I picked up Riven when she first came out, and she’s constantly been one of my best and favorites. Highly mobile, innately beefy with her shield, and the ability to crush anyone who isn’t stacking armor through most stages of the game make her a great pick in top lane. There are some matchups you need to look out for, but she can bully around a lot of tops and come out of lane as a pretty unstoppable force.
Roles:
Your role is simple: Damage and Disruption. You’re not a tank, you’re closer to an assassin than anything, though less squishy and more sustained damage than most assassins.
To this end, you should be building just enough resistances to survive some damage, but in the long run you definitely want to be building things that make you hit harder, with the added bonus that AD makes you more survivable as well.
Pros/Cons:
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Pros:
Insane AD scaling. Like, seriously insane.
Ult has a stupid short CD and lets you fight harder than most people.
Manaless
Highly mobile
Shield that scales with AD
Respectable AoE damage, including an Execute
Cons:
Somewhat susceptible to hard CC, since your survival relies on your shield
No ranged abilities
All physical damage, so Armor is quite strong against you
Some very difficult lane matchups
Insane AD scaling. Like, seriously insane.
Ult has a stupid short CD and lets you fight harder than most people.
Manaless
Highly mobile
Shield that scales with AD
Respectable AoE damage, including an Execute
Cons:
Somewhat susceptible to hard CC, since your survival relies on your shield
No ranged abilities
All physical damage, so Armor is quite strong against you
Some very difficult lane matchups
Abilities:
Passive: Runic Blade
Description: Riven's abilities charge her blade, causing her to do 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13 / 15 (+ 50% AD) bonus physical damage on her next autoattack. Riven can store up to 3 charges, and will only expend one at a time.
Buff Duration: 5 seconds
Notes:
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Here’s where your AD scaling starts to spiral into insanity, right off the bat. Using abilities does damage, then gives you more damage. And you’re manaless. So your autos are getting AD, and then more AD. People really underestimate the power of your auto attacks with this.
Basically you want to not “waste” procs of this, so you stagger your abilities and weave in auto attacks for maximum damage.
This damage cannot Crit, but it DOES proc Lifesteal, which makes it a very lucrative stat.
Basically you want to not “waste” procs of this, so you stagger your abilities and weave in auto attacks for maximum damage.
This damage cannot Crit, but it DOES proc Lifesteal, which makes it a very lucrative stat.
Q: Broken Wings
Description: Riven steps forward and lashes out in a series of powerful sword slashes that will damage all enemies nearby. This ability can be activated a second time within 4 seconds, and a third time within 4 seconds of that. On the third activation she will also knock nearby enemies back and have a larger radius of damage. All three strikes will deal the same amount of damage.
Cooldown: 13 seconds
Dash Distance: 260 arbitrary units
AoE on first 2 strikes: 225 arbitrary units
AoE on final strike: 300 arbitrary units
Kockback Distance: 255 arbitrary units
Damage: 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+70% AD)
Notes:
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Kind of your multitool. It works as a mobility tool, allowing you to close gaps or run away, even when slowed. It gives you 3 stacks of your passive, allowing for huge damage spikes. The knockback disruption can set up a kill, stop a retreating enemy, interrupt a channel, or even give you a chance to back out.
A couple technical details: this will activate in the direction that you are running when you hit Q, unless your mouse is hovering over an enemy unit. The cooldown starts after you use the first activation, so you don’t need to use the next two if you don’t want to. The dash speed is roughly 475 MS, so if your MS is higher than that (buffs and Mobo boots, I guess), running is faster.
In lane, it’s more or less a one point wonder, but in the jungle, the base damage increase from leveling up lets you really tear through the small minions.
A couple technical details: this will activate in the direction that you are running when you hit Q, unless your mouse is hovering over an enemy unit. The cooldown starts after you use the first activation, so you don’t need to use the next two if you don’t want to. The dash speed is roughly 475 MS, so if your MS is higher than that (buffs and Mobo boots, I guess), running is faster.
In lane, it’s more or less a one point wonder, but in the jungle, the base damage increase from leveling up lets you really tear through the small minions.
W: Ki Strike
Description: Riven deals physical damage and stuns nearby enemies for 0.75 seconds.
Cooldown: 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7seconds
Damage: 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 (+100% AD)
AoE: 250 arbitrary units (diameter)
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AoE stun and damage burst. Pretty straightforward, right? Again, there’s a lot you can do with this. The stun is short, but long enough to guarantee you a couple autos. It can interrupt channels like Nunu’s ult of Fiddle drain. With some AD, it clears minion waves really fast when coupled with QQQ.
Max first in lane when you can go more damaging. In the jungle, max it second if you can survive well.
Max first in lane when you can go more damaging. In the jungle, max it second if you can survive well.
E: Valor
Description: Riven dashes towards the cursor and gains a shield for up to 2.5 seconds.
Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6seconds
Dash Distance: 325 arbitrary units
Shield: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+100% AD)
Notes:
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I love this ability. LOVE. Sometimes, I’ll max it first even if I don’t need the shield. It’s a dash, a shield that has good base and then scales with AD, and gives you a passive charge. It’s the core idea of Riven, a reactive ability that’s flexible in its use.
Max first if you need to absorb more damage early on, otherwise second in lane. In jungle, max second if you need the defense for ganks or surviving clearing.
Max first if you need to absorb more damage early on, otherwise second in lane. In jungle, max second if you need the defense for ganks or surviving clearing.
R: Blade of the Exile/Wind Slash
Blade of the Exile Description: Riven's sword reforms, gaining 20% bonus attack damage, extended range on her damaging abilities and autoattacks for 15 seconds. She is also granted the ability to use Wind Slash once for the duration.
Wind Slash Description: Riven can activate the ability to emit a shockwave in a long cone in front of her that deals physical damage to all units hit based on their missing health.
Cooldown: 75/60/45 seconds
Wind Slash Range: 900 arbitrary units
Base Wind Slash Damage: 80 / 120 / 160(+60% AD)
Max Wind Slash Damage: 240 / 360 / 480 (+180% AD)
Notes:
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A completely absurd ult and I wonder why it hasn’t been nerfed yet. “Hey, here’s a manaless champ with absurd AD scaling on everything, including her defensive, spammable shield, what should we give her?” “How about a +20% total AD steroid?” “Great, that’s not broken at all! Slap an AoE execute on that bitch and call it a day!”
Yeah, this is good. And the CD is short enough where you can basically hit it more or less every time it’s up for trading, teamfights, or even just harassing someone out of lane. The duration is pretty long, too, so you can hold on to that active until the enemy team is low for maximum results. Once you get a BT and a couple DBlades, you can 100-0 anyone with low armor during the duration with no problem.
Yeah, this is good. And the CD is short enough where you can basically hit it more or less every time it’s up for trading, teamfights, or even just harassing someone out of lane. The duration is pretty long, too, so you can hold on to that active until the enemy team is low for maximum results. Once you get a BT and a couple DBlades, you can 100-0 anyone with low armor during the duration with no problem.
Skill Order:
Q-(W/E)-(E/W) into R>(W/E)>(E/W)>Q
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Q first level. You can trade pretty hard with it if you start DBlade or Longsword, or you can use it to escape from level 2 ganks. Then, whether you max W or E really depends on whether you want more damage or survival in the early levels. Leveling either is a healthy boost to base numbers and CD, so take which one you need. If you’re shielding off harass a lot, max E. If you’re going in for damage and killing a lot, max W. Just switch it up by matchup.
Summoner Spells
Lane: +
Jungle: +
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While you’re already very mobile, Flash is what it is. Ghost would be more useful if you didn’t already have great sticking power with all your dashes and stuff, so I pass on it.
Teleport is your go-to second Summoner I think. Lets you get back and forth from lane, lets you gank other lanes (and you have good ganking prowess), and you don’t really need any help killing most enemies.
Exhaust or Ignite I guess could be situational. Maybe you need extra killing power, or maybe you really would rather have the ability to lock down someone with Exhaust. Or you need to shut down healing effects and want some True Damage. Both are good if you know why you’re bringing them and remember to use them.
I guess a case could be made to bring Barrier if you’re in a hard lane via counterpick. It can make you really beefy when coupling it with E, but I’d rather not be in that situation in the first place if I can help it.
Smite if you’re Jungling.
Teleport is your go-to second Summoner I think. Lets you get back and forth from lane, lets you gank other lanes (and you have good ganking prowess), and you don’t really need any help killing most enemies.
Exhaust or Ignite I guess could be situational. Maybe you need extra killing power, or maybe you really would rather have the ability to lock down someone with Exhaust. Or you need to shut down healing effects and want some True Damage. Both are good if you know why you’re bringing them and remember to use them.
I guess a case could be made to bring Barrier if you’re in a hard lane via counterpick. It can make you really beefy when coupling it with E, but I’d rather not be in that situation in the first place if I can help it.
Smite if you’re Jungling.
Masteries
Offensive is so sick good on Riven now. You can get CDR and AD and ArPen without ever needing to pick up more or less useless stuff like Crit or AS. 21/9/0 all day.
Runes
Reds: AD. I guess you could go for ArPen, but you’ll likely be getting Bruta -> BC and maybe a LW, so get AD for the early game power and scaling.
Yellows: Armor. Very few other choices here.
Blues: MR. Whether you bring Scaling or Flat is up to you and your lane matchup. I like Flat, since if I need MR later I can go Maw or Mercurial, but you can do Scaling as well if you don’t need MR as early.
Quints: AD. Same as Reds, you want as much AD as possible in the early game to crush your lane and set you up for a strong late game.
Stats:
AD. I don’t know if I need to say anything else. Your scaling with AD is so bonkers that there’s very little else that’s nearly as good. CDR is great, because you’re manaless and get a lot of damage from your abilities. ArPen is nifty, since you’re all physical and they’ll likely build some Armor vs you.
AS and Crit aren’t that great. I mean yeah, you’ll be autoing a lot and crits with a high AD count are nice, but you’re not Yi or Fiora, standing around spamming autos. AD gives you burst, sustained damage, and survival, and then even more of all that when you hit your ult.
As far as defenses go, if you build them at all, go resists over health. Your Valor acts as a mini health bar boost, and the longer you can keep it up with Armor/MR, the more it saves you. You’ll likely not be building straight defenses, though, unless your team really, really needs you to tank.
Items
Starting:
The starting combos I think are all viable are listed here. DBlade or Long Sword look the best to me, depending on whether you want the potions or health more. Boots don’t seem as necessary, since you have a pretty decent base as it is and you have 4 dashes and a knockback + stun if you really need to escape. If you’re jungling, go Machete + potions, you can’t really do much else imo.
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[Boots][Potions]
Decent start, less so than last season with base MS going up around the board. However, if it’s a very hard lane, you might consider this for the potions and mobility.
[Doran’s Blade]
Great start. The extra health and AD helps you win early trades, and the little bit of regen isn’t bad either.
[Hunter’s Machete][Potions]
If you’re jungling. There’s really no other option.
[Long Sword][Potions]
DBlade gives you a health buffer, but if you’re going to be doing more poke trading or think you’ll take harass, the Potions give you a lot more effective health. Plus, Sword builds into Bruta and Vamp, which you’ll likely buy pretty early.
Decent start, less so than last season with base MS going up around the board. However, if it’s a very hard lane, you might consider this for the potions and mobility.
[Doran’s Blade]
Great start. The extra health and AD helps you win early trades, and the little bit of regen isn’t bad either.
[Hunter’s Machete][Potions]
If you’re jungling. There’s really no other option.
[Long Sword][Potions]
DBlade gives you a health buffer, but if you’re going to be doing more poke trading or think you’ll take harass, the Potions give you a lot more effective health. Plus, Sword builds into Bruta and Vamp, which you’ll likely buy pretty early.
Boot Choices
I go Tabi with either Alacrity or Homeguard pretty much every game. You can do some other ones based on the game, though.
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[Ninja Tabi] or [Mercury Treads]/[Ionian Boots of Lucidity]
I build Tabi most games now. It’s way easier for you to get MR than it is to get Armor since GA got nerfed, so masteries/runes/Tabi is kind of what you got.
You can go Merc’s if you’re in an AP lane and Hex isn’t enough. If you don’t need any defenses and you just want to be a bastard, you can get CDR boots, which should max out your CDR with BC and Masteries.
Boots of Swiftness aren’t terrible now, but you don’t really care about slows anyway. I guess you could consider Mobility if you’re jungling for extra ganks, but you’re fast enough without em anyway.
Boot Enchants
Riven can use all of the enchants, so buy depending on your playstyle and situation.
[Alacrity] Flat MS is good, and remains good all the time.
[Furor] Sticking power on your autos. You don’t really need sticking power, and you can’t really use it with any of your abilities. Pass.
[Captain] Not really. You shouldn’t be the first in, leave that to a tank or something. And even if you are, you’re not going to be too far ahead of everyone else, you’re not the type that can run in and be alone in 5 people while your team comes up after you.
[Distortion] Lower CD on Flash and Teleport. Consider if you’re using both on CD, but I generally don’t.
[Homeguard] Pretty good. If you find yourself backing a lot, gets you to lane faster. If your team is pushed back, makes defending easier. And Tele/Homeguard ganks are cool. A good choice.
I build Tabi most games now. It’s way easier for you to get MR than it is to get Armor since GA got nerfed, so masteries/runes/Tabi is kind of what you got.
You can go Merc’s if you’re in an AP lane and Hex isn’t enough. If you don’t need any defenses and you just want to be a bastard, you can get CDR boots, which should max out your CDR with BC and Masteries.
Boots of Swiftness aren’t terrible now, but you don’t really care about slows anyway. I guess you could consider Mobility if you’re jungling for extra ganks, but you’re fast enough without em anyway.
Boot Enchants
Riven can use all of the enchants, so buy depending on your playstyle and situation.
[Alacrity] Flat MS is good, and remains good all the time.
[Furor] Sticking power on your autos. You don’t really need sticking power, and you can’t really use it with any of your abilities. Pass.
[Captain] Not really. You shouldn’t be the first in, leave that to a tank or something. And even if you are, you’re not going to be too far ahead of everyone else, you’re not the type that can run in and be alone in 5 people while your team comes up after you.
[Distortion] Lower CD on Flash and Teleport. Consider if you’re using both on CD, but I generally don’t.
[Homeguard] Pretty good. If you find yourself backing a lot, gets you to lane faster. If your team is pushed back, makes defending easier. And Tele/Homeguard ganks are cool. A good choice.
Items
Early Items - Items you want in lane.
Doran’s Blade - + Show Spoiler +
As in starting, and for obvious reasons. A couple can make you pretty dominant in lane.
Brutalizer - + Show Spoiler +
This literally has everything you want: AD, CDR, and ArPen. It used to be kind of a trap in S2, since Ghostblade wasn’t that good, but now with BC being a very strong upgrade, getting one early not only wins you lane, but also later on as well.
Vampiric Scepter - + Show Spoiler +
AD and Lifesteal for sustain and damage. Bloodthirster will likely be your first big item, so getting a Vamp Scepter early (if you’re not getting fed enough for a straight BFS) is good, and lets you lane and trade well.
Madred’s Razor - + Show Spoiler +
If you’re jungling. I like Wriggle’s a lot more than Spirit of the Elder Lizard, personally, but you can go Spirit Stone if you want..
Sightstone - + Show Spoiler +
Ok yes, health isn’t that great for you. However, free wards are. And they are free, as long as you place all 3 wards and sell it back, you actually make a profit as opposed to buying 3 wards.
That said, you’re holding on to that 490 gold until you sell it back, so it’s not always a great idea. If you can grab a DBlade/upgrade 2 Longswords and grab a Ward over getting Sightstone, that’s probably better for winning lane.
However, if you have the money and are waiting for a BFS or BC combine/upgrade, then grab Sightstone, farm safe with total ward coverage, and then sell it back later.
That said, you’re holding on to that 490 gold until you sell it back, so it’s not always a great idea. If you can grab a DBlade/upgrade 2 Longswords and grab a Ward over getting Sightstone, that’s probably better for winning lane.
However, if you have the money and are waiting for a BFS or BC combine/upgrade, then grab Sightstone, farm safe with total ward coverage, and then sell it back later.
Core Items - The big ones. Whether you go BT or BC first depends on if your enemy has a bunch of armor or not.
Bloodthirster - + Show Spoiler +
100 AD and lifesteal. While BC is nutty on her, it’s half the AD and the flat health is not as good as 50 more on your shield and Lifesteal. This should be your core most games.
Black Cleaver - + Show Spoiler +
Amazing item. You can get the shred stacked really quick with an E-auto-W-auto combo or Q-auto-Q-auto. Either way, you should have their armor gone for more than half of your full combo and your execute.
Other Good Items - Things you’ll consider after your core. Of course, consider them before/during based on the game, but they should only rarely come before BT/BC.
Hexdrinker/Maw of Malmortius - + Show Spoiler +
If there’s a lot of magic damage, especially in lane. An early Hex (along with Merc’s) can really help win against Rumble or Elise. Plus, always good to piss off Karthus or something.
Last Whisper - + Show Spoiler +
If they’re stacking ~170+ armor and BC isn’t enough. Of course, you could just stack another BC, which might actually be better until they make the passive unique.
Blade of the Ruined King - + Show Spoiler +
Haven’t really played around with this a bunch yet. It’s interesting, because it’s a lot of stuff you want. A ranged slow, AD, Lifesteal. That said, it’s a lot of the same stats as BT but less. I guess consider it if you’re really having a hard time sticking to things, or if the enemy is stacking a lot of health over Armor so you don’t need LW. But even then I think BT’s extra damage would be better. I’ll build it in some more games and see what’s up.
Ravenous Hydra - + Show Spoiler +
I haven’t built this a lot, but I think it could be cool. You do a lot of AoE with your kit as it is, so doing more on your autos is pretty cool. And since it goes off AD, it does well with your Ult. Not to mention 75 AD and 10% Lifesteal are nothing to scoff at. If you want another flat AD item, you could do a lot worse.
Mercurial Scimitar - + Show Spoiler +
Your other MR item. Maw gives more AD once you’ve been brought down past a certain point, but this gives more flat AD and MR, and the active is great against heavy CC teams. The sprint is nothing to sneeze at either, so get this against CC and Kiting teams I’d say.
Guardian Angel - + Show Spoiler +
Not the end-all-be-all defensive item it once was, but a revive and some defenses are never bad. If you needed early Armor and went Chain, this is pretty good to build it into.
Randuin’s Omen/Frozen Heart - + Show Spoiler +
I generally don’t like either of these. If you need to be really tanky, they’re good, but Riven shouldn’t be building pure tank items imo. If you HAVE to build a straight defensive Armor item, Glacial is better if you have a lot of AD to take advantage of the CDR (lower CD on shield and more armor), Omen is a better flat defensive item.
Spirit of the Elder Lizard/Wriggle’s Lantern - + Show Spoiler +
If you’re jungling, these are both great. Elder Lizard is good AD, True Damages on your stuff, and Health Regen. Wriggle’s is a ward, the proc, Lifesteal, and decent AD. I like Wriggle’s more, but I haven’t played with Elder Lizard a lot either.
Aegis of the Legion/Runic Bulwark - + Show Spoiler +
Very situational. If you need a lot of early defense and MR, and no one else on your team is buying one. Jungle Riven might buy this a lot, since the jungler usually goes Aegis, but I’d still hold off on it.
Item buying tl;dr
You want AD and things that make your AD better. Lifesteal is more or less AD -> survival (which you already have with your shield), Armor Pen lets your AD ignore Armor, and CDR is “apply your AD powerups more”. I think your build should evolve with the game, but here’s a basic game build:
DBlade -> (Second DBlade)/Brutalizer/Tabi -> BT (starting Vamp if normal game, BF if you’re getting fed) -> BC -> Defensive item of choice (generally GA or Maw) -> (Sell second DBlade) LW or Hydra (if they’re building armor) -> sell Doran’s for BT/BC.
Steady build, good power, and strong presence. That said, don’t just blindly follow that every game, if you need an early Hexdrinker, or want to throw in a Chain Vest quickly, go for it.
Laning
Basics
-EW Auto Auto is a good harass combo that closes the gap, stuns, and lays out a good chunk of damage. It’s my standard harass combo. From there, you can QQQ away or put them into more damage onto the target.
-Watch damage poke abilities like Parrrley, Spear Shot, or skillshots. If you E towards them when it goes out, their damage will be on cooldown, and you’ll shield the poke. This can force them back, or force them to trade with you.
-Learn to dance around and avoid abilities. Things like Cho’s Silence, Darius’s Q, and Jayce’s Cannon are pretty easy to bait and/or predict, and with your mobility you shouldn’t get hit by anything that you see coming. Bait them out, and then punish.
-Use your ult. I used to be scared of using it in case I needed it later, but Riven’s is on such a short CD that any time you can force a full trade, you need to have it up. Ult + Ignite will either net a kill or force them to back off, letting you farm away.
-Roam. You have great pushing power and high mobility. You can shove a lane and show up mid pretty easily, often helping your teammate quite a bit.
-Coordinate with your jungler to shove your lane and invade buffs, especially if your lane isn’t gankable and your jungler is a good invader like Lee.
-To set up ganks, wait until they’re close enough to follow up your initiate. Then, W allows your jungler to apply his own gap closer/CC. If you can manage, get your last Q behind the enemy to cut off their retreat.
-Riven can dive pretty well, with ult up your shield will eat ~2-3 tower hits once you have some AD items, and you can Wind Slash people who don’t expect it if they’re low.
-GO BACK IF YOU’RE LOW. Seriously. You don’t have ranged farming, you don’t have easy sustain. If you think you can get dived or ganked, just go back and miss the farm. Better than dying.
Matchups
Your big issues come from harassers you can’t punish and people who out trade you. Teemo and Kennen are very difficult, as they’ll wear you down and be uncatchable. Rumble can poke at you, and then deal more damage if you go to engage. Shyvana can out trade you if she gets her armor melt on you, and is hard to lock down with her mobility. However, all of them are manageable if you get jungle/mid support or if you safely farm under turret. I find that Riven has a stronger lategame than most of them (aside from perhaps Kennen’s ult), so just try not to die. As above, you can shove the lane against them (except Rumble) and then go take objectives or gank mid
Jungling
I intend to expand this a bit, but here are the basics. You can clear pretty well, but you’re fairly squishy. Your ganks are pretty good with a stun and a knockback, and you can dive pretty well, but you’re not Malphite or Skarner. If you intend on jungling, be prepared to get middle game items like Bruta, Cutlass, and Hexdrinker rather than rushing a BT.
Final Thoughts
Riven is a good champ. She suffers from having some bad matchups and being countered by armor, but there are ways around both of those. Her late game power is great for crushing anyone not tanky, and I feel she really remains relevant all game long. Once you get a feel for using her passive and her cooldowns effectively, she can win really hard in a lot of lanes and help her team considerably.