Ok I will start this by saying I have never made any guide for any character and as such dont expect this to be perfect. However I have much of my time looking to this site for guides and have always found some good reading even if it was a bad guide as learning as much about a character can be key to winning.

Also as new I have been trying to keep as much colour in this as possible without adding huge chunks of text. Sorry For the Headaches Folks.

Secondly I love playing melee chars as I like to get close and personal however this works for me due to my playstyle and supporting team members.

What makes Riven Lovely? She has NO MANA. AD champs with mana can be a pain. Panth, Jax are limited by mana they have and the Cooldowns. You have been granted Cooldowns only. So use them wisley.

Guide is new as of 17/9/11

Changed Rune Setup after More Games as Riven. 19/9/11

Riven excells at providing harsh damage and punishing players out of position as well as co ordinated ganks and diving. However She is not the be all and end all to champions. LoL is a big game and many people all trying to play melee chars will not work. 1 range will mess you up heavy, so be smart. However as majoriy people play normal anyway as long as you dont have another melee bruiser you will do the job fine.

My favourite laning partners are :

Caitlyn
Blitzcrank
Leona
Vayne



There may be more but I haven't altered from this so far.

However if you just like items feel free to ignore the text below and skip to parts you like. Bad Riven is Bad

Pros:

High Mobility
No mana so Cooldowns only
Passive grants damage between Ability Uses
Can chase range chars in teamfights.
Ultimate can be used before big fight or to end of a chase for spread damage.

Cons:
Not tanky
Range people love your face as a target
Relies on team play to be super effective. [this is a con because 9/10 YOU feel you are laning with a passive chipmunk or suicide champ]

What makes Riven my enjoyable character hands down is her mobility. Her Broken wings has 3 use move that can dart you around the map within a fair range that can save your life or secure a kill. It is both an offensive ability and Defensive one. The uses are amazing.

Your Role is to Follow in after the tank and take down Carries. Focus Range before melee even if you just get them to back off. Take a lead from the tank and secure thoese kills.

However her mobility can be a problem for some people that dont position their mouse correctly. UNLESS you are targeting a champion with your mouse cursor Riven Will just use broken blades in whichever direction she is facing. This can lead to embarrasing low health enemys escaping because you got an itchy mouse hand. So focus if you are going to be doing something stupid.

Another thing is I am a firm beliver that 1 for 1 is not worth dying over, and some cases even 2 for 1 depending on your lane partner. if the enemy has more agression than your partner and yourself dont throw away your life. Its a feed and needless death. Dont be an idiot.

Finally with her mobility make sure your partner knows what you are about to do because I have rather left someone in the bush while I ran in for the kill. More often than not I get it or they back off but still. letting Kills get away is bad when they can be secure.

My Runes are pretty straightforward. Riven is a full AD character. Not one thing about her is AP so why bother AP runes.

Greater Mark of Desolation You have a sword. Well a broken One. Armor = Bad

Greater Seal of Armor Pretty Standard. Dodge is useless for her so a bit of armor wont hurt you.

Greater Glyph of Attack Speed Normally I will admit I go with magic Resist. However combining extra hits with her passive for more damage I felt these had more of an impact. Vs Ap chars most can be squished with team efforts.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction After more games having more CDR by endgame gives more spam of skills and interupts. Turns out to be rather useful.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation Again Armor = Bad

As with most bruisers I have went with 21/0/9

She is not a tanky Dps and trying to play her that was doesnt work so 0/21/9 aint even worth considering.

In utility I have 3 in good hands and one for ghost as I dont see flash as necessary. If they can catch you when you are riven. They deserve to kill you. The only time I miss it is when I want to flash out in the Jungle.

Exhaust As much as I love her mobility, this will ensure they wont get away.

Ghost Makes chasing that much easier and on the rare occasion you need to dive using Broken Wings and Valor while ghost is up gives so much speed you can outrun the tower.

Broken Wings This is a great mobility move and while some think Valor is good for the shield. Yea true it stacks AD too but you ARE NOT A TANK. WHY YOU STACKING A SHIELD? People can play defensive and not have a shield but you know when they get to close to you you are going to punish them badly.

Ki Burst I max this once just for the stun then second after Broken Wings. I believe in aggreisve play and again Shield while it may save my life from time to time I prefer Damage in team fights. Still This may be variational as some people are more passive etc.

Valor Small dart, handy for chasing and shield scales with AD so more AD you have more shield. Still I use it for the dash to secure or escape. Never to shield. 2.5 secs seems long. It isnt. 160 Shield at max Versus 330 damage (without added AD or passive attacks) just seems silly to max this first. Dunno what Phreak is thinking.

Blade of the Exile Just read it. Go on. Read it. You done? Good. Now tell me that isnt the most lovely thing you have read. Caution. this ult takes a half second or somethign to take effect before the Blade reforms and you can use Wind Slash, also may be a bug but if I use the ult while chasing I stop while the sword reforms. So ideally if you are going to pounce either form the sword in the brush or before you initiate. The timer is decent anyway.

This ult is actually very ammusing. I chased an Ashe and Veigar back to their tower with next to no HP left. then I remembered wind slash. Double kill. Both me and them should have been more cautious and it was more luck than skill. But remember it has a second use. It does more damage the less health they have so handy execution skill.

If you Feel you have her pegged then skip this bit.

Broken Wings This move has 3 parts to it. the final being a knockback. While the range is nowhere near distance that say Vaynes knockback is it is still a knockback.

Scenario:

Teamfight begins and Katarina has began her ult. Broken Wings In, You use Ki Burst and interupt the stun. Smart no? but whats that? Nunu was not in range, but you have 2 more uses on Broken Wings Hoever over and just spam it. Nothing smart but that knockback interupts Absolute Zero

Similarly Malzahars Nether Grasp Can also be interupted this way.

While this is champion specific the knockback provides a lockalised CC within 100 Units of Riven which is still quite something.


Runic Blade Awesome Passive. you use an ability. your next attack has extra damage. level 1 with dorans blade as starting item is an extra 11 Damage. Combine that with 3 stacks from 3 uses of Broken Wings that is :

33 + 90 Damage = 112 Damage. Doesnt seem like much? Ask your enemies as you lay into them. Because I havent added the normal damage you get from you basic attacks starting with 65.
That is 65 x 3 basic attacks + 33 + 90 = 307. They may beg to differ. plus it gets better as you level.


Valor While a useless shield becomes a mini flash Darting in the direction Riven is facing. this can avoid skill shots if A. you are too lazy to click or B. reacting too late to that Ashe Arrow.

Plans on addiding Videos here if people think it will be useful

So who knows what a ward is? Do you? Every guide stresses this at some point but wards can be key to winning games. Map Awareness can make co ordinated ganks making for Wins.

anyway


I start with a Dorans Blade as it has Health AD and a tad lifesteal. Last hitting isnt really a problem for me on Riven as even without skill uses she hits fairly hard.
I move onto Beserkers Greaves if they have less than 3 CC members on the team. Otherwise Merc treads for reduction. I may not be a tank but cant play when stunned Can I?
Next I grab a Wriggles Lantern. Why? It has lifesteal So i get rewarded for punishing people and gives me a free ward. Armor and damage included + I can take Red Lizard to make kills that much more secure.

The next item is really situational. If malz is on the enemy team I build a quicksilver sash. Hate his ult but I love wasting it. Also removing all debuffs can save you if you think an ignite is going to do you in. Lame but handy.

Phage then brutaliser for the Slow then Damage and ARP. im not too bothered with teh CDR as Rivens CD is next to nothing ultimate notwithstanding. If you ever reach the end of this build The enemy team really like throwing away gold or the match has been going on too long. However if you get the ghostblade for the love of LoL remember it has an active. If you cant use actives just build a phantom dancer here.

Overall Riven is a product of Mainsteam gaming trying to please a community and I think Riot Have done a fair job. I like to play her and use her and her Combos are unbeliveable but there are many people that Do not play her to potential. Hopefully this guide has helped you even just understand Riven a little better.


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