Overview

Sirius is a powerful melee Support Champion that is capable of dealing high burst damage. Although he supports his team through splash healing (from two abilities), he’s arguably much more aggressive than the likes of Pestilence or Blossom. His ability to dive with Celestial Split before immediately landing an empowered Crescent Strike allows him to lop off a large amount of health from opponents. With timing, he can also immediately teleport out with a well placed counter in Sunrise.

Sirius, a calm prodigy who uses energies of stars and planets as destructive spell and healing powers. The prophecy was true and foretold the birth of the Zenith.

Despite Sirius’ dive potential, he’s a Champion that is incredibly vulnerable if he finds himself without Celestial Split, or when fighting against players clever enough not to trigger Sunrise. It’s at this point that he relies on the debuff his empowered Crescent Strike provides (weakness) in order to buy time.

In the right hands Sirius can be incredibly powerful, and proves as strong in 2’s as he does in 3’s. Although he requires careful management of his abilities, he brings enough damage and utility to carry most teams with ease.

Updated: 4 April 2018

Abilities

Crescent Strike (LMB) - Sirius’ basic attack deals moderate damage and allows him to swing fairly quickly. When empowered however (every 8 seconds) the damage of his attack significantly increases (22 damage!) while also causing Weakness, halving the damage players affected deal. If you’re 1 on 1 against most Champions, the Weakness does allow you to trade with them (especially if you heal yourself). However, against certain Champions (such as Raigon and Ruhkhaan) their ability to self heal - while damaging - far surprasses your own. Ideally, you want to ensure that when you engage your Crescent Strike is fully charged so that when you do swing, you deal maximum damage. You'll know when your weapon is fully charged based on the fact it glows yellow, or by the green icon next to your health bar.

Sunlight (RMB) - Your primary means of healing, Sunlight allows Sirius to apply an AOE heal in a targeted location. With three charges, and a brief cast time, Sunlight can be used back-to-back to keep players alive. As the cooldown reduced by 1.5 seconds when you’re near an ally, the emphasis is to remain near your team so that you always have charges available. Considering the telegraph of Sunlight is fairly large, you can afford to be a little less accurate in comparison to other Support Champions (such as Lucie). That said, you can’t afford to waste Sunlight: when your charges have gone, the recharge time can feel particularly long.

Celestial Split (Space) - Your guaranteed means of escape, Celestial Split is as much a defensive tool as it is aggressive. Allowing Sirius to fly to a set location, he will deal damage and heal on arrival to all those near him. The damage and healing isn’t huge (10) but it’s enough to provide sustain for an ally, and soften up an enemy (especially if you immediately land a charged Crescent Strike). If you can, try to gauge when it’s best to dive with Celestial Split. If you do leap in, you have no reliable means of escape (especially if you cannot trigger your counter). This can result in you being punished by the enemy team, and leaves you particularly vulnerable unless your allies can protect you, or the opposition get distracted.

Sunrise (Q) - Sunrise is Sirius’ defensive ability and allows him to mitigate incoming damage in order to trigger his counter. Once triggered (by a melee or ranged attack), Sirius will instantly teleport into the air and reposition to a location of your choosing. Not only this, but a successful counter recharges your weapon and heals those around you wherever you land. In most circumstances you’ll want to position yourself away from a fight so that you have Celestial Split off cooldown, but also to buy you time to heal your team. If you’re playing aggressively, you can reposition immediately next to an enemy Champion in order to hit them with a charged Crescent Strike. Just be aware that “beam” based attacks, such as Ezmo’s Siphon Life, will pass through your counter, cause you damage, and not trigger it.

Lunar Strike (E) - I would argue one of the strongest abilities in Battlerite, Lunar Strike allows Sirius to petrify opponents caught in its radius. By default the telegraph is very large and it’s fairly easy to land against one or more players. Those petrified are incapacitated for 3.4 seconds, creating a huge amount of time for Sirius and his team to fight, reposition or control the Orb. If you don’t have Celestial Split or Sunrise, it’s a good idea to save Lunar Strike for your own protection and while it has a slight delay, you can use it to zone enemies away from you while you recover. I should also add that it’s often worth using Lunar Strike against the opposing Support Champion to lock them out of a fight for a lengthy period.

Prismatic Strike (R) - Allowing Sirius to deal high instant damage (from a fairly long range), Prismatic Strike also slows enemies hit with a fading snare.  If you’ve a charged Crescent Strike, the pair combined offer eye-watering burst. Although Prismatic Strike requires a Focus charge, it’s absolutely worth spending if you can land both attacks. I should also add that due to the distance Sirius travels when using Prismatic Strike, it’s sometimes worth using just to avoid an enemy ability or Ultimate, especially if Celestial Split is on cooldown.

EX Abilities

Crescent Gale (Shift + LMB) - Your EX LMB allows Sirius to cast a long range snare which deals high damage. The range is huge, but the projectile is fairly slow. At at a cost of one Focus, it has its uses (such as when someone is proving particularly difficult to pin down). However, it requires good aim and the knowledge that your intended victim can’t counter, deflect or dodge it. Ideally, use it to snipe an Orb from afar, or to snag a player who’s intending to chase you when Celestial Split or Sunrise are on cooldown.

Celestial Rift (Shift + Space) - Acting exactly the same as Celestial Split, the EX version recharges your weapon instantly while dealing increased healing and damage to those you land on. It’s a brilliant improvement on the base ability, as the weapon recharge ensures you can instantly deal massive damage, without having to wait for your Crescent Strike to charge. If you’re after maximum burst to eat a chunk of a players health, or to finish someone off, Celestial Rift is a brilliant ability.

Ultimate Ability

Astral Beam (F) - A slow turning Ultimate ability, Astral Beam deals enormous damage to anyone caught in its beam. Used from maximum distance, you can snag multiple players at once to cut them down quickly. Astral Beam can also be used defensively, allowing you to rapidly heal a team member. Just be conscious of the fact you can be interrupted while casting, and you turn so slowly that anyone immediately close to you can easily avoid it. If needed, it's also worth cutting through an Orb 

Battlerites

Saros Slash

Sirius is capable of very high burst, especially if he uses Prismatic Strike and a charged Crescent Strike. Saros Slash boosts the damage of your charged Crescent Strike from 22 to 26 (+4), but also increases your weapon recharge time by 15%, allowing you to deal charged damage much more often.

Sunwell

Celestial Split is incredibly important for Sirius as a form of escape, but to also dive onto an ally and heal them quickly. Sunwell allows Sirius to heal for more when flying to an ally (8 more health), while also lowering the cooldown of the ability by 4 seconds. When you're under heavy pressure, using Celestial Split onto a team-mate ensures you protect them, but also give yourself quicker access to your only gaurenteed mobility. 

Celestial Cycle

Allowing your Prismatic Strike to recharge 50% of your weapon, Celestial Cycle provides massive up-time on your weapon, and allows you to deal higher damage much more often. It does mean you have to play aggressively, but it's worth the tradeoff.

Moonstone

Moonstone elongates your petrify duration while also lowering the cooldown of Lunar strike by 1 second. It might now sound a lot, but it allows Sirius to lockdown players for longer, while buying himself time to reposition or heal. 

Lunatic

Sirius relies heavily on Lunar Strike in order to buy himself time. Missing your Petrify if your Celestial Split is on cooldown can see you killed instantly. Lunatic allows Sirius to cast a second Lunar Strike after the first, ensuring he can zone easily and be a little bit more inaccurate - while keeping players Petrified.

Matchups

These Hero Threat Levels (1 being lowest threat and 10 being highest threat) are to help you determine which enemy Heroes can give you a headache. For the Heroes listed here, take extra care as they're particularly dangerous for Sirius

Tips

This list of tips and tricks are just a handful of things we think will help your Sirius play. We'll continue to add to the list as required and if you have any tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below and we'll place them here. 

1. It’s incredibly important that you remember you’re a Support Champion. Your damage might be high, but you still can’t take on the world.

2. Don’t ever dive in first: it’s an invitation to be killed. Experienced players will avoid your Sunrise counter and punish you instantly.

3. The primary value of a charged Crescent Strike isn’t just the burst damage, but also the Weakness. Weakness reduces damage dealt, and healing received by 50%

4. Try to always save a charged Crescent Strike for an Orb steal. You can dive in with Celestial Split > Crescent Strike for an instant 32 damage (without Battlerites).

5. If you’ve a melee Champion attacking you, and you’ve no abilities available, just trade with them using Crescent Strike. If you can inflict weakness, you can survive long enough to then zip away before healing up. It’s better than just trying to run.

6. Don’t be afraid to be liberal with Sunlight. It has a short cooldown and heals for a good amount.

7. Sunlight is an AOE heal: you don’t need line of sight to heal someone. Sometimes it’s worth guessing even if you can’t see your team-mate.

8. Don’t ever dive in first with Celestial Split. If you cannot trigger your counter, you’re a sitting duck.

9. As tempting as it is to use Celestial Split aggressively - constantly - it has a lot of value as an instant AOE splash heal. Use it on allies who are in trouble.

10. Sunrise will not trigger against beam or AOE attacks (such as Ezmo’s Siphon Life or Shifu’s Whirlwind). Against such attacks, hit C to cancel and run away.

11. Only use Sunrise if you anticipate an immediate attack. Without your counter, you’re fairly vulnerable.

12. Try to save Lunar Strike so that when a melee Champion dives you, you have it available to cast at your feet. The double cast thanks to your Battlerites should ensure you shut them down with Petrify for almost 4 seconds.

13. Prismatic Strike allows Sirius to deal massive burst. Always use it when you have a Charged Strike for a one-two-punch.

14. Prismatic Strike also allows for quick Orb steals. The 30 damage (plus) that you deal from both attacks can snatch an Orb with ease.

15. Both of Sirius’ EX abilities are good, but they’re not mandatory for his kit. Sirius works exceptionally well without either.

16. Try to use Astral Beam when enemies have used their escape abilities. Once they have, it’s free damage that’s hard to avoid.