There are enough items out there that cover pretty much every stat + MR...getting it isnt an issue. Sure Ryze can be a PITA, when he pops out of a bush and ults you from 3 inches away so it bounces incredibly fast with no chance of reacting...but i've seen characters like Fiddlesticks ult and flash into groups and wipe out entire groups in 3 seconds flat...

Ryze is indeed an incredible pub stomper.

I'm bad, getting that out of the way.

I play Sion, how do I deal with Ryze? He just roots me and roots me I can never get a creep kill off.

OK, OK. I hear about these mystical "high tier" games all the time, but where are they? You mean summoner level 30 matchups? Because I'm level 30 and get matched with 30s, and I get plenty of crappy teammates. I also see plenty of Ryze, thought I did see him more at lower levels (and Ashe, and Jax).

Is there some kind of secret society of practice games going on that I should be joining? A lot of people in a lot of threads talk about how things are different "when you get to the big leagues, junior," but I'm in the biggest league I know of and people still suck routinely (including me, sometimes).

The same way any character with a decent health pool does - stack MR. Sion has it even easier than most thanks to his passive - most good MR effects also add hp/mana and that means no matter what Sion is getting a nice chunk of HP boost.

Guardian Angel is an excellent buy, always. It gives no HP so is a better later than earlier buy but all the components are very cheap and very effective so buy them slowly. Start with the MR, of course.

Banshee's Veil is pure excellence, netting you 500 hp, 400 mana (+100 more hp), 60 MR and forces Ryze to burn a nuke or Rune Prison to bypass the Veil's "block a spell" effect. It's costly at about 2700 gold though - you'll want to get the Ruby Crystal (+200 hp) and Negatron Cloak (+50 MR) first most likely, then build up the rest.

If no one else has it a Legion is a nice buy, aura effect 35AR/40MR/+8 damage and +235 hp. Not epic, but a nice range of attributes that a tank benefits from all of and it's almost all on an aura so helps the team.

Alternatively:

If you have a big stack of HP because you have a Warmog's on and are freaking SION you can get a Spirit Visage+Force of Nature and just go 'lulz, REGEN!'

At a measly 1150 gold Spirit Visage is a very common early buy for my tanks in AP heavy lineups. It nets you +35 MR, +25 hp/5 and 12% CD reduction. Very nice for the price and it builds off the 8/hp 5 regen item you can buy at start.

Force of Nature is of course the big cousin that is better in all ways. It also comes with a hefty price of 2690 gold, but it builds from excellent items. Two of the 14 hp/5 items that are very common first buys and a Negatron Cloak. The components are fairly cheap (1690) with the combine itself costing 1000 which is nice since you get the effects of the individual items quickly. At a whopping 80 MR, 40 hp/5, +8% MS and +.35% hp regen per second passive this is an agony for any AP user to see.

Have fun