I bet y'all didn't know Sivir had AP scaling.

• Spending 875 gold on Pickaxe would grant 25 AD, or +27.5 damage added to Boomerang Blade.
  
  
• Spending 850 gold on Blasting Wand would grant 40 AP, or +20 damage added to Boomerang Blade.

Is it safe to estimate that AD is around 33% better than AP? Not necessarily.

• The above calculations were made assuming Boomerang Blade is at max rank, with 110% AD scaling. At level 1, Boomerang Blade has only 70% AD scaling, making AP equally valuable in ranged match-ups. Only when the ability is maxed can AD be considered to be vastly superior.
  
  
• One benefit of building AP is in the cheap CDR and mana which aren't found in AD components. For example, Lost Chapter would be comparable to buying Caulfield's Warhammer and Sapphire Crystal at a cheaper cost.
  
  
• Roughly one-third of the value of most completed AD items is in critical chance, life steal, lethality, or attack speed. None of these stats are beneficial for supporting. Only lethality benefits Q damage.

In short, AP easily competes with AD early in the game for this particular play style.

Ultimately, AP items are better for the true purpose behind Sivir's abilities:

...to control the speed of team fights. Even Sivir's passive Fleet of Foot suggests a play style based on mobility.

• AP items naturally have better options for area-of-effect utility. Youmuu's Ghostblade is a strong pick-up for speed and Boomerang Blade damage, but its speed boost is only applied to self and it's missing the +100% base mana regeneration that Shurelya's Battlesong has.
  
  
• AD items are more expensive and offer less utility. That's because AD items are balanced around the possibility of auto-attacking, which support Sivir doesn't do a lot of. AP items are balanced around, well, abilities.
  
  
• Frozen Mallet isn't applied on Ricochet bounces and so Rylai's Crystal Scepter does a better job of slowing enemies.

Sivir is one of the hardest counters to Thresh, Morgana, and Pyke in existence.

• Spell Shield sets Sivir apart from other ranged supports, allowing her to "body-block" linear skill shots in a similar fashion to Braum's Unbreakable.
  
  
• Boomerang Blade offers high-damage poke on a short cooldown. Its base damage + AD/AP scaling equals 184 at level 1 if it hits twice (in addition to Scorch and Summon Aery damage).
  
  
• Its range is comparable to that of artillery mages such as Vel'Koz and Xerath.

Mid-late game, On The Hunt is only down for 47 seconds with 45% CDR.

• On The Hunt with 45% CDR provides a semi-global presence to Sivir's team.
  
  
• Sivir can run bot or top to collect a minion wave, check brushes with Q, then rotate to a fight in mid lane with R.

Boomerang Blade has a monstrous collision radius, unlocking unique playstyles through itemization after 45% CDR.

• Easily apply Grievous Wounds with Executioner's Calling.
  
  
• Assist the primary ADC with Black Cleaver / Zeke's Convergence.
  
  
• Control the movement of both teams with Rylai's Crystal Scepter / Glacial Augment items.

See the items section for more details.

One might argue that Sivir with Essence Reaver and blue buff fulfills a similar role with 40% CDR and has much more damage with crit and attack speed.

Neither Boomerang Blade, nor On The Hunt, nor Spell Shield scale with attack speed or crit.

• Only one ability makes use of crit and attack speed, and that's the one we won't put a single point in until level 8: Ricochet.
  
  
• Not even Sivir's passive Fleet of Foot scales with attack speed or crit.

A traditional ADC build is extremely expensive, costing upwards of 10400 gold to be considered powerful.

• Support Sivir's full 6-item build costs 9650 gold and potentially less when Frostfang's gold income is accounted for.
  
  
• With it, Sivir obtains vision control, on-demand speed, healing reduction, limitless poke, and a powerful team-fighting buff in Zeke's Convergence.

Karma is the closest competitor among support champions as far as providing a team-wide burst of speed.

Let's compare each of their abilities, one by one.

	vs.
R		R > E

• On The Hunt movement speed bonus lasts much longer than Defiance, at 8 seconds versus 2.5 seconds.
  
  
• On The Hunt has a wider reach, with an effect radius of 1000 compared to Defiance's 600.

	vs.		and
Q		Q		R > Q

• Boomerang Blade is generally easier to land on two enemies.
  
  
• Soulflare leaves a powerful zoning field, which can help to disengage.

	vs.
E		E

• Spell Shield is comparable to Inspire in certain match-ups (i.e. Thresh, Nautilus).

	vs.
W		W

• Focused Resolve is more useful against melee supports.
  
  
• Both abilities are similarly useless against high-range enemies.

Morgana is the support most people think of when they want to negate crowd control.

Let's again compare each ability, starting with their respective spell shields.

	vs.
E		E

• Spell Shield has a significantly shorter cooldown than Black Shield.
  
  
• Spell Shield is more difficult to use in terms of timing, but it's also easier in that it doesn't need to be targeted.
  
  
• Black Shield has the advantage of being able to negate multiple abilities, but also none at all if her opponents deal enough magic damage to break the shield first.

	vs.
W		W

• Even comparison. No clear winner here.

	vs.
Q		Q

• Dark Binding provides crowd control which Sivir lacks and sometimes desperately needs.
  
  
• Boomerang Blade provides great raw damage and higher accuracy, but Dark Binding generally results in even greater total damage if it helps the ADC reach the target.
  
  
• The final verdict on this comparison is that Dark Binding is superior, but only marginally.

	vs.
R		R

• On The Hunt is more flexible. Whereas both tools can be used to engage or disengage, Soul Shackles is more conducive towards disengage situations and relatively difficult to use for engage.
  
  
• On The Hunt has a wider reach, with an effect radius of 1000 compared to Soul Shackles' 625. Morgana is often required to complete Zhonya's Hourglass to effectively use her ultimate without dying. Sivir doesn't have this problem.

Sivir has no CC to disable fed assassins.

Take Exhaust if you foresee this being a problem.

Sivir is relatively weak to ganks.

She tends to push the lane, and her spell shield won't protect the ADC against spells from 3 enemies. Stealth Ward and Control Ward up.

Spell Shield requires superhuman reaction time against many abilities.

1.5 second duration means you have to either predict or react, unlike Morgana's Black Shield which can sometimes be used as a deterrent.

Spell Shield is a selfish tool by design.

It won't help allies against things which can't be body-blocked, such as Leona's Shield of Daybreak, Blitzcrank's Power Fist, and Nautilus' Staggering Blow.

Teammates will typically be against you for playing Sivir support in any way, shape, or form.

There's no way around this one. League of Legends can bring out toxicity and distrust in people, and your AP Sivir support might just be the trigger to their short fuse. If you perform poorly, you will likely be reported (though nothing will happen if you simply play your game). Don't be surprised if your ADC intentionally feeds as soon as you die once. Every off-meta specialist has this burden.

Summon Aery and Scorch add even more poke damage to Sivir's Q,

allowing her to accumulate enough kill pressure to compete with any traditional support in the bot lane.

Spellthief's Edge is an incredible starting item for Sivir.

It makes her Q stronger at level 1 than an ADC Sivir with Doran's Blade, as Q has a low AD scaling at level 1.

Executioner's Calling has extreme synergy with Boomerang Blade and Ricochet.

The item inflicts Grievous Wounds on enemies via any physical damage. Boomerang Blade is physical damage, and it has one of the most monstrous collision radii of all physical damage abilities in League of Legends.

What else could possibly compare? Varus Q? Caitlyn Q? Jinx R? Ashe's Volley (W) is decent, but it doesn't pass through minions or the first champions hit.



How often have you played against Soraka, Dr. Mundo, and Vladimir only to have your teammates build full AP and not a single Morellonomicon or Executioner's Calling? No worries, Sivir support is here to save the day.

Glacial Augment opens an alternate speed manipulation play style for Sivir in cases where kill pressure from Summon Aery may not be reliable.

Note: Alternate build path explanations will be coming in future revisions of this guide.

Sivir boils down to two principles.

• Don't miss Q. Predict which direction the enemy will dodge towards. Strafe horizontally in the same direction after throwing Q, applying trigonometry to hit your target twice. (video example)
  
  
• Don't mistime E. Sivir is an AD carry by design, and thus most of her usefulness is in staying alive and being a consistent threat. Her only form of crowd control is death. If you die first, you are vastly inferior to other champions in the support role.

She has very few intricacies, but they are worth utilizing.

• When clearing wards, use Ricochet as an auto-attack reset.
  
  
• When being chased, throw Q to activate Fleet of Foot's bonus speed.
  
  
• Use On The Hunt to get closer to allies, as its effects last 8 seconds. This also helps you get into a more favorable position to tag multiple allies with Shurelya's Battlesong.
  
  
• Don't be too reluctant to use On The Hunt to speed up minions and help your team reach a tower faster after a victorious fight.

LEVEL 1

Push for level 2 and poke at the same time with Boomerang Blade.

LEVEL 2

Save mana for your level 3 power spike. Use Spell Shield to mitigate enemy aggression and maintain a healthy mana pool. It's not wise to spam Q off cooldown at this point.

LEVEL 3

It becomes worthwhile to be aggressive with Boomerang Blade again, as it will be at its second rank.

LEVEL 4

You have two options:
In most games, you will want to invest a second point into E at level 4 to conserve mana. This is usually the case against melee supports who have high base health pools and dangerous high-cooldown abilities.

Don't forget to take W at level 8 if you choose this route.

Sometimes, you need extra damage to win a close fight. If your opponents' health pools and yours are equally low, Ricochet may be the deciding attack to ensure your ADC's Triumph is activated. This happens more often against ranged supports who have low base health pools.

See the THREATS & SYNERGIES section for more insight into specific match-ups.

LEVEL 5

Boomerang Blade becomes powerful again, at its third rank.

LEVEL 6

This is when your jungler will reach level 6 as well. Look for decisive engages to secure dragon, or thwart enemy engages and then turn them around with any remaining On The Hunt duration.

LEVEL 7

Boomerang Blade becomes powerful again, at its fourth rank.

LEVEL 8

Here's another reminder to put a point in Ricochet if you invested a point in Spell Shield instead at level 4. At this point, Sivir needs into transition to being a secondary ADC for her team.

LEVEL 9

Boomerang Blade is finally maxed, on a 3.85-second cooldown with 45% CDR. Congratulations, you are now a beast. But if your other lanes are losing horribly, you are in serious danger of getting bursted before you can use any abilities. Itemize accordingly.

LEVEL 10

Spell Shield has an 8.8-second cooldown at its third rank with 45% CDR.
Transcendence kicks in at this level, to guarantee you reach CDR cap.

LEVEL 11

On The Hunt has a 55-second cooldown at its second rank with CDR maxed. This means a downtime of 47 seconds.

At the end of the day, Sivir isn't meant to be a consistently top-tier pick in the support role. If Boomerang Blade's AP scaling is ever removed, or if the cooldown of On The Hunt is raised, this build will become obsolete. That makes her a good situational counter-pick, at best. It serves a similar purpose to what Miss Fortune support did for ROX Tigers in Season 6 Worlds against SKT. Sivir is deceptively challenging to play, requiring precise timing and a sharp instinct for reading the enemy's mind. Despite these difficulties, there is an aspect of elegance in its simplicity. Every time you successfully block a spell, you will feel rewarded. Every time you land a full-damage boomerang, you will feel powerful. If you enjoy chucking pizzas at your enemies, I'm sure you'll find some enjoyment playing AP Sivir support ;)

Version history:

• [Oct. 6, 2019] 1st completed version, play-tested in Plat IV solo queue
• [Oct. 20, 2019] promoted to Plat III solo queue

To be added:

• Comprehensive match-up guide
• Why not other lanes (top/mid)?
• When to build lethality vs. utility
• When and how to use Glacial Augment