Detailed Sivir guide, by a Platinum guy.

Alright, here is the first guide I will make on how to use, build and utilize a champion, and it's gonna be the one that I'm most experienced with, Sivir. The guide will include build paths, runes, match ups, timings, map pressure and micro-macro decisions and teamfighting aspects.

To start off, why pick Sivir? In the meta we are in, it's obvious that most things revolve around the ADC, for the reasons that everyone knows and won't state here. Therefore, getting your hands on an ADC is a good step to help you climb, as you will probably have the most influence in the game.

Now, out of all ADCs, why SIvir? Because she does so many things so well and she is a safe pick that can win you even the most unfavorable games. I'll explain. She has the best wave pushing ability in the entire game. This means that she can push waves really fast and get in tower threat range. If the enemy team is slow to respond, she can damage enemy towers quite fast and significantly, which is a win condition. Because of the wave pushing, she can also clear enemy minion waves crashing in the ally towers, defending them from enemy onslaught. Both these things are extremely important, because, if your team has an advantage, then Sivir will help pushing it further. If your team is behind, she can help stall the game by denying enemy pushes so that your team can buy time to try and catch up. Even in losing situations, she might get small chances to push side lanes with no response so quickly, that there might be a 1 for 1 trade.

What else apart from wave control? She is a late game teamfight monster. She has insane AoE damage with her W, has great safety with her E, depending on the enemy team comp (how many threats do they have?), while she also gets a lot of MS from her passive to kite really well AND offers a teamwide MS boost with her ultimate to engage or disengage. This means that she can solidify a favorable situation into a winnable teamfight, or avoid an unfavorable one.

These are the two most important factors of why pick Sivir. Best wave pushing and a lot of solo-safety and teamfighting damage.

Now, on to the next part. Runes. The main tree is pretty straightforward. Precision is good for granting the passive attack speed. Fleet Footwork is by far her best keystone. Good sustain in all stages of the game and a very big MS boost that synergizes perfectly with all the other boosts you have. Triumph or Overheal is up to you. I find success with both, but I mostly prefer Overheal, even though Sivir is short ranged. Since I'm able to push waves a lot, the enemy doesn't usually have lots of chances to retaliate on me, so I'm kept healthy quite often. Alacrity is necessary for the AS, since you are not building a lot of AS items. Last, Coup de Grace is the best choice because it's helpful throughout the entire game and against any enemy. For the secondary tree, here is the tricky part. Many pros and high elo players go into Sorcery and take Celerity and Gathering Storm. I understand Celerity, the bonus MS + the AD conversion is nice, but Gathering Storm doesn't seem good for soloQ, since you need a lot of combat efficiency from the start. That's why I go to the Resolve tree and pick Bone Plating and either Chrysalis or Second Wind. Second Wind if I'm against a long range ADC like Cait, or if the enemy support can poke as well, like Brand, Morgana. With those runes, I guarantee myself a lot of safety early. Seeing how Sivir isn't very strong early in combat, and her playstyle is to control the wave and win the lane by outcsing the enemy, having a lot of defensive traits is really good. Other runes that you might wanna try are the free boots + minion dematerializer from the inspiration tree. Free boots is good (1 free kill essentially), and minion demats will help you secure those important cannon minions and help you with your relentless tower pushing. Of course, feel free to experiment with the runes, but I feel my set up is the best because it kinda gives you a free pass to the mid game.

Itemization: Sivir's first three items should ALWAYS be the same. Her core items are Infinity Edge, Essence Reaver and a Zeal item. This way, she 1 shots the wave with her W, and gets insane damage in teamfights from that point on. If you get to play a lot of Sivir, you will FEEL the turn in powerspike once your purchase those three items.

Starting items: You would think you have 2 choices, between Doran's Blade and Doran's Shield, but I'd like to throw another one out there; Doran's Ring. Why, you might ask. It's kinda the same reasoning as why Jhin buys it. Seeing how you want to be pushing the lane, you need to use your W and maybe your Q quite often. Doran's Ring will help you regen a lot of mana, while also offering some HP and some AP to slightly amp the damage of Q. I haven't tried this a lot, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea, I only recently came up with it. The most optimal item to start with is the Shield. Same reasoning as runes; it makes you tanky. Combine the shield and the runes, and you have nothing to fear, if you do not make any big mistakes. Doran's Blade is still ok, but you are kinda losing out on the Lifesteal portion of it, since your abilities are AoE which means you lose a lot of potential AA damage on minions to heal back up. Sometimes, the low AA range doesn't allow you to AA either. That's why Shield is the most solid option.

Now, what to buy afterwards? Almost all the time, you want to pack as much AD as you can, therefore getting a BF sword on your first back is very important. This way, you will secure last hits easier, and you will also start pushing the waves so much faster and turn up the pace of the game. The push will be so hard, that you will find yourself hitting the enemy tower quite often, resulting in a lot of first towers, which you can then snowball off of. If you don't have money for BF Sword, a Pickaxe will suffice. If you are forced back with around 700 gold, then a couple of longswords or boots is still ok. Boots are very important on Sivir, since she doesn't have a repositioning spell, so any MS she can get is very important. The best first item to try and finish is Essence Reaver. It's build path is quite easy because you will often get your BF sword on your first back, and then you only need 800 gold for the crit item. Everything else is cheap, so you can base and buy items. Spending your gold is important! As soon as you get Essence Reaver, you want to work on your next item. At this point, you need to at least have tier 1 boots. If possible try to get tier two boots even before you complete ER. The options for boots are:

1. Berserker's Greaves: Decent AS that Sivir needs, since she build only 1 zeal item most of the time.
2. Ninja Tabi: I buy these the most, because they offer protection in lane. Since I'm low range, I can find myself in threat range of the enemy ADC, so reducing the damage the deal is important. I'm also more confident buying these when I see the enemy team having Yasuo, Khazix, Fiora, Jax etc. Even though, as I said, you don't generally build AS on Sivir, it's not required as much either, for reasons that I'll explain later.
3. I don't find any other boots really being good. Maybe Swiftness boots if you want the most MS possible, or if the enemy has a lot of slows (Trundle Pillar, Sion, Olaf).

As soon as you finish your boots and your ER, you must make a big decision as to what your next item will be. Most people like to try and get a zeal item. I prefer to go for Infinity Edge. Why? Because, as I stated above, Sivir's powerspike comes at three items. That's her time to shine. Everything up to that point should be stalling, staying safe and farming like a god. The best wave to stall and farm is to get as much AD as possible to clear the waves as fast as possible. This means that you spend less time attacking, which then means that 1) you put yourself in less danger and 2) it lets you leave the lane and go to another lane and farm / defend / push. Of course, if you feel like you are ahead of the curve and can fight, you can still try to get a Phantom Dancer, which is the best zeal item for Sivir (she makes use of all its passives to excellence). If you think you can take fights, then this is a better combat option. But I believe that the safest option is to get IE. Even if you get involved in a skirmish, you can AA - W (AA reset) and Q and almost kill any squishy champion. After all, early-mid game, you don't want to get involved in many fights, so poking with your Q and bouncing with your W is the most reliable way to deal damage and stay safe. Having more AD means you get to deal more damage. Once you get the three core items, you need to choose two more items to finish your build. Those are situational, but I believe a QSS- Mercurial Scimitar is very important. Having your spell shield to protect you, along with QSS, means that you should not ever get caught with CC so that you can kite and DPS. it also offers quite a lot of AD and some lifesteal, which are also important. Getting a Whisper item is good, but not always necessary, even if going against a lot of tanks, and that's because of how Sivir plays out the teamfights. Personally, I really like Death's Dance. It offers extra protection, along with spell shield, QSS and Phantom Dancer, while also offering tons of healing from her insane physical AoE damage. Guardian Angel is also one of my favorite items, especially if snowballing. Just the sight of this items will dissuade the enemy from blindly jumping on you, which is the key to winning. If you stay alive, you will melt everyone. Other options, but sub-optimal, are Bloodthirster, Maw of Malmortius (good against lots of AP burst, LB, Kata for example). Sometimes, seeing how my 3-item powerspike is so strong, I find myself eventually selling my boots to buy a Randuin's Omen, if I'm against multiple crit champions (Yasuo, Yi, Trynda, Kindred). It's an extremely strong item since it makes you extremely resistant against those champions, and when coupled with your GA, you will probably never die, while also dealing insane damage from your core items.

That's all about itemization. On to how to play. Sivir's early game is very tricky. She doesn't have many bad match ups, but there are a lot of skill match ups and you need to tread carefully. Her spell shield is a very powerful tool to keep herself safe, but at the same time, her low AA range can put her in dangerous situations. She has a good time against most supports, especially hookers, since she negates them with her E. One champion she is struggling against is Alistar, because she can't block his combo. For ADCs, the most trouble one should be Caitlyn because of her range and Lucian because of his all-in potential. Draven is also quite hard for the same reason as Lucian. Generally Sivir loses most, if not all, 1v1s. That's why her laning pattern is to relentlessly shove the lane, so that the enemy doesn't hit you, since they are forced to deal with the wave. She outpushes pretty much all other ADCs, so essentially, you win lane by avoiding fights. You get big leads by having more CS over your enemy, and chipping down the enemy tower. Towards the mid game, I stated above that you want to stall. Push out waves, stay safe, scale up fast. That's all you need to do. Take towers with your pushing, rotate around the map. Find the weak points in the enemy's resource allocation. For example if you managed to pick up bot tower (which you will find yourself doing quite often), then you can push that wave to the second tower, back and then go top with your support and maybe even with your top laner. The 3v1 situation up there will probably grant you another tower, maybe even a kill, or the Rift Herald. Meanwhile, the enemy bottom lane will be busy defending their bot lane. Having a lot of early AD means you can shove hard, while also dealing a lot of damage with your Q. As soon as you take top tower, you can rotate to mid. With the same mindset, the enemy can't match you because you have pushed the side lanes. Take mid tower, then proceed to taking control of the river and the enemy camps. AT ALL TIMES, make sure that every lane is defended. Don't give up cs just because you have some free time with a tower. You are almost guaranteed to get the enemy towers one way or another, so picking up that 15 minion wave and defending your own tower is much more important. More solo gold and xp, while defending your tower. MAKE SURE that you push out the lanes before grouping to another lane to take towers or other objectives. As I have stated quite a lot of times, her pushing power is insane, so it only takes a few seconds for such a big reward. You can safely push to secondary towers as well, since you can avoid ganks with your E and R. Try to farm the jungle as much as you can. For example, pick up that Raptor camp. It's easy to take with your AoE damage. While rotating form one lane to another, spend 6-7 seconds to clear the camp, regardless of your jungler. You getting that farm is far more important than the jungler getting it. YOU need to be strong, because YOU will hard push, hard carry. Don't steal everything though to the point that your jungler gets starved and is useless. As soon as you get three items, now is that time to start fighting. Start grouping with your team and push towers, while also looking for fights. Your R is an insane engage tool, because not only does it give a lot of MS to engage with, but it's psychological mostly. As soon as you R, your team KNOWS that you gotta move in, so it's good communication-wise. Seeing how coordination in soloQ is hard to accomplish, having her ulti be such a good tool to coordinate makes it very important.

On to how to teamfight. Sivir's teamfight might seem simple. You activate W, throw Q and autoattack and hope that your bounces reach the backline. Yeah, that's the general idea. You stay back, AA the tank that jumps on you, and you will deal a lot of damage to the entire team. The thing is, it's not that simple. Sivir is probably the champion that relies on kiting the most. Since she has no mobility spells (like Trist W, Vayne Q, Lucian E), she needs to position near perfectly to avoid dying, while also carefully watching the enemy abilities to know when she should spell shield something. Her W is an AA reset, so while kiting, you need to maximize your DPS by utilizing the reset flawlessly. Sometimes, you have no choice for target selection since you have low range, but try to find openings whenever you can. Sometimes even, I find myself flashing into the enemy team during the chaos of the teamfight and I unload my Q AA W for massive damage. I might get taken down, but I know at that point, I've killed like 3 enemies already. It's risky, so you need to know when and where to use tricks like these. Experience is the most important factor. As a low AS champion, god-kiting like Jinx or Tristana isn't gonna happen, so you need to "feel" the champion to know when to be moving and when to be attacking. Also, knowing the damage you can dish out is important in any stage; from taking a lane 1v1 to late game teamfighting mechanics.

Tips and Tricks: Try to throw your Q so that it hits your enemy at max distance, so you get both hits in. Also, try to hit them directly, so that you get the full damage. Moving sideways will also change the direction of your return Q, so you can hit an enemy sidestepping. Another trick is to Q-flash. If you want an AA and a Q to kill your enemy, but you are afraid of the enemy dodging your Q, then pressing Q and instantly flash towards them will make it so that your Q will start from the spot you are AFTER the flash (same as Ahri's Charm, Cassio's R, Lee's Kick). That way, you get maximum distance (so you get to hit them even if they flash backwards), you get the option to pointblank hit them, and also hit them directly for maximum damage. It's a cool trick to know.

W is an AA reset. If you find yourself missing a minion because your AA timer is reloading, then you might want to waste some mana using W to get that instant AA off. It will secure you a lot of cs. It also allows for a lot of burst, especially later in the game. AA + W + Q is deadly when you have your core three items.

Use your spell shield wisely, since it's on a big cooldown early. But you can also use it aggressively to restore mana. If you know you won't be in harm's way in the next 20 seconds, then you can use spell shield and walk over a Caitlyn trap, restoring mana required to shove the lane. You gotta know when you can do that though, because sometimes you might get engaged / poked against.

Your R has a passive that grants you attack speed when your W is active. Use this when you are trying to take down towers or objectives. The AA reset + the AS bonus is incredibly useful.

You get a lot of MS when attacking champions! If you find yourself getting chased down and have no R, consider using Q to hit an enemy and gain extra MS!

It's better to be safe than sorry. If you get ganked and find that your way to safety is hard or risky, just use your ultimate. Both you and your support will survive, at the cost of your R. It's not a big cooldown, and you will rarely find yourself using it aggressively early on.

Use your summoner spells wisely! This applies to all champions, but on Sivir, it's even more important. Know when you need to use flash to escape or secure a kill, and when not to. Flash is ESSENTIAL on Sivir. Wasting it to pick up a kill that would either be secured by another ally, or a kill that doesn't grant much advantage CAN and SHOULD be avoided. For example, if we are at a Baron fight and we manage to kill the enemy ADC and mid laner, and the remaining enemies are low, flashing in to kill the enemy support Rakan isn't a wise choice. Sure, it makes the Baron take less risky, it grants you some gold, but the thing is, the Baron is still almost risk-free either way, and the extra gold at 30 minutes in won't make much of a difference. It's much more useful to have Flash up in the upcoming teamfight during a siege. Same (but to a lesser extent) goes for Heal. Generally, you want to be careful with your summoners. Don't get greedy using them offensively, don't be greedy trying to save them and dying in the process, either. Well, technically, if your death won't mean much, you can save them, of course.

A quick re-cap to why picking Sivir over other ADCs. -Caitlyn. Has long range and good lane presence, but has a big power gap during mid game and doesn't have the most damage late game. Not the best champion to carry with. -Vayne. Very exploitable early. Can't really push waves and really needs a lot of time. Her's and SIvir's late game are comparable, but Sivir has presence throughout all game. -Varus. He doesn't have as much pushing power as Sivir, and his late game damage aren't as strong as hers. He shines during the mid game.

Those are some examples. Generally, you need to realize how each elo bracket works to understand why SIvir is very good in almost all of them. There are two main scenarios. You either have your team stomping the enemy, to which point Sivir cements that big lead with relentless pushing, or you are the ones getting stomped, and THIS is why you pick Sivir mostly, this is where Sivir is head and shoulders above every other champion in the game. In these scenarios, Sivir enables the user to stall the game and stay safe. It enables the user to defend tower and try to hold the enemy snowballing. Sometimes it might not be possible, but SIvir has high chances of succeeding in this. The way she works means that she can jumpstart everyone to get a lot of gold, just by farming. So yeah, seeing how you might get stomped early, Sivir is the champion that will give you the highest chances of stalling and turning it around.

That's all for now. I hope I helped people out with this guide. Have fun on the rift!