Important: This guide is in an early stage and is not completed yet!

Hello Summoners,

and welcome to my first guide on mobafire feat. Riven the Exil!

First of all thank you for clicking on my guide. I want to show you how i play Riven but before I get started I want to mention a few things about me. Hopefully you didn't noticed it yet, but English isn't my first language so be patient with my language skills as they might be not as good as others.

Also be so kind to Vote & Comment on this guide to help me fixing the problems. Since this is my first guide be free to leave some tips. ;)

So let's start with the guide and learn how to play Riven!

Pros

+ Strong duellist + High mobility + Safe pick + Snowballs hard + Insane ability-kit + Only falls of very late + No mana or other resources

Riven is an incredible strong laner and is only limited by CD. She has no direct counters due to her awesome kit, wich makes her a safe blind pick in most cases. In mid game she can take on nearly everyone in an 1v1 because of her high damage and mobility. She is able to snowball the entire game.

Cons

+ High Skill Cap + Hard to come back + Not naturally tanky + Item depentend + requires constant aggression

Riven might seem easy to pick up at first but it is hard to land her skills and cobos properly. Since she scales so great with pure AD she is pretty item depentend on her damage output. This is the reason why a comeback is not so easy when you lack in terms of gold. Also her playstyle requires knowledge of your current potential, because she needs to go all in very often.

Ignite is very useful when you plan to be agressive or want to secure kills. If you want a first blood take this for sure. It deals true damage and can be a pain in early levels because of the healing reduction. Later on it is litteraly not that important but still can be an usefull spell. Perfect for us. I usually take this in combination with flash when i'am solo top.

Flash is definetly the most powerful summoner spell. It is better than Ghost for serveral reasons. First of all you are able to flash over most walls when you try to escape. Also it is perfect for a surprising engagement or to close the gap to a flewing enemy quickly. It is an overall more flexible spell. Almost every lane opponent will take this so pick it also.

Teleport might not be that agressive and you will loose an advantage in your matchup if the enemy has ignite, but with an coordinated team you can became a huge threat to the enemy. Teleport ganks are very powerfull and can be used to push lanes out quickly or get an andvantage in objective fights. Example for Dragon you can teleport down to secure the objective with rest of your team. Only Teleport if your lane is pushed!

Even though jungle Riven is almost never seen. It can definetly work. Riven is a strong ganker but her clearing speed is kinda okay. She needs much gold so farming is important. I would max out her Ki Burst first because of the AoE. I will make an extra chapter for her Jungle soon when i have enough experience about it. -> Jump to this part.

Look what your Jungler is picking don't go for two offensive builds!

Riven is not meant to be a pure tank so you should not go for 9/21/0.

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Offensive Tree Tier 1: Take a point into Summoner's Wrath because you will pick up Ignite 99% of the time. CDR is very good on Riven so taking Sorcery is the best choice. There is one point left so put it in Butcher for easier last hitting. Tier 2: Deadliness adds 12 AD at level 18. Can make a difference so take on every AD scaling Champ. Tier 3: With Havoc your damage output is 2% higher not much but theres is nothing better. Weapon Expertise is very good it provides 8% armpen wich scales well with Riven overall. Tier 4: Take Brute Force it may be only 3 AD but you don't need any crit so skip Lethality . Tier 5: And last but not least take Sunder . 2 flat armpen, always good.

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Defensive Tree Tier 1: Since you have your shield at level 3 you won't have a problem with minion aggro. So i put 1 point into Perseverance and of course in Durability for the extra health. Tier 2: 5 armor and 2 magic resist. Can be swapped if you facing an ap champ. Tier 3: Unyielding is perfect for 1v1 also the 30 flat hp from Veteran's Scars are very standart. Tier 4: Put your last point in Block . It will prevent some AA poke from ranged champions not much but better than nothing.

Pretty standart stuff. You can put this setup on any other AD top laner. So consider to buy these very quickly if you dont have runes at all. There are viable for many roles. So let's take a more detailed look at them:

These could be replaced with armpen but AD boosts you early game quite descent. We won't miss on that because Riven scales so well of it. Riven doesn't need attack speed at all because she is a AD Caster and the only AAs you will deal are to proc your Runic Blade, so never try it.

This is pretty obvious. 80% of the top picks are AD so armor runes are a must have the seals are the best to take. Dont consider armor runes in other slots it is wasted because they can provide more usefull stuff.

Some top picks are AP and of course for the late game you will need some magic resist. I found these more usefull than the flat ones because APCs getting strong quite late and you should not have a problem of magic damage burst in lane.

Same as for the marks. Flat AD will boost your early don't change these at all other stats provide not enough to be viable for Riven. Movement speed is cool but not on her she is quite mobile with her Broken Wings and Valor.

Runic Blade
Riven will gain an extra damage buff for her next AA in 5 sec. after using one of her abilities. This can stack up 3 times.
An outstanding passive. This is what makes you win most trades early. AA's between your skills will increase your damage heavily. Make use of it as often as possible.


Broken Wings
A three part combo. On the last strike Riven will knock nearby enemies back. It also has a higher damage radius then the two before.
Annoying skill for your enemies because every strike will proc your passive! Also the knock back ist very usefully if they try to run away. But it requires some practice to land the 3rd strike properly. Can also be used to escape.


KI Burst
An instant AoE stun that will also deal damage around Riven. Cast radius is smaller than on broken wings.
Good harrasment tool. Safe damage because the enemy won't be able to respond to your engagement due to the stun.


Valor
Riven dashes forward gaining a shield saving her for incoming damage. It will last up to 2.5 secs.
It scales of AD with a 1.0 ratio so it's very good for tower diving. Very versatile. You can also use it between your combo to get the passive or shield an ignite. Also an descend escape.


Blade of the Exile
Riven gains damage and range on her AA's and abilities for the next 15 secs. Within this time she may reactivate this skill to use Wind Slash wich will emit a shockwaves in front of her dealing damage.
Great ultimate on a decent cooldown. Riven can 1v1 most enemies with that ultimate. Wind Slash deals more damage on injured targets, so great for an execution even after they flashed.

Option 1: Max Damage




This is the most common way. On the first level Broken Wings outdamges other skills. Also the mobility is a must have. I take Ki Burst secound for the harrasment. Take the third point into Valor. As always the ultimate has the highest priority follwed by Q, W, and the E at last.

This way has one negative aspect because maxing Broken Wings doesn't reduce its cooldown! Try to remember this in fights.




Option 2: Safe Harrasment




More passive option. The first 3 levels are the same if you think the enemie is too skilled or you got behind by an early gank you should consider switching to this. You can get way more poke because the shield of Valor get's stronger mid game.

There are no other viable options in my opinion because maxing your Valor doesn't provide any damage also the shield scales with AD and early on you don't have any big damage items. It is also against the usual aggressive riven playstyle. So don't get behind! ;)

There are two other possible starting options that i don't mentioned above. These are very situational and should never picked up without a good reason. So let's see what I think about that:

The Doran's Blade is a quite popular start. However i won't recommend it because it forces you to play aggressive even if you should not. You will have no sight ward or Health Potion to prevent early jungle ganks. Generally i like this item but not as a starting choice. Usually i get one of these on my first trip back. Leave this to the Pro Players.

The Doran's Shield isn't bad at all. But it is the passive which makes it so situational. At least you can buy one Health Potion extra so have a little bit more sustain. You should only grab it if you play against a champ who pokes you alot with AAs. Examples would be: Nidalee, Kennen, Jayce, Vayne or other ADC top lanes.

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So there are two core Items you have to choose from these are the Ravenous Hydra and Bloodthirster. Statisticly the BT is picked up way more often (source: elophant) but in my opinion the Hydra is equal or in many situations a better option. Because the building path of the Tiamat is more gold efficient than the B. F. Sword. You have many items to build so you can buy at least something when you need to go back. If you pick the [[bloodthirster you need to reach 1550 G which is alot! On your way waiting for it you don't get any extra stats.

Another point is the wave clear. Riven wave Clear is very good but with a Ravenous Hydra she becomes a huge split pushing threat. Also in fights the "extra spell" becomes very usefull. But you need to use that active! If not it is wasted becasue Bloodthirster (if stacked] outdamages it and will provide you with more lifesteal.

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Unfortunately there are many ways to build her or in which order. However this keeps your build viable for most situations. So you can even rush a Last Whisper if you facing champions with an armor level over 9000. Examples would be: Shen, Renekton or Malphite. They usually don't buy any damage items and want to tank the **** out of you. If you dont fall behind to much you could rush this to still deal some decent damage.

But what do you buy when you fall behind? Lets discuss that in the Gameplay section next chapter because it's more a question of when not what.

Thank you very much for reading my Guide. So I hope you read everything and learnt at least a bit. And also I hope you enjoyed it. If you have the time please Vote & Comment below.
I try to update this guide frequently and complete it as soon as possible.

I also want to thank jhoijhoi for her Tutorial:"How to make a good guide". I had no idea before I read it. Also the green banners are made by her.

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• 16/10/13 - Published Guide with the Chapters Introduction, Pros and Cons, Summoner Spells, Masteries, Runes, Abilities, Skill Sequence, Items and Builds, Last Words and Changelog.