Siege minions, commonly called cannon minions, are durable ranged minions designed to help waves take down enemy turrets. In a normal lane wave, the siege minion spawns between the melee minions and caster minions, acting as the wave’s main long-range damage dealer and a key tool for pushing.
What makes siege minions important
Siege minions matter because they are built for structure pressure. Compared to other minions, they are tougher, have longer range, and interact with turrets differently than standard minions. Protecting your siege minion often makes it easier to chip turret plates early and eventually finish structures later.
Damage rules and turret focus
Minions follow general damage rules against structures and champions, but siege minions have a special exception:
- Minions deal 60% damage to structures and champions
- Siege minions deal 84% damage specifically to turrets
This is why a wave with a living cannon minion can threaten a turret much more than a normal wave.
Scaling and upgrades over time
Minions upgrade every 90 seconds. Siege minions scale with these upgrades and can gain:
- increased health
- increased attack damage
- increased gold bounty
This is also why siege waves become increasingly valuable as the match goes on and why late-game pushing generally becomes easier.
From your notes, siege minion base scaling includes:
- Health: 835 to 5850 (based on upgrades)
- Attack damage: 37.5 to 126 (based on upgrades), with +4 instead at wave 15+
- Attack speed: 1.00
- Attack range: 300
- Armor: 0
- Magic resist: 0
- Gold bounty: 50 + 1 every upgrade
- EXP: 75 to 16.27 depending on champion sharing
Special effects (Anti-Tower Socks)
Siege minions have a built-in effect described by the cosmetic item Anti-Tower Socks, which includes two unique combat rules:
Reinforced Armor
Turret basic attacks deal a percentage of the siege minion’s maximum health as pre-mitigation damage:
- 14% / 11% / 8% depending on turret type
Minion Slayer
Against lane minions, the siege minion deals bonus on-hit physical damage equal to 6% of the target’s current health.
These effects help siege minions stay relevant as waves grow stronger and keep them effective at both pushing and clearing opposing minions.
Summoner’s Rift specific mechanic (mid lane)
On Classic Summoner’s Rift, siege minions spawned in mid lane gain a special bonus:
- 30% bonus attack speed while attacking turrets
This bonus turns on after the siege minion hits a turret and turns off once it hits a non-turret unit again.
ARAM differences
In ARAM, siege minions behave differently:
- They spawn every two waves, starting with the third wave
- Base health is 828
- Health growth is 23 / 32 based on wave
- Gold bounty is 45 (+ 0.35 per 90 seconds)
Quick takeaway
Siege minions are the wave’s turret breaker. They spawn in standard waves as the durable ranged unit placed between melee and casters, they scale over time with 90-second upgrades, and they uniquely deal increased damage to turrets. If you want to push effectively, keeping your cannon minion alive is one of the simplest ways to turn a wave into real structure pressure.
