I've played 
before, but not consistently. I always find myself confused about his CC, using it to its fullest potential, rather than
pressing R and hoping you land the ult. I feel like he has a lot of potential, so I ask of you Sion mains for tips. Runes? Masteries? Builds? Looking at you, Ralanr.
EDIT: Sion's top win rate is actually stellar. Solid 53%. People build AP on him lol. Thanks everyone for the friendly responses!
Jbels5 votesSion is indeed viable. There are a couple different ways to use Sion ult. For instance, don't be afraid to use that sucker instead of your flash to escape a lane gank. Or, you can walk down bot lane, ult down there (They NEVER see it coming xD) and get your bot lane a double.
The way I play Sion, I like to buy a dorans ring first and buy another one on my first back. This makes your E's mana cost almost non-existent, and gives you virtually limitless poke.
The most important thing to know about Sion though imo is just WHEN to release the charging Q. You don't want to be like those sions that fully charge it every time, but you also don't want to be the ones that only go for the bare minimum knock up every single time
Edit: Do keep in mind that that 53% winrate is most likely comprised of a group of Sion mains that love the hell out of Sion
Ralanr2 votesI just hope this doesn't lead to a nerf. Though I doubt it. What really shocked me was that 
was number 1 in top lane. I haven't seen her at all.
Jbels1 votesI just hope this doesn't lead to a nerf. Though I doubt it. What really shocked me was that
I actually played a Kayle game today for the first time in months, as soon as I got to Rageblade Nashor's Runaans, I straight up got a penta right after leaving base
charcharmunro1 votesKayle's been really strong for quite some time now, especially toplane, because her passive is basically just "Yeah, no... Fuck tanks."
Olath Quortek3 votesSion certainly has a lot of potential but he really is a difficult champion. He is extremely powerful when played well.
Hybrid Pen marks go a long way for him because he does good mixed damage and brings both physical and magical %health damage with his passive and W... Other than that just scaling armor and mr for seals and glyphs for late game tank... Could go a lot of ways with Quints but I've always been partial to MS...
All of the Resolve keystones are good on him... SotA for Jungle; BoS for Supp; GotU or SotA for top (I pref SotA but GotU certainly isn't bad)... I usually run 6/6/18 regardless of position:
Ferocity: Sorcery and Expose Weakness (lot of ability damage and amp for teamates) Cunning: Savagery and Secret Stash (easier last hitting/clear and sustain) Resolve: Recovery, Tough Skin, Runic Armor (this one is important) , Insight, Swiftness and whichever Keystone (this is a lot of preference honestly)
Depends a lot on what you want out of him and who you're up against as far as build goes...
I'm a big fan of 
while Jungling (usually buy on second or third back) and 
while laning (starting with it in Top lane and picking it up second or third back as Supp unless I decide to skip it)... Great for sustain...
and 
or 
is my favorite build on him atm... I like the Ruby Sightstone's interaction with item Actives...
Usually just replace with 
when supp or 
when top...
Not afraid to build 
and 
along with when applicable (Vayne being the primary offender here, especially with 2 or 3+ AS focused enemy champs)
A hyper aggressive top lane build might look more like: 
which is a very good build when ahead and steamrolling but a lil' sketchy otherwise...
isn't the worst item on him ever but I can't remember when last I built it... (Ohh... I guess it was prolly on ADC Sion... XD)
I have built a very effective AP/MPen build in the mid lane that looks like: 
heavily emphasizing MPen to deal the most damage you can with his W while keeping yourself a bit bruiser-ey... I'd make sure to take as much MPen runes and masteries as you can... XD
I have also built a very effective ADC Sion in bot lane that looks something like this: 
Honestly the specifics of the build aren't that important... I just believe in a lot of damage and crit while basically ignoring AS for the most part as your passive does not benefit from it and your more of a "shock and awe" kind of carry using your Ult, Q (insta-Qs btw as an AA reset) and E for Trinity procs and your Ravenous as a second AA reset... You'l most likely either murder everyone right away or die and proceed to murder everyone anyways assuming your not losing terribly...
I put my first point into W to get the health stacking right away. If I'm in a lane I start it before the wave shows up and pop it right away (catching enemy laner/s if I can) just to push for 2nd lvl. If I'm Jungle I start it at exactly 1:36 so that I can pop it after the camp pops at 1:40 and hits me once but before it breaks it.
I put my second point into Q which you pretty much always want to use if your above half mana as it's great clear and/or poke... Even just nicking them with a barely charged Q is some pretty good poke and of course your can use it on camps and champs alike to buy you some time to get your W off... It's worth pointing out at this point that if your Jungling you're cooldowns on your Q and W won't line up all that well but with a little practice you can get your W off by timing it so that you activate it just after the camp hits you and kite back enough so that you have time to get it off.
I put my third point into E as it is extremely useful as an enabler to land a good Q and get your W off... I almost never max E until I have to for the simple fact that I want it's mana cost to be as low as possible so that it can be used often.
Fourth point is where you want to do a bit of thinking; a second point into your Q literally doubles its base damage but a second point into your W is immensely helpful for keeping it up and getting it off while giving it a bit more %health damage. If it's going well go Q and if it isn't (or your even just unsure) go W.
Fifth point goes into whatever the fourth point didn't go into; you want that damage boost on Q or that reliability on W.
The rest is essentially whatever you want... Max R whenever possible obviously... I usually lean towards Q but I've maxed W first (especially as Supp) and I've even maxed them both equally...
I like playing him very aggressively as landing your abilities well will most likely win you a surprisingly large amount of fights, especially if your team capitalizes on what you can do. I would just like to specifically point out that Sion is a very difficult champion to play well and tends to be extremely team reliant... but I love him and he's a monster... XD
Good luck to ya bro
Fat Bastard GOD1 votesEncyclopedia of Sion.
Olath Quortek3 votesLol I'll take that as a compliment? XD
If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.
We might not agree on everything but Ralanr is certainly a good guy to talk to.
Speaking of Ralanr, I see you commented on his post... I certainly wouldn't avoid 40% cdr on him and I know cdr is good and effective on him but I've never felt the need to base my build on it. I don't actually like on him unless you have a 
item for AA reset/better AOE stacking but either or 
are never really bad items to build on him.
Edit: On an off note I never talked about Summoner Spells... I'm not really in the majority here on this and it is fairly dependent on how I feel at the time but I rarely take 
as I have a tendency to misplay with it by flashing after an opponent that I can't catch anyways or flashing away just to die and put my corpse in a poor position... I take 
while Jungling obviously, 
when Top and 
as Supp but for my second Summoner I usually try to accommodate for whatever my team might be lacking by picking up a , or 
as all three of them can be extremely useful for securing kills... I take when I can because enemies rarely expect it and why escape when you can just burn and smash things? I've gotten a lot of double kills between that and my passive... XD
Ralanr1 votesHonestly just 20% CDR is fine. It's more of a personal playstyle preference for me as I love to spam abilities.
Olath Quortek1 votesExactly^
Ralanr1 votesInteresting in how you don't use flash. Is that just with Sion or is that common with most of your champions?
Olath Quortek1 votesOhh that's just on Sion... I don't feel nearly confident enough with the rest of my champ pool to forgo Flash and let's face it, Flash is a good thing and should be taken pretty much 99% of the time... I do, however, believe that Sion is one of the champs that can get away without it.
Ralanr2 votesWow...second time I've been called by name. Odd feeling.
Anyway, fair warning: I am an unranked scrub. My skill level is probably bronze. My only claim to knowledge is that I have about 122.7K mastery score with him.
For runes, I use hybrid pen quints, AD reds, Armor yellows, and MR scaling blues. This is just me.
For masteries, I focus on something I call offense tank: 12/0/18 Grasp of the undying. I get exposed weakness and oppresser because I am a CC monster and I want my team to hurt people harder.
As for builds, I tend to build straight tank based around the enemy team comp. If the enemy team has a lot of attack speed, I rush (now is probably a better because it gives health and crit damage reduction. But I like getting CDR on Sion as quickly as possible because I am an ability spammer). If the enemy has a lot of MR, I rush . I don't get 
because I have no natural healing ability that really gets super charged off of that.
For lane, I start with . This was a tip I was given to by others because I used to use 
. is great for lane sustain.
Now, here is where I get very weird. I max W first. I'm sure a lot of people suggest maxing his Q first, and let me tell you why I disagree with that logic. is a very healthy champion that has loads of counterplay, this sadly makes his CC unreliable. His Q can be walked out of and you can miss your E pretty easily. Your W on the otherhand can always serve the purpose you want as it is a very powerful AoE blast.
But Ralanr, his W takes too long to charge.
If you want to use it as a sword and shield like a greedy swine, then yes, 3 seconds is too long. Sion's shield is best used as a sword or a shield. when combining his W and Q has STUPID levels of wave clear. I'm talking, "That's a nice wave to push my tower. Annnnnd it's gone." levels of stupid, which is great for infinitely stacking your health. The higher you go, the more damage it does to remind your lane opponent that they will be hurt.
As for a shield purposes, it makes you much harder to gank. When the jungler comes out, bringing up your shield as you slowly lumber away can save your life.
For his ult: Point blank ults can be tons more effective than fully charged ults. Short engages can turn the enemy engage into a failure. As others have mentioned, it is a great escape tool. With enough CDR you'll get away often and still have it for teamfights (40% CDR is 36 seconds at max rank).
Any questions? Hope that helps!
And remember, everybody but you is a COWARD!
Fat Bastard GOD1 votesAhh yes. Juicy post.
I am also curious on your thoughts on Black Cleaver and Iceborn Gauntlet. Black Cleaver give him that 20% CDR and combined with Frozen Heart, the endless CC chaining might happen. Should you reach 40% CDR on Sion? And for Iceborn, is it a viable option for him (more CC, more reliable, etc)?
Ralanr2 votesPersonally I do not like grabbing on Sion. If I need to reach 40% CDR, then I'll grab and . You do not need to get 40% CDR, it's more of a personal preference for me. 20% works very well.
I don't like because I do not really try to duel my opponents with auto attacks as Sion. If I had to consider an on-hit item, it's either for more CC (works great with your passive) or for split pushing. As for being a viable option, more CC on the CC monster is never really a bad thing, but only if you find yourself building a lot of armor. Like for example: a full AD team would require you to build etc.
I also focus on health items more ( heart is an exception because I love CDR) than others since I am not the best at making use of his health gaining passive. On average I end the game with over 500 bonus health.
Sion through and through, is a tank. His job is to keep the enemy team steady for his allies and in the right hand he is an absolute monster. I play many games where I go full tank and just wade into the fight with CC and a surprisingly high damage with his W. Plus he makes a great peeler.
There is one build I like that makes him more of a juggernaut: Devourer Sion. 
and plus boots and other items. The build isn't as tanky, but it makes your auto attacks on even ground for usefulness with your abilities. I played it once and ended up outdamaging the enemy team and my own.
I advise for you to experiment with once you get the hang of him. I myself am still missing out on a proper AP Sion build. He's a great champion that rewards creativity and smart plays.
Olath Quortek1 votesMPen is where it's at for AP Sion bro... :P
Ralanr1 votesI tried rushing 
for an AP Sion build. Didn't satisfy me.
Olath Quortek1 votesMhmm... The honest truth is that he just really doesn't scale of AP that well... Fortunately his W is badass enough that stacking MPen does a surprisingly good amount of damage... Even just with , 
, runes and masteries your basically dealing true damage to anyone not building MR... Pick up a and and your surprisingly durable in addition to your now bonus true damage vs. squishies (for the record, yes, your Sunfire cape will deal more damage than it should XD)... is icing on the cake for those pesky tanks and for that little bit of extra troll (still surprisingly good but reasonably replaced with whatever item is most needed atm... 
, , or (insert 20% cdr item here) come to mind...)
Edit: On a complete and total off note I am dying to see Mecha Zero... >:/
Ralanr1 voteshttp://45.media.tumblr.com/40cf14064be32d1c731834a9296e3479/tumblr_mk2zjcgl491rjxyrgo2_400.gif
I THINK WE ALL ARE, BROTHER!
ViashinoWizard2 votesSion is one of those champions whose effectiveness increases dramatically in the hands of an experienced player.
charcharmunro2 votesHe is... Probably the most difficult tank to play, next to Galio and Singed (who I don't really consider a proper tank but eh).
ViashinoWizard1 votesGalio's really more of a beefy mage than a tank, to be honest.
Scoroct2 votesHello! sion is my go to top lane tank who I end up consistently solo killing my enemy laner. There are a few things about sion that are worth noting right away, he is terrible at getting at long range backlines like 
or 
in the sense that his ult cannot engage onto them. If you need that, go see malphite or zac for your diving engage tank needs. However, he is incredibly good against melee heavy teams and short range mages or adcs due to having incredible zone control with his Q. He is also very bad against champs with low CD dashes like 
or 
or 
but if they only have 1 long cd dash you can often deal with it or maybe stop it.
As for item builds I rush sunfire cape for waveclear and an initial pool of hp for the early game when Sion has an actually low base hp compared to other tanks. If I am against an ap laner I might get spectres cowl then finish the cape. Personally I think Sion should aspire to have 40% cdr in every game somehow. His abilities are strong in and of themselves and feel like they are always up. Cause of this I get Iceborne gauntlet after sunfire and then I get banshees or spirit visage, I usually go SV just for the cdr, and my ultimate already makes me spell immune so banshees veil doesn't feel necessary, but it helps against certain champs that can catch u out or interrupt your Q charging. I usually get zzrot at some point and then any combination of randuins omen, frozen heart, thornmail, deadmans, banshees or SV if I am against a super AP heavy team, locket if your support didnt get it.
Despite how good it sounds, cleaver is actually not great on sion since besides his Q and ult his abilities dont apply cleaver stacks, and he doesnt auto attack enough to build up more stacks either, although he definitly likes the cdr. so rather for damage items I feel his best bets are iceborne gauntlet for auto weaving (since he often gets one auto in there now and again) maw of malmortius since it helps his Q and ult dmg a lot against squishies, or titanic hydra so that if you manage to find a poor adc out of position the active auto alone from that item will take out like a 3rd of their hp and can potentially give you infinite dmg with your infinite hp.
Out of all the items I buy I really want to note that I love iceborne gauntlet on this champion since it helps him string his cc together nicely by slowing your enemy so that its incredibly hard to dodge the second ability. so a normal combo might be use e to slow, then auto the enemy, then use Q to try to get knock-up or some dmg, and then auto for the slow and by now with 40% cdr the combo starts to come off cd for the perma chase to continue, part of why I try to get 30%-40% cdr (note add shield in combo where seen fit by you, maybe u need iceborne proc to keep up chase or want to pop it right after Q knockup). Also when your cdr is this high, sions ult feels like another basic ability with its under 40sec cd. also when u use the boost in ur passive you get a proc too
Personally for runes I run AD reds and quints (because your Q scales wondrously with AD, and because if I dont have attack speed I want more AD so that I can last hit easily and get that hp stacking) and then armor yellows and mr blues. the reason for no scaling hp yellows is you already do that with your w and sion has like 10 less armor than every other tank along with low hp to make his w passive not so easily abuse-able. cdr blues are potentially good if against low magic dmg.
As for skill order I feel sion is a lot about preference. I max Q first, not for the damage per se although a full charged Q has ridiculous base dmg and scaling, but rather I do it for the cd and waveclear. Sion's Q is one of the strongest zone controlling abilities in the game that if it hits, has some of the most devastating cc and dmg ever for a tank, to the point of a fully charged sion Q hitting multiple enemies can win a team-fight. next I max his e because its slow is very good at higher levels, and adds to sions damage that becomes very mixed. lastly I max his w, not because I dont want to but because the others help me be a better cc monster. other maxing styles are very viable as well, his e being maxed first is something I really want to try due to the slow getting very strong, and it being more reliable, however I like that sions Q max into e max makes me as good of a waveclearer as my mid laner, if not better. While i can see some people not wanting to max Q 1st or 2nd due to its reliability, I just personally love having this ability on such an absurdly low cd along with his e that alows him to chase enemies down entire lanes.
As a few playstyle notes, many people in top in lower elos get cocky at thinking they will get out of your Q range before it does the knockup and end up misjudging it, especially since you can knockup people on the very edge of Q and this often lets you get a free grasp of the undying auto off and just crushing them in any potential trade. Between constantly poking with and Q (mind you I rarely try to land Q without landing e first, it dramatically increases your chances of landing that damn thing), you can often reach a point where you can all in them and get a kill that they never expected (sion dmg is severely underrated) Also, realize that early on sion is very very squishy so kinda be careful about all ins and farm safely with Q or e which are very nice abilities to last hit with.
One last thing that I do every game when I dont give a leash is immediately try to sneak into the bush on their side of the lane before minions spawn and try to land one fully charged Q on the enemy top laner since the indicator doesnt show when you are in a bush. If you pull this off they cant retaliate and probably lost a 3rd or 4th of their hp before laning started (seriously, charged up sion Q does stupid dmg). So yeah, sorry for a whole lot of info I just love this guy and hope this helps since he is a great tank that can go even in any lane matchup due to his safe waveclear, and is often among the most impenetrable front lines in the game.
Fat Bastard GOD1 votesThanks for the juicy post. I know you said you take grasp and armor seals, but what about scalings HP seals, strength of ages, and the W passive scaling. Would that be worth? Or would you rather have that early durability? That crazy HP scaling would be pretty awesome in my opinion. I know you talked about your runes, but I just wanted to throw this at you.
Thoughts?
Scoroct1 voteshmm scaling hp seals could be nice, and strength of ages is ok, but it just kinda seems unnecessary. Also i reallly value the durability in the early game, cause unless you do something really dumb once u have bami's cinder you cant really die 1v1 anymore if you play safe, but before that you are pretty squishy for a tank early on. also a big thing for me is grasp of the undying sustains you in fights where the hp might not be as useful. also theoretically grasp of the undyings damage and healing scaling infinitely with sion's w passive.
BatchBustsMeta1 votesI rush ROA, and spam E. Check out my guide on solomid AP Sion here comes the boom. Its out of date, because Ive had no internet for a few months, but youll get the general idea. On average I get A or higher rank, with highest damage dealt, and taken. I was gold last season, and right now my account sits at high silver, cause... no internet.
KrugLyfe1 votesI'm pretty good on him too :c not as experienced as ralanr of course but I think I can help some until he comes. If you're facing an opponent who can kill you you're going to rush you'll probably want to rush this anyways. Next you're going to want to get unless they have no cc. If you're facing an AS heavy team then get or . If they have a lot of burst you'll want this 4th . 
is nice if your team is behind and you need to roam. For your last item you will probably want for the extra tankiness and waveclear. Now moving onto the combos. Unless you're facing someone who's extremely hard to kill like 
then you should have no trouble bullying your opponents out of lane especially if you take him mid vs an assassin or AP caster. You should always max e for the waveclear and great harass. W next because later in the game your q damage falls off pretty hard. When you combo someone you'll want to charge up your w for 1 second then e them to ensure they get caught in your q unless they flash out. Even if they have dashes if you use your q correctly you should always catch them in it. Later in the game during teamfights if you're on the winning side and your carries can peel for themselves you'll probably want to get behind the enemy and start charging at them so they scatter and your team will have a chance to get on a target. I think that covers everything hope this helped!
Waffletimewarp1 votesFull tank build with Grasp of the Undying. I start with whatever resistance item is best against my lan opposition and finish my first item based off that. I usually go sun fire, but have recently been favoring frozen heart for the cdr. I focus on my e( yeah it was needed hard but people still don't expect it) then w and q last.
charcharmunro1 votesHe's very viable, at least toplane. His jungling is kinda... Cruddy lately. People don't really "build AP" on him, rather, they use Doran's Rings to make his poke really good, then trade it out for full-tank and maybe a Sterak's afterwards so he can just be a wrecking ball. Everybody seems to not notice just how strong his early-game is. His Q lets him force trades, especially against people who can't stop it (this is why Nasus and Gnar often can't do anything to him), his E sets people up for the Q and with a Doran's or two, lets him pelt out an annoying amount of damage and despite his low base health, he often just doesn't QUITE die.
Ralanr1 votesI started playing him in the jungle first honestly. He does feel a bit slow and like a lot of tank junglers (or I just suck at jungling) he can't do much with counter junglers. His ganks pre-6 are not the most effective unless played very well, and post-6 your ult can be effective but very impractical at times.
He can work in the jungle, but there are other tank junglers that have can work better. Poppy is the first that comes to mind, who I play mainly jungle with.
Spoofghoul1 votesTIP 1: always take tp use ult to gank after you back then tp back to lane so as not to lose cs & tower
TIP 2: Build plenty of resistances Yes health is nice but resistances is what makes your shield not break This will allow you to get a stronger shield and be able to keep it up long enough to detonate
TIP 3: If your jungler ganks for your lane make sure to land your max range E and then ult. Because its more difficult to dodge when slowed Also the 1450 range is enough to ramp up the damage and cc duration on your ultimate.
TIP 4: Max E first because your Q autoscales with leveling up whereas E only scales with ranks in it. Its also easymode waveclear and poke.
TIP 5: Using ult to escape hairy situations. But sometimes people try to cut you off an want to bodyblock Dont hesitate to just ult in the other direction I have escaped many a gank by running into the opponents jungle base or towards another lane rather then back to my tower or allies. Your ult makes you run at max speed and travels very far giving you often enough time to recall. My best moments where 4 man ganks where all escapes seemed to be cut off except the one past their 2 towers and into their base i ran into their base and recalled just in time to escape.
TIP 6: Drop your Q early What i mean is dont wait for people to dash or walk out. you can stop enemies mid dash too putting it on cooldown. Dont be greedy for 2 second max dmg & cc channels because 1 second is better then nothing at all.
Well thats it for some of my gameplay tips.
For builds i recommend plenty resistances and max cdr
ToolooT1 votesI started playing him recently and I love him. THe only thing is that even when you play him good and engage well/peel well once you become super tanky, you rely entirely on your carries doing well. In silver for some reason I keep losing when I pick him simply because the ADC and mid rarely do good or know how to position themselves in team fights.
TheHowester1 votesAs Sion, all you do is being this fat tank with powerful CC and decent damage. Your passive won't always get kills, but it can cause a threatening factor; that is, you become a dangerous threat when dead, and your opponents will have to decide whether to CC you or your squishies. Make sure you die first though; it's kind of useless outside of that niche and picking off low HP targets.
naidnieks1 votesBeen playing/maining Sion since his release. I actually tried to make jungle hunters flare Sion work. Jesus christ. I usually go for ghost/smite/SotA and just build hp- cinderhulk (+300 hp every game guaranteed), warmogs zzrot thornmail and just sit you ass top. I rarely build mr as i feel hp is fine, since mages dont target you specifically anyway, unless its vlad cass or anivia. This build is all about the gates tho and so is a bit boring, the only hilarious part comes from bullying their ileria under her second turret and ulting/walking away from ganks. If damage starts fallign off (it usually doesnt) I go triforce/hydra. If you want to have fun Triforce Mallet Hydra Swifties is cool as heck. If team cc's the enemy after you die, you run a train through them. Mallet also helps after you die (havent gotten a real kill on a decent opponent in 1v1 scenario in a long time without it). The real mastery of sion, i feel, comes from judging your q right though. Its a mindgame of either making them waste their mobility spell or surprising them by releasing it earlier or later than they expect. or just asserting dominance and charging it fully, watching the red part of their hp is a sight to behold (the part after is where the red mist descends and you just mash every spell trying to get a kill). I usually try to get free damage off at lvl 1 by charging up as they come for lasthits- full charged q does hecka dmg then. Heš cool af and a great bully/idgaf champion. Not weak at all my opinion fam.
