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I personally think Kled is the most dangerous matchup for any Sion. He has CC, can turn the tide of any fight with his passive if applied correctly, has high damage, and can match your push or even outpush you. He's mobile and has high damage, and you are probably the farthest thing from mobile without your utlimate. It'll be hard to land your Q with his dash up. If you can somehow manage to poke him down off Skarl, you can win the majority of fights early, but the odds of you being able to do that are very low. Late game he'll have insane HP and it'll be difficult to kill him alone. You probably won't be able to kill him alone, really. I recommend just farming this one out and calling for jungle help.
Fiora
Fiora is a rough one. She can parry your Q, which will basically negate all your damage and if she hits it correctly, revert the knockup or slow back onto you, depending on how long you held Q. She has a dash, her ult can heal her, and she does lots of damage early, mid, and late. Farm it up and call for your jungle. If you're going to 1v1 her, bait our her parry and ult her into a Q.
Darius
One of Sion's worst enemies. He can pull you with his E out of your Q, which cancels it, can sustain almost indefinitely in lane off of you with his Q, and his passive basically makes him almost impossible to 1v1 unless you can burst him down within approximately 3 seconds. Under no circumstances should you fight Darius on your lonesome, no matter how fed you are. His 5 stacks will shred you.
Yasuo
A very difficult champion to lane against in general, but magnified against Sion. He's excellent at dishing out big damage and being mobile enough to dodge any, and probably all, of your skillshots. Your best chance is to let him push into you and call for your jungler, as he can't dash to his own minions. Keep and eye on when the next wave comes in if you do decide to 1v1 him, because he'll likely be waiting for it to make some plays during the fight.
Gnar
Gnar can be really tough to lane against because of his W. It will stack three times onto you and deal magic damage on his third hit. It has no cooldown and can really begin to chunk your health. On top of that, he has a lot of range jumping off of minions with his E, and he can use the E to jump off of is own minions as well. If you're going to 1v1 him, wait for his E to go down, and try and do it right after his Mega Gnar transformation has ended, as it will be on a short cooldown.
Nasus
New Nasus with his 12 stacks for Q is a big screw you from Riot Games to almost every top laner that has to play against him. While he is relatively easy to outplay, if you let him farm up his Q for free in laning phase he will deal so much damage and be so tanky that he will make your life absolutely miserable. I recommend calling for the jungler early and getting one or two kills on him before ten minutes. It will really slow his roll, and hopefully give your team enough time to get enough kills to effectively deal with this behemoth. Beware, though: if your game goes past 30-35 minutes, Nasus is likely to be an almost unkillable powerhouse.
Camille
Camille is relatively easy in the early game. Her only CC pre-6 is her hookshot, and it's fairly easy to outplay or dodge. If you think she is going to land it, pop your W and be ready to hold down Q in the direction she's going to come from. Late game she's going to deal a lot of damage and her CC is going to be very hard to deal with. Try not to let her hit her second Q. It will deal dons of true damage. If worst comes to worst, simply ult away from her before she can use her ult on you.
Riven
Riven can be a real annoying matchup. She has a stun, a relatively easy to land knockup, lots of mobility, and can output a lot of damage. Early in the laning phase, you can probably go toe-to-toe and win most of the time, but eventually Riven will win out unless she's new to the champion. Late game, she more than likely won't be able to kill you, mid is the same, but early she really has potential to get a kill, and by early I mean until level 6. If she does get a kill, don't fight her until you've finished building a tank item or two.
Renekton
Renekton can be annoying. Point and click CC, a decently long double dash, and his fury passive make Renekton an irritant in the top lane. When his fury is full, I suggest not messing with him. Keep in mind that your Q is easily canceled by his stun, and can easily get out of your Q with his dash. Once you build some armor, as long as Renekton isn't fed you should be able to push past him, and probably get a kill or two. The early laning phase is definitely most difficult against this champion.
Aatrox
Aatrox is really a pain in the butt going against pretty much any and all top laners. An ultimate that keeps him alive after death making tower dives easy, a short dash, a slow and a pull in one ability, and high damage on his Q make him a problem early, mid, and late game. He probably won't be able to kill you once you build a tank item, but if he finishes a lethality item before you finish your first tank item, watch out: he will do absurd amounts of damage if he lands at least two Qs. If he hits you with all three, I'd back, because he'll probably dive you with his ulti and you'll more than likely be low. Hitting a Q is hard on him, because he can just cancel it by dashing with his Q. Keep that in mind.
Cho'Gath
Cho'Gath doesn't really do much damage late game, as long as he's building tank. If he's good, he'll probably hit quite a few Q's, and he'll use his own Q when you're charging yours. His silence can be irritating if you have a situation where you've slowed him with E to get a nice Q on him, but Cho'Gath overall is more of just an annoyance than a threat. Watch out for his ultimate stacks, though: because he can and will become tankier than you if the game goes on long enough. He can heal off his passive, but as long as you play it smart he won't be able to push past you after your first tank item.
Dr. Mundo
Mundo's poke make him an irritant. Stay behind minions and push hard with your Q, W, and E and Mundo pretty much is just an obstacle in the lane. Once he gets ultimate, killing him will be a pain because of your low damage output unless you hit a full charge Q. When his ability is up that surrounds him with fire of some sort, stay back and clear with Q. That will deal a lot of damage before you figure it out.
Gangplank
Early game Gangplank is kind of a joke. He can poke you down relatively easily with his Q, and can clear any of the CC you throw onto him with his W, but after your first tank item this guy is pretty much only useful against you for the slow hitting his barrels give if his jungler ganks. Force him out of the way after your first tank item and crack through the turrets.
Garen
Garen is an irritant, but a high damage and tanky irritant. If you slow him with E to hit a Q, he'll just Q out. If you Q him and land a knockup, he'll probably just W as soon as he thinks he can't get out and you'll do significantly less damage than what you wanted, or he'll use his Q to get away quickly before you can do anything else. His ultimate is dangerous before Sion gets some health items, because of how much true damage it throws down. If you're low post-level 6 and your health is under 500, I'd back. It's just better to be safe. A fed Garen is actually one of the most annoying champions in the game.
Maokai
Maokai is really tanky, and his passive can turn the tides of a lot of fights, as the heal he gets from it is insane, but he really shouldn't be a threat to you without his jungler. He simply doesn't do enough damage. His W makes your Q easily avoidable, as he goes untargetable when he uses it and he'll root you when he gets to you, but good timing will allow you to hit the majority of Q's.
Illaoi
Illaoi does a LOT of damage with her tentacles and with her ultimate. If she lands an E on you and you're low, it can be a big threat because her tentacles will just keep freaking coming. Pro tip: after the first tentacle pops up and you dodge it, simply stand under it, as it will not hit you again and because you're stationary no more tentacles will spawn. Be careful of her ultimate, as it will help her turn the tide of any fight, sometimes even 5v1s that were originally in your teams favor. Once you get tanky enough, just keep matching her push. She'll be able to push harder than you early but if she sees that you're matching her push and not giving away any free towers, she'll probably switch to team fighting until the side lanes open up again.
Irelia
Irelia top is kind of a joke now, as patch 9.2 took away a lot of her damage to shields. Her mobility can be annoying, but once you build a tank item she shouldn't be able to kill you unless she's fed. Take care for her E, she can use it to stun you when you're charging your Q. It's also important to note that when she stacks her passive fully she will do a lot of extra damage. Early game you won't be able to kill her or do much against her without the jungler, which is why her threat is major instead of even.
Jax
Jax is an overall annoyance. Counter strike is an irritating ability, and on top of that he can do a lot of damage. His ultimate will make him really, really tanky. If he pops counter strike at the right time he'll stun you and cancel your Q. On top of that, he has some decent mobility with his jump. Take care against him and call for jungle help. Don't 1v1 him unless you're two levels ahead and have a decent item lead, maybe a full item or 3/4 of a full item.
Jayce
Jayce does a lot of damage with his acceleration gate and Q early game. He can kite you in his ranged form, and if he switches to hammer, he can do a lot of damage to you as well. His hammer form E ability can cancel your Q. Once you get first tank item, he probably won't be able to kill you alone. But take care, as the mid game is his strongest point. He'll seem to drain a quarter of your health bar with one accelerated Q. Be careful of him shooting out of bushes or too far from your vision to see it coming.
Olaf
Olaf is really only good for his poke on his axe throw. This is an easy lane for you. Simply push past him, outfarm him, and call for your jungler if need be. This guy is a joke pick into you or against you. While he may have true damage, he's not strong enough to last in long trades, provided you hit your Q.
Ornn
Ornn can be annoying with his knockup, tankiness, his W which can negate all CC including your Q knockup and slow for its duration, and the passive that applies with his W that does a lot of damage as he gets tankier. Take short trades with him and try to avoid his W. If you do avoid his W during the trade, keep going, he won't outdamage you. If he does hit his W during the trade, back off and wait for his Brittle passive to end: don't let him auto you during your Q if he does hit his W, it will cancel it.
Kennen
Kennen can be really annoying, but typically doesn't do enough damage to kill you or really harm you that much at all. He's annoying with his little electric dash, and I will be the first to admit his ultimate can dish out some big damage, but he shouldn't be too hard to deal with.
Pantheon
Pantheon can be a really big irritant because of his point and click CC, poke with his spear, and the fact that he can jump. He can do a lot of damage and can kill you early. His passive makes it really hard to kill him and it also makes it easy for him to dive, because it can take a tower shot and he can walk away with no damage. I recommend trying to start off any trade with your E, which will take down his passive block. Be careful and take short trades. If his stun is down, ulti him into a knockup Q. He'll take a ton of damage from it. I'd say farm up, push hard, and call for jungle help if he's too strong for you.
Shen
Shen can be annoying because of his taunt and his sword. The sword can give him decent damage and attack speed, while you're forced to attack him. He has a dash which he can use to dash out of your Q. After one tank item, he really shouldn't be able to kill you. Do be aware of his ultimate if you're fighting him or a team mate, though: it can easily turn the tide of the fight because it shields them for an insane amount.
Singed
Singed can be really annoying. He's not really a champion known for carrying, but he has good CC and a lot of magic damage over time. Build an adaptive helm against Singed. You will NOT regret me saying that. Don't chase him. Walking in his poison trail will do a lot of damage. He can flip you during your Q. Just take short trades. If he's going to flip you, I'd charge your knockup, especially if he's in the middle of a minion wave.
Teemo
Teemo can be annoying. He's really quick, has a blind, and does a lot of magic damage. I also recommend an adaptive helm against Teemo unless you completely squash him in lane, because he will be extremely annoying. Take Second Wind in this matchup instead of Conditioning. Buy an Oracle Lens to clear his shrooms as often as possible.
Shaco
Shaco is actually my definition of a cancer champion. While you probably won't have to face him too often, Shaco is excruciatingly strong. You are big and immobile, which makes him backstabbing you easy. His ultimate gives him a lot of damage output, and the fact that he can use his clone from a bush while zoning you off the waves makes him annoying. One tank item isn't enough against a good shaco player. They will do a ton of damage all game if they get a single kill on you or someone else. Some people might laugh at this threat level, but Shaco is really difficult to lane against as Sion. Eventually, he won't be able to kill you, but beware against 1v1ing him. Make sure you can tell which clone is him by popping a Corrupting Potion and hitting him before he ults. The burning effect will be visible on the real Shaco.
Ryze
Ryze can be annoying. He can pop a big, fat shield, has point and click CC, can clear the wave faster than you all game long, and is overall just decently high damage. Try and push him hard early and get to his first tower.
Rumble
Rumble is not really a huge threat to you. He can end up doing a lot of damage but he can't sustain lots of abilities for too long or he'll overheat. He can be really strong if he gets a few items. His ultimate will do a lot of damage, and it might be hard to hit your Q on him. Overall, just build some Magic Resist and push the lane. If he's not fed, you should be able to bully him.
Tryndamere
Tryndamere is the kind of champion you'll want Randuin's Omen against. Early, he won't do too much damage, but it can stack up really hard late game, especially if he has a few items. If his rage is up, I don't recommend fighting him too much, as he'll win all long trades. He can dash out of your Q with his E, can heal as long as he keeps up basic attacks on minions for his rage, and his ultimate makes him unkillable for a short time. Not to mention his pretty strong attack damage decrease ability (W), too. Keep in mind if he uses his W and your back is turned it not only decreases your attack damage but also slows you. Call for jungle help as much as possible before level 6. The earlier you can mess him up and get a CS lead, the better you will fare.
Viktor
Viktor is really strong against Sion for one specific reason: his stun trap. You can be charging your Q and unless you end it immediately upon him placing it on you, chances are you're getting stuck in that trap. He has tons of damage with his Q, and late game he can actually chunk a quarter of your health bar with each Death Ray unless you have tons of Magic Resist. He can pop a shield relatively quickly on low cooldown with his W. Build Magic Resist and call for your jungler. Beware of charging your Q if he's close enough to lay a trap down.
Yorick
Yorick can be pretty tough. The damage he can do is pretty insane, not only on his Q but also with The Maiden and his mist walkers. If you can, dodge his ability that calls The Maiden and his mist walkers onto you. It will make him significantly weaker in a fight. They will chase you to the ends of Summoner's Rift in an attempt to kill you. The Maiden got a significant buff, now that it can stay in lane and push without Yorick. Be careful if he stops pushing, he might be trying to play a trick and use The Maiden to push while team fighting.
Yasuo
Your knockup on your ultimate and your Q are great for Yasuo's ultimate. You can soak up a lot of damage for him and the ADC while they're able to output a lot of damage.
Kalista
Her ultimate is great for you and he has a knack for keeping champions in the same place for a long time with his slow and his Q.
Anivia
Her stun and her ultimate slow are great, as Sion can hit an easy Q if she lands one of them or both.
Bard
Bard's ultimate and his Q make hitting a Sion Q or ultimate easy as pie.
Braum
Braum's passive and his ultimate knockup are great for Sion, making it easy to hit a Q or ultimate on enemy champions.
Cassiopeia
Cass's ultimate and her relatively rare ability to negate champion's from using abilities that give them mobility make it easy to hit Sion's Q.
Ekko
Ekko's W, if landed, makes a Sion Q excruciatingly easy to hit, as it lasts a long time.
Camille
Camille's hookshot and her ultimate make it really easy to hit a Sion Q or ultimate.
Galio
Galio's knockup, taunt, as well as his ultimate make it easy to hit a Sion Q or ultimate.
Gnar
Gnar is really good with Sion. You probably won't be on the same team unless you're playing Sion support, but his CC in Mega Gnar is unbelievable and makes it so easy to hit Sion's abilities.
Lissandra
Lissandra has great CC that's easy to hit and her ultimate and her W make hitting Sion's abilities a walk in the park.
Leona
Leona has great, decently long-lasting CC, and since it's relatively easy to hit with a low cooldown, she helps Sion out a lot.
Malzahar
Malzahar's ultimate lasts a really long time and keeps enemies in place in a way that only QSS can clear. This means that Sion's ultimate and Q are really, really easy to hit.
Rammus
Rammus is great with Sion. A fellow tank that can dish out a lot of damage, take a lot of damage, and taunt and stun enemies for a brief duration? That's a recipe for some great synergy.
Ornn
Ornn's knockup, Q slow, and his ultimate make hitting Sion's abilities fairly easy.
LeBlanc
LeBlanc's stun chain is really good, as it has a very long duration of CC and has a large radius that enemies need to escape in order to avoid it.
Pantheon
Sion loves point and click CC, and Pantheon's CC lasts a decently long time.
Nautilus
Nautilus's ultimate, his hook, and his passive are great for keeping targets in place for a long time. This makes Sion and Nautilus good friends.
Malphite
Malphite has a nice knockup with his ultimate, and can help Sion keep his targets in place.
Rakan
Rakan has a charm, which can keep enemies in place, has a knockup, and can get in and out almost instantaneously. Rakan is great for Sion, his charm making it easy to hit his Q or ultimate and his knockup doing the same.
Sejuani
Sejuani's passive is great with Sion, as her E will stun based on melee auto attacks. This fits Sion's kit. She also has an ultimate that will keep enemies in place for a nice, long time, and her stun makes it really easy for him to hit his knockup or ultimate.
Veigar
Veigar is nice with his stun trap, but that's really all he's good for with Sion.
Udyr
Sion likes point and click CC like any tank, and Udyr has that.
Twisted Fate
Another example of point and click CC, Sion will delight in Twisted Fate's yellow card.
Zoe
Zoe's Sleepy Bubble Trouble is great to keep enemies in place for a long time, as it lasts for quite a while. Abuse this when you're playing Sion and make sure you're prepared to get in proper position to hit a knockup.
Morgana
Morgana might just have the best synergy with Sion in the game. With a perma stun and an ultimate that can effectively root an entire team team if they're out of position, Sion really can't miss abilities with a good Morgana on his team. On top of that, she can spell shield you from CC while you get in place to hit your own. Take advantage of this synergy.
Alistar
Alistar has a knockup. If he head butts, though, your chain CC kind of becomes irrelevant, scoring him just an OK.
Annie
Another good example of point and click CC, Annie and Sion get along.
Aurelion Sol
Aurelion Sol notches a 4 instead of a 3 because of how large his stun can get if he flies with it. Sion can easily hit a 3+ champion Q or ultimate if Aurelion Sol hits his Q.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Yasuo
Your knockup on your ultimate and your Q are great for Yasuo's ultimate. You can soak up a lot of damage for him and the ADC while they're able to output a lot of damage.
Kalista
Her ultimate is great for you and he has a knack for keeping champions in the same place for a long time with his slow and his Q.
Anivia
Her stun and her ultimate slow are great, as Sion can hit an easy Q if she lands one of them or both.
Bard
Bard's ultimate and his Q make hitting a Sion Q or ultimate easy as pie.
Braum
Braum's passive and his ultimate knockup are great for Sion, making it easy to hit a Q or ultimate on enemy champions.
Cassiopeia
Cass's ultimate and her relatively rare ability to negate champion's from using abilities that give them mobility make it easy to hit Sion's Q.
Ekko
Ekko's W, if landed, makes a Sion Q excruciatingly easy to hit, as it lasts a long time.
Camille
Camille's hookshot and her ultimate make it really easy to hit a Sion Q or ultimate.
Galio
Galio's knockup, taunt, as well as his ultimate make it easy to hit a Sion Q or ultimate.
Gnar
Gnar is really good with Sion. You probably won't be on the same team unless you're playing Sion support, but his CC in Mega Gnar is unbelievable and makes it so easy to hit Sion's abilities.
Lissandra
Lissandra has great CC that's easy to hit and her ultimate and her W make hitting Sion's abilities a walk in the park.
Leona
Leona has great, decently long-lasting CC, and since it's relatively easy to hit with a low cooldown, she helps Sion out a lot.
Malzahar
Malzahar's ultimate lasts a really long time and keeps enemies in place in a way that only QSS can clear. This means that Sion's ultimate and Q are really, really easy to hit.
Rammus
Rammus is great with Sion. A fellow tank that can dish out a lot of damage, take a lot of damage, and taunt and stun enemies for a brief duration? That's a recipe for some great synergy.
Ornn
Ornn's knockup, Q slow, and his ultimate make hitting Sion's abilities fairly easy.
LeBlanc
LeBlanc's stun chain is really good, as it has a very long duration of CC and has a large radius that enemies need to escape in order to avoid it.
Pantheon
Sion loves point and click CC, and Pantheon's CC lasts a decently long time.
Nautilus
Nautilus's ultimate, his hook, and his passive are great for keeping targets in place for a long time. This makes Sion and Nautilus good friends.
Malphite
Malphite has a nice knockup with his ultimate, and can help Sion keep his targets in place.
Rakan
Rakan has a charm, which can keep enemies in place, has a knockup, and can get in and out almost instantaneously. Rakan is great for Sion, his charm making it easy to hit his Q or ultimate and his knockup doing the same.
Sejuani
Sejuani's passive is great with Sion, as her E will stun based on melee auto attacks. This fits Sion's kit. She also has an ultimate that will keep enemies in place for a nice, long time, and her stun makes it really easy for him to hit his knockup or ultimate.
Veigar
Veigar is nice with his stun trap, but that's really all he's good for with Sion.
Udyr
Sion likes point and click CC like any tank, and Udyr has that.
Twisted Fate
Another example of point and click CC, Sion will delight in Twisted Fate's yellow card.
Zoe
Zoe's Sleepy Bubble Trouble is great to keep enemies in place for a long time, as it lasts for quite a while. Abuse this when you're playing Sion and make sure you're prepared to get in proper position to hit a knockup.
Morgana
Morgana might just have the best synergy with Sion in the game. With a perma stun and an ultimate that can effectively root an entire team team if they're out of position, Sion really can't miss abilities with a good Morgana on his team. On top of that, she can spell shield you from CC while you get in place to hit your own. Take advantage of this synergy.
Alistar
Alistar has a knockup. If he head butts, though, your chain CC kind of becomes irrelevant, scoring him just an OK.
Annie
Another good example of point and click CC, Annie and Sion get along.
Aurelion Sol
Aurelion Sol notches a 4 instead of a 3 because of how large his stun can get if he flies with it. Sion can easily hit a 3+ champion Q or ultimate if Aurelion Sol hits his Q.
Hi, I'm Lil Tidepod, also known as Thorium on League of Legends' North American server. This is my first guide, so please be respectful and positive! I've been playing League of Legends since the start of Season 8. I'm not the greatest of players, but I like to think my understanding of the game has greatly expanded since I began playing. I've pursued knowledge via videos, guides, and builds among other things. I've worked to better understand management of neutral objectives, the kits of different champions, wave management, and tons more.
Through this guide, I'm hoping to not only expand your knowledge of Sion and his ins and outs, but I'm also hoping to expand my own knowledge by utilizing BBCode to make this guide look clean, proper, and efficient! I didn't have much help as a newer player, and I would've really enjoyed having more help when I started the game. I'm going to be making lots more guides in order to help spread the knowledge that I've gained as a result of countless hours of playing League of Legends. I hope that my guide suits all of your needs for The Undead Juggernaut!
Sion is, in my opinion, the best tank around. While he is a little more skilled based, his pros go even with his cons. He soaks up tons of damage, dishes out tons of damage, can keep targets in one place for long periods of time, and can bully his opponent all day long in lane. He's really great at peeling for his carries, as his Q has a slow or knockup depending on how long you charge it, his E is a slow that's pretty easy to hit, and his W shield can absorb lots of damage depending on the situation. His ultimate can be difficult to hit, but if you hit it, it's extremely rewarding. Sion's skillshots are very rewarding, as hitting them is almost an assurance that you will win your lane.
Although he is a very strong tank, Sion, like all champions, has some cons. With all of his abilities being skillshots, mastering Sion can be difficult. His abilities are easy to juke and hard to hit. He is easy to poke down early and mid game, when he's not insanely tanky. He's got long cooldowns and is very immobile. The skill gap between one Sion and another Sion can be very large. You may be thinking to yourself, "how hard can it be to hit his abilities?" The answer is very hard. A mobile champion, like Riven, can dash around your skillshots like they're nothing, and the same goes for a Yasuo, but as with anything, constant practice will make you a much better Sion.
PROS
+ A lot of strong crowd control. + Exceptional at peeling for his carries. + Great engage. + Capable of soaking up tons of damage in the mid and late game. + Capable of dishing out tons of damage with his fully charged Q and/or his ultimate R .
A tank is meant to soak up damage and apply as much crowd control as possible to the enemy team and, if available, the enemy carries. Sion is great at locking down ADCs and the majority of carries, especially immobile ones. There aren't many times I can recall being more excited than when I hit a 5 man Sion Q or 5 man Sion R . He's really rewarding and can help your team to win more than a few team fights. The enemy top laner is typically not capable of absorbing nearly as much damage as Sion, and he can use this to his advantage by soaking up a lot more damage for his team mates.
CONS
- All abilities are skillshots and can be difficult to land, except Sion's W - Easily poked down in the early game or by a fed enemy carry. - Confined to flash and ultimate for escaping ganks when over extended. - Abilities are easy to juke for mobile champions.
A champion in League of Legends would be impossible to beat if they had no counters. Sion is no exception. With every single ability being a skillshot except for Sion's W , mastering him and playing well in team fights and the laning phase can be difficult. His abilities are easy to juke if your enemy is playing a mobile champion and they can even be hard to hit. He's easy to poke down in the early game or in the mid to late game if the enemy team has a fed carry that can poke efficiently (). He's got long cooldowns and is very immobile, meaning he is confined to his flash and ulti for escapes.
Resolve Primary
Every 4 seconds in combat, your next basic attack on a champion will:
- Deal bonus damage equal to 4% of your max health.
- Heal you for 2% of your max health.
- Permanently increases your health by 5.
Ranged Champions: Damage and healing are reduced by 40% and gain 3 permanent health instead.
Considering Sion struggles in the laning phase against poke, and the overall extra health is great for any tank, Sion's best option for sustain will be found here, aside from his either Corrupting Potion or Doran's Shield start.
You generate stacks on enemy structures within 600 units, up to 6 after 3 seconds. Your next attack versus a structure with 6 stacks deals 100 (+ 30% of your maximum health) bonus physical damage. Demolish will only go on cooldown upon triggering the damage.
Some people like to take Shield Bash here, but I like demolish. Considering how large Sion's HP gets mid and late game, if he is required to split push demolish will be key in marching him towards the enemy nexus with only a minion wave or two. Shield Bash is probably most useful against a champion like Garen
After 10 minutes gain +8 Armor and +8 Magic Resist and increase your Armor and Magic Resistance by 5%.
Some people prefer to take Bone Plating or Second Wind here, but I like Conditioning. It's pretty self-explanatory. A tank like Sion would eat up that extra Magic Resist and Armor at ten minutes. And, on top of that, adding an extra 5% to every Armor and Magic Resist item is delicious. Taking Second Wind could be beneficial against champions like Teemo, and Bone Plating could be beneficial if you'll have long, drawn out trades against champions like Riven
Permanently gain 0.2% maximum health for every 8 monsters or enemy minions that die near you. At 120 minion and monster deaths, also gain an additional +2.5% max health.
Range: 1400
Do I really have to explain this? Overgrowth gives Sion tons of extra health in the late game. While it may not seem like a whole lot to you, on paper the difference is large. Unless you check your rune page, you probably won't be able to detect the difference, but I've had games take place where the health difference between when I took this rune and when I didn't can be as large as half a thousand (500 HP).
Inspiration Secondary
Receive a Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will at 3:00, 6:00, 9:00 and 12:00. If the inventory is full while receiving a biscuit, the biscuit(s) will appear as soon as a place in the inventory is freed.
Biscuit Delivery will help you a lot with your sustain in lane. Even with Corrupting Potion or Doran's Shield, you can lose a lot of mana seemingly too fast. Biscuits will help with that.
Consuming a potion or biscuit grants 50% of its health immediately, and mana if applicable, but prevents that consumable from being used again until the effect ends. Health/mana per tick is then reduced by half for the effect's regular duration. In addition, you gain 5% bonus movement speed while under the effect of a potion or biscuit.
Time warp tonic is what I like to describe as "insta sustain." It allows you to gain so much health back mid-trade or even mid-fight and really surprise your opponent. I think it's definitely the best option here as it synergizes with Biscuit Delivery and Corrupting Potion
Flash: Flash is an absolute necessity on Sion. As Sion is immobile and easy to gank when overextended, Flash is insanely helpful for getting out of those sticky situations you will more than likely find yourself in.
Teleport: Teleport is my favorite spell when playing in the top lane as a tank. It allows you to teleport quickly to team fights, split push effectively and still show up when you suspect a fight is going on, and help provide pressure on the map, simply by having it up. Even though its cooldown is long, I still think it's worth it.
Glory in Death (Passive)
RANGE: N/A COST: N/A COOLDOWN: N/A
Upon taking fatal damage, Sion briefly becomes invulnerable then enters a frenzy, restoring himself to full health but begins to drain (1 + level) health for the first tick and increasing by (0.7 + (0.7 x level)) health per tick. Sion can freely move and attack during this time, gaining 100% lifesteal, attacking at 1.75 attack speed and dealing 10% of his target's maximum health as on-hit physical damage (capped at 75 bonus damage against monsters).
Additionally, Sion gains the ability to cast Death Surge using any learned ability.
First cast: Sion starts channeling, increasing the damage of Decimating Smash over the next 2 seconds. If Sion's channel is interrupted by crowd control, Decimating Smash will have a reduced cooldown.
Second cast: Sion smashes his axe into the ground, dealing somewhere between a minimum of 30 / 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 (+0.45 / 0.525 / 0.6 / 0.675 / 0.75 per attack damage) and a maximum of 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300 (+1.35 / 1.5 / 1.65 / 1.8 / 1.95 per attack damage) physical damage in an area in front of himself - depending on channel time - and briefly slowing enemies hit. If he charges Decimating Smash for at least 1 second, enemies hit will also be knocked up for a minimum of 1.25 seconds, up to 2.25 seconds if Decimating Smash is fully channeled. Minions take 60% damage. Monsters take 80% damage.
Passive: Sion permanently gains 4 bonus health whenever he kills a unit, increased to 15 against large units and champion kills and assists.
Active: Sion surrounds himself with a shield that absorbs 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+40% of ability power) (+8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12% of Sion's maximum health) damage for up to 6 seconds. After 3 seconds, Soul Furnace can be recast to detonate the shield if it hasn't been destroyed, dealing 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+40% of ability power) (+10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14% of target's maximum health) magic damage to all nearby enemies. Bonus damage from the target's maximum health is capped at 400 against minions and monsters. The shield will detonate automatically if it persists for the full 6 seconds.
Soul Furnace can be activated and detonated while using any of his abilities.
Sion bellows in the target direction, dealing 65 / 100 / 135 / 170 / 205 (+55% of ability power) magic damage to the first enemy he hits, as well as slowing it by 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60% and reducing its armor by 20% for 4 seconds.
If the target is a minion or non-epic monster, they are knocked back 775 units, dealing the same damage and applying the same effects to all enemies they pass through. Projectile enemies stop upon colliding with terrain or reaching the end of their trajectory.
Sion charges in the target direction for up to 8 seconds, during which time he cannot cast abilities nor attack, but is immune to all crowd control effects. Sion's trajectory will update toward the mouse cursor over the duration, but his rotation speed is significantly slow.
If Sion collides with an enemy champion or terrain, charges for the full 8 seconds, or recasts the ability, he will slam the ground with earth-shattering force, dealing a minimum of 150 / 300 / 450 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) physical damage and knocking up nearby enemies, while slowing enemies further away. The base damage and crowd control duration increase over the first few seconds of the charge, capping at 400 / 800 / 1200 damage and 1.75 seconds respectively.
Laning with Sion is fairly straight forward. It's pretty much a guarantee that if Sion is going against a pokey champion, like Gnar, or Teemo, he's probably going to struggle. In this matchup, I'd take Second Wind in order to have the sustain in lane to not get bullied out in a few minutes. If going against a champion like Garen or Riven, I would take Bone Plating. What you're looking to do is bully your lane opponent completely out of the lane. Try and deliver some Q's particularly if you've charged them for more than one second, as they'll also deliver your knockup. In order to set up a good Q I recommend using your E to slow the enemy and get a nice hit on them. Be wary if they have the ability to cancel your as that can really screw you over and cause the trade to go in the enemy's favor. The bushes in the top lane are also great to hit a because if the enemy doesn't have vision on you, they cannot see the radius for your
Your ultimate is really important for your kit. Unstoppable Onslaught is great for ganking other lanes, escaping from a gank on your own lane, or just getting around faster. Use it to gank your bot laners and then use Teleport to teleport back up, or use it to gank your mid laner and walk back up through the river. It can be really useful to give your team mates a nice lead.
Teamfighting with Sion isn't a big deal, or particularly that difficult, but a lot of players get nervous about it. I did, too, and I understand that the reason for this is Sion is basically just a big ole' meat shield unless you can consistently hit your abilities. While this is true, keep in mind that a huge part of Sion's job is to be just that: a big ole' meat shield! He's meant to absorb tons of damage, so as long as you're front lining and absorbing the damage for your team, you're already doing arguably the biggest part of your job. Now, to be effective, however, you'll have to hit your abilities. The tips for hitting your Q and R are the same here as they were in the laning phase: It will be easy to hit both if there is CC already applied to an enemy champion or if you use your E to slow the enemy champion or champions. Once you do this, make sure your team follows up your CC by pinging for assistance. Sometimes, people aren't aware enough to realize that you have an easy Q on an enemy champion once you've used and hit E on them . They simply might not know your kit well enough to understand how you set up your abilities. Try and use your ultimate to catch out one of the enemy carries, or even the enemy tank, and follow it up with a Q Because of the knockup that your ultimate applies, your Q is practically unmissable.
The most important part of playing Sion is to effectively peel for your carries. I cannot stress this enough. Tank damage for them, take CC for them, do whatever it takes to keep those bad boys alive and kicking so that when their time comes they can do what they do best: carry your team.
If you're interested in seeing what his threats are, and what you should build on him, please refer to the top of the page where the build begins to see my recommendations and builds for Sion! If you observe the notes, you can read reasons why I chose what I chose and what champions certain items are more effective against. All in all, I feel like Sion is the best tank in the top lane as of patch 9.2. In my opinion, he's extremely strong, soaks up damage unlike any other tank, has insane peel, large damage, and has an uncanny knack for isolating enemy carries out from their team and quickly killing them. People oftentimes think the top lane is boring, and if you do, I encourage you to look into playing Sion as he's a cheap, effective, and fun top laner that's not all about farming (although that is super important!) You'll quickly find that Sion will make his way into your rotation simply because of how strong he is in the current meta. He's able to get a large HP value in a short amount of time with what he builds, and he's great at farming as he typically first builds Sunfire Aegis. Sion is a skill-based tank that involves knowledge of his cooldowns, ability ranges, and a decent understanding of the laner he's facing, which is why I included such detailed threats and synergies at the top of the guide. If you're looking for someone to play in the top lane and don't have much experience with tanks, I definitely feel like Sion is for you. He was my first real tank in the top lane (except for Gnar) and is one of the champions I hold near and dear in my heart. Well, that wraps up my Sion guide. I hope that you learned something from this guide. I put a lot of hours and my heart and soul into updating it to make it look sleeker, prettier, and more efficient for all of those who observe the guide, hoping to get answers on how to play Sion. Thanks for reading!
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