Carry Time: A Sivir Guide

Hey everyone! Kelly here with another Carry Time guide, this time featuring Sivir, the Battle Mistress. I played Sivir a lot when I first started to play League of Legends, but she has since fallen off many people’s radars, even after her rework. I think and feel that Sivir is a diamond in the rough, and can actually be quite useful in battle. She brings a lot to the table, and she is quite underrated and under-utilized. Read on to find out how to build and carry in game as Sivir!

Why Play Sivir?

Sivir has, arguably, the best pushing ability in the game. She can farm minions like no other. Her abilities work well when it comes to killing minions. Her W ability (Ricochet) causes her next 3 basic attacks to deal damage and bounce to nearby enemies. That ability combined with the poke of her Q ability (Boomerang Blade) and items like Statikk Shiv make Sivir a farming monster. Her E ability (Spell Shield) protects her against a single enemy ability, and if an ability is blocked by the shield, she regains mana. When timed correctly, Sivir’s Spell Shield can turn the tide in team fights, and since her spells cost a ton of mana early on, this causes her to be mana hungry, her E can come in handy in a lot of different situations. She also has a decent amount of mobility with her passive Fleet of Foot, which gives her extra movement speed every time she hits a champion with Boomerang Blade, Ricochet, or a basic attack. Sivir’s ultimate On the Hunt also increases her and her allies’ movement speed for a short period of time.

Runes

Marks- Attack Damage x9- Equipping these marks will help you deal a lot more damage early on and can help you CS better in lane, and since Sivir is an insane pusher, these attack damage runes will definitely come in handy.

Seals- Armor x9- Another good pick up. These will help you have a bit more sustainability in lane and will help Sivir lose less health when poking or fighting enemies. Sivir is extremely squishy early on, so having armor runes equipped definitely help a lot.

Glyphs- Magic Resist x9- The best choice here. Helps decrease the magic damage put out by enemy champions in lane. If you have a support laning against you that is really good at harassing and poking like Annie or Sona, these glyphs combined with Sivir’s Spell Shield ability will really work well.

Quintessences- Lifesteal x3 OR Lifesteal x2 and Attack Damage x1- Having Lifesteal Quintessences equipped will help you so much with sustain, especially early on. If you start off with a Doran’s Blade, which restores health every time you hit an enemy with a basic attack, Lifesteal Quintessences will build upon that. Alternatively, you can also equip 2 Lifesteal and 1 Attack Damage Quintessence if you want to add a little extra damage to Sivir so she can farm and clear minion waves even better than she already does.

Masteries

I use the standard 21/9/0 ADC mastery for Sivir. I would recommend to put points in a lot of slots that can give you increased damage like Havoc and Warlord. Having extra damage on Sivir just makes her even more deadly in lane. In the defense mastery tree, picking up points in Recovery, Veteran Scars, and Juggernaut give you a decent amount of bonus health. Block and Unyielding are also good for decreasing the amount of damage you take in.

Summoner Spells

Barrier and Flash are so good on ADC champions, especially Sivir. Having barrier is a great tool for baiting your enemy in a trade situation, plus, it helps you survive in a fight that you normally wouldn’t be able to live through. It also gives Sivir an extra shield (in addition to her E), and hey, you can never have enough shields in my opinion. Flash is amazing as well. It helps you escape from team fights, but in Sivir’s case especially, it can also be used to chase down enemies. With the help of Fleet of Foot, On the Hunt and Flash, you can close the gap and finish off champions you wouldn’t normally be able to reach without the use of Flash.

Abilities

Fleet of Foot (Passive) - Sivir only has 500 attack range at level one, and that is quite low compared to other ADC champions, so she needs all the help she can get to harass and chase down her enemies, and Fleet of Foot does a good job of doing that by giving Sivir movement speed for 2 seconds when she lands a hit on an enemy champion with a basic attack, Boomerang Blade, or Ricochet. This can most definitely help you close the gap and secure kills so you can become a terror in lane.

Boomerang Blade (Q) - This can do so much damage, but it will drain your mana fast if you spam it to clear minions, so be somewhat conservative when using it. I would recommend to only use it early on when you are absolutely sure you can hit someone with it. Boomerang Blade can catch a lot of enemies off guard, since it does have a return trip as well and deals damage on its way back to Sivir. Building attack damage items like Bloodthirster will help your Boomerang Blade hit even harder and inflict even more damage. In terms of skill order, I like to level Boomerang Blade at level 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. In between leveling Boomerang Blade, I like to level up Ricochet, or in rare cases, I like to level up Spell Shield at level 2 if I am against an AP heavy team comp.

Ricochet (W): Ricochet has Sivir’s next 3 auto-attacks deal damage to and bounce to additional targets. It also applies on-hit effects, but only to the attacked target. So, for example, if you were to build an item like Black Cleaver on Sivir, the armor reducing effect would be applied to said target. Also, if you use On the Hunt while Ricochet is active, you will gain increased attack speed, which is excellent for farming lane. If you have a lot of damage built in Sivir, Ricochet can definitely do a lot of damage to enemies, as well as minions. I level Ricochet at level 2, then alternate between leveling that ability and Boomerang Blade.

Spell Shield (E) - Pretty self-explanatory. Using Spell Shield will create a barrier, which will block a single enemy ability used on Sivir. Also, if the ability is successfully blocked by Spell Shield, you will regain mana as well. This is an extremely useful ability in fights, but you need to know how to use it correctly. Don’t waste it on an auto-attack that doesn’t do anything. Wait until an enemy uses an ability that can burst you down quickly, then pop the Spell Shield to block it. This is a difficult skill to master, because your enemies can bait you into using it. If you spam it all the time, your enemy knows that they can trick you into using it when you don’t really need to, thereby wasting it and not having it around when you REALLY need it. If the enemy team contains a champion that can burst others down quickly like Kassadin or Leblanc for example, Spell Shield is a good way to counteract all the damage they put out. I start leveling up Spell Shield at level 4 (or in some cases level 5), and then after I level both Boomerang Blade and Ricochet, I start putting more points into Spell Shield until it gets fully leveled up.

On the Hunt (R) - This is definitely one of the most useful ultimates in the game in my opinion. If you want to focus on farming and killing minions, popping On the Hunt not only increases your movement speed, but adds attack speed to Ricochet, allowing Sivir to clear waves even faster. It really helps with pushing lanes and clearing turrets at a fast pace. If your enemy is getting away, On the Hunt is a good way to take them out, and is a great initiation for team fights. It’s also useful for escaping and getting away from a potentially bad situation. I level up this ability as much as possible when it’s available, like all champion’s ultimate abilities.

Build

This is what I usually like to build on Sivir. A Doran’s Blade is a good start on any ADC champion, as it gives you damage, lifesteal, and health- 3 very important aspects of every champion. It gives you a lot of sustain in lane combined with Lifesteal Quintessences. I use the extra bit of gold I have at the beginning to pick up a health potion, which is pretty self-explanatory.

If I only have a little gold after my first back, I usually pick up boots, which is always great for that extra bit of movement speed. Even though boots are standard on all champions, they are especially useful on Sivir, as Fleet of Foot gives her extra movement speed when she uses a basic attack, Ricochet, or Boomerang Blade, and that builds onto the movement speed she gets from her boots. On the Hunt also gives Sivir and her allies a massive amount of movement speed. If I have a large amount of gold on my first back, I will invest in a Vampiric Scepter and B.F. Sword. A Vampiric Scepter gives you the sustain that is needed to survive in lane, and B.F. Sword gives Sivir a great amount of damage early on. Once built into a Bloodthirster (my second item that I purchase), it can help Sivir scale really well into the later aspects of the game.

I absolutely love to build Statikk Shiv on Sivir. It helps her farm and clear minions so fast, and once you build Statikk Shiv on her, she really starts to snowball in my opinion. The most interesting part of Statikk Shiv is that once you build the 100 charges on it and the charges are released, they deal damage to up to 4 targets. So, if you use Statikk Shiv, and then Ricochet, you can clear waves fast and inflict a large amount of damage. It also gives her a little bit of movement speed, which is especially good on Sivir due to her Fleet of Foot passive and On the Hunt ultimate. If I am behind in lane, I like to build into the Avarice Blade first, so I can get a little extra gold and close the gap. If I am relatively even or ahead in lane, I just stick to building into Zeal.

Infinity Edge is a standard item on all ADC’s, and there’s a reason why: it gives you a TON of damage, as well as critical strike, and those are two very important aspects when it comes to any AD-oriented items. Along with Bloodthirster, this items scales really well on late game, and gives a noticeable power boost to Sivir. Last Whisper is a great item, as it gives you a bit of damage, but most of all, a lot of armor penetration. This will help Sivir shut down enemies a lot quicker, especially the tankier ones that are beefy and build a lot of armor. If you are ahead in game, your AD-oriented items like Bloodthirster and Infinity Edge combined with Last Whisper will help you absolutely shred through enemies.

There are many different options for the last item slot. You can go with Phantom Dancer, which provides pretty much the same stats as Statikk Shiv, as well as preventing unit collision and allowing Sivir to walk through minions. If you are against enemies that have a lot of CC like Nasus, Fiddlesticks, or Leona, then Mercurial Scimitar is a very good option. The active on it acts like the Summoner Spell Cleanse and removes all debuffs from your champion. This can be insanely useful in late game team fights when someone with hard CC makes an initiation and locks you down. Another item option, which is the only I mainly use, is Guardian’s Angel. If you are the main focus of the enemy team, this a great survival option. It essentially gives you a second life. If there is a high-burst champion on the enemy team like Akali, and they focus you and kill you, Guardian’s Angel will revive you with 30% of your maximum health and mana. Sivir can farm and Lifesteal back up quickly, so getting back to full health shouldn’t be a problem after using Guardian’s Angel.

Sivir is a great champion that can do so much with her kit. Once she gets going with the right items and a large amount of CS, she gains a large amount of power and snowballs really hard. She is overlooked by so many players, but she brings a lot to the plate and is definitely a champion worth playing. I really hope reading this guide turned you guys on to the idea of using an awesome champion like Sivir!