About the Author Hello everybody. My name is drakon136. I am a League player of about one-and-three-quarter years, currently sitting in Gold III. I primarily play mid-lane and jungle. blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext

Why Sion? Good question! After his rework, despite what people think, Sion is actually a very strong champion. He has good clears in the jungle, strong counterganks, and amazing ganking/initiation with his ultimate! On top of that, thanks to Soul Furnace, Sion becomes an unkillable monster in the lategame!

What's in the guide? Yet another good question! In this guide, I will detail my suggested runes, masteries, summoner spells, and skill order. I will also cover standard tips on how to play Sion, and provide you with builds I find to be successful. blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext blacktext

Pros

+ Good clears + Great counterganks + Amazing ganks and initation with ultimate + Quite a bit of crowd control + Very tanky late-game

Desipte negative opinions so far, Sion is actually a very strong champion. First, he has pretty good clears in the jungle, and is able to make it through first clear with quite a bit of health left. Perhaps most importantly, his ganks with his ultimate are just amazing! Sion is able to charge down any lane at an incredible speed and dish out enough CC to keep your target locked down for up to four seconds! Finally, thanks to Soul Furnace, Sion gains a massive amount of health in the lategame, and can bolster that with a very strong shield boot.

Cons

- Fairly squishy early - Crowd control is unreliable - Mediocre passive - Easy to kite - Struggles using ultimate in the jungle

Every champion has its downsides, and Sion is no exception to this rule. First off, he is quite squishy early on. His early health is quite low, and his armor is only average. On top of that, his passive is not very good for getting revenge on his killer. The movement speed burst it gives him has a very short duration (only 1.5 seconds), so all it takes is one CC ability to shut him down. Finally, although they have long durations, his CC is not very reliable. His Decimating Smash requires him to channel for 2 seconds to get the full effect, Roar of the Slayer is fairly easy to avoid, and Unstoppable Onslaught is difficult to aim and almost useless in the jungle.

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Glory in Death, Sion's passive, is what we consider a revenge passive, similar to Kog'Maw's Icathian Surprise. Unfortunately, it is not the most useful of passives. Although it provides you with a movement speed boost in the form of Death Surge, this is not very useful either, as it only lasts 1.5 seconds. As you lose access to all other abilities in this mode, you are effectively incapable of sticking to targets, and you are shut down completely by any CC. Nevertheless, it can be useful for dealing quite a bit of damage to a target pinned down by an ally's CC.

• You still apply all on-hit effects while Glory in Death is active.
• The damage dealt by Glory in Death's on-hit effect is physical damage.
• If you can get away with purchasing it, Youmuu's Ghostblade has great synergy with Glory in Death.

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Decimating Smash is a very useful, if somewhat unreliable, ability. The knockup you can get from it is insane, but it is very difficult to get a full channel without prior CC being applied to your target. However, if you do get a full channel off, you're going to bring the pain.

Decimating Smash should be taken at level 1, then maxed first. This is because it is your primary ability for clearing camps and dealing damage early, and the cooldown also scales with level.

• Decimating Smash is great as followup to your ultimate. If you get the full stun duration from your ultimate and channel your Decimating Smash immediately, the enemy only has 0.25 seconds to escape, assuming they have no tenacity.
• For your first clear when you are about to clear your buff, start channeling Decimating Smash at 1:53. This will land the knockup as soon as the camp spawns.
• If your Decimating Smash channel is interrupted, its cooldown will reset to two seconds. However, this is currently bugged, as its cooldown does not always reset when interrupted. Certain abilities such as Thresh's Death Sentence will reset the cooldown, but others will not, such as Draven's Stand Aside.

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Soul Furnace is an amazing ability. The active portion is very strong; a shield that scales with your maximum health that can be detonated to deal damage based on opponents' max health is very good. The passive component is also amazing; the health you will gain by late-game will turn you into a tanky behemoth!

Soul Furnace should be taken at level 2, then maxed before Decimating Smash and after Decimating Smash. This is because both the shield strength and the burst damage scale with rank, although the mana cost does as well.

• Soul Furnace can be cast during any of your abilities without interrupting them.
• Large monsters in jungle camps grant eight bonus health when killed.
• Soul Furnace can be activated to reduce the damage you take from an incoming spell.
• Soul Furnace does not detonate if it is destroyed by an enemy.

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Roar of the Slayer is, aside from his ultimate, Sion's only ranged ability. It's a pretty good one too, applying a strong slow and armor reduction to whoever it hits. Its range is pretty decent as well, and if you hit a minion instead, it sends the minion flying a long distance, applying the damage and slowing effect to all targets hit. Although this ability is more useful in lane for obvious reasons, it is still very useful for ganking.

Roar of the Slayer should be taken at level 3, then maxed after Decimating Smash and Soul Furnace. This is because the increased slow is less important than what you gain from leveling the other two abilities.

• Roar of the Slayer only reduces the armor of targets it hits directly, so a champion hit with a minion launched by this ability will not have their armor reduced.
• Speaking of hitting minions, don't forget that you can hit a minion with Roar of the Slayer to massively increase its range.
• Roar of the Slayer cannot be used to send minions or monsters across walls.

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Unstoppable Onslaught is Sion's ultimate, and like his Decimating Smash, it is both incredibly powerful and awkward to use. It can be used to gank people from across the map, initiate teamfights from very far away, and escape from nearly anything. However, it can be quite difficult to use properly. Although Sion follows your cursor while charging, he turns slowly, making him easy to avoid if people see you active your ultimate. Additionally, it plays a very distinct sound across the map when you activate your ultimate, alerting all enemies. On top of these, your charge can be stopped by champion-created walls, such as Anivia's Crystallize. Despite these, it is still a very strong ability.

Unstoppable Onslaught should be leveled up whenever available; at levels 6, 11, and 16.

• Unstoppable Onslaught has incredible range; be sure to use this to your advantage.
• You can reactivate Unstoppable Onslaught to cancel the charge; you will stop charging after a moment and apply the damage and stun to enemies in the area.
• Try to avoid using Unstoppable Onslaught to initiate jungle fights.

9 OFFENSE 21 DEFENSE

M O N S T R O U S

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M A S T E R I E S

// These are fairly standard masteries for a jungler. Nine points are taken in OFFENSE for the early cooldown reduction and scaling attack damage. Twenty-one points are taken in DEFENSE, taking Tough Skin , Unyielding , Juggernaut , Reinforced Armor , Second Wind, and Tenacious as important masteries. Q: Why take Sorcery over Fury ? // Fury is not a very useful mastery for Sion. Although he is an AD champion, he is still an ability-based jungler, making the cooldown reduction from Sorcery better early, even considering that you reach 40% CDR at full build.

R A V E N O U S

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R U N E S

// Another standard rune page. Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage and Greater Mark of Attack Damage increase the damage you deal with your attacks, and your Decimating Smash. Greater Seal of Armor is a must-have for junglers. Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist are for better protection from magic damage. Q: Why no attack speed marks or quints? // For the same reason we take Sorcery over Fury in the masteries section. Sion is an ability-based champion, not an auto-attacker. He gains a greater benefit from attack damage and cooldown reduction than he does from attack speed. Q: Why choose scaling magic resist glyphs? // You do not need to take Greater Glyph of Magic Resist as you are in the jungle, where you won't be encountering enough magic damage for the flat glyphs to make a difference. Besides, scaling magic resist glyphs provide more magic resist once you hit level 9.

Core

Flash is your standard get-out-of-jail-free spell. Got ganked and have no mana to use your stun? Flash. Got caught out of position and about to die for it? Flash. A near-dead enemy just jumped over a wall and is about to get away? Flash. The instant repositioning Flash gives you is just too good to pass up.

Smite is an absolute must-have for a jungler. It makes your first buff clears much easier, lets you steal camps from enemy junglers much easier, and is amazing for objective control. You need this on a jungler, with no exceptions. If you don't think this is needed for jungle, I'm sorry but you are bad. blacktext

Core

Armor

Magic Resist

Damage

Boots

Core

Spirit of the Ancient Golem is an amazing item for jungle Sion. Although quite a few people feel Spirit of the Elder Lizard is better due to its damage, I disagree. Spirit of the Ancient Golem gives Sion everything he could ever want; it greatly increases the health he gains from his passive, gives cooldown reduction, sustain in the jungle, and vision to boot! What's not to love about it?

Sunfire Aegis is another great item on Sion. It gives you quite a bit of health and a decent amount of armor. The main reason it's good is for the passive effect. You'll be in the middle of the action quite often in ganks and teamfights, so you'll be getting quite a bit of damage off on the enemies. Helping your clears is just icing on the cake.

Armor

Frozen Heart is probably the best armor item on Sion. It gives a massive amount of armor, has a great passive effect, and gives a ton of cooldown reduction. The additional mana, while not too important on Sion, is still nice to have. Pick this up most games.

Randuin's Omen is another good armor option. It gives quite a bit of health and a lot of armor, and has two great effects to go along with it. Although it is pretty good on most champions, Sion generally prefers the cooldown reduction from Frozen Heart. If you already have enough cooldown reduction and still need armor, pick this up.

Guardian Angel is a good choice for a last item on Sion. The stats it gives are pretty good, but the main reason it is purchased is for the passive. It basically increases your effective health by 30%, which is obviously huge. However, as it is much less useful when it is on cooldown, feel free to sell it for another item once the revive triggers.

Iceborn Gauntlet is another good option for Sion. It is similar to Frozen Heart, giving a combination of armor, mana, and cooldown reduction; however, it does not give as much armor or cooldown reduction. Its passive is great for sticking to champions as well, which is something Sion has difficulty with. This works best if you already have 30% cooldown reduction, as it will put you at the cap.

Magic Resist

Spirit Visage is a great magic resist item for Sion. It gives a decent amount of health, quite a bit of magic resist, some cooldown reduction, and a nice passive. This is generally the first magic resist item you'll purchase, due to its cooldown reduction.

Banshee's Veil is another viable option for magic resist. It gives quite a bit of health and magic resist, and also has a strong spell shield passive, albeit one with a very long cooldown. This can work quite well as a sixth item if you feel you need more magic resist, and need the spell shield more than Guardian Angel's revive.

Guardian Angel: see above.

Maw of Malmortius is a cross between an offensive and defense item. It gives a huge amount of AD, as well as a nice bit of magic resist. It even gives bonus AD based on how much health you are missing; giving you up to another 35 AD. The most important part, however, is the shield. It is especially handy against mages with long cooldowns, or those with magic damage executes. Feel free to pick this up if you feel you need some damage, but cannot afford to drop too much defense.

Damage

Iceborn Gauntlet: see above.

Maw of Malmortius: see above.

Youmuu's Ghostblade is a great option on Sion if you can afford to pick up a pure damage item. Sion loves just about everything it gives; the attack damage is nice, the armor penetration is great, and the active ability is amazing. It even gives cooldown reduction, one of Sion's favorite stats! The critical chance is not too useful, but can still be nice for that bit of extra damage every few attacks.

Ravenous Hydra is another decent option. The stats it gives are great, and its passive and active effects are amazing. However, as a pure damage item, it is generally outclassed by Youmuu's Ghostblade, but is great if you are snowballing hard early.

Boots and their Replacement

Mercury's Treads are the boots of choice for Sion. Generally, if the enemy has quite a bit of dangerous CC abilities. The tenacity it gives is very powerful, to the point where it is almost required on melee champions.

Ninja Tabi are another choice for boots. These are a good option if the enemy AD carry gets ahead early. However, they usually aren't a very good option otherwise.

Mobility Boots are the final good option for boots. These should only really be picked up if you don't need either of the passive effects from Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi.

Enchantment: Alacrity is generally the best boot enchantment for Sion. Due to his lack of mobility, the extra movement speed is very helpful for Sion, especially with Boots of Mobility, which has lowered movement speed in combat.

Enchantment: Homeguard is another good option for enchantments. They are great if you find the enemy is pushing into your base quite often. However, due to its lowered movement speed in combat, you should not choose this enchantment with Boots of Mobility.

Early Game

Depending on what side your team is on, you will either start red buff or blue buff; generally, you want to start where you will get a better leash. You can even invade if you feel your team can do it, but I won't be going over it in this guide.

When you are doing your first buff clear, you will want to start channeling your Decimating Smash at the 1:53 mark; it has a two second channel time, so it should hit the camp as soon as it spawns. Once the big monster hits 390 health or lower, zap it with a Smite.

Take a point in your Soul Furnace, and clear out the wolf camp. Once you do this, you will be heading to your next buff camp. Clear it out as well, smiting the big monster once it hits 410 health or lower. From here, you have two choices; you can keep farming, or you can gank a lane if you see an opportunity. Either way, you should recall once you are able to purchase a Quill Coat and Boots.

Mid Game

This is about the time teamfights should be starting up. By now, you should hopefully have your core items and upgraded boots. Now, you should continue farming the jungle and ganking lanes, as well as grouping up with your team to take objectives.

There is one other thing I should mention about mid game, and that is dragon control. Dragon is a very important objective, as it gives quite a bit of gold and experience to everyone on the team that is able to slay it, whether they were there for the fight or not. In the mid game, dragon becomes a very contested objective, and you will want to do your best to prevent the enemy team from taking it, while also trying to take it yourself when you see an opportunity.

If your team is taking dragon, or you spot the enemy team taking it, don't forget about your Smite. You can use it to execute the dragon once it reaches low health, allowing you to steal it from the enemy team, or secure it for your own team. Having dragon stolen is devastating; try to be sure the enemy team is unable to take it from you, and try to steal it yourself if you see a relatively safe opportunity to do so.

Late Game

By this point, it probably won't be long before the game ends, and you should hopefully be close to your full build, if you haven't completed it already. At this point, you should stick with your team as much as possible, as if a single person gets caught out, it could be the end of the game. Thankfully, you have your ultimate in case a teamfight starts while you aren't around, but this shouldn't be used as an excuse to go off on your own.