Sion

Read this carefully: this is not the modern Sion. No map-wide charge, no undead second life. What you get is a melee fighter built on two buttons: Cryptic Gaze, a targeted stun that never misses because it never has to be aimed, and Death's Caress, a shield that soaks damage and then explodes onto everything around him.

Around those sit two very old mechanics. Enrage is a toggle that trades your health for attack damage and permanently grows your health pool every time you land the killing blow on a unit yourself. Cannibalism returns health on every attack you make, and heals nearby allies too. It's a support ultimate bolted onto a melee bruiser, and that's exactly what makes the kit as strange as it is playable.

The stun is his best card: targeted, so dashes and blinks don't dodge it. An opponent who relies on a leap to avoid skillshots has no answer to a spell that simply names him. Chain it into the shield detonation and you get a burst that kills squishy targets far earlier than anyone expects. Feel No Pain also eats a share of small repeated hits, which makes enemy poke less profitable than it looks on paper.

Then there's everything else. Sion is slow, has no escape and no gap closer: any ranged opponent who refuses the melee exchange turns him into a spectator. Cryptic Gaze costs a fortune in mana and leaves him empty after two casts. His shield has to survive to explode on time, which makes his burst predictable. And Enrage bills him health on every swing, so leaving it on without thinking is an excellent way to die to a minion wave.

Max Death's Caress first: it's your protection against poke, your wave push and your damage all at once. The rhythm never changes. Shield up, walk forward under it, detonate on contact, walk back. Never stand in front of your opponent waiting for it to pop on its own.

Hold Cryptic Gaze to finish or to survive, never to harass: the cost alone takes your next spell away. Put an early point in Enrage and leave it switched off most of the time. You only flip it on to take a minion whose permanent health you want, or for a trade you know you'll win on swings. Every last hit you take yourself with Enrage active is an investment that pays for the rest of the game.

The first spike is the level where stun into shield detonation comes online. From there you stop poking and start naming targets: an enemy carry who lets you reach stun range inside that window is already dead.

The second is Cannibalism, which changes your job in a grouped fight. Your front line becomes very hard to grind down, because every swing you take repairs the allies standing next to you. The third spike is your first large ability power item: the Death's Caress detonation scales hard on ratios, and early magic penetration stops your one real damage source from bouncing off the first magic resist item they buy.

You don't get to choose where the fight starts, so make sure you're already standing in the right place. Put the shield up before contact, never during: you need the explosion to land at the moment you're surrounded. Save the stun for one job, the enemy threatening your carry, because it's targeted crowd control no movement ability can dodge.

In a long fight, flip Cannibalism on from the first exchange and stay glued to one target rather than chasing several: the area heal does nothing if you aren't attacking. Enrage is judged purely on your health bar. It pays when you're hitting things that don't hit back, it kills you when you're already low and surrounded. Know when to switch it off.