Sion is a lane dominant super-tank. He deals with most ranged match-ups easier than most melee tanks and his Ultimate can be and often is Game changingly strong.

In his Kit sion has: a 1.25-2.25s Knockup, %max-health shield that does %max-health damage to enemies in an AOE, 40-60% 4s slow, 20% armour reduction, and one of the most iconic and enjoyable ultimate engage tools in the game. Not to mention his passive. What more do you need?

There isn't much Sion can’t do, he can go top, mid, jungle, support and remain viable in each of those roles. This makes him a very easy champion to main. For this guide I will be focusing on top lane Sion, since that is the role I most prefer and where I feel he is most efficient.

When it comes to masteries the only tree you need to worry about is the resolve tree. Courage of the colossus is op and Sion procs it easily enough. Swiftness, perseverance and runic armour are all but essential (Ill go into why a bit later). Everything else is personal preference. Cunning or ferocity it doesn’t really matter. I use cunning, assassin is usually pretty good in the toplane where you spend a lot of time duelling. Meditation is great for spamming spells. Greenfathers gift is pretty easy to abuse.

I have 2 rune pages I generally use in the top lane. One has MR quints the other has armour quints. The rest is the same, AD reds, flat health yellows, 6 CDR per level blues and 3 MR blues. These runes will give you 10% CDR at level 18. Most games you are going to have spirit visage and Iceborn Gauntlet, combine these with the runes and you've got yourself 40% cdr.

Once runes and masteries are sorted its time to jump into a game. Nine times out of ten you want to start Corrupting potion. It is an insanely efficient item that you’ll hold onto until you have no choice but to replace it. The gold you will save buy not buying regular pots is vastly underestimated. That said there are situations where you will have to start Doran’s shield and 1 pot or a cloth armour and 4 pots. I will explain when you need to do this when I talk about match-ups. An argument can be made for Doran’s ring but normally you’ll only really pick this up as a second item if you have an early back (ie from being ganked or possibly if you get a kill from any lvl 1 jungle shenanigans).

Sion is unique in that his skill order is not fixed in stone. It depends entirely on the matchup (you’ll get used to this concept). But here are some generally rules to follow.
1) Max E first against ranged matchups. Im talking ryze, Quinn, vayne, vlad. Youll never reliable hit enough Qs or get in range for enough Ws for maxing them first to be worth it.
2) Max W against champions that dominate you. Most of the time this is going to be highly mobile champion like Riven, fiora and Iralia. But it also applies to champions like trundle and darius.
3) Max Q against most everything else. If you think you can dominate the lane, then this is how you do it. The base damage of sions Q is absolutely outrageous. If the enemy champion has no dash or no reliable way of interrupting your Q channel then you can really make them suffer.
4) Don’t be afraid to change tactics. If you find the enemy is saving there dash/shield for your E’s then start putting points into Q or W and hurt them that way. You need to be reactive to your opponent. If the enemy jungler is camping you then just start maxing W. Even if you think you can dominate the lane its doesn’t mean much if their lee sin just keeps killing you. Accept that sometimes your focus needs to be on surviving the lane instead of winning it. Let him camp you and hope your team gets work done in other parts of the map.
5) Experiment – When learning sion it’s absolutely fine to mix it up and see what works best for you. You need to know what he’s capable of and what he isn’t. This is just a guide, not the Law.

IT DEPENDS ON THE MATCHUP. Hopefully I’m starting to drill this concept into you. Sion does not have a fixed build order. Full AD Sion is actually viable but it doesn’t scale well and if you get behind or if the enemy team is mobile enough to dodge your Qs and Rs then your pretty much worthless. Full Tank Sion is the way to go, both for beginners and for climbing Elo.
I will go though each of Sions “core” Items in a moment but the mentality for what to buy when playing sion goes like this:
1) Counter the Enemy Top Laner.
2) Counter the Enemy jungler.
3) Counter Everyone else.

Most of the time your build will look something like this:
ZZrots portal, Sunfire cape, Spirit visage, Iceborn gauntlet, Merc Treads, steraks gage.

ZZ'rots portal gives a lot of MR and Armour, which complements the free health Sion gets from his W passive. Did you know that Sion has the second highest base health regen in the game at level 1 and the 5th highest at level 18? I bet you didn't. So the 125% from ZZrots plus 50% from perseverance with an additional 8% bonus from runic armour (get a spirit visage later and it gets out of control). Every 4th voidspawn gains 15% of your max health as damage. Sions free health and a generaly health heavy build means that your voidspwan hurt. A lot. They will run through minions and wreck turrets. The Pressure a ZZ'rots applies gives you big windows to ult down other lanes and make plays then wonder back to lane with your turret in tact.

1) The level 1 bush Q. Get to lane first and wait in the middle brush. when your opponent walks to lane to CS charge up a Q. Its insane how often this works. It all but guarantees level 1 dominance which you can utilise to get to level 2 first.
2) If you dont think you can kill your lane opponent when you reach level 6 just back and ULT one of the other lanes. A lot of midlaners and ADCs are immobile. Punish this then either walk or TP back to lane.
3) Use the bushes as much as possible. If the enemy laner wards the bush he cant ward river and your jungler can gank more effectively.
4) Sion is immobile so early boots can be the difference between life or death in match-ups where your opponent relies on skill-shots.
5) In team-fights use your Q to protect your carries. Us your Q to zone large areas during a team-fight to force space between your ADC/midlaner and the enemy front line.
6) If you think your team should fight then FIGHT. Sion has an insane long range engage ultimate. If you have a numbers advantage or think the enemy is out of position then force a fight by ulting whoever you can.
7)Don't be Afraid to dive. After 1 or 2 items you'll find that towers don't hurt that much anymore. After 3 or 4 items they barely tickle.

- When someone interrupts your Q channel it only goes on a 2 second cooldown.

- Titanic Hydra still works when you are in your passive.

- You can activate W during your ULT charge.