Sivir Build Guide by PanaC

First and foremost, this guide does not follow the meta, but what is the meta?

See The Pattern?

I play a lot of AD carry, and I agree that for most ranged dps crit is the way to go. When you play Sivir, though, you realize there's something about this champ that doesn't fit in with the other carries.

Her passive and her ult are what mainly set her apart, for me. Fleet of Foot requires her to ignore her short range and get a basic attack off on a champ for 50 movement speed. I suppose this is an ode to her old passive (chance to dodge) which allowed her to be a kiting champ. Her ult, On The Hunt, grants attack speed and movement speed boosts.
When I considered these with her skill Ricochet it became clear to me that Sivir was meant to be quick.

Again, I know crit on ranged dps is the meta. I know it's immensely powerful. I also know that Ricochet can be affected by crit while it can't be affected by lifesteal, which I build. I stand by my build though. If Sivir is doomed to be an unpopular champ ignored by the meta, then why should she follow the meta?

My Choice

This is my preferred mastery build. It's all out damage: Brute Force , Butcher , Demolitionist , Deadliness , Weapon Expertise , Havoc , Sunder , and Executioner .
The remaining masteries I gave to Resistance and Hardiness . Hardiness because you should be laning against an AD carry, but Resistance is debatable. Feel free to relocate it.

Standard Masteries

This is the standard 21-9 mastery build. I don't use this anymore, but it is trusted by most. I just don't feel the defense gained from it is beneficial enough to warrant it over the additional offense.

My Runes

Are you starting to see the pattern? I run almost entirely flat AD. This is to make last hitting as sure as possible. I put the rest into attack speed, and that is obviously my recommendation. However, the percentage is so low that you can feel free to replace it with whatever else may please you.

Alternate Runes

Like the standard masteries, the alternate runes are much safer. I don't use this anymore either. Less recommended, but certainly viable, is to replace the flat ad with armor pen.

To Put It Bluntly,

I run Heal and Flash on all my AD carries.

To Be Fair,

It really is up to you. I'm convinced that Flash is almost mandatory, but your second summoner spell is up for grabs. I run Heal because sometimes either you or your team need that extra second of life to change the game. With Sivir, I suppose Exhaust would be deadly paired up with Summoner's Wrath due to the reduced armor. I think Ghost would be overkill - admittedly, though, it sounds fun. I wouldn't recommend Clarity, as tempting as it may seem early game, because we buy a Nashor's Tooth. Cleanse could be viable, though it can easily be replaced with a Quicksilver Sash.

What This Sivir Needs

Sivir, Y U Need??1

I do not believe these needs are crippling to Sivir. Every champ has a select group they work best with, and I don't think it should affect anyone's opinion of this build that we have requirements as well. This guide is a bit different, and it does not give us outstanding burst damage. In addition, our movement is a bit hampered early game, so we need that CC from support and jungle to properly seize the moment.

Burst AP Carry

This build does give sustained damage, but there is no real burst. I think it's fine though, as I've always seen the role of AD Carries as sustained damage (as opposed to burst). From this stance, it's only common sense we should have an AP Carry with burst, and it's honestly a little difficult to find one who can't do this. With that said, this Sivir won't work great with champs such as Ahri or Vladimir, who don't offer any hard CC, and, much like yourself, offer sustained damage over burst. At the same time, Lux and Orianna, who offer hard CC, but lack the burst, are also less desirable choices. Ryze and Morgana, who are always great picks, would excel with this Sivir. Annie and Veigar also both offer hard CC and burst, but are almost never banned in ranked gameplay. In a future update I may attempt a list of mid choices.

CC Support

Taric, Alistar, Janna, and Blitzcrank are all great choices. I will explain later exactly why they work so well, but to summarize it all in TL;DR-form, their hard CC will stop any failed attempt by enemy AD carries to abuse your lack of movement, and give you a chance for some easy damage/kills.

CC Jungle

As opposed to pure damage jungles such as Shyvana or Gangplank, we want the Pillar of Filth of Trundle, the Omen of Pestilence of Yorick, and a few Infected Clevers/ Undertows from Dr. Mundo/ Olaf. For similar reasons as the support, this CC will let us deal some damage and help, either the team or us, get some kills.

An Absurdly Specific Build

This is entirely too specific. Below I better go over the items, but above is what I would build in a completely perfect game. The key to playing League of Legends, though, is adaptability. You have to decide for yourself what you need to buy at any moment.

Early game

I start with a Doran's Blade to give me the edge in damage and last hitting. Combined with the masteries and runes, we simply out-damage everyone who isn't following the same build.
The early Vampiric Scepter on Sivir gives us lane sustain in both mana ( Spell Shield) and health (life steal).

The reason our last hitting is so important is because we want that early B. F. Sword to secure our damage output while we build all our cooldown reduction and attack speed.

If you absolutely must, you can push back your B. F. Sword for your Boots of Speed. I honestly believe that Fleet of Foot should suffice for any extra movement speed you need until after your B. F. though.

Mid Game

I ideally have The Bloodthirster first, which is kind of counter-intuitive of my earlier statement that we'd be building attack speed and cooldown reduction next, but, as I mentioned, this is in a perfect game. If you're doing extremely well in kills, then, by all means, keep the train rolling and buy your BT.

Zeke's Herald looks to serve you some more sustainability if you can't afford your BT. Pick up your Vampiric Scepter first in that case. Otherwise, grab a Dagger. This can be used for your Zeke's, or you could build it into a Stinger. I do not recommend going for the Kindlegem first in your Zeke's.

Nashor's Tooth is built from your Stinger. It offers you cooldown reduction, attack speed, mana regen (all things we need!) and gives you some AP. "AP on Sivir? You're crazy!" No, not really. Boomerang Blade builds scales .5 off AP. It isn't much, but it's a decent bonus in addition to everything else it offers us.

I didn't put second boots in here. It is my hope and dream that one day everyone will realize you need to build boots situationally. In a perfect game, I'd choose Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Berserker's Greaves are a good choice too, but I really want to go overkill on the cooldown reduction.

Late Game

I'm really not going to put anything here. If you're taking a beating, here's my advice:

Click Defense
Click Tab
Look to see what champs on the other team are fed
If they're AD, click Armor; If they're AP, click Magic Defense
Pick something

If you're winning, I'd recommend another BT. You could really build anything though, who cares, you're fed! Any standard AD item will do ( Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, etc etc).

Regarding Your Doran's Blade

Remember that thing? At this point, in my games, it would still be sitting around in my inventory. I try my best not to sell my Doran items until I've built everything else. Their stats are minimal late game - they don't have much of an affect - but once you sell them you are giving up what you already paid for. If you feel it necessary, you can sell them to build a core item, but I would recommend you resist the urge. You are Sivir, just go farm a wave and a jungle camp real quick. c:

One Last Time, I Repeat

There is no mysterious law that says the item sequence in this build is mandatory. Please, for the sake of everyone on your team and yourself, build your items situationally. If you cannot manage without your early boots, then get them earlier than I recommend. In the section Laning, I will explain why I feel the boots aren't necessary so early, but each player is different and each game is different.

Here We Go!

Very Early Game (Pre-First "B")

No one can compete with your early game damage. With no items, you have ~2 Doran's Blades. Buying your third one puts you absurdly ahead, especially considering that nearly every AD carry builds boots 3 to start the game. Unless you're laning against a hard heal such as Soraka or Taric, the opposing AD Carry will blow through their pots and waste their money without any of the intended sustain. If you're feeling especially risky, put your first point into Boomerang Blade, and zone out the enemy carry. Otherwise, get your hard CC support to go in and pick a target, and go in on them, using your spell shield if you feel at risk of a counter attack. This early advantage can not be overstated. Your enemy will fear another attack, and might just forget Sivir's low range. If they come in for a far CS, punish them. Until you're content to B, continue free farming.

Early Game

Unless my first B is extremely, unbelievably, astoundingly successful (in which I would miraculously build a B. F. Sword first), I buy a Vampiric Scepter, a Sight Ward, and even some Health Potions. As I explained, the Vampiric Scepter gives sustain; I never put all the pressure of Sight Wards on my support, and the Health Potions give me back my sustain in the event of a nasty enemy gank.

Focus on farming. If the enemy support comes up to you, pop a spell shield and punish them. If the enemy AD carry comes to you, get your support to CC them, and punish them. You deal more damage at this point, and the enemy will either realize that or suffer at your might.

Most AD carrys rush their second tier boots, and they almost always build Berserker's Greaves. This does not give them much of an advantage against you though, as your support should make their attack speed pointless, allowing you to outdamage them should they come back in.

Again, it is up to you whether you should go for your boots or your B. F. first.

For early game ganks, either your support or jungle has to initiate. Try to get the CCs to chain. It's your goal to get a basic attack off on one of the enemy champs as quickly as possible to activate Fleet of Foot. If your On The Hunt is somehow up, use it after Fleet of Foot activates to maximize your enhanced movement duration. Toss a Boomerang Blade. Before it returns, you should be able to use a Ricochet'd basic attack. This one does not have to hit the enemy - if they've gone just out of range, settle with a minion hit that will eventually hit them and do some damage.

Team Fights

Your team fight style is essentially the same throughout the game. Let the CC do it's job, and toss in Boomerang Blades from a safe distance. After your AP has bursted down someone, jump in with your ult, and start spamming Ricochet, while continuing to use Boomerang Blade. Try to keep your Spell Shield up after you've jumped in, just in case the enemy tries to turn the fight around. You and your top lane should be able to take down the remaining members of the enemy team, or, at the very least, leave only tanky champs who can only sit by and watch as you take down their towers, go for a dragon, or even for a baron.

This seems really simple, but that's honestly all there is to it. With 40% cooldown reduction on already low cooldown-spells, and the Nashor's Tooth's mana regen, your spammability is outrageous. Your AP carry hopefully has either killed an enemy carry, or dropped them so low that they've retreated. Now you have the advantage in a 4 v 5, and your sustained damage knows no limits. As long as you have some kind of flesh-shield nearby, you can continue you damage dealing.

Fundamental Differences

Running Infinity Edge, The Bloodthirster, and Phantom Dancer on all AD champs is viable. I've said this before, and I'll say it again before the guide is done. It's no fun though. Critical hitting for over 1k damage is only entertaining for so long. Maybe this isn't a competitive guide, but maybe it is. We build the same lifesteal as the standard build, and we build more attack speed. I don't think this is a generic build, and I wouldn't run it on any AD Champ the way I would the standard build. However, I think Sivir's damage output from Boomerang Blade and the utility of Ricochet, combined with the 40% CDR is borderline broken. In my own opinion, I believe this build is just as effective as Sivir on a standard build, but with fundamental differences that you need to overlook in order to run it correctly.

What It All Comes Down To

This is my build. I stared at Sivir's skill set for awhile, looked at some items, and picked them. I tried to make it as specific to Sivir as I could. I did this because I don't like that every AD champ in the game builds The Bloodthirster Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer. I haven't really thought about Trinity Force Sivir, though I run it on Corki so it may be interesting. However, all that aside, I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to read these rambling scribbles of yet another player fed-up with the meta, and I hope you found it somewhat worth while.

My name is PanaC, and I am a gamer for gaming group CRABcraft. I play AD Carry in League of Legends under the same username.
Check out CRABcraft's videos on our YouTube Channel.
Thanks for the support!