Build Guide by

(WARNING; this is an extensive guide. Take advantage to look at the areas you are most interested in or enjoy an informative, elaborate, possibly redundant read. There will be slight changes and updates from time to time.)

OPENING THOUGHTS:
This is my first published build. I've been playing Sivir ever since I've started playing LOL. I've had several builds before and this one proves to be the most effective core build that I've used thus far. It gives me the ability power I need for BB, increased damage and attack speed for over all battle effectiveness, Life Steal, Spell Vamp, and Mana Regeneration. As well as other benefits that I will explain in the Items section of this guide. I encourage to take what you can from this guide. I don't make any guarantees-don't let the build name fool you. It's just a title. You are held accountable for your actions in game. Adaptability, quick reflexes, and a little bit of gaming instincts are some of the elements that will make your performance that much better and a good summoner.

LEGENDS:
BB=Boomerang Blade
Rico=Ricochet
SS=Spell Shield
OTH=On The Hunt

SIVIR'S PROS N' CONS:

PROS:
-Great at soloing a lane (against 1 or 2 champs)
-Destroys waves of minions for easy farming and leveling
-Useful support in heated battles for either aggression or defensive retreats
-Versatile Abilities
-Good for baiting(not recommended for new players)

CONS:
-Low defense
-Short lasting escape mechanism (SS)
-Mana hungry
-Takes time to master the BB
-Takes even more time to master the SS

PLAY STYLE TIPS:
I use Sivir to nearly push all lanes at once. Push hard in one lane preferably a lane that needs it such as one with an allied turret destroyed or one where an allied champ is struggling in. Get to the point where you're at the enemies turret, count to 10 then bail out of there unless you know you can take that turret or if your teammates already notified you of incoming enemies. Then you move on to the next lane. By the time you come back around to the lane you've pushed hard in the first place I guarantee the enemy minions or enemy champs in that lane is only mid way point in the map or just arrived at your allied turret. An idle Sivir is a dead Sivir besides being useless. Sivir's passive is usually the most beneficial defense she has. You can substitute Boots of Mobility for Ninja Tabi if you prefer to play Sivir more defensive, but don't stop moving there's so much that Sivir can be doing. Although, whatever you do don't neglect your teammates in need because that's what Sivir is there for.

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SUMMONER SPELLS:
My spells of choice:
Teleport: For those "need to get there" moments and "lane management".
Ignite: I use mostly to ensure a kill yet i use it sometimes to ward off other champs that get to close.

ALTERNATE SPELL COMPARISON
Ghost: Good substitute for Teleport in a 3x3 battle or in a 5x5 to avoid collision in a chase or retreat.
Smite: I never bother with it. It kills a minion or pet quicker and you gain extra gold.
Rally: I think this is an under appreciated spell but its not necessary for a champ like Sivir that can take out minions easily and already has an ult that grants more benefits.
Clarity: Regaining a lot of Mana that you already used helps but in this guide the build offers you all the mana regen and spell vamp you need to get a similar effect.
Cleanse: Great spell and a good way to support what SS does for you but not so great for a champ like Sivir that should be always keeping her distance from an enemy champ that can status effect you.
Exhaust: This is good in case you have a champ that's ghosting away from you or one that's hitting too hard and you take a couple of hits away from them during a 1x1 brawl to gain the advantage in damage or use it to just retreat from a confrontation all together by slowing down the enemy.
Flash: Disappointed at first with the spell explanation but i can see it's benefits. Not with this play style though.
Fortify: Good if timed right but doesn't last long enough in my opinion for what most players want it to do which is kill an enemy champ if nearby.
Heal: Still is my favorite spell but again your life steal is enough with all the minions you'll be killing.
Revive: It's an okay spell especially mixed with the Guardian angel armor. The 9min cool down is a big turnoff.

RUNES:
The rune selection is pretty self explanatory, but if i must; the runes are more damage and attack speed orientated for the sake of Rico and destroying turrets or enemy champs faster. With a 9.8% critical chance you'll be dealing 200% of your base damage 1 out of every 10 attacks. The relevance is that attack speed plays a big part to Sivir. The dodge seals are to increase the benefit of your passive throughout the battle. Your ability power glyphs gives your BB some good damage to kill or harass.

MASTERIES:
With these points placed where they are your Sivir gets all the benefits she needs. It's balanced, compliments Sivir's attributes, and it offers the extra benefits you get with the Nimbleness, Burning Embers and Spacial Accuracy masteries.
Burning Embers offers +10 ability power when your Ignite spell is on cool down; so you reap the benefit of having Ignite whether you use it or not.
You will be dodging something at one point during the fight and you will love it every time when your Nimbleness mastery kicks in and gives you that extra 10% movement speed to make your escape. Spacial Accuracy is my personal choice to put that 1 straggling point in Masteries.
Thanks to Spacial Accuracy my Teleport spell is available 5 sec earlier, I could use that when I'm swarmed and about to be attacked and have enough life to Teleport to safety seeing that it's not interrupted under attack.

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ABILITY SELECTION:
This selection order is for not soloing in mid lane. To solo I would switch BB for Rico level 1 and Rico for BB at level 4(see early game for item switch) the rest of the ability selection would stay the same other wise to maximum output you lane management with Rico and stopping power of BB as you level up OTH. SS does get some love from me but is just as useful first level as it is at full level.


ABILITY EXPLANATION
BB is where you'll deal the most damage to a single target. Fray away from spamming it on minions unless it's in moderation. Rico handles minions for you. After throwing BB it will come back to your destination if you moved from the spot where you threw it originally. Use that aspect to your advantage. You can curve the blade to your will and damage an enemy on it's way back. This keeps the enemy's health low and makes you unpredictable while your safe at a distance.
Rico is pretty self explanatory. It's an auto attack that can be toggled on/off and hits multiple enemies simultaneously. The more you level it the more enemies it hits and deals 22% less attack damage to each additional target. Rico should always be on until your down to one target to where it should be off to conserve mana.
SS is not really a shied just because of the duration, but it's more like an elongated counter spell required to be used at just the right moment that's why I level it up last.
Here are some scenarios;
VS. Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow: Use SS when you see it coming towards you and can't be avoided. You can't avoid the damage but at least you have the same chances of getting away.

VS. Olaf's Undertow: It's not easy to see this coming and you should never be taking on a champ like Olaf by your self. Chances are that you will be the easy target between you and some other champ when you see him coming. Use SS to prevent from being slowed when he's within your range and heading towards you.

VS. Nunu's, Amumu's, Pantheon's, or Gankplank's Ultimate's: Nunu and Amumu's ult will be used most of the time in team battles regardless, the range of their ults is within your range of attack. If you want to attack you have no choice but to enter their circle of death. Before you do allow SS to absorb the status effect. You atleast get a warning with Panth's and GangPlank's Utimates and the same tactic is applied. Hit E and avoid the status effect of being slowed.

VS. Malzahar's Nether Grasp: The only warning you get is his approach and maybe a full mana bar over the toon. Before he's in range(if you let him get that close) let your SS absorb the stun affect and make that getaway or make him pay for what he's done if he's low enough in health and get a kill and still survive.
OTH does two things; 1. Enhances movement speed 2. Enhances attack speed. Both are granted within a radius of Sivir's position. All allies within that radius gets the enhancements. Combined with Rico, OTH is your team fights back bone you're giving all your teammates more movement and attack speed and you're damaging all your enemy champs simultaneously with Rico. BB and Rico are the abilities your going to be using often so those abilities would be the first to be leveled up completely by level 14 and OTH by level 15. By now your arsenal is complete once you get the SS down you can use all your abilities offensively and defensively simultaneously. If that made any sense.

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ITEMS:
(I've listed the entire order of the item sequence that I get in the Build Item Sequence window to display what I get as I level up)First weapon of choice; the Hextech Gunblade gives you most of what you need to be aggressive early game. Need health? Need mana? take it with the Hextech Gunblade it gives you spell vamp, life steal, along with attack damage, and ability power. It's activated ability if built in the order I've displayed can be activated by clicking on the item or the hot key 1 which represents the first slot in your item display. It will only fire at champs.

Boots of Mobility is a personal choice to move at a constant fast pace and to get a head start on a retreat or chasing down enemy champs faster. It's passive offers Enhanced Movement 2 which all your enemies will probably have. After 5 seconds of being out of combat you'll be the fastest champ on the map. If I feel the need to be more defensive I go with Ninja Tabi-the best alternative. Next in line is your Fiendish Codex to feed some mana and ability power to Sivir and to build up to your Nashor's tooth. Phage is next in line to build up to your Frozen Mallet. Then Stinger is next to increase your attack speed and reduce your cool downs.

With all the basics covered your ready to complete your core build with Frozen Mallet and Nashor's Tooth.

Stark's Fervor and Frozen Heart just go hand in hand for all the team fights late game.

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EARLY GAME(0-25min):
In the side lane you'll most likely get a kill with your partner from the bush and finish off an enemy champ that your picking off with a Ignite/BB combo. Don't use your smite right away on a champ that has a Heal spell and/or at full health. You'll see that it'll result in a wast of a spell. Check the champs that might have it during loading screen. After the initial gank successful or not build up some momentum to clear the lane of enemy minions and chip away at their turret until it's destroyed. Along the way you should be purchasing your items and taking advantage of your Teleport spell to get back into action strait away. After destroying the enemy turret clear off the nearby minion wave then move on to the next lane which would be mid.

EARLY GAME(MID LANE)
If you are going to solo mid lane and following the build, I would suggest a couple changes; Meki's Pendant as first item and build your way to a Fiendish Codex first rather than the Hextech Revolver and select Rico as your 1st level ability(This will change your Hextech Gun Blade hot key setting to 3). Accessorize with a Health Potion. There are several champs that will be a great challenge facing off with. Mordekaiser, Hiemerdinger, Katarina, and Malzahar will give you the most problems, but each champ can be dealt with by attacking their strength. What do I mean by this? Mordekaiser will rely heavily on his shield. His abilities cost health so to keep him at bay you'll have to make every swing of the BB count to deplete his shield forcing him to use more health to refill it. Once he's too low on health and hasn't refilled his shield, Ignite him to make him retreat so you can push. Ask the tank on your team to help you out if they can afford to because by level 6 Mordekaiser can easily take Sivir down. He is a tank after all. Hiemerdinger's turrets is what you aim for. Let it target a minion before you engage it. At first level Hiem has nothing else but his turret and basic attack to rely on. He will attack you if you go for his turret-don't sweat it you can take the hit as long as that turret goes down so you can push more easily. If you're aggressive enough you'll force him back to the point where he's obligated to hug his turret. Keep him there until you see the opportunity to take the turret. Make him aware of your range with BB so he plays defensively. As long as you can dodge his grenade and have at least 2 minions in front to take on his rockets you'll be fine. Katarina out ranks Sivir in all stats and doesn't need mana to perform abilities, but you do out range her with BB. Her strength is aggression. You're best bet is to be defensive, take out minion swarms as they come, and level. When you swing your BB make sure you're within range of the turret so when Katarina Shenpo behind you she'll regret it. If she's not getting anywhere with you she'll go for a side lane kill. Give your team a heads up and stay cautious as you push in her absence. Malzahar's Voidling/Call of the Void combo can be pretty devastating. He's very mana hungry early game. Let him waste mana by dodging COTV while you conserve yours. Hold off on using BB so you can push with Rico. After using his spell focus attack on him. If the voidling is present-that goes down first. When he's low enough on health sneak in an Ignite/BB combo to get the kill. Typically by level 5 you should have enough gold to get your Fiendish codex, Boots of Speed, Dagger and another Health Potion. Recall-shop-teleport back to target minion. Your goal in mid is to push and harass. If you happen to get a kill you are obviously doing well. Take out that turret if you can then move on to the lane that needs the most help.

MID GAME(25-45min):
I would say this is about 20min into the game. At this point if your doing well and stayed alive the whole time you're probably working on completing your core build. Keep tabs on your enemies at all times if you can. By now people have stopped calling mia's. Either because opposing champs are all over the map and no one knows who's ganking who or opposing champs are looking to get YOU. Poor defenseless Sivir; on her own with no one to back her up. Most of the time this is true in any situation. So what do you do if you have no mana to activate your abilities to avoid inevitable death from 2-3 champs from the opposing team? ALWAYS HAVE AN ESCAPE ROUTE! There are bushes to hide in and teleport to base, allied turret, or minion. In this case positioning is everything. The Teleport spell isn't interrupted under attack-that and careful positioning can make all the difference surviving a gank. Chasing an enemy down is so much fun once you get the Frozen Mallet. Slowing them down with a regular attack I sequence my attack as follows; BB, Ignite, 1(Hot Key), BB. If necessary use OTH for extra attacks and a sure way to stay close to get both hits from your BB. If chasing down an enemy that can slow/stun against you to get away use SS to continue a flawless chase. Mid game is all about pushing lanes and killing the opposition as you go. The most vulnerable lanes go down first.

LATE GAME(+45min):
Team fights will break out anywhere and everywhere. Your OTH will benefit your team even better with a Stark's Fervor and Frozen Heart. This late in the game it wouldn't be a good idea to solo so often. You're more of a threat if you are around your teammates to support them. If you do solo you break up the opposing team into two groups instead of a strong collective. This is a very delicate situation to gauge. When your teammates are all pushing a lane at once while you're somewhere else the opposing team has no choice but to divide themselves to stop you from pushing any more. Use that information to your advantage. You can Tele to your teammates if minions are available around them or hide in a bush after chipping away at a lane, as you tele away you'll prob be observing opposing champs looking for you; I consider this as baiting. Majority of the time STAY WITH YOUR TEAMMATES.

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TECHNIQUES/TACTICS

Minion Swarm - Lead an army of minions to the destruction of the turrets! You can lead an army towards a turret by taking down waves of enemy minions. Start off by taking down and enemy wave head on. Kill most of them leaving 1 or 2 to be finished off by the allied wave behind you. Move on to the next enemy wave this time killing all minions. As you repeat this process you'll see an accumulated amount of allied minions all with full life ready to assist you in taking a turret. When you can't stick around for too long OTH out of there leaving your minions with the buff.

Ward Call - 4 wards is all you need to infiltrate key areas of the map. I use vision wards to optimize the use of the teleport spell. The same can be used for allied abilities such as Teemo's mushrooms, Shaco's JITB, or Hiemerdinger's Turrets. In theory any champ with the spell can make use of this technique. Place a ward in each bush of each lane within the vacinity of enemy turrets and one near allied Golem or Lizard camp. Seeing how the wards only last 4 1/2 minutes use them as you need them. You could also use this when you're being out damaged while initiating Prey.

Prey - The attack sequence to claim your enemy. I suggest being opportunistic-get your Hextech Gunblade and Frozen Mallet before doing this. As you initiate a chase after a champ you know you can kill don't swing your BB until you get a hit off with your standard attack to slow them down with Frozen Mallet's effect. Your target might panic (if they know your BB can kill them) and throw a status effect at you, when the enemy champ turns to do this activate SS to press on. Once you've slowed them successfully with your basic attack-sequence your damage as so; OTH/Ignite/BB/1/BB(after 5sec cd). Make sure BB hits all 4 times for maximim ap/ad output. At level 14 in a uninterupted 6 second period you will deal at least 5,500 damage to a single target. This damage output is estimated assuming your target has armor.
Here's why:
4successful BB attacks 1,064(+616ap)=1680dmg
Base attack w/runes 102, from items 143=245ad
OTH grants at least 3 attacks/sec=735 damage/sec(approx. 18 base attacks total)=4410
Ignite deals 330 damage
H.T. GunBlade's active deals 300 damage
At most two critical hits; 914 damage

Feint - Use Sivir's vulnerability to her advantage. Her stats compared to any other champion of the game are anything but impressive or if I dare say-standard. This technique is more of a counter measure relying on an allied turret against a non-ranged champ. When an enemy champ is being way too aggressive to the point where it's pretty reckless-they might come after you when all minions are too busy attacking each other. Keep your BB range in mind. If you see their in range and charging swing BB and run back according to where BB will hit them on the way back. As they continue to pursue hit and retreat on the way to your tower. If they have a stun counter it with SS to shake it off. Bait them by letting them hit you a little giving them incentive to kill you as you approach the turret. As they are low on health and in tower's range Ignite/BB combo and claim your kill as the turret finishes them off.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
There aren't any closing thoughts. Never stop learning and always push your limits to see what you can and can't do. I've learned this much by sucking a lot in the beginning and learning from my mistakes. Sometimes I make mistakes on purpose to see what I can learn from that. Like I said take what you can get from this guide and I believe in always learning something new. The play style might not be for everyone and can be considered risky, but it works for me and any team I'm on. To be honest Sivir is not a very strong champ and that's part of the challenge I think. She's so balanced it's hard to focus on any one thing. Ability power benefits BB, Rico benefits from high attack damage, SS and OTH don't change unless you level, her abilities demand mana regen, her over all performance needs attack speed and movement speed. It wasn't easy coming across a build that offers all those benefits and more. In any case hf, gl, and gg!