Sion Build Guide by

[Masters] The Book of Sion | (All Matchups) | 13.21

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Stream is Offline

Runes: Tank Main

1 2 3 4 5 6

Resolve

Grasp of the Undying

Demolish

Conditioning

Overgrowth

Inspiration

Minion Dematerializer

Approach Velocity

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+6 Armor
+15-140 HP (lvls 1-18)

Spells:

1 2 3 4

Main

Ghost

Teleport

Items

Tank Main

Mythics (Read Notes)

Armor

Magic Resist

Damage

Raw HP

Supportive (Situational)

Late Game Value

Hullbreaker

Ability Order Tank - Winning Matchup

1 2 3

Sion Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Aatrox

Extreme

READ THE MATCH UP CHAPTER!! === Early Tier 2 Boots will be a massive help in dodging his Q's and breaking his chain combo. Put 3 points in W if you struggle in this lane.

Diana

Ideal

Sion Synergies well with most champions. But anyone with big AOE CC you can pull off some disgusting 5 man giga 1 shots.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Diana

Ideal

Sion Synergies well with most champions. But anyone with big AOE CC you can pull off some disgusting 5 man giga 1 shots.

Champion Build Guide

Table of Contents

There is A LOT of content here so be sure to use the side bar if you want to jump to a topic! (Make sure to keep up with the Patch Updates Chapter at the very bottom as well!

1. Introduction
2. Please Read
3. Item Web Cheat Sheet
4. Match Up Cheat Sheet
5. Runes Breakdown
6. Mythic Items Breakdown
7. Legendary Items Breakdown
8. The Big Cheese
9. Basic Trading Patterns
10. Tactical Inting & Proxying
11. Effective Roaming
12. Teamfighting
13. Hullbreaker
14. Titanic Hydra
15. Eclipse (Shield Slinger)
16. Extras
17. List of Bugs

Youtube & Stream

1. Introduction

Hello fellow (and future) Sion enjoyers! My name is Boptimus.

I have been playing League casually since Season 1. Season 7 was the first time I took ranked seriously, and I reached D5 as a Gangplank OTP. Season 8 and 9 I didn't play because of college, and Season 10 I returned and ended D2. My Season 12 peak sits at Masters 272lp.

Here is my main account:

https://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Boptimus Main Account

I have over 4000 games on Sion and I've learned a lot off of LCS/LEC top laners that have played Sion in pro play, along with watching many OG Sion players, and constantly watching VODs over the Top Sion players from many different regions. Of course I'm also a Babus enjoyer. Being able to break apart their gameplay and apply it to my own was definitely the hardest part about learning and climbing, as everything is not as straight forward as it would seem.

The goal for this guide is to help myself reflect on what I have learned and discover what more I need to learn moving forward, while at the same time extending my knowledge to those who seek to truly master the ungodly beast that is Sion.

This Guide will always be kept up-to-date to the best of my abilities. I have a lot written here so there will be things that I miss that might be outdated. If you find conflicting ideas or things that seem out of date leave a comment to let me know!

If you enjoyed this Guide don't forget to leave an up-vote! Competing Guide writers will down-vote bomb in order to get their Guide to the top. Help me help the community by keeping my Guide near the top!

2. Please Read

First I need to cover a couple of things for Sion.

I'm not going to waste your time with useless fluff. You came here for knowledge and that is what you will receive. Making half the guide going over Sion's Q-W-E and R in great detail would be a huge waste of everyone's time. You're getting the nitty gritty here. Please feel free to grab a meal, or pull this guide up in between games and continue reading.

Lethality, and Tank are both viable options for Sion, and each build/playstyle is more effective than the other against certain champions, and team compositions. As well as more or less effective in different ranks. IN GENERAL, Tank is most effective.

Your passive is one of the strongest parts of your kit. BEFORE YOU GO INTO RANKED AND START INTING- play a couple normal games and practice inting FIRST. Sion's passive is extremely hard to master in a sense that you need to know how long to stay alive for, when the right time is to die, and the mechanics of pilotting your passive for the few seconds you're still alive. Don't forget that using Roar of the Slayer on someone right before you die is the best way to secure a kill in your passive.

If you don't need to die then its best to not die just for using passive. I have played a lot of games where dying was completely unnecessary, and I've died 0 times.

If you have a 700G+ shutdown you need to protect it. If you plan on dying for a big play it should be close to the end of the game and you need it to secure a win.

Have fun. Sion has a lot of disgustingly hard match ups. If you aren't the best at stomping lane your fun will come from Giga 1 shotting half of their team with a big Q from a bush or a massive R engage. Also big dopamine hits from Demolish.

Mute all if you're getting flamed. AND DONT GRIEF OTHER PEOPLE. Dying just to practice killing people in Sion passive is best saved for Normal Draft games.

3. Item Web Cheat Sheet

Purple - AD Utility : This category is mainly purposed for items that provide really good stats for the Full AD build path. I highly recommend running through the crit path as it has the highest damage and scaling, but it can be very expensive. If you’re getting completely crushed and you’re struggling to get gold then these are cheap and effective items that will still make you useful.

Yellow - AD Crit : Adding Crit to your build will make your Auto attacks hit like a truck. Along with a sufficient amount of Armor Pen you'll have high DPS when fighting Tanks as well. AD Crit isn't as strong as it used to be but it still scales the hardest when running Full AD.

Orange - Armor : Iceborn is now a Go-To for rough lanes like Irelia, Fiora, Jax ect. It provides damage reduction and a slow which will make it harder for them to run you down to tower. Its very useful in fights as well. Primarily Armor and Utility. Normally if you are building Iceborn over Heartsteel you're going for a tankier build with less damage output. Thornmail, Sunfire, Randuins/Frozen Heart are all great options that make you insanely unkillable.

Blue - Magic Resist : Jak’Sho I have listed here because this will be your primary Mythic into AP lanes as Iceborn is purely Armor and Heartsteel is purely HP. This will be the item that gives you similar resistances to old Sunfire and makes you extremely hard to kill once it's ramped up. Turbo Chemtank has become a legendary item and opens you up to another engage tool if you’re against a composition that you can’t get an ult off against (Anivia/Trundle wall). After buffs Abyssal Mask is another great option if you're going to find yourself in the center of a lot of fights.

Green - Health : Heartsteel synergizes extremely well with Sion. The biggest downfall to Heartsteel is that if you are against %HP damage sources you will melt. You also need to be able to get in range of your laner to proc it without getting annihilated. HP is my least favourite stat to build but if you are against a composition that doesn’t have good access to %HP damage you will be an absolute raid boss. Definitely Sion's highest carry potential build.

Red - Supportive : Radiant Virtue is weird because it gives O.K resistances but the passive on it is kind of poor for Sion. Sion’s ult is best used from a distance and when Sion gets in the middle of a teamfight it’s hard for his teammates to exist close to him. A better example of a Tank that can use this item would be Maokai; normally he is near his team when he ults and his team follows him into battle or retreats with him. Knight’s Vow and Redemption are very low cost and highly effective supportive items you can build if you have someone that is carrying extremely hard and you want to make them even harder to kill.

Blade of the Ruined King - Can be built situationally against Heartsteel users.

Hullbreaker - Is an item you want to build if you’re certain you will be side lane the majority of the game. If you don’t think you are going to be getting plates and towers then you’re better off using this gold elsewhere.

Serylda’s - Is great on the end of a Tank build that adds a good chunk of damage. Can also be substituted for LDR in an AD Utility build.

Wit’s EndWit’s End - Is a good item especially in side lane against AP users. If you are against an AP user and you’re in a more split push oriented game give this item a try.

Titanic Hydra - Is very expensive but has great synergy with Sion (and Heartsteel). If you’re in a rough lane where gold and CS is hard to come by you’re better off leaving Titanic alone. 3300g could be better spent for more resistances. If you’re struggling for gold but want a damage boost you can pick up a Serrated Dirk for only 1100g.

Triforce/Divine Sunderer - Are in my opinion pretty poor on Sion but I know a lot of people use these items religiously. The issue is once you get higher in elo resistances become much more valuable and you wont be able to get away with blowing a bunch of gold on a sub-par item.

Everfrost - Still a very strong playstyle that comes from the heart of Korea. Everfrost>Gargoyle>Sterak’s with Glacial Augment turns you into an unkillable CC machine (with a bit of lacking damage).

Eclipse build is a very strong duelling build. It has it's own chapter dedicated to it.

If you feel like I've missed an item, it's probably intentional. This is a list of the most common items you will be seeing on Sion.

4. Matchup Cheat Sheet

Here you will find a breakdown of every match-up you are going to face Top, with the exception of some rare picks. They are ordered from hardest, to easiest, alphabetically. If you want to find a specific champion, use "Ctrl+F" and type in your desired match up

(Ctrl+F "Garen/Camille/ect.")

Important Basic Match Up Rules:

New item recommendations updated for Season 13! AD Build paths have been removed because your AD builds should only have variations based on if you are taking Hullbreaker or not. All champions now have effective item recommendations, but continue to be fluid with your builds and take into consideration the other enemy champions.

If you are against a champion that can take or

Take into

Take into

Some Blade of the Ruined King users will require you to build both and to survive.

Aatrox

As of 12.19 this match up is so unplayable it makes me sick. Aatrox is my Go-To perma ban for the rest of the season, but if you leave him open; Aatrox has 4 ways to cancel your Q, has a dash, and out sustains, damages, and ranges you. The good thing is if Aatrox is trying to harass you, he ends up hitting the minion wave. The best way to play this lane is to get the wave under your tower, and keep it there for as long as possible. As soon as the lane extends to Aatroxs' side, he can run you down and kill you very easily. I highly recommend either maxing W first, OR putting 3 points into W, and then maxing Q. This will allow you to survive his onslaught of Q's much better and help you get some return damage with your shield pop, as you wont be able to get a reliable Q off. Once you complete or along with you should have a small window where you can beat Aatrox. You still need to avoid as many Q's as possible. I highly recommend only Tank into Aatrox.

Item Recommandations:
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Mid-Late you have a stronger teamfight so long as Aatrox doesn't get a lead. Try to force a 5v5 on your terms around an objective and use Unstoppable Onslaught to get a good engage on the backline. Your job is to keep the mid-backline busy while your team deals with the Aatrox, you want to avoid Aatrox in the middle of a teamfight as much as you can because he can keep you cc'd to cancel Q's.

Do not try to take an extended fight with Aatrox unless you know you can kill him.

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Gnar

Gnar is a very hard lane, but not nearly as hard as Aatrox and Darius. The good thing about Mini-Gnar is that his auto-attack range is actually quite short, so he is putting himself in range of your E-Q if he wants to harass you. The biggest problem is that he can easily avoid your combo with his W movement speed and his E hop. You can harass Mega-Gnar with max range Q's but if he leaps on to you and can land CC you're completely screwed. Farm safe and communicate to your Jungler that you can't fight him in Mega-Gnar unless you can both chain your CC and have the damage to burst him down.

Item Recommandations:
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Avoid stacking HP Ruby Crystal in the early game as Gnar has %HP damage on his W. You want to play teamfights around Mega-Gnar. If you see that Gnar's rage bar is getting full communicate that you need to disengage and wait for him to go Mega. Once he's back to Mini-Gnar OR doesn't have any rage built up, is the time you want to engage. Mega-Gnar has a scary teamfight so if you are caught in a situation where you are being engaged on, try to CC him and burst him down before he can reach your backline and 1 shot everyone up against a wall.

Stay healthy vs Mini-Gnar. Avoid taking fights when he goes Mega-Gnar. The best time to try to fight Gnar is when he goes back to Mini from Mega-Gnar.

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Gwen

Unfortunately, this has become one of Sion's hardest matchups, whether playing Tank or AD. How well you perform in this lane depends solely on the Gwen players' mechanics. Level 1 Gwen can just walk at you and in true "new champion" fashion, completely ignore the minion wave and the damage coming from it, and syphon life off you with her E attack speed steroid and ludicrous healing. Until level 5 you'll basically just need to grab as much cs as she is allowing you, and look to trade back by using your E to slow her advance and respond with a Q if she has dashed into you. When Gwen hits 6 think of her as Irelia. You will never be able to 1v1 her with her ult available, and if you extend too far she can chase you down indefinitely with R unless you Ult away.
Use fast Q's if you find Gwen is avoiding your charged Q's exceptionally well with her W.

Item Recommandations:
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Mid-Late game Gwen becomes even more of a nightmare. Luckily engaging into a teamfight with R means she can't just press W and ignore your ult. What she can do however is dash out of your R and or Q, and she can avoid a max range Q with her W. The best way to take her down in a teamfight is CC. You will need to be near your damage dealers and you will need to get a Q off before she can react with W or while her W is on cooldown. With enough cc and damage she should go down fairly quickly. If she's incredibly fed, you will need to kite out her R as well.
When splitting against Gwen you will just have to play the collection game. You can't over extend into her territory because she can just run you down with her R or force you to Ult away. Stay patient and look for an oppourtunity to group with your team as soon as you can.

If you're solo killing a Gwen it's because they are very inexperienced with playing her. Still if they aren't efficient, she is very hard to kill. You never want to take extended trades with her because she will always win. E-W-Q auto and disengage will be you most common trading pattern. If Gwen slips up enough times she will be low enough for you to all-in. If you have the damage to kill her with a full rotation and R then take it. If you don't think you quite have enough damage just try to poke her until you do. If you can't chain CC and finish her off she will heal very quickly off you and can turn the tables.

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Lee Sin

(Season 11 Meta)

Lee Sin has become an extremely strong solo laner in the current meta. His W gives him the ability to infinitely sustain which is traditionally very hard for Sion to deal with. I have found that if I build full tank, I end up falling off too early, and Lee Sin can't be dealt with in a teamfight without a significant damage source (even through grevious wounds). What I've found is building a mix between Tank and Lethality is the best option. and into is what you're going to be looking for. You will never be looking for extended fights with Lee Sin because you will always LOSE. Once you've got a you can look for an opportunity to kill if you can keep up pressure with your Q's and take good trades.

Item Recommandations:
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Mid-Late game is when Lee Sin always used to fall off. While this is still the case if you can lock him down and drop DPS on him, his cooldowns are very low, and he can maneuver around quickly. Most Lee Sin players aren't looking to side lane, but look for flanks onto your carries so he can get a pick with his R and win teamfights that way. If the Lee Sin is messing around too much you can look to get a good split going. Once you meet him in a teamfight you will outshine him, but it's very important to avoid letting him kick you into your team ESPECIALLY if you're going Tank, because you will end up 1 shotting your whole team. Get him locked down infront of your carries and he should go down quickly.

You will have a small window after your 2nd base to kill Lee Sin, other than that if they're good you will just have to CS and wait for ganks. Whats important is that you don't aggressively feed Lee, or we will take your team for a ride. Once you have heal-cut and a Serrated Dirk you can look to press with Q's off CD, play smart, and if he messes up too much you can look for an all-in when he is low.

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Irelia

Level 1 must be played very smart. I normally sneak into a bush and look for a fully charged Q to last hit the 3 melee minions and possibly get some good damage onto Irelia if she goes to last hit. It is extremely important to play back and let her push, and take as much cs as you can from a far range. The good thing about this match up is she's actually pretty easy to freeze on, so you can keep the lane infront of your tower for a while. You can't look for extended fights and if she lands her E on you, you NEED to run all the way back to your tower or you WILL die. Rush to deter her from wanting to perma fight you. I do highly recommend Tank in this match up.

Item Recommandations:
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If you're really struggling don't bother with Titanic Hydra and finish either Thornmail or build into Frozen Heart. You don't want to stack HP against Irelia because most Irelia's build Blade of the Ruined King first item, which will SHRED your hp. Resistances and Damage will be what you want to stack early. In teamfights if you manage to CC Irelia she should die very fast from the help of your teammates. The most important thing is to be sure that you don't give Irelia early kills and to call out when she roams, otherwise she will be extremely hard to deal with. Play to carry the teamfights.

If the wave is infront of her tower stay very far back, only stay in XP range if you know she's a good player. The only realistic opportunity you have to kill her is if she's trying to harass you infront of your tower and you managed to CC her in tower shot range.

Irelia will usually telegraph her engages by stacking up her passive and moving aggressively towards you.

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Kalista

(Season 11 Meta)

Kalista is an extremely hard lane. I have played this lane around 5 or 6 times and I've only been able to win once or twice. Kalista has a dash with every auto attack and can abuse VERY well. stay close to your tower and wait for ganks. I would recommend staying out of auto attack range unless you are 100% sure you can win a trade. Thankfully this is a very rare lane so you aren't likely to come across it, but if you do, stay back, stay safe, and collect farm when you can. If she takes a big lead you wont be able to get back.

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Another good thing about Kalista is that she takes a VERY high amount of attention to pull off. If Kalista messes up even once she's looking to get killed early on. Again I will also mention that if she takes a lead she will be near impossible to deal with on your own. Your job will be to focus the backline in teamfights, and try to let your ADC and Mid Laner deal with the Kalista as there is no reason you should be able to get in range to deal with her.

Kalista will leap circles around you with Hail of Blades. Your best window to trade with her is to open with E Roar of the Slayer while her Hail of Blades is down.

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Nocturne

(Season 11 Meta)

Nocturne is also a nightmare lane. His passive allows him to stay sustained even after he has used his potions so you will need to keep healthy and collect cs. Nocturne will usually look to harass with Q while hiding the animation through last hitting, so always keep at a reactable distance. If you over extend and he lands Q he can chase you down fairly easily and rip a huge chunk out of you with AA's and his E fear. You should condition the Nocturne into reacting to your fast Q's, so that in a pinch he will spellshield early and you can get a bigger charge off. I haven't played this match up enough to know if you can just eventually run him over as Tank, but if you're inexperienced, Tank is always the better option.

Item Recommandations:
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Mid-Late game Nocturne can melt side waves very fast. You can't over extend too far away from your tower as Nocturne can look to all-in you if he has a significant lead. You also need to be ready to join your team at a moments notice as Nocturne can melt a wave and then ult instantly to a teamfight. You can react to Nocturne ult with TP but you need to be ready for it because you only have about a 0.25 second window before everything goes dark and you can no longer TP to minions/wards/towers.

Try to stay as healthy as you can until Level 5. Start fast Qing to take chunks of out Nocturne and if you think you can bait out his W shield and get a full charged Q off go for it. You can't take extended fights or else he will just heal off of you. Once he is in lethal range overlap your CC and he shouldn't be able to sustain off you. Make sure you're always playing around his W spell shield.

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Olaf

Olaf can be difficult to deal with if you play trades horribly. Olaf will often open with Q and look to run you down Level 1. Play back and let the wave push to you. If you can battle for a freeze, having the lane infront of your tower is the safest place to be. If Olaf is chasing you with you should look to sidestep his axe, and if possible run in a different direction than where he needs to pick up his axe so that he needs to choose between chasing you without a Q reset or risk creating more distance. Once you have Armor Olaf will have a very difficult time chewing through you, but if you decide to stat-check him when his W is available you will lose every time. Kite out his W, and avoid giving him free Qs

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Olaf is hard to deal with at every stage of the game. Communicate to your team that Olaf needs to be hard focused if he is charging in during teamfights. If you have a team that can deal with Olaf then you should be looking to disrupt the backline and keep the mid-line busy long enough for your team to deal with Olaf. You don't need to completely avoid Olaf in teamfights but you wont be able to provide anything other than damage on to him. So if you don't have any damage you would be better positioned in between your team and the enemy teams backline.

The best time to kill Olaf is Levels 1-5. You need to keep the lane short and close to your tower because Olaf can kill you surprisingly quickly.

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Sett

Sion doesn't have the tools available to be able to interact with Sett during laning phase. What will make the difference between a good Sett lane and a bad Sett lane is how well you can play off your minion wave. There is no point in wasting mana and using abilities on Sett because he will regen it back, and if you open yourself up for a trade he will win every time. Use your abilities to last hit, and manipulate the wave so it stays near your tower. Whenever Sett tries to take a trade with you, pop your W and allow him to push in to you. If you CS well you have a window once you complete your Mythic and / to where you can kill him if you space properly.

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Mid-Late game you need to make sure you position properly. If you're going tank, Sett can pick you up and completely 1 shot your whole team because his R damage scales off of your HP. You still struggle to 1v1 Sett at this point but you easily out teamfight him.

It's extremely important to keep your trades short and don't greed for CS. If your goal is to kill Sett, you need to freeze in front of your tower. A lot of Sett's will get greedy and try to harass you under tower, all-in with R and keep him stun locked. Without the help from your JG you aren't going to be able to beat Sett in a 1v1.

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Tahm Kench

You have the advantage in wave clear vs Tahm Kench. Tahm Kench wont be able to deal with your wave clear and you can bounce the wave off his turret in order to set up a solid freeze infront of your tower. I would highly recommend farming as much as possible. If you're playing against an inexperienced Tahm Kench you wont have too hard of a time killing him if you're building lethality. Do not take extended fights and be careful in a long lane. If Tahm hits you with Q he can very easily stick to you and fully stack in order to eat you, and if he does you're almost always guaranteed to be dead. REWORK NOTES: General tips above still apply, though Tahm has become even harder to lane against. You'll need to keep the lane infront of your tower as much as possible as you are extremely easy to run down. Make sure he wastes Q before you look to Q the wave. For the most part Tahm can just charge at you whenever he wants but you can disengage easily especially with Phase Rush (which I recommend giving a try on Tank builds as well.) You shouldn't ever have kill pressure on him unless hes trolling so just look to get perfect CS and get in lots of Q dodging practice.

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Mid game you can shove out your wave and start roaming. There isn't much point in staying in the lane if you can't kill him. Eat up jungle camps whenever you can and try to look for an R play on bot lane or mid. Make sure you push out your lane before objectives start. Tahm shouldn't be able to do anything if he didn't get a lead off you.

Don't take melee fights with Tahm Kench. He can stick to you very easily and does a shocking amount of damage if you stay near him for too long.

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Trundle

Trundle is a big head ache to deal with. Trundle can Pillar your Q and block your R, and if you build tank he can also steal your HP and Armor/MR. I would keep him at a distance and play around his Pillar. The easiest time you'll have fighting him will be Levels 1-9, after that he scales WITH you.

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Mid game Trundle will be able to stop you from engaging with R Unstoppable Onslaught with his Pillar. You'll need to get creative with your engage and play around vision. If you're going tank try to bait an engage and get him to blow his R Subjugate. Re-engage after he used it and the teamfight should be pretty free.

Trundle drains A LOT of stats so you need to keep your trades quick and you NEED to play around his Pillar.

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Tryndamere

I've decided to completely rewrite Tryndamere as he has taken over the Meta ever since changes in Preseason 12, so much so that he is being picked/banned in Pro Play (Something unheard of for a Champion with such a simplistic kit and hard counters). That being said, his hard counters aren't strong enough and Tryndamere continues to run rampant in SoloQ and Pro Play. From Level 1 and beyond Tryndamere does absolutely disgusting damage and he only gets stronger. Tryndamere can force you under your tower and power farm your waves and your Jungle camps. You really can't die to Tryndamere otherwise he will be strong enough to dive you. and rush is a MUST to keep him from being able to dive you for free. I also recommend rush if it looks like he is potentially building one, or you're certain you'll be stuck in a side lane with him all game.

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Mid-Late Tryndamere MELTS towers, waves, and camps. If he gets a big enough lead you will need to call for help in the side lane before you take any objectives. If you didn't give up any kills you will be able to defend fairly easily and Tryndamere will be forced to look for camps or look for a pick. Keep your Teleport available while he's splitting into you, and choose your Teleports carefully as a lot of Tryndameres will force their team to 4v5 while he goes for inhib. If Tryndamere does end up grouping you easily outshine him in teamfights.

Solo kills should not be your objective in this lane. If you are looking for a kill the trades should be very straight forward. You need to wait for Tryndamere to engage on to you with E before you charge up a Q, and if he's playing back and scared you can shove out and look for vision in the jungle. In this match up you are protecting your turrets.

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Vayne

Vayne is another full blown nightmare to play against. You can survive in lower ranks because most Vayne's can't harass and position properly. When she hits you she will start passively pushing so collect as much cs as possible. At no point can you out right start trading with her unless she is making HUGE mistakes. Wait for your jungler OR ask your ADC for a lane swap, and lane with your support in the bot lane.

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Mid-Late If Vayne continues to push up she is very easy to gank with the right set up. If Vayne leaves and starts roaming you'll be able to farm freely which is what you want. In a teamfight if you can't land CC on the Vayne just ult into the backline and try to make the most usage of your passive.

You aren't going to solo kill Vayne unless she's playing with her toes. If thats the case then keep chunking her down with Q's and look for an all-in with E-R.

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Viego

(Season 11 Meta)

Viego is incredibly hard to deal with. I first started playing this lane similar to Yasuo/Yone (Rushing bramble, going full tank, and running them down). But Viego has WAY too much lane sustain to handle. This lane is about staying healthy and getting as much cs as you can. Viego can shred you with %HP damage, and if you do end up winning a trade against him, he can just Q the wave and heal back up. Healing reduction in this lane wont matter for the 1v1 because you will never win the 1v1, instead it is important for 2v2-3v3 skirmishes and teamfighting. If Viego stands too close while csing and isn't aggressive enough, you can look to throw down Q's once you've gotten some damage. A very inexperienced Viego can be killed, but it is incredibly hard for Viego to **** this lane up.

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Mid-Late game Viego can out split you even from behind, so just look to collect waves and keep an eye out for where he could potentially roam to. If Viego gets rolling in a teamfight, even if he is weak, he can steal your champions on kills, and if he takes someone who is fed on your team, he can roll through you. The best way to deal with Viego is to kill and focus him before he can start resetting. If there are higher threat targets nearby then you will need to deal with Viego very quickly, or try to kite him out and ignore him until the bigger threats are dealt with. A good Viego can navigate through a fight fairly easily with resets, so try to catch him with a Q when you notice a teammate about to go down. Throw your Q onto the (ghost?) hes about to possess and you'll catch him coming out of the invulnerability.

In reality there shouldn't be any way that you can actually kill Viego, but nevertheless some players still find ways to get themselves killed. Punish poor positioning. Play behind your wave to avoid his stun. Kite back to tower when he pops his E (mist). Obviously if Viego gets greedy and tries to harass you under tower you can point blank R him and CC chain him. Otherwise if Viego lets himself get too low you will need to CC chain him with damage so that he can't heal off of you and stack Conqueror. Don't commit too hard to a charged Q if you're relying on the CC because he can cancel your CC with his R (he will still take the damage)

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Xin Zhao (Exotic)

I've only played against 2 Xin Zhao tops and one of them was Saint Vicious. This is a very old school strat. Just farm as much as you can and respect them, you should be fine once you get some items. Definitely get some early healing reduction as Xin Zhao has good built in sustain and usually runs

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Mid game is when you out-shine Xin Zhao the most. You'll be very tanky and hard to deal with. You have better wave clear so if you can keep him at a distance you'll be able to control the tempo Top lane. Late game Xin Zhao sort of comes back and can shred pretty fast with the right items. Xin Zhao is more of a diver so make sure you take care of him before he takes care of your carries. Save your ult for the bulk of the enemy team if you can.

Xin Zhao's 3rd Q cancels yours. Xin Zhao can also easily dodge your Q with E. But once he uses these you can disengage and try to use your Q when he retreats. If they mess up too much they're very easy to kill.

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Camille

A good Camille is extremely difficult to deal with. Activate your W to negate her W early on. If she uses W infront of you, try to land E and charge up a Q. A good Camille will look for super fast hookshots with the true damage portion of her Q. If she's about to dive you or you think you can win an all-in use R in the direction she is hookshotting from to completely throw her off guard. If she is being very obvious with her hookshots you can charge up a Q towards the wall she normally dashes to and cancel her E or force her to back off.

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Mid-Late game Camille can out-duel you, especially if using Divine Sunderer. Camille benefits from pressuring a side lane and your job is to match her so she doesn't rip through your turrets. The good thing is you have better wave clear so if she dumps a big wave at your tower you can quickly take care of it and match her roam. You crush her in teamfights if she doesn't use her R to deal with one of your carries fast.

W her W early on to win trades. Stay away from walls. If she's too predictable punish her. ALSO her R CANCELS your Q and puts it on FULL COOLDOWN so be cautious.

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Cho'Gath

Cho'Gath is difficult for you to deal with at every stage of the game. If Cho'Gath decides to build damage you'll actually be in a good spot. If Cho'Gath uses his Q on the wave that is your best time to trade. Tank his W to get your Q to reset then charge up an even bigger one. Cho'Gath has short cooldowns on his Q and W so you have to be decisive and quick, if he takes too much punishment all in with R and try to cancel some of his CC with it if you can. If you continue trading into his E you will eventually get shredded.

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Mid-Late Game you'll need to open with a hard engage on to Cho'Gath with your R. Follow up with a long charge Q and if your team does enough damage he should be easy to deal with. If you're all the damage I would try to ignore Cho'Gath if you can and go straight for the backline. Cho'Gath doesn't split push as much as other champs so try to keep track of him.

Dodge his Q if you really want to look for kills. If you can hit your Q knock up before he W's I would recommend taking the knock up. If he walks at you with W and tries auto attacking you charge up a Q as much as you can and you should come out on top of trades. Once you start trading you need to keep up the pressure because he sustains A LOT off of the minion wave. Cautious of his R burst.

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Darius

Darius has finally stopped being a perma ban of mine. You should be making sure your wave doesn't get stuck on his side of the lane. Take runes that will help you soak a little bit more damage in lane and start stacked HP and for the mobility. For the most part unless Darius is playing very poorly, you wont have any opportunities to get an advantage so you'll need to just collect whatever resources he is allowing you to take. If the lane extends to his side he can very easily pop and run you down, so if you can keep him on your side of the lane he will have a hard time killing you. his E can cancel your Q and he has amazing sticking power with W. If you have good spacing and Tier 2 boots you can move in and out of his E range to try and bait it. Once Darius wastes his E you can look for trades.

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You should be a much stronger teamfighter so long as you start a teamfight on your terms. You really need to avoid giving Darius full stacks so if you can throw CC down on to him and kite him out before he reaches 5 stacks Darius is going to be next to useless. CC and peel for your carries and deny Darius his 5 stacks and resets on his R. There isn't much you can do in a sidelane against Darius, but again if the Jungler decides to gank him you need to make sure you aren't letting him get 5 stacks or else you will risk getting double killed.

You aren't going to Solo kill Darius unless he is really bad. Play entirely around his E cooldown.

IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO DISENGAGE FROM DARIUS BEFORE HE GETS 5 STACKS OF HIS PASSIVE

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Dr. Mundo

Dr. Mundo seems to have a bit more sustain than pre-rework. The "stand behind minions" rule doesn't really apply that well anymore as he can also harass you with E last hits now (this damage adds up quickly if you ignore it). To combat this try weaving in and out of the wave as his Q and E cooldowns alternate. Kite back when he runs at you with W, and look to chunk him with Q so that you can pop his passive. Don't over extend to step on his passive because if you get too close he can easily run you down with Q (but step on his passive as much as possible for extra damage). Try to be aggressive early on as this is when Dr. Mundo is most weak. You will NEED or after he hits Level 6. Once he hits 6 he can run you down VERY easily especially if he took . If you took a lead you can still duel him until about Level 11.

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The good thing about Dr. Mundo is that he provides 0 CC besides his slow. Grevious wounds and CC is Dr. Mundo's worst enemy and if he's too aggressive you can take him out of a fight very quickly. His wave clear isn't bad but its not as good as yours. Be careful if you push up late in the game because Dr. Mundo wins 1v1 and can stick to you very easily.

If you want to solo kill Dr. Mundo you need to stay healthy, and take an all in early before he hits Level 6. After Level 6 you will need help from your Jungler if you want to kill Dr. Mundo.

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Fiora

Fiora is another high skill cap champion that can be very hard to deal with. Early on in lane you can charge Q's in the direction your vital is facing. What you need to be cautious of his her W as it can block your Q and stun you FOREVER. Even if Fiora doesn't parry your Q with W she will still reduce your attack speed to -50. It's most important to stay healthy, and play around Fiora's W. Go for trades to contest your own vitals. THE ABSOLUTE BEST FOOL PROOF WAY to beat Fiora is to fully charge a Q in her face, watch her parry thin air, then the fully charged Q will land on her dome and she'll be cc'd forever. (the more you do this the more likely she will get better timing, so you will have to start mixing in fast Q's)

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Mid-Late game Fiora is a very strong side-lane duelist. If you went tank she'll have an extremely hard time diving you but she can also just ignore you and go for the tower if you aren't putting pressure on her. If you went Lethality she can dive you for free if you've been feeding your *** off. If she decides to join a teamfight DONT open with R as she can dash infront of it and use her parry to block. Play the fight slow and let her mess up an engage. If she splits off from the backline go straight for them. Hug walls if she ults you so her team doesn't get the massive healing from it.

You'll want to fight Fiora as close to your tower as you can if you want to look for kills. Play around her W and punish her when she goes for vitals. If she ults you run back to your tower, if you can't make it back hug a wall and try to fight to the death. Fully charge a Q, most Fiora's will parry WAY too early and they'll tank the full charge CC and damage.

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Hecarim (Exotic)

(Season 10 Meta) (Out-Dated)

Very uncommon pick but very strong when it's meta. You will need to keep him at a distance because once hes on your he's hard to get off. Most Hecarim tops I've played against take and . I would recommend just csing as much as possible because you aren't going to have much opportunity to kill him.

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Mid-Late game Hecarim can be a nightmare if he picked up a lead. Try to deal with the Hecarim first and then go for the backline. Usually if your teammates are strong you can CC Hecarim once then go for the backline. Apply your E Roar of the Slayer to him if you see him charging at you or one of your teammates. Mid-Late if you aren't ahead he can out duel you and has amazing waveclear. Keep track of him and match his roams.

To kill Hecarim you'll need to land a big Q. Hecarim is Unstoppable during his R and can interrupt your Q with his E and R. Don't take extended fights and try to catch him with your Q reset on interruption.

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Illaoi

Level 1 you should start W and take an aggressive stance. Low elo getting an early bounce off the turret isn't as important but can be very good practice. You also have the option of taking a Level 3 cheater recall if Illaoi hasn't been able to land E. Ignore her and try to get the Cannon wave into tower and recall. Levels 3-6 you should be looking to be as aggressive as possible. If Illaoi has hands she'll look to E every time you last hit. Your best window to fight her is infront of your tower after she uses E. Unless you have chain CC when Illaoi uses her R WALK AWAY AND SPAM /LAUGH. Don't try to fight her in her ult unless you have the CC and burst.

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Mid-Late game Illaoi will be in the side lane for the majority of the game. Most Illaoi's I play against usually end up pushing up too far and are very easy to pick off. It is very important to coordinate with your team when fighting her. You need to wait out her R Leap of Faith UNLESS you have high damage and CC to take her out quickly. For a general rule, when Illaoi Ults, just walk away.

Illaoi will usually tank a fully charged Q and will Q you back if she mispositions. She can only eat so many until shes in range to all in. Be aggressive early and if you fall behind avoid her E like the plague.

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Jax

Jax is hard to deal with in lane. He can stick to you very easily and can avoid your Q by jumping to you or minions. Let Jax engage on you first, shield his damage and walk away. Once he backs off, E him and charge up a Q. If they play poorly you should be able to kill him, but a good Jax is just going to run you back to your tower if he doesn't kill you on the way.

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Mid-Late Jax is a really good split pusher. You really don't want to be taking any extended fights with Jax unless your team is nearby. Jax has a lot of ramping damage with his Passive Relentless Assault and Conqueror. In a teamfight you can be a lot more effective than him. Try to keep Jax away from your backline and CC him if he spends too much time in the frontline. I would take care of Jax first if he has a big lead but if not then ignore him and aim for the carries with Unstoppable Onslaught.

The best way to kill Jax is to have him close to your tower. You can try to get good harass off against him but you realistically shouldn't be able to kill him unless you can land some CC on him under your tower. Play back and wait for him to engage first.

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Pantheon

Pantheon is VERY strong in lane after his shift from the Support role to a more Solo role. He can dish out more abuse than you can with less mana costs and he also has invincibility to deal with your Q. there really isn't too much to say because pantheon is very straight forward. Try not to get hit by too many Q's, if he throws his Q it will be on a decent cooldown, this will be your best opening for a trade. Communicate when he hits 6 and make sure your team is aware that a Pantheon can show up in their lane at any time. Once you have some Armor and damage from your Mythic you should have no problem Soloing him.

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Once Pantheon hits level 6, if he hasn't been able to kill you he's going to wait to shove waves and look for roams. If you aren't able to kill him match his waveclear and try to stay on him as much as possible. Mid-Late game Pantheon will be catching your team off guard with ults. Set up a Q Decimating Smash where he will show up then try to aim yourself into the backline.

Pantheon is hard to deal with early as he can spam Q Comet Spear on quite a low cooldown. If you can survive early on you shouldn't have much trouble dealing with him later. Again I recommend Tank to make the laning phase go a lot smoother.

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Renekton

If Renekton takes and you will need to avoid being killed early, and if necessary you will need to use very early. If Renekton takes and you'll actually have a bit of breathing room. If you're going Tank I would suggest NOT taking and I would rush as quickly as possible. Early lane you need to respect his rage and don't use your W when he has empowered W as it will break your shield and you'll take the full damage. Playing extra cautious and not giving Renekton a lead will allow you to farm up to your Mythic spike. Along with and you should have a window of time where you can stat-check Renekton.

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Renekton doesn't like to roam but he does love to vacuum farm. Try to take your own camps before Renekton can and when you meet him in a teamfight play around his E Slice and Dice and throw down your CC on him. If you were able to put him behind he wont be much of a threat at all.

Renekton can completely negate your W Soul Furnace with empowered Ruthless Predator. play around his rage and try to keep up in CS. You will have a stronger teamfight if he doesn't take a solid lead.

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Rengar

Rengar early levels must be played extremely cautiously. Give up some CS and make your way to a . Eventually his full combo from bushes will start to tickle. I would recommend Tank in this match up as once you build some resistances he wont be able to do much damage to you. Wounds wont do much for his healing, so you'll have to play trades keeping in mind that he can Empowered W-heal most of the damage back. Communicate when Rengar hits Level 6 and make sure your team knows when he's roaming.

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Mid-Late game if Rengar managed to get a lead you should make your carries aware of his presence. If Rengar ults try to find which direction he's coming from and stand in between him and your carries. You can stop Rengar's leap with R if timed correctly. Rengar has OK waveclear, but Rengar wants to roam. Your teamfight is much better than his so make sure he is dealt with then R into the backline.

To kill Rengar you will need to either play infront of your tower or play infront of his. You can try to Q the wave when he goes to leap for CS. Ward the bush he's in if he is infront of your tower and try to punish him when he goes for cs.

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Riven

Level 1 you can't walk up to the wave. Stand back and start Q and try to last hit the melee creeps without pushing the wave. Riven can all in with Q Level 1 and take your entire health bar. Level 3 the lane starts to become playable until Level 6. Once she hits Level 6 she can kill you very easily. If she all ins, wait until her 3rd Q and cancel with your R to avoid the damage and knock up.

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Mid-Late game Riven has really good waveclear and high mobility. Riven can very easily push you to your tower in a side lane then hop over walls to force a teamfight before you can respond. If you notice she tries to do this forget about the wave and chase her to the fight. If you picked up a lead you might be able to go toe-to-toe with her but you'll again need to cancel her 3rd Q with your R in-order to swing the fight in your favour. If she's strong you'll want to deal with her in a teamfight first.

Level 1 you can't walk up to her. Your best time to kill her is Level 3-5, once she hits 6 it will be a lot more difficult. If you think you can kill her before she can make use of her R2, take the all in. Be careful if you decide to play aggressive because if she gets up 1 kill she will be impossible to handle.

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Rumble

Rumble is easiest to deal with after your first back. I would recommend taking MR runes whether you decide to go Tank or Lethality. In my opinion Lethality works better against Rumble as he will just shred you out of lane if you decide to go tank. Try to stay as healthy as possible and punish Rumble if he over-chases with Q. If you're caught in an all in step off of his R as quickly as possible. You will eventually outscale Rumble.

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Mid-Late game Rumble has a NASTY teamfight. If you're going to engage I would avoid doing in it a choke because Rumble can ult the choke. If you've taken the lead you can really bully an inexperienced Rumble in a side lane, but whats most important is dealing with him quickly and getting in his face so he can't get a big ultimate off.

To kill Rumble in lane you'll need to stay healthy and take a good all in. When Rumble has high heat he does a lot more damage, so wait until his heat goes down, or wait for him to overheat before you try to engage.

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Vladimir

Vladimir is decent in lane and scales very well. You have the option to go Tank and rush MR, or go Lethality and try to match his scaling. Vladimir can sustain really well even from early on but if you trade properly you can come out on top. Level 4-5 is the best time to try to put on damage, and you can look for first to Level 6 into an all in. Play around his pool and empowered Q as best as you can.

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Mid-Late game Vladimir is a teamfight freak. Try not to group for a big Vlad ult, and if he blows his pool, you should look to CC him and take him down. Mid game you should be able to take control of fights with good engages, but Late game you really need to pick your fights carefully.

Try to put on pressure early as much as you can. Make sure you don't drain yourself of mana because he'll be able to out-sustain and you'll need to waste TP. Level 6 if you've gotten Vladimir low enough you'll be able to win an all-in. Get grevious wounds as soon as you can.

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Wukong

Wukong in lane can be a complete nightmare but you outscale him very early on. I like taking in this lane so that Wukong can't sustain through fighting you. Wukong has a short cooldown on his E and increased range on his Q, he should be looking to keep the pressure up early and will all-in if you let him keep his Conqueror stacks. You should avoid extended fights until you have Mythic and . Wukong gets a huge damage and sustain boost once he finishes .

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Mid-Late game Wukong will end up falling behind if you go even with him. If Wukong managed to get a kill or 2 he will be extremely hard to deal with and can easily shred you with the right items. You'll be able to hold the side lane without getting dove, but in a teamfight he has the potential to be more impactful than you. Wait out his R1 and R2 before you try to get a Q charge in a teamfight.

You cannot try to trade with Wukong early otherwise you're just going to get smoked. Play back and don't greed for CS. Wukong's clone has a very long cooldown and you can look to trade back with him on his retreat if he gets on you. Make sure he starts the trade on YOUR terms, W to negate damage, slow him, then look for a fast Q or charged Q depending if he has clone or not. If you get him low enough you can all-in him as long as you have the damage to kill him before he heals.

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Yasuo

Yasuo is a breeze if the player can't pilot Yasuo extremely well. The only thing his windwall can block is your E if you didn't hit a minion. position outside of the wave and select your last hits carefully. You'll want to trade early but if he gets on to you and can chase you to turret you'll end up taking too much damage. After some armor you'll basically be unkillable, and if you decide to go lethality he will need to position perfectly in-order to not get completely shafted.

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Mid-Late game Yasuo can gain some serious tempo once he hits his crit spike. Mid game is where you shine against Yasuo the most, and well placed CC will easily dispose of Yasuo in a teamfight. You can also look to interrupt a potential wombo if you see something like an Alistar engaging. Side lane you'll have to stat check. If you go tank you will eventually reach a point where he can beat you 1v1, but you should be fine with a lead.

Take W first and play lvl 2 aggressive. Hit level 2 first and look to harass him. When hes about to hit level 2 back off because he can all-in if you're too far away from your tower. Avoid his Q harass and space well. With the right ability usage and spacing you can all-in at 6 for a kill. If the all-in is really close, look to ult through his tornado so he doesn't get a chance to ult.

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A lot of these can still be rough match ups if played incorrectly, but these match ups in my opinion take less time to learn.
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Akali

Akali can be hard to deal with if they know what they're doing. You can wiggle in and out of her Q range for cs, and if shes too comfortable standing close then charge up a random Q here or there. Fast Q's will let you get some damage down as normally they will try to E away. If Akali lands E on you KEEP CHARGING, they might dash back into your Q and take a massive chunk of damage. If Akali likes to keep using E and is very predictable with it punish her. When she tries to all in with R just back up to your tower. This lane can be played a little more aggressively. If Akali took wait for her stacks to fall off before going for another trade or an all-in.

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Mid game you'll be looking to clear waves and roam. Akali isn't easy to kill solo and shes very slippery to get away from ganks. Don't focus her too hard in teamfights but definitely try to peel for your backline if you notice she's just trying to one shot your carries. If you manage to land CC on her she is more than likely dead.

Akali with Conqueror can quickly rack up damage if you aren't careful. Her R is on a low cooldown and is her best tool for beating you, so play around it.

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Gangplank

Gangplank can be extremely hard if they know what they're doing. Whether you decide to go Tank or AD, I strongly suggest running and for Tank, and for AD. Take W level 1 and try to get as much CS as possible. Usually when I play against GP I look for a cheater recall level 3 for , , or . If the GP is aggressive don't fight for the cheater and try to survive lane as long as possible. If you're confident in your ability to break GP barrels definitely look for trades, especially if you choose lethality, if they can't managed barrels they will end up dying to you if you haven't taken too much poke.

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Mid-Late a good GP will try to power farm. If he didn't take a lead he can still be fairly easy to kill. GP can farm in a side lane with you, but he will have slightly more pressure because of his R Cannon Barrage, make sure you communicate with your team and make sure they know at any point they could be ulted by GP. Unless its a very experienced GP, they usually fall apart in a teamfight and have their barrels broken by your ADC, but if he throws one beside you make sure you take care of it. Other than that you easily out impact GP in a teamfight.

If you want to solo kill a half decent GP you need to be able to break some barrels and you will need to be aggressive early. Match his Q with your Q and negate damage with W, go for barrels he drops and try to get in for your W pop and grasp proc if you are tank. If you space right you can get a kill level 6 and snowball from there. Be careful for his tempo shift once he hits level 7 and his barrels don't need to cook as long.

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Garen

Garen is capable of being an extremely hard match up if you aren't willing to play safe and trade smart. That being said you eventually just become too much for Garen to kill. I recommend lethality unless your team is begging for frontline. Keep your space and don't let him Q onto you, try to use your E AFTER he uses Q, and you shouldn't struggle keeping a good distance.

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Mid-Late game Garen will be a nightmare if you gave up a lead. On the contrast, if you managed to stay even, then you are ahead. You and Garen both melt waves fast so outfarm him by taking nearby camps, and look to group. If you're leaving the side lane make sure Garen doesn't take too much. You might go rinse the 4v5 but Garen takes towers INCREDIBLY fast. If he groups for the 5v5 you have a lot more impact than him.

If you're looking to kill Garen in lane you need to put the pressure on early. Start W, if he starts Q kite him out, and get some W damage. If he started E back off. Use your E and Q to keep your distance, you'll have an easier time disengaging if you have Glacial Augment or Phase Rush. Let him come to you and make his own mistakes because if he isn't trying to go for a solo kill early especially if he has Ignite then you automatically outscale.

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Gragas

Gragas can be a very annoying lane. Tank Gragas has started to make a come back in this meta, but you want to watch out for a good AP Gragas. If Gragas decides to go tank you will just outfarm and outscale him. If he goes AP you will struggle to trade, and you can be solo killed if you aren't careful. Against both I recommend full tank.

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Mid-Late game Gragas can have a lot of teamfight impact. Try to get up in his face so that he has no way of getting to your backline. Be mindful of his R because a good Gragas can split your team up well and get a huge pick. If you need to, cancel Gragas' R with a well timed R engage.

You aren't going to solo kill a Gragas in lane unless they're making blatant misplays. Remember; You can cancel his E with a Q knock up. You can cancel his E and R with a well timed R. Stay away from his W auto attacks, and always keep in mind his E is a very short cooldown if maxed.

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Graves

I've never found this lane too difficult. Graves can't really get in range to harass you without being in your E-Q range. If you're looking for trades onto Graves, it's best to go for short Q's for the damage unless you KNOW you're going to hit the knock up. Try not to go for trades when he has his W up.

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Mid-Late game Graves can clear and rotate. In the side lane once he gets 2 items+ he will start to get pretty hard to deal with. If you are confident and you see that his grit stacks have fallen off, bait out his W and go for a kill. If not, clear your minions, and look to group. Your teamfight is infinitely stronger than Graves'.

My tips if you think you can solo kill him is to bait out his W. Make sure he doesn't have grit stacks, and try to Q at angles that he can't E dodge out of. Tank will be a lot easier for solo kills because he's going to have a very hard time doing any damage to you.

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Heimerdinger

Heim can be a hard lane if you go AD, but you have a much better chance of killing him. Try to survive and sustain and hit level 6 first. On level up you can E Heim with a minion and R him. Most times this either results in a kill, or at the bare minimum a flash. You can also E his super turret and mini turrets away. Stay health, don't greed for too much cs, look for the E-R all in.

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Mid-Late game if Heim has been able to take a large cs lead he can actually kill you quite easily with 2-3 items. You will need some help if Heim camps infront of your tower with turrets. If you end up getting a gank try to save your E to push his Super Turret away. If you ended up taking a lead Heim wont be able to breathe near you. Tank or AD, if you're ahead you're going to out push him and 1 shot him if he gets too close. Same deal in a teamfight; Engage, and try to save your E to throw his R turret out of the fight.

If you're looking for a solo kill, I suggest waiting until level 6. Again, use your E to throw his turrets away, and if he lets you, charge up your Q to dispose of the rest of his turrets. Line up a last hit with E when you're 1 minion off level 6, and if it connects then you ult. If he didn't flash he should just be dead.

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Jayce

I tend to struggle against Jayce OTPs, but you eventually just become more useful than them. Make sure level 1 when he's auto attacking you that he's pulling minion aggro. If you somehow let him sit between you and your minion wave you're going to be very screwed. An average Jayce wont be too much of a problem. Fight in your wave, and make sure you are at a distance where he can't cancel your Q with his E. You can also cancel his Melee Q with your Q if timed correctly. Make sure his Range E is down before you go for an ult.

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Mid-Late Respect his damage, and try not to eat too much poke before a teamfight starts. One good Q, or if he gets caught in your R, he'll be dead within seconds. Careful if you're pushing up in a side-lane, because if Jayce has a good amount of items he still has the potential to beat you 1v1.

If you're looking for a solo kill on Jayce, you should try to stay as healthy as possible from levels 1-4. Level 5 when you have good base damage on your Q you can look to start pressuring him if he gets too close to poke. If you space correctly you're going to out-damage him, and you can look for an all-in level 6.

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Kennen

Kennen is about equal to the Jayce lane, the only difference is Kennen can engage/disengage quicker and doesn't have as much burst. I recommend and into this lane, both for AD and Tank. It's okay if he AA's you when you CS, but don't let him get free Q's, and don't take too many auto attacks + W poke. Be mindful of how many stacks you have on you, and don't let him cancel your Q with a stun.

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Mid-Late Kennen can provide an extremely strong teamfight. If he managed to get a lead over his team, you will want to focus him and try to provide a frontline for him to stop at so he can't reach the rest of your team with his R Slicing Maelstrom. Otherwise Kennen shouldn't be too much of a problem for average peel, especially if the teamfight is spread out. If this is the case aim for the backline and the enemy teams biggest carry. You and Kennen can both clear very easily in the side-lane, and you wont really have a chance to kill him 1v1 unless he uses his E to waveclear and stays for whatever reason.

You should approach trying to kill Kennen the same way as Jayce. Levels 1-4 you want to avoid a lot of poke, then Level 5 you want to start looking to put some pressure on. If he's chunked and you have the push on the Level 6 Cannon wave; bait out his E, then E him into R. If done correctly you either get his flash or he dies.

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Kled

Early on you want to be avoiding his Q, and applying pressure to dismount him. If you get the dismount by level 3, you'll be in a position to do whatever you want with the lane (push for a double recall or try to set up a gank.) Once Kled remounts, and for the rest of the laning phase you MUST AVOID Kled's all-in on your last hits. Very trigger happy Kled's will blow everything they have on you if you walk up to last hit. Give up a cs to bait this out, and then hard punish them for it. If you're going tank, once you have and along with some HP, Kled will have a hard time killing you.

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Mid-Late game Kled can clear waves fast, has decent duel potential, and can engage a teamfight from a further distance than you can. If you broke even in lane and CS'd well, Kled shouldn't be able to bully you out of the side lane, and you can even look to apply pressure yourself. If Kled picked up Black Cleaver I would be very careful of his all in. His ult can curve around walls but can only CC 1 target. Your ult can CC multiple targets. Try to get a good engage, you will last longer in a teamfight than Kled will, unless they're extremely fed and efficient on the champ.

Levels 1-3 you want to be looking for a dismount on Kled without taking too much damage, after that you can look for another dismount around Level 5. If he's dismounted and you're approaching Level 6 he's a sitting duck. Respect his all-in when you don't have much armor. Post first recall he shouldn't be a huge problem.

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Lucian

Lucian has slowly moved his way from Top into Mid over the years. This match up has also gotten easier because of the access to sustain you get from runes. This is another match up where I would consider going and whether you're going AD or Tank. Lucian will usually try to take an aggressive position in the lane brush Level 1 for early poke. Make sure he is pulling aggro from minions if he decides to poke Level 1. Let him push and stay healthy until Level 5. You might need to blow early if Lucian is getting off too much harass. Respect his E dash in, and angle away from the wave so he can't hit you with Q through it. Lucian will eventually run out of mana before you run out of health if you play correctly.

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Mid-Late game Lucian is just another ADC. Lucian can be a bit slippery in teamfights but if you land 1 good CC ability he'll die pretty fast. Aside from Lucian's ult he doesn't really bring much to a teamfight, unless he's 3+ items. In the side-lane you could look to cheese bushes for an easy kill, otherwise on outright fight with him might be hard unless he uses his E dash aggressively. He shouldn't be able to kill you once you have an item or 2.

As with other range match ups, play safe and stay healthy Levels 1-4. Level 5 when the base damage on your Q is high you can look to pressure, and if he's chunked and uses his E, you can look for an all in with E R, resulting in a flash or a kill.

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Ornn

I've played and learned both sides of this match up, and I can say that it is Ornn leaning. What it really comes down to is if Ornn cancel's the CC from your Q with his W . If the Ornn you're playing against hasn't caught on to this, then they are most likely trying to cancel your Q with Q-E. You can cancel his E with your Q if timed correctly, and you can nullify his R by R'ing him before he can R2. Another really great tip is to try and dodge the last tick of W . Ornn will walk slowly in 1 direction during his W, and if you pull a 90 degree dodge, you'll avoid the last tick of his W, which applies %HP damage and Brittle. Ornn has much shorter CDs and can get multiple rotations off so keep your trades short and on your terms.

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Mid-Late Ornn will struggle to pressure side-lane against you, normally this turns into neutral wave clearing until a fight happens. If Ornn is too far up and you're confident you can definitely go for a kill. I've noticed in big teamfights versus Ornn; the enemy team will hover around Ornn, and run to Ornn when he ults as usually this means he clears an area infront of him where he can lay down a lot of CC. If Ornn ults, R in his direction, if you can cancel his R2 you'll be able to CC him further and your team should make quick work of him. DO NOT ult directly at him for no reason, as he can cancel the CC of your R with W Bellows Breath and will ult and CC you down from there.

Level 1 avoid Ornn's Q poke. If he starts W you can start throwing Q's down on him. Look for trades when his Q is down and his Pillar is out. A lot of Ornn's will try to dash into the pillar to cancel your Q, but if you release Q before he arrives at the pillar, you will cancel his E and he will be forced to retreat. When you look for the Level 6 all-in, make sure you're using your R to cancel the second portion of his R Call of the Forge God.

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Poppy

Poppy is hard for Sion pre first recall. Tank is much stronger than Lethality in this match up as you will be able to kill her once you have Mythic. If Poppy completes you'll need to be extra cautious because she will have a massive boost in sustain. Poppy can cancel your Q with her E, she has added resistances with her W, and her Q does %HP damage. You should wait for to use her abilities before you try to fight back. If she cancels your Q you will have it back up in 2 seconds so E her and charge up another Q.

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Mid-Late game Poppy doesn't like to split that much. You should be able to pressure her off the wave and you definitely have better waveclear. During fights you should look to peel her off your carries, and you can block her R with your R. Play carefully and play around your team.

Make sure you STAY AWAY FROM WALLS at all costs. If you want to look for kills on Poppy you can trick her into thinking she can stun you against a wall, and setting up a full charge Q.

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Quinn

Quinn can be difficult if they're a half decent player. A lot of Quinn's will take and if your jungler isn't willing to punish it, or even path top at all the entire game, you'll be in for a rough ride against an efficient Quinn. Stay healthy and get as much CS as you can. If you need to use early then I would suggest looking for a good item like or to base on and TP back. When Quinn hits Level 6, ping it to your team, and communicate whenever she leaves lane.

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Mid-Late game Quinn can be a complete nightmare if your teammates forget for the 7th time that Quinn can fly into their lane with 700 movespeed and 1 shot them. BE ANNOYING AND KEEP PINGING that Quinn is indeed alive and exists in your current match. Still in Diamond people wont respect the possibility that a Quinn is going to show up in their lane no matter how much you ping. Quinn is great at pressuring sides, and then roaming for picks. Quinn is terrible at teamfights, unless she can somehow get a carry isolated for a 1v1. Play for objectives and try to get your team to group. If Quinn tries to jump into 5 people, she will instantly die.

I've found Quinn to be the tougher of range match ups, but there is still ways to kill her. If you're against an inexperienced Quinn, they will usually telegraph when they want to E on to you for harass. If you think you can time it right, charge up a Q and try to cancel her E with it. If you manage to land this its almost always a kill. Against a good Quinn, use your E as they're about to E, and then look to chase with Q off of the slow. You also have the option of point blank ulting if she E's on to you. This will be your best tool for baiting dives, and disengaging all ins.

I've found through my experience climbing that a lot of these picks are extremely easy to bully early, especially tanks, but a lot of these picks can outscale. Choose your aggression wisely, you can get easy solo kills against these champs, but if you fall behind you'll stay behind.

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Karthus

Karthus is a rare pick in top lane, but can still pop up. Usually this pick involves running and and farming stacks. If not they will go the standard and try to farm and scale. Early on Karthus can actually get off some serious poke with isolated Q's. The same rules apply as regular range top match ups, but Karthus doesn't have as much harass as say a Jayce or Quinn. Look for the Level 6 all in with E-R, it will result in a flash or death, and then Karthus is a sitting squishy duck.

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Mid-Late Karthus will be completely useless unless he was able to get a decent amount of scaling. Karthus' power doesn't come entirely from CS, and if he isn't going a tanky health shred build ( Liandry's Anguish & Demonic Embrace) then he's going to struggle to do damage unless he dies inside a teamfight and gets a big ult off. During teamfights for objectives Karthus can actually control a decent area, but again if he hasn't scaled well he will be pretty easy to take down fast. Karthus also has a hard time surviving in a side lane. Karthus can really push too far away from his tower without the threat of being jump on from over walls. You can make him really uncomfortable by shoving to his tower and clearing with sweeper so that he has to walk up for CS without any vision. Use this to create a number advantage for an engage mid as well. If you really want to, you can let the side lane push to you and freeze on your side, this way Karthus has no choice but to put himself in danger or roam somewhere else on the map.

You shouldn't struggle too hard to kill a Karthus as long as you don't let him land a bunch of Q's. Before you look for an all in, fake an all in first to bait out his Wall of Pain.. Disengage and then go back in with E. If you have R available you can tag him with a minion E and aim for the head.

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Kayle

Kayle is a very interesting lane and quite common. How easy this lane goes depends on the skill of the player. Kayle in general is easy to bully early on, but once she hits 6 she goes from Easy to Difficult. A bad Kayle is going to look to start harassing you with Ranged auto attacks, but you can throw out a well placed E and chunk her with huge Q damage. If Kayle stays at a decent range you're going to struggle to reach her because of her Q slow and W movement speed. Once she uses her W she's fair game to try to approach and throw a combo down on (even better if you can bait out her Q as well). When you all-in, use your R so she can react to it, she will R your R and be CC'd long enough for you do get off a fully charged Q, and you should win the fight from there.

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Mid-Late Kayle has a lot of waveclear and will usually keep you locked in a side lane with her. You will need to decide if teleporting to a teamfight is worth it if she's going to continure hammering your turrets, because if you leave her alone for too long she will suck up a lot of gold and xp and be Level 16 before too long. Your goal is to simply match her scaling, and set up ganks because if she is a good Kayle she will be on your side of the map. Try to lock her down in teamfights with CC, if she isn't taken care of fast she will wipe your entire team. If you managed to get a lead on Kayle early she will be farming the side lane while you're smashing her nexus turrets.

If your goal is an early kill, step in the bushes Level 1 and look for big Q damage. Keep the pressure up, avoid her Q, and try to get her to run out of Corrupting Potion charges before Level 6. Look for the Level 6 push first and try to all in. It's good if you get her flash but even better if you landed the kill.

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Mordekaiser

Mordekaiser can be considered a difficult lane without experience, but once you learn the match up he starts to become pretty easy. You can NEVER take extended fights with Morde because you will always lose. What you need to do is wait out his E and look for an E into big Q charges. If you're going lethality you'll bust through his shield and give him a decent chunk. Keep your trades like this and you'll be fine. I'll explain more important details in the bottom section.

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Mid-Late Morde can start to match you in the side lane, you will end up just neutrally clearing waves until a teamfight breaks out unless you have the clear advantage on him. Try to aim for Morde with your ult to engage fights, if he tries to ult you it will get cancelled. If you don't end up ulting Morde he can get an ult off on one of your carries and potentially kill them. CC Morde so that his passive resets.

Level 1 start W. If you take 1 MR rune Morde can't break your shield with his Q, so its a free trade. Level 2 take a step back because he can E you can run you down. Keep your trades short and play around his E because it has a decent cooldown. Level 6 if you've been able to avoid getting pulled and have gotten some good damage down, you can look for an all in with this special interaction:
If you ult Mordekaiser, you will have about a 2-3 second INCONSISTENT buffer where you will have an invisible Cleanse shield against Mordekaiser's R. This is a BUG. As of writing this guide this bug has been known since the rework of Mordekaiser. When this bug is fixed I will update it.

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Shen

Shen is another favourite match up of mine. Your trades are going to look the same regardless if you build Tank or AD. Shen has a very strong Levels 1-3, so you will need to step away from him when he uses his Q because he will deal a significant amount of damage. Most Shen's will look to hit Level 2 first and E on to you. If you anticipate an engage from Shen you should pop your W right away. You can bait out engages by playing extremely linearly, and then dodging 90° degrees in either direction. Once Shen has used his E he is extremely hard to bully and kite out if you apply your E to him. If Shen is lazy and predictable, you can charge a Q on him at a range where he will try to cancel it with E, release Q for the knock up and cancel on his E. You can charge random Q's here and there when his E is on cooldown to rack up some nice damage. Communicate when Shen hits Level 6 and if he Rs away, take the 320g-480g from turret plates. Be extra careful in the early levels if Shen took .

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Mid-Late Usually if Shen takes early Stand United ults he will far very far behind you unless he picked up A LOT of kills. If Shen somehow managed to beat you, or kept up in CS while getting off good ults he will be extremely hard to deal with in the side lane. To this day I've only seen 1 or 2 Shen's play lane so well that they were able to push a lead off of ulting to fights. Use the advantage of him leaving lane to take AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Later on he will just become a glorified support if he hasn't be able to deal with you.

If you want to kill Shen early on you will need to learn how to play around his cooldowns. Shen easily outtrades you with his passive, Q, and E. His Q is his most important cooldown in your trades, because if he uses E and doesn't have his Q available then he will do no damage and leave himself open for a big E-Q combo. Keep winning your trades and keep Shen shoved in with vision control so he can't ult without losing a lot. If he messes up too much you can all in him for an easily kill and snowball.

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Sylas

If you're inexperienced playing against Sylas I recommend Tank over AD, but with enough experience going either build is pretty similar. If you decide to go the Tank route I would pick up early, even though it gives Armor and not MR, the heal reduction is HUGE against Sylas. If you are going AD this is one of the few lanes I recommend an early . Grab a little extra MR from a if you're AD, or rush into your mythic of choice if you are playing Tank. This match up can get hard if they're an efficient player, but if you sit inside minions and don't let him cancel your Q with his E2 you will be fine. Sylas is going to have a really hard time killing you if you play your trades right. If Sylas takes avoid taking extended fights because you will eventually lose.

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Mid-Late If you've stayed at least even with Sylas he will have a very hard time dealing with you unless he has Conqueror and Liandry's Anguish. If that's the case give him some respect, and play to clear side lanes until a team fight. Sylas will look to steal your ult and match your roam if a teamfight is about to break out, the only difference is that you are the better driver. Pinging wont really help in communicating that Sylas is using your ult, so you need to type it in chat (even then hardly anyone pays attention and you just have to pray to god he doesn't hit a 4 man). The best way to go about this is to type to your team beforehand that Sylas has your ult and that the Audio will as copy from the skin you are using. Being annoying could quite possibly save your team from getting cucked, so type and spam every time he takes your ult.

Sylas is significantly easier to kill if he isn't running Conqueror. Early on you should be able to out-sustain his mana pool if you play your trades right. Use short Q's so that you can get damage off if he tries to E away. Once he uses his E it is a longer cooldown than your E-Q so you can look for a big trade even if he has W available. If you're looking for an all-in you need to play around his W and E, because he can heal a shocking amount and disrupt your Q. Executioner's Calling or Bramble Vest is SO SO important.

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Yone

Yone doesn't have as many tools to outplay you as Yasuo does, as his kit is fairly front loaded; His Q3 is a dash that can be punished if telegraphed and spaced properly, you can tag him with E or just charge a Q where you think he will dash to. His W has a long cooldown and is easily played around, and his E can be used to dodge your Q, but you can still lay down damage with a fast Q. If Yone uses his E while your Q is up, he's a sitting duck. You can time your Q to fully charge on his spirit when he snaps back to it, so long as he isn't chasing you down and can cancel your Q with a knock up. Tank makes this a free lane but if you're brave enough AD can snowball very hard. and will help you deal with and the healing from .
Yone is weak early on but will ALWAYS outscale.

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Mid-Late Yone will start to ramp up if you haven't pushed a lead. In the side lane Yone can start to wreak havoc, you unless you're turbo tanky or stupidly far ahead taking a fight with him is more often than not a terrible idea. If you've taken the lead you can bully him around until your fights get close, once this happens hes on a break point where you wont be able to contest him anymore. Always pay attention to his items and give him respect when you see his 2 item spike. During teamfights Yone's worst enemy is CC, which you have a lot of. Don't let him cancel your knock up and punish his engage with a point blank ult, or look to cheese him when he snaps back to his E.

You need to show Yone's Lethal Tempo respect. A lot of Yone player's will line up a Q3 to dash in and hit you, this can be easily dodged and followed up with either a combo, or a quick Q to bait out his E. There is no set in stone way to kill Yone, you just need to play around his long W and E cooldowns and win your trades. Once he's low enough 1 bad decision he makes will lead to death. Punish his mistakes, and if he doesn't make many show him respect. You should be grabbing Bramble Vest or Executioner's Calling BEFORE his healing becomes a problem.

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Yorick

If you choose to run a Tank set up Yorick will just end up funnelling you HP stacks with his Ghouls. Your goal in this lane shouldn't be getting kills, you should be looking to abuse the +4hp you get per Ghoul and look to keep Yorick off your plates. Most Yorick's I've played against aren't very strategic and will just afk push until the game is over. After Yorick has funnelled you enough you should reach a point where you can just walk at him and he will flop. Keep your preserved for important fights because a lot of your game will be played infront of Yorick siphoning HP.

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Mid-Late Is going to be more or less the same as early game. Yoricks don't push and roam, they will usually just push into your tower and die there. Like I mentioned above you really want to preserve your Teleport for important fights. A lot of your time is going to be spent kicking Yorick off of your towers, because he is going to be infinitely more useful inting for inhib instead of trying to match you in a teamfight.

Again I recommend taking the free scaling but solo killing Yorick can be fairly easy. Keep your movement choppy so he has an impossible time landing E mouring mist. If you notice he throws E when you go for a last hit start baiting it out and punishing him. If Yorick wastes his W Dark Procession go to town on him. If you're caught at low HP in his cage you should just flash out. Your E can throw his R Eulogy of the Isles around.

In my experience these lanes have been for the most part a complete joke. With the exception of some, you hard bully these champions early and then take over from there. Again with all difficulties, if you choose to feed a scaler you will get completely destroyed for the rest of the game.

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Malphite

I absolutely love this match up. Malphite is extremely easy to deal with especially if you go Tank. Take an early and start stacking HP, and you will completely annihilate Malphite in trades. I don't have much to say on trades because if you aren't destroying him in a melee brawl you're definitely doing something wrong. If Malphite takes he will be even more squishy. Use your W shield to negate his Q damage until his Q & stops popping your shield. Throw an E, run at him, and let him taste the thunder. Level 6 his best outplay is to R you while you're charging Q. Watch out for this and you'll be fine. Also be careful if you're in turret range because he can ult you and clear the wave at the same time, and have you CC'd under turret.

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Mid-Late Malphite can have huge flanks and be a big player in teamfights, but once he uses his R he's pretty much just a big meat shield. Usually when you engage a fight with R he will walk past you and ult your backline. If you do your job correctly the enemy backline wont be able to reach yours, and you will survive longer than Malphite will. Malphite also struggles to pressure side lanes without a significant lead. Make sure you're always communicating when Malphite is out of vision, and always ping when he uses his ult.

Levels 1-5 You'll be looking to negate his Q poke with your W. Once you've gotten some points into your Q you'll be able to apply a good amount of pressure. If you're Tank then Malphite will try to take the wet noodle fight with you. Avoid him and disengage when he pops his W and E, then walk back in to continue the fight. If he cancels your Q with R and you can still survive, charge up another Q after the CC ends and ult him back.

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Maokai

Maokai is another lane I actually really enjoy. The lane can be difficult early on without any resistances, but once you get some MR and Grevious Wounds especially, the match up becomes pretty easy. Maokai can easily play around your Q with his W and can interrupt your Q with his own Q. If he uses W while you're in Q, let him cancel it so you'll have it on a 2 second cd, and then charge another one. Once you get a bit beefy your wet noodle will hit harder than his.

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Mid-Late you eventually just outscale Maokai. You can bully him out of the side lane and you'll be a lot more useful than him in a teamfight. If Maokai engages a fight with his R, ult through it to clear a path for your team and try to hit as many people as you can. His saplings can be pretty annoying for your team so pop your W and try to clear them for your team.

Early on Maokai actually isn't that easy to kill. But once you've gotten a bit tanky you can easily bully him around. It's really all up to the Maokai if you kill him or not. Just be careful early because he can definitely out sustain you with his passive.

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Nasus

This lane can go 1 of 2 ways. Either you completely open up his ***, or he opens up yours. Levels 1-5 you have absolute full control of the lane and it is entirely up to you how you want to play it. What I recommend is taking some super early aggression and sitting in a push that he needs to pass on the way to lane and charge up a Q for a big level 1 chunk. Charge a Q on every stack/cs that he goes for and ramp up the damage. Once you hit level 3 get the cannon wave into turret and let it bounce back to you (you can choose to go for a cheater recall here as well if you're low on mana). Thin the wave on its way back to you and set a freeze. Nasus will need to pump out E's and lose a lot of cs if he wants to break the freeze, and if he walks up too close you can just run him down and blow his summoner spells. If Nasus s back to lane early shove out and recall for items, you will now have TP advantage on him. If you hit Level 6 first you can easily all in and either grab a kill or blow his /. Be careful once he starts stacking as ESPECIALLY with it wont be long before he can take an extended all in with his Ult and beat you. Grab an early lead and just keep freezing. Make him fight for every stack he goes for (without getting yourself killed). You will eventually get outscaled, but you have a much better teamfight.

Item Recommandations:
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Mid-Late You should use your advantage to push for Drakes and Heralds while Nasus is busy trying to catch up and stack in a side lane. You are going to force 5v4's in your favour, and if he decides to group, he's going to get obliterated. A smart Nasus is going to hold off on grouping until Dragon Soul. By this time the enemy team is completely tilted to the moon and with the lead you pressed he shouldn't be strong enough to make a huge impact. Focus him first and he should melt like butter. When it comes to side laning keep the lane on your side of the map and call for ganks. A minute before an objective spawns shove out and look for vision control. If the Nasus refuses to get off your tower you'll have to get someone to help you kill him before an objective, and make sure you reserve your TP for the split push.

You should have no problem killing the average Nasus early on. Charge Q's and combo him when he CS's. Get a wave bounce off his turret and freeze. If he steps up too far he's just dead. Show some respect when he hits Level 6, especially if he is running Ghost and Conqueror. Keep up the pressure. Killing him isn't as important as denying him stacks, and the best way to do this is freezing.

Nasus will almost always outscale you before the game ends, but you are much more impactful in a teamfight if he had to play catch up.

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Singed

Singed early on is very easy to bully around. at Level 3 you can look for E - Q trades as Singed wont be able to approach you because of the slow. Singed can't really farm the wave without walking into an area where you can drop a massive combo on him. When he starts walking towards you to flip you out of a Q charge, release and disengage. Rinse and repeat.
You should also walk with your minion wave Level 1 if you can, so that Singed can't get a free proxy. A lot of Singed players will look to proxy the first wave or 2 in order to base for a or upgrade. Be extra careful around Level 6 if Singed is running something like and .

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Mid-Late A tanky Singed that builds Turbo Chemtank will need to be played around carefully because they can clear a side lane and look for a pick. I've very rarely seen a Singed make any kind of impact outside of an Aftershock tank build. CC him in a fight and he should just flop. Don't chase him in the side lane.

Very rarely will you meet a Singed that can play properly against Sion. Levels 1-5 you can keep up some HUGE pressure. Slow him when he walks towards you and charge up a Q before he can reach you, disengage. You will be doing this until Level 6. Look for an E-R engage and if your trades went well you will grab a kill or at least blow a flash and force him to base.

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Teemo

Completely beasting this lane will come with experience. Your first recall you should pick up an so you can keep the lane cleared of Shrooms. early for Tank or rush is extremely good and will make him choose trades very carefully. If Teemo is running into auto attack range then use your E. If it lands then charge up a massive Q. Keep trades like this and eventually Teemo will get very low. Be mindful that Teemo will out if he gets too low. Once you blow his he is free 300g.

Item Recommandations:
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Mid-Late If you decided to go Tank you can clear shrooms very easily, and you can walk over them and take near 0 damage. Unless Teemo gets ungodly fed he wont be able to have much impact. As long as your team doesn't skip and hop through a mushroom field Teemo really poses no threat Mid-Late game.

You will need to take a step back until Levels 4-5 when you have more base damage on your Q. Stay healthy and if Teemo over steps throw your E on him and hit him with a fat Q. If he takes too much damage you can look for the E-R all in and blow his flash or take the kill.

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Udyr

The match up in my opinion is Sion favoured. You have the tools to kite our Udyr until he gets multiple items and upgraded boots. If you choose to build Tank you will out sustain him, and if you build Full AD you will pump out some serious damage if Udyr tries to engage on you.

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Mid-Late Udyr can get around much quicker than you, and will Wingborne Storm max or Tiamat he can melt waves pretty fast. Unless they're disgustingly fed and have some sort of Tank shred build Udyr will have trouble dealing with you in the side lane, so look for pressure without putting yourself in a bad situation. You are MUCH more powerful in a teamfight than Udyr is. Try not to waste your time chasing him around in a fight because without a team Udyr can't really do much.

Udyr doesn't have the tools to avoid your Q unless he walks up to you with Blazing Stampede for a stun. You should be able to react to this and get a good Q off unless he has his Empowered Blazing Stampede. If Udyr starts charging at you apply your E slow to him. Depending on build Udyr can be extremely easy to force a kill on or hard if he is stacking resistances. Make sure you hit your E on him before trying to ult if you think you can all in.

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Urgot

Urgot has always been a fairly easy lane in my opinion but now that he has made his way into the meta his scaling is something disgusting. His Q poke is basically ignored by your W, but whats EXTREMELY important to know is that his E can be cancel by your Q DURING THE DASH. If you decide to release Q during his initial cast, he will be unstoppable for a split second before his dash goes off. Use this to your advantage and space properly and you shouldn't struggle too hard with this lane. I've rarely been in a situation where you can cancel his R with your R, but if you use it roughly at the same time you will cancel his R.

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Mid-Late Without some huge shred like a Vayne on your team, Urgot is going to be hard to take down. Luckily for you outside of high Diamond there really aren't any Urgot players that can take him to that level. CC in a teamfight will negate his Purge and give your team an easy target to take down. Once Urgot has Black Cleaver he will be fairly difficult to push into in a side lane. Just play minion collector and tower defence until a teamfight breaks out, where you will easily out shine him.

If you want to solo kill Urgot you will need to play smart early and pump some damage into him Levels 4-5. The best way to counterplay Urgot is to cancel his E Disdain with your Q. As mentioned about Urgot is unstoppable for about 0.2 seconds at the beginning of his dash. Once he actually starts dashing you are free to release your Q. If it's a close all-in I highly recommend flashing his R.

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Volibear

Very rarely do I get clapped by a Volibear in lane. The most important rule for this match-up is Respect. Volibear will be able to out-push you until you're at a point where you can 1 shot the wave. Volibear will also do incredible damage if you let him land his Q-E-W. Respect and spacing is the key to winning. Always let Volibear initiate the trade first unless you're comfortable with your range. Apply your E to him when he charges at you and back off OR charge up a Q if he can't get in range to stun you. Your spell rotation comes up quicker than his so if he wastes a Q-E you're free to poke at will. NEVER take an extended fight with Volibear because you will always lose to his W sustain. CC Volibear after he uses his R and not during the animation, as he is unstoppable.

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Mid-Late If you've stayed even with Volibear you should be able to severely out-tank him, even if you've taken Full AD. Sion and Volibear can both go full tank or full damage builds so what it really comes down to is who has the lead. You both can 1 shot waves, but your teamfight is slightly better. If you managed to take a lead you will easily be able to bully him out of the side lane and create opportunity for your team. If he can push you in then just collect and wait for a teamfight Teleport opportunity.

Most Volibears will just push you in with The Relentless Storm. If this is the case just aim for perfect CS and outscale. If Volibear is looking for trades then use your range to stay out of his Q-E combo. Keep your trades very short and try to keep him off of you. You should be able to come out on top.

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Zac

Last but not least, the easiest lane I have ever experienced. If you choose to go Tank by your first base you will have already outscaled Zac. His passive healing can be negated if you step on his blobs. Keep up the pressure and focus on stepping on all his blobs so that he can't heal. Zac can cancel your Q with Q-AA and E, but once he is engaged in a fight with you he's stuck there. If he charges up an E to go on you, you can cancel it with a charged Q or a point blank R. Once his passive drops you can fully charge a Q on all his blobs and it should just outright kill him.

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Mid-Late Zac will have an impossible time trying to side lane so use this to your advantage. Split for towers or shove into his tower and look to roam for picks. In a teamfight if you see Zac about to get a huge engage on your team, R in the direction he's coming from to stop his leap and CC him for your team to take down. Positioning is very imporant and if you play semi-optimally you'll easily out carry a teamfight.

If your goal is a solo kill, you will need to play around his blobs. Whenever he uses an ability prioritize walking over his blobs so that he can't heal, and then when he uses up his CC look for a big E-Q combo. Not much else to say, I haven't seen a Zac for a long time but I doubt a fight would be close.

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5. Runes Breakdown

Breaking Down Runes

_____________________________________________ Lethality Sion Super Car _____________________________________________
This is by far the most powerful rune page you can go on AD Sion.
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Phase Rush
Manaflow BandNimbus CloakNullifying Orb
Absolute FocusTranscendenceCelerity
Gathering StormScorch
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DemolishShield bashOvergrowth
ConditioningBone Plating

Phase Rush Brings a whole new level of play to Sion. Imagine a Darius or a Mordekaiser pulling you in, but instead of getting melted and planking, you AA, E, Fast Q, and BOOM you're outta there. Phase Rush will come in handy in so many ways, but the most important thing to note is that Phase Rush cooldown resets on death, so you can proc Phase Rush while you die, carry the movement speed over in your passive, AA 3 times, then you have Phase Rush again. Its glorious once you've perfected it.
Manaflow Band will provide you 250 permanent mana, opposed to the 150 you get from Biscuit Delivery. This will help in a pinch if you've run out of mana and the passive missing % mana gives you enough for 1 last Q or E, or W to survive. Nimbus Cloak is best used when you are Jungle or you are running /. Nullifying Orb is good against AP Range Tops like Vladimir, Kennen, Karma, ect.

Absolute Focus will help you deal with minion waves and jungle camps a lot easier. Once you've drop below the 70% HP threshold you wont benefit anymore, but while you're healthy and walking around looking for CS and picks, it will add a big chunk of damage to your abilities. Absolute Focus will also work in your passive as long as you are above 70% HP. Transcendence is another good alternative if you find you struggle to get use out of Absolute Focus.
Celerity makes you completely untouchable in some match ups once you start proxying. It gives extra movement speed to your Boots, Ghostblade, and Phase Rush.

Gathering Storm will add a lot of damage once the game reaches 20 minutes. Even more so at 30 minutes. I take this 99% of the time. Scorch is best used if it looks like you have a heavy early game team comp, and you don't think the game is going to reach beyond 30 minutes. Scorch will add a little extra damage to your abilities early on and is great vs Ranged matchups.

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Demolish combined with your AD, Gathering Storm, and Absolute Focus will RIP through towers. I almost always take Demolish. Shield Bash & Overgrowth are best taken in the Jungle, as you wont be getting much use out of Demolish against Jungle camps.

Conditioning is my Go-To 99% of the time as it scales well, along with Gathering Storm and Absolute Focus. If you struggle a lot early then Bone Plating is another good option.

Extra Notes:
- Phase Rush can proc right before you die, and then the cooldown resets in your passive, letting you use Phase Rush twice.
- Manaflow Band is most efficiently stacked with E as it only costs 10 mana with the 25 mana refund.
- This rune page provides less lane sustain because you lose out on Biscuits. Look for a 700g recall if you don't think you'll be able to survive for 1100g Serrated Dirk back.
- Buy your Tier 1 Boots ASAP. You wont be getting free boots from Magical Footwear.
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_____________________________________________ Unkillable Tank God Sion _____________________________________________
In some cases, going Tank really is the only option. Lanes like Irelia where the champion is just so disgustingly overtuned that it can kill you, and can then 1v1 your passive as well, you're better off just building tank and becoming unkillable in the first place. I had to play primarily Tank to break through the D1 wall. Tank Sion will always be extremely strong. If you're unsure if you should go AD or Tank, I would default to Tank if your goal is to climb.
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Grasp of the UndyingAftershockGlacial Augment
DemolishShield Bash
ConditioningSecond WindBone Plating
OvergrowthRevitalize
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Magical FootwearLegend: AlacrityLegend: TenacityTranscendenceCheap Shot
Biscuit DeliveryLast StandCoup de GraceGathering StormUltimate Hunter
Approach VelocityTime Warp TonicMinion Dematerializer

Grasp of the Undying is by far the best rune on Tank Sion. Grasp scales in damage and healing with HP, and scales your HP further. Once you have a lot of HP built up Grasp will pack a HUGE punch. Aftershock can be used in lanes where you feel like theres little to no chance you're going to be getting use out of Grasp. (Ranged matchups for example) Glacial Augment can also but a great option for Range match ups. As of Preseason 12 Glacial is heavily under-explored.

Demolish will help you secure early plates. Once late game comes around and it's time to siege you will deal MASSIVE damage with Demolish as it scales with HP. Shield Bash is recommended if you're in a rough lane and you wont be able to make it to the enemy tower to get plates.

Conditioning is the best defensive scaling rune especially with Tank build. You're going to end up with a lot of extra stats due to this rune. Second Wind is great into ranged match ups like GP, Quinn, Kennen, Vlad, ect. Bone plating is good into champions that love to run into you and trade. You can use the cooldown of Bone Plating to secure Cannon minions you would otherwise die for.

Overgrowth will give you a decent chunk of HP scaling. Revitalize is best taken in synergy with Shield Bash and the Inspiration Potion Runes.
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Magical Footwear is great to pick up if you feel like you wont need Time Warp Tonic. Free boots puts you 300g ahead of your next purchase.

Biscuit Delivery will help you sustain through lane and gives you a little extra mana to work with. I definitely recommend Biscuits in nearly all match ups.

Time Warp Tonic will help take your enemies by surprise if they try to dive you or take an all-in. I prefer running Boots and Biscuits, but give this rune a try as a lot of other High Elo Sion players run Time Warp. Approach Velocity is also a good option for Tank Sion if you have allies with a lot of cc or slows. (Ashe, Olaf)
Minion Dematerializer will allow you to clear waves extremely fast. I often use 1 on Melee Minions, and 2 on Cannon minions.
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Legend: Alacrity & Legend: Tenacity are great alternative runes if you don't like the Inspiration tree. You will be missing out on a bit of lane sustain but this will help you pump out more damage. I would recommend these runes if you are in the Jungle.

Last Stand & Coup de Grace are also great alternatives. Both of these runes are very self explanatory, and they are both effective in your passive as well.
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Transcendence & Gathering Storm pair well together in games you know are going to last beyond 30 minutes. These runes will give you great passive scaling and go well paired with Conditioning.
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Cheap Shot will add a noticeable amount of damage to your combos. Give this rune set up a try as well, I haven't run it much this season but its good against Tanks in general.

Ultimate Hunter will put your R on a lower cooldown, each time you get off a successful roam you will get to R more. If you win a teamfight and you've tagged everyone on the enemy team this rune will fully stack.

Extra Notes:
- The most common and effective runes are ordered from left to right. You should get in the habit of mixing and matching depending on who you're up against, and what kind of team composition the enemy has.
- Make sure you are trading auto attacks whenever your Grasp is up, but don't walk into a bad trade just for a Grasp proc.
- If you're at a rank where Freezing the wave starts to become effective. Decide this is something you want to do before buying Bami's Cinder, as it will passively push the wave.
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It is important to note that AP Sion is a very self crippling build. Sion has 2 abilities that scale off AP, but they scale extremely poorly off AP. I highly recommend only playing AP Sion for fun in normals, and if you do you should be prepared to become useless very early and eventually lose. Anyone telling you that AP Sion is GOOD, is pulling your leg.

That being said, here's a fun build.

6. Mythic Items Breakdown

Breaking Down Mythics

____________________________________________________ Tank Mythic Items ____________________________________________________
All tank Mythics are great on Sion. Build different ones to get a feel for which Mythics you should be taking in different games.
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Heartsteel has been a very interesting addition to the shop. Heartsteel is great when you're in a lane that you can get proc's off; (think Tank vs Tank). If you are against certain Bruisers this item can be really bad especially if they have access to Botrk or Divine Sunderer. Overall great scaling item for games where it has high value. (Do no build this item against champions with high %HP damage, ADC's that can build plenty of on-hit, laners that can rush Bork (Like Irelia).

Very team composition based item. Determine if whether or not the enemy team has access to %HP Damage. If they have poor %HP damage this item has the potential to provide more Tankiness than Jak’Sho or Iceborn.

Jak’Sho, The Protean provides more resistances than the other Tank Mythic options, and also has a nice little drain effect when fully stacked. If you are looking to Tank the most mixed-damage as possible, Jak’Sho will be your Go-To.

When you enter a teamfight, you will start stacking Jak’Sho at 1 stack per second. At 8 stacks you will drain all nearby enemies around you for 3% of your maximum HP (reduced to 1% for minions and monsters), and gain an additional 15% resistances.

Iceborn Gauntlet is the second best Tank Mythic in my opinion. The benefit of Iceborn is that it provides 50 armor, damage, a Slow, and 10% Damage Reduction against your primary target. If you find yourself in a lane that you normally struggle in, or you’re against heavy AD damage, I would grab Iceborn over Jak’Sho.

Auto attacking with Iceborn creates a field of ice around the target which slows them and reduces their damage against you. This will have great synergy with your abilities, as it makes your Q easier to hit, and it makes spacing easier. Iceborn can also be used to chase in your passive.

Radiant Virtue is what I would consider a Tank-Supportive item. This item is best built on Supports that engage but because it has %HP scaling, Sion can actually benefit a lot from this item. It’s important to understand that with this item you will be less Tanky than you would be with other Tank Mythic counterparts, but if you are in a team composition that has little to no access to healing, then Radiant can provide a lot of teamfight value.

If you are deciding to build Radiant then you are giving up your carry potential and you are playing for your team; WHICH IS FINE, but you will need to also build items that supplement your supportive build and playstyle. There is no point in building something like Sterak’s if you are taking a supportive Mythic. Items like Knight’s Vow and Redemption will further boost your teammates survivability, and allow you to make their job of carrying as easy as possible.

____________________________________________________ AD Mythic Items ____________________________________________________
These are all of the AD Mythic items I have tried. Generally ordered from best to worse, but some items will end up being a lot better than others in certain situations. Give them all a try and see what you enjoy.
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Duskblade of Draktharr is by far the best Mythic you can run on AD Sion at the moment. This item provides heavy AD, Lethality, Ability haste, and provides extra %damage the lower your opponent's HP gets.

While AD Sion is a shell of it's former self, Duskblade provides a nice chunk of damage on your abilities (including your magic damage abilities) and allows AD Sion to continue competing in lane. The invincibility on it is usually broken once you try to use other abilities but it can really help in a pinch, and if you get lucky it will keep your alive. If it procs in your passive it can help you avoid CC as well.

Stridebreaker provides AD, Ability haste, and HP. The active of Stridebreaker will slow targets caught in the AOE. This is a great item if you don't want to fully commit to Full AD, but you still want to dish out some damage.

Stridebreaker is extremely versatile. You can use it's active to engage or escape from fights. You can provide yourself a slow so that you can set up your other abilities, and again this is another item that can be used in your passive. Stridebreaker provides a lot of passive movement speed as well, making it a great item for jungling as well as laning. You can choose a tank route after building Stridebreaker (Titanic, Thornmail) or a more damage oriented build (Ghostblade, Serpents Fang). You can mix and match a lot of different items with Stridebreaker.

Goredrinker was my most used Mythic on my main for the longest time. If anyone tries to tell you it's a **** item for Sion, they are wrong. Goredrinker provides a chunk of HP (300), and gives you 55AD. If you're down to 10% HP late game in a fight and manage to tag 3-4 people with Goredrinker, you will siphon a disgusting amount of HP back. With ability haste this can be done multiple times in a teamfight.

If you can get a big Q off at low HP, walk in the center and Goredrinker your health back up, you have made yourself extremely hard to kill and dropped a large amount of damage on the enemy team. Pair Goredrinker with Hullbreaker and move into a Tank item or Titanic Hydra.

Eclipse can take the last spot. It provides scaling %Armor Pen throughout the game and can help you win trades you otherwise wouldn't have. Eclipse is best used in the Mid lane/ against Mage match ups Top lane. I would still recommend Prowler's Claw in most cases but if you want to give Eclipse a try be my guest. It is viable.

When you pop the passive on Eclipse you gain a nice shield that can help you win some trades (along with the %HP damage you will deal). Another thing this passive does is provide a burst of movement speed. This can be used to reposition/escape/chase and can also be used in your passive.

____________________________________________________ Semi-Viable Mythics __________________________________________________
These Mythics are viable. But I just think the above choices are much better options.
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Locket of the Iron Solari can be used in the support role if you're going to build tank. It provides a nice shield to yourself and your team, and can help swing teamfights in your favour.

I wouldn't build Locket if you aren't going to take Shield Bash. Using shield resets you can actually rack up a good amount of damage with empowered auto attacks. I would rank this Mythic higher if the shield amount still scaled off your HP, but that was sadly removed at the beginning of Season 11.

Divine Sunderer provides 300HP and 40AD which is really nice to have on Sion. I would recommend giving this item a try against other champions that like to stack HP. I find that Divine Sunderer is a pretty static item and doesn't provide you with a lot of versatility. That being said its not a BAD item.

The most effectiveness from this item will come from using your spells in coordination with auto attacks off Divine Sunderer's cooldown. Again if your opponent is build HP and some resistances you will see this item become effective. But again I still believe the above Mythic options are much better Damage/Sustain wise.

Trinity Force after a significant amount of testing, I can confidently say that Trinity Force is a great option especially in games where you can/need to split push, and you struggle to duel your sidelaner with a Full AD build. I run with this mythic, and go for strong lane runes. Once you rush hullbreaker you shouldn't have any trouble sucking up the gold to purchase Trinity Force.

____________________________________________________ For-Fun Mythics ____________________________________________________
These Mythics are still viable, but I wouldn't take them into ranked aside from a few if you really know how to use them. There are stronger options and these items are mostly used for showing off.
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Galeforce would actually be sectioned in the meta AD Mythics, but since its cooldown was increased to 110 seconds from 90 (it used to be 60 on release), it just doesn't provide what Sion is looking for. The dash can be used to catch enemies off guard, and the extra movement speed/attack speed is nice, but Stridebreaker also provides all of these things while also giving you Ability haste and HP.

Galeforce can be combined with an attack speed crit build for some laughable experiences. A semi-beefy Sion walking up to the enemy squishy 3 shotting them with 2 crits and Galeforce active will make a lot of people confused. If you're bored in normals give Crit Sion a try.

Ghostblade used to be a staple Lethality item for AD Sion, but since it's been turned into a Mythic and nerfed to the ground it's really only viable in the Jungle. Ghostblade can still help you move quickly around the map out of combat and the active movement speed is nice when you need to chase people. Also usable in your passive.

7. Legendary Items Breakdown

Breaking Down Legendarys

____________________________________________________ Tank Legendary Items _____________________________________________
Again, all tank items are great on Sion. Build different ones to get a feel for which items you should be taking in different games.
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Hullbreaker has been moved to it's own Chapter so go check it out!

Titanic Hydra For most of Season 11 Titanic Hydra was incredibly weak due to its insane cost and the overall fast paced Meta. Now that games have started to go quite a bit longer Titanic isn't in as poor of a spot as it was last season. Keep your CS high so that you can get lots of value from this item. Titanic is extremely expensive and if you find yourself in a fast paced game and you don't have access to a lot of CS you might as well pick up a different Tank item, and if you need damage then pick up a Serrated Dirk.

I wouldn't recommend Titantic Hydra first as it is pretty weak early on. Usually when you finish this item the laning phase is over and you've moved into a power farming stage of the game. Clear waves and camps and your HP+AD will passively go up over time. Also when you are using your passive, some people don't respect the cleave damage from Titanic so you might be able to sneak in a kill if you angle yourself properly while auto attacking a parallel target.

Sunfire Aegis is now a very strong Legendary item for Sion. Sunfire provides 500HP, 50 Armor, and has a lot of damage that ramps up over time. The damage from Sunfire also scales off your HP, so Sion ends up being one of the strongest users of Sunfire.

When you enter a teamfight, you will start stacking up to 6 times for an increase of 60% additional immolate damage. This no longer explodes in bursts around you when auto attack so a large amount of damage has been shaved off. This also stacks off of Rift/Dragon/Baron so if you turn to fight you will already have your stacked immolate damage.

Turbo Chemtank can be great in situations where you need to engage but can’t rely on your R , and need a lot of chase. Think match ups where you are against Mage's especially. You will be able to use Chemtank to gap close and stick on to your opponent.

Chemtank no longer has damage but is instead a pure MR engage tool. A good scenario to think of when building this item would be against a champion like . Her wall can block your ult so if you want to reach her you will need something extra. The active on Chemtank should be more than enough to get your in range of opponents that are hard to engage on.

Thornmail is a great 2nd item to complete if you've already had to pick up an early Bramble vest, and you're against a lot of healing OR you're desperate for gold. During my plateu I found myself needed to buy Thornmail 2nd a lot because I was lacking the gold income and games were being decided within the first 15 minutes a lot of the time. You are more than welcome to sit on Bramble all game but the 20% extra grevious wounds Thornmail provides comes in handy against a lot of teams.

Once you've engaged in a teamfight look to apply your knockup to the biggest healers on the enemy team, along with the CC you are cutting their healing by 60%. Some fights are won by this 60% difference.

Sterak's Gage & Gargoyle Stoneplate I'm going to lump together because I think they go hand in hand with each other. Depending on what you're up against you can rush either or, but you can also buy components for Sterak's or Gargoyle because they are very cheap and raw stats are extremely effective on Sion. If you're running Tank and have Shield Bash this build becomes even more effective.

If you want the extra damage then pick up Sterak's first. Sterak's also provides extra Tenacity. The only thing you'll be missing out on is the massive amount of resistances that Gargoyle gives. Gargoyle is best if you can't afford to build any more HP or Damage without getting completely melted. Make sure you'll getting the full use out of it when you decide to use the active, and also make sure you aren't using the active and Sterak's passive at the same time! Against champions like Renekton & Blitzcrank I wouldn't run this items as they can 1 shot your shield. Also be wary of the enemy team building Serpents Fang.

Force of Nature is another great choice into Heavy AP team comps. This item gives you passive movement speed and ramping MR from damage taken. This item also pairs well with Chemtank, but make sure you aren't over-doing it with movement speed items.

When being hit by enemy spells you start stacking Force of Nature. At max stacks you gain additional 30 Magic Resist and a boost of 10% movement speed. As long as you stay in combat the stacks will remain.

Wit's End has become my go to item for MR. The reason being is because it gives a significant amount of MR while also giving AD and AS. This will make you Tankier while also significantly increasing your damage output.

Wit's End will also give you more sticking power because every AA you gain a burst of movement speed for a few seconds. Until Riot actually guts this item I will be taking it every game where the enemy has more than 1 AP user.

Spirit Visage is an item that isn't very commonly built on Sion but is very effective when you can build it. This is an item you should be considering working towards from Champ Select, because if you're going to run Spirit Visage you should also be looking to run Revitalize and Shield Bash.

Very great item against heavier AP comps. Double this item up with the passive from Sterak's and the active from Gargoyle and you'll be seeing some MASSIVE shields.

Randuin's Omen will always be a great option against Teams with more than 1 crit user. Usually this means the ADC and maybe a Yasuo/Yone Mid or a Graves/Xin Zhao jungle. Also if you're in lane against something like a Fiora or Irelia, and you notice them going a Shieldbow build, Randuin's is also a good pick up.

A change that was made to Randuin's this season is that the active also reduces the enemy's attack damage by 10% and Crit damage by 20% for 5 seconds. If you're in the middle of a teamfight and you can tag more than 1 Crit user with this active then you will have made a HUGE impact. I don't build Randuin's very often personally but I see it a lot in Masters+.

Frozen Heart is an item that over time has become very popular. The 90 Armor and damage reduction makes Frozen Heart a great rush in very difficult lanes. The mana will allow you to shoot off a lot more spells, and the Aura it provides will mess up the Auto Attack timing of enemies and make them lose extra hits when trying to attack-move.

This item carries over into Mid-Late Game and becomes a great teamfighting item as well. Everyone in range of you has their attack speed reduced by 20%. Which can add up to a team-wide total -100% attack speed if you are in range of all 5 players.

____________________________________________________ Viable But Less Effective ____________________________________________________

Chempunk Chainsword wont be a very common buy. This will build out of Executioner's Calling if for some reason you didn't build Bramble vest. Usually this means you're against a heavy AP team and Bramble wouldn't have been as cost efficient as an Executioner's. Chempunk will give you a nice little boost in HP and AD.

Abyssal Mask is a great 3rd-4th option if you find yourself against multiple AP Melee damage dealers. I really don't see many games where Abyssal Mask is viable but in very rare cases you can make good use of it.

Fimbulwinter is a great new item that has been introduced in Preseason 12. I've seen Fimbulwinter a lot in action and the conclusion I always end up coming to is that it's actually a very valuable item, but only in long-scaly games. If you think the game you're in is going to be less volitile you should pick up a tear early. Otherwise as a Tank you actually want to end the game earlier rather than later, and build items that will help you achieve this easier.

Knight's Vow has actually helped me win some very high elo games. This item is extremely situational and requires a strong player on a strong carry. I've built this item 3rd sometimes when a game is really close and I'm behind in gold, but still extremely beefy. Throw this item on your carry and some damage will be deflected from them on to you. In addition if they are below half HP, you will have 35% movement speed towards them. This item can be built in any role, and is very cost efficient.

Warmog's Armor has essentially become a dead item since the beginning of Season 11. There is far too much HP% shred and damage in general in the game for Warmog's to be effective. The passive is hard to get good use out of because normally when you engage a fight you're in the fight for good. That being said if for some reason the enemy team has no %HP shred, and nobody that can build items like and then you MIGHT be able to find some usefulness from Warmog's.

Dead Man's Plate is not a very effective buy in my opinion. Raw Armor and HP is nice and the added movement speed is also nice to have, but Sion already has plenty of tools that he can use to catch up to opponents. The damage from the passive and slow it provides is barely noticeable. You are more than welcome to give this item a try but it has never really felt good on Sion. All that being said, if you find yourself in the Mid/Support role, an early Dead Man's will help you roam and move around a lot better.

Death's Dance is another item I've heard good things about but I've never really tried. The fact that it converts damage taken into true damage turns a lot of people off the idea, but because its "post-mitigation" damage then you actually wont be taking as much damage as you think. Still worth giving a try.

Anathema's Chains is a very situational item and in my opinion is only viable on Tank Sion. This item wont work very well at all against champions with true damage (Fiora, Vayne). But this item can be very effective against traditional ADC's that can't shred HP or have true damage. You can also buy this item against fed assassins. This is especially effective against champions that need to operate off of kill resets.

_______________________________________________ Lethality Legendary Items _______________________________________________

Serpent's Fang used to be a meta buy of mine, either rushing it 1st or 2nd. Since it's nerfs and it losing 5 flat lethality i've left this item on the back burner. If you're against a large amount of shielding ( Think a paired with a then Serpent's Fang will provide a lot of value later on. You can pick this item up 2nd if your against a lot of shielding and your laner also relies on a shield for trades.

Check out how much shielding the enemy team is potentially going to have. If they don't have any champions with any sort of shielding in their kit, they have no champions running Guardian or Barrier, and they don't have any champions that would benefit from items such as Gargoyle, Sterak's or Shieldbow, Serpent's Fang wont have a place in your build.

The Collector is a beautiful 3rd item choice against 4-5 squishy champions and you find yourself teamfighting more than splitting. You should also take this over Hullbreaker if you know there is no possible way you are going to be able to split into your enemy. (Irelia,Jax,Camille)

This item's effectiveness can be seen largely in your passive. The Crit damage multiplies with the %HP damage your passive auto attacks deal, so if you Crit a squishy their entire HP bar will end up disappearing. Multiple Crits in your passive could quite literally mean multiple kills.

Mortal Reminder,Lord Dominik's Regards & Serylda's Grudge I'm going to lump together as a "pick one". I would grab LDR if you're going to, or already have more Crit in your build. I usually pair LDR with The Collector, boosting your Crit chance to 40%, and making your Crits melt even more with 35% Armor Pen. A lot of people are going to try to tell you that the Health passive on LDR is counter intuitive, but the DPS LDR provides out-shines Serylda's even without the passive. If you're against another Hyper-Tank like Cho'Gath then you'll actually get to see the passive on LDR come into effect. That being said, Mortal Reminder gives you Grevious Wounds, and if you're against even the slightest amount of healing then Mortal Reminder should find value over LDR and Serylda's

If you don't choose to add any Crit to your build, then Serylda's is a great item 3rd or 4th. The pros to Serylda's is that it provides 20AH and a slow on all your abilities and auto attacks.

____________________________________________________ Viable But Less Effective ____________________________________________________

Umbral Glaive is very situational. If you're against teams with a lot of traps (Teemo,Shaco,Jhin) then this item becomes a bit more effective. This is also a good item if you're Jungling or playing Support. It cost effective and will help you clear vision.

You can use the passive of Umbral Glaive to determine whether the enemy has vision of you or not. If you are out of line of sight from Champions and Minions and there are no wards around you, you can set up some massive Q's from Fog of War.

Edge of Night provides HP and Lethality, both of which Sion loves to have, along with a pretty nice spell shield. My problem with this item is that the spell shield is extremely easy to break, and this item doesn't end up giving more Lethality than just a serrated dirk. This item is to be looked at as a defensive item, but if you're building Lethality you don't want to be building anything defensive.. And if you were to, there are much better options than this.

The better you are at dodging the more effective the spell shield becomes. This wont really help your engage as you're already invulnerable to CC during your ult.

All other Legendary's that aren't listed here are deemed to be UNVIABLE. There are a couple of different items that are extremely situational, or just aren't nearly as effective as similar items. Feel free to experiment with some fun items sometimes. Sion is a champion that can abuse raw stats, so not a single item is completely worthless on him.

8. The Big Cheese

Bush Management

Walking into bushes Level 1 is pretty risky, but what you can do if you aren't leashing is drop a ward in the middle Top bush, and recall for a sweeper. Use the ward to sneak into the middle bush, and sweep incase your enemy is hiding in the furthest bush. This will guarantee 120 damage Level 1 with Q and deny them the first 3 melee creeps if timed and placed well.

Once your enemy gives up position on the bushes, take them and keep moving in and out. Eventually 9 times out of 10 they will drop a ward in the bushes, and now they're ready to be ganked.

If your opponent REALLY loves warding the top bushes, grab a sweeper and a pink ward. If they chase you around in the bushes sweeper and pink will make it so they will have no idea if you're running away or charging a Q, and some serious mind games will ensue.

'S' Keying

If you haven't bound your S key to anything, it will completely stop all actions and hold you still in place when you hit it. Learning how to use S key properly will help you position accurately, and will help make your movements more unpredictable. When you're in a bush you can right-click and spam S to reach the very edge of the bush, doing this will allow you to get the best distance on your Q's.

Enemy Behavioural Patterns and Common Pathing

A great way to land guaranteed Q's is to pick up on your enemies Behavioural patterns. Did your laner wrap around a bush before face checking you? aim there. Is your laner convinced you aren't hiding somewhere? Time your Q to go off when they walk up to last hit. Does your laner like dashing in 1 specfic direction? Place a Q there. Read your opponent and pick up on their habits, and you will see noticeable benefits.

Top Lane Fog of War Cheese

If your opponent is playing extremely cautious of the top bushes, use your sweeper to clear the wards in the river bushes, and aim to hit them from these spots while they're avoiding the bushes on the opposite side:

The Yellow Lines represent where the enemy needs to walk in order to see you charging your Q, otherwise in some locations you will seem almost invisible.

The above mentioned spots can all be mirrored for Bot lane.

Big Cheese Spots Around Objectives

When you're in and around the pits, sweep the river, pit, and pixel bush and set up. If the enemy team doesn't have Blue trinket at least 1 person needs to facecheck you.

Use these spots as well to set up huge Q's in Fog of War.

Positions in Blue represent where you can steal Dragon/Baron from. If Dragon is pulled out of the pit you wont be able to reach. Baron is much easier to hit than Dragon.

Best R Paths

I love using these paths to engage a fight where an objective has already started.

Objective Prep and Sweeping Paths
1:30 before Dragon spawns you should be asking yourself "Does my team need me as an escort?" if the answer is yes, finish up the wave you're on, grab a nearby camp, and look for a 1:00 recall. (Otherwise pressure sides and prepare to TP Flank)

Head to the pit with your Sweeper and Pink Ward. If there is no Pink in the pit then drop yours there. (this will force your Support who is better than you at warding to put a Pink in a much better spot than you would have)

Sidelane Cheese
During the mid game if you're able to push up, you can sweep and look for picks along these paths

Prowler's Claw Cheese
Of course I need to go over some Prowler's Claw Cheese
You can use Prowler's to reposition on an enemy blocking your path to ult away.
You can use E-Prowler's to slow someone and dash into melee range.
Use Prowler's to amplify your damage after a Q from Fog/Bush.
And lastly, Prowler's can be used in your passive, and counts towards popping Phase Rush.

Faking Movements from Fog
After you've killed a ward, or minion. You will still be in vision for about 0.5seconds to 1 second. During this small window you can fake in a direction, or fake a recall, and then move somewhere else. You will completely ****ing Hudini people and they will drop their guard thinking theres no possible chance you're still in the area.

Flash + Prowler's + R Engage
Sometimes you just need to catch a small amount of CC on a carry thats flying around at 600 movespeed. When perfected this will take anyone off guard as you leap from akali range onto a carry and point-blank ult them for some hefty damage and CC.

Should only be used if its guaranteed to kill the carry.

9. Basic Trading Patterns

Level 1 Assessment

This will be used to plan and build yourself towards a good first recall. Consider your Level 1 vs your laners. If you're against a rough match up, start shield and look to CS. If they harass you they will passively push into you and most likely crash wave 2 or 3. If you have the upper hand Level 1, then you can look to harass and potentially push for either a cheater recall, or a wave 3 crash to assist with scuttle crab. Once the wave bounces back to you, build up a slow push if you can and crash another big wave, this will be your first optimal recall.

A good recall looks like this:
-700g = 2 Longswords X 2
-800g = Bramble Vest
-800g = Kindlegem
-1000g = Bami's Cinder
-1000g = 2 Longswords + Boots / Cloth +/
-1100g = Serrated Dirk
-1100g = Plated Steelcaps
-1400g+ = Serrated Dirk & Boots/Longsword/Cloth/Null-Magic Mantle & //

Grabbing Tier 2 boots depending on match up could also be a good rush on first recall.

You can do Boots+Longsword for a 650g recall, or if you die early, prioritize Boots over a Longsword. (300g)

Level 3-5 Trading

You can be pretty creative when trading in lane, but as a general rule of thumb; You always want to use your E in combination with your Q. So for an offensive or defensive trade, it will look like this.

Offensive (E-W-Q)

Aggressively walk towards the wave, and look to angle an E through minions. If it connects prime your W, chase down and drop a well placed Q. Pop W, and AA if you can, then retreat with Phase Rush, or the slow from Glacial Augment. (For Tank you're looking for Grasp proc, then retreat)

Defensive (W-E-Q)

In this case usually your opponent is gap closing to you, or trying to poke you with ranged AA's. Prime W to negate damage and apply your E to them to create space. Turn and charge Q on their retreat for a little bit of return damage. If you hit the knock up and still have a shield left walk in to pop W, then walk back.

Playing around your cooldowns with this set up will guarantee that your lane opponent is spending something in order to harass you.

Level 5

You will have high base damage on your Q, so you can get away with raw charging Q on the enemy for some decent poke. (as long as you wont immediately get jumped on afterwards)

Level 6 All-In

(E-R-W-R2-Q-W)

If you've played pre-6 well, you'll have a good opportunity against a lot of champions to all-in at Level 6.

Keep an eye on your XP bar, and when you're 1 minion off leveling up, you can E to last hit this minion, and to hit your opponent as well, Ctrl+R to level up your ult, then ult them while they are slowed. Keep track of the minions on the wave, if you're a minion or 2 up on your opponent it should be free, but if the wave is completely even then they will hit Level 6 at the same time, and depending on what champion you're against, you could be in trouble.

If done correctly, you will kill them 90% of the time, the other 10% you're guaranteeing a flash.

Choosing your first recall

Use these trading set ups to stay healthy and play off your wave. You should be using your Corrupting Potion to its full potential. If you're running out of resources look to stack a wave, blow all your mana on the incoming wave, and then escort your stacked wave to their tower and recall.

If an optimal recall isn't possible, you can choose to (Tactical Int) OR salvage enough CS for a strong buy, sacrifice a few minions, recall, and use an early Teleport for lane. If you decide to use TP early for lane, this will cause your opponent to also TP back 99% of the time, locking them in lane with you for the next 5 minutes. (not including jungle intervention)

If your laner chooses to roam, or leave lane for an extended period without TP, ping and communicate with your team, and ravage their turret plates for a massive lead.

10. Tactical Inting & Proxying

To this day, I still haven't be able to find a fruitful guide on HOW to Proxy, and WHEN to Proxy. Adding Tactical Inting (A term coined by Baus), I will try my best to explain the HOWS and WHYS in full.

What

is proxying?
Proxying is when you've managed to land yourself in between enemy turrets farming the minion wave. This is most commonly seen on Singed, but can be done with any champion that has excellent wave clear. Sion has some monsterous wave clear.

Killing the minion wave before it reaches Top lane, will result in your opponent needing to make a decision. Chase you down and lose an entire wave, OR ignore you completely, and be stuck at tower last hitting.

If they chose to chase you, you now have 2 options.
1. Send them on a wild goose chase with Phase Rush, baiting them to follow you around until their wave is dead and the next wave shows up, in which case you can go back to regular laning.
2. Die for the next wave. You'll end up doing this if they can 100% guarantee a kill on you, and or their jungle is in the area closing you off from an escape. If this is the case, run to the inner/inhib turrets, and clear the wave, if you die before you clear it, finish it off with your passive. If you cleared it before dying, you can E the enemy before you die, and try to go for a kill in your passive.

Option 2 will ensure that you miss no minions, and you will have a good wave to come back to when you respawn. If timed properly, your opponent will lose 2 waves, which equals 210g (approx. 280g if its a Cannon wave). (& XP)

Option 1 is best done if you're at normal kill gold, or you've acquired some shutdown gold. If you've been dying then always go for Option 2. If you've reset your gold then go for Option 1. You don't want to aggressively feed a lot of gold worth in kills.

on your 5th consecutive death, you are worth 140g. Eventually you aren't even worth the effort to kill, and you'll be vacuuming gold and xp in the mean time.

I've been in situations where I have been 0/6/0 with 200g shutdown, because with proxying I'm managing to hit 10+ cs per minute.

Conditions to Die for (Strong Back, Gold Acceleration, Pressure)

Some things are worth dying for. If you are 200g off your Mythic but you NEED to recall... Don't recall, just Int and suck up the last wave you need.

Dying to your laner multiple times, while also collecting as much cs as possible will 'accelerate' the gold generation for you and your opponent. You end up collecting more gold than you would have, rather than being bullied off the wave. They are collecting a little bit more gold off of you, and lastly you (or a teammate) will collect bounty on them when they finally die, and 99% of the time they will.
You don't want to be "accelerating gold" against a champion like Nasus or Kayle that turbo scales.

Pressure is created when you are in a side lane, especially if you are running Demolish. If your enemy laner can't handle you, then you are forcing at least a 1v2 in the lane you are in. Splitting on the opposite side of an objective will force the enemy to commit too much to stopping you. This isn't really Sion specific but dying on the opposite side of the map for an objective is (almost) always worth.

Conditions to Not Die for (having shutdown, losing key objectives, snowballing a late game hyper scaler)

Some things just aren't worth dying for. If you've collect a massive shutdown, your job now is to press your advantage and protect your shutdown. If you are the strongest person on your team and you aren't effectively splitting, then dying will end up giving the enemy team free reign over objectives on the map.
Again I will also mention that dying to scalers is an extremely bad idea, unless you have a scaler on your team that can swiftly take care of them. The amount of times I've practiced 'tactical inting' just to get 2 shot by a Nasus and have my entire house and car repo'd was enough to make me realize sometimes you should just take a back seat and place for the 5v5.

So WHY is Proxying so effective?

Well all it takes is some simple math.

1 Wave = 105g || If you die at inhib for a wave, your laner misses the wave at their tower. this will result in a 210g deficit.

1 Cannon Wave = approx. 175g || If you die at inhib for a wave, your laner misses the wave at their tower. this will result in a 350g deficit.

If you are also dying to proc Demolish on plates, you will be gaining 160g per plate as well. Usually if you are dying clearing waves in between towers, that means your laner wont be able to reach your tower for plates.
2 plates = 320g

Put this on top of the fact that you are also collecting:
Blue side
Krugs for 131g
Raptors for 85g
Red Buff for 100g

Red Side
Gromp for 90g
Wolves for 65g
Blue Buff for 100g

(you'll be lucky to score a buff, and usually if a buff is up that means the enemy jungler is on their way.)

Scenario

with 300g shutdown just ignored his wave at tower to chase me off of a proxy and failed (-105g). I grabbed the wave (+105g) and Krugs (+131g) and now I am killing cannon wave at inhibitor (+175g). Shen grabs his cannon wave (+175g) and then chases me to Raptors. I take Raptors (+85g) then kite out Shen and proc Phase Rush and head back to inhib turrets for another wave (+105g). Shen kills me, but since I'm 0/4/0 I'm worth (+140g), but he just missed a wave (-105g). So lets see what this adds up to.

Me (Sion) = 601g (got all gold from waves AND Raptors&Krugs)
Shen = 315g (missed 210g from 2 waves)(got 140g from kill)
I effectively just killed Shen by getting killed by Shen

My lane state is now in a position to bounce to me when I revive.

... Shen then proceeds to ult bot lane with half HP and gives +700g to our Kai'sa.

11. Effective Roaming

Shove Wave or Sac Lane?

When deciding to roam, you should actively be looking to create that opportunity. By this you are winning (or at least going even) in trades, and you've built up a nice wave to shove into the enemy tower, this will put you on a small timer to do whatever you want with. You can make it look like you're walking mid and then recall out of vision to look for a roam Bot with R. Or if theres about to be a fight in the River you can join in for a number advantage. You can also just walk halfway down the River and ult Mid if they stay over extended. And lastly you can walk into the enemy JG alone or with your jungler for some deep vision, camps, and maybe even a kill if you're lucky on the enemy jungler.

Sometimes you wont be able to build up a good wave against champions with great wave manipulation (Like Irelia). If they've decided to put a heavy freeze on, do what I like calling "Saccing the Lane" or Sacrificing the Lane. This is basically telling Irelia "ok bye lol" and leaving and creating opportunities for your team through ulting down a lane or diving. Normally by doing this the Irelia will then decide to shove out and look for plating, in which case you can decide to go back top and collect your wave, or if you've roamed successfully, you can trade tower for tower or top tower for objective. This opens up your side of the map Top and will make Irelia over extended for waves, allowing your Jungler/Mid/Support to get a good gank angle on them.

Crab

Level 3 you will need to decide if your Jungle is a complete boomer or not. If they've hinted that they are a bit edgy and will throw the game if they don't get Top crab, look for a shove or just say "**** my entire laning phase for the rest of the game" and go help your Jungle with crab. If they are willing to throw the game over Crab, then being in a good position in lane wont make a difference anyway. Sometimes saving your Jungler's mental is worth more than the 50-60cs you might have just given up in the long run ****ing around over a Crab that shouldn't have been gone for in the first place.

Calling for Rift

If you are completely smashing your laner and you've gotten 2 early plates, you can communicate with your Jungler and set up a Rift Herald. Catch them while they are pathing Top, shove out your lane and start leashing Rift (as long as you win the 2v2). Once you get Rift bring it top and look for a dive and a turret break.

Breaking Top turret early will accelerate the game. You should look to keep pressure side extremely hard or look to help crack the other turrets with your massive gold lead. Letting the enemy Top laner farm a long lane for a while isn't the best idea.

12. Teamfighting

Recognizing a Fight before it Happens

For the most part, fight will ALWAYS break out over objective timers. If you want to be a successful teamfighter you need to get in the habit of preparing for teamfights long before they happen. For example:

AD Sion (Creating a winning position)

1:20 before Dragon spawns. I just came from base so I have no reason to recall 1 minute before Dragon. I have TP so I am free to pressure/farm side lane until a fight is breaking out. I see that my team is slightly stronger than theres and my laner is in the side lane with me. 30 seconds before spawn I clear the last wave I want to go for and I start walking down into a position for a good ult. Nothing is immediately happening so I don't need to TP. I get into position for a flank, and R.

The Tank Support blocks my ult but is CC'd for too long to survive. The enemy Top is now TPing into a 4v5. We win the fight as Dragon spawns, take the objective, and push our lead.

Tank Sion (Salvaging a losing position)

1:00 before Dragon spawns I recall and walk with my ADC & Support through the Jungle to help sweep. We scare off their assassin Mid and zone out the enemy JG. A slow paced 5v5 is breaking out infront of the Dragon. My impatient ADC hits Dragon and I am now tanking extra damage. The enemy team sees this as a chance to go in and the enemy Support walks up to me to CC while the enemy Mid jumps on my carry.

I position myself infront of their team, while peeling for my ADC, she just barely survives as we take down the enemy Mid (now 4v4). I've been standing in the front soaking DPS while my Mid laner has gotten into position to hit her spells on their ADC/JG. I go down but my Mid/JG manage to finish off their ADC/JG, and I kill the enemy Support in passive. We go 3 for 2 and take the Dragon, and all of my carries are still alive and are able to catch back up in gold.

Target Selection

Depending on your build your Target Selection will almost always be a little bit different. Obviously if you can CC and blow up the Mid/ADC that is huge, but sometimes you need to save your Cooldowns for the biggest threat. Killing the enemy ADC is nice, but you should blow Flash+Ult for her if shes 0/6/0.

You want to be hitting CC onto the highest threat, if your team is much stronger, you want to position yourself in the middle, so that in order for their biggest threat to reach yours, they need to eat a Q and or a point blank R from you first.

Engage

Whether you're Tank or AD, engaging into a clump is your best move. If you manage to hit 2-3 people with R+Q you've basically just won any fight.

Soaking

Soaking is best done as a Tank (obviously). Sometimes your job in a fight isn't to do damage, and sometimes hitting your CC is just an added bonus. Sometimes you need to just walk at the enemy backline and eat damage to the face. This is by far the easiest way to win a teamfight but can only be done when your team is stronger.

If you can Soak correctly, then you can even swing as losing fight in your favour. 3000 damage on to you and 2000 damage on to your passive is 5000 that wasn't done to your backline.

Disengaging or Sacrificing

This will end up being your last resort. Sion has some pretty terrible Disengage from a teamfight. If you find yourself hard losing, throw yourself in the way of your carries and ping everyone to back off. If you are AD then you can also look to trade 1 for 1 in your passive.

13. Hullbreaker

I've decided that Hullbreaker is so unique of an item that it deserves a Chapter dedicated to it.

Hullbreaker builds from and , and has a combine cost have 825G. gives you a nice boost in HP and AD as well as heals you every time you damage your lane opponent. has always been a great early buy on Sion to amplify damage if you can afford to sacrifice a little bit of tankiness in lane. Once you complete Hullbreaker you will have 400HP, and 50AD to play with. As you continue to level up the Hullbreaker provides you with increasing Armor and Magic Resist so long as you are alone. Hullbreaker makes you very difficult to bully and makes it increasingly difficult for your opponent to push because you empower your Cannon minion.

It's very important to note that the maximum value from Hullbreaker comes from the extra beefiness it provides, the extra tower damage is nice, but that's not what makes this a good 1st/2nd purchase.

If you decide to buy Hullbreaker first you should be able to force waves into tower for plates and proxy so long as you aren't against a Tier 5 difficulty champion (you can still do it against these champions, but you're gonna be having a lot of good deaths.) Otherwise it's a great rush into the rest of the Top lane roster. For Tank this item slots in great situationally before or after Mythic, as well as great before or after Prowler's claw.

All in all, terrific item. Plan in champion select if you're going to be spending more time split off or grouped, set your runes accordingly, and build Hullbreaker accordingly. If theres ever a chance you're going to start grouping a lot then don't bother with Hullbreaker.

Definitely more to come on this item. But this is the basics.

14. Titanic Hydra

I have a love hate relationship with Titanic Hydra, so I've decided to write up a small chapter on it as well.

Titanic Hydra is what I have considered for the longest time to be a HUGE noob bait item. That being said Titanic Hydra has very strong use cases, and has some of the best synergy with Sion individually.

So why do I call it noob bait? Why is it not a Core item?

Titanic is far overpriced at 3300g, when choosing a 2nd item this can be compared to anywhere from 2500g to 3000g. The only other item close to Titanic's cost is Gargoyle's which is a situational item itself. Tanks don't (shouldn't) have a steady stream of gold during lane to fund expensive items. If you choose to build Titanic you could be half way to your next item with a cheaper and more effective build.

The main problem is Sion's HP scaling baits many people (including myself previously) into building Titanic. If you somehow reach 5000 bonus HP, you can get a total of 130AD from Titanic, which seems amazing, but by the time you reach these numbers you're at the weakest point of a Tank's game, well beyond the 35+minute mark. This is the point in the game where HP also falls off the hardest, because items have scaled with your HP scaling. Any champion that has access to %HP damage (and that's just about everyone at this point through items) will completely melt you if you don't have any resistances. Mobility also creeps up at this point, so you aren't going to stick to anyone to actually use the Cleave passive, unless 3 people are sitting on you in melee range trying to stat-check.

I've also gotten the waveclear argument for Titanic more than once. And to that I simply ask what are you aiming your Q at if you're struggling to waveclear?

Basically, Titanic Hydra is countered by the meta Top lane. And the meta is Divine Sunderer, True Damage, %HP Damage, and Drain Tanking. If I were to build Titanic in any of my recent Tank games, I would be pissing gold down the drain and risk losing. Instead I've been keeping my builds efficient, and I've been building core resistance stats and items with passives that increase in efficiency game by game, most notably Randuin's / Frozen Heart, Thornmail, and Wit's End for a great damage alternative. (Wit's End is a whole beast in itself, so I wont get into why I build it here).

You have a good variety of options for Tank items AND Damage items for Sion that don't cost a fortune and that don't cause you to fall off after mid-game. The less gold you spend on an expensive item the closer you can get to completing a different item, and you'll have more valuable stats with the gold you spend.

So when is Titanic Hydra actually good?

You need to consider what champions on the enemy team have access to %HP damage first of all. Second of all you need to consider how much mobility these champions have, and if you can actually get use out of the passive Titanic provides. 3rd, you need to have a steady stream of CS and gold, because if you decide to empty your pockets on Titanic and stop farming, you're going to fall off FAST.

|| is just a quick example of a comp I whipped up in my head where I would consider building Titanic, so long as the game is slow paced and I have a steady stream of CS to farm. These champions still have access to %HP damage through items and their kits, but nothing overbearing. Here you can get away with building Titanic so long as you have the gold for it, and your lower resistances will have no problem complimenting your higher HP.

The important takeaway from this should be that Titanic is a scaling item that uses the worst scaling stat (HP). If you're against a comp that can easily deal with high HP pools, or even worse can heal through %HP damage, you've basically turned yourself into a walking health pack. If you're in a fast paced game you can't grab Titanic and then start fighting and ignoring waves. You also can't build Titanic and afk push unless you want to watch your team lose the game without their tank. (unless of course they are winning)

If you've stuck to building Titanic Hydra every single game, I strongly recommend switching it up and learning the build cases for Titanic Hydra, the same as you would for Hullbreaker.

15. Eclipse (Shield Slinger)

I am not the inventor of this build, just an enjoyer. This build is taken from a well known Korean Sion player; CrazyDriver

There have been times where I've had a Full Tank Rune set up going into a game, but for whatever reason, the circumstance called for building AD. Running around with Tank Runes and AD items is fine, but I was lacking Tankiness once Mid-Game rolled around.

The Eclipse Sion build fills in that gap.

Core:

Runes:

You will notice that , , and are slightly bigger than the other runes, that is because your main way of Tanking with this build will come from consistent refreshing shields. This combined with the Shielding you get from and , you will have strong shields and you will be dealing extra damage through . The best part about this build is that you can still deal damage to towers even without .

It is very important to understand that you will not be nearly as Tanky as you would be if you were to build Full Tank, but you will be very difficult to kill once you have Shields from Eclipse and Fimbulwinter, and once you have stacks in Ingenious Hunter, to allow your shields to come up even quicker.

Please check out CrazyDriver on Youtube if you want to see this build in action. He is a native Korean but has started adding English sub-titles to his videos. If you need a more detailed explaination in English please feel free to contact me, but definitely go check out CrazyDriver and give him some love!

16. Extras

Skin Tier List

S+ Should be fairly obvious. I mean hes a sexy Lumberyack.

S Are my personal favourites. I enjoy swinging big hammers around.

A Blackfrost and Worldbreaker are both very nicely designed skins. Warmonger is also another personal favourite, and used by all the OGs.

B Base skin is still nice to use from time to time. Barbarian Sion still holds a place in my heart.

Sion has no BAD skins.

17. List of Bugs (and Features)

Red is a BAD bug. Blue is a GOOD bug.

Q Reset

This bug occurs when you release your Q at the exact same moment you are CC'd. This tricks the game into thinking your Q was cancelled, so your Q will be put on a 2 second CD. This is very rare and near impossible to consistently abuse because the timing is within milliseconds.

Q Self Cancel

FIXED

This bug occurs when you use E , input a movement or attack command, and then press Q all within an extremely short time frame. This will cause your Q to essentially disappear and go on full cooldown. This happens because your E has what I would describe as hidden "unstoppable" mechanics and will continue your movement after using it.

The best way to avoid this bug is by not right clicking during your Q.

The Stoppable Onslaught

This bug occurs when you use your R at the exact same time you are CC'd by something like . The movement speed and damage will be charging up but you will be held in place until the duration of the CC ends. This is mostly a negative bug but can have a positive impact as some people will just be hypnotized and stare at you. Once you get released from the CC you will charge at them with full force.

R + Q Ult Cancel (Feature)

This bug occurs when you hit R and Q at roughly the same time (Starting with R). You will instantly cancel your R and do a short dash in which ever direction your cursor is. This just provides a lot more consistent point blank ults, and applies the next "Feature"...

R Recast on Collision (Feature)

If you recast your R right before you collide with someone, you will have control of Sion a little bit quicker, AND CC duration is added to whoever you hit.(This bit is fixed) I don't remember the exact amount of CC duration added but it's about 0.25-0.5 seconds.

Immune to Death Realm

Normally in the Mordekaiser lane you can come out on top by abusing this very critical bug. If you engage on to Mordekaiser with R you will be immune to his R for a short period after colliding with him. 99% of players don't know about this bug, so Mordekaiser will try to use his R and it was disappear into thin air and go on full CD, while "Immune to CC" text will pop up.

"Invisible" Terrain Collision

This bug applies to all player created terrain. For a brief moment after terrain created by champions like or disappears, their collision boxes still exist. So if you see disappear and decide to press R there is a good chance you will still have your R cancelled by it. The best way to avoid this is to wait for the particle effects of terrain to disappear as well before trying to ult.
Terrain in general has some misleading collision with Sion's R so your better off never ulting near terrain, sometimes "close" is too close.

The -15lp Lantern

Thresh's Lantern interestingly enough counts as terrain when you try to R over top of it. Instead of colliding though you will be sent off in a completely different direction. Depending on situation, this can quite literally throw your game if you aren't prepared to react fast.

The AA Cancel Bug FIXED

This bug is extremely consistent. If you feel like you're accidently cancelling auto attacks sometimes, theres a good chance you aren't, and its likely you're encountering this bug. The way this bug was explained to me has something to do with Sion's voicelines and the way he is coded.
The only work around to this is hiring an employee at Riot who is either smart enough or gives enough of a **** to fix it. You will lose 1000 trades because of this bug and it will probably never be fixed. (This aged poorly)

The Divine Bramble Bug

This bug isn't Sion specific, but because you will be building a lot, and you will play playing against a lot, you will encounter this bug frequently and consistently. Divine Sunderer's heal is calculated BEFORE the healing reduction from Bramble Vest is applied, so any champion with Divine Sunderer can walk up to you, get a full heal for free, and walk away.
There is again no counter play to this bug, and gives an extra difficulty to laning for Sion and all Tanks in general. This is also likely to never be fixed because ... *shrugs*

Youtube & Stream

I like to make videos from time to time as a hobby,

https://www.youtube.com/c/Boptimus is my channel if you want to check it out! I plan to make educational full match ups eventually.

https://www.twitch.tv/boptimuslol is my Twitch. I mostly stream right now to record VODS. My computer can't handle nor has the space to record so I use twitch to record and hold VODS of my matches.

Leave a follow and if you see me live come hang out! I normally don't have many viewers but you can always join chat and I'll throw my mic on and talk.

If you have any questions, need advice, don't hesitate!

Feel free to join my public Discord to hang out, or get in contact with me!