Abilities & TipsSivir’s abilities and how to master them

Pros & ConsChampion strengths & weaknesses

Summoner SpellsBest summoner spells

PRECISION

Lethal Tempo is the best keystone for crit Sivir in my opinion. It gives you attack speed, which is necessary in order to be doing damage, and it is great for fighting during early game. The extra range is really nice in order to kill enemies before they can get away from you! Pretty standard and decent in any game.

Press the Attack is a situationally good rune, I like to take it when I have an aggressive early game support like a Leona or a Pyke. The rune will give you some extra damage to capitalize on your support's catch in the early game.

I like to always take Presence of Mind, Sivir is generally a mana hungry champion and you can quickly run out of it in extended teamfights. You need your abilities to deal damage and they cost a fairly high amount in the early game, so that you can't perma-push lane.

But if you are really confident about your mana usage, you can go Triumph or Overheal. You don’t get a lot of value from Overheal if you don’t go Legend: Bloodline though.

Take Legend: Bloodline if you need more sustain and HP in your game. You will not build lifesteal in most of your games so it always has its value, but I find it a weaker rune.
Legend: Alacrity feels really good and it spares you from building AS items early on, but it lacks the late game sustain. If you don't get red buff or Bloodthirster, you may have to recall after a fight and end up losing tempo because of it.

Go Cut Down or Coup de Grace depending on your needs. Cut down against beefy teams and tank supports, Coup de Grace for the rest of the games.




Rune Page Example

INSPIRATION

Itemization is flexible so I will change a thing or two depending on game, matchup and my mood. And you should do the same! For reference, my standard build usually goes as follows - but remember pretty much all items have good alternatives if the game calls for it.

This is the standard hypercarry build for Sivir. Kraken Slayer gives you the raw damage/DPS you need to be a machine gun and Navori Flickerblade gives you extra damage on abilities and cooldown reduction so you can spam Ricochet more often. Phantom Dancer helps with kiting and DPS, the rest of your items will vary a lot depending on the game.

You can also go Statikk Shiv or even Stormrazor depending on whether you want more wave control, extra mobility and meta tendencies.

I feel it is difficult to explain wave management in text format so I will try to keep this short and simple as possible for your convenience.

There are three main types of wave management and each one has their uses and a way to accomplish: Fast Pushing, Slow Pushing and Freezing.

This is usually what low elo players do constantly, especially newer players. This is when you quickly kill all minions, which results in a thin wave that crashes under the enemy tower.

Slow pushing is when you create a big minion wave that slowly pushes to the enemy tower.

A freeze is when the wave is stuck and doesn't push to either one side or the other. It is a great defensive move and can be very bad for the enemy.

In laning phase, you ideally want the freeze to happen just outside of your own tower range so that it can be beneficial to you. Having a freeze happen in enemy territory is extremely dangerous for you and puts the enemy in a safe position.

Freezing requires a lot of practice and attention, so if you are still new to this, just start by trying to avoid freezes from happening and learning fast push & slow push. Once that's more settled on your mind try to practice creating and keeping freezes!

HOW TO FREEZE Freezing is the hardest to get the hang of because it depends on the position the wave clashes and how healthy minions are. To freeze the wave outside of your tower range you need to have around 3 or 4 healthy minions on the area of the closest bush to your tower. To keep the freeze you want to last hit minions, but if you see the freeze is turning into a slow push (into your tower) you will have to thin the wave by killing excess caster minions. If the wave is becoming a slow push into enemy territory, just let it happen so that you can keep denying enemy gold and xp. The enemy will stop this from happening if they auto the wave. To freeze the wave in the middle of the lane you need only to keep an equal amount of minions on both sides. A freeze in enemy territory usually hapens when you try to fast push, but your wave clashes with the upcoming minion wave just outside enemy tower range. This type of freeze is good for the enemy as it leaves you vulnerable, and if you recall during such a freeze you will possibly lose an entire wave of gold and xp.

WHEN TO FREEZE Maintain a freeze in your territory if you want to hold a more defensive position in lane, which you might want if you have Flash down, if enemy jungler is nearby, or if the enemy has a very aggressive engage lane, like Leona + Tristana. A freeze in the middle of the lane is very good if you have an engage or hook support, like Rakan or Blitzcrank, as it gives them the most space to find all-in opportunities. A freeze in enemy territory is very dangerous and is best avoided if enemy can somehow engage on you or gank you.

BREAKING A FREEZE To break a freeze in middle or enemy territory you need to get close and fast push. If that's too dangerous, ask your jungler for help. If the enemy fights it's a 3v2 in a best case scenario. To break the freeze close to your tower you can just let the enemy wave stack and crash or you can thin it and begin a slow push towards the enemy tower.

ADVANTAGES Freezing allows you to zone the enemy away from cs, set up for ganks (if done in your territory) and keep you protected from ganks. If you manage to freeze the wave in the middle of the lane you give more room for your support to engage or catch the enemy from the bushes or the alcove. Keep in mind the enemy support could do the same.

DISADVANTAGES A poorly positioned freeze makes you very vulnerable to ganks, engages, and can make you lose a ton of CS and XP. Freezing defensively can also make ganking difficult for your jungler (if there are too many minions) and it can make it harder for you to rotate to river skirmishes. In other words, defensive freezes sometimes mean you hold less lane priority.

It is common knowledge that Summoner's Rift is a very perilous place to the average ADC player. If you are not careful, no matter how fed you are you can still get solo killed by 0/10 Yasuo OTP player. Even the enemy enchanter support can solo kill you under the right circumstances (I’m not joking).

This is why this section of the guide exists. Hopefully you will be able to last longer following some of these tips!




KNOW YOUR LIMITS

You can only do so much when you have no summoner spells, when you have had a stressful day at work/school and you can't move your fingers because it’s too chilly outside. On top of that you could be playing against your personal counter - maybe you just can't play against Vayne with any champion because she tilts the hell out of you and you end up losing the game regardless of what you do.

It's important to be realistic and understand your limits as a player - whether you are against a champion you cannot stand, how much BS you can take before tilting and running it down, how many buttons you can press at once to survive a teamfight, how aware you are of your cooldowns. Play safe/cool when you know you are at a personal disadvantage.




KNOW YOUR CHAMPION’S LIMITS

Some ADCs are safer or have better peeling tools than Sivir. When you are playing her, you need to remind yourself that she has her limits and might not be able to do things the same way as Kai'Sa, for example.

So be mindful of your self-peel abilities - Spell Shield and On The Hunt. You can only do so much without them. Don't overdo it in a teamfight or position over-aggressively when you don't have the tools to defend yourself.

You can be 10/1 and still lose to the average assassin player if your self peel is down and you are surrounded by 3 enemies.



RECOGNIZE BIGGEST THREATS

This is both champions as a whole and specific champion abilities. Malphite may not be a huge threat himself, but his Unstoppable Force is, so you want to be ready to react accordingly when his R is up. If you know you can't outplay a Zed then track him on the map and keep your distance. On champion select, instead of waiting for the game to start, stop and think about what abilities in the game can kill you and plan how you can avoid getting hit by them.

Example...

The enemy team is: Malphite top, Yasuo mid, Warwick jungle, Ezreal and Soraka in the bot lane.

STEP 1: LIST WHAT CAN KILL YOU IN A SKIRMISH

Malphite’s R + Yasuo’s R combo


Yasuo Steel Tempest (Q) + Last Breath (R)


Ezreal combo + R (trueshot barrage)


Soraka’s Equinox (E)


Warwick’s Infinite Duress (R)

STEP 2: LIST HOW YOU CAN SURVIVE THESE THREATS

Bring Exhaust for Warwick and Yasuo.
Bring Heal to not die from Ezreal combo.
Build Immortal Shieldbow if you think you are getting bursted.
Time your Spell Shield to avoid all the listed abilities that can kill you.
Time your Flash to avoid enemy abilities.
Use your On The Hunt well to kite Yasuo and Warwick.

Do keep in mind you don’t need to adopt ALL these measures, but stay mindful of at least some of them.

STEP 3: ADAPT TO YOUR GAME

Maybe Warwick and Ezreal are not fed but Yasuo is. What do you do? Well then your priority should be holding your Spell Shield, Exhaust and Flash to dodge Malphite R and Yasuo Q+R. You can also avoid being in the same lane as Yasuo and keep an extra eye out for him during teamfights. Maybe get a Mortal Reminder for Soraka+Warwick if your team doesn't build anti-heal.

Go into the game with a game plan on how you will survive each and every threat.

POSITION WELL IN TEAMFIGHTS

Sivir is a backline carry which means you should be positioning fairly back in teamfights. You don't want to be the one going into fog of war to ward, or be the frontliner, or the backline diver. Play the game around your strengths.

If your team needs to play around getting picks, stay out of sight and just behind your support or team’s main engager so that you can quickly follow up their catch.

If you play around grouping and teamfighting, stay back to avoid the enemy engage and use your self peel tools to protect yourself from enemy divers/assassins. If there are none, you still want to avoid enemy engage and focus on killing the closest target to you or the enemy carry if they are mispositioned. Use On The Hunt to help your team get a good engage off or reposition.



POSITION WELL ON THE MAP

Stay away from highest threat enemy champions if you are alone (usually the assassin or fed bruisers, but it can also be mages or enemy AD carry). Don't sit alone in lane and avoid pushing too far into enemy territory without vision. Be in position to rotate to baron/drake skirmishes.




USE BLUE WARDS, VISION PLANTS AND CONTROL WARDS

ADCs have to ward too. Be mindful of your wards since you don't have many - every time you want to stick to one side of the map, use vision control to make sure you are not getting flanked.




GOOD RECALL TIMING AND GREEDING

If you are sitting on a lot of gold and your team is not around, recall. You are usually a key member of the team to take objectives so it's important you are there for your team when they need you - sometimes staying to push one extra wave or take a few jungle camps will cost you a baron because you had a late recall. Sometimes you will die for being too greedy!

Try to have your recall aligned with your supports in the early game. Recall when you have a lot of gold, when you need full mana/hp and when the enemy gives you an opening to do so (when you are not getting pressured/ when they are not looking to make plays on the map). Good recall timing is extremely important so that you don't fall behind and so you are not alone/mispositioned.

Sivir is a close range scaling ADC that thrives in teamfights. Because of her shorter range she tends to do well into melee or close range team compositions, but she can also do decent into higher range teams as long as they don’t have too much poke or strong disengage. I also consider her relatively safe because of her kiting, E and long range Q.

Sivir thrives with teams that have strong engage or teams that can peel for her, compensating for her weaknesses. She doesn’t have a very strong early game so she usually wants to farm, get items and win late game.





TRADING & POKING

Early on Sivir doesn’t have a lot of damage for all-ins or quick burst trades, but she has good poke if you know how to use it.

If you are trading autos with the enemy ADC or support you will want to auto+ Ricochet+auto, because your W works as an auto reset. Ideally when poking or trading with Q you want it to hit no minions for max damage, but you don’t need to stress over this.

You can also poke enemy with Ricochet when they are close to their minions (or tower!), and when they try to poke you with abilities use your Spell Shield to block it and heal. Do be careful to not get baited into using your E only for the enemy to engage on you though.

Post level 6 you have great gank setup. It will be easier for you to you to go all in and get a kill if you have been poking, taking good trades and out-sustaining the enemy.




EARLY GAME PRIORITIES

Being straight to the point, your main priority during the laning phase should be to focus on farming well, scaling into the late game and having good wave management.

But WHY is farming so important? Isn’t that basic stuff for any ADC?

It’s simple: You are a scaling champion that relies entirely on items to get strong. More farm = more gold = more items = more carry. You can int the entire laning phase, but if still manage to farm really well you WILL get strong. Kills are a plus and come naturally once you get more items.

Sivir has insane wave clear with her W and Q. After some practice with her you will be able to tell when you can two-shot an entire wave to get all the juicy CS. It’s not a hard champion to farm waves quickly and gain tempo to go for map rotations.

Since your wave clear is so good, you can very easily push waves and rotate with your team, which means you don't have to give up CS to contest objectives or go to a skirmish. If you are a little behind in tempo, you have your R to catch up.





TEAMFIGHTING & OBJECTIVES

As a late game champion you should be at your prime in late game teamfights. Stay back and use your On The Hunt to help your team engage or fall back. Auto priority targets in range or the closest enemy. Be careful not to tunnel vision!

Use your strong wave clear to keep up tempo and be there for your team when they need you for sieging, skirmishing or taking objectives. Even if you are behind you should have no trouble shoving a wave and joining them.

However you do need to pick your fights carefully. Not every skirmish is worth fighting, especially if you are behind or getting focused by an annoying assassin. If you think you are not strong enough or if they are picking a bad fight, try to communicate that to them and don’t int.

Remember to farm and get items whenever there is nothing important happening. Avoid farming same lane as solo lakers and if no lanes are available take jungle camps your jungler is not going to be taking.

Bot lane matchups - what are the best, what are the worst? This is what I will cover in this section! I will not go in depth into every single champion individually, but I categorized your most common foes by their types/playstyle and how you can play into them.

Do keep in mind some champions fall into more than one category and some have builds that give them a specific playstyle - like for example, Miss Fortune, who has good poke overall and can build for more burst/poke when going lethality and more DPS/all-in when going crit. It is also worth noting that in bot lane support matchup often matters more than ADC matchups, especially in higher elos.




SNOWBALLING CHAMPIONS


Most of them, especially Draven, Jhin and Samira, are difficult matchups. You cannot out-damage them in the early game and they are usually accompanied by aggressive engage supports - one wrong move, one bad trade, and you cannot fight back.

The best you can do in these matchups is to not give them any kills and manage your wave correctly. You definitely do not want your wave to be frozen near their turret or over-extend without vision. Focus on farming, getting your items and scaling. If your jungler wants to gank it is best to do it after 6 and try not to int before that. Exhaust is very good against them.





LONG RANGE HYPERCARRIES


In general they are not all terrible matchups but they can be challenging depending on player skill and support matchup - mainly because they poke you with autos by out-ranging you and can carry teamfights just as well as you. Plus, like you they often just want to scale and then become unkillable machine guns. Kog'Maw and Ashe are the most annoying in my opinion.

If you can catch and kill them in the early game it will delay their growth. be careful to not get poked down by their autos, but if they try to poke with abilities use Spell Shield to sustain. Use your strong wave clear to pressure them and Boomerang Blade to poke them under their turret. Exhaust is very good against them in the late game, while Heal is good for early game trading.





POKE/HIGH RANGE AD CARRIES


Most of them, especially Caitlyn, are easy matchups. I use “easy” loosely, since support matchup will have a big impact on your lane. But overall, these champions will try to poke you using their abilities - which means you can sustain off their poke. They also do not have particularly strong wave clear, which allows you to have more lane control and prevent them from abusing you.

However you do have to be careful when trading with them. Most prefer short burst trades and deal decent damage in the early game, especially Caitlyn and Miss Fortune. Make sure to use your Spell Shield to block the ability that does the most damage and try to poke with your Boomerang Blade. You’ll want to capitalize upon their mistakes and avoid being too aggressive when their important abilities are up. Heal is very good against them.




SHORT RANGE ALL-IN ADCS


These matchups are very volatile since they depend on champion gimmicks and support matchup. Xayah and Nilah, for example, are fairly easy matchups for Sivir because you have stronger wave clear, and can poke and kite them. Now Lucian and Tristana are also snowballing ADCs with a lot of damage in the early game, so their all-in is a lot harder to survive. Vayne and Kai'Sa are great in 1v1.

Against all-in champions you have to play for your strengths and not theirs. Try to poke when you can, have good wave management and stay safe. Beware of their gimmicks - like Xayah’s Bladecaller; Kai'Sa’s Icathian Rain+ Void Seeker+ Second Skin proc. Most will win when you misuse your Spell Shield and all-in them before you have the necessary strength to fight back. Exhaust is very good against them.





MAGES


I usually find that Sivir is a good ADC against them, especially in the early game. You will get out-ranged by most and can suffer from their poke in the mid-late game if they are strong, but in lane it is very hard for them to catch and perform their burst combo on you. Also, as an AD champion with strong wave clear it should be easy to get wave control and force them to farm under tower, where they are likely to miss a lot of minions.

You do not want to get overconfident and allow yourself to get caught. It can be really good to get Boots early so that you can try to dodge their combos. Respect their damage especially after a few levels, core items and Lost Chapter. Heal and Cleanse are generally good against them.

Bot lane synergies - what are the best, what are the worst? This is what I will cover in this section! I will not go in depth into every single champion individually, but I categorized the most common supports by their types/playstyle and how you can work together to win.

Do keep in mind some champions fall into more than one class (like Taric, who is both a warden and an enchanter), some can fall into two categories (like Soraka, who is an enchanter with soft poke) and some are just “weird” - very unique or specialized, like Bard, or Senna who is like a carry support that plays a bit like an enchanter.



ENCHANTER SUPPORTS


Most of them have good synergy with Sivir. They make her even more safe and in the late game some of them can enhance her damage/kill potential, like Milio and Lulu.

When playing with enchanters into an enemy lane with low kill threat, you generally want to poke and trade if you and your support have the stronger trading potential. It is also good to look for poke whenever possible.

When the enemy has high kill threat on you or your support is into a bad matchup you will generally look to just farm and scale, with the occasional poke. Trade when it is safe, but be careful to not over-commit and lose an all-in.





CATCHER SUPPORTS


They are great supports for Sivir and her team in the late game thanks to On The Hunt - it makes it very easy for these supports to reposition faster and catch someone. Rakan is the best catcher for Sivir in my opinion.

The downside is that in the early game Sivir will not always have the damage to burst whoever your support catches and this can be bad if you are into strong all-in lanes. To help with that, you can ask your support to take Ignite and not over-commit until it is up or until you are strong, and make sure you hit Boomerang Blade and use Ricochet for auto resets. Also understand that upon catching someone you may need to chase them down so a support with Glacial Augment can be helpful, or you can take Press the Attack to help with burst.





POKE SUPPORTS


Some are better, some are worse. In general you will want to match their poke when you can, but in some cases you want to be very careful with all-ins since some poke supports offer very little peel and cannot help if you get caught.

The good side is that they are very annoying to the enemy ADC, and that combined with your strong wave clear means you can often get lane prio and harass enemies under their turret. Just make sure you proper vision setup to avoid dying to ganks.




TANK SUPPORTS


They work very similarly to catcher supports and often overlap. If your support is very much based on engages like Leona, they are great in the late game for you and your team, since On The Hunt empowers them and they will soak up a lot of damage for you. On the other side of the coin you face the same problem where you may lack the damage to all-in the enemy bot lane in early levels so if your support is not careful they run the risk of inting.

I will echo what I said about catcher supports - you can ask your support to take Ignite and not over-commit until it is up or until you are strong, and make sure you hit Boomerang Blade and use Ricochet for auto resets. You may need to chase them down so a support with Glacial Augment can be helpful, or you can take Press the Attack to help with burst.

Whenever you are not fighting try to poke the enemy laners, as it helps in killing them if they are caught. keeping the wave frozen in the middle of the lane or near your turret also makes it easier for your support to engage or zone enemies from farm. But if the enemy bot lane has stronger all-in, it might be best to ask your support to just chill and let you scale.

That's all I have for this guide. Thank you for taking interest in it! I hope it was helpful.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, please let me know. I will keep updating this guide and keep adding things to it.

Good Luck & Have Fun playing Sivir!

MY OTHER GUIDES!!!