First off let me say that this build isn't fully experimented with or fleshed out, and the guide itself will take a while to be fully posted. I have relatively no experience making all the pictures and links that are common on other guides for the site, but after a while it will be on here. Regardless, I hope anyone who reads this finds the info useful and is encouraged to try the champ out.

UPDATE
College takes most of my time so I can't test out new things or explore options in this build. I'll update when I can. On a side note, the skill sequence has been changed.

Hello everyone and welcome to my first build here on Mobafire. I've always liked Sion and tried several builds on here, but I always ended up losing. If I went AD it took too long to build items and I could never chase down champs for the kill, or if I went AP enemy champs would knock my shield off and I'd lose half my damage. After several games of trying out things I worked out a build that might work for my play style. No, this isn't your standard "Hybrid Build, Herp Derp" you might have read before. Keep reading end you'll see what I mean.

Sion is an interesting champ with lots of potential builds, from tanking to AP, AD, Crit, Atk Spd, etc. Most builds tend to focus on a single aspect and for Sion it feels like he can't focus on one and be successful. The goal of this build is to give Sion both magic and physical dmg and relies on his basic attack as well as his skills. This is accomplished in several ways and I will list main points for Sion and how this build affects them.

Basic Attack and AD
Sion's basic attacks are going to be what finishes off the enemy champs most of the time, but simply stacking AD is a poor choice as it leaves his magic dmg low and skills are almost a joke. Since Enrage helps his AD we don't need to enhance that very much. Instead, getting Malady and Wit's end grants attack speed (more Chopper action!) and magic dmg. The key to making his basic attack effective is that it deals both types of dmg so that Sion is still viable against champs that have high armor or magic resist. After these two items, a Guinsoo's Rageblade gives the three things this build loves - more atk speed, extra AD and AP. After these three are built, activate your Ult and go to town on everything!

Skills and AP
Sion's basic attack is great for dealing dmg and finishing off champs, but it's only effective if it gets support from his skills and AP. The core items of the build accomplish just that by giving AP and CDR. This build doesn't give tons of AP, but since his skills are a 1 to 1 ratio they get a lot out of the items. I've taken down several champs to half health in one Q-W combo.

Gold
Sion is a poor undead guy... no really, he doesn't earn much gold compared to more popular champs. To compensate for this, the core of the build consists of cheaper items that Sion can get no matter what. Whats more is that you can get at least two or three of them relatively fast, meaning Sion gets progressively stronger throughout the early and mid game. This gives an advantage over champs that try and save straight for 3k+ gold items. While Ashe just finished her BF sword (aiming for IE), you have malady virtually at the same time; giving you AP, Atk Spd, and magic dmg, and you still gain AD by leveling enrage!

Movement
Move Speed is a HUGE deal for Sion. In an AD build he needs to close distance and chase, and in an AP build he still has to get in melee range for his W to hurt. This build sadly lacks a lot of bonus move speed, but it is more than made up for in other areas. Going down the utility tree gives some much needed speed, and then using one of the Quintessence runes gives additional speed. Normally with just boots Sion is at 380, which sadly means most times champs can run away. Given the build though his speed becomes a little over 390, which doesn't seem that fast, but lets you get those extra few hits in and also keeps the other champs in range of your Q long enough to hit them again, which lets you close distance again and start it all over. To give more emphasis on Sion's movement, take the summoner spells Ghost and Exhaust. These are by far the two best spells he can have, as they allow him to chase fleeing champs, and fight with any champs that ambush or are simply better at melee (Yi, Xin, Warrick, etc)

Other thoughts
Many have probably noticed that this build doesn't include a trinity force. I'll elaborate on why I think it's a terrible item for Sion. When trying builds that used it, I found myself underpowered and poor in the early game. Trinity force takes a lot of gold, and has high cost items, and Sion isn't a great farmer. Unless you get lucky and are fed (rarely happens) chances are it will take too long to finish the item, and when you finally do other champs that farm better are way ahead of you. While champs like Poppy can afford to stay a little weaker until it finishes, Sion can't.

PROS -

- Effective the entire game
- Great hybrid fighter
- Well balanced in all areas
- Strong against single stat tank champs ( Armor Ryze )
- Powerful in team fights ( Cannibalism FTW! )
- Cheap core items allow the build to finish everytime
- Fun to play

CONS
- No mana whatsoever early game (literally two Q's and Sion goes oom)
- Squishy for a fighter, can't tank
- Hard to master

Whew! That took a while to explain. Moving on to the skills... This is probably the haziest part of the build. A lot of Sion builds aim for maxing one skill first, but since this build needs all skills it has to gradually level all the skills. All I can say that is set in stone would be the first three levels. After that, go by feel. If you think your skills aren't doing enough, level the lower level one. If you aren't hitting hard enough, level enrage once. I recommend even trying out the idea of only getting the 1st level of his Ult, then keep it at that until level 17-18. I have yet to try it but within a few days I'll get back on to update this and will have tried it by then.

Again, kind of a do your own thing but with a few recommendations. Armor Pen is great, but for the other types whatever you think of will work. I also suggest maybe making one Quintessence or even all three movement speed, as it is very vital to Sion. Can't kill champs if you can't get in range, even if you have 100 Armor Pen so focus of move speed instead.

I know what you're thinking - "I know how to fight..."

Of course you do, but I'm here to offer some tips and pointers specific to this build's play style.

In general, I already know where the enemy champs are before I engage (playing safe is better than being a dead undead), and start by using W. After a few seconds, I run in and use Q at max range. While the champ is stunned run in and hit em with W and basic attacks. The damage from the first round of this is a great harass, though it can be quite mana intense in the early game so try to avoid using this on max health champs. If the champ you use it on tries to stay and fight (they typically don't) you should pick up an easy kill, but if they run DON'T CHASE! Unless they are below %25 hp don't bother, focus instead on last hitting minions. Now if you do your combo and they try running at that low of health, use exhaust to keep em slowed and away from any towers. Ghost is a good second option for chasing them down, but only really effective if they are closer to your towers in the lane, or out in the jungle. During early game lane don't be afraid to run up and get last hits or tap a champ trying to do the same. Just basic attack and they will likely back off, so save your mana for your combo. I suggest the bottom lane for Sion, he can get a lot of good support from other champs and most of the games I've done this build I end up getting first blood. Speaking of which, it's still worth getting first blood even if you die right after it - you got more gold than whoever killed you, thus your team has more total gold earned.

In mid game, try getting the blue buff when you can, as that helps out enormously with mana. Use your ult and basic attack the golem down, by the time it dies you should have nearly full mana and close to full hp.


More will be added when I update

I'm going to call this build "Magic Speed Chopper" as it gives Sion a fast, magic dmg basic and still lets his skills be viable.

Thank you for taking the time to read the guide, and any comments/constructive criticism is welcome but please try the build beforehand. Also, this build is off-beat and not just a "get items and pub-stomp" so it may take a few games or more to get use to.