Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight, featuring Sion, the Undead Juggernaut.
A former Noxian general, Sion was resurrected after his death, and now serves as an undead
behemoth. A slow and lumbering war machine, Sion only remembers his old self in the heat
of battle, and fights on in a desperate attempt to keep his past memories from slipping away.
In game, Sion is a stubborn and tanky colossus with powerful area of effect crowd control
abilities that help him excel in solo lanes and the jungle.
Sion's passive is Glory in Death. Whenever Sion dies, he turns berserk, dropping his
axe and gaining huge attack speed, damage, and lifesteal. Although Sion revives with
full health, it drains as he bleeds out, and drains faster the longer he's alive.
Sion's rage makes him stagger, so he moves slower and his abilities are temporarily replaced
by Death Surge, which gives him a short burst of movement speed. Glory in Death has no cooldown,
so Sion berserks no matter how often he falls in battle.
Don't stop fighting when you die! Each of Sion's attacks deal a percent of his target's
max health so you can avenge yourself even after your glorious death.
Next is Sion's Q, Decimating Smash. Sion plants himself in position and begins channeling,
drawing his axe back to swing it into a fixed but extending cone before him, damaging and
knocking up enemies it hits. Decimating Smash deals increasing damage the longer it's
charged, but more importantly, only knocks up once it's at least half charged. Attack
before his weapon flashes and Sion slows whomever he hits instead. Since Decimating Smash is
a channeled ability, it can be interrupted by enemy crowd control which completely nullifies
the attack, but partially refunds his cooldown so he can try again.
Use Decimating Smash to follow up on allied crowd control. Your target won't be able
to sidestep your attack when they're already stunned.
Sion's W is Soul Furnace, which has a passive and active component. Passively, it gives
Sion a permanent health bonus each time he kills an enemy - and more when he takes
down large neutral monsters, siege minions, and champions. Activating Soul Furnace generates
a shield around the big guy that soaks up incoming damage. After a few seconds, Sion
can detonate the shield to damage all nearby enemies. There are a couple of important points here.
First, if the shield's broken, Sion cannot detonate it. Second, Soul Furnace can
be activated and detonated while casting any of his other abilities.
Use Soul Furnace to zone your opponents away from your minions. The shield can soak up
a decent amount of damage, and the explosion stings even at early ranks.
Sion's E is Roar of the Slayer. Upon activation, Sion bellows in a target direction, damaging,
slowing, and shredding the armor of the first target struck. Sion's roar is so powerful
that, if he roars at a minion or monster, he sends his victim flying back even farther
than the ability's initial cast range. It turns into a little missile as it flies along
its path, dealing increased damage and applying a heavier slow to everything it strikes...
except for walls. Minions can't go through walls.
Use Roar of the Slayer to poke your opponents from range. It's especially useful for helping
your allies land follow up abilities.
Sion's ultimate is Unstoppable Onslaught. Once started, Sion begins charging in a target
direction, gradually speeding up as he moves. If he collides with an enemy champion or terrain,
he slams the ground, damaging and knocking up enemies immediately around him, while only
slowing enemies farther away.
Unstoppable Onslaught has an incredibly long range, and though you can't precisely steer
Sion as he charges, he does his best to follow your cursor. While charging, Sion knocks aside
minions and shrugs off any attempts to slow or stop him. If Sion reaches the end of his
charge or reactivates the ability early, he'll slam the ground, offering the same damage,
knockup, and slow as if he hit a champion. Finally, subtlety is not really Sion's forte.
Everyone knows when Sion ults thanks to the sound of him of him charging,
which all players can hear.
Use Unstoppable Onslaught to initiate teamfights! With good timing and positioning, Sion can
demolish the enemy team with his charge.
Though Sion's abilities are powerful in their own right, they're absolutely brutal
when used together. Here are a couple of combos to help you power your way through the ranks.
Whenever you're going in to trade, start by slowing your target with E, activating
your shield as you get in position to charge up Decimating Smash. You should have time
to get the wind-up at least half charged before they're out of range. At this point, Soul
Furnace should be ready to detonate as you close in for more attacks.
This is Sion's bread and butter combo for dueling. If you have all of your abilities up,
you should probably cast them in this order.
Here's a combo for initiating teamfights on groups of enemies. Start with your ultimate,
activating Soul Furnace as you start ramping up your speed. Immediately after you crash
into the enemy team, you'll knock them up briefly, giving you time to charge your
Q as you detonate your shield. Finally, save E to slow any escaping cowards for the killing blow.
Sion is a lane-pushing jerk. Q and W are your primary abilities for quickly clearing minion
waves and conveniently trading with your opponent in the process. Use the laning phase to farm
up health from Soul Furnace's passive to scale better into the late game.
When jungling, start each camp with a fully charged Q, activating Soul Furnace simultaneously.
Make sure to reactivate Soul Furnace just before the shield breaks to damage the whole
camp and take as little damage as possible.
While most of Sion's gank power comes from his ultimate, early ganks can work if you
have good timing. Spotting Vel'Koz and Kog'Maw near his bot turret, Sion uses Decimating
Smash's broad cone to land a slow on both fleeing targets before slowing Vel'Koz again
with Roar of the Slayer. Ultimately, Sion's repeated slows help his bot lane buddies catch
up to and butcher their void enemies.
Unstoppable Onslaught's speed and distance mean that Sion's post-six ganks are most
effective coming through the lane. When planning a gank, make sure your ally is ready to engage
before you charge in. Here, Sion and Malphite team up for a nearly "Unstoppable" gank
to give Veigar the good ol' gray screen. Sionara, Veigar!
On the other hand, if Sion reveals himself too early it could be a grave mistake. Opponents
who are quick on the draw can easily sidestep him.
While Decimating Smash is a hard-hitting knockup on a low cooldown, it's difficult to land
a full channel. It's better to reliably hit your enemies for some damage and a slow
than channel too long and let them Flash, dash or just walk right out of range.
Sion's especially greedy here and misses every Q as a result.
Even though it can go halfway across the map, Unstoppable Onslaught is a great initiation
tool even at close range. After engaging, Sion's goal is to disrupt the high-damage
squishies with his Q and stay alive with Soul Furnace. Note that the confined area of the
jungle makes a perfect battleground for Sion's aoe abilities.
Lategame, Sion's tanky build combined with Soul Furnace's passive health gain means
that hitting him is a wasted effort. Despite not building much damage, Sion's wealth
of crowd control and low cooldowns bring a lot of value to extended fights. When your
ultimate is down, E is your best way to set up your targets. The slow is long enough that
you should be able to follow up with a channeled Decimating Smash to ruin their day.
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