Hello ladies and gentlemen, EmoN here, bringing you one of the most versatile of champions in the League: Sion, the Undead Champion. Sion is versatile, in that his spells all have a certain way to build him, if you want to make full use of it. Either burst people down with a Deathfire Grasp and AP combo, or take it to them with massive attack speed, lifesteal and attack damage. Or build tanky and keep at it with everything you got. In this build-guide, I'll be giving MY point of view on AD-DPS Sion, utilizing his E- and R-abilities and good items.

So without further ado, let's go over his abilities:


An AP-based single target nuke that deals magic damage and stuns for 1,5 seconds. It got nerfed from 2 seconds, which would fit more I think, but hey, he's still more than powerful. This has (as does his next ability) an AP-ratio of 1,0, so it WILL do amazing damage.


You forge a giant shield, with a 1,0 AP ratio. If it isn't destroyed within 4 seconds, you can detonate it, dealing mad magic damage to all surrounding units. Really, if you have some AP, this makes creep farming a breeze. Just... keep an eye on your mana bar.


You have massively increased AD on toggle-on at the cost of a little health per hit. If you kill any unit while this ability is toggled on, you'll gain a bit of health permanently. It doesn't seem like much, but I've managed to make it to 4k Health through this ability.


You ulti, and the cornerstone for all DPS Sions. You gain 50% attack speed, plus a massive percentage of Lifesteal (going up to 100%!). This is the spell that will keep you alive. Believe me, it will. Soloing dragon? No problem. Baron? Wouldn't try it before you reach Lv.16. But it's good, and you won't know how good it is in the laning phase until you've tried 2v2'ing Graves and Galio and getting out on a double kill.


It's not that useful on Sion, but it is a great passive nonetheless. You have a chance to negate an amount of damage each time you're hit by a basic attack. This includes minions, so it makes pushing up to an enemy champion not as dangerous and threatening as it seems (creeps can take Galio below half health within 7 seconds, you know...).

The abilities speak for themselves. You use Cryptic Gaze to close the gap and deal mad damge. Simple as that, especially in this build. Death's Caress is used to block some damage (duh!), and to farm creep waves. I don't prioritize it in this build, because it's not that useful (except for saving lives), and you won't be using it as much.
Enrage is MAD. The amounts of AD you gain are what made me believe AD Sion was viable. And oh my goodness it is. 65 AD ain't nothing, let me tell you that. The health cost per hit is relatively low, so it doesn't matter if you keep it on all the time. Just don't continually bash minions, it will drain your health within seconds if you don't kill minions with it. The permanent health gain is also amazing. In a game that lasts 50 minutes, it's no hard task to get to 300 CS. This way, you'll nearly have 700 bonus health from this spell, maybe even more. Remember that this skill also works on taking down creep waves with Death's Caress if you're going AP instead of following this guide. Nowhere does it state you have to kill units with basic attacks.
Your Ultimate is where AD Sion's true potential lies. The attack speed gain is good for pushing towers, but it also makes for good harass, especially if you are soloing a champion. Its lifesteal-component is also great, because it is more than capable of keeping you alive. Two Bloodthirsters are barely able to get the amount of Lifesteal you get from it, and that's only at Rank 1!.

For Runes, you'll want to dish a little in the defensive, but mostly focus on your damage output. I found that taking Armor Pen. Reds and Quints (Greaters of Desolation) absolutely demolishes your opponents. Now, I'll admit, I haven't played many games since the purchase of my runes (and especially not with Sion) but the sheer maths on the matter make it all quite obvious. Let's say you go bot vs. a Miss Fortune. She has hardly any Armor in the very beginning. If you stun her (Lv.2) and go ape**** on her whilst having Enrage on, you'll actually deal your entire AD as damage on each hit (25 Armor Pen. through Runes and 6 via Masteries), or even deal some bonus damage. Just see: you basically ignore 31 Armor.

For Masteries, I like to take a 21/6/3 build. Why not 21/9? Because Sion is a beast late game, and 6/7 seconds make a world of difference. Taking Improved Exhaust, Armor Pen., Attack Speed and the 15% Magic Pen. as my most important investments, I also take Increased Armor and MR in Defense, with a side dish of Reduced Death Timer in Utility.

For Summoner Spells, the investments which I make in my Masteries make it obvious. Exhaust and Flash. Flash because aside from the 1.5 second stun, Sion lacks all sorts of escape mechanisms, and Exhaust to make sure your opponents won't get away.
Other viable Summoner Spells include Teleport for extreme ganking potential, Ignite for the extra bit of damage (and to completely shut down supports by reducing their heals, which are just not that significant in early game. Clarity is pretty much only viable in early game, because late game and mid game, you'll mostly have Blue Buff on you the entire time. The other Summoner Spells... just don't take them, they're not worth the spot on Sion.

You'll want to start out with a Sapphire Crystal and a few Health Potions. The Crystal is because you can only cast 2 spells, and then you're out of mana, and the Health Potions because Enrage takes off health, simple as that. Now you'll have to make a decision. Either stay in lane long enough so that you can afford 3 items at once, whilst struggling to stay alive against an enemy sho has gone b (or has died) and has gotten multiple items. I'd suggest the latter, because a fed Sion is:

'Your Worst Nightmare' - Tryndamere

On the b, there's a few items to take into consideration here. The Stinger for CDR and amazing Attack Speed buffs, the Sheen since it builds from the Crystal and demolishes enemy champs if you know how to use it properly, and the Berserker's Greaves. Now I know that in the item build listed above, I listed the Triforce as the first major item, but it just doesn't match up to a Nashor's Tooth quite as well as I had expected. The CDR makes you really demolish people in lane. 2v1'ing Graves and Galio becomes a breeze with at least a Stinger, and if possible, even a Fiendish Codex too. The sheer CDR makes it so that once an enemy thinks they can take you on, you can stun them, deal mad damage, and once they run away, you can stun them again and assure the kill with ease.

I like to make sure that, the second time I go b, I have my Berserker's Greaves and my Nashor's Tooth. This assures you have the damage output you need to snowball, before the laning phase is even over. The kills you get hereafter will go (in order) into a Sheen, Zeal and Phage, taking the Trinity Force right after. It makes your damage output that much more amazing (Sion is a slow motherf... you'll catch my drift) and makes pinning opponents down that much easier (25% chance to slow, and if they go anywhere... stun baby!).

Now for some sheer damage. As I stated before, the 31 Armor ignore Early Game is good. What I failed to mention is that enemy champs usually have 50+ armor (Heim is by far the squishiest champ alive, topping at 61 Armor. So to get through enemies' Armor like a knife through butter, I'll pick up Black Cleaver as my next item. The Attack Speed and AD are all good, but the Armor Shred is where its true potential lies. After 3 attacks, you have 70 Armor Pen (or 70 Armor you'll just not take into consideration every time you attack). That's damage output for ya!

Now that the damage portion is out of the way, I'd like to talk defensive. a Guardian Angel is the over-all best defensive item in the game: it provides Armor, MR, and a second chance on death. Pretty clear. Pick it up as your fifth item (or sooner, if they have a fed AD carry and your ulti is just not enough to take 'em on. The last item is debatable. For sheer MR, I'd really recommend the Force of Nature. The amounts of health you'll regen on 4k Health (which is no difficulty to reach, since 300 CS is not that much) completely negate the costs of Enrage at higher levels. And if you'll have more attack speed than health regen, you'll regen the health on the way to the next creep wave.

Now to make things perfectly clear, this is all from MY point of view. If you play Solo Q games primarily, you won't have very much use from this guide, since I've recently met a guy who plays the MEANEST support evar (4/0 on Sona, that's hardcore carrying for ya). His style of support works great with my aggressive playstyle, as we synch our every move on each other. I would not have made it through the 2v1'ing against Graves and Galio without him (MarluXiaXl on EUW Server). You'll lane with your support. Pretty clear. Make sure your support picks up some of the farm too, she's not only there to support you, but also to assist you in pwning lane. You're supposed to be aggressive whenever you can, assuring kills for either yourself or for your support (no biggie if they steal a kill or two, it'll only make them that much more fed and harder to kill and powerful etc.). Pop your shield, wait a bit, Stun, and take it to them. A Sona with a readied Power Chord can most definately help you wreck faces early game.

In mid game, keep the Blue Buff on you. Roam from lane to lane, gank, push, and return to lane. It's your job to pick up kills wherever you can. Remember: you're the guy in lane with the support, you're the one who needs to be fed (similar to the mid and solotop champs). You should be able to stun, wreck, and re-stun any AD carry you vs'ed bot without too much hassle. If they decide to come on on you with 3, just look for the nearest wall and flash over it, singling out any champions who have Flash ready too and sre stupid enough to chase you over the wall.

Late game, it's pretty similar. Your pushing power should be maxed out by now (1,5 attack speed, roughly 300 dmg and a ****load of health), so push any and all towers if you can. If someone is getting jumped by 3: dont jump in head-first, but analyze first. Are you even able to take them on? A Thornmail can seriously **** on your lunch, lemme tell you that. Your ulti should keep you alive most of the time, and some hardcore CC can seriously mess up the 3v1 gamk your enemies would have planned for you or your teammate. Sion is strong enough late game to take on a 2v1 without too much hassle, and maybe even a 3v1 if not executed properly or poorly coordinated.

Sion is a hardcore HAXOMGWTFBBQ-champion. He really is. His versatility makes him deceptively dangerous, as he can deal amazing amounts of damage in any and all situations. Making good use of his abilities is key to a good Sion though, as without using his skills, he really is more or less useless.

EmoN singning off.