Riven is a lane dominant champion that has potential throughout the entire game. Shes a good pick almost all the time because very little champions counter her. Other than that, she can lane against most ranged (as long as you have flash) and most melee as well. The great thing about her is that she has so much mobility and damage combined into her toolkit. What I also like about her is that you can just build a bunch of Bloodthirsters and still benefit defensely from it since her shielding ability scales off AD as well. I like riven because she is so unique compared to other champions by having a very dynamic toolkit.

These are the best masteries for Riven because she is DPS and not necessarily tanky, just a lot of mobility built in. These masteries will provide you with lane dominance and damage throughout the entire game. 9 in defensive for the extra HP and resistances just in case. Don't go 9/21/0, you lose so much because of that. Shes very mobile and needs that damage.

Marks - x9 Armor Pentration: For extra damage when harassing that scales better into mid-late game.
Seals - x9 Armor: To take less damage from minions when harassing enemy in lane. Also from auto attacks from opponent.
Glyphs - x9 MR: Situational between flat and scaling MR. If I'm laning against someone who is focused on farming early (Irelia, Nidalee, Nasus) then I would get scaling MR. If laning against someone that does a lot of AP poking, then get flat MR.
Quints - x3 Physical Damage: Flat damage to last hit better and do more damage in laning phase while harassing. Also, all of your abilities scale off this, including your shield.

ignite:securing a kill easily if your top has heal or healing skills.Also i change with exhaust if i see my team having alot of ignites and the enemy team has heavy damage champions.

flash:to escape with Broken Wings and flash fast.You can secure the kill by surprising someone with Ki Burst.

Passive: Runic Blade

Riven's abilities charge her blade, causing her basic attacks to deal 5/15/25/35/45/55/65/75/85/95/105/115/125/135/145/155/165/175 (+100% of bonus attack damage) bonus physical damage. Riven's blade may be charged up to 3 times and expends one charge per attack.

Explanation:

A very strong passive that makes Riven viable because all of her damage comes from this. Max 3 stacks, 1 stack each time you use an ability (can use 3 times from your Q). Again, her #1 source of damage.

I restrain myself from auto-attacking something when I have no stacks of my passive. Since Riven constantly spams abilities, you should have no problem keeping these stacks up to auto-attack.



Q: Broken Wings

Riven strikes out in front of her in a short line. This ability may be reactivated 2 additional times.

1st Use: Slashes forward, dealing 30/50/70/90/110 (+60% of bonus attack damage) physical damage to all units she comes in contact with.
2nd Use: Slashes forward, dealing 30/50/70/90/110 (+60% of bonus attack damage) physical damage to all units she comes in contact with.
3rd Use: Leaps into the air and slams the ground dealing 30/50/70/90/110 (+60% of bonus attack damage) physical damage and knocking nearby enemies away from the point of impact.

Cooldown 13 seconds

Cost none

Explanation:

Basically a weaker auto attack, however, procs your passive so you can do even more damage. Q>auto attack>Q>auto>Q>auto. You can mix W or E into that whenver you can too, because all of your abilities proc your passive up to 3 times. Gap closer and can be combined with flash to surprise your enemy (3rd Q to knockback).




W: Ki Burst

Riven's sword emits a burst of runic energy that shocks nearby enemies, dealing 50/90/130/170/210 (+100% of bonus attack damage) physical damage and stunning them for 0.5 seconds.

Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7 seconds

Cost none

Explanation:

Decent amount of damage and also procs your passive. AoE stun that can hit multiple targets. I usually use this ability whenever I am close to them by using Q.




E: Valor

Riven does a quick dash in the direction of your cursor and becomes shielded, blocking up to 40/70/100/130/160 (+100% of bonus attack damage) incoming damage for 2.5 seconds.

Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7 seconds

Cost none

Explanation:

This is what makes Riven viable even when you stack like a million bloodthisters. Her shield is based of her AD, so stacking AD is a win-win. I generally use this as a gapcloser to quickstun with W or to get away. Cannot jump over walls with this ability sadly. Also procs passive.




R: Blade of the Exile

Riven's weapon surges with spiritual energy for 15 seconds, granting her 20% bonus attack damage, increased range on her damaging spells and attacks, and the ability to use Wind Slash once.

Wind Slash: Riven fires a shockwave that deals from 80/120/160 (+60% of bonus attack damage) to 240/360/480 (+180% of bonus attack damage) physical damage to all enemies hit, increasing based on how much health they are missing.

Cooldown 75/60/45 seconds

Cost none

Explanation:

Like Vayne's ultimate, it is a steriod that makes her rape everything. Generally I try using this in a brush or out of sight before jumping on an enemy because there is a slight downtime when Riven activates her ultimate (but not all the time, situations vary). You need to wait about a second before using Windslash after activating your ultimate (doesn't show in the description for some reason, but ya it sucks). I smartcast Windslash because I feel like its a lot easier. Windslash is almost like Garen's ultimate, but it is in a ranged cone.

In conclusion, this ultimate will make you kill things a lot easier.

At this phase, you're just going to want to farm towards mid game. Occasionally I would start at wraiths (If blue side, theirs. If purple side, ours) when I know its safe, otherwise, I'd pull blue buff for our jungle or just go straight to our lane. If you're laning against someone that is dominant (nidalee, ryze, gankplank, or anything strong ranged). Try getting the first few creeps the best you can, but if you can't, you shouldn't force yourself to lose too much HP. If that happens to be the case where you're getting denied level 1-2, let the lane push towards your tower and soak up the XP until then.

Most of the time you shouldn't be getting denied that badly though.

A good time to teleport back to base is when the minions in the lane are cleared up and you have at least 1000 gold to buy two Doran's Blade. However, if you happen to afford a BF sword as well, I'f go for that instead and continue farming.

Also, early ganks with Riven combined with your jungler level 1-3 is very very strong compared to others. If you think you're lane opponent is vulnerable, ask for a gank.

I would still continue farming at this point. If I have time on my hands and my lanes clear, I would sometimes head towards middle if there is an easy gank. Otherwise, if I'm purple side, I would just take mini golems and continue farming. Always keep an eye on dragon too, because you always want to be there for that fight. With Riven's mobility, getting to dragon should be no problem.

You will always be ahead as long as your CS is high, so stay in lane and CS the best you can, but also pay close attention to objectives and be sure to ward for yourself as well.

Its usually hard to just 1v1 someone top lane, so try to get your jungler's help or if you think you're strong enough then take the chance. Otherwise just keep farming and playing it safe until you see the enemy jungler on the map.

When you've farmed all game and have decent items (boots, BT, LW, GA, at least. And maybe more BT's). You should be doing a lot for your team by soaking in damage with your E and using your GA to its fullest advantage. You're basically a front line that does a lot of damage. Jump on their squishiest AD carry or AP carry with your Q, W, and E. If its hard, then use your flash.

Late game, everyone on your team should be sticking together almost all the time because if one person gets caught, that can mean a lost baron or even a lost nexus. Having someone with teleport or Shen is a different situation.

Riven is meant to be played super aggressive, especially with BT's and a GA. Don't play scared but don't go too crazy either.

Riven is one of the strongest solo top champions.She can farm easily with Q/W and clear out the minions.Also she can escape with Q/E and secure the kills easily.Riven can deal extremely damage on late game,based to her ultimate,but she has great escape tools for difficult situations.