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Don't underestimate his early power. His sustain will make poking him pointless. Concentrate of farming and wait for ganks. Once you have Ninja Tabis his threat all but disappears and his late game is pathetic unless he is fed. You outscale him and you'll be way more usefull in teamfights. Max Q if ahead or even. Max W if behind.
Darius
Difficult but by no means impossible. Keep him at max range with your Es and Qs. Expect him to try and pull you out of your Q wind up if he is close enough. If you get behind just max W and farm with E as best you can. If he wants to trade he will have to push the wave with his Q so just farm under tower. Be prepared for his level 6 powerspike. Build an early health item like Bami's Cindre. Max e and poke him to death. Respect his all in even if you are ahead.
Dr. Mundo
Ask your jungler for pre-6 ganks. Grab an early Spectres cowl. Max W for the %health damage. If he buys MR first put point into Q instead. Don't be afraid to buy an executions calling if no one else on your team does. It shuts down his ult and will tilt him out of his mind.
Ekko
Ekkos threat is all in the early game. Rush Spirit visage and smash his face in. Max E then W.
Fiora
Keep an eye on your vitals. Her early game counters yours and she is a late game monster. She will snowball on you if you let her. Ask for ganks, her current build leaves her pretty squishy so if you can crush her early with jungle help you'll be able to get work done before she scales. Most Fioras will try to riposte your Q but mess up the timing. Its actually a very funny interaction. Once she takes a full powered Q to the face she'll give up on that and just dodge out with her Q. Don't bother ulting her unless you know riposte is down. Max E first then W.
Gangplank
Put 2 points in E then max Q. He will have to use oranges to cleanse the E slow. Make him use up all his mana. You probably wont solo Kill him without jungle assistance but you can certainly force him out of lane. If you can make him ult you then he cant ult your botlane. GP scales well so keep an eye on those barrels.
Garen
An easy a match-up as they come. E-Q combos will ruin his day. His Q will cleanse your E slow so be prepared for that. Try not to get too close to him but if he is already spinning on you just fight him through it, you wont be able to run away so don't try. Once the Silence wears off hit him with a full E-Q-W combo on the back end. Rush ZZ-rots and make him use his E to waveclear(be carefull for the enemy jungler). You'll usually want to max Q if Garen buids Black cleaver first, if he build Armour first instead start putting points into W.
Gnar
Sion is once of few champs that does well into Gnar. Use E-Q combos. His jump animation is slow and has a long cooldown. He will want to jump out of your Q hitbox, when he does pull the trigger anyway. Even if you don't knock him up you'll still do enough damage to win the trade. If you see him use jump in lane for any other reason immediately punish him for it. Buy Ninja Tabis first and keep an eye on his rage bar. Don't bother trading with Mega Gnar unless you know he has already blown cooldowns. 2 points in E then Max Q. If you find you cant reliable hit him with Q damage then just max E instead.
Graves
A Hard one. Max E. IF he has thunderlords try to poke with E but respect hi potential burst. If he has warlords bloodlust just wait for ganks, farm as well as you can but try not to let him push you under tower. Don't bother using Q unless you know he has already used his Q and E. Otherwise its just easy free damage for him.
Illaoi
Easy enough unless she gets ahead. 2 points in E then Max Q. Most of the time she well Q you whilst you charge your Q. this is fine. She self CCs during the cast and you'll win the trade every time. Avoid her Qs otherwise and stay behind the minions so she cant steal your soul. Tell your jungler to gank her pre-6 or not at all. Her double ulting you during a gank is how she will win. If she does ult, just walk away immediately. If she ults in the middle of a team-fight just ult her back at point blank range and chain cc her with your Q until your team bursts her or escapes her death zone. If your Ult is on CD then just walk away as before. If your team dies its there own fault for not getting out of there.
Jarvan IV
Another difficult match up, Don't use your Q unless you know his flag and drag isn't available. Max E and poke him out. Be prepared for his level 6 burst. Grab a Sunfire cape ASAP. His early laning can be oppressive but once your got some armour under you belt his threat will fall off. Stand behind/in the minion wave so he is forced to push the wave when he pokes you. The last thing you want is for him to freeze the lane.
Irelia
One of the hardest matchups you'll have to face. Max W and play as safe as you can. Buy Bamis Cinder first, health is the only way to deal with her true damage. Once she has triforce give her a wide berth. Its a massive power spike. Get a ZZrots second and roam as much as possible. There are alot of intricacies to this matchup, expect to have a few bad games before you feel comfortable facing her.
Jax
Usually an easy match-up but if he does get ahead he will snowball on you hard. usual E-Q combos. The pressure is on him to outplay you. Pop Q as soon as you see his jump animation. He can either jump to a ward/minion, in which case you can win the trade with W on top of the E damage. If he jumps to you pop your q before he gets his stun off. The timing can be tight but just distance yourself before his stun goes off. If he does get ahead accept it and move on. Jax is an auto-attack champion that does duel damage types. Grab Ninja tabi's and a ZZ'rots portal and either bully him in lane or Roam. Your choice. Max Q unless he consistently ward/minion hops out. Otherwise max E.
Jayce
Jayce is crazy strong. I might go into a lot more detail with this match-up later on because there are a lot of ways of trading between Sion and Jayce and I cant be bothered to go into them all right now. If the Jayce is good he should dominate you. But don't be too disheartened, there is a way to beat him. Don't let him know how strong he is. The level 2 is everything here, get lvl 2 first buy just killing minions as fast as possible. he will auto you but dont worry the minions will even those trades up. Then as soon as you hit level 2. Walk up close and E-Q him.If he doesn't flash he will lose almost half his health. It will put the fear of god into him. He'll be too scared to all in you. From then on don't invite any full trades, just last hit, shield his autos, peel him off with E. Stay behind minions so he doesn't shockblast you. Get tabis early and then build a raptor cloak. If the jungler does magic damage build the raptor cloak into a ZZ'rots. If they do phyiscal start to build a sunfire instead. Then finish ZZ'rots after. Put it down at the base of your toplane tower and roam to another lane. Your ZZ'rots will slow his push an you can help push mid or bot tower down. ult whenever a good opportunity presents itself.
Kayle
The worst part of this match-up is that she has a really weird hit-box that makes your Q super hard to hit. Its the flying thing. Apart from that she has no way of dodging or stopping your E-Q combo. You can max E or Q here. Whatever is your preference. Just don't max W. She'll burn through it before you can pop it. E max is safer. Q max has more kill pressure. Just respect ganks and keep an eye on her ult timings.
Kennen
Kennens love to be lane dominant. Use it against them. Stay in the wave so he cant Q you. When he walks up to auto you back away until he is close your minions. then let him auto you. Immediately E, Q, W him. he will be CC'c whilst tanking the minion agro, combined with the high base damage that combo does will make any further trades a risky idea. Rush merc treads followed by a spectres cowl. if you farm well enough you'll easily have enough gold to buy mercs just before either of you turn level 6. Do this. so when kennen all ins you at level 6, you'll have a pretty good chance of surviving. Just poke him out with either E max or Q max depending on how you're getting on. Might be worth buying a Locket of the Iron Solari. So you can shield your team during big Kennen ults.
Malphite
ZZ'rots rush starting with the negatron cloak. Buy boots depending on the rest of the enemy team. hell want to build armour so max W then e and do as much magic damage as possible. If he starts auto attacking you kite back into the wave so he takes aggro and full combo him, don't press w too early since you want that to do damage. If he roams follow him and remember that your ults are comparable but his is faster.
Maokai
This matchup is alot less even then it used to be. It all comes down to Courage of the Colossus. He scales better than you so if he just plays passively and farms eventually he will win. E poke doesn't really work since he has sustain and can just poke you back, if you try to Q he will just W to you and then AA-Q-AA-E before you can do anything then you try to trade back but he has the colossus shield. Its rough. Buy merc treads. Buy ZZrots. Ult the other lanes on cooldown. IF your jungler ganks for you its possible to snow ball on him with an early black cleaver , Q max. Most of the time though you'll want to max W just to survive his burst if he decides to fight. Do as much as you can for your team so that one of them might get fed and carry you.
Mordekaiser
Max whatever you want. Kite him for days, full combo him at will. Don't stand in his shield area thing. It heals him a lot if he retracts it on you. Apart from that, invite your jungler up for some free kills. P.S don't let him boink you with that third hit.
Nasus
This one of those times when AD Sion is actually a good idea. Crush his face in. if he is one of those E max nasus's (nasi?) then buy a maw of malmortius followed buy your own zzrots and go to town. You can one shot waves too so who cares. Once he is 6 show more respect because his ult is deadly now. Just stop fighting as soon as he does and try to peel away. Eventually he will outscale you but you can roam. If you rotate faster than nasus then you can start and finish a fight faster than he can take it over. Force 5v4s in other parts of the map whilst he split pushes. Then get back in time to save the turret and clear the wave. Your zzrots will delay him enough.
Nautilus
Rush Merc treads. Buy spirit visage if the enemy jungler does magic damage. If not buy ZZ'rots portal(starting with negatron cloak). Only his pull and ult will disrupt your Q. So stay behind minions. If he Ults you it means your being ganked otherwise its just a waste. So stay behind minions. He will shield a lot of your damage and you will shield a lot of his so the fights rarely go anywhere without jungle assistance. He may often win extended trades with e spam but his mana will suffer for it. This match-up is more about what each of you do in teamfights.
Olaf
Respect his all in potential at early levels and again at lvl 6. Get early tabis if the enemy team has alot of other auto attack based damage or swifties if not. Then get a sunfire cape. Peel and don't trade autos for free. Dodge axes as best you can. Stand in the wave if you want him to push it. If you get ahead you can really ruin an olafs day. Q Max then E. Dont give him a long lane to run you down in. Only push if you know you'll get the wave to bounce off the tower.
Pantheon
Insane lane bully that falls off hard. JUST SURVIVE. Buy Cloth Armour and 4 pots. Back if you get too low without pots and TP back to lane. There's no shame in it. Max W. Farm with e. Once you have sunfire cape you can start to trade with him. Buy merc treads but not too early since they don't help you in lane at all. Respect his Ult and don't overextend.
Poppy
She can out trade you in lane and outscales you later. But atleast you don't have a dash. Imagine how those people feel. If she uses E in lane make sure you punish her for it. Its her only way of stopping your q wind up apart from her ult. Dont bother trying to all in 1v1 with her unless you know your jungler is coming to help. She'll win at every stage of the game if she knows what shes doing. You just need to get more work done in teamfights. Get your other lanes ahead with Ult roams. Buy sunfire cape then ZZrots. Merc treads at some point too.
Quinn
A potentially lethal lane. Max E and poke her out of lane. Dont bother with Q, she will just hit you with all her damage then disrupt you. Shes impossible to out roam so ping manically whenever she is missing from lane and buy nija tabis and ZZ'rots and split push your life away. Vision is key. You beat quin buy knowing where she is. shes good at catching people off guard so ward up an give the team as much information as possible.
Renekton
Difficult if he knows what he's doing. He'll probably take ignite and try to kill you early levels. Once he uses his E hit him with a full combo. Max Q unless you feel particularly at risk in which case max W and try not to die. Don't let him him bait you. Dorans shield start. Ninja Tabi rush into sunfire cape. Ult the other lanes when possible. Renekton has a great 1v2 so tell your jungle to gank someone else.
Riven
A terrible match-up until your ninja tabis are built. Its still not great then mind you. But she wont 1 shot you. Start dorans shield. Ask for jungle help but don't dive her. Get work done with roams and team fights.
Rumble
He hurts and has a lot of harass. Make sure you back and buy spectres cowl before he reaches level 6. Punish his lack of CC and low mobility with constant E-Q combos. Use W to shield his damage. Max Q first. Rumble is very vulnerable to ganks. Remind your jungler of this.
Ryze
His level 1 hurts and clears the wave pretty fast so don't get caught out by his sudden level 2 spike. Let him run out of manna whilst poking with e. Then commit to full combos. His root wont stop your q but standing still makes it easy to get a 3 part combo and get a shield and move speed boost, so best not to let him do that by mostly just using E poke. Rush merc treads. Then spectres cowl.
Shen
Easy. Rush ZZrots then get as much CDR as fast a possible. Shen will take forever to push past a ZZrots and his ult has a way bigger cooldown than yours. He wont be able to keep up with your cross map plays. Not a threat until much later into the game at which point you are tanky enough to peel him off of you in a 1v1 and remain quit healthy. You will have a bigger influence in team fights.
Teemo
Squishy with no CC and minimal mobility. EASY. Max Q. Rush spirit visage and either swifties or merc treads. Grab a red trinket at level 9 and always pop it in the middle of a fight.
Trundle
Potential nightmare of a match-up. Ask jungler to gank pre-6. He counters everything you do. He'll steal your tanky stats in teamfights. If he build ravenous hydra or bork first then don't bother ever fighting him. Get Tabis then ZZrots and roam. If he builds tank first, then you can still trade despite his natural regen. Don't bother with Q unless he has already used his Piller. That does double for your ult. Whatever happens Max W then E. It will be either you main way of trading or your only way of surviving depend on what trundle builds and what the junglers are doing.
Tryndamere
Easy peasy E-Q-W him all day long. His spin is slow so its easy to still catch him with your Q. Don't fight him in his ult. Get Sunfire if your team is doing well and push your advantage. If your team needs help get ZZrots to slow his split push(you'll want one eventually either way). Use your ult to start team fights whenever you have the numbers advantage.
Singed
If Singed is just Proxying then buy a bamis cindre before a spectres cowl to kill the minion wave with a bit more ease. you can clear waves no problem so this the biggest risk here is bordom. If singed is actually fighting you in lane. then grab the spectres cowl first. He'll want to flip you out of Q. If you have a strong early game jungler or one with alot of CC then gang up and go kill Singed. If not don't waste your time. If he ghost or ults consider it a success, clear the next wave and try again in a moment. A pain in the arse to play against. Grab A zzrots because he will. Clear waves and run into the enmy jungle. ward, steal camps or just generally be a nuisance. This will result in: team vision, the enemy team moaning at singed and possible even kills if you catch the jungler on low health
Yasuo
Horrid Lane. You have a brief window of superiority whilst you have ninja tabis and he hasn't finished Phantom dancer. Outside of that period you almost always loose unless he is really behind. Ask for help. Max W. if he ults you immediately stop fighting. The free armour pen will destroy you. You can reengage after 15 seconds if you want. As with all hard match-up. ZZrots and Roam.
Wukong
An easy one. Dont die to his level 6 all in. Get an early sunfire cape. Youll be able to 1v1 him from then on. Add ninja Tabis for extra damage immunity. 2 points in E then max Q.
Sion is a lane dominant super-tank. He deals with most ranged match-ups easier than most melee tanks and his Ultimate can be and often is Game changingly strong.
In his Kit sion has: a 1.25-2.25s Knockup, %max-health shield that does %max-health damage to enemies in an AOE, 40-60% 4s slow, 20% armour reduction, and one of the most iconic and enjoyable ultimate engage tools in the game. Not to mention his passive. What more do you need?
WHERE CAN SION PLAY?
WHERE CAN SION PLAY?
There isn't much Sion can’t do, he can go top, mid, jungle, support and remain viable in each of those roles. This makes him a very easy champion to main. For this guide I will be focusing on top lane Sion, since that is the role I most prefer and where I feel he is most efficient.
MASTERIES
MASTERIES
When it comes to masteries the only tree you need to worry about is the resolve tree. Courage of the colossus is op and Sion procs it easily enough. Swiftness, perseverance and runic armour are all but essential (Ill go into why a bit later). Everything else is personal preference. Cunning or ferocity it doesn’t really matter. I use cunning, assassin is usually pretty good in the toplane where you spend a lot of time duelling. Meditation is great for spamming spells. Greenfathers gift is pretty easy to abuse.
RUNES
RUNES
I have 2 rune pages I generally use in the top lane. One has MR quints the other has armour quints. The rest is the same, AD reds, flat health yellows, 6 CDR per level blues and 3 MR blues. These runes will give you 10% CDR at level 18. Most games you are going to have spirit visage and Iceborn Gauntlet, combine these with the runes and you've got yourself 40% cdr.
BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING
BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING
Once runes and masteries are sorted its time to jump into a game. Nine times out of ten you want to start Corrupting potion. It is an insanely efficient item that you’ll hold onto until you have no choice but to replace it. The gold you will save buy not buying regular pots is vastly underestimated. That said there are situations where you will have to start Doran’s shield and 1 pot or a cloth armour and 4 pots. I will explain when you need to do this when I talk about match-ups. An argument can be made for Doran’s ring but normally you’ll only really pick this up as a second item if you have an early back (ie from being ganked or possibly if you get a kill from any lvl 1 jungle shenanigans).
SKILL ORDER
SKILL ORDER
Sion is unique in that his skill order is not fixed in stone. It depends entirely on the matchup (you’ll get used to this concept). But here are some generally rules to follow.
1) Max E first against ranged matchups. Im talking ryze, Quinn, vayne, vlad. Youll never reliable hit enough Qs or get in range for enough Ws for maxing them first to be worth it.
2) Max W against champions that dominate you. Most of the time this is going to be highly mobile champion like Riven, fiora and Iralia. But it also applies to champions like trundle and darius.
3) Max Q against most everything else. If you think you can dominate the lane, then this is how you do it. The base damage of sions Q is absolutely outrageous. If the enemy champion has no dash or no reliable way of interrupting your Q channel then you can really make them suffer.
4) Don’t be afraid to change tactics. If you find the enemy is saving there dash/shield for your E’s then start putting points into Q or W and hurt them that way. You need to be reactive to your opponent. If the enemy jungler is camping you then just start maxing W. Even if you think you can dominate the lane its doesn’t mean much if their lee sin just keeps killing you. Accept that sometimes your focus needs to be on surviving the lane instead of winning it. Let him camp you and hope your team gets work done in other parts of the map.
5) Experiment – When learning sion it’s absolutely fine to mix it up and see what works best for you. You need to know what he’s capable of and what he isn’t. This is just a guide, not the Law.
ITEMS
ITEMS
IT DEPENDS ON THE MATCHUP. Hopefully I’m starting to drill this concept into you. Sion does not have a fixed build order. Full AD Sion is actually viable but it doesn’t scale well and if you get behind or if the enemy team is mobile enough to dodge your Qs and Rs then your pretty much worthless. Full Tank Sion is the way to go, both for beginners and for climbing Elo.
I will go though each of Sions “core” Items in a moment but the mentality for what to buy when playing sion goes like this:
1) Counter the Enemy Top Laner.
2) Counter the Enemy jungler.
3) Counter Everyone else.
Most of the time your build will look something like this:
ZZrots portal, Sunfire cape, Spirit visage, Iceborn gauntlet, Merc Treads, steraks gage.
WHY ZZ'ROTS SO GOOD ON SION.
WHY ZZ'ROTS SO GOOD ON SION.
ZZ'rots portal gives a lot of MR and Armour, which complements the free health Sion gets from his W passive. Did you know that Sion has the second highest base health regen in the game at level 1 and the 5th highest at level 18? I bet you didn't. So the 125% from ZZrots plus 50% from perseverance with an additional 8% bonus from runic armour (get a spirit visage later and it gets out of control). Every 4th voidspawn gains 15% of your max health as damage. Sions free health and a generaly health heavy build means that your voidspwan hurt. A lot. They will run through minions and wreck turrets. The Pressure a ZZ'rots applies gives you big windows to ult down other lanes and make plays then wonder back to lane with your turret in tact.
SUPER SPECIAL SION SECRET STRATAGIES
SUPER SPECIAL SION SECRET STRATAGIES
1) The level 1 bush Q. Get to lane first and wait in the middle brush. when your opponent walks to lane to CS charge up a Q. Its insane how often this works. It all but guarantees level 1 dominance which you can utilise to get to level 2 first.
2) If you dont think you can kill your lane opponent when you reach level 6 just back and ULT one of the other lanes. A lot of midlaners and ADCs are immobile. Punish this then either walk or TP back to lane.
3) Use the bushes as much as possible. If the enemy laner wards the bush he cant ward river and your jungler can gank more effectively.
4) Sion is immobile so early boots can be the difference between life or death in match-ups where your opponent relies on skill-shots.
5) In team-fights use your Q to protect your carries. Us your Q to zone large areas during a team-fight to force space between your ADC/midlaner and the enemy front line.
6) If you think your team should fight then FIGHT. Sion has an insane long range engage ultimate. If you have a numbers advantage or think the enemy is out of position then force a fight by ulting whoever you can.
7)Don't be Afraid to dive. After 1 or 2 items you'll find that towers don't hurt that much anymore. After 3 or 4 items they barely tickle.
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW
- When someone interrupts your Q channel it only goes on a 2 second cooldown.
- Titanic Hydra still works when you are in your passive.
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