I just reached Plat for the first time. I want to share a few secrets about Sion:

I went on an extremely hot streak the past 10 days or so, winning 22 out of my last 25 games with Sion (mostly top, a few jungle games). I was astonished how many people fell for the same tricks I pulled in almost every game I played.

1. When on Blue side, suicide steal the enemy red buff then TP to lane after dying. (Don't forget to buy a pink ward with your 100g!) This generally allows you to get favorable early trades, and normally I make it to lane with the 3 caster minions still left, allowing me to not lose the XP advantage which is very critical early. Keep in mind, most junglers will not appreciate having their red buff stolen, and combined with Sion's relatively weak base stats, this makes him a gank magnet early game. Hopefully this allows your own jungler to capitalize by ganking other lanes or counterganking to follow up with Sion's strong CC.

2. Bully your opponent by guarding your minion wave. Fully charge the Q on a minion wave around your low health minions. If the enemy laner wants that minion, he's going to take 200+ damage at least! This is particularly effective when they are pushed to their turret. If you manage to get an AA or two off with red buff (and maybe renewable potion proc), this is an easy, repeatable trade with virtually no counter. Remember, Sion is all about zone control.

3. When your TP is off cd (right around 7 minutes), go back and gank bot with your ult. A fed bot lane is a happy bot lane! Start ult just after second tower. If you land the ult on someone, you have time to nearly fully charge your Q. This is altogether about a 4 second knockup, and 500+ damage (after normal mitigation), basically guaranteeing a kill. This leads to easy tower push/drag take, further increasing lead. Back if possible to buy, then TP back top lane!

4. Using your ult as an escape is usually very effective. You are immune to CC during this time, so unless someone flashes into your path to stop you, you should be able to get away. Most critical part about this: You MUST type "COWARRRDSSS!! in /all chat as you run away. The tilting is strong with that.

This basically covers the laning phase, which is Sion's weakest point of the game, IMO. I like to repeat the ult-gank bot at least one more time if possible, but unless you have TP again, it usually sacrifices top tower.** In teamfights, Sion is best at peeling for carries.** His initiation is okay, if you can land a good ult, but after initiating I try to peel for the highest damage dealer. Ever seen someone try to get through a Sion? It's not easy. (Unless you're Olaf. In which case, I hate you.)

My standard build is > / > > > > .The reason I take over is because I'm already CD capped, bonus regen is nothing special on Sion, it's cheaper, and it has more MR. Against a full tank wet dream full AD comp, I'll swap for .

TL;DR I'm mostly just really excited that I hit Plat for the first time in my life (Solo, might I add) and wanted to share how I got there. I don't think I'll ever make it to Diamond (I'm really bad at LoL) so I'm willing to share a few tricks that helped me carry get carried to where I am now. Good luck, happy climbing!