Sion Build Guide : Support Sion - Bringing everyone down to his level

Introduction

I've been playing Sion only since season 2. I have played him in every role and in every lane throughout the seasons. Built every possible items and used every single runes. Lately I have been playing a lot of support Sion and climbed to diamond. I think he is a great pick without any true counters in the bot lane. He is really fun and breaks conventional wisdom. My average win rate over 1000 games is 65.40%. Constructive feedback is welcome in comments.

Free Coaching

If you want some free coaching for playing support Sion, join the Sion Discord and send me a private message. I could spectate a game live or we can watch a replay.

Reddit - /r/DirtySionMains

If you like Sion, make sure to come by our subreddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/DirtySionMains/

You can also join our Sion mains Discord server: https://discord.gg/dgsdCCQBhF

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Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Really good laning phase.

+ Really good wave clear.

+ Insanely strong roams.

+ Has really good itemization options.

+ Specializes at zone control.

+ Sion is so dumb, he brings everyone down to his level.

+ The zombie passive can turn ganks around.

+ It's called the Sion tax.

Cons

- Very aggressive playstyle.

- Very skill shot heavy.

- Very very high skill cap.

- Not suggested if you don't play Sion.

- Wants to push the lane.

Abilities

Glory in Death (P):
Passive is nice, but you shouldn't play to die. Don't build for it, don't die ever. If you ever do die, don't chase for kills, attack whoever is closest to you or use it to zone so your team can win the fight. In lane, it is sometimes better to go for CS if you don't think you can catch. If you see yourself in an inevitable death scenario, plan you death location accordingly. A good place to die would be in a brush, since people don't see you revive, they will sometimes forget about it and you will be able to come out of the bush and surprise them. If you are about to die in a 1v1 situation, try to hit the E before dying, it will usually make it a fair trade. As the support, the passive is great for putting wards down deeper.

Decimating Smash (Q):
Q is really amazing to stop people from jumping on you or your carries. An E Q W combo is really decimating. Use it to stop channels. It becomes a game changer in team fights, and as a peeling tool. Remember, people think it's easy to outplay your Q, but if anything, it is a guaranteed source of damage. Just release it before they get out of it. It's also a really easy way to get their flash when they realize they can't get out of an almost full charge Q.

Did someone just come in to auto attack you? Do they now have the minion aggro on them? Make them pay with a well placed stun, make sure they remember not to touch you ever again.

A simple combo with a melee range Q is to follow it up with an auto attack while your target is knocked up (Alistar style). I use this combo mostly for last hitting cannon minions when I know my Q won't deal enough damage to finish it.

I like to max this first against melee support to punish them whenever to go for a relic stack or into immobile lanes.

Soul Furnace (W):
W is amazing. It makes you really tanky. It's a win every trade ability. It does use a good amount of mana early on. Out of lane, it allows you to melt tanks. At max rank, it's an AOE spell that melts people for more than 14% of their health. You will need to learn to protect your shield, a broken shield is useless to you as it doesn't deal any damage. Late game, when people have , , , you can ultimate in with shield started, and pop the shield right before you hit to pop them and land the ult.

Also, this spell is really good for bursting the Scuttler, Dragon, or Baron. It does a guaranteed 400 damage to them on top of it's own base damage. (Not true damage, but still a really good burst in those really close smite battles.)

Level 1 shield will only shield for ~66 damage. In lane, I like to put at least 2 points in this ability.

I like to max this first if I don't trust my ADC to carry. This ability allows you to bully the lane solo. It's great for the flash + W combo to instantly kill low heal targets.

Roar of the Slayer (P):
E is by far your best spell. This is what makes your enemy laners hate you really hard. It throws minions in a line. Practice it, make it land. It costs (35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55) mana on a rather short cooldown. There is a catch though, if you don't use it right, your ADC will miss valuable CS, therefore, it is best to use it on higher HP creeps. Aside from the harass, this spell is amazing to wave clear. The slow is enough to let you escape from ganks. Make sure you have it up if your jungler wants to gank as this ability is required for the gank setup.

Here is a trick to hit the E with a minion: aim at the enemy's feet. With a bit of prediction and practice, it's really easy to hit.

Fundamentally, it is literally impossible to miss an E when someone is walking towards you. This means that you can use that to your advantage in lane when people walk towards you. You can usually get people to walk towards you by running at them with a shield then running away from them. When they walk back, this is usually a good time to E.

You can also snipe people that come back to lane after going to ward since their trajectory is pretty easy to predict at that time. Against people that are better, keep in mind that side stepping that particular E is pretty trivial as they will expect you to do it.

TLDR: You can hit people easily when their movements become polarized, predictable.

E is a channeled ability which means that you can E first, then flash when an opponent is running away to extend it's range and masterfully snipe them.

has a range of 1350. For comparison, Xerath's full charge has a range of 1450.

I max this first in ranged lanes or if I know my jungler will be ganking a lot. Or if I have an ADC that benefits from the armor shred for example a Lucian.

You can use E to bring scuttle to your side of the map so the jungler can take it uncontested. If you have a few points in E, the cooldown is short enough that scuttle can never escape.

You can also use it to prevent enemies from stealing buffs. You do that by pushing the buff away from its leash range so that it can reset and heal back to full.

Unstoppable Onslaught (P):
Your W and E win you the lane, your ultimate wins you the game. This ultimate is one of the best engage in the game. It's also a free homeguard from anywhere on the map. With or without your jungler nearby, you can gank your own lane after a recall. Later, it's on a really short cooldown. (Rank 3 ultimate with 35% CDR puts it on a 39 seconds cooldown.) Don't get carried away though, only engage when your teammates can follow up.

You should experiment with the ult in the practice tool. It's quite mobile across the map if you know how to drive or drift.

Which one should you max first? This mostly depends on your playstyle and the build that you're going for. It also depends on your own skill. If you can't land skillshots then your only option is to max W. You want to max the ability that gives you the most value for the game while knowing what you're able to pull off.

How to play Sion

In the bot lane, Sion brings long range poke and AOE hard CC. His shield also allows him to be a lane bully. Some ADCs have really bad wave clear or they have to spend a lot of mana to push the waves. With Sion, all his abilities deal damage. Also his Q can be controlled to deal precise damage to leave minions at 1 hit making it easier to CS for the ADC. If your ADC is low mana, they are trolling you. You can always punish bad enemy backs by hard shoving. Sion always has kill pressure with a good E setup. Sion is a zoning champion, your main goal should be to enable your allies to be where they want to be on the map and to punish enemies that aren't in the correct position on the map.

Early game

Before the first wave, your goal is to stop invades. Sion's Q can solo destroy invades. On the blue side you can stand in the tri-brush or the brush behind red. On the red side you'll usually stand in the brush near the river behind the blue buff.

In lane, you want to fight for level 2. Use the Spoils of War passive on the second wave's melee minions. You can also use Q on the first wave. If they concede the level 2, then you can stop attacking minions and start a slow push.

At level 2 you have to decide if you level E or W. If the lane goes well or is even, I'll usually take E. Sometimes I take W to outplay a fight.

Sion loves to push the lane gaining tempo and fighting for scuttle with the jungler. If you have lane prio, you can dictate how the game goes early on. Usually if there's a fight going on you want to be there. You can even help the jungler with their clear so that you can gank a lane together, controlling the map.

With Sion, you want to do fast plays on the map. You don't want to let enemies react. If a play takes too long, then their backup arrives, you want to leave before that happens.

In lane, make sure to always clear the wards in the lane brushes. Especially after 10 minutes, if you push, enemies will look for TP plays. You can't allow TPs behind you. If they do TP, Sion thrives in fights where you have vision control.

Mid game

In the mid game, towers have started to fall, that shrinks the map. You want to look and punish anyone that overextends. A lot of players don't respect Sion's ability to ult down a lane or along the river. You'll want to place deep lane wards or on rotation spots to find good choke point for your ults. This part of the game is support Sion's bread and butter. You're looking to create power plays and put a lot of gold on your carries.

Late game

Lategame tends to be where Sion can both shine or completely throw a game by himself. There are two ways to play the late game, either you want to team fight and get an ace, or you want to avoid direct team fights by out rotating the enemy team and taking objectives quickly (towers, dragon, baron, inhibitors, catches). Having a is really important in this part of the game for the vision control game. If your team has good depush, I like to side lane with the top or mid laner. I'll stand back a few screens away from them ready to ult against anyone that comes to match them. If nothing happens, I can ult mid where the rest of the team should be at for a good flank angle.

Mechanics

When you don't have to leash for your jungler, you can mess up the minions on the first wave to get an experience lead. If enemies have to leash, they will miss some experience which will prevent them from contesting the level 2.

To do it, hit a melee minion and aggro the whole wave, then run into the brush to break the aggro:

Notice how one of the red melee minions dies before Kai'Sa makes it to the lane.

You can secure the Scuttle Crab while doing the drake or Baron by bringing it into the pit.

You can reset a camp to prevent a jungler from smiting it.

You can use Sion's passive to clear control wards.

When enemies are coming back to lane and you want to reset, you can execute yourself to the tower to deal extra damage to them. Then you can come back to lane faster with homeguard or look for a roam.

Ranked

Some general tips when playing ranked if you want to climb:

Don't be toxic. Don't flame in chat, don't abuse the ping system.
No one wants to be taught how to play the game. Don't teach randoms how to play their role while in-game.
A lot of games are won or lost off the mental difference. I've won so many games this season while my team was behind by 10k gold. And I'm not talking about 40+ minute games. Games can flip so fast and be ended so fast nowadays. Personally as long as I play Sion I have fun so I'm always down to try to win.
If someone's pings are annoying, mute their pings. If someone flames in chat, mute their chat. There's no point dealing with that **** if your goal is to climb.
Don't ask for someone to be reported. Your own report is enough.
Even the best players go on huge loss streaks. It happens.
If you don't have fun, you don't have to play. It's ok to take breaks.
Always write 'glhf' at the start of a game and 'wpgg' after a win or a loss.

For more, read Riot's Summoner's Code.

Vision control

One key aspect of playing support is how you can control the map to gain an advantage. Tracking the information that enemies have access to means that the plays that your team will go for will work more often. A dark map on the other hand will induce a lot more mistakes from your enemies.

There are 3 types of wards that you will want to practice. The first are fighting wards. Those are the wards you need in moment to moment fights. This usually means that you should ward brushes around were you're fighting or planning to fight in. For example, let's say I plan to fight in the bottom lane, I'll want to have 1 ward or 2 in the lane brushes or sometimes in the alcove. These wards prevent enemies from outplaying you as easily in a fight.

The second type of wards is rotation wards. Those wards are meant to track the movements of your enemies around the map. For example, let's say you're playing against a Pyke, it's useful to ward the river in front or behind the drake to catch him while he is on the move to another lane.

These wards are usually safe to drop while you're roaming. You'll usually want to drop them in places that avoid enemy control wards.

The last type are deep wards. For Sion, those wards will allow you to do long range ults. Good spots are deep down enemy lanes when towers start falling. If your team has a TP, they can be good flank TP wards. They are also useful for gaining information on the enemy jungler. Those wards are less safe to place in general.

Notes

Sion is a team champion. To get a lot of value on this pick, you have to choreograph your plays so that your team knows what to expect. A lot of the time, they won't see plays like pulling people into a brush so you get a free Q. They'll also not know to step up further on the map and control bigger zones than usual. Especially early in the laning phase, you will often have the opportunity to do plays. Make sure to ping that first so your ADC can react. I always ping that I'm going in when I die so that allies can consider the zombie passive outplay.

Learn to use pings to make macro calls so that your team moves well around the map. Good rotations make playing Sion feel like a breeze. Something I like to do when I'm roaming is to blue ping my position every 1 second. I find that it helps people time my roams better.

Gameplay showcase

ADC is AFK? Time to 3 camp leash!

Support Sion Masterclass

Predator Support Sion with ghost + flash

How to support for a Rengar jungle

There are more videos on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SupportSion/videos.

For more videos from the previous split:

Season 13 Split 2

Season 13 Split 1

Runes (Primary)

Here are the five pages that I propose in this guide, one for each tree.

Precision

Fleet Footwork:
My current favorite keystone for Sion. This gives a lot of sustain. It also can be used as a speed boost to run in for a fight or run away from a gank by attacking a minion. If you want to do a damage amplifier build, you can also consider .

Presence of Mind:
Always good on Sion. Make sure to land long range E for infinite mana. is also an option.

Legend: Tenacity:
A bit of a slow rune for support. Can be swapped for . There's nothing truly good on this row.

Coup de Grace:
It's useful to finish kills. Can also take instead but this rune page has so much sustain that you're gonna be high health a lot of the time.

Domination

Predator:
This works like a second ghost. It's really short cooldown so you can really play hard in the early game after you get your boots. You can also consider for smoother trades.

Cheap Shot:
Great damage rune. Combos well with Sion's natural CC. If you need more sustain, is also possible.

Zombie Ward:
Great for vision control. You can use enemy wards against them. You can also go to effectively extend your wards' uptime.

Ultimate Hunter:
More uptime on ult. You can also consider since it works with Predator. If you plan to buy a higher cost mythics, consider .

Sorcery

Summon Aery:
Useful for poking, it can refresh pretty fast. Enables builds with to make an all AD team comp better. Or countering really tanky teams. is also an option. If you think you might get kited too hard go .

Nimbus Cloak:
I take this rune page when I go with . Makes my plays be a lot more potent. Can also be used to escape from ganks. I go instead of the usual melee support items for the mana sustain.

Celerity:
Great synergy with , , and .

Waterwalking:
Pretty awesome for roaming. Makes it a lot easier to control objectives. You can also get instead.

Resolve

Guardian:
Always good on Sion since Sion's health pool is mostly bonus health. You can also consider into melee matchups or if you are the team's main frontline.

Font of Life:
Always good for support. Combos with Sion's Q, E, R. I get really high value from this rune most of the time. Alternatively is always an option since it allows you to bully the lane much harder. If your team has low tower damage, should be considered.

Second Wind:
This gets a lot of value in the bot lane. is also an option but then you have to play the lane well to survive the first 12 minutes. I never go personally but it's definitely playable.

Revitalize:
Gets a high value on support Sion. Has synergy with , , and most of the enchanter items. If you want to scale better, is possible. Against high CC teams, consider .

Inspiration

Glacial Augment:
Great at punishing immobile champions. Generally good for making picks throuhought the game.

Magical Footwear:
This is what I like the most from this row. It sucks not to have boots early but helps running in after landing an E. It does mean you're more vulnerable to ganks early so you have to play accordingly.

Biscuit Delivery:
This rune is a good alternative to survive the laning phase if you don't go into the Resolve tree. If you want to have better buys when you recall, is also an option.

Approach Velocity:
Very good rune for Sion to get into position for charging Q or applying the W damage after a good E. I take quite often too to make more plays. Based on my tests, can also be considered, you can go with it for an early game playstyle.

As you can see, Sion can use pretty much every rune which is why he is a very versatile pick. I didn't include all the runes that could work so feel free to be creative. The only runes that you should never consider are , , .

Spells

You can mix and match your spells depending on what you want from the game.

Ignite:
Take Ignite for the kill pressure in lane especially if your ADC is strong early game.

Exhaust:
Useful if they have a high burst champion. You can combo this with .

Heal:
I climbed through Emerald with an 85% win rate using heal quite often. It has synergy with . I think it's a good spell to outplay. Fights that look lost are suddenly turned. I often use it effectively while roaming. For example roaming top with a and heal can make up for a weaker top laner and can usually turn the lane. This is an option every time the ADC doesn't take heal.

Ghost:
I've been really liking Ghost on support Sion. I think it really helps when roaming and doing fast plays on the map. I also find that it lets me survive better when I'm caught out of position. It's a very proactive spell.

Flash:
Flash is really important just to reposition when in danger, or to get on top of your target to murder them. Usually flash should be used as an aggressive spell. If you need to flash out of a fight, that usually means you were positioning badly. Sion doesn't really rely on flash too much though which is why you don't have to take this every game.

Always consider or to improve your spells. Playing around your spell cooldowns is a good solid way to win the game consistently. When they are down you play safer, when they are up you force fights.

Items

Items Choices

World Atlas:
This season, supports only have one starter item. This sucks since you can't manipulate your adaptive damage. It's possible to start or instead, then back on the first 400 gold for . Do your best to last hit every single cannon minion for the +15 HP. Try your best to not poke enemies or hit the tower when you have stacks up so that you can use them on minions only. It's not the end of the world if you don't but it's more optimal to stack HP.

Bloodsong:
My current favorite support item. I go this almost every game. You can proc it once during Sion's passive too so don't waste your first auto attack after using .

Celestial Opposition:
My second favorite support item. Denies a lot of burst and the reset cooldown is short. It also resets after death so you can get an extra slow during the passive after taking damage again.

Zaz'Zak's Realmspike:
I get this when I want to play poke Sion.

Solstice Sleigh:
This is a solid option to be more supporty. The cooldown feels quite long for what it does though.

Control Ward:
I get this often. Before I turn level 6, I place one in the furthest bush in the bot lane. Then I wait for them to find it which gives me an easy ult to land if they try to kill it. Otherwise they can be placed at the usual support spots.

Refillable Potion:
I almost consider this a core item. It's really useful early to mid game.

Boots of Swiftness:
Core item. Get this every game. My favorite boots. It really helps landing the damage part of the W and getting out after. Also what you need most is to be on time to fights. Every second matters. Great for dodging skillshots too.

Unending Despair:
My current favorite item. I rush this almost every game. This item allows you kite fights really hard. You can bait so hard when you engage and then you pull the fight all the way back into your team. This item has great synergy with , , , , , , , . It's the best item in the game.

Frozen Heart:
There have been games where I rushed this first item. You don't really have to think about it, you get value just from existing in a fight. Has synergy with or since it prevents going out of combat while enemies are around.

Force of Nature:
I haven't built this item much this season. Consider this if you're against AP heavy teams that can kite you.

Thornmail:
I've been liking this item quite a lot this season. I run into a lot of AD healing champions such as .

Dead Man's Plate:
Good item for making picks. Great mobility around the map. Sometimes I consider this when I don't go .

Abyssal Mask:
I'd only consider this if my team was all AP, or I have 1 fed AP carry that needs to carry and enemies are buying magic resist. The range is only slightly more than Sion's W which makes it hard to use in some games.

Knight's Vow:
If you like your ADC then this is a good item. I once built it first item and the first fight back to lane my ADC lived with 10 HP after we double killed them. You effectively become a portable for them.

Mikael's Blessing:
This can always be good. I guess it requires skill to use properly so you have to expect which CC you want to prevent. Has great synergy with Sion by default though with the extra heal and shield power.

Randuin's Omen:
I don't build this often on support Sion but I think it can be good if you can afford it. Counters crit.

Redemption:
Generally good. If your team is really coordinated then it's an easy item to use.

Serpent's Fang:
Good against teams with a lot of shields.

Spirit Visage:
You'll usually want instead but in some games this is better. Great for getting huge shields. I'd consider this if I have a Seraphine APC or other healers on my team.

Sunfire Aegis:
Good damage item against melee teams. Good for grabbing tower aggro.

Hollow Radiance:
I prefer this to . It gives great wave clear which is good to gain tempo on the map. I consider this when my team doesn't have much damage and I need magic resist.

Umbral Glaive:
Great vision control. If you get this early in the laning phase, you can deal a lot of poke damage with Q even without charging. Very useful if you have champions that require vision control on your team for example Fiddlesticks or Evelynn. Runes to consider with his: and / or .

Vigilant Wardstone:
This item is great. It's really common that I'll get this second or third item. One of the few items this season that gives a mix of armor and magic resist while still being cheap.

Heartsteel:
This item is back on the menu after the latest W buffs in 14.6! Get this if you want to get some late game scaling. It's a fine item to rush.

Jak'Sho, The Protean:
I tend to get this in lost games. I think it's a good comeback item since it allows me to get caught, tank a lot of enemy cooldowns, if enemies aren't coordinated I'll usually live with a few HP. Makes it really hard for them to end the game.

Locket of the Iron Solari:
Generally good support item. You can always build it. I tend to consider it against poke teams or assassins.

Iceborn Gauntlet:
Useful when you need some extra lock down.

Hextech Rocketbelt:
I've had good success with this AP item. I usually rush before getting the item components and I go W max for extra safety. After that, I build since it works well with W max Sion. You have to play really greedy and protect your KDA at all costs. If your team will die in a fight, let them die and run. It's a good item to consider if your ADC is Jhin since you can setup his stun combo even easier for the CC lock chain.

Black Cleaver:
You need for this item to work otherwise Sion stacks it too slowly. This is a great buy into tanky teams or if your team is all AD. Sion's E lowers their armor by 20% and this item lowers it by another 30%. Together you can reduce their armor by 44%.

Stridebreaker:
Costs a lot but components are nice and the movement speed is awesome. Very efficient stats for the gold.

Axiom Arc:
If the game is a clown fiesta and people are fighting non stop, this item gets great value. Works well even if you build full tank. You need to get another lethality item though for example .

Dawncore:
Quite good as a third item in a + build.

Spear of Shojin:
Great stats for the gold. Can get this as a second item and allows you to skip a mythic until later. I like to use the Uptime rune page and do a first item.

Youmuu's Ghostblade:
Useful for amplifying Q's damage, damage to towers when ulting and being able to catch or move better in fights.

Warmog's Armor:
I really like this item on support Sion. The build path is really confortable. By the time you finish it, you always have 1300 bonus HP already. It's a win more item. In fights, you want to back off before you die so that you can reset your health bar. This item is especially good to push for objectives after a team fight. It's great for gaining tempo.

Ardent Censer:
Only get this if you are running . Can be built when your team already has a strong frontline and you have allies that can make good use of the attack speed.

Horizon Focus:
Useful passive. Sion can proc this item with every ability. For the purposes of this item, the distance is calculated from W's initial cast location which means that you can start W early, walk 600 units and the detonation will proc Hypershot. This is the same for the ult. I'd consider this in games where vision is important and you have other champions that can frontline.

Kaenic Rookern:
Highest raw magic resist in the game.

Wit's End:
I really like this item. I tend to build it when there's a on the enemy team since it gives Tenacity. It also gives you better dueling potential. It's main issue is that the build path has attack speed.

Staff of Flowing Water:
Similar to , only get this if you have .

Trailblazer:
New item to give movement speed to your allies. I don't really like it but I know that it's a really high win rate item on support Sion. I find that I'm so weak when I build it though.

Shurelya's Battlesong:
Useful if your team is all melee or you have a good goon squad team comp where you play for rotations and quick catches. And you want to end the game early.

Winter's Approach:
Can be considered if you go and .

Eclipse:
This item is pretty funny in some builds for example with , , , , , .

Morellonomicon:
Can be good in games where you have to be the one to buy anti-heal but would be bad for that game. Sion can apply this with both W or E. It has synergy with so that it can be applied all around you. You can also apply it reliably with when your adaptive damage is AP.

Opportunity:
Good for AD Sion.

Conclusion

I played a lot of support Sion this season into every matchup. I find it a really fun pick with a lot of skill expression. I climbed to diamond 3 so far after not really playing for 2 seasons.

This guide is a work in progress. Is there anything missing? Leave feedback in the comments and I'll improve the guide.

Rashtal

I'm currently making a game on my own. You can check it out at http://rashtal.com/

Support Sion - Bringing everyone down to his level

Support Sion - Bringing everyone down to his level

Choose Champion Build:

Recommended Items

Runes: Scaling

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Flash

Heal

Flash

Ghost

Ghost

Ignite

Exhaust

Flash

Flash

Heal

Exhaust

Ignite

Heal

Ignite

Items

Ability Order Random

Glory in Death (PASSIVE)

Decimating Smash (Q)

Soul Furnace (W)

Roar of the Slayer (E)

Unstoppable Onslaught (R)

Threats & Synergies

Morgana

Zilean

Rakan

Renata Glasc

Seraphine

Sona

Vel'Koz

Pantheon

Shaco

Amumu

Senna

Ashe

Soraka

Nami

Xerath

Blitzcrank

Thresh

Pyke

Swain

Rell

Lux

Lulu

Janna

Karma

Milio

Maokai

Bard

Zyra

Nautilus

Heimerdinger

Brand

Alistar

Annie

Ezreal

Kog'Maw

Nilah

Sivir

Zeri

Aphelios

Draven

Kalista

Samira

Smolder

Vayne

Yasuo

Ashe

Brand

Caitlyn

Jinx

Jhin