The current ARAM meta may be the most chaotic form of League of Legends yet.
One champion whose state in ARAM has been affected is Sivir. Sivir is a champion that is generally popular and most people own but has a relatively low pick percentage compared to other ADCs. Her relatively lower pick rate may be due to her basic kit. This lends itself to at most two different play styles, both very simple. But actually piloting her well is anything but easy, as her simple kit requires good ADC mechanics and good positioning. This playstyle is even more prominent in the new meta as Sivir has moved from a poke champion toward full crit.
This article will dive into the current status of Sivir in the meta. We will also give tips on how to play her. Last, we will look to see if her position in the meta will change.
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Table of Contents
Current State of Sivir in ARAM
Sivir’s win rate has gone down at a consistent rate as the meta has progressed from the first pre-season patch to patch 12.23. This is where the largest dip is — with its rework of ARAM — as has been the case with many other ADCs. But after 12.23, her win rate has improved slowly. The earlier pre-season patches introduced items that made assassins, bruisers, and other beefy characters stronger. ADCs did not get much outside of an update of Navori Quickblades, a niche alternative to Infinity Edge. In 12.23, the Howling Abyss got updated with increased magic resistance for melee characters, less damage by non-ultimates at longer than 1000 range, and reduced life-steal on minions. As Sivir was mainly played as a poke champion with the lethality build before the patch, the drastic drop in win rate makes sense.
Over time, the ARAM meta has changed from the pre-season patch to 12.23 and beyond (maybe people being sweaty for ARAM clash is to blame?). Now juggernaut comps — that consist of beefy characters and some supportive elements — are performing very well. Juggernauts — who are mostly bruisers — can build items like Jak’Sho, the Protean, and Ravenous Hydra to both do massive AOE damage and be nigh-on impossible to kill. These are difficult for ADCs to go against if they do not have a very strong frontline that can tank for them. Certain ADCs can deal with it, but most will just get run over.
So exactly how well is Sivir currently fairing in this ADC dilemma? At higher levels, she’s still performing well with an above 50% win rate, and overall her win rate is at about 50%. This is likely due to her high AOE damage and movement speed that can be used to kite back against juggernaut comps by competent players.
The reason she’s slowly improving after the dip at the 12.23 patch is most likely due to her strong synergy with juggernauts with the movement speed buff from her ultimate, so she can enable juggernauts without strong engage even without the use of snowballs.
Builds
The most common build for Sivir is pure crit ADC with Kraken Slayer, Phantom Dancer, and Infinity Edge which allows her to maximize auto attack uptime and do some damage on tankier targets. Against juggernaut compositions it may also be good to build Navori Quickblades instead of Infinity Edge, maximizing the AOE damage output by massively reducing the cooldown of Q and E. It would also increase survivability by reducing the cooldown of Spell Shield. But this is a far less common option.
Poke Build
This build is significantly less used than before the 12.23 patch and appears to be performing worse. This can be explained by lethality not being particularly strong against tanky targets and has some problems against juggernaut comps. Sivir’s Q, Boomerang Blade, which did a large part of the damage of the lethality build also got a significant indirect nerf in the ARAM rework patch. All damage done from a range further than 1000 units was nerfed from a flat 15% damage reduction to a scaling one from 15% up to 30% based on the range, up to a max range of 2000 units. Sivir’s Q has a range of 1250 units, so its damage could be reduced by 18.75%. It is possible that the damage could be gimped even further if the damage reduction is based on your position relative to the boomerang when it hits, as you can move further away while it flies.
Lethality Build
This build is still performing decently well and would probably still be good against comps with low armor or where you have a hard time auto attacking. An alternative to the lethality build that is less popular is Ravenous Hydra builds, which work in similar ways to lethality but do more AOE damage and some good damage to armored targets. These builds can go into crit or lethality or alternatively go full-on spell damage with items like Muramana and Syrelda’s.
For runes on Sivir, if one can auto attack consistently, lethal tempo is the best alternative with the crit build. If one is only allowed small bursts of auto attacks, Press the Attack is better, as one can proc it quickly with the auto attack reset of W.
How to Play Her
Though Sivir can auto attack more freely than many other ADCs due to having Spellshield, in the current meta, there are fewer skill shots to dodge or absorb, and more juggernauts running at you. But even here, Sivir may shine. As Sivir’s role in the current meta would be to either kite back while auto attacking or help her team run at the opposing team, it makes sense to build her with movement in mind. Having Ghost as a summoner, building Phantom Dancer, and Lethal Tempo as a rune choice as the increased range can help her keep auto attacking. She also fits well into this meta with her ultimate, where she can support juggernaut comps by giving movement speed, making them even more powerful.
So, as indicated by her win rate, how you play her is very impactful on her performance. This is due to the current best builds for her having high skill expression, with high movement speed and a need to position for consistent auto attacks. How you use your spell shield is also crucial, saving it for the spells that could catch you out while weaving in auto attacks without getting caught. The ultimate also requires one to know what one’s team wants to do, and use it accordingly. For many, this is peak AD carry gameplay. This playstyle will suffer against long-range poke comps, where it is likely better to go with the old-school lethality poke build or the AD caster build.
Conclusion: Sivir in ARAM in a Steady State
Sivir is still performing very well considering how much her damage is nerfed overall in ARAM, and the fact that she got hit directly by some of the changes in patch 12.23. But it also makes sense as most of her kit is fantastic for teamfights, both in doing a lot of damage and supporting her team.
Sivir, similarly to Miss Fortune, is an ADC that has often previously been played as poke in ARAM. Also the same as Miss Fortune, due to this, her damage is heavily gimped by ARAM modifiers, with -15% reduced damage done and +5% damage taken. Since she is performing decently well and may yet perform even better in the future, it is likely that this will remain unchanged.
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