How to win lane as Sion against Gangplank · 53.59% win rate (4,284 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Tank the barrels under tower, Q-charge him off the wave, and your knockup + tankiness out-trade his squishy early before he scales.
Track: Gangplank's E — Powder Keg. Pop barrels to deny poke + gold.
Read from Sion's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Gangplank.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Sion | His barrel poke is weak before he stacks gold and your W-shield blankets the damage — walk up, take a hit on the shield, and start charging Q while he has no escape tool to dodge it. |
| Level 2 | Sion | W-shield absorbs his follow-up barrel chain and your E comes online — bait his Remove Scurvy heal, then E slow into charged Q for the first real trade win. |
| Level 3 | Sion | All three abilities are live: E shreds armor and slows, charged Q knocks him up with no dash to dodge, and W-shield eats his counter-poke — he cannot win this window without his W up. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | His barrels crit harder now and Remove Scurvy purges your E slow on demand, making your full combo unreliable — farm safely and only commit when you see his W go on cooldown. |
| Level 6 | Gangplank | Cannon Barrage goes global: he backs safely, pokes from barrel range, and uses W to cleanse any attempted lockdown — he dictates the pace and you cannot R-engage without walking into barrels. |
| First item | Gangplank | His first crit item means barrels genuinely threaten your HP even through the shield, and Remove Scurvy keeps him safe from every E-slow attempt — respect his range and wait for his W cooldown. |
| Two+ items | Sion | Your Heartsteel HP stack makes your W-shield a massive burst of magic damage and your zombie passive guarantees trading value even if he kills you — force melee range with R and brawl where his barrels cannot help him. |
Your W-shield eats his entire barrel-chain combo early — barrel damage at levels 1-3 is low enough that one detonation barely dents a fresh Sion shield. Walk forward when he places a barrel, take the poke on the shield, and start charging Q while he repositions. He has no dash, so a fully charged Q at level 1 is a free knockup-into-auto if he misreads your wind-up. At level 2 your E slows him through his W cooldown window — if his Remove Scurvy is on cooldown from a recent heal, walk in, E to shred armor and apply slow, and follow with charged Q. The pattern is: bait his W first, then commit the combo.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Sion's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Sion vs Gangplank report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Sion, slightly — a 53.59% win rate edge over 4,284 games; execution can flip it.
Mostly — Sion has a small statistical edge (53.59% win rate), but execution decides this lane far more than the pick does.
Not a hard counter — Sion has a slight edge (53.59% win rate), and play quality decides the rest.
Sion takes Grasp of the Undying on the Resolve tree with Demolish, Second Wind and Overgrowth, and Precision secondary (Triumph and Legend: Haste) vs Gangplank.
Start Doran's Shield + Health Potion and back for Core component + boots (≈1300g). Build Heartsteel (W + passive love HP) first, then Warmog's Armor / Thornmail, with Plated Steelcaps.
Playing the other side? Gangplank vs Sion guide →
All Sion top lane matchups →
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