, you can virtually guarantee that you will not be pushed out of your lane.

It's time for me to gush a little bit. Phantom Dancer is pretty much one of the best items for Sion. Not only is Zeal fairly cheap, but it provides the perfect stats for Sion; movement speed, attack speed, and critical chance. Movement speed, as I alluded to earlier, is extraordinarily important on Sion; with his stun, it makes it very, VERY difficult to escape an angry Sion. Also, the critical chance will not only give you massive damages, but it'll give you massive health from your Cannibalism! Srs, people. Phantom dancer should almost always be the first expensive item you buy!!!!

From here, you're already a ruthless killing machine. The only thing left to complete your deadliness is a good 'ol Infinity Edge. After all, the massive crits will just heal you for more! Not to mention, at this point, you should have ~300 AD and have an attack speed of ~1.3 per second! not too shabby!

The rest of your build should be based off of what the other team is building. If you see lots of health, a Madred's Bloodrazer does wonders. If they have some nice escape, go for a Frozen Mallet. A decent amount of armor? Black Cleaver. An absurd amount of armor?! Last Whisper. And hey, seeing as how your stun and shield scale to AP, why not go for a Trinity Force?!

Also; about Mercury's Treads. These boots are sexy. They cannot fail. These are one of the best items in the game, and as such, feel free to use them! Keep this in mind, though; your Berserker's Greaves will give you a huge advantage early in lane. I'll actually fairly often still rush the Greaves, but sell them mid-game and buy the treads, once you have a phantom dancer. The attack speed with the mobility is just too good to pass up early-game!



Jungling
My jungle build is a little more straightforward; start with your Cloth Armor and five Health Potions. If you use the masteries and runes I have listed, you can very easily get away with buying a Sight Ward instead of three of the potions! Sion may not be an incredibly fast jungle, but he is very good at not dying!

This section will be a little shorter, as I'll cover jungling in much more detail in a lower section of the guide; just look for the Jungle section!

However, after making your first sweep through the jungle, go back and get your Boots. If you're not already level four, clear out another camp, grab your Cryptic Gaze, and have fun killing an unwary opponent!

Since Sion is a very strong jungler from his Death's Caress, you will probably find yourself not needing to b very often! after you get a few kills or assists, go back, and finish up your Wriggle's Lantern and your Berserker's Greaves!
From here, rush a Phantom Dancer, and since you already have lifesteal from your Wriggle's, go straight into Infinity Edge!

Congrats! you now will likely die very rarely, and kill quite a few champions!

Alright, as a preface, I'm only going to talk about laning Sion's skill sequence in this post; I'll cover Jungle Sion's skills in the jungle section. That being said, Jungle Sion is\ the same, but switches up the first four skills!

At level one, grab a point in your Cryptic Gaze. This skill is pretty much awesome. A stun on a melee character, that you don't even have to aim?! You'll want to max this last, as all it will do is increase in mana with levels, and the duration of the stun is not affected by the level of the skill. Use this very wisely; the CD isn't too long, but if you waste it, you can find yourself in some trouble.

Once you hit level two, you have a decision to make. If the opponent is harrassing the piss out of you, feel free to put a point in Death's Caress. But hey, you're Sion. Sion doesn't take **** from nobody! Be a man, and put your point in Enrage. This will immediately give you a huge AD advantage against most other champions! (of course.. there's always that *$*Y%@)$ Fiora..) With your stun and your passive AD, you can do some nice harrassing yourself! BUT, make sure to focus on getting creep kills. Enrage gives you permanent bonus health for every creep kill that you get, as well as the bonus AD! And let's face it.. losing ~10 health per attack isn't a big deal when you have so much lifesteal and health from killing creeps anyway!

Death's Caress is not a skill to be taken lightly! If you are getting harrassed quite a bit, please, please level up this skill! The shield is very nice early/mid game, even without AP! You can bait oh-so-well. If you are very low health, and your opponent is full, just watch! they'll skirt around your tower range, and then get frustrated! they'll jump right in! pop your shield, stun 'em in the tower, get an auto attack, and laugh as they are killed instantly!

Look Here!
Cannibalism is your bread and butter as Sion. Once you hit level six, you have a brief period of becoming god-mode. Let's face it; at this point as a solo lane, you should outlevel their jungler. If your lane opponent and their jungler try to kill you, using your stun, shield, and ult correctly, it's surprisingly easy to get a double kill. However, you have to be very careful with the skill; popping it early can result in them just running away, and popping it late means that well... you're dead! Bait your opponents by staying around half health if they harrass you. They'll want a kill, but as soon as you pop your ult, their health will be massively reduced, while yours will be skyrocketing upwards. It's a good idea to save your Cryptic Gaze till after your opponent initiates; if you get a swing off with your ult up, they'll probably notice and try to run. Now is when you use your stun, and just keep hacking! Use your ghost/flash to keep in range, and congrats! you have a kill!

The ult is also VERY useful in teamfights. the 25% AoE heal of your damage is very under-rated. If you're wailing on their carry, support, or really, any champion with a decent amount of health, you're likely going to do about 3k damage in the team fight. Your ult will easily be up the entire fight, meaning that you'll heal your allies for right around 750 health! c'mon.. who needs Wish or Monsoon now?!

Sion is a very under-rated jungler, plain and simple. His biggest knock is that he does not have a true gap closer, nor does he have an escape mechanism. However, these problems can be circumvented quite well, as I will explain soon!

If you don't want to read, then just look at the picture below!
I prefer Ghost over Flash for jungling. Although Flash is a better escape, let's face it. Ganking with a Sion is basically like hitting the opponent with a truck. Once he goes into a fight, he's not coming back out till he, or much more likely, his opponent is dead! Ghost is a much better gap closer than Flash, and the cooldown is considerably lower! And if you *really* want to escape rather than fight, given Sion's shield and stun, not having a blink isn't a huge disadvantage.

If you don't take Smite, you will not jungle fast enough, and you will be underleveled. Don't do this. Be smart. Take smite.

The Walkthrough!
Alright. So your teammates have already called you crazy for going jungle Sion. Well, grab your Cloth Armor and your health pots, and head towards the two small golems (the stoner brothers). This is the "safe" jungle route; because Sion doesn't get his stun till level four (rarely three), he's a little succeptible to ganks early game. This is also why I suggest Cloth Armor over the Vampiric Scepter start. With the proper runes and masteries, you are virtually guaranteed to not die early-game in the jungle.

To kill creeps, pop your shield up 3-4 seconds before you initiate. Hit them with your chopper a few times, and before your shield is beaten down, pop it for the extra damage. If necessary, start using a health pot after your shield is gone! Make sure to smite the larger golem. Although I suppose the golem could get stolen, I'd suggest using smite right away, as to not waste any potential damage output. Focus on the large golem, and then auto-attack the small golem down. You may need to pop a health pot during the golems.

Next, move on to the wraith camp; simply put up your shield when halfway there, and aim for the big blue guy! Pop the shield, auto attack them down, and rinse/repeat! Here you should hit level 2. Take a point in Enrage and toggle it on! Never turn this off! Make sure that you use the shield only once per camp, as otherwise you may get into a little trouble once you get to blue buff.

After the wraiths, cross the jungle and go over to the wolf camp. Again, use your shield, and auto attack the wolves. By this point, your smite may be up. Do not use this on the wolves!!! You'll hit level three here; put one more point into Enrage.

At this point, you should be level three. After wolves, head up to the blue golem. Again, pop your shield, and hack 'n slash away with your Enrage on. On blue, it's always good to be safe, and hit the minion last with Smite, as to prevent it getting stolen. Immediately after killing the Golem and his two little minions, go back, and get your Boots. After healing up, go attack the wraith camp with the same strategy as has been used thus far!

Now go grab red buff, and you'll hit level four! Grab your Cryptic Gaze and happy ganking! By this point, one of your three lanes will either be pushed, or all three will be winning! It's a win-win! When going to gank, always try to come from behind. Sion is a melee character; if they try to run, they'll either run from your teammate into you, or away from you into your teammate! With your red buff to slow them, they don't stand much chance of getting away. If you can attack them once without using your stun, do it. However, they'll likely be semi-intelligent, and start running as soon as they see you. In this case, use your stun as a gap closer. If your partner has a stun if his/her own, then you're set! With red buff to prevent their escape, there is a good chance you'll get first blood, if it's not been taken already!

How to Gank With Sion!

Sion actually has pretty good ganking potential. His Cryptic Gaze is extraordinarily strong early/mid game. The most important part of ganking with a melee character like Sion is positioning. Virtually every lane you'll gank will have at least some form of CC in it. Use this to your advantage! Let your teammate know you're coming, and inform them that you will use your stun first. Position yourself behind where the enemy champion is, and stun them immediately, if you have red buff. Run up, and hack'n slash! Your teammate should then use his/her stun or slow. Ganking is much easier when you know that the gankee has burned their flash or ghost! Always look around the map when roaming between camps to keep tabs on the opposing team. At any rate, if they survive your stun, attacks, and your partner's CC, your Cryptic Gaze should nearly be off cooldown, and ready to use again! You *can* tower dive with your Cannibalism, but be careful, as if you don't attack, you will likely die. This works best when there is a creep wave at the tower. Even if the tower attacks you, you are able to outheal the tower's damage with your ultimate!

Here's the video!

Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/enrage-30

More than team composition, and perhaps even more than skill of individual players, teamwork decides the outcome of games. A Jarvin IV and a Leona can easily beat a Sona and a Graves in lane. H$*#, even an Evelyn can get a few kills if she works well with her team together! Many random teams won't call MIA's, or they won't buy wards. Use this to your advantage!

Let your teammates know that you're coming to gank their lane! It makes life easier for the both of you. You also do not need to ping excessively! it's annoying! You can assume that the people you play with are at least competent human beings! If you are friendly, chances are your teammates will be more friendly, and work together better!

As a jungler, you already have a free ward from your Wriggle's Lantern! Buy more wards! Wards are glorious things; they prevent ganks, and they allow your team better map awareness and control. If you see that their team is disorganized, go ahead and start team-roaming, to get a couple easy kills 5v2.

Sion is a pusher. If your team is busy harrassing and turtling with the opposing team, go ahead to a far away lane and push a turret or two. They'll have to counter by sending two champions over to you. If they don't, you can get an easy 1v1 kill. If they do, your teammates suddenly find themselves in a 4v3.

Above all, have fun. At the end of the day, League of Legends is a game! Don't get mad at losses; find what you can do to get better, and just play some more!

I'll post the updates to the guide here.. color coded, even!

Update #1: On release date!
-Added section about how to gank.
-Explained in further detail the use of a Dagger for lane-Sion.
-Explained what a pubstomp is. ...then again... if you don't know you're a bit prone. (;
-Added a Summoner Spells section

Update #2: 4/8/2012
-Added videos for jungle route and a fun little fed Sion bit!

Send me some pics from using the guide!


Here's a fun little video of what happens with a fed Sion.. This is from the same game as the video for the jungle guide! This happens fairly often as you can see from the match history above!
Play Video