AP Sion Mid in League Classic

Chapter 01

This is the current Classic shield-and-stun Sion

Riot names AP Sion mid as part of the League Classic experience. This build uses targeted Cryptic Gaze and the old Death's Caress shield/detonation, not modern Sion's charged smash, Soul Furnace health passive or global ultimate. Classic is a greatest-hits interpretation rather than one frozen historical patch, so Patch 26.19 JADE data controls the mechanics here.

Chapter 02

The 30-second setup

The documented mid template takes Flash and Ignite, starts Doran's Ring plus two potions, and opens W, Q, W, E, W, R. Max W > Q > E and take the conventional ultimate ranks at 6, 11 and 16. W-first is the better-supported default for shield strength and waveclear; some specialist pages level W and Q in parallel or delay R, but those are branches rather than hidden universal rules.

• Doran plus two Health Potions, one of each potion, or two Mana Potions all cost 470g.
• Mobility Boots spend wave control on roams; Sorcerer's Shoes spend it on direct burst.
• AP Sion is an early/mid tempo pick, not evidence of a guaranteed matchup or late-game tier.

Chapter 03

Cryptic Gaze removes the aim check, not every answer

Cryptic Gaze is a 550-range targeted projectile that travels at 1600 speed. It costs 100 mana at every rank, deals 70/125/180/240/300 (+90% AP) magic damage, stuns for 1.5 seconds and has a 12/11/10/9/8-second cooldown. Sion does not aim a line skillshot, but the projectile is neither instant nor proof that every post-cast visibility, untargetability or spell-shield interaction is bypassed.

• Use Q to hold a target only after Death's Caress is already armed; a fresh shield cannot be manually popped during a 1.5-second stun.
• The base Q plus rank-one W rotation costs 170 mana before any ultimate or repeated cast.
• Current static data does not expose a complete projectile-invalidation matrix, so the guide does not call Q unmissable.

Chapter 04

Death's Caress runs on a four-second clock

Death's Caress grants a 100/150/200/250/300 (+90% AP) shield and can deal the same base damage and AP ratio around Sion. The shield must survive: if opponents break it, the explosion is lost. Manual detonation unlocks only after four seconds; otherwise the shield explodes after ten seconds. That timing makes W a preloaded threat, not a panic nuke pressed after Sion reaches the target.

• Cast W outside immediate danger and use the arming window to approach or finish the wave.
• Even a nearly depleted surviving shield can still unlock the full listed detonation; a destroyed shield cannot.
• The current static record does not establish when W's eight-second cooldown starts, so this guide does not print a cycle time inferred from duration alone.

Chapter 05

The real burst order starts before contact

The complete pick sequence is W pre-arm for at least four seconds, enter range, activate Deathfire Grasp, cast Q, then detonate W while the shield still exists. DFG deals 15% of the target champion's maximum Health as magic damage and amplifies subsequent magic damage by 20% for four seconds; its own opening damage is not subsequent and therefore is not described as self-amplified.

• DFG belongs before Q and W, never after the two spells have already landed.
• Ignite is true damage and is not presented as DFG-amplified magic damage.
• If the shield breaks or the target leaves reach, abandon the scripted combo instead of walking farther into return damage.

Chapter 06

E and R support AP Sion without adding AP burst

Enrage is a zero-mana toggle that grants 25/35/45/55/65 Attack Damage, costs 6/8/10/12/14 Health per basic attack and permanently adds maximum Health on kills. Cannibalism costs 100 mana and grants 20 seconds of Lifesteal, 50% Attack Speed and allied healing from Sion's basic attacks. Neither spell has an AP ratio, so their job is last-hit growth, sustain and an optional Lich Bane auto window rather than a third spell nuke.

• A level-four E point begins Health stacking and improves last hits without delaying the first three W ranks.
• The baseline takes one R rank at level 6 for sustain; delaying it for another damage rank is a documented creator branch, not a mechanic requirement.
• Do not keep Enrage active through unnecessary autos when its Health cost is the resource you are trying to preserve.

Chapter 07

The specialist page is 21/0/9 with Health and scaling CDR

The sourced AP Sion page uses nine Magic Penetration Marks, nine flat Health Seals, nine scaling Cooldown Reduction Glyphs and three flat AP Quintessences: +9 Magic Penetration, +72 Health, +0.9% CDR per level and +15 AP. Its legal 21/0/9 mastery page favors offense plus movement, Flash cooldown, recall speed and item-active cooldown instead of pretending the older reconstructed 21/9/0 Katarina page was Sion evidence.

• Scaling CDR reaches 16.2% at level 18; check it together with DFG and other CDR purchases against the 40% cap.
• Health Seals are the sourced baseline, while Armor or other defensive pages remain matchup choices rather than invalid pages.
• Patch 26.16 fixed Spellsword's 5% AP magic damage on basic attacks so the mastery now scales as described.

Chapter 08

Choose items by the job, not one six-slot screenshot

Current specialist material disagrees on one rigid first core. DFG creates the amplified pick window; Mejai is a snowball purchase only when roams are already converting; Deathcap raises both the shield and detonation; Lich Bane adds a next-basic-attack follow-up after enough AP. Phantom Dancer has no AP and no specialist support as a standard AP slot, so it is not in this build.

• Mobility Boots: trade direct damage for out-of-combat side-lane access.
• Sorcerer's Shoes: keep more magic penetration in the immediate rotation.
• Void Staff: answer visible Magic Resist. Zhonya: survive focus. Abyssal: close-range MR branch. Morello: CDR, regeneration and conditional anti-heal.

Chapter 09

Spend each cleared wave on a real action

Death's Caress is Sion's only area waveclear spell, and every detonation also changes the wave. Pre-arm it before entering the minions, preserve enough shield to clear, then decide whether the opening buys a recall, river ward, side-lane move or pressure on the next wave. Q is too expensive to throw into routine poke without a target, wave or roam payoff, especially before Doran last hits and recalls stabilize mana.

• A shield used only to trade can accidentally push; know whether you want the crash before detonating in the wave.
• Mobility Boots activate after five seconds out of combat, so taking return damage can erase the reason you bought them.
• Roam through known vision or with a warded route; 550 targeted range is setup, not permission to facecheck.

Chapter 10

In fights, hit the reachable target and then leave

AP Sion has no dash and must carry an intact shield into 550 range. Do not force a backline walk when a nearer target can be stunned and detonated safely. After Q and W, step out until the next spell window unless Cannibalism, Lich Bane and the actual fight state justify autos. Zhonya can answer return damage, but current static data does not prove how an armed W behaves through stasis, so no automatic shield-stasis combo is promised.

• Opponents answer AP Sion by spacing beyond 550, breaking W before four seconds, forcing mana, buying Magic Resist and tracking his roam route.
• Targeted does not mean unstoppable: spell shields, untargetability and visibility changes require current-runtime verification after Q is cast.
• Abyssal and Void solve resistance in different positions; one close-range aura is not a substitute for percentage penetration in every game.

Chapter 11

Patch 26.16 changed the surroundings, not Sion's spell values

A direct comparison of the 16.15 and 16.16 JADE Sion records found no relevant P/Q/W/E/R value change, and the official 26.16 notes contain no Sion-specific entry. Patch 26.17's two Sion entries are tooltip rewordings; the values are unchanged. The patch did fix Spellsword AP scaling and reduced Classic AP contribution to turret damage from 40% to 20%, so launch videos can overstate both the mastery behavior they experienced and how quickly raw AP converts into structure damage.

• Still unverified in live runtime: W cooldown start, armed W through Zhonya and the complete Q projectile-response matrix.
• The live Lich Bane endpoint does not expose a trustworthy damage formula, so this guide describes the trigger without inventing a ratio.
• Reported Sion visibility, animation and targeted-stun bugs remain player reports, not evergreen mechanics.