How to Play/Counter Sion

I do it...what is it?!

Even with the recent nerfs to Sion's AP ratios, he's still a beastly mid laner. Banning him is generally a good idea unless by chance you get to first pick him instead. He's only got two real skills, his stun and his shield that can blow up after a short wait if it doesn't get bursted down first.

So how do you play him? His runes and masteries should be built like any other AP caster. Max his shield and his stun first, getting one level of his passive at level 4. His ult is a matter of preference, since it's not terribly useful until you get Lichbane. As for his items, Deathcap, Lichbane, and Void Staff naturally are best on him being a burst caster. But strangely enough, Boots of Mobility are a must on him. It allows him the ability to gank top and mid whenever he wants by blowing up his midwave creeps instantly with his shield and running top speed over to other lanes to gank, which is one of the main reasons he's considered OP.

Boots of Mobility also lets Sion close the gap to stun his mid-lane partner, since he needs to get up close and personal to land his shield nuke.

How to Counter/What to watch out for

Sion's main way of farming early game will be to use his shield to soak damage while he last hits. If he puts on his shield, he can take almost any mid laner's harass with no sustained damage, and if the opponent gets to close, he can blow up his shield to deal damage.

But he still only has two moves

What does this mean? It means that once he blows his shield, over half his damage will be negated. Also, during the cooldown of his shield, he can't shield himself from damage. This means that once Sion blows up his shield he's a sitting duck for burst heroes like Leblanc or Kassadin. 

For Sion players, running away as soon as you blow up your shield is crucial to your survival, and to the enemy, jumping on him as soon as his shield blows is also crucial. Remember that even if Sion only has 1 white bar of shield left, he'll still deal full damage.

Late game, it's beneficial to either get Banshee Veil or simply focus down Sion's shield with AOEs and a few autoattacks, which takes the majority of his damage out of the equation. However, if your team can't coordinate enough and your melee end up taking down half Sion's shield before it explodes, you'll WILL lose the teamfight.


It's because of this necessary coordination that makes Sion so deadly in Solo Que where it's hard to coordinate 5 people at once. Elaboration: Your melee end up spending their time trying to destroy a shield instead of killing squishies, and then take massive AOE damage. If you're playing melee and your team isn't coordinating, it's better to aim for backrow squishies since then you won't eat Sion's shield, and at least get rid of the enemy AD carry...hopefully.

Conclusion: 

• Sion is a very powerful force as a result of his ability to blow up entire creep waves and also has a very short cooldown on his stun. 
• His shield makes it easy for him to farm early game and get powerful.
• Boots of Mobility make him an extremely strong ganker
• His shield will be a massive turning point in any fight, if it goes down, he'll do no damage, if it explodes, the enemy team is dead.