Sivir Build Guide by The_Nameless_Bard

Introduction

Pros / Cons

Pros:
+Good asset in teamfights
+Is one of the strongest AD carries in the game
+Is still very good at backdoor-ing and pushing

Cons:
-Hard to play well
-Can run out of mana easily if not played right early game

Runes

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: Bonus movement speed is good on most champions, but Sivir relies heavily on mobility due to her passive. With a high basic MS and Fleet of Foot you will be nearly impossible to catch without significant CC and be able to catch anyone you want.
Other good choices-
Greater Quintessence of Health: Sivir is preeeeeeeeeeeeeeetty squishy early game...these will help quite a bit.
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: if you feel you need a bit more flat AD to add to your marks, take these.

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: these are pretty much core on any AD carry and Sivir is no longer an exception.
I don't generally recommend any other marks, these are the most effective overall.

Greater Seal of Armor: These will negate a small amount of the damage dealt by the enemy AD carry.
Other good choices-
Greater seal of Vitality/ Greater Seal of Health: More health is never a bad thing

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist/ Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: a little extra MR is never a bad thing.
Other good choices-
Greater Glyph of Attack Speed: AS is always good on an AD carry.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction: These will give you a little CDR to help with your decently long CDs

Masteries

I like to run a 21-9-0 mastery set. This gives me a lot of offensive power and some defensive stats to help out my early game.

Alternatively you could run 21-0-9 if you'd rather have the stats from the utility tree.

Summoner Spells

- This has become core on AD carries at this point.

or - One of these spells will give Sivir a reliable escape and something to chase with (if needed).

Other good options:
Teleport - Another spell that gives you good backdoor-ing potential, it's also good early game if you find you run out of mana often.

Exhaust - Good spell in general, it gives you reliable CC and can be good in for escaping. If the support you lane with takes heal, or you'd just rather have this you can take it instead.

Cleanse - Good choice if you find you get CC'd too often, though items like Cloak and Dagger or Eleisa's Miracle will normally fix that.

Ignite - Great for finishing someone off or for initiating on someone with high sustain (like Morde), but I personally find that other spells are more useful.

Skill Sequence

R > W = Q > E

Fleet of Foot: This makes chasing down enemy champions extremely easy, with MS quints and a trinity force.

Boomerang Blade: Your main damage dealing ability. Be careful not to spam it too much or you'll burn through your mana early game.

Ricochet: This ability is far less mana burning with the rework and is still pretty useful for pushing if you have decent AS. I personally use it a lot now, with a trinity force this bad boy is scary. I actually take this first because it gives a huge damage boost that hits hard early game.

Spell Shield: One of the keys to playing Sivir well is being able to use this effectively, abilities like Teemo's Blinding Dart and Pantheon's Spear Shot are easy to block despite being point & click. Abilities like Karthus' Requiem require timing, so be sure to wait at least a second after the red swirly thing appears above your head before hitting "E". This returns mana if you block a spell with it, so block spells whenever possible to keep your mana up.

On The Hunt: This is extremely useful. It can give you an edge in teamfights and makes it extremely easy to backdoor turrets and inhibitors. It also has a relatively low cooldown, but despite this you shouldn't spam it.

Starting items

: If I start with this I tend to get more than one (not more than 3 usually). It's a good start if you want a nice balance of defensive stats, damage, and a little sustain.

: This start is very good also. Gives you a lot of sustain, which is very helpful if you tend to play a little bit too aggressively at times.

: This is the ultimate defensive and sustain start. It also allows you to rush Wriggle's if you so choose. You'll feel a bit less damage output early, but it the sustain and armor make up for it.

: This set is good if you want to go for an early Philosopher's Stone, though I, personally, would rather run boots and pots into philo.

: This is an OK start. Personally, I'd rather run one of the other potion related options, but this can work if you want to rush a Sheen.

: I don't really like this starting item set. Particularly because I don't like to rush the phage for my triforce.

Core items

Early game:
or

This item has multiple things that make it a good item on Sivir, particularly if you decide to solo top with her. The lifesteal and armor make her a little more durable, the extra damage to minions is great for pushing, and the free ward allows your support to spend some of what little cash they have on something other than wards early game.

Mid game:
Sivir works far better with crits now and I really like the damage boost you get from this item.

Late game:
once enemies start to stack armor you will probably want this. If you don't feel you need it you can replace it with something else.

Situational Item options

For attack speed-
good in general, but especially for a crit build

nice item if you have multiple AD carries on your team or if you want more CDR and lifesteal

For more damage-
for sustain and a nice damage boost

if you're up against high health opponents this can help you out quite a bit, plus it applies to the first hit of Ricochet.

this is a good item because it gives you crit chance, a little armor, and bonus damage based on your health.

this item is extremely good on the new Sivir since Ricochet now procs and applies the bonus damage to the first hit.

For more defense-
This item is great on AD carries in general and it gives
pretty decent MR

you shouldn't be dying too much, but this will make your few deaths obnoxious to deal with.

this gives you a bit of MR and will remove all CC and most debuffs.

or Either of these are good choices if you find you're getting CC'd a lot

I wouldn't normally call this a "defensive item", but this item is more health than AD. It's fine IF you don't want a Trinity Force, but getting both is somewhat redundant and very silly. It WILL NOT make you innately tanky, remember that health only makes you tanky if you have the other defensive stats needed to back it up.

Utility items-
good early game item if you find you run out of mana a lot.

Gameplay

Personally I like to head bot with a support.
My favorite supports to lane with atm are Sona, Janna, & Taric. Sona and Janna give Sivir nice damage boosts and Taric has some hard CC that gives Sivir a chance to work her magic on the enemy AD carry. His ult also synergizes really well with Sivir's.
Other good options are:
Soraka: Good support, but I prefer the others because they have abilities that give Sivir more damage.
Alistar: His CC is insane and he makes it very easy for her to deal some real punishment to the enemies.
Shen: Not usually considered a support, or even played bot lane, but he can work really well with an AD carry.
Nidalee: better as a solo top, but she can work quite well as a support.

Decent options:
Leona: Not really a support, but her passive works pretty well with anyone who can del AoE damage.
Kayle: She's not the best support in the game, but she can be a decent support if the player knows what they're doing.
Zilean: can be a decent support, but he works better as as AP carry. .

I wouldn't run:
Lux: She's an AP carry...she doesn't work all that well as a support.
Karma: She needs AP to have good sustain, which means she needs farm to do her job.
Morgana: Again she's an AP carry, I don't think she makes a good support.

FAQ

Runes:
Q: Why don't you have any AD runes of any kind?
A: Sivir no longer deals magic damage with her Boomerang Blade, which means ArPen scales better than AD will. It is also important to remember that Ricochet scales off of Sivir's base AD (which means any sort of AD runes won't effect it at all), whereas ArPen will increase its damage overall. Besides that fact that Sivir needs more than just pure AD to function well as a champion.

Q: Why MS quints? Doesn't Sivir have enough bonus MS from Fleet of Foot and On The Hunt?
A: Sivir, in general, is a mobility reliant champion. She has no CC at all and no gap closers, so she relies heavily on her ability to chase down and kill champions.

Q: Armor seals? but Sivir isn't a tank/jungler/support....
A: She is, however, laning against at least one champion that deals mostly physical damage...which armor counters...;D

Q: Why CDR glyphs?
A: Sivir relies on skills a lot early game and two of those skills have reasonably long CDs. Meaning CDR increases her ability to harass the enemy AD.


Skill order:
Q: Why do you take Ricochet first instead of Boomerang Blade?
A: Because it actually deals more damage early game. It scales with BASE AD, unlike Boomerang Blade which only scales with all that bonus AD you generally won't have early game.


Core items and build in general:
Q: Wriggle's Lantern?
A: This item makes a very squishy Sivir much more survivable. It also has a lot of utility that works very well with Sivir.

Q: Where's your Manamune? Sivir so mana hungry....
A: oooh....you mean that item Sivir shouldn't need because she can get mana back with her Spell Shield? Just get a chalice...late game you won't need a Manamune and you'll have wasted a slot on it.

FEEL FREE TO LEAVE ANY QUESTIONS I HAVEN'T ALREADY ANSWERED IN THE COMMENTS!

G'bye!

have a nice day!