Hi guys! Its Br1an here!
I would like to try to make an in-depth guide on Riven!
Because i think Riven is a really strong Mid/Top Champion and i like to play alot at the mid lane!
Hope your enjoying it!

Both of these summoner spells are really good for Riven. Flash is great for surprising flash bursts, or to get in or out of a fight. Ignite gives you high kill potential throughout the game, and helps you kill those people who get away with just a tiny bit of hp. I have seen Faker run barrier against Zed, but the games after he went Ignite in the same matchup. I prefer Ignite over Barrier every game. Instead of getting barrier you can get extra levels in shield early. A couple of months ago they changed so you can no longer Q -> flash
combo, so you can no longer do that even though it was really good. I don't really think there is any reason to run anything else than these, they are simply superior.

This build is really strong lategame. You will have 36,5% CDR with the runes and masteries which is really good. It allows Riven to be really mobile and spam her shield. This is not my end build in every game but the one I end up with the most. I will tell you more about other items in the situational tab down below. The Hydra together with Bloodthirster gives crazy sustain. You can literally autoattack and use Hydra in the middle of a creep wave and it will heal you more than 50% since Hydra scales so well with more Lifesteal. GA is a good overall item on Riven because when you revive you will have all of your mobillity spells back up, and you will be able to escape or reengage. You can easily come out of GA, run off to a jungle camp and lifesteal back to full health in no time with Hydra and Bloodthirster. You can always sell your GA for another defensive item once your revive passive has been used.

Against Heavy CC

Dorans Shield is the most commom start for me so I will put it first. If you return to base without having enough gold I usually build one Dorans Blade and then start building towards brutalizer, because it gives me a lot of early game power. After you have finished your brutalizer you should start building towards Hydra/BT depending on which item you want first. I personally prefer Hydra. Sometimes I get vamp scepter before Tiamat depending on my matchup. If I am getting harrassed a lot, getting some early lifesteal is nice. If you ever happen to go back to base with not much gold you should buy boots of speed, but it is not prioritized over any damage/core items. After Hydra I often upgrade my boots to Mercs/CDR depending on the game. Sometimes at this point I get QSS if they have heavy CC, otherwise I will go for Last whisper then my defensive item. I hope that helps break down the build order on Riven that I use.

The reason I chose to make a guide for Riven over others champions, is that I took a long time figuring out how I wanted to play her. So I wanted to share my thoughts on how to play Riven to help others if they are confused about her. Riven is played in many different ways by many different players, which makes her such a complex champion. I truly believe there is no BEST way to play her, it all depends how you like playing her and what fits your playstyle. She is very fun and rewarding to play which is why you see a lot of people having 1000+ games on Riven and streamers playing only Riven. She is a champion you can always get better at, the skillcap is insanely high. She can be played in multiple roles but this guide will be focusing on mid lane Riven. It took me a while to get anywhere near good at Riven but I feel very confident picking her in almost every situation now, but it took a long of games of not doing so good to achieve that.

I think the most optimal way of playing Riven is to max Q, it simply gives her great damage output. I like leveling E second for bigger shields and more mobillity since the shield cooldown reduces upon leveling it. Some Riven players like to max W second which is perfectly fine and gives more burst, I feel like it is high risk, high reward.

The "Safe" skill order is the one I use the most. Starting shield level one let's you farm and not get poked out of lane. Going with the "Safe" skill order you should be playing safe till level 3 and not play aggessive untill then.

I run these runes 99% of all games, I think they are really solid and can be used in every single situation. The AD reds are fairly self explanatory. Riven has 4 AD scaling spells, even what I believe is the only AD scaling shield in the game. Armor yellows are also self explanatory, I use them on every mid in every situation. They are so safe and there is never a reason not to use armor yellows in my opinion. Here's where we go a little out of standard. I use cooldown redutction blues. It gives Riven a lot of mobillity and more shields, so having CDR gives you more tankiness aswell. If you are a less experienced Riven player you can go Magic Resistance blues since it is overall safer. In the beginning you might want to start out using Magic Resistance runes and then when you feel more comfortable transition into CDR blues. Quints there are 2 options. You can go either Lifesteal or Attack Damage. I always use Lifesteal since I am a Faker fanboy (just kidding). I always use Lifesteal quints since it is safer and it scales really well with Hydra, which I like to build as my first or second major item. If you really like using the cheesy fortitude pot start you should go Attack Damage quints for bigger surprise damage for your lvl 2-3 all-in.

Masteries are way different now. I'll explain tier by tier what I do to try to explain my thought process. First tear in offense is really simple, CDR is a great stat on Riven, much better than any others you can get. Riven doesn't benefit much from attack speed so it wont be as useful. Second tier is also fairly standard. Attack Damage is one of the other really good and important stats on Riven so I thnk that is the best option here. Now you have multiple options with your spare point. I go for Expose Weakness to help out my teammates. 1% is not a lot of damage but it's gonna be on them constantly if you are attacking. You can also go for Double Edged Sword if you prefer but I like Expose Weakness since it's safer. Further down in the tier you have Executioner which is just a nobrainer. I think this is a really good mastery spell and I will always take it if I am going deep in defense. After that Martial Mastery is great too, more damage, why not? Warlord is an AMAZING mastery on Riven, you build a lot of attack damage and her ults gives a crazy AD boost. Warlord is just great on Riven. Now you can choose between Double Edged Sword or Dangerous Game. I prefer Dangerous Game since you will be getting a lot of kills using Rivens ultimate as execution so the healing is nice.
Devastating Strikes is obviously good, even though you don't benefit from the magic penetration, more armorpen is always good. We wont be building any crit on Riven so Frenzy wont be needed. Now I like to go back and get Spell Weaving. You don't have many options that are better. You can go for Double Edged Butcher, or Butcher if you have trouble with lasthitting. I prefer Spell Weaving though, also because the increased spell damage is helpful for your ultimate execution. Havoc bceause... MORE DMG!! This is where it gets hard. The early defense tree has definitely been nerfed for non tank building melees such as Riven and APs that felt like they needed the extra tankiness early. I still like to go for defense since I go squishy runes on Riven, so the early game tankiness will help. I get Block and HP Regen first, there are simply no other better options. You wont be building much tanky items, so Enchanted Armor wont help, and you wont be jungling so neither will Tough Skin. After that I go Veteran Scars which is a good mastery. The extra HP helps out a ton when playing Riven with no MR runes in lane. Unyielding is just good for blocking damage, also it is stronger for melees. After that the best options are either Juggernaut or resistances. I take Juggernaut because I think the 3% extra max health is better than a tiny bit of resistances. Even though you wont be building health, you will still have your base health and maybe a dorans item or two. I don't go for utillity masteries since Riven doesn't benefit much from movespeed or mana so the first tier is already bad for her. Second tier is decent, but then again the fourth tier is nearly useless for her, so I definitely recommend getting 9 points in defense after offense.

I feel like Zilean is an underrated champion and he has a huge potential. Zilean is a very team oriented champion that can not only support his team but also carry very hard as well. If you watch competitive play, hes finally being noticed by other teams and is starting to see daylight in huge matches . Zilean is one of the harder champions to play in league of legends and in this guide I will explaining how I play Zilean.

For Zilean, I go with 21/0/9 for ap burst damage and utility for mana regen. 21/0/9 is fairly standard but Zilean is very squishy and you need to be careful of being ganked and burst down.

I go with 3 Ability Power quintessence because Zilean has very high scaling with his time bombs and it really helps with his early game damage. Zilean is one of the stronger early game AP Mid champions because of his massive damage.

Passive: Heightened Learning
Increases experience gain of all allied champions by 8%.

Explanation: This passive is very strong because it helps everyone on your team. It may not seem like much but levels are insanely important in league of legends. Imagine reaching level 6 before your opponent, it would give you a substantial advantage in battles. This passive is really strong and helps you pull off aggressive plays as you turn level 6. Most opponents do not expect you to level faster than them and will not expect a sudden level up which will increase your damage by a significant amount.




Q: Time Bomb
Zilean places a time-delayed bomb on a target. After 4 seconds this bomb will detonate, dealing 90 / 145 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+90% of ability power) magic damage to all surrounding enemies.

Cooldown 10 seconds

Cost 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 / 130 mana

Range 700


Explanation:
Zilean's Time bomb has a huge ability power scaling and the damage also surprises your opponent. At level 5 alone, Zilean has the burst damage of 520+ 150 for ignite damage which adds up to around 600 damage if you calculate all of the resist in. This spell is very strong but it starts to cost a lot of mana when you're constantly casting it and rewinding so be careful to save enough mana for your ultimate. Use this spell to harass your opponents and you can also drop them on your ally champions as well.




W: Rewind
Reduces all of Zilean's other spell cooldowns by 10 seconds.

Cooldown 18 / 15 / 12 / 9 / 6seconds
Cost 50mana
Range 600

Explanation:

Rewind is a very strong scaling spell as you reach higher and higher levels as well as getting more and more Cool down reduction. Once you've reached max level with Rewind and Max CDR, the spell goes to a little bit under 3 seconds of CDR. This spell is mainly used to put all of your spells off cool down so you can spam spells around the fight. It also helps you get your ultimate up much faster.



E: Time Warp
Zilean slows an enemy champion's movement speed or increases an allied champion's movement speed by 55% for 2.5 / 3.25 / 4 / 4.75 / 5.5 seconds.

Cooldown 20seconds
Cost 100mana
Range 700

Explanation:

This spell is very useful for chasing opponents and running away from them. This seems like a long cool down spell but it goes to almost nothing once you've reached max CDR. Use this spell wisely on enemy tanks and your AD carry can kite forever. You can also use time warp on your allied tanks to chase down an enemy carry.




R: Chrono Shift
Marks the target with a protective time rune for 7 seconds. If the target would take lethal damage, they are instead transported back in time regaining 600 / 850 / 1100 (+200% of ability power) of their health.

Cooldown 180 / 160 / 140 seconds

Cost 200 mana

Range 900


Explanation:

This is a very high skill capped ultimate because you always want to use it before your allied champion is going to die to make sure they get finished up and resurrected. If you cast it way too early then your opponents will no longer focus that target and you've wasted your ultimate.

Dorans Ring
Optional Item, buy if you need more hp, mana regen and ap. Usually get this item when you get buy a chalice. Don't buy more than 2 dorans.

Sorcerer Shoes
Essential, Zilean does very high damage with sorcerer boots early game.

Athene´s Unholy Grail
This item is essential to Zilean because of the mana regen, cooldown reduction and ap. Chalice is an extremely useful item early game as well and you must buy this later on. Recommended to buy this after catalyst.

Rod Of Ages
This item is essential on Zilean because he is very mana reliant. A very standard and a must have item.

Rabadons Deathcap
Zilean needs this item for damage, he only has 1 damage spell.

Deathfire Grasp
Buy this item as a 5th or 6th item, you buy this when your team does more damage. Don't buy it if you don't need more damage. (burst damage)

Void Staff
Always a strong item, get this as your 5th or 6th item. Buy this item when you need more sustain damage .

For Zilean, I go with 21/0/9 for ap burst damage and utility for mana regen. 21/0/9 is fairly standard but Zilean is very squishy and you need to be careful of being ganked and burst down.

I go with 3 Ability Power quintessence because Zilean has very high scaling with his time bombs and it really helps with his early game damage. Zilean is one of the stronger early game AP Mid champions because of his massive damage.

Tip #1: If you double bomb a minion within the hp range of the champion dying to one bomb, both bombs will detonate.

Tip #2: If you're out of range to harass your opponent with time bomb, but they're in range of their own back wave minion, you can double bomb the minion to inflict damage to your opponent.

Tip #3 When you're doing wraiths, double bomb the red minion so you can kill the camp faster. (As long as all the wraiths are in AOE range)

Zilean's time bomb does a ton of damage for harass early levels but you have to be careful when harassing because he is one of the most squishiest ap champions. I usually harass at level 1 with one time bomb and then wait until level 3 for another. Zilean is all about mana management because if you use too much mana you won't have abilities to harass and trade when your opponent goes aggressive. Whenever you're harassing you are also put into danager of being ganked as well so be really aware around the map before making a play. Your job early game is to farm hard mainly because Zilean is more of a team oriented champion. His passive alone already does a big amount globally. Zilean scales really well with items and your job is to get to that point. People may think he is weak, however has a really big amount of burst damage starting at level 5 and he also has really strong harass damage. People rarely expect a flash into a double bomb and then finishing them an ignite and auto attack. Zilean isn't the type of champion that can farm blue wraiths early on because he has a really low mana pool and his spells cost a huge amount of mana. You can only farm jungle creeps once you've gotten your first blue. The most effective way to clear wraiths is to tank all the wraiths and double bomb the red one, the aoe damage will affect all of the wraiths. He is strong at dragon and is strong starting at 6, don't make risky plays early on because if you fall behind with zilean, you'll have a hard time getting back in the game. His mid and late game is very strong, rely on that.

Mid Game/Late Game

Zilean becomes infinitely stronger once he achieves 3 conditions: wards on both sides of rivers, blue buff , and catalyst. With those 3 conditions he can absolutely dominate his opponent because no other champion can really trade with him. At that point, you can speed yourself and just harass with double bomb without any fear of being ganked. He is really strong at that point, but you can also harass when you don't have wards as long as you've reached catalyst and level 6+. It is really hard to kill zilean once he gets 6 because he can just ult himself and run away. As you start to get levels and blue buffs, you can constantly push your lane, farm wraiths and roam to other lanes to pressure for ganks. Zilean has the most mobility compared to any other AP champions mainly because he has his constant speed up which is huge to assisting lanes.


Team Fights

Rule 1: Try to hit as many targets with bomb as possible.
Rule 2: Slow the tanks that are trying to get to your AD carry.
Rule 3: Try to use your ultimate at an hp where your ally would actually die. ( This will take a lot of practice)
Rule 4: Try to run up and double bomb and back off and just poke if you can. Only try to double bomb and back off if you think you can get away with it... without being caught.

The hardest thing about zilean is that you have to focus on many things at once in a team fight. You want to maximize your damage by bombing the most targets at once, while looking to ult the correct target, while positioning to stay alive and slowing the bruisers that are running at you =D. You also have to be careful of CC so you don't get stunned and chained into death.

Ahri is a very strong pick as an AP carry and can carry games if skills used properly. The main thing you need to learn about Ahri is simply land your skillshots, and because if you miss them, then its not likely you'll get a kill. Oh, you also will need to not use your recklessly, to not use all of the charges immediately.


Ahri's strenghts is in her 3-charged-dash ultimate which gives her tons of mobility, her long range CC which makes it possible to take someone offguard, true damage AoE which does not need any explanation because its true damage, and her reliable damage from her and her ganking potentional + pushing capability.


Ahri's weaknesses is that she is not the easiest one to master and that it can be hard to land your and and if you miss them you're pretty much screwed.

The Gunblade synergizes greatly with her tool kit. First, the spell vamp from it stacks with her Essence Theft passive. Second, Ahri can spam her spells quickly to reactivate the unique active ‘reload’ on the Hextech Gunblade even faster. Finally, the active itself aids her burst capabilities and the slow proc helps Ahri chase down her victim’s even easier with Spirit Rush