Hit or Miss Called Sion Mid – Should You Even Try This?

Sion is a hero that has lived in the shadow of the top lane for the entire duration of its existence. He is one of the tankiest champions in the game and the champion played in the midlane is sort of suspicious for some people. Sion is really hard to kill due to his tankiness and his ability to take care of huge crowds of enemies made him a pretty decent top laner and has been firmly holding his spot in the meta for quite a long time. Keystone Arcane Comet paired with his Roar of the Slayer make him a very strong laner. His innate ability to push lane makes it harder for his opponents to get CS in lane. His ultimate, without ever needs a TP can effectively pressure other lanes as well. Sion Mid, should you even try this? Read all about it.

Thought, you probably know all of that already and have played Sion top lane thousands of times. We have come here today to tell you about the potential of Sion in the mid lane. If a standard player started picking Sion mid, some people would say that they’re just noob. But, the tradition of picking this champion in the midlane started from competitive games. The first individuals to go Sion mid were Sencux and Bdd for their respective teams. That’s how this sort of tradition started and has gotten quite famous over the past few months. Still confused why we think the champion is so good Mid? Stick around and you’ll know as well.

The Might of a Mid Sion

Sion Mid was first started just because the champion is such a good counter to the current meta of mid lanes. Azir and Ryze are two champions that really struggle against a tanky Sion. That’s why pro players pick Sion to go against them these days. In 2018 alone, Sion had a very convincing win rate against both of these heroes. Against Azir mid, Sion has a 66% win rate while 57% against Ryze. Just the fact that these two champions can dominate the lane and Sion counters them so easily is why people are started to forget the top lane with this hero.

Let’s get into why Sion is so good against such dominant early game heroes. The first reason is obviously the fact that the hero is one of the tankiest in the game. It’s really difficult for Azir and Ryze to churn him down. The second reason is that the champion can build Magic Resist really early without hurting his early game build. Due to Magic Resist, the lane pressure that makes these two heroes formidable is completely lost. Azir can’t even trade hits with the hero and there is rarely a scenario where Ryze can get a kill on to Sion. Usually mid Sion against these two Champions almost always makes Banner of Command. The recent patches made this item extremely strong. The item can buff a lane minion pretty decently, hence the reason why Sion is so good early game. The item also grants cooldown reduction and resistance, two things that Sion would always be grateful for.

The buffed minion proves extremely beneficial for Sion. The added damage, health and resistance allow him to further extend his ability to push the lane. The minion is also magic immune, so it is almost impossible for Ryze or Azir to kill it. Sion can shove the lane for hours to come and the other champions are at a deficit because of it. Sion will also be able to solo the tower if no TP rotations come in from other teammates.

Mid Sion typically rushes Abyssal Mask and Mercury Treads just for the magic resistance. Once the champion is able to get both, Ryze and Azir get completely shut down. The only alternative for them is to farm other lanes because they will probably get harassed from the lane the moment they come mid. Sion can just sit there and tank their hits and they would barely be able to tickle the tanky hero.

Another reason why Sion is formidable in the mid lane is his ultimate and ability to take the Summoner Spell Teleport. A good mid lane hero is Galio. Galio is really hot in the meta right now and is a standard pick in the mid lane. There are two reasons for this, his capabilities of forcing every lane and being tanky at the same time. Sion can do this much better. He is enormous as compared to Galio and even though his ultimate doesn’t deal damage fast like Galio’s ultimate, he can still rotate around the map and punish anyone he finds. Sion is also an average damage dealer and he’s the perfect alternative for Galio.

 Countering a Mid Sion

Now that we have explained the power of the champion in the mid lane, we should also explain how to counter it. Sion is a hero that has to consistently win the lane in order to be effective. If he falls behind, there’s a pretty good chance he won’t be able to do anything the whole game. Sion has absolutely no wave clear and if the enemy team decides to group up and take objectives, there’s a chance that you’ll lose the game. If you don’t have a Sivir ADC, your team will slowly keep getting pushed in and start losing dragons, barons and eventually the entire game. With the Banner of Command build that we mentioned earlier, you have to harass your lanes, take out a Baron and use cannon minion to get an early end.

Another reason why Sion mid can’t always work is because of Patch 8.5. Sion had a bug that enabled his E to be slightly less accurate meaning it could hit more stuff. That bug was fixed and now the ability is accurate. Most people would call this a bug fix, but we call this a nerf of sorts. Secondly, Banner of Command was also nerfed so it’s not as powerful with Baron as it was before. This nerf makes ending games early slight difficult than it was before. Warmog’s Armor also got tuned down a bit but the nerf wasn’t all that significant.

The Conclusion

There isn’t one answer to the question “Is Sion Mid OP?” The best way to explain this would be that if it is played well and the champion gets an advantage early game, it is a menace and impossible to deal with. Then, you have to learn how to end the game. Pushing and coordinating with your team is a must if you’re going to win with Sion.

However, if Sion isn’t able to dominate in the early stages of the game, then you’re probably going to lose. There is no way to come back from a major deficit with this hero. He won’t be able to claw his way back into the game if he loses his lane. He’ll just be a scrawny tank that’ll be able to survive hits. But, other than that, in terms of team fighting and damage, he’ll be entirely useless.