Riven is a fun ad champ whom i picked up out of the blue and learned to love. One think i love about riven is when you talk about her with your friends, they dont open with "shes op", which happens to a lot of champs these days. She is one of the most fun champs in the game to play.

I have tried many different sets of runes on the battlefield and i have found that these work the best. Magic resist and armor are a must have. Armor pen helps take down tanks, as well as diminish the small defense other champs may have. I chose cooldown reduction because early game, her cooldowns are too long to be able to get any early game kills, especialy not if shes sololing top, which she is very good for.

As far as masteries go, you need straight up attack damage, armor penetration, and a little bit of defense.

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Early Game

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[*] I start off with boots of speed so i can maneuver around in the lane and be faster than my foes; it also allows me to have enough money for me to have multiple potions.

[*] After i get some feed, il grab madred's razors and then either finish it off with wriggles lantern, or grab mercury treads if ap in my lane are giving my a hard time.

[*] I start building damage after those defensive items; i build up to a brutalizer because it gives me damage, cooldown reduction, and armor penetration; three very important stats. Unfortunatly they are rather low and this item is sold later for a last whisperer, which has the same stats but better, but missing the cooldown reduction, which isnt necesary at level 18.

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Mid Game

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[*] After i get my main stats up, i work on more important items, i build a giants belt for health followed by a B.F. sword for damage. I build the giants belt into a frozen mallet for melee slowing, damage, and health. I then build the B.F. sword into a bloodthirster, not so much for the lifesteal, but more for the 100 ad it can have when farmed.

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Late Game

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[*] At this point, i have 5 items and am probably very high in damage. Late game if we dont have a tank or if hes falling behind, i usually initate the fight, and not being the tank, the enemy team will focus me; well thats where guardian angel comes in handy. I can pop my ulti, do a lot of damage, hopefuly not lose the guardian buff, but its still there for a backup.

[*] This late in the game, everyone has elixers, but riven still needs to switch out her early game items that helped her get so fed. The brutalizer is switched out for a last whisperer, and the lantern is switched out for an impaler, becuase the ward and lifesteal seem to be pretty useless this late.

[*] [Note] There may be different compositions of foes out there, so this build may need to be altered in ways such as if they have multiple AP carries, which are basicaly glass cannons (squishy but high damage). I counter a group of these by building a maw of malmortius late game opposed to the last whisperer which is designed for more tanky enemies. The mal gives you a good amount of attack damage and magic resistance.

Riven's skill sequence is pretty straight forward if you have played her before. Broken wings is mostly for moving very quickly at your enemy and doing damage, or running away slightly faster than your base movement speed and ignoring unit collision, so this skill is unessesary to level up until late game, however, you want to start with it at level 1. Ki burst is an aoe stun with high damage and low cooldown if you level it up earliest as possible, only not leveling it at level 1, 3, and 6. Valor helps riven move quickly like her broken wings, but also giving her a shield. This move also has a reduced cooldown as it levels up, so consider getting this up after ki burst. Blade of the Exile is rivens ulti and is an amazing move. Level it up whenever it is available. I love this ulti because it does 4 things for riven: Increases range of her broken wings, ki burst, and auto attack, increases damage done by 20% minimum plus more for your attack damage, allows riven to shoot a long range wave skillshot at an enemy that does a lot of damage, once, and it makes her sword look badass!

Sommoner spells are self explanatory, but il explain them anyway.

[*] I pick up ignite for long range damage because riven is all melee other than her ultimate and needs to be able to kill enemies with low health just out of reach.

[*] I also pick up flash so i can either jump away from enemies when all my abilites are on cooldown, or flash-stun on someone by using ki burst as soon as i land.

[*] Pros: Riven is a really fun champion to play. I like her because she is a melee skillshot, which meens you dont simply right click to kill someone, you have to activate your abilities and aim her in the direction of your foes. Riven's ultimate can dominate team fights as well as killing off low health enemy champions. She doesnt use mana and has a good amount of base health regen so she wont have to recall for mana or health reasons early game. Like i said earlier in the guide, riven can be used to initiate fights even without a tank because of her sheild and massive aoe's when her utli is up. Her broken wings and ki burst wont allow enemies in a teamfight to move how they please, so she is a vital part of winning teamfights.

[*] Cons: All of her moves are cooldown based, which allows her to carry the game late game because they are reduced, which meens early game her cooldowns are long and she is unable to burst anyone down and get that first blood by herself. People try to utilize her passive, which makes her auto attacks stronger everytime an ability is activated, however, its not worth wasting time try to land that auto attack with such low attack speed, and building into attack speed is not an option.

In conclusion, riven is an amazing champion. I love playing her because she is really fun and still kicks ***. Remember, this guide is how i play riven and even though i believe it is the best way, you may alter it to your playstyle.

Sorry for the ****py written guide, i really made this for the base items which i beleive is crucial for winning with riven. Have fun playing her!

Go get em champs.