Riven Build Guide by cainenghis

Introduction

Greetings summoners, my name is Cainenghis, I've been playing LoL since the release of Riven and have been playing since Lvl 20.

I have summoned her more than 400 times in the Fields of the Justice and, through all this games, I've acquired a lot of knowledge with this champion that I'd like to share it with all of you.

Before getting started I want to say that Riven is the champion I've ever had more fun with.
Her fast paced playstyle, high mobility and damage are amazing, that's why I enjoy playing her a lot.

I hope you enjoy my Riven build :)

Pros & Cons

Summoner Spells

I mostly use Flash and Ignite.

Why use ignite at the Toplane?

VS

With Riven you've got enough mobility to stick to your target pretty well so the slow isn't really necessary. The damage reduction is the best thing about the spell, but intelligent players will just wait 2 seconds if they want to hurt you.

On the other side, the 50% healing reduction for 5 seconds will screw your enemy sustain while fighting (lifesteal, spellvamp, heals, regen). And as you specialize in doing tons of damage in very few seconds ( what makes her an AD caster) the true damage will considerably empower your combo.

Runes

Marks: The AD from the marks will boost your early game to godlike levels. With these you'll be able to bully nearly every single champion in the League. You can get Greater Mark of Desolation but if you do that you might get outlaned by Lee Sin and getting owned by a blind man is quite disappointing.

Seals: Standard armor seals for a better lane presence.

Glyphs: This + Mr/level + Mercury's Treads will prevent you from getting bursted down by any AP carry (unless he's fed as f*ck). Despite this, you can get 9x Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction if your teamcomp is very tanky or if you know that your allies will protect you.

Quintessences: Same reasoning as the given for marks. However, there are some Quints that you may consider if you don't like going offensive, these are Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. Riven is an extremely mobile champion so more mobility = even more awesomeness.

Masteries

Now is when some people might be thinking OMFG U DOES ALL PHYSICAL DAMEGE AND NO Weapon Expertise ! That's true, all her damage is physical, however, that +10% Arpen costs 5 mastery points and thorough the whole game the increase of physical damage won't be more than a 3%, so it's 5 mastery points for 1%~3% damage increase during the game (the Atkspeed given by [Alacrity] doesn't synergise well with her and gives you a very low boost of atkspeed at lvl 18 due to the quite low base atkspeed of Riven). Imo those mastery points are better invested in Sorcery and Havoc .

Other than that, I've omitted the point in Lethality . Why? Because it's difficult to make use of it with 0% Crit Chance D:

Skill Sequence and Skill Explanation

Riven exists because of this passive and this passive exists because of Riven. It's one of the best passives in the game and one must fully take advantage of it to become a successful Riven. Every time you use a skill (Q/Q/Q/W/E/R/R) your next autoattack will deal a brutally high amount of damage. It will stack up to 3 times so don't be afraid of spacing those autoattacks in between your combos.

This ability is so fu*king good that Riot made a skin with the only purpose of making it look cooler. I chose this as my first spell because of it being able to:
-Generate 3 (yes, 3!) charges of the passive.
-Serve as a gap closer.
-And a disable that can interrupt channelled spells.
-While it deals an acceptable amount of damage.

Tips & Tricks:
-It automatically ends your autoattack animation, what means you'll have your AA ready right after the skil animation ends.
-You move at around 475 mvspeed when using it so you can (and should) use it to move faster through the map, chase and escape.
-It can pass through temporal walls such as Anivia's, Jarvan's or Trundle's.

As simple as this, here we've got a Spammable High Damage (still after the nerf) AoE Stun. Sounds OP, it is ;).

Tips & Tricks:

-Use it to interrupt channelled skills such as Fiddlesticks Drain or that annoying Nunu Absolute Zero
-This will help you to stick to your enemy when chasing and buy you some time when an enemy is about to get to melee range.

The Epic Multi Function Low Cooldown Dash With Shield. This ability makes you last way longer in fights while it keeps your passive filled with charges.

Tips & Tricks:

-This works as well as your other abilities as a chase/escape tool.
-This is your primary bait tool when you are low on HP. Just look at how they towerdive you and your HP suddenly doubles (or triples) while you happily kill them all.
-It can also pass through temporal walls just like Broken Wings.

:
Pressing R makes Riven exactly 20% stronger for 15 seconds flat. Your damage output becomes unbelievably high. Your shield shields you for sh*tloads of damage and your AoEs are even bigger. And as if all that wasn't enough, you get to use the World Extermination Slash during it's duration.

The Slash will nearly kill all the enemies in a cone who are at less than 25% health while dealing noticeable damage to other enemies.

Skilling order
Blade of the Exile> Ki Burst> Valor> Broken Wings

Why Ki Burst over Broken Wings?
Because the very little increase in your damage output won't make up for the huge loss of utility that will become keeping your stun with an 11 Sec cooldown until Lvl 8.

Items

Commonly you'll have to fight another AD Bruiser top. If this happens it's reccomendable to start with a Cloth Armor + 5 Health Potion. This will give you +750 effective health while you trade hits with the enemy laner and farm.
Examples of lanes where I'd get this are: Renekton, Gangplank, Wukong, Darius or Yorick

If your enemy has 1 or more skillshots/AoE and doesn't do 100% physical damage you might consider going Boots of Speed + 3 Health Potion (4 if you're not helping the jungler) to avoid/get away from his skills.
I usually take them when fighting Kennen, Lee Sin, Cho'Gath or any AD carry that wishes to top against you.

Starting with a Null-Magic Mantle is possible. However, most AP tops have many non-target skills and if you don't get boots you are likely to get hit by those skills. I'd start with this when I'm against Vladimir or Akali

Long time ago I used to take Doran's Blade, but when i saw how efficient health pots were I thought about trying other things.
With Riven you've got 3 potentially good choices and 1 mediocre choice:

1# Mercury threads. Take them if the enemy team has got 3 or more hard CCs such as stun, silence taunt or fear. Get them too if you are vs an AP top.

2# Ninja Tabi. Take them if the enemy hasn't got much CC or if the enemy teamcomp has got 3 or more autoattackers ( For example: Nocturne jungle, Olaf top, Caitlyn bot).

3# Ionian Boots of Lucidity. If the enemy team has got few CC these boots will increase your damage and mobility by decreasing your cooldowns. However, if you get them you will be squishier and die faster when focused in the middle of a teamfight, and this is very likely to happen.

4# Berserker's Greaves. The atkspeed boost will make you do a little more damage and take towers down faster but as it happens with alacrity, you won't feel the difference too much because of your low innate atkspeed.


With these two items you have an amazing sustain, survivaviliteh, a nice mobility and... guess what?
Once you've completed the 2 main items you'll have to make a decision.
Moar HP with Frozen Mallet or moar resists with Guardian Angel. I used to always build the angel, but then I said "oatmeal are you crazy?" Riven has a really small health pool thorough the whole game so why not fix this a little?. Now I usually get a Phage, then rush Guardian Angel and then I finish the [Frozen mallet].


After you have bought the two tanky items, your opponents will have bought plenty of armor soo.. it's time to take a Last Whisper! With this you'll dish more damage than you ever imagined to any enemy you decide to kill, no matter if he's the tank or the AD carry.


The best choices for Riven's last item are:
- Maw of Malmortius More damage and magic resist will come very handy and the magic shield is an incredibly good passive.
- Quicksilver Sash If their CC is so high that your mercs can't handle it or if there is a Warwick or any other champ with suppression in their team this item will be very useful as your your *Halp!* button in teamfights.
- The Bloodthirster Double thirstiness for double powerr! If you don't really need any magic resist, then get another one of this blades and you'll be able to achieve a Pentakill in 10 seconds flat.

Why not The Brutalizer?
You can include this item in your build if you feel naked without it but, before sticking to that build, try to rush a BT in a game and see what fits you the most. Also, this build provides 0% crit chance so you'll throw some money when you upgrade it into Youmuu's Ghostblade in the very late game.

Combos!

In progress . . .
Wombo Combo!

Laning Phase

In progress . . .
Pic by FrizzleXD (ResoluteDawn in deviantart)