Talk:Sion/Strategy/@comment-5586849-20131108194259/@comment-20434720-20140201040048

Your build leaves armor pen to the last item, has a mere +40 in each resistance, and spends a space and a lot of gold on health that he should be stacking for free anyway. This is a recipe for BotRK and Liandry's to tear you apart (or a Kogmaw, for that matter. Or a varus. Or a vayne... or... well... elise... or... mundo.. or pretty much anyone with %health damage)(although I realize you do address this with your last situational item).

You're also missing stickiness, and assuming that the enemy support / jungler / anyone is doing their job, you're not getting close to the enemy damage dealers even if you have ghost. And given that you don't have many resistances, who's to say you can even 1v1 the enemy top laner? You're assuming that a champion with 100 mana cost on his primary harass ability and a 240 mana pool at level 1 is going to win lane? Perhaps you simply play against bad opponents.

But at least you're willing to try non-meta stuff. I think that concludes my criticisms, which, looking back, were probably largely unwarranted. I suppose I should give you a shot at my proposed build:

Iceborne gauntlet, Merc treads, Atma's Impaler, Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper, Ravenous Hydra.

Alternatively, if the enemy team has multiple AP threats,

Triforce, Merc treads, Atma's Impaler, Last whisper, Ravenous Hydra, Guardian Angel (could also be a wit's end, perhaps).

Both builds include penetration, sustain, the AOE lifesteal from Ravenous which has such huge synergy with the ult, armor, MR, crit, attackspeed, mana, sheen procs, and of course much-needed stickiness. You'll notice that with the exception of triforce, there are no health items in these builds. The reasoning should be pretty clear - your survivability comes from farmed health, resistances, and lifesteal.

One final note: In theory, Sion can outscale a Nasus who runs a normal build, simply because Sion can get thornmail and tank Nasus Qs for days while Nasus kills himself (if said Nasus got LW and BT, however, it would be very much in his favor).