AP Sion may not be very viable in the Summoner's Rift, but he can still be fun in ARAM, but I have to build him AP offtank (a bit like you would build Sejuani or other similar AP tanky champions), as his shield scales on both AP and health. With Rabadon's Deathcap or Morellonomicon he's too squishy and dies before even reaching the enemy, as he is easily kitable. And Sion already has tons of CC, so Rylai's Crystal Scepter's passive is a bit of a waste because it won't add any additional slow.

There a\re better combo's

as in easier to land and dealing more damage too

Let me take the kill combo you suggested and revamp it

You said; W > R Detonate W > Q > E > auto

it works but is sub optimal let me show you 2 better ones

kill combo 1
W > R Detonate W > E > Q > auto
that one gives you 20% armor shred to deal more damage with your Q and auto

Kill combo 2

Charge up W > E minion at max range(30% E damage)> then R > detonate W > Q > auto > E again depending on cdr

this one not only gives you up to 2 E u gonna need max cdr for that one but also makes your first E deal more damage.
Also landing E at max range allows you to hit ult easier and give it enough space to charge up to max damage

Thats how you get the max out of his kill combo's the 2th one requires more setup but deals most damage the first one also deals alot of damage.

There is also a situational kill combo where you land E and shred them and then they dash/flash and then you ult them allowing you to mkae use of the 20% armor shred for your ult


Build suggestions

To play ap sion you need max cdr to make as many uses of your 2 ap scaling abilities
You also want the mana to back it up
And you want alot of magicpen to amplify your base damages

Because of lowish scaling and 2 non ap scaling abilites you wont be needing too much raw ap.

And because you are melee without escapes you want survivability

So zhonyas and abyssal are good they provide resistances
liandries is great because it works on all your spells gives health and pen
Sorc boots possibly voidstaff
Then something for cdr/mana rod of ages works athenes also gives some mr or frozen gauntlet or frozen hearth
You can always tag in a warmogs/sunfire cape for more survivability

In that sense i really like ap bruiser Sion with liandries abyssal sunfire sorc boots at its core gives alot of magic damage too if you need more ap you can always add in a rod of ages and get some cdr from frozen gauntlet allowing for extra slows & stronger autos works well with liandries too

Not going to downvote, but Sion is not great burst mage he once was(how I miss those days). I would just like to suggest that you put a little more tank into your build rather than just pure, magical damage. It is fun to play straight burst Sion but is not a very effective way to play him at all in my experience(anecdotal evidence, so take it as you will). Anyway, respect you for being a fellow AP Sion guide author, so I just thought I would try and help you out a bit :)

Yeah, I think Sion's strategy (especially up in Mid and Top) is to prevent his lane enemy from farming/getting powerful in early-mid game. 90% of the time Sion pushes the tower first, the other 10% because the enemy jungler jumps in to push. I still stick by my usual build and also Rod of Ages first when facing mobile champs with a good poke like Nidalee.

Got to play against LeBlanc on mid - she manages to dodge most of my Roar of the Slayer but her minions cannot dodge so just farmed for gold and prevented her from dominating in lane. She had to leave mid and give me the tower so she could get a find a kill somewhere else.

In your move description of his combo I feel you are making it a little more difficult with the popping of the shield if you Start with W before the ult when your ult hits you can immediately start with your q the ult stun is exactly enough time to get a full q off so no need to hit q again to activate by the time the stun from the q is up your w will automatically pop at full buildup, then the e to make sure he can't run if somehow he is alive. Also I build the hex tech gun blade and the activation on that works as well as the frost queens. I also don't finish the relic shield I sell it after laning phase. Anyway I love ap sion and just won in ranked against a darius, not easy to say the least but even that bad of a match up you can win as ap.

Yo, first of all, great to hear from someone playing AP Sion!

A downside of having Frost Queen's Claim whilst playing support is killing the minions that is supposed to be for your partner in-lane. However, Sion lacks in the mobility department and may be unable to help his lane partner escape from ganks or chase for the kill. IMO Frost Queen resolves this as well as giving some active and passive AP damage.

I have Rod of Ages in the optional/situational list since it really depends upon the enemy you're facing. I'll add more stuff in future versions of the guide to explain this.

On the other hand, I do use Relic Shield at times though the item is rarely finished before the game ends as other items gets prioritized first. I guess I will add a build Relic Shield soon for greater options. I do want people to try him as an AP tanky champ its fun and pulling off his combo feels very rewarding.

Then I'll leave this~
Unstoppable Onslaught + charged Decimating Smash + Soul Furnace shield detonation + Face of the Mountain shield explosion + Roar of the Slayer = A happy Sion

I play AP sion in every lane, and each lane has a slightly different build but you need the rod of ages. This is a key item for him since his w scales off both health and AP. In mid the rylai and liandries are great items as well for the same reason. In top the hextech is a must and to be honest recommend it in any lane for the life steal that the e procs. I just made a build for support sion, and I would never get the frost queens, since you are going to be hitting minions around a lot you need the relic shield to make sure if you do kill the minion you are stealing from your adc. [/url]http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/ap-sion-support-the-best-support-in-game-409169 thats my build and you can use that in almost any lane and be useful even out of laning. Your build seems like in laning will do well but late game you will be getting killed quick.

FML I just lost an entire post.

tl;dr of that post: your build needs fine tuning, Sion is still melee and needs survivability (assassins might skip because they have sticking power, Sion does not), ratios are **** so he needs magic penetration and Cooldowns are **** so he needs that too.

I'd say: Rod of Ages -> Pen Boots -> Abyssal Scepter/Zhonya -> Rabadon -> Void Staff -> Twin Shadows (people underestimate this but it's 80 AP + CDR + passive movement speed and it+s active)/Rylai's.

Gun blade might be ok too because of it's AD. However, you must realize you're basically blowing your passive to hell since you can't cast spells after dead

In that train of thought I think any AP champ is pretty much toast if they cannot land any ability of theirs, like say, Lux~ You still have Unstoppable Onslaught that can deal as much as 900(+) damage and a pretty long stun - or just force your opponent to use their Flash at the very least.

AP Sion is okay, he can prevent strong picks like Katarina and LeBlanc from dominating in mid-lane if used properly. He's a great lane bully.

And yes, AP Sion is viable, but of course not really the kind of build you want for Championships :P

Is ap Sion even viable anymore?
I mean, if you dont hit those two ability of yours, you are dead :s

I would suggest changing your glyphs to Greater Glyph of Ability Power and your seals to Greater Seal of Armor You'll get more AP and armor.

I would really appreciate it if you try it out on a Normal game first and would love to hear another feedback from you. But that's what makes this build nice, I think. Because people don't think AP Sion much of a threat.

Roar of the Slayer can get deal a lot more damage (up to 0.6 AP) and Soul Furnace deals decent health-based damage in addition to its AP scaling. You may also achieve 1000HP bonus from Soul Furnace's passive effect from waveclearing as AP Sion by late game. I guess I'll find time to crunch the numbers and add it in later.

As for Frost Queen's Claim, I know it's not a popular pick but it does give Sion the needed mobility since, as you have pointed out, his skills might easily miss. I added Hextech Gunblade in as an alternative anyways.

Lastly, about that wall of text... will do try to improve the readablity of the guide. Thanks for the feedback!

(And you, reader, try it out first. Ha ha ha)