I'm your stereotypical platinum player; but I also recently started to main jungle Riven. There is that one other Riven jungle guide, but I assure you I am the better Riven main. Anyways, Riven jungle is THE TRUE WAY to play riven. If you want to climb with Riven, don't play her top, play her Jungle. Riven jungle is the secret meta pick that is waiting to be abused. Play a couple games using this guide, and you will be lead towards true freelo.

This guide shows you how to play assassin 1 shot Riven in the jungle, which is the best Riven play style in the jungle. Although the bruiser Riven taught by the other mobafire guide is not bad, assassin Riven is even better, giving you the power to one shot the ADC while also having the power to destroy tanks and other bruisers.

Pros

• Amazing Ganks
• Amazing Dueling Post 6
• Extremely Fast Clears
• Lots of CC
• 1v5 + Insane Teamfights
• Insane Damage

Cons

• Tough first clear
• Difficult
• Weak dueling before first back

TIAMAT
Rush this every game first item. It provides much more than red or blue smite. First of all, it provides much needed ad. Riven's base damage is quite low but her ad scaling is bonkers. Getting this extra ad makes ganks, dueling, and clearing much easier. The tiamat passive and active are very beneficial.
STALKER'S SMITE: WARRIOR
First of all, the AD on this item is essential to Riven because of her high AD scalings. Stalker's smite is better than skirmishers on this playstyle of Riven since you can outduel all enemies as long as you can get close to them. Stalker's smite + nimbus cloak makes gap closing too easy.
YOUMUU'S GHOSTBLADE
Again, this playstyle of Riven allows you to destroy the enemy as long as you get close. Youmuu passive and active is the perfect perk to do this. Also, the lethality and cooldown helps a lot.
BOOTS OF LUCIDITY
Unless the enemy team is full ad or full ap, get these boots. With the assassin build, getting full 40% CDR is not guaranteed. As such, these boots are very helpful. The cdr allows Riven to become a teamfighting and dueling monster, letting you duel powerful duelists such as Darius even without Conqueror. Also, the summoner spell CDR is essential on Riven since a flash-stun combo allows Riven to suddenly jump into a teamfight and instantly kill 5 people.

This is Thunderlords not Electrocute
Although the new 9.23 Conqueror has insane synergy with Riven, jungle Riven utilizes Thunderlords much better since some q charges may be used to gap close for a gank. Also, Thunderlords helps with 1 shotting much better than Conqueror.
Sudden Impact
Sudden impact gives you lethality. Very useful for assassin 1 shot Riven.
Eyeball Collection
Give you ad much more reliably than other runes. Also Riven doesn't utilize the other runes very well since she stays in her own jungle power-farming a lot.
Relentless Hunter
The extra out of combat movement speed is very beneficial for junglers good at ganking such as Riven. Although ultimate hunter is also good, the movement speed is better.
Nimbus Cloak
After the rework of this rune in 9.23, Nimbus Cloak has become a must take for Riven jungle. After getting stalker's blade, Nimbus Cloak allows Riven to instantly gap close for ganks, chasing, and also escaping.
Absolute Focus
You can take water walking instead for the early game dominance. However, absolute focus gives much needed AD for one shotting champions near the mid game.

Now here is where my jungle experience comes in. Jungle Riven has two main clears, and both are not very easy(requires sufficient kiting and good timing).

Clear 1:

• Start Bot Side Buff With Leash
• Clear Every Camp
• If starting blue side, smite the krugs and blue
• If starting red side, smite red buff and krugs
• If the enemy jungler shows bot side or you have more than 70% hp left, take the scuttle and look for a gank before recalling. If not, just recall instantly and go back to take the respawning gromp/krugs.

Clear 2:

• Start Bot Side Buff With Leash
• If starting red buff, proceed to blue buff then gromp(smiting blue buff)
• If starting blue buff, proceed to kill red buff then krugs(smiting the krugs)

Clear tips:

• Use Riven E to avoid damage at the moment a camp starts their attack animation to optimize damage mitigation.
• Use Riven W the moment a camp is about to do their attack to cancel their attack
• Use a fast Q combo on buffs to do damage as fast as possible always
• Always try to kite the buffs towards the next camp in the first two full clears

Riven has two very useful combos and short tips. Everyone has heard of Riven animation cancelling, and there are countless animation cancels. However, not every animation cancel is worth memorizing. There are the only three that are actually useful.

Combo 1: Triple Fast Q Combo

Arguably the most famous Riven combo. It is simple and only utilizes the Q and AA. Here is how the combo goes.

AA > Q > Move slightly to the left/right > AA > Q > Move slightly to the left/right > AA > Q > AA

By moving slightly after a Q, the animation of Q is cancelled and allows Riven to AA a bit faster. This is helpful for clearing and also fights.

Combo 2: Dash Tiamat Stun Combo

This is another very useful but simple combo. Doing E + W on Riven can cancel her W animation. Doing Tiamat + W cancels the tiamat animation. As such, doing the full combo E + Tiamat + W combo allows you to do the most damage in the shortest amount of time while also getting a small gap close.

In a nutshell, this is the combo: E > Tiamat > W

Combo 3: Combined Full 1-Shot Combo

This will be how you can 1v3 when your ult is up. This is how the combo goes:

R > Do Combo 2 > Do Combo 1(Without the First Auto) > R(Second Activation)

If you get two people by the stun, this combo can kill them both in 2-3 seconds.


Ok I lied there is one more combo. This is apparently important on Riven but I don't use this much.

Combo 4: Flash 1 Shot Combo

E > R > Flash > Q(Third Q) > Tiamat > W > AA(This Can Be Skipped) > R(Second Activation)

This can be used to instantly flash into a fight to one shot some kids. You do not necessarily need to use Q after flash. As long as you do the first three commands, the combo works pretty well. It doesn't require the fog of war as much such as the other combo, and the enemy team isn't too apprehensive since the R does not need to be activated beforehand.

Ok for those Riven top players I feel like I am obligated to make this chapter. There are three main scenarios for ganking.

Scenario 1: Enemy is Pushing
This is basically a free kill every time unless your top laner is 0/5 or AFK. Simply walk up to the enemy and do a triple fast Q combo. If he flashes or dashes away, use your stalkers smite + nimbus cloak + combo 2 to catch up and kill them.

Scenario 2: Enemy is the center of the lane.
If the enemy is in the center of the lane, it is best to start the gank by using the stalkers smite to quickly gap close then use Combo 2 + Combo 1 to gap close any flashes to get the kill. If your laner also has cc or has good damage, it should be a free kill.

Scenario 3: Enemy is pushed into his tower(DIVE TIME)
In order to dive, first wait for the minions to crash into to the tower(if your top laner can't shove into turret well, ward the closest enemy jungle to make sure you will not get counterganked than go into the lane to push the minions under tower). Afterwards, initiate the dive using the cc from Combo 1, Ultimate, and Tiamat + W. Save your E to escape after finishing the dive.