How to win lane as Sion against Maokai · 51.31% win rate (1,144 Emerald+ games, lolalytics, sampled July 2026) · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Dodge his root — charged Q stun, out-scale him.
Track: Maokai's W — Twisted Advance (14–10s cooldown). His lock-on root. Dodge it.
Read from Sion's seat: which stage windows this plan plays for against Maokai.
This is Sion's own plan; across 1,144 pooled games the lane is leaning Sion.
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | Both of you arrive at level 1 with one ability — neither has a clear advantage without landing a skillshot first. Charged Q in the open is telegraph-able and his Q knockback can interrupt it. |
| Level 2 | Maokai | Twisted Advance locks on from 525 and he is untargetable while it travels, so burst spent into it lands on nothing and you end up rooted — that is the whole short trade, on a 14s cooldown. |
| Level 3 | Maokai | With all three basic abilities online, Maokai can root you, reposition with saplings, and knock you back out of melee whenever you try to hold a charge — he dictates every trade direction. |
| Levels 4-5 | Maokai | Sapling Toss is 18s at rank 1, so it is placement rather than spam — but Bramble Smash punts you out of a charge every 7s, and Sap Magic's cooldown drops each time he casts or is struck by a spell, so your poke feeds his regen. |
| Level 6 | Maokai | His R (Nature's Grasp) adds a lane-width root wave on top of his existing lockdown toolkit; engaging into that root wave mid-charge Q is a death sentence at this stage. |
| First item | Maokai | His sapling AP sustain, root, and knock-back have been consistent all game and his item spike keeps that trade pattern intact — your Heartsteel HP is growing but not yet dominant enough to brawl through it. |
| Two+ items | Even / skill | At full HP stacking your W-shield absorbs most of a sapling burst and your zombie passive still costs him HP after the kill — both of you are equally dangerous in a sustained brawl, returning this to a genuine skill matchup. |
Levels 1-3 are Maokai's window — his W root locks you in place before you have the feel for W-shield timing, and a rooted Sion standing inside three saplings takes a brutal burst of AP damage. The key habit here is pre-charging your Q from brush or fog-of-war so you arrive at close range with the stun already loaded; do NOT start a charge in the open or his Q knockback (Bramble Smash) will punt you out of it the moment the animation appears. If you get rooted, throw up W immediately to eat the sapling hits, then detonate it for return damage — you will not out-damage him without it.
Pooled Emerald+ win rates from Sion's side, sampled July 2026.
The full Sion vs Maokai 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 51.31% win rate edge over 1,144 games; execution can flip it.
Mostly — Sion has a small statistical edge (51.31% win rate), but execution decides this lane far more than the pick does.
Not a hard counter — Sion has a slight edge (51.31% 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 Maokai.
Start Doran's Shield + Health Potion and back for Executioner's Calling (≈800g) — cuts his healing. Build Heartsteel (W + passive love HP) first, then Warmog's Armor / Thornmail, with Mercury's Treads.
Playing the other side? Maokai vs Sion guide →
All Sion top lane matchups →
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