Sion is reknown for his very high base damage from both abilities and auto-attacks. With his shield - Death's Caress - as natural sustain and AOE clear and his hard CC - Cryptic Gaze - for ganks he is a very easy and straightforward jungler. This build won't make him an AP or AD glass cannon but tries to enhance his naturally high innert damage, allowing for a cheap and effective build.


Since Sion is a very underplayed champion that is only scarcely seen on Mid (AP) and Top (AD) lane, my suggested build may seem strange at first. Also you may argue that my rune choice (CDR) or skillorder (no rank 2 ult) are way off. But all that is for reasons I will explain in this guide.

Clearspeed and Sustain - Your first priority lies in clearing your jungle as fast as possible, and Sion really needs help with the big mosters (therefore ). Ganks and Duelling - Allthough his skills are awesome and allow for nice combat powers while they are active, they have quite big CD's at first. Your best bet here is to get cheap CDR.


Cooldown Reduction - This stat has the highes impact on Sion's performance. He is terribly reliant on both his stun and his shield, so reducing their CD's down to reasonable times is your best bet to win. Mana - Due to his abilities high cost combined with his really small mana pool. Health - Since he excels at drawing out a clash, kiteing with his stun or just out-DPS-ing someone with his ult. This is really neccessary for his role. Movement Speed - Last but not least, speed is essential on Sion. It is easy to pick up kills or turn around battles, but he has to be fast enough to size these opportunities.


Magic Resistance / Armor - Get HP before you rush resistances. And CDR. Save these for later. Ability Power - Awesome for faster jungleing and ganks, but really not vital, this just deprives you of valuable other things. Attack Speed - really good to boost his DPS, as Sion really has a nice amount of AD just like that. However, AS is pretty much the most expensive stat to get, and no AS item offers tank stats. Get if you are already tanky enough, but dont rush it.

As summoner spells you obviously want . Your second spell is open for discussion, , , and all work fine. My personal favourite is wich allows you to farm your jungle and still be ready for ganks and counterplays. Your burst combo out of the blue should make your enemies cower in fear - it is very uncommon on junglers and most people don't know how to deal with it.

Sion is one of those champions that doesn't care about runes. You could run any runes you like and do fine. My personal preferences are MS Quints because he is a little slow and some AS/Resist/CDR. Flat AP or AD can also make you really strong. I tend to neglect defense penetration in the jungle as the overall impact is small, but they are also a nice option.

Your masteries should include at least 9 points into both offense and defense. Other than that, just put them wherever you like. Sion doesn't really care.

Sion needs Razors to jungle is the only start that makes sense. But for the consumable part, sion is remarkably self-sustaining. With smart shield management you should be able to jungle without any health potions (assuming you get help at your start). If you are confident, this means that you may also start with a Sight Ward or instead of all out s.


You rush for a better clear speed and dragon. Since you are slow you also need asap. The big thing you need to take care of is Mana. Sion has two high-cost abilities combined with a very small mana-pool. Getting a is mandatory. It is also pretty much everything you need, now you can use your abilities. Don't spamm your stun unless you have blue buff and you will be fine. Now what to do with the Crystal? , Catalyst the Protector and are your options, and I favor Catalyst because it gives you all the HP and sustain you need to be quite tanky early game. If you want to help a lane, get a vision ward and show some presence with several ganks.



Now your pretty well-equiped, clearing the jungle is a breeze, ganks and dives already net you some assists and you can solo dragon once you hit lvl 6. But you notice that you are horribly slow and your ability CD's are very long. Its just sad to see enemies run to savety when you know that you could have killed them with ease. So prepare yourself: if the enemy has only slows and kite, when you see hard CC (most of the time), if you plan on ganking a lot. Early or are pretty good on him.


The next thing you are looking for is CDR, you will start to rank your stun soon, and you want to have your CDR capped when it is maxed so you have an impact on the game. Also you become a huge damage soak with only minimal investment when CDR increases your shield availability. You have several options here and I wouldn't just discard any of them lightly.

• Most favoured item because I mostly build a and I always want more HP early game. This is also the cheapest route to high CDR items ( , Zeke's Herald).
• Is the perfect item against AD heavy teams, cheap, usefull and with really great upgrade options.
• If you want AOE clear because you can farm lanes or if you just want to steal enemy jungle camps with one shield. You can also go pure AP with a if you are doing very well and upgrade it to or . But mostly you want the CDR and you aim for the many many upgrades of the Codex (e.g. , ...).
• this is excellent if you need single target clear speed and damage. Pretty good if you intend to put more points into or build some AD. Mostly you upgrade it to , or you just leave it there.
• If you fall behind or don't have CDR runes, rush these.

Regardless of which item you buy, as long as you get CDR, they fullfill their purpose. Secondary stats are - secondary. Remember that these items decide if you go for a Disruption-Tank or a DPS-Monsta build.



After this, your build is finished. You don't need more than this. You can disrupt any skirmish or battle with a well-placed series of stuns, your tanking capabilities with early resistances, a big shield, your ult and passive are quite amazing and your +AS together with your AP burst from your shield make you the fearsome maniac you want to be.
From this point you will just exploiting your enemies weakness.

• Can you kill them with burst ? Stack AP:
• They don't kite you ? Get some AD and Crit:
• Is your Carry destroying them ? Get utility to support him: ...
• One fed enemy giving you trouble ? Resist and HP:
• They are all melée ? Hit them with:

You will end up with different items every game, but some of these items deserve to be mentioned since you will get them more often. is something you should aim to get. is a very usefull upgrade against magic damage or annoying initiations.
is overall the best way to stay tanky and help your team. or are nice Armor/HP combinations. and its upgrades are reserved for my final item slot when I sell .


Again, just to highlight this: You will rarely get more than 3 items, and if you do, you better adjust them according to your game.

HHH Feel No Pain (Passive): This equals to around 10% physical damage reduction, but its very unreliable (40% - 0%). It helps a lot in the jungle, blocking half of the damage you or your shield recieve.
HHH Cryptic Gaze (Q): Get this as your second ability for damage and CC. Your early ganks give you a 1,5s time window to kill, once its maxed out (rank 5, 40% CDR) your enemies only have 3sec time to move before you look at them again. When you are in the heat of battle and stun the right targets, your team wins.
HHH Death's Caress (W): Due to its very high base value and AOE damage and the shield, this is your first skill to farm. + +Catalyst the Protector take care of your sustain and resiliance, you will be very tanky. The AOE damage together with will clear your jungle in a breeze. +AA+ are your burst damage resource. Once you get a decent amount of AP this thing can also make you soak up a lot of damage from enemy focus fire, baron or towers.
HHH Enrage (E): Only one point already gives you 25 AD, trust me, its worth to put one into this, always. Gaining some minor HP over the course of your game is decent, but not the singular focus of our build. If you would rank this second, you would be able to get +500 HP with some farm, but then your stun CD is just too big to make any difference. Just turn it on at lvl 2 or 4 and forget its there - the health cost is negligible.
HHH Cannibalism (R): Allthough not optimal for an AP caster, it is good for you. Sion is no AP caster and increased DPS and Lifesteal is perfect for him (not just a phrase, its exactly what he needs in battle). It has nice synergy with and if you get any AD, this ability will improve drastically. It is the reason you can solo dragon at 6 and tank baron once youget some HP and Armor. Unless I get enemies that let me hit them in melée range, I leave this to max last.


A pure AP build would max and first, a pure AD build wants and Canibalism asap. We do neither of these. We rely on his abilities base damage above all, as a jungler there is no luxury for AP or AD. And in terms of base damage, we need each and every one of his skills at least once. But after that, more points into his ult make only a small difference, same as with , whereas both stun and shield have fantastic base damages, also on higher ranks. Reduced Stun CD is another great benefit. So max them before you get your ult and rage.

• Charge up just before you so it will be ready when you arrive, allowing you to instantly burst someone.

Thanks for reading and credits to JhoiJhoi. Feel free to post your feedback.

(But before you post, think about this: Its a miniguide, so takes those 60 seconds to completely read it and your confusions might be gone. I do many things different, and you don't have to take me to seriously; I just hope this guide helps you to get to understand Sion better.)