Full Build Friday - Sivir the Battle Mistress [Orc Kineticist] (Patreon)

Sometimes you find a feat or two that completely cracks open a build for you. That was the case for this build. I was playing in a campaign and a player brought up a feat that they were gaining, and as I was listening, I started thinking. I realized that the feat they were talking about would work perfectly for Sivir from League so despite her being nobody's request, much less anybody's favorite character, I thought I'd give her a try.

As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choices may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.

Stride across the sands to see this build for Sivir the Battle Mistress from League of Legends!

SIVIR, THE BATTLE MISTRESS

CHARACTER Sivunas ‘Sivir’ Alahair

SOURCE League of Legends

BUILD GOALS

o    Born in the deserts of Shurima, Sivir lost her parents young and took to looting ruins to survive

o    Her life of crime eventually led her to a mercenary crew that she took over after ousting the previous leader

o    Within League, she is a ranged marksman who excels at multi-target damage and moving swiftly, fighting using a crossblade called the chalikar

o    Damaging an enemy champion causes her Fleet of Foot passive to grant her increased movement speed

o    She hurls her weapon in a straight line with Boomerang Blade, which then returns back to her after a short delay, dealing damage along its path

o    Upon activating Ricochet, she gains bonus attack speed and empowers her crossblade to bounce between enemies

o    The aptly named Spell Shield forms a spell shield around her that blocks the next ability. If it does so, she restores health and triggers her Fleet of Foot passive

o    Her ultimate is On the Hunt, which causes her to let out a battlecry that enhances the movement speed of herself and her allies. While this ability is active, scoring a takedown extends its duration

Summary of Goals: Sivir is a ranged combatant who fights with a thrown, bladed weapon. She has enough mastery to bounce this weapon between her foes or throw it like a boomerang, and is also just generally very fast between her passive and ult. Perhaps a little incongruous is her ability to generate a spell shield around herself to guard against the magic of those that seek her harm.

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Badlands Orc

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Constitution

o    Ancestry Feat: Orc Superstition

Background: Grave Robber

o    Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (T), Underworld Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Experienced Smuggler

Class & Subclass: Aerokineticist

o    Class Ability Boost: +Constitution

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Athletics (T), Nature (T), Thievery (T)

o    Class Feat: Weapon Infusion

o    Kineticist Impulses: Aerial Boomerang, Four Winds

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +1, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +0)

While our method is incredibly convoluted and curious, we accomplish a lot with our first level. Through the use of the orc ancestry, we can tap into the Orc Superstition ancestry feat. While this reaction merely provides a bonus on a save against magical effects, it’s still a solid way of resembling her Spell Shield. Furthermore, I’d consider the badlands or grave heritage. The former perhaps better resembles her desert habitat and matches her speed sub-theme while the latter could play into the tomb raiding she did in her youth. That is further referenced with the grave robber background, which just generally suits her when it comes to its skills and related feats. We do take another weird option with the kineticist class. Marksmen in League are usually a little fragile, which makes a Constitution-based class a little odd. However, by using the air element, we can create an Elemental Blast that deals slashing damage and further make it resemble her thrown crossblade with the Weapon Infusion feat.

Since she’s a single gate kineticist, she can Stride up to half her Speed or Step whenever she uses an impulse, calling to mind her Fleet of Foot passive. Furthermore, she can access Aerial Boomerang to match her Boomerang Blade. She can even move to change the return path of the blade, a strategy occasionally seen in League. That was a major point towards using the kineticist in the first place, but I could also find Four Winds. By using this, she can grant her allies the ability to swiftly move into battle without even using up a reaction. This obviously serves to resemble her On the Hunt, which means that by first level, we’ve already covered four of her five abilities.

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Acrobat Dedication

o    Skill Feat: Subtle Theft

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (E)

o    Gear: ring of discretion

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Thievery (E)

o    Gear: necklace of knives, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Kinetic Activation

o    Skill Feat: Wary Disarmament

o    Gear: gate attenuator, necklace of knives, boots of the secret blade, ring of discretion

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +2, Dex +4, Con +4.5, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +0)

o    Ancestry Feat: Spell Survivor

o    Skill Increase: Survival (T)

o    Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Aura Junction

o    Kineticist Impulse: Air Shroud

o    Gear: sleeves of storage, gate attenuator, bracelet of dashing, necklace of knives, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

That all being said, kineticist still doesn’t quite fit with Sivir’s overall kit, so we will take a brief detour into the Acrobat Dedication. This gives her a scaling Acrobatics skill and fits in with her general agility and nimbleness. I do have her picking up Kinetic Activation just because being able to activate the magic items she loots seems like it should suit her. Through her Gate’s Threshold in this block, Sivir can expand the portal to gain an Aura Junction that increases the speed of her allies – again, resembling her Fleet of Foot. The inclusion of Air Shroud is inspired by her Spell Shield simply for the fact that it reduces the effectiveness of ranged attacks against her. She will start out by focusing on some Thievery skill feats given her appropriately mercenary nature. While it doesn’t come up in League itself, Wary Disarmament was probably a little essential for her ventures into the tombs of Shurima. As for her general feat, Fleet is obviously going to be important to make her even faster, and then we could build for Spell Survivor out of her Orc Superstition, providing her with some extra protection against magical effects.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Dodge Away

o    Skill Feat: Tumbling Teamwork

o    Gear: +1 leather, smuggler’s sack (type I), sleeves of storage, gate attenuator, boots of the secret blade, necklace of knives

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (M), Thievery (M)

o    Gear: vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 leather, bravery baldric (fleet), sleeves of storage, gate attenuator, bracelet of dashing

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Elemental Overlap – Desert Wind

o    Skill Feat: Tumbling Theft

o    Gear: boots of bounding, clandestine cloak, vaultbreaker’s harness, +1 leather, sleeves of storage, gate attenuator

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Pervasive Superstition

o    Skill Increase: Survival (E)

o    Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Critical Blast

o    Kineticist Impulse: Flinging Updraft

o    Gear: +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, nomad’s shawl, vaultbreaker’s harness, bravery baldric (fleet), gate attenuator

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +3, Dex +4.5, Con +5, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +0)

o    Class Feat: Chain Infusion

o    Skill Feat: Kip Up

o    Gear: elemental wayfinder (air), +1 resilient leather, desert goggles, boots of bounding, vaultbreaker’s harness, gate attenuator

We can work some more mobility, get a little bit of kiting, into Sivir’s kit through the Dodge Away feat from her acrobat archetype. She does go back to her kineticist options with Elemental Overlap for Desert Wind, which grants her some protection and enhances her damage while also fitting with her desert theme. She can also use Chain Infusion to bounce her Elemental Blast between targets, fantastically fitting her Ricochet and covering the basics of her last ability. With her Gate’s Threshold for the block, she’ll choose a critical blast purely because as a marksman, crit tends to be one of the stats that she focuses on in League. With the extra impulse she gets from this, Flinging Updraft allows her to provide more mobility to her team though this is a bit more vertical than most instances. Although none of Sivir’s abilities provide her with ghosting, she still focuses on tumbling a bit with her skill feats for this block, using Tumbling Teamwork and Theft to get the most out of such actions. Then for those instances when she gets knocked prone, Kip Up lets her get back on her feet even faster so that she can charge into the fight or kite out of it. On that topic, Incredible Initiative means that she can act even faster. Hopefully. She can also take Pervasive Superstition so that she constantly has protection against spells, which is kind of insane to just have as an ancestry feat.

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Feather Step

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (E)

o    Gear: jaathoom’s scarf, thunderblast slippers, elemental wayfinder (air), +1 resilient leather, boots of bounding, gate attenuator

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Tumbling Opportunist

o    Skill Feat: Nimble Crawl

o    Gear: greater gate attenuator, jaathoom’s scarf, cloak of the bat, thunderblast slippers, +1 resilient leather, desert goggles

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Spell Devourer

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (M)

o    Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Elemental Resistance

o    Kineticist Impulse: Cyclonic Ascent

o    Gear: greater quick runner’s shirt, +2 resilient leather, greater gate attenuator, jaathoom’s scarf, thunderblast slippers, elemental wayfinder (air)

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Command Elemental

o    Skill Feat: Swift Sneak

o    Gear: propulsive boots, ring of stoneshifting, greater quick runner’s shirt, greater gate attenuator, jaathoom’s scarf, +1 resilient leather

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +4, Dex +5, Con +5.5, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha +0)

o    General Feat: Pick Up the Pace

o    Skill Increase: Deception (T), Thievery (L)

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, sandstorm top, greater quick runner’s shirt, smuggler’s sack (type III), greater gate attenuator

Following on from the tumbling featured in the last block, we can continue that trend with Tumbling Opportunist. Something like Tumbling Strike doesn’t really work for the kineticist, but she can still take advantage of enemies being prone. Following that, Command Element mostly serves to reference her lineage from Azir as one of Shurima’s rulers. With her Gate’s Threshold this time around, she’ll settle for elemental resistance because expanding into another element doesn’t really suit her and she can also get Cyclonic Ascent to provide mobility in the form of flight. Keeping with the theme of speed, she can also use Nimble Crawl and Swift Sneak as her skill feats and then Feather Step and Pick Up the Pace as her general feat, with the latter at least resembling her Fleet of Foot out of combat. Speaking of resembling her abilities, she can get one of the main reasons that I went for the orc ancestry with the Spell Devourer ancestry feat. Whenever she succeeds at a save against a magic effect, she can convert that energy into temporary Hit Points. This resembles the second part of her Spell Shield where it heals her if it manages to block a spell though we have to accept that she needs to use temporary Hit Points rather than actual healing.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Imperious Aura

o    Skill Feat: Quick Unlock

o    Gear: greater countering charm, +2 greater resilient leather, fortune’s coin (platinum), propulsive boots, greater gate attenuator, greater quick runner’s shirt

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Scar-Thick Skin

o    Skill Increase: Stealth (L)

o    Gate’s Threshold: Expand the Portal – Skill Junction

o    Kineticist Impulse: Counter Element

o    Gear: misleading armor rune, antimagic armor rune, greater countering charm, +2 greater resilient leather, propulsive boots, greater gate attenuator

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Ghosts in the Storm

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Sneak

o    Gear: major gate attenuator, major crown of the fire eater, misleading armor rune, greater countering charm, +2 greater resilient leather, greater boots of bounding

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Caravan Leader

o    Skill Increase: Survival (M)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient leather, major gate attenuator, greater cloak of the bat, misleading armor rune, antimagic armor rune, greater thunderblast slippers

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4, Dex +5, Con +6, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +1)

o    Class Feat: Kinetic Pinnacle

o    Skill Feat: Quick Spring

o    Skill Increase: Intimidation (T)

o    Gear: cloak of waves and clouds, +3 greater resilient leather, greater ring of maniacal devices, major gate attenuator, major crown of the fire eater, misleading armor rune

With Air Shroud and Desert Wind, Sivir has two stance impulses. She can use them a bit better through an Imperious Aura, letting her switch up her stance as a free action once each turn. If not that, I’d look at Tempo Shift from her archetype, which has a bit of a weird activation but some very solid effects. Although I’m a little reticent to start involving other elemental effects, Ghosts in the Storm is another stance option that can empower and protect Sivir’s team, which has a little basis in her Legends of Runeterra version. She can finish out her core class feats with Kinetic Pinnacle. This makes her permanently quickened and can be used to make Elemental Blasts, which can resemble the enhanced attack speed provided by her Ricochet. She finishes out her Gate’s Threshold with a skill junction and then takes Counter Element in the vein of her Spell Shield. Legendary Sneak is purely to take advantage of her legendary Stealth and she can use Quick Spring to take further advantage of her Tumbling focus and get her even more mobility. Caravan Leader further fits that even if it is limited to out-of-combat and will be what we finish out her build on.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: The kineticist still struggles with the fact that it doesn’t mesh with feats and features that allow them to Strike. As such, there’s some loss of synergy with a wide range of archetypes. Outside of the acrobat and its usefulness for skill options, you could consider a bounty hunter archetype as the closest thing to her being a mercenary or scout just to help her get and her team get into the fight faster and make her a bit stealthier as well. One final option, though one that would require some shifting around of other options, is a marshal or commander archetype to represent her role as a mercenary commander.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Sivir the Battle Mistress is a badland orcs aerokineticist who spent some time as a grave robber after the loss of her parents. In time, she became a mercenary worthy of her epithet though we’ll be representing her infamous crossblade with air Elemental Blasts and the slashing damage that they can inflict. By having her be a dedicated aerokineticist, she starts off with an impulse junction that grants her some extra movement whenever she uses an impulse, which works wonders for her Fleet of Foot. Furthermore, this class allows Sivir to take the Aerial Boomerang impulse to, of course, replicate her Boomerang Blade in form and function. When it comes to her Ricochet, she can use Chain Infusion to bounce an Elemental Blast between baddies, which covers the primary aspect of her kit, while Kinetic Pinnacle makes her permanently quickened to resemble the enhanced attack speed that this also provides. She reaches into her ancestry for Spell Shield by using Orc Superstition to gain a bonus against magical effects and Spell Devourer letting her heal off of succeeding on such saves. Finally, for her On the Hunt, we have the incredible speed that we’ve built into her and then the ability to enhance that of her teammates with both the air element’s aura junction and its Four Winds impulse.

Daring to dance through dunes and danger, this devious desert dame deals out a dearth of damage to definite divisions, deliberately deleting detractors in deadly duels.

Have a fantastic Friday!