Riven is a new champion as many if not all of you know, and the first sight of this new Melee champ made me instantly run out and grab the RP points to buy her right away.
She is a wonderful champ with a lot of flexibility in the way you build her, but most of all...She... is probably no doubt, the funnest champ in the game in my opinion.

Although SHE is a new champion and there is NOT a ton of game play so far with her, I wanted to make a guide since I know many others would like some help learning her abilities, and so forth.I build my Riven Like a dueler, destroying in 1v1, and allowing for tower dives, early game harassment and aggression, solid team fighting, and a well rounded champion that's very fun and destructive.Not to mention this will be my first guide so bear with me, as I will update it.

So without further hesitation let us continue.

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Pro's
-Fun to play
-A ton of damage if played correct
-Looks bad ***
-Very effective fighter with many tricks
-Stun, knock back, shield and dash.



Con's
-Item dependent (Somewhat..)
-Squishy (Somewhat..)
-Tricky to learn at first.
-Can be CC'd easily (Why I use cleanse)
-Not the greatest AD ratios (which doesn't seem to be a big problem if you build correct)
-Finding things to write about her cons.

Q
Her bread and butter, a slashing move allowing her within a short period of time to attack three times with her blade, on the third slash she jumps higher and sends a shock wave knocking back enemy's.

- Can allow Riven to move faster by using this move to dash forward slightly
- Quickly builds her passive's charge [Runic Blade] Allowing the player to attack in between strikes for added extra damage , resulting in a change of strikes that quickly mow down enemy's.
-Although her Broken wings allows her to move forward, It doesn't allow her to move over terrain.



W
A decent sized AOE stun, disabling all enemy's withing the radius, while also sending out a decent damage AOE

-Good for ganking, move up in your lane with you Broken wings, attacking as they run.. making sure to attack in between each attack for maximum damage try to after landing either your Second or third broken wings strike before activating this after the auto attack.. allowing you to either stun and knock back.. or knock back and stun, where a critical amount of damage may be applied or a enemy may be finished off with activating Blade of the exile, and a wind slash.. allowing you to remain beside your opponent so that Blade of the Exile activation does not put you too far behind where it would be a waste and you would not catch them.


E
Riven dashes a short period and is shielded on a base amount along with a bonus from her AD.

-Using Valor allows riven to catch up for lost ground... or escape and line shots or anything that could harm her...The shield is decently strong and can be used as a buffer before entering combat... allowing a first hit to be mitigated.


R
Riven summons back the remnants of her sword and uses it allowing for her to increase her attack range, and a damage multiplier as well on her attacks. When her ultimate is active the player then may have the option of using wind slash... a large line shot/cone where Riven send out a pretty heft am mount of damage that goes through units.. This ult is amazing for finishing off escaping enemy's or people just barley out of reach for Riven

For my rune set I originally though that riven would be a beefy kinda champ considering her moves and the play style suggested, But as I played her I had a lot of problems with being harassed, being burst down a bit too quickly, and just having problems in lane in general.

So, I changed things up, and I think these are some pretty solid rune setups please try your own and experiment not everyone has the same play style and this will tend to vary the spec, runes, and summoners of each player.

For my Riven I go :

x 9 -Greater Mark of Desolation [ Red ] = 14.94 ARP

x 9 -Greater Seal of Vigor [ Yellow ] = 3.87 HP/5

x 9 -Greater Glyph Of Vigor [ Blue ] = 2.43 HP/5

x 3 -Greater Quintessence of Vigor = 8.1 HP/5



I choose these runes obviously so that I can stay in lane easily start game, with a Doran's Shield I have 22.4 HP/5 which when seen with Riven base HP ( 548 which is with me talented in the defensive tree) it comes out to 668, with this massive amount of Regen already far surpasses a Philosopher's Stone, and almost has as much Regen.. As a Randuin's Omen, or a Shurelya's Reverie. My point being this allows you with your talenting in defense to have a decent am mount of armor and magic resist with entering the lane at level 1 with a equivalent of a legendary item (3rd tier)

To further my point, allowing the Regen is amazing, for sustaining you lane.. or being harassed where your Valor will be able to soak large portions of harassment, and allow you to Regen through it giving you large potential for harassment on your enemy's without worrying to much about buying HP pots or going back.

As you can see above my masteries are all in the defensive tree... this is for many reasons


1)Armor, Magic Resistance, Regen.

Like I said previously in runes where I spoke about the HP Regen, I enjoy that I don't have to base my armor and magic resistance in my runes, allowing me to obtain them in the defensive tree and with that I can rune for the HP Regen like I spoke earlier in the Rune section.


2)Health / Buffyness

Veteran scars allows me to start of with a amazing 668 HP at level one with Riven, which may not be A LOT compared to some other champs but again close to 700HP at level 1 allows you to gank early, take any harass or burst well enough entering lane so any surprises in the bush's or three man gank's will allow you to escape easily


3)Cleanse

As you may have seen, YES I do take cleanse... It is a amazing summoner spell for a fighter, allowing to remove all CC and remain in a fight.. finish of a foe... escape from a battle... and most importantly SURVIVE and the lower CD in defense who could ask for more?


4)Tenacity

As many come to realize with Riven that she does not have the greatest AD ratios on her moves, almost mimicking my other favorite champion Renekton. I tested out both specs offensive and defensive and I found that the 4% mitigation of damage was ... note worthy to say the least. Since a fighter isn't all about bursting... durhur I think the defensive tree works better in almost all scenarios... While when I played the Offensive tree, I hardly noticed a difference in damage that would make up for the survivability in the defensive tree.


5)Bonus's & Comparisons
VS
Offensive Tree Pro's
-Increased armor pen
-Increased damage to monsters
-4% Extra damage all Together.
-Exhaust Debuff


Defensive Tree Pro's
-Higher resistances
-Higher HP
-4% Damage Mitigated
-Cleanse buff


Offensive tree just.. doesn't give enough. Although even I see potential for offensive, exhaust is pretty pointless when using a frozen mallet, the slow is enough for riven to slash away stun, leap, and repeat.. again this is just what I think is best, If others like something different , then that's their style.


6)Dodge

Dodge talent, although rare to see other then some tanks... and Jax of course... If there is quite a lot of AD champs, swapping from boots of Swiftness to Ninja Tabi, allow Riven even more fighting and dueling potential allowing to dodge whole attacks making this very worth while in the correct situation.

As I have received positive reply's and comments on my build I think It is about ready to state that the build you see above will be the official build I stick with for now, It has held itself up... and provides a lot of damage, survivability, and well rounds Riven out.

BUT!


This is a IN DEPTH guide, and I will do so by adding sections of it... and of course having situational builds.. and situational items for certain hard counters, or problems you may face in the field.

As part of my spec, and what you have read above I like my riven to have a high flexibility, and a high breaking point... Riven isn't exactly a good tank some times, and if focused well enough or cc'd hard enough she will like most champs be evaporated. Through my build I have discussed my reasons for using the defensive tree, and likewise with my cleanse selection, but sad to say Cleanse and 4% mitigation isn't gonna allow you to survive everything.

Bellow are some items I like to use in situations, why I pick them, and why they are good.
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100 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: On being hit by standard attacks, returns 30% of damage taken as magic damage. A minimum of 15 damage must be received.

Probably the most common hard counter for AD! It soaks up a TON of damage, giving Riven a whopping 100 armor bonus, and returns quite a bit of damage back. Although MOST will argue this isn't exactly going to stop allowing people to focus you... but This item can speak for itself with riven having almost 4000 HP end game, and almost a whopping 200 armor.

This item is effective against!

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68 Armor, 38 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: Revives your Champion upon death, restoring 750 Health and 375 Mana. This effect can only occur once every 5 minutes.

In many games I play as riven I get focused.. A LOT and yes while most will argue this is a bad choice ( Most think that because if your dying your a bad fighter...) I like to think of this as a good item for the reason of... lets say.. there's a team fight... baron? or dragon? of of the two... And your team is grabbing dragon.. the other team comes in and fights ect ect.. BUT lets say you.. since you were doing well... or just happen to be the first hit.. soaked up.. a couple ults.. or at least 2... and you fought.. and you did a TON of damage.. but in the end.. you were killed by a ult.. or just by players in general. Now Since you had this YOU come back to life to either PICK UP a couple kills from the battle torn enemy's.. Giving you some Gold.. or.. you save your team mates and dramatically change the fight because the person they burst-ed down.. now has no ults.. and your teams still up.. allowing you to get back into the fight.. and allowing your death to be a buffer.. so it can almost deny the enemy gold for them trying to focus you. Some can also look at the point of having two life's.. you get the extra armor and magic resist...making you tougher.. and more rounded out.. and some enemys will NOT focus you because you have it.. once again allowing you to go to town on them with that badass sword of yours. Either or in the right situation I feel Guardian Angel is a effective counter for either being focused in team fights or just allowing a player to take a more offensive approach to fighting knowing you can come back to life near your team mates.. either or.. this is stillllllllll on the fence with me.
(I need to fix the spelling, I'm just tired will add more and take away bleh.)
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25 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2, 35 Tenacity

Tenacity reduces the duration of Crowd Control effects by a percentage. Having 35 Tenacity results in 35% reduced Crowd Control duration. Only the duration of the effects is affected.


This choice is plain and simple, this item gives magic resistance and tenacity allowing to get out of CC's.. which almost every caster has... and gives Riven a bit more magic resistance.. this isn't so much a hard counter as just a buffer.. I would only use this if there was a serious CC composition, if if there were common snares that you wouldn't want to use your cleanse on.

Examples



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375 Health, 375 Mana, 50 Magic Resist. UNIQUE Passive: Blocks one negative spell every 45 second

This is a pretty decent item, and can be very effective if needed. Again I know myself as I type this that some will argue that the mana is a wasted stat.. which is true. but... it doesn't change the fact it gives you 375 HP and 50 MR and a negate... I DONT see how people could not LOVE this item, Sure it isn't gonna help every time but it can help A LOT if you know when to buy it. Personally I enjoy using it with the following opposing champions.




Again this is a situational item.... and can DRAMATICALLY effect the battlefield! The only time I ALWAYS will get a Banshee's is if the following bellow are playing.

I will explain my idea's for each champion bellow, please leave a message if you have anything to add, or your opinions!


- Veigar

- A devastating champion with a insane burst and stun, as most of you have already KNOWN and most do that Veigar usually will always get to the "stupid" stages where he will one shot you with his combo. In my experience most kills from Veigar come from his AOE stun locking you in for him to slam you with his ult, again you can cleanse out. but thing is its all situational.. What if your cleanse isnt up.. what if he jumps you and decides to ult you.

The thing I like the most is when Veigar cannot Stun me.. because The Banshees absorbs it.. or....he misses his stun and his ult zooms in and is absorbed. In both these COMMON scenarios banshees veil negates anything Viegar can do, turning a somewhat menacing champion into not the biggest threat, even allowing you to attack him, since his combo will not effect you.





Blitz, Amumu, and Galio, all three great initiators... And all broken by Banshees. The strongest point for any of those three champions are.

-Blitz - Rocket Fist (at least this is why I grab the banshees)

-Amumu - Curse of the sad Mummy

-Galio - Idol of Durand

These three moves sometimes even cause the game, a blitz grabbing someone at baron.. or just in general anywhere making the situation a instant 4v5, Amumu's ult does WONDERS in team fights and quickly turns from what was was to be a fight.. into a cleanup, and Galio's ult.. another initiator that is very deadly and will most likely kill you if the team is behind them to back Galio's up. The point is, allowing you to survive something that would otherwise off balance you, or your team, will help in the long run.



- Poppy

-For those who play poppy or know what poppy can do, Her combo is known to be lethal for a reason, its effective, and with poppy's alt... can destroy 1v1. Eliminating her combo allows for higher survivability... ensuring that you have the higher up on her if the situation would be a 1v1, or a team fight. For her to attack you with your shield up would allow you to soak up the stun and wall bash.. giving you time to flee... or fight.. and soaking up quite a bit of damage in the meantime.



- Anivia

-This bird of death, has a lethal combo, which even tanks fear... banshees isn't that great against a Anivia... because it can be hit or miss, and when you screw up against her.... your most likely gonna get killed, But! taking her combo out, just like you would a viegar, or a poppy make fighting this champion a lot less scary.

These two summoners, In my opinion are superior to any other, allowing for entry into fights... ganking enemy champs... tower diving... getting out of ganks.... Basically allowing Riven to move herself anywhere and remove almost any CC from her.. amazing for pretty much every scenario, and as a bonus she is a fighter which makes these summoners very scary her opponents.

Ghost can be interchanged with either of flash or cleanse, which provides large movement speeds, and likewise with flash allowing Riven to catch up or get the hell out.

Taking away cleanse for heal can sometimes be good In my opinion... healing team mates... continuing in lane... allowing you to survive ganks.. that would otherwise have killed you.. survive tower dives.. or help make a 1v1 that was in someone else s favor... turn into your own

MY guide continues to evolve, and become probably the most deep build riven guide at the moment, I thank everyone who gives this a read, and especially the positive input from

Dylvish

MonkMiroku

Their input has change this guide into a far better read... and effective champ build.

Please rate this guide! and leave a message it would help build this guide!