Skill usage Edit

• Use  Cryptic Gaze to get closer to the enemy and hit them with your  Death's Caress.
• Laning together with a burst champion is a potent combination as  Cryptic Gaze has a 1.5 second stun at level 1, one of the longest non-ultimate stuns in the game.
• Combining  Cryptic Gaze with Exhaust lets you stun, then slow a target, heavily disabling them for about 4 seconds. If they are still nearby, the cooldown from  Cryptic Gaze will have refreshed, allowing for decent harassment.
•  Death's Caress deals full damage, regardless of how much shield strength is remaining. Use this to your advantage by activating it after absorbing some damage.
• Using  Enrage with lifesteal means that the cost of the spell is less than the life you steal back. This means that  Enrage can be kept active indefinitely.
• Sion has high burst potential when building ability power as he can combo his  Death's Caress with  Cryptic Gaze.
  • Activate  Death's Caress before using  Enrage. Use  Cryptic Gaze, run in and attack, then pop your shield. This is an effective harassment strategy.
• Kills made by  Death's Caress will contribute to the extra maximum health from  Enrage. This means that even an AP Sion can utilize  Enrage.
• When Sion lanes in a solo lane it is possible to get first blood at level 2 by using the stun from his  Cryptic Gaze and his  Enrage to devastate the other solo laner.
• When playing as AD Sion, try to take advanage of the large bonus to AD that  Enrage gives you, as you can easily reach over 110 AD early with little to no investment in AD items or runes.
• Both  Cryptic Gaze and  Cannibalism can be used in a defensive manner to save allies and sustain pushes.
• Using  Cannibalism with a DPS build is a good way to quickly take down turrets as his high attack damage combined with the attack speed boost makes Sion a great pusher.
• When playing AD Sion, use  Cannibalism and attack the nearest low armor enemy, maximizing your lifesteal and allied heal.

Build usage Edit

• Sion has two common builds: melee DPS and AP mage. In both builds,  Feel No Pain and  Enrage allow Sion maintain a decent level of survivability even when building damage items.
• His DPS builds aim to capitalize on  Cannibalism and its massive bonuses; a Sion kept alive will in turn keep his team healed through the allied heal.  Cryptic Gaze's reliable disable remains powerful, while  Death's Caress is still a strong shield and farming tool. Since DPS builds tend to maximize  Enrage first, DPS Sion can also be more tanky by endgame, due to the extra health from a higher leveled  Enrage.
  • Due to the health gain from his  Enrage, buying an Atma's Impaler will increase his damage output while giving him armor. This also means he is the only champion whose AD has no limit, as he gains 1 AD for every 22 kills when enrage is maxed.
  • Life steal items, such as Vampiric Scepter early and its build paths late, allow Sion to negate the health cost of using  Enrage, and can be built into strong late game items, such as Ravenous Hydra and The Bloodthirster.
  • When combined with  Cannibalism, high life steal items such as The Bloodthirster can make it almost impossible for enemies to outdamage Sion's lifesteal.
• His AP builds focus on the very strong damage potential of both  Cryptic Gaze and  Death's Caress, both of which have a 0.9 AP ratio. Sion's survivability is also improved through item choice, and ease of farming health with  Enrage. Sion's  Enrage damage boost and  Cannibalism combined make his physical damage output respectable as well.
  • AP builds usually include a Doran's Ring or two, a Rod of Ages or Rylai's Crystal Scepter and an early Rabadon's Deathcap for maximum damage.
  • Lich Bane is often a core item for AP Sion for the added damage, however his cooldowns are not nearly short enough to take full advantage of the passive. Grabbing it does, however, grant quick burst if you are close enough.
• While AP Sion is potent early - mid game and later, an AD Sion shines mid - late game. His  Enrage grants him the possibility to gain "infinite" health, and grabbing an Atma's Impaler will allow his AD to do the same.
  • However, do not underestimate the potential of AP Sion. He can farm very well since  Death's Caress on AP Sion allows exceptional farming for  Enrage, allowing him to, in most cases, gain more farm quicker and help stack up his health faster.

Recommended Build Edit

Summoner's Rift recommended items
Starting		3
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Proving Grounds recommended items
Starting		2	2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Crystal Scar recommended items
Starting			2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Twisted Treeline recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Countering Edit

• Try to CC Sion or reduce his healing with Ignite or another healing reduction during  Cannibalism.
• Although  Enrage increases his damage, it drains his health with each attack he made. Use this to your advantage.
• If facing an AD Sion, it is extremely important that you do not let him farm. An AD Sion can heal his team for hundreds of HP with a few autoattacks, his late game is possibly the most powerful out of all champions in the league but at the price of a horrible early game. Do NOT engage him as a melee champion alone as he is a master of 1v1, instead kite him during his ultimate or disable him, wasting it and maybe allowing your team to turn the game around.
  • Sion also grows his health rapidly past level 6 if allowed to continuously farm. Starve him of waves and jungle creep if he attempts to rush his  Enrage stacks.
• Countering Sion depends on his build. If he is building AP, investing a magic resistance item can help mitigate his damage, especially Banshee's Veil as his damage is focused into only two spells. If he is building AD, a Thornmail or Executioner's Calling will help to counter him.
• Try to destroy the shield from his  Death's Caress rather than waiting until the shield duration is over to prevent it from exploding. However, not destroying the shield completely is a waste of damage, as it will still do full damage.