Hello everybody, and welcome to my tanky top lane Sion guide. In my other guides I haven't gone very in-depth with them. This guide however, will be different. I will be going very in-depth about items, summoner spells, runes and masteries. So, without further ado, lets start with the Pros and Cons list.

Pros:
- Good poke throughout all stages of the game
- Natural lane bully
- Has the potential to be extremely tanky while still having the damage
- Has good scaling
- Great map presence thanks to his Ultimate
- You don't need to be fed in order to do well
- Can still get kills after you die due to Sion's passive
- Super fun to play with!

Cons:
- Can be shut down early
- If shut down early, doesn't have much impact later in the game

So this Mark of Health helps with your sustain early game, and adds to your damage with your Soul Furnace. You could replace this with Mark of Scaling Health if you really wanted to for more late game health.

This seal helps with the late game scaling of your Soul Furnace and keeps you tanky during the late game. Even though 9 of these runes only gives you 216 bonus health, that still really helps with your tankiness, especially if you get a Warmog's Armor. You could replace this with a Greater Seal of Magic Resist, Greater Seal of Armor or a Greater Seal of Health if you feel that it is needed.

This glyph works well because most top laners have something that scales with ap, and this will help you tough out those abilities. Also, if your top laner is ad, but the rest of the team is ap, the magic resist from these glyphs help you stay alive with the ap damage. You could switch this out with Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, Greater Glyph of Armor, or Greater Glyph of Scaling Armor if you really wanted to.

When I started using this Quint, I wasn't really being serious. But after a bit of use, I learned that I was getting items faster than my opponent allowing me to have a lead, making me win trades more often. You could switch this out for anything else if you feel like it could be better, but trust me, it works really well.

For the Offensive skill tree, we have the Double-Edged Sword and this really helps because since you are going tanky, you will do more damage without having to have too much pain in return. Then we have the typical ad line of Brute Force , Martial Mastery , and Warlord . Again, since you are going tanky, you can take the damage skills so that you do a ton of damage while still being super tanky. Now we have the line of Expose Weakness , Spell Weaving , and Blade Weaving . These increase ally damage, along with your own. Plus, with the Spell Weaving , and Blade Weaving , they add alot more damage when added with Executioner . this allows you to do alot more damage while they get lower and lower on their health. This especially helps when you decide to turret dive that tanky Garen or Singed.

We have the Meditation and Strength of Spirit to somewhat counteract Sion's mana problems. Then we have the Fleet of Foot because I don't get boots, so the extra movement speed that it gives helps a bit. The Vampirism helps for early game sustain; even if its only 3%, it helps. Also, this skill counteracts the Double-Edged Sword skill in the offensive skill tree allowing you to trade without taking damage from yourself.

Here, I will go over what Items I recommend you buy, items that you can substitute, and items you should never get.

Items I recommend you buy

Sunfire Cape is essential for early game and late game damage and defense. It packs both armor and damage due to Bami's Cinder. This item allows you win trades due to the extra 10-30 damage you do each second.

Iceborn Gauntlet is very helpful, especially when chasing down enemies. Also, the Iceborn Gauntlet helps with Sion's mana problems.

The Black Cleaver is extremely strong, and this item gives Sion alot of advantages. The first advantage is the fact that the Phage builds into Black Cleaver. This really helps because when you are chasing someone down, you are sped up while they slow down due to your Roar of the Slayer, Decimating Smash, and your Iceborn Gauntlet. Also, the 40 extra damage that you get because of this really help Sion get more damage. Secondly, the cooldown and health bonuses due to the Kindlegem really allow Sion to stay tanky, and be able to spam his abilities more often.

Mercury's Treads really helps Sion chase down his targets with the movement speed, and the tenacity it gives. Also helps give you a little bit of magic resist before you get a Banshee's Veil.

Banshee's Veil helps in many ways. Firstly, the magic resist and health aspects of it allow sion to stay tanky when the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist begins to fall off and not help against the bursty mages. Secondly, the Banshee's Veil passive really helps when someone wants to stun you away from them in a teamfight.

Warmog's Armor makes Sion gain a ton of hp, adding to the damage of his Soul Furnace, and just making him plain out invincible. Warmog's Armor really just beefs up everything Sion has to offer, making him even scarier when you hear him charging down mid lane with his Unstoppable Onslaught.

Items that you can substitute

Frozen Heart is a good item with alot of defense and mana. You could exchange Iceborn Gauntlet for the Frozen Heart if you wanted more armor and mana. Also, the Frozen Heart passive slows the enemy's attack speed, making it a good item for your team.

Ravenous Hydra gives Sion alot more damage, and sustain. The Vampiric Scepter allows sion to gain life rather than lose it in teamfights, the Tiamat allows Sion to deal AoE damage along with his entire kit. Put the two items together and you get even bigger and stronger effects.

The Bloodthirster is a good item for damage and lifesteal. Bloodthirster also deals more damage and has more lifesteal than the Ravenous Hydra. Also, Bloodthirster's passive allows you to gain an extra shield which could synergize well with Soul Furnace.

The Essence Reaver is a great item for Sion. It solves Sion's mana problems while still giving him damage and lifesteal. The Essence Reaver would replace Ravenous Hydra, as would the blood thirster.

Spirit Visage is a great item for Sion. This item would replace Banshee's Veil, and it gives you increased lifesteal and spellvamp, health, and magic resist. Also, it gives you some Cooldown Reduction so you can charge down lane more often. This item would go in place of Black Cleaver, because if you get both Black Cleaver, and Spirit Visage, you will be way over the cdr cap with Iceborn Gauntlet.

Items I do not recommend buying

For the most part, you dont want much ap. Some from the Sheen is fine, and maybe a bit more, but this guide is meant for an ad tanky Sion. If you want to be the ap mage that Sion can be, there are plenty of builds that can showcase that for you.

The Maw of Malmortius is a recommended item for Sion. However, I have found that this item is more trouble than it is worth. It does give some damage and magic resist, plus the passive can help you out of a sticky situation. With that said, there are many other items that you can get that can help you in more ways. Also, since you have the black cleaver] you don't need anymore damage, so a [[banshee's veil can help more with the magic resist and give you some more tankiness.

So here I will explain what spells you should take,can take and what spells you shouldn't take.

Spells you should take

Teleport is a great spell for top lane, and for Sion.

Most people don't take ignite top lane unless they have flash with it, but I have always liked to take Teleport and Ignite top lane. Plus ignite helps for chasing which is what Sion is good at.

Spells you can take

Flash can be very handy in many cases, and can help Sion get kills or escape.

I actually came by Exhaust on accident, but it does work to your advantage. Exhaust allows you to sloe your enemy, and make them do less damage. This spell is great when you are matched up with someone that counters you, like a Cho'Gath, or a Volibear.

Ghost is a good spell for Sion especially when you need the movement speed but have no room for boots

You all know the smite thing. If you do this change your build to the Enchantment: Cinderhulk instead of Sunfire Aegis. I don't do this only because the Sunfire Aegis gives you alot of armor which really help out.

Spells I would recommend you don't get

Basically any other spell you don't want to take. Barrier is just an extra Soul Furnace that you don't need. Heal would heal Sion for like 100 hp and since you are a super tank. Then the 3 C's aren't good for pretty much anything. Clairvoyance, Clarity, and Cleanse are the 3 C's if you didn't know.

So early game, Sion is a pretty good lane bully, depending on who you are up against. But basically, at level 3, you will want to poke through the wave using your Roar of the Slayer and try to hit your lane opponent with it. If it hits, activate your Soul Furnace and knock them up with your Decimating Smash. This trade allows you to poke, while taking no damage in return do to your Soul Furnace. In certain lane match-ups, you will want to do other things so check out the Vs. Champions tab up at the top.