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Spells:
Flash
Exhaust
Ability Order
Runic Blade (PASSIVE)
Riven Passive Ability
Introduction to the Destruction
!!!!GUIDE OVERHAUL COMING SOON!!!!
This build will be sent spiraling into an extremely potent over haul, I need to change almost everything so I will update things when I get the chance! Be patient please. <3

Welcome to my in-depth guide to the newest addition to the League of Legends roster Riven, the Exile.

In my personal opinion Riven should be played as a Brawler, very similar play style to




5.89+3.0+6.0 = 14.89
In total, as Riven at champion level one, you will start with %15 CDR Need I say more?
- The gruesome and rather sad story behind this warrior
- The specific roles Riven plays within your team composition
- The many risks and benefits to playing her
- The importance of her pregame and how to build it properly
- What each of her individual skills do along with what they can be used for
- Which summoner spells to take/avoid and why
- An understanding of Riven's core item build in game and each items importance
- How to use and abuse Riven's combo based combat system
- An in-depth break down of all sections of the game (Early/Mid/Late)
What began as war quickly became extermination. Noxian soldiers followed the terrifying Zaunite war machines across fields of death. It wasn't the glorious combat for which Riven trained. She carried out the orders of her superiors, terminating the remnants of a beaten and fractured enemy with extreme prejudice. As the invasion continued, it became clear that the Ionian society would not be reformed, merely eliminated. During one bitter engagement, Riven's unit became surrounded by Ionian forces. They called for support as the enemy closed in around them. What they received instead was a barrage of biochemical terror launched by Singed. Riven watched as around her Ionian and Noxian alike fell victim to an unspeakably gruesome fate. She managed to escape the bombardment, though she could not erase the memory. Counted dead by Noxus, she saw an opportunity to start anew. She shattered her sword, severing ties with the past, and wandered in self-imposed exile - on a quest to seek atonement and a way to save the pure Noxian vision in which she believed.

Another thing I noticed about Riven is her absolutely amazing ability to control her lane. You can be fighting a










In my personal opinion Riven should be paired with someone that will either help her farm, or get kills. She is a champion that when fed will snowball insanely because of amount of AoE damage. Even if she isn't built for Dps Riven will do a lot of damage just by abusing her passives damage.
spaaace |
Pros
![]() + Great sustain and presence in lane + High damage out put + Her ultimate grants a steroid for 15secs + Has an AoE execution + Relies solely on cool downs + Huge presence in team fights |
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Cons
![]() - Often times you will be targeted - She does take a lot of skill to play RIGHT - Ult is very slow moving and often too slow - Incredibly short range on her stun - You can NOT go through walls - High cool downs at low levels |
Runes



These would have to be in the top two of my recommended quints that you should use, they just bring so much more damage to the table... When paired with the Marks, you will start the game with 31 armor penetration as Riven. Singed with a Doran's shield has exactly 31.. That would mean you are dealing True Damage to him.

I believe these would allow you to be more of a bully on lane when paired with your

These runes would actually not be to bad, since the


Now before I mentioned the Riven was all about the distance and positioning, with these runes that will never be a problem and honestly these would be one of the best choices for Riven. It just allows you to be even more of a bully only this time your just harder to catch, and harder to run away from.
Runes



So when it comes to marks these are superior on every AD champion in the game. Some people prefer to use


Personally, these runes are really fun to use on certain champions such as



Runes




Out of all the other seals these would be the best choice for Riven, they add the defense you need to run in and use your full combo, as well as giving you the armor to defend your self against the possible ganks coming into your lane. All in all these just allow you to have a stronger lane presence.
The Seals of Vitality end up adding a large chunk onto your health bar at around level 6 or 7 and then continues to climb but Riven's issue is early game.. These aren't that great at level one. They are out done by the Resilience runes.[/center

So I put these in here because I know that some people like these, personally dodge does nothing for me. After about 10 minutes the only thing dodge will do is give you a little higher chance to survive against that

Runes





Cool downs are essential on Riven. Both of these are a great choice for her, now keep in mind I focus on her early game so I chose the FLAT CDR glyphs. They are sub-far to the Per-Level glyphs after about level 7 or 8, but having the 15% CDR at level 1 allows you to be such a bully in lane which is how I play Riven.

Flat magic resist... It's the only other rune I would even think about using on Riven and even then, Not much thought is put towards these, she needs the CDR way more then a slight boost in her magic resist.
All choices in runes that you use for any champion are YOUR choice in how YOU play that champion. Each player plays each champion differently as well as builds them different, so why would it be any different in choosing runes? Basically just go with what your comfortable with! Good luck picking and choosing.
There are three main builds for your possible masteries shown below;
21/0/9
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This would be a great mastery build for Riven. It is actually noticeable the amount of damage and harass capability these masteries give you in lane. Most of the masteries you are able to chose from greatly affect your early and mid game stages with either extra Defense, Damage output, or Utility. This page will focus on your damage with Riven.![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
9/21/0
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So now that we understand what OFFENSIVE masteries work well with Riven, let's look at a different tree. Say you wanted to be more tanky then offense early game to prevent your death. This would be the way to go if you aren't fully comfortable with her as a champion.![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
9/0/21
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SPE |
Here comes a very interesting way to use your masteries on Riven, as well as how I play her. This tree grants a lot of CDR which is AMAZING on Riven as I stated before. There is also a few really cool utility features here thus the reason for being the utility tree.![]() ![]() Intelegence: Ah, there it is. The reason I came here, 6% CDR BABY!!! <3 Absolutely amazing when paired with your runes. 12% CDR at level one. ![]() ![]() |

This ability is basically Riven's damage out put. Now right now you might be thinking what? What about Broken Wings?! Trust me, her passive is her damage. Every time you cast an ability you gain a stack for a few seconds, it can stack up to three times. Each stack grants a flat amount of damage (5/7/9/11/13/15) plus an additional amount of scaling damage from your AD (+0.5 per bonus attack damage). Lets do some math here say your passive has reached 13, and you have your Atma's. You should be around 200AD or so, meaning your scaling bonus will have reached 17.89. This means with one stack you will get an additional (13+17.89=30.89) damage. Now let's assume you have all 3 stacks up, your next auto attack will hit an additional (30.89x3=92.67) damage. Meaning after you use your full Broken wings combo, you will attack your target for 250-300 damage (depending on their armor).

Broken Wings is what makes Riven, Riven. This ability can be used to kill, harass, farm, escape.. and even get back to lane faster. It's utility is amazing! But what's really interesting is this, if you use it once you smack the ground dealing some AoE. It didn't go on cool down, hit it again and it does the same AoE damage. It's still not on cool down?! Use it again and it does the same amount of damage (AoE) but it does a slight knock back. After the third use the move finally goes on CD. You have about a second or two to actually use the other two parts of the move before it goes on CD because you waited to long. It's AoE is great for team fights, and farming. When paired with her Ki Burst, you can farm minion waves in an instant. Since you get Broken wings at level one, you can start your harass, use this combo.



It grants a lot of AoE damage from Broken Wings, plus gets off the full damage potential from Runic Blade! I've often seen squishy champions die the instant this combo is finished if you pull off the full thing.

Riven's AoE stun, don't you just love the sound of that? A stun that deals damage, activates part of your passive and does AoE damage. It's awesome, it just has a VERY short range. So you must be right up in their face to hit with it. One thing to remember, it only stuns for 0.5 seconds at all levels. Yes I know that sucks but it's meant to be used at the perfect times. Now our combos advance a bit more!




Using her abilities this way results in a lot of damage then a stun, and before then as soon as it's done a knock back. It's a great way to CC lock your target in place.

This ability is Riven's shield, and it couldn't be more amazing. A shield that is also a dash which contributes to her over all insane mobility in two ways. A dash, and the shield so she can take more damage allowing her to deal more damage! The combo's we have been learning are about to get a bit more interesting.





The initial hit from Broken Wings will make the enemy aware that you are coming close to harass, if the enemy is melee they will see that your shield is not activated and retaliate. Then you have your chance to auto attack, they will notice that jump in damage after that auto, then you can dash closer and shield, and just continue to CC lock them and Auto attack them to death with your amazing passive.

Yes you read that right, and execution. That just what it is, only its a cone. Basically when you activate this ability your damage sky rockets... you are granted 20$ attack damage.. if your AD is about 200 thats an additional 40 AD. That stacked with your passive is nuts because it increases the damage even more because your AD just went up. The second part about this ability is its second activation. Riven sends out a cone dealing flat physical damage, then an additional amount of damage based on how much health they are missing. The flat damage is 160 (+.06 per bonus attack damage) and then 240/260/480 (1.8 per bonus attack damage) depending on how much hp they have lost. Now here is the final step to our 1v1 ideal duel, to do this combo you have to know they wont escape or you might just waste your ult.







This will do so much damage is just crazy... with the 20% bonus AD, your passive's damage output, your CC lock, and the final execution, not many champions will survive this devastating combo.
When farming with Riven, always remember this important fact. You are a cool down based champion, feel free to spam lol. Seriously that's a great way to farm with Riven! But that would only really work late game once you have your

Walk up to a group of minions ->




By attacking all three minions after using Ki burst, all of the minions should be able to be finished by using the final hit of Broken Wings.
Harassing is an essential component to your lane control as Riven. Harassing is only possible if you are able to estimate your possibility to kill your target or merely survive the encounter ahead. The best way to do that, is to either play enough games play against every champion a few times, read what all their moves to do, or just play them. If you are taking a solo lane against 2 champions. Do not harass.. it's almost suicide, but if you are paired with a partner, make sure you explain that you will be extremely aggressive from level 1 and request that they stick close at all times. Just use your lane's CC to your advantage and get the kills or force them low enough to go back to back to recover allowing you and your partner to attack the tower freely.
Tower pushing is easily just as important as getting kills in League of Legends. Since the main objective is two things, forcing the other teams moral so far into the dirt by destroying them to a point they surrender early. Or you push the lanes back until you can kill the inhibitors and then finally the nexus. So anytime you see the chance go hit the tower a few times, just remember to abuse your passive (shown below). There are a few draw backs to pushing a tower though.
- You draw the risk of being attacked a few times by the tower when the minions die
- Attacking the tower draws the attention of the enemy team to that tower
- Often times you may see that the tower is close so you stick it out to long and die for it (sometimes worth it)
At the same time though, there are advantages to completely destroying a tower.
- Extra global gold for you and your team
- Total dominance of your lane
- You can draw their attention on purpose (setting up a gank)
- Pushing the lane back further and further to the base
- Back dooring can take place (pushing multiple lanes simultaneously
Juking/Escaping
Okay so now we get to the last possibility I'm going to talk about in this guide, of course there are many more out there! So in LoL juking is to say the least a real thing, that works, a lot. No matter your ELO it still has a chance to work, you just need to out smart your opponent. Juking is when you run one direction, they follow you into an area where they lose vision, then at the last moment you turn the other way (or any possible variation) and hall *** outta there. Juking can be used for escapes, but also for positioning, say you are in the middle of a team fight. You decide you want to go for thatAnnie, but your already balls deep in their whole team what do you do? You get the attention of their team through CC (they will deem you a threat) then run away from
Annie. At the last second turn around and rip her a new ********. It's all about how you decide to use it! Juking is a fun and really great idea, try it! In some scenarios it really does help! :p
IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW!!!!!
None of Riven's moves have the ability to go through walls in the game. However, you are able to go threw one "wall" onlyJarvan IV's Ultimate
Cataclysm but you are only able to do that with
Valor.

This summoner spell is used by almost every player in the game, for two reasons, it's one of the best chase mechanics, as well as a get out of jail free card. On Riven this spell is amazing when paired with her mobility, as well as setting up the execution with



Exhaust is my favorite out of all the summoner spells. It's utility is just amazing, if you think you did massive damage before, try exhausting that target and then hitting them, your damage will double. Its just nuts how amazing this is, for chasing, escaping, juking, killing, focusing in a team fight anything!

Ignite is a great spell in general, I would say use it if your team has a lot of exhausts, but I feel that on Riven it not needed. The reason being because you already have an execution, now I know you don't get it until level 6, just try to lane with a partner who has it then perhaps?
Clarity- You don't use mana...
Teleport- As Riven you already have great map mobility
Clairvoyance- Better suited to a support champion that doesn't focus on doing damage
Rally- Could be good if used correctly but not the best spell
Revive- It's a waste of a spell, and it has a 9 minute cool down at that
Fortify- Can be game winning but better suited to a tank/support
Heal- Amazing early game abilities, but falls after about level 10
Smite- Only use this if you are jungling please...


Riven's Core Items

Stats: 75 Armor, 350 Health, 25 Health Per 5 Sec.
Let's think about Riven's CC, she has a knock back and a stun both are AoE, so with this she is suddenly granted an AoE Slow every minute! Unique passive: 5% CDR and a 20% on being hit to slow the attacker's movement and attack speed by 35% for 3 Seconds. Unique Active: Slows the movement speed and attack speed of surrounding enemy units by 35% for 2 seconds + 0.5 seconds for each 100 armor and magic resist. 60 Second Cooldown. This is just a great Item for team fights!

Stats: 25 Magic Resist.
Basically these boots make that 1 second stun last for .75 secs. It doesn't seem like much but that could be the difference between life and death. They also give a fair bit of magic resist which is always nice! As well as giving you the increased movement speed we love. Unique passive: Enhanced Movement 2,35 Tenacity.

Stats: 30 Attack Speed, 30 Attack Damage, 30 Ability Power, 15 Critical Strike Chance, 250 Health, 250 Mana, 12 Movement.
Welcome to (in my opinion) one of the best items available in this game. The instant you get this item your damage will sky rocket, your mobility goes even higher, your stats are rounded, your attacks even have a chance to slow. With this an Offtank turns into a Trinity Tank. You are given this power to just smash so hard with only using defensive items and then this. Plus with Riven, it goes amazing with her passive! Unique Passive: 25% chance on hit to slow the target by 35 for 2.5 seconds; on cast increases your base attack damage by 150% for one attack.

Stats: 375 Health, 375 mana, 50 Magic Resist.
Since your a champion that does a ******ed amount of damage, you WILL be focused.. I promise you. So in order to stop from not being able to team fighgt instantly, we need to find a way to stop you from getting held in place. UNIQUE PASSIVE: Cancels the effect of the next incoming unfriendly ability. Meaning you can get your *** out of there, or turn around and kill them all. Plus it adds almost 400 health, which again helps you get more AD from your


Stats: 1370 Health, 45 Health Per 5 Sec.
By this point in your build you will have armor, you will have magic resist, and great damage. All that's missing is health and here is all the health you will ever need packed into one item. The cool part about this item is that it gives both Health and Health Regeneration. But this item gets better, once you learn it's passive. We all know Riven is great at farming due to her AoE Farm capabilities and that helps this item a lot. Passive: Permanently gain 4.5 health and .15 health regen per 5 sec per minion kill. Champion kills and assists grant 45 health and 1.5 health Regen per 5 sec. Bonuses cap at +450 health, and +15 health Regen per 5. (Already included in item statistics).

Stats: 45 Armor, 18% Critical Strike Chance.
Here is your last item, and one of the most important ones. It adds 45 armor, which is great because of your defensive stats as is. But the real power behind this item is it's passive. UNIQUE PASSIVE: 2% of your maximum health is turned into AD. You have a


Please don't think this is the only way to build Riven. Honestly I do see a lot of Dps Rivens out there, and they do fine it just isn't for me. Try everything out before you decide on what you like best! Another important fact is that there are always other items you could get, some may not be as good as others but it's all based on what you like.
Infinity Edge - If you notice that you are kind of fed and you want to do a lot more damage, the Infinity Edge brings a lot to the table.
Hexdrinker - The Hexdrinker is an item that makes you literally invincible early and mid game. Because it will automaticly shield you from magic damage once you drop below a certain amount of health. Meaning that's basically
Blitzcrank's passive as an item.
Last Whisper - Here is a fantastic item on Riven do the fact that Riven's damage is dealt through abilities. Which means the armor pen gained from this item can be better than most AD items.
Aegis of the Legion - Is another fantastic item choice as an Offtank. It gives bonus armor to all allies around you, including your True tank. It also gives a slight damage increase which could possibly get you that kill.
Youmuu's Ghostblade - This item is absolutely amazing on Riven, this combined with your CDR, will bring it all the way up to 39.84% and the max CDR is 40.
Early Game
First lets start with Riven's early game, now like basically every champion out there your not invincible here. Even a tank like



!How To Fight! - When Akali uses Mark of the Assassin on you, you will see a mark over your head that will last a few seconds, the move it's self doesn't deal that much damage. The damage comes from when she hits you with an auto attack which consumes the mark, so when your marked just stay back or use your high mobility to get out of range. When you see Akali go into her stealth field rush in and use



!How To Fight! - There isn't any real way to stop Alistar from headbutting you around, however you can make it difficult for him to get behind you, then pushing you into his team. You can stun him and then dash away from his range or even just fight him and then dash out. You can out damage his ****py heal, and his knock up has about as much range as



!How To Fight! - The key thing to know about Amumu is this, his pull hits minions, meaning you can just hide behind them and you wont get stunned. His hp per second aura has a low radius, his AoE nuke has a low range as well. His ultimate can be the easiest thing to predict. What I mean is that when your team is bunched up and Amumu is running head first into your team, he's about to ult.. so just dash to the side, then run back in and kill them.



!How To Fight! - Basically there is a kind of low range on Parlay, so when fighting him just play defensive and farm. His ult does a lot of damage but as Riven it's not difficult at all to escape it.

!How To Fight! - When you see his spear light up *White* he will run at you to attack three times. The third hit is the knock up, so if your quick enough you can dash away before he can do this. If it lights up *Blue* his attack speed is increased and anytime he attacks all his abilities CD's are shorted by a second. Stop him from using this.. at all costs. His dash is impossible to stop it might as well be a blink. Xin's ult isn't that much to be afraid of but it can really hurt, however it has a **** range, plus you can get away from it fast enough normally.
Mid Game
Up until about this point in the game which usually begins at about 15-20 minutes into the game you aren't very tanky. You will often find that you can't be reckless, and you can't initiate, but here comes the fun part of the game. By this point you will have noticed your damage increase via




By this time in the game your goal should have evolved a bit. By this I mean that should continue to farm, and continue to harass, and also add in a few new steps. A very important aspect of Mid game is the "Team fight" which (you guessed it) is when both teams gather together to fight in a group. Riven is exceptional in team fights due to her AoE damage output. But she tends to be too deep in the combat to be solely AD based and survive. Which is why my solution to this issue was to build her rather tanky but still offensive enough to deal a lot of damage. One very important point that is key to your Mid Game dominance, abuse your Trinity Proc. By this I mean to do this, Trinity procs like sheen, after you use an ability, meaning that after an ability your next auto attack deals 150% of your Base Ad, as well as damage from your passive. So in between your

Late Game
Riven's late game is basically the most fun portion of the game most because with this build your incredibly difficult to kill, as well as being able to deal a lot of damage really fast. During the mid game you weren't really able to run in head first, but once you hit late game having your

You don't really need to keep farming by this point, make sure to get dragon still (it helps to stop the enemy from finishing their build) as well as red buff when ever you can. Another major part of late game is Baron Nashor. When your team kills Baron, your entire team is given a buff regardless of their location on the map. The buff increases almost any stat you can think of! As well as giving every member of your team additional gold.
Remember, Push! Yes kills win games, but having 3 of their towers while they only have one of your's gives a HUGE advantage to your team. Make sure to destroy the inhibitor as often as you can to make sure you have super minions, which can push an entire lane back themselves.
This section of the guide will explain the most important places to ward for your team's overall success through about the game.

Order of priority:
- The section above including the picture and the explanations below are borrowed from Apotheosis' Tryndamere Guide

This will have been my first guide published officially on MobaFire so let me know what you think :)
Good luck with Riven, the White Raven summoners!
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