With the coming of the new season and the time having passed for many people to get reacquainted with the new champions, a new meta has slowly but surely been identified once more and people are starting to play around it. The cycle of buffs and nerfs continues and, for many, a lot of previously untouched champions and build routes are starting to resurface as viable. I, for one, have had lots of fun playing a few things out in the botlane, and today I want to share with you some insight on a botlane that I've been very successful on so far- Varus ADC and Sion support. So yes, this one's for all of the botlane duos out there struggling to find something to play or just winning games in general.

Let's jump into it.

"So a darkin and a juggernaut walk into a bar..." - No one, ever

Strengths

• Fantastic poke and trading power
• Extremely lane dominant and brutally oppressive when ahead
• Solid engage, disengage, and high crowd control
• (Varus) Can play the lategame hyper carry role or stay far back and pick off targets depending on the itemization (crit or lethality)
• (Sion) Can serve as the team peel or the team engage
• (Sion) Gets EXTREMELY tanky.
• Both have solid laughs that can be spammed in lane

Weaknesses

• Low mobility
• (Varus) Needs time for item to scale in if running a crit build
• (Varus) Has difficulty coming back from behind (if running lethality)
• No sustain outside of Relic Shield
• Very mana hungry until first back (if running lethality on Varus)
• Very susceptible to early game ganks and targeted gap closers (think: Vi, Maokai, Akali)
• Soraka

Rageblade/Critical Strike/On-Hit Varus Builds

Lethality Varus

Sion

Runes and Itemization

If you're running Lethality Varus, you're going to want to start off basically every game with Doran's Blade and look to get Tear of the Goddess as soon as possible. From there, you normally go Youmuu's Ghostblade, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Duskblade of Draktharr, the appropriate Last Whisper item (Lord Dominik's Regard if they're tanky, Mortal Reminder if they have lots of healing), and Guardian Angel. Prioritize CDR over damage early when deciding when to upgrade your Tear into Manamune, as this is normally how you'll win against other poke lanes before Sion has his engage and is tanky enough.

For the Rageblade variant, your core build would be Guinsoo's Rageblade, Runaan's Hurricane, and Wit's End. From here you can build either Blade of the Ruined King, the appropriate Last Whisper item, or even Infinity Edge if you're that far ahead. Ninja Tabi are really strong here, but Berserker's Greaves are also an option.

For crit, your core build would be one of these routes depending on whether you wanted to emphasize tank busting, raw damage and targetability, and cooldown reduction:

• Blade of the Ruined King, Statikk Shiv,
• Infinity Edge, Runaan's Hurricane, Statikk Shiv
• Essence Reaver, Statikk Shiv/Runaan's Hurricane, Infinity Edge

Sion's build typically remains static in theme - Sightstone into tank and support items. Knight's Vow, Locket of the Iron Solari, Randuin's Omen, Gargoyle's Stoneplate, Thornmail, and Adaptive Helm or Spirit Visage are typically your best friends. Guardian Angel also works if you want to put a little pop in your punches.

Conclusion

While unlikely in lore, this combination can be pretty fierce together, especially when played alongside a duo that you have previous experience with. Depending on the route you take with Varus, your mileage may vary, but overall this is a solid combination that can touch on all of the things that you look for in a strong laning presence and teamfighting ability.

So try it out! Let me know what you guys think. I'm always looking for feedback and success stories. As always, best of luck on the rift out there. I wish you the best.

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