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Sion Counters: Who Beats Sion

Updated for patch 26.21. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch.

Sion counters are top laners who turn his size against him: champions with percent-Health damage, stat theft or true damage, and duelists who can parry or dodge the charged Decimating Smash. Sion is a 175 range tank who stacks maximum Health from kills with Soul Furnace. Big Health bars are a target, not a wall, for the right pick.

The five picks below come from reading kits side by side. No win-rate figures were used.

Sion counters: Sion, the Undead Juggernaut, splash art

Why is Sion hard to counter?

  • Glory in Death (passive): after he dies, he reanimates for a short time with decaying Health, fast attacks that heal him and bonus damage based on maximum Health.
  • Decimating Smash (Q): a charged swing in front of him; charged long enough, it knocks up and stuns. Cooldown 10/9/8/7/6.
  • Soul Furnace (W): a shield that can be detonated after 3 seconds for magic damage; kills passively grant maximum Health. Cooldown 15/14/13/12/11.
  • Roar of the Slayer (E): a short shockwave that damages, slows and lowers Armor; a minion or monster it hits is knocked back through enemies. Cooldown 12/11/10/9/8.
  • Unstoppable Onslaught (R): a long, steerable charge that knocks up based on how far he travelled. Cooldown 140/100/60.

Sion’s laning is slow and patient. He farms, takes every last hit he can for Soul Furnace’s Health stacks, and waits for a fully charged Decimating Smash to land. Roar of the Slayer softens your Armor first. By mid game he’s enormous, and even killing him doesn’t end the fight: Glory in Death brings him back for a few seconds of max-Health hits. Sounds rough? The flip side is that every one of those tools is slow, telegraphed or both.

Which champions are the best Sion counters?

Trundle

The troll’s ultimate, Subjugate, rips away part of Sion’s Health, Armor and Magic Resist on cast, then doubles the theft over the next 4 seconds. Against a Sion who has spent twenty minutes stacking Health, that’s the biggest steal in the game. Chomp (Q) slows him and saps his Attack Damage for the trade, Frozen Domain (W) boosts Trundle’s Attack Speed and healing while he stands on it, and Pillar of Ice (E) drops impassable terrain that can block Unstoppable Onslaught’s path (or at least slow everyone around it). King’s Tribute (passive) heals Trundle when enemy units die near him. Honestly, few tanks hate a champion more than Sion hates this troll.

Gwen

A Thousand Cuts (passive) adds magic damage based on the target’s health, and Gwen heals off it against champions, so a bigger Sion is a juicier target. Snip Snip! (Q) deals true damage to anyone caught in the centre of the cone. Hallowed Mist (W) is the clever part: she can only be targeted by enemies who walk into the mist, which makes a long Decimating Smash windup awkward to aim. Skip ‘n Slash (E) dashes and boosts her attacks, and Needlework (R) slows from range with up to three casts.

Kayle

Kayle loses the early lane and wins the long one. Divine Ascent (passive) grows her Attack Speed, Move Speed, Attack Range and fire waves as she levels, so she eventually attacks from well outside the swing. Radiant Blast (Q) slows and lowers resistances. Starfire Spellblade (E) adds magic damage passively and, when activated, smites for damage that grows with missing health. The real answer to Unstoppable Onslaught, though, is Divine Judgment (R): Kayle makes an ally (or herself) invulnerable while swords rain down. Celestial Blessing (W) gives her and the nearest ally a heal and Move Speed to walk away.

Fiora

A fully charged Decimating Smash takes time to wind up, and Fiora’s Riposte (W) parries all damage and disables for a short window. Block the stun and her counter-stab stuns Sion back. Duelist’s Dance (passive) marks a weak point on him, and striking it restores her Health and adds Move Speed, which keeps her trading into a tank who can’t run. Lunge (Q) and Bladework (E) are her quick damage. Grand Challenge (R) exposes four weak points at once, and clearing them heals Fiora and nearby allies. The catch is the timing, because a Riposte wasted on Roar of the Slayer leaves the Smash free.

Darius

Darius doesn’t care how much Armor Sion buys. Apprehend (E) passively lets his physical damage ignore a percentage of the target’s Armor, and when activated it hooks Sion in. Hemorrhage (passive) stacks a bleed up to five times, and at full stacks Darius enrages for massive Attack Damage. Every champion caught on the blade of Decimate (Q) heals him. Crippling Strike (W) slows. Then Noxian Guillotine (R) deals true damage that rises per Hemorrhage stack, which skips Sion’s resistances entirely, and a kill refreshes the cooldown for a brief window. In practice, that refresh matters when Glory in Death brings Sion back for another round.

How do you play the lane against Sion?

  • Watch the windup. Decimating Smash only stuns when fully charged, so stepping out of the cone in time leaves him with a plain swing.
  • Deny his farm. Soul Furnace grants maximum Health for every kill, minions included.
  • Don’t stand behind minions near him. Roar of the Slayer knocks a minion back through you with damage, a slow and lowered Armor.
  • Back off when he dies. Glory in Death brings him back with rapid, healing attacks, so wait out the decaying Health.
  • Track his ultimate. Unstoppable Onslaught is on a 140 second cooldown at rank 1, and his ganks in other lanes follow it.

Which items counter Sion?

Health-heavy targets call for percent damage. Lord Dominik’s Regards deals up to 15% bonus damage against champions based on their bonus Health (full value at 1500 bonus Health, which Sion reaches), with 35% Armor Penetration on top. Executioner’s Calling, at 800 gold, applies 40% Wounds whenever physical damage hits, which cuts the healing in Glory in Death. Is Armor worth it? Sure. Plated Steelcaps help, since his damage is mostly physical attacks and swings. Mercury’s Treads trim the Decimating Smash stun with 30% Tenacity. Full stats are in our LoL items database, or open Lord Dominik’s Regards on its own page.

When is Sion at his weakest?

Early, before the Health stacks pile up. A level 1 Sion has the same small Health bar as anyone else, and Decimating Smash needs a long charge to stun. Kill threat in the first few waves also costs him farm, and farm is how Soul Furnace scales.

His ultimate is the other gap. With 140 seconds of cooldown at rank 1, a Sion who used Unstoppable Onslaught to gank mid has no engage for a long while (well, apart from the Smash). That’s when to force fights top.

Not sure what the top role asks of you? To be fair, plenty of players aren’t, and the guide to LoL roles sums up the solo lane, its jobs and its usual champions in a few minutes of reading. Sion’s cosmetics are listed on the Sion skins page, and the Howling Abyss version of him lives in the Sion ARAM guide. Put simply, Sion counters punish his Health, step out of the charged swing, and fight him early before the stacks get silly.

FAQ

Who counters Sion the most?

Trundle, whose Subjugate steals Health and resistances; Gwen, whose passive scales with target health; Kayle, who outranges him late; Fiora, who can parry the Decimating Smash stun; and Darius, whose Noxian Guillotine deals true damage.

When does Decimating Smash stun?

Only when Sion charges it long enough. A shorter charge deals damage without the knock-up and stun. Its cooldown is 10/9/8/7/6 seconds.

What happens when Sion dies?

Glory in Death reanimates him for a short time with rapidly decaying Health. His attacks become very fast, heal him and deal bonus damage based on maximum Health.

How does Sion get so much Health?

Soul Furnace passively grants him maximum Health whenever he kills enemies, including minions.

How were these Sion counters selected?

By comparing his patch 26.21 kit with each top laner’s abilities. We did not use win-rate data.