Introduction

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Hello! I am LevasK, a diamond EUNE player. I main top lane, jungle and support, and Sion is one of my favourite champions to play. Here is my lolking and opgg.

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Sion used to be a very weak and underplayed champion. I started playing Sion after his rework, as I believe that the rework made him both a lot stronger and way more fun to play. It also gave him some personality lore wise. Hopefully this guide will entice you to play Sion, and do so properly. Table Of Contents: 1. Pros & Cons 2. Spells 3. Runes 4. Masteries 5. Items 6. Abilities 7. Gameplay 8. Sion Jungle 9. Conclusion

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Pros and Cons

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- Strong pusher - Gains a large amount of HP - Has a hugely ranged ultimate - Can constantly apply AoE slows

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- Can be mana hungry - Low damage output late game - Low mobility without ultimate - Hard CC is unreliable

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Summoner Spells

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FLASH

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Not much to say about it, it's simply the most popular and the most flexible summoner spell out there, that allows you to make flashy plays or quick getaways.

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TELEPORT

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Teleport is amazing on Sion as it allows you to push out your lane - gank another lane and be back in time to get all the creeps. It is also a wonderful tool for getting into a great position for Unstoppable Onslaught.

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EXHAUST

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Exhaust is a solid option, if you are looking for more power in lane, as well as being a great summoner spell in mid/late game for protecting your carries or catching enemies.

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Runes
Top Lane Sion requires two rune pages. One would be for when you're laning against an AD champion and one for when you're laning against an AP champion.

VS AD

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- Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration - Greater Seal of Scaling Armor - Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

VS AP

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- Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration - Greater Seal of Scaling Health - Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

The rune page for jungle Sion is similar to the one for top lane Sion vs AD, the only difference being in the seals. Instead of scaling armour, you get flat armour in order to make you tankier and thus make it easier to kill the jungle creatures in the early stages of the game.

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Masteries
With Sion you want to invest most of your points into the defense tree. My recommended setup is 09-21-00, however on rare occassion you might want to play with the 21-09-00 setup.



I don't really recommend going with the 21-09-00 page, but I wanted to put it here as an alternative in any case. Although this will enable you to deal more damage and give you similar perks, Sion benefits a lot more from tankiness than he does from damage. Although you may notice a slight increase in damage during early game and mid game (not during late game though, as your damage falls off either way), you will definitely notice a less slight decrease in tankiness throughout the entire game.

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Items

Starting Items

I believe that there are two good starting options for Sion, Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potion(s) and 1 Mana Potion, but I prefer going for the Crystalline Flask start. Using flask will enable you to spam your abilities, making it easier for you to bully your lane oppoenent. In addition to this, it can help you survive tough lanes, namely lanes vs AP top laners such as Lissandra and Rumble.

Core Items

These item provide Sion with everything that he needs- mana, armor, health, magic resist and cooldown reduction, as well as giving him extra utility in a form of attack speed reduction aura and an AoE movement speed slow.

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FROZEN HEART

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Sion loves durability and due to the Soul Furnace passive you should prioritize Resistances over stacking Health, making Frozen Heart an amazing starting item for Sion as it gives everything you want: Armor, Mana and Cooldown reduction.

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SPIRIT VISAGE

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You should go for Spirit Visage as your first item if you are facing an AP top laner.

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RANDUIN'S OMEN

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Building Randuin's Omen when facing champions that deal well with armor like: Jax or Irelia is always a good idea.

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Boots & Enchants

When it comes to boots, it's a between Ninja Tabi and Mercury's Treads, as these two options best suit Sion. Both options provide, both direct resistances and passives that enable you to survive longer and do more in teamfights. You will most commonly pick Enchantment: Homeguard as it is the most flexible one and the most commonly bought enchantment, but picking Enchantment: Captain will provide some extra utility for your team, if the situation permits you to buy it.

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MERCURY'S TREADS

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I recommend going for Mercury's Treads almost always, as you want to avoid getting locked down by CC.

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NINJA TABI

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Ninja Tabi is a great option too, when facing multiple champions that rely on AAs (Auto-Attacks) to do damage, such champions are: Jax, Nasus and Irelia.

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BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS

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Boots of Swiftness are for those extremely rare occasions, when the opposing team has little to no hard CC, but have an overabundance of slows. This happens maybe once every 400 games, but it does happens.

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HOMEGUARD

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Enchantment: Homeguard is a great choice, if you need to defend your base or you are in need to content an objective immediately.

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CAPTAIN

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I believe that Enchantment: Captain, might be the best option for Sion, as it will help your teammates fallow up on your Unstoppable Onslaught initiations.

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DISTORTION

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Enchantment: Distortion could be useful, if you feel the need to have your Flash and Teleport up more often.

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ALACRITY

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Enchantment: Alacrity can be useful, if you are having problems keeping up with your opponents.

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Defensive Items

Sometimes u gotta get more defense after ur core, this is when ur team sks, ur skd in lane and do 0 damage anyway or when ur tema needs a tank

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THORNMAIL

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Thornmail is a solid option when facing multiple AA based champions as well as being good against ADCs.

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SOLARI LOCKET

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Locket of the Iron Solari is a more utility/supportive magic resistance item, but it's great against double AP teams and it's definitely not a "support only" item.

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BANSHEE'S VEIL

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If you need even more magic resistance or you don't want to get hit by a nasty ability Banshee's Veil is your best friend.

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GUARDIAN ANGEL

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Guardian Angel is a solid choice if somehow you get extremely fed and are looking for a strong armor and MR choice.

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Offensive Items

Not items that offend people but rather that hurt ppl. u get this when ur fed and you feel confident that u c an carry ur team in mid game!

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ICEBORN GAUNTLET

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Iceborn Gauntlet and Black Cleaver are both very solid choices as they offer durability and damage and utility. In addition to this, Sion's kit works well both of these items - Sion can easily proc Iceborn Gauntlet passive with his Decimating Smash...

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BLACK CLEAVER

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...While Unstoppable Onslaught and Decimating Smash can both apply Black Cleaver stacks to multiple targets!

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MAW OF MALMORTIUS

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Unlike the above, Maw of Malmortius and Ravenous Hydra are relatively meager on Sion. Maw of Malmortius offers you a lot of raw AD and a shield that might save your life. It is, however, expensive and Sion doesn't benefit from this item as much as he does from other items.

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RAVENOUS HYDRA

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If you are looking to split-push, Ravenous Hydra can provide you with immense pushing power. However, Sion's kit already provides immense pushing power, and so this item is not very necessary.

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Abilities

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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).

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This passive grants you a chance at revenge. It's disadvantage is that it is easily kited by more experienced players. Although it's a neat way to lay on some extra damage after you've died, you shouldn't expect to score kills every time it activates.

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Sion starts channeling, increasing the damage of Decimating Smash over the next 2 seconds. On second cast Sion smashes his axe into the ground, dealing somewhere between a minimum of 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+0.6 per attack damage) and a maximum of 60 / 120 / 180 / 240 / 300 (+1.8 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.

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Q

A large AoE ability with great AD scaling and a possible 2.25s knock-up, if channeled for the full duration. Strong ability during ganks because of the knock-up, assuming you can land it. The disadvantage is that most people will notice the channel and move out of the area. Due to this, it's not advised to channel Decimating Smash during teamfights, as it will most likely get interrupted.

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passive: Sion permanently gains 2 bonus health whenever he kills a unit. active: Sion gets a shield that absorbs 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+40% of ability power) (+10% of maximum health) damage for up to 6 seconds. After 2 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. The shield will detonate automatically if it persists for the full 6 seconds.

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W

A shield that provides AoE % Health based damage upon detonation, which also permanently increases your maximum health by 2 for every minion/monster kill and 10 for every cannon minion/large monster or champion kill/assist. It's important to note that you can use Soul Furnace during Unstoppable Onslaught, so do so as you get close to your target in order to detonate it upon impact.

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Sion bellows in the target direction, dealing 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+40% 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 2.5 seconds. If the target is not a champion, it will be knocked back - dealing 105 / 157.5 / 210 / 262.5 / 315 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies it passes through and slowing them by the same amount for 2.5 seconds.

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E

This used to be the best ability to max, but after several back to back nerf by Riot it became just a mediocre ability with a nice slow and armor shred attached to it. When you harassing with this ability, make sure to hit both the minions and the enemy champion.

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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. If Sion collides with an enemy champion or terrain, charges for the full 8 seconds, or recasts the ability, he will slam the ground dealing a minimum of 150 / 300 / 450 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) physical damage and knocking up enemies nearby enemies, while slowing enemies further away. The damage and crowd control duration increase over the first few seconds of the charge, capping at 200% damage and 1.75 seconds respectively.

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R

Your signature semi-global teamfight initiation, with which you can pick off enemies (especially after lvl 11 when your CD is low) or quickly get away, that upon impact knocks up, slows and deals good amount of damage.


You're going to want to max out Decimating Smash first, putting points into Unstoppable Onslaught whenever you can, for additional pushing power and harassment, after which I prefer maxing Soul Furnace for extra durability during mid game skirmishes.

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Gameplay

The LVL 2 Cheese

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You have probably seen this in SoloQ or, perhaps, even in competitive play. A Sion does 1 jungle camp before going to lane and then gets level 2 before his lane opponent. The disadvantages are that your Teleport will go on CD and your K/D/A will take a hit, if you care about that.

How? Basically, you go to whichever camp is opposite from where your jungler is starting, this so that your jungler doesn't lose any cash or XP because of you. So, Gromp when you're on blue team and the Krugs (or golems) if you're purple team. Once you get there, you fight the camp until you die, using Soul Furnace, and then once you die you finish it off with your passive. Once you respawn, buy some potions and a ward, and teleport top lane.

Things to note. ¹Although my setup recommends starting E, starting W will make this tactic work out better, or it will be safer at the very least. ²Note that this will work with any jungle camp, and so if you're feeling bold, or stupid, you could try to steal the enemy buff. ³Make sure you won't need your TP while it's on CD; aka if you'r expecting a tough lane, it's inadvisable to try this tactic.

Breaking your Lane Opponent

When laning as Sion your objective is to wear down your enemy by poking at them with minions launched using your Roar of the Slayer and Decimating Smash, all the while pushing as hard as you can to make your opponent loose minions to tower. Click the picture to enlarge!

After getting level 6, I usually push out my lane and run down to the bottom lane in order to try and get kills/ojectives by using Unstoppable Onslaught. The picture to the left showcases the starting point from which I prefer using Unstoppable Onslaught, as it gives less time for the enemies to react, as well as providing you with adequate room to pick up speed and damage.

Teamfighting
Sion's role in teamfights is to apply damage and CC to as many targets as possible but you also act as a sponge and soak up damage for your team, especially late game. Generally you will want to be the one to start off the teamfights, as you can do so quickly and from a large distance, without your enemies having too much time to react.

Your standard combo for starting a team fight should be:

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Activate ultimate and as you get closer activate your...

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Soul Furnace so that it pops by the time you get to the enemies, followed by...

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Which you'll channel for just about 1 sec and attempt to hit as many people as possible before...

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Finally using your E in order to apply slow to priority targets.

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Jungle Warfare

Jungle What makes Sion a very efficient jungler is the low amount of the time he needs to clear a jungle camp, as well as his extraordinary sustain. He can start either the Krugs and Gromp, clear the whole jungle, without ANY help (although you generally get a leash for your laners, at least), before having to go back. Here are some tips on how to clear the jungle camps most efficiently: Your standard combo for clearing a camp should be W -> E -> Q -> W detonation. Always wait a split second before hitting the camp after you activate Soul Frunace, to make sure that the shield is not broken, before you can actually detonate it. During the first two clears, you should use your E on the Large Monster in each camp, in order to stun them against the wall and thus save some of your health. Later on you can try launching one of the Small Monsters in the direction of the Large Monster. This will increase your clear speed. Warfare Unfortunately, Sion's gank pre lvl 6 are fairly weak. It's advised for you to farm up in the jungle in order to reach lvl 6 as soon as possible, so as to ensure your ganks go successful. However, if you must gank before 6, note that the best way to do it is to gank the enemy from behind and open with E, following by activating W as you get closer to your enemy. Trying to channel your Q fully will never work in a gank, so unless the enemy is locked down by some other form of CC, do not try to land a fully charged Q. They'll simply dodge it. After level 6, just follow the combo from the Teamfights section, listed in the Gameplay chapter. back to table of contents Summary I hope this guide helped you find your path to Victory and I would greatly appreciate if you could leave some feedback about this guide in the comments section, as I believe there are always things to improve upon! Thank you. Special Thanks Lastly, I would like to thank the following people: Janitsu for being a great inspirational annoyance, helping out with coding and being a good friend. ^_^ and MissMaw for helping me improve this guide a lot, thank you so much :)