Hey. I am Davido03, Level 30, from the EU West server. This is my first guide here on Mobafire and I hope it helps some of you get to grips with Sivir in Dominion. I have seen a few Sivir builds here, but not actaully any guides on how to play Sivir in this gamemode.

My guide will cover all the usual stuff like runes, masteries, items etc.. As well as how you should act in certain situations with Sivir, and what her skills are best used for.

Hope you enjoy reading this guide and that it helps you to become a better player overall. =)

Pros + Boomerang Blade is an incredibly useful skill in Dominion. + Most of her damage comes from auto-attacks, easy to play. + Can chase down weak targets. + Can defend points well. + Push any lane at will quickly if not being harassed. + Support capability with Spell Shield and On the Hunt. + Slow start can give enemy a false sense of security, which can be exploited on when you get your items. + Nice to look at, portrait and character.

SPACE

Cons - Squishy. - Hard to master and use her to her full potential. - Easy to snowball negatively if bad start. - You will be focused. Vulnerable to CC/high speed melee based champions. - Slow Base Movement Speed. - Depends on items. - Effective farming or killing/assists needed for item costs. - Needs to be at range to be effective generally.

OFFENSE

Summoner's Wrath buffs your ghost from 27% movement speed to 35% movement speed. Could be the extra movement speed you need to secure a kill or escape from an enemy champion.

Brute Force is good as it buffs your attack damage (AD) which is your main source of damage. Will also help with getting last hits on minions.

Alacrity increases your attack speed which is useful for increasing your DPS.

Weapon Expertise increases your armour penetration by 10%. Helps to get your damage to affect your opponent's HP bar, rather than being absorbed by their armour.

Deadliness increases your AD, scaling with level. Make yout auto-attacks more potent.

Havoc increases your total damage output. Nice global buff.

Lethality increases your critical strike damage by 10%. That is a significant amount when you are crtting for 300 - 500 damage in mid-late game.

Sunder increases your armour penetration. Ensure your damage hits that health bar.

Executioner increases your damage by 6% to enemies below 40% of their max hp. Good for finishing off opponents and making sure they do not escape.

UTILITY

Summoner's Insight reduces your flash cooldown by 15 seconds. Means less time between waiting between flashes, and could just become available exactly when you need it, which it would not have without this mastery.

Expanded Mind increases your mana based on level. Should mean you should out of mana less and hence be able to use your skills more frequently.

Swiftness increases your movement speed. Help you to chase down and escape from enemy champions.

Meditation increases your mana regeneration. Hence secondarily increasing skill availability.

Runic Affinity makes shrines, relics and quests buffs last 20% longer. This will give you a prolonged speed boost when using speed shrines, prolonged damage output when achieving a quest, and prolonged shield if you take the central relic.

Greater Mark of Desolation

Greater Mark of Desolation x 9

Ignoring 14.94 of your target's armour (remembering it cannot go below 0) is useful throughout the game. A greater percentage of your massive damage will get through. Other alternatives such as Greater Mark of Attack Damage OR Greater Mark of Attack Speed do not have the same long lasting impact.


Greater Seal of Replenishment

Greater Seal of Replenishment x 9

Encounter out of mana problems less. Means you will be able to harass greater with your Boomerang Blade which is key.

OR

Greater Seal of Resilience

x 9

Useful for a little bit of greater longevity from physical attacks. This is particularly good when being chased down by a melee character and could just save you if you find yourself in such situation.

Greater Glyph of Warding

x 9

Protects you against spells particularly from ranged casters who can match you mano-a-mano at range. Some extra survivalbility against them.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Greater Quintessence of Desolation x 3

Same reason as the marks. Along with the marks, you will be ignoring around 25 armour which is good throughout the game. [/center]

Ghost



One of Sivir's main problems is escaping from champions due to her slow movement speed. This should help counter that to an extent, but as always should only be used in a situation where you are going to die, or be able to secure a kill.

Flash



Same reasons as Ghost. Secure a kill/escape from death. With the added function of being able to flash behind a wall. Particularly useful for flashing between the buildings near to the capture points.

Other Options

As always summoner spells are mainly personal choice, but another option could be Exhaust which works similarly to Ghost or Flash but only works on a one champion basis in terms of escaping. However it is arguably better for securing a kill, due to the dramatic sudden DPS decrease.

Fleet of Foot



Your passive. When you attack any champion with your auto-attack, this will activate and give you an additional 50 movement speed for 2 seconds. Great for chasing after a champion or kiting.

Boomerang Blade



This is your main skill in terms of offense, and has various utility uses in Dominion. It is great as a harassing tool as it deals a significant amount of damage, especically if you can get a double hit or get a group. Great for interrupting an enemy capturing a point.

Ricochet



Helps you to farm more effectively, by bouncing your crossblade around numerous targets. Can be used in the same way as Boomerang Blade as an interrupt if you can get close enough without being immediately focused. Also useful to take out a low hp enemy who may be grouped with a few other enemy champions.

Spell Shield



Incredibly useful if you get your timing right. Can block one incoming spell. Best to block something like a stun or a high damaging move, rather than something trivial in comparion. You also gain 150 mana if you block a spell which is good, as you just prevented a spell from hitting you and gained mana for it.

On The Hunt



An extremely useful AOE buff. This is best used when within a team fight, as you will give yourself and all of your team a decent boost in atack speed and movement speed. Can also be used as an escape ability for you or an ally, or a pursuing ability.

Prospector's Blade



An excellent starting item for Sivir. A modest boost to her AD, along with 5% lifesteal which
should help with some greater sustainability. Along with the +200 max health for survivalbility (which you will need) this is a good all-around item.

Boors of Speed



This will help you to get to the top point quicker, as you have a low movement speed. Will also aid with basic positioning so you can get your Boomerang Blade to hit how you want it to. As well as helping with the usual chasing and escaping.

This is a starting set of items I have seen a few times in builds, and would just like to explain why I do not use it. First of all lets summarise what the starting items I provided give and what Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter provide.

Prospector's Blade and Boots of Speed



+ 20 AD
+ 5% Lifesteal
+ 200 Max Health



+ 1 Enhanced Movement Speed

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter



+ 25% Attack Speed
+ 2 Enhanced Movement Speed



+ 10& Lifesteal

Comparison

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DPS

Prospector's Blade and Boots of Speed

Attack Damage = 49 + 20 = 69
Attack Speed = 0.658
DPS = 69 * 0.658 = 45.402

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter

Attack Damage = 49
Attack Speed = 0.658 * 1.25 = 0.8225
DPS = 49 * 0.8225 = 40.3025

Winner

Prospector's Blade and Boots

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Health Gained Per Second When Auto-attacking

Prospector's Blade and Boots of Speed

DPS = 45.402
Health Gain = 5%
Health Gain Per Second = 45.402 * 0.05 = 2.2701

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter

DPS = 40.3025
Health Gain = 10%
Health Gain Per Second = 45.402 * 0.10 = 4.5402

Winner

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter

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Movement Speed

Prospector's Blade and Boots of Speed

Movement Speed = 310 + 50 = 360

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter

Movement Speed = 310 + 70 = 380

Winner

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter

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Max Health

Prospector's Blade and Boots of Speed

Max Health = 378 + 200 = 578

Berserker's Greaves and Vampiric Scepter

Max Health = 378

Winner

Prospector's Blade and Boots

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Conclusion

So what does this all of this data actually mean? Well it means that my starting items does about 5 more DPS and gives you another 200 max hp. While the starting items we were comparing with give you 7% more lifesteal and an additional 20 movement speed.

Which one is more useful then? I would suggest the starting items that I have chosen. 5 more damage will help you to get last hits on minions and deal that killing blow to a low hp champion. An extra 200 max health gives you some extra survivalbility and sustainability in a lane.

What about that extra 7% lifesteal we get from Vampiric Scepter? It gives about 3.2 more hp per second than the starting items I chose. However we have to put this into context. To counter the extra + 200 max hp and 5% lifesteal given by Prospector's Blade, you would have to auto-hit over 70 times, not very practical. As much as it is slightly better for dire situations where you are low on health, the extra 200 max hp will help to prevent you from being in that situation in the first place.

Berserker's Greaves



Extra speed to get into position quicker and for securing kills/escaping from death. The extra attack speed will help to increase your DPS also (the main aim of what Sivir should be doing) so is a brilliant item for her.

Sanguine Blade



A significant amount of attack damage is added (which comes in even greater use later in the build) and 15% lifesteal will help you sustain in combat. Furthermore its passive will increase your attack damage upto 35 upon 7 consecutive attacks. As well as an extra 7% lifesteal upon 7 consecutive attacks.

Phantom Dancer



Extra attack speed will increase your DPS, as well as trigger the on-proc effects of Sanguine Blade faster. 30% critical strike chance will mean you will hit double damage on average of 3 out of 10 hits. 12% movement speed increase will mean you will be able to retreat and harass quite a bit easier with lower risk of being caught.

Infinity Edge



Great boost to your AD, making your attacks hit harder. Another + 25% critical strike chance means you will be getting crits 5.5 out of 10 hits, meaning you can rely on it more. Its passive is particularly useful making your crits hit for 2.5 x damage (quarter more damage) instead of the typical double damage.

Phantom Dancer



Unlikely you will actually get the gold for purchasing this last item, but if you do this is what I take. More attacks means more attacks that can crit for 2.5 x damage, more on-proc effects from Sanguine Blade and another 30% chance for each attack. Meaning 8.5 out of 10 of your hits crit on average. Even greater mobility too with another + 12% movement speed.

A lot of people use this item in their builds but personally I think it is quite a weak item relatively. +30 AD and + 40% attack speed are quite nice bonuses, but the Phantom Dancer has a greater attack speed and Infinity Edge a greater AD. Along with their their double damage potential, and the movement speed increase OR crit damage increase makes me feel they are better items overall.

Dealing 2.5% magic damage of an opponents maximum health is on each basic attack is not as great as it sounds. Going for even a large max hp like 4000 is 100 bonus damage. Not a great amount when you consider that you are going to be critting in excess of 500 AD most of the time late game.

So you know what runes, masteries, summoner spells and items you need but what about actually playing?

Using Boomerang Blade Effectively

As I have mentioned previously you need to have the mindset that you are a squishy and ranged champion. One of your best skills is Boomerang Blade and should be what you should be using your mana primarily on. It deals a nice amount of damage and can hit multiple targets. Not just this but should be used as your first port of call when interrupting an enemy from capturing a point. You can stand on the opposite side of the point and have the range to still hit them with the Boomerang Blade. It allows you to engage your opponent from a safe distance which is essential for Sivir, as well as make your opponent hesitant when moving towards you.

Capturing Points

Never go on your own to capture a point unless it has just been cleared of enemy champions. You will just end up being ganked and it will be unlikely you will escape being so squishy. Always try and tag along with a more tanky champion who can take some punishment for you, while you deal your damage. Be careful when defending a point against champions, particularly fast melee ones who can close the gap suddenly on you.

Lane Defense

If you see a lane being pushed hard by minions you are perfect to counter that. Use your Ricochet to further increase your farming capability and prevent the minions from taking the point. As always be wary of potential ganks as it is likely that enemis will be close by as they will want to be capitalising on the minion push.

Using Spell Shield Effectively

Your Spell Shield is an ability which should be used against CC/high damaging spells. It can turn around a team fight very easily, if you manage to block one of your opponent's high priority spells. If you think blocking a spell is going to save a teammate or you then obviously use it. Take particular care to CC champions also as they will entirely cripple you.

Using On The Hunt Effectively

On The Hunt should be used preferably when in a team fight. For the reasons that its effects are passed on to all of your teammates, at a 50% reduced rate. Once again it can very easily turn around a team-fight. In Dominion this can be used to quickly react to an enemy capping a point, or simply to secure a kill or escape (you or a teammate).

Facing Against AD Melee/Assassin Champions

These are your main threat and who you should be careful around. If it is a melee AD character such as Master Yi or Xin Zhao then you will be wanting to keep your distance until backup arrives. Don't be lured by them retreating if they still have a significant portion of health, as they can easily close the distance between you and them. Hit and run is not really a viable tactic as they will just chase you down, and you need to be particularly careful if they have some CC too such as Xin Zhao's Three Talon Strike.

You even have to be careful on the turret as they can tank and deal a fair amount of damage in a short time. If you ever find yourself on your own against such champion and see that backup is coming then just retreat until an ally arrives. Too risky to just be taking poke shots at them until late game where you have a significant speed increase from your items. A lot of this also applies to assassins but if they are low on health and attacking you on the turret, you should be able to take them out with the help of Fleet of Movement.

This section is all about how to play against specific champions. All of this information is based from my own practical and theoretical knowledge from games.

I will try to do every single champion but as you can imagine this is quite a large workload. Especially when Riot seem to be addicted with releasing a new champion every week. If there are any specific requests then I will put them on the top of the list to do first, just post in the comments section or PM me.

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Akali



Primary Role: Melee Assassin

Threat Level: Medium-High

Abilities



Akali is a serious danger to you. Pre-level 6 if you play smart with your hit and run tactics you can just about keep Akali in line to an extent. However as soon as Akali gets her Shadow Dance you are trumped in 1 v 1 situations. Akali will be able to close the distance instantaneously and deal a ton of damage, most likely being fatal. Your best option is to not engage Akali until you hae assistance from your allies, as she cannot lock you all down.

If you ever find yourself marked by Akali's Mark of the Assassin then be prepared for an incoming combo from Akali more than likely. Your best option is to run as fast as you can back to a defensible position, but even more crucially activate your spell shield as soon as you see her moving towards you and she is gaining on you.

If Akali ever uses her Twilight Shroud then harass Akali by using your Boomerang Blade skill through the center of Akali's Twilight Shroud. Should put Akali off slightly. It is best to only use this technique when you are in a safe position or when Akali is on low hp. Otherwise you will just be hit by Shadow Dance.

If they are using Twilight Shroud extensively it could be worth getting an Oracle's Extract so her skill becomes useless in its primary role of stealth. I assure you this will make any Akali player QQ hard. I know. :)

Use your spell-shield to block her Shadow Dance. This is her connecting ability and without this she will be much less effective at reaching you and dealing damage.

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Alistar



Primary Role: Melee Tank

Threat Level: Medium

Abilities



Alistar is the CC king, so you need to be careful when engaging him in Close Quarter Combat (CQC). Always keep some distance between you and the beast. In 1 v 1 situations his relatively slow speed and lack of sustained damage output means you can contain him and still go on with your business of capturing/defending points. Naturally being a tank though is going to make him hard to kill early game with Sivir's slow start.

Rely on your Boomerang Blade to keep him zoned away by harassing him with it, trying to deter him away. Remember that he has his Headbutt which has a range of 650. Your attack range is 500 so make sure you are aligned so he pushes you into somewhere safe (e.g. not out into the open) as he will be in range to Headbutt you.

His Pulverize skill requires him to be within a range of 365. In other words you can auto-attack him safely as long as you move away when he move towards you. With the sort of damage you will be doing mid-late game he should be a relatively easy target if you catch him off-guard.

Triumphant Roar you have to watch out for. It heals 60 - 180 HP depending on the level he has it. As a result you shoudl be careful when pursuing him as he can heal up and that one auto-attack you needed to kill him is no longer valid. Not just this but it also has an AOE which heals nearby allies for 50% of the heal amount.

Unbreakable Will is a dangeous steroid ability that he has. Giving him a large AD bonus making him be able to deal some decent damage in his auto-attacks, while also increasing his damage reduction greatly making him incredibly tanky. As a result even if he has low hp and you see him use this ability, it might be worth switching to a different target.

In teamfights where Alistar really shines, you need to be really aware of his CC abilites. As mentioned before keep your distance from Alistar and let your tanky teammates take the CC punishment. Headbutt is his signature skill and potentially the most useful for him. General rule is to NEVER allow him to flank you, as soon as that happens he will be able to push you into his fellow teammates which will mean probably death.

So what should you do if you find that you have been flanked by Alistar? Well you should move diagonally away from him, moving in the direction he is. This should mean any Headbutt attempt will result in him hitting you at a skew, rather than directly forwards into his waiting team. And if you feel you don't have the time then why not use your ever useful Spell Shield to nullify his Headbutt? :)

Avoid his CC and you should be largely safe against Alistar. Remember to focus him last as he is designed to be more of a distraction and damage soak, than an actual damage threat.

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Fiora



Primary Role: Melee AD Carry

Threat Level: High

Abilities



An extremely competent counter against Sivir, you will have to be constantly on the watch out for Fiora. I would almost go as far as calling her the 'Anti-Sivir'. Lunge is the skill I would say you should be most aware of. This is her initation ability and is used primarily for closing the distance to an enemy. As a result very dangeous to a ranged chracter such as yourself.

Furthermore it has a range of 600, meaning that you will be in lunging range when auto-attacking. Hence you should only auto-attack when you have teammates backing you up, and not just when she is on low hp. You will find out the reason for not necessarily auto-attacking her with low hp later on. As always your Boomerang Blade should be used to zone her and stay at a safe distance away until the flow of battle goes in your favour.

Fiora's next skill is Riposte. Allowing her to deal damage to anyone who auto-attacks her within 1.5 seconds of activation. What are the potential dangers then? Well as a skill itself not particularly much as it is more of a complimentary skill. However it can deal enough magic damage back to kill you when you are low on health (<60 - 250). As such you should try and avoid chasing her when you are low too, even if you are chasing as a team.

Be ever so careful when Fiora uses her Burst of Speed. Any auto-attack or Lunge she does will increase her movement speed meaning she can close distances even more quickly. Also she will get a nice DPS boost. You will see a blue aura around her when she uses this and you should immediately fall back to a safe position, if you believe you do not have the necessary stopping power with your team.

Along with her other skills, her ultimate Blade Waltz just increases the threat level even more. Fiora will often use this when she is low on health to make her untrargetable and heal herself with her passive Duelist. I would not deter you to pursue her as a team if you all have moderate-high health, but with low-moderate health you are risking it if she has her Blade Waltz off cooldown.

Nevertheless you can use her ultimate to your advantage. Not exactly a secret but after her Blade Waltz has finished she will appear back to the first target she attacked with the ultimate. If you are the first target and think you can survive then move into the middle of your teammates (if they are heavy melee characters) or if you can onto a capture point so it can attack her.

If your teammates are mainly ranged and squishy champions then take a hit and move as far away from them as possible. Hopefully they will be able to range her down when she appears again and at the very least they will be safe.

Lastly remember that her passive Duelist will heal her for small amounts of health when she attacks. Making her still a deadly opponent if back-up arrives with some CC to lock you down, so she can attack you freely. I cannot reiterate anymore that you need to think twice if you going to try and chase her down to secure a kill.

Keep your distance and you should be largely safe. Do not be too hasty if she has low health as she can still take you down with ease. If she is closeby then she should be one of the first targets you focus in teamfights due to her high damage output.

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Thank you for reading this guide. All constructive criticism is welcome. Sivir may be 'easy to play' but is harder to play to her full potential. Just remember this and do not be dis-heartened.

Date format in order of increasing precendence (AKA Date/Month/Year)

05/03/2012

- Guide published.
- Fixed Greater Quintessence of Desolation being x 9, rather than the correct x 3 in the runes section.
- Refactored the Playing As Sivir chapter into sections.
- Added Facing Against AD Melee/***asian Champions section to Playing As Sivir chapter.
- First Champion added to the Champion Matchup Guide Chapter ; Akali
- Colourised headings based on what they are saying. For headings that are more standard, have been given a light blue colour. Should hopefully make the guide more readable.

06/03/2012

- In process of re-stylising the guide to make it more readable and pleasing on the eye in line with jhoijhoi's recommendations from Making a Guide by jhoijhoi.
- Alistar added to the Champion Matchup Guide chapter.
- Fiora basic details added to the Champion Matchup Guide Chapter.

07/03/2012

- Added larger champion picture and abilities list for each champion in the Champion Matchup Guide chapter.
- Fiora added to the Champion Matchup Guide chapter.


08/03/2012

- Fleet of Foot added to the abilities list. For the reason that it should have been there in the first place.

17/06/2012

- Changed text to now say +12% movement speed for Phantom Dancer rather than the previous 15%.
- Changed all references and calculations to Vampiric Scepter to its new 10% lifesteal value.