MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! 🏆

Riven Build Guide by

[14.1] ⚔️ HOW to CARRY with RIVEN TOP in SEASON 14 ⚔️ (Work in Progress)

220 12

433,048 Views

14 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author SrMolinv

Riven Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (14) More Riven Guides

Runes: Main runes

1 2 3 4 5

Precision

Conqueror

Triumph

Legend: Tenacity

Last Stand

Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak

Transcendence

Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2

Flash + ignite

Flash

Ignite

Items

Powerspikes

Strong all in when you buy any of this

When you buy any of this items

When you buy cleaver

Laning phase

Against easy lanes

Against all in lanes

Against hard/ranged lanes

First buy

1000 Gold (Situational)

950 Gold

925 Gold

800 Gold

700 Gold

Viable items bruiser items

Core Item

Your best option vs armor

Against a lot of healing (Bad Item)

Against a lot of AD

Agaisnt AP threat

Against A LOT of shields (3 or +)

Against LOTS of true damage

OP Until nerfs

REALLY Situational

So cheap that it could be good

When you need it, you will know it

Boots

Your main boots

vs Heavy AD champs (autos)

vs LOTS of CC (not AP)

BAD items

There are better options than this

Final build example

Ability Order

Riven Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Renekton

Extreme

Even if Renekton starts W we win level 1. From there we start losing when he gains fury. Short trades and try to bait him with cooldowns. Its really common to dive Riven with jungler, be careful of dives. This is my go-to ban.

Zac

Ideal

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Zac

Ideal

Champion Build Guide

Hello, im Molina , a Onetrick that plays on EUW server. Currently Master Tier. I played since season 5 and I reached Master Tier for the first time in Season 8 (Playing lethality ). I quit the game after that but now im back and I will be streaming and uploading content in my socials:

(Click on any banners to go to my social)

Feel free to ask any question. If you dont have a Mobafire account I have a section on my Discord dedicated to answer ALL of your Riven questions.

If you are interested in learning this is your guide. I tried almost everything with during a lot of time and I want to show you what i learned in this guide. Its a time saving one if you go through it.

Season 14 arrived recently and with it a lot of item changes.

Some items and specific orders or combinations needs to be tested, I will share my best findings here.

One of the most common mistakes in early season is to tunnelvision on "broken builds" and ignoring items that could be better.

Please don't fall for that and actively think if you need armor, magic resist or more damage.

Your options right now are:

Bruiser Build

You mainly want to go bruiser build when:

- Your enemy laner is a hard early game bully (Renekton, Pantheon, Garen) because you need the early HP to deal with their burst.
- You feel like you need to frontlane for your team or it's hard to survive if you dont go bruiser.

Full Lethality

Currently lethality is really good when there are no tanks on enemy team.

Specially when you pick it feels way better, but you shouldn't do this every game.

You should only go for this build if you are experimented or smurfing. Having no sustain and only damage can feel really hard for a first time.

This build allows you to deal insane damage, but you will be really squishy. Play it at your own risk, and have fun.

Moved this section to my Discord server so i can keep it up to date with the Patches/Changes.

Make sure you join to not miss anything.

Riven, the Exile
is a champion that has been in the game for many years and since she has been in the game she almost never had any time where she is unplayable. She can adapt to different Metas and succeed in them. She has a really complete kit that even up to this date has inspired other champions to be like her (Aatrox, Sylas, K'Sante...)

With you can win almost every lane and if you dont win you can go even in most and still be super useful in the fights. Mana problems are not a thing on this champion(she doesnt have mana), her build is based on cooldown reduction and it makes her really funny to play when you reach that point. You can spam your abilities and once you control her kit you have a HIGH potential to carry games in any elo.(SoloQ)

She can build a lot of different items, have different roles in a teamfight. Its a champion that can do so many things to win games. Thats why OTP's never get bored of her.

1. The cooldown of the 3 casts starts with the first Q. Its important to always keep that in mind to surprise people

2. Each Q can be used to give a faster auto attack than usual.

3. The third Q can be used to jump walls, and even more important to cut distance on corners. Jumping corners can take Riven to the next level of cheesy plays/great escapes.

4. You can use 3rd Q to drop minion aggro.

5. The way you position your mouse during Riven Q matters. If we point with the mouse in a direction it goes through, if we hover the mouse on the enenemy it targets him. This is really game changing on Riven gameplay.

You can use it to drop minion agro.

E Allows you to cancel animations and Doublecast

EQ3

You can use E combined with Q3 to secure Walljumps.

Useful to trade close to enemys tower.

You extend the W area by doing this correctly.

To cancel the ult animation (not be locked in the animation)

R increases the range of the auto attacks, Q, W, and E shield is bigger.

You can do R flash to reposition your R or to surprise enemies.

MAIN RUNES (IGNITE)

Against most bruisers or easy matchups always take this page

MAIN RUNES (TELEPORT)

Against tanks or matchups you cant kill this rune page is the best

SORCERY

Nimbus Cloak
Nimbus Cloak: Best choice for Riven on Sorcery when you have Ignite . It helps to kite melees, helps to chase and offers a powerful early game. Might be hard at the start because you need to learn how to use it.

Nullifying Orb
Nullifying Orb: is useful when entire topside (Toplaner/Jungler/Midlaner) is heavy magic damage. It has more value now since Riven cant rush Maw of Malmortius anymore. Pick it into AP Top and Jungler too!

Transcendence
Transcendence: is the STRONGEST choice on this tree for Riven with the item changes in Patch 13.1B this rune is kinda of a MUST HAVE most games.

Gathering Storm
Gathering Storm: is your best choice when you play with Teleport This rune will only be useful if the game goes past 20-30 minutes. If you want some early strenght you could go for Scorch but this rune becomes more useless as the game goes on.

DOMINATION

Pick this when going full lethality

Sudden Impact
Sudden Impact: If you go Domination second, it's because of this rune so make sure to pick it until nerfs. (9 armor pen currently)

Ultimate Hunter
Ultimate Hunter: Riven is a champion that needs ultimate, so this rune is an easy no brainer pick. You pick it and forget about everything. Good choice

Ingenious Hunter
Ingenious Hunter: works on Eclipse, both Hydras and Sundered Sky. It's harder to use but if you have your build clear since champ select I believe it can be superior. (Needs testing)

All Items, ordered from A-Z.

You can press Ctrl + F and type the name of an item to quickly find it.

Anathema's Chains
The item itself its good, some Riven players buy it but I havent tried enough to tell. Will update if I find any good scenario to pick this over other items.

Axiom Arc
Getting ability haste in Season 14 is harder than previous seasons, the stats of this item are really good for Riven but the passive is not. Feel free to test it but there are better options

B. F. Sword
Most efficient AD-Gold Item, only useful if you want to build

Black Cleaver
Your best chance to deal with armor, the components are bad for Riven but the item remains a good choice. I think it's way better than Serylda unless you build lethality, keep this in mind. You can rush this item against double tank topside on enemy team if your jungler is an AD champion too.

Caulfield's Warhammer
Offers what Riven needs the most. Always good to stack Ability Haste.

Chain Vest
This item is only good if you need armor and you are building / or you are close to buy it. Otherwise dont.

Chempunk Chainsword
This item is EXTREMELY BAD. The reason why is because you already get what you need by buying . Finishing the full item offers you nothing extra. Sit on the 800g component and finish the item in last place if you really need it.

Cull
Some people dislike this item on Riven. I only recommend this item into lanes you cant kill, lanes that allow you to scale for free or if by any strange situation your lane is completely dominated before 5 minutes.

Dead Man's Plate
I dont recommend this on Riven. Bad item

Death's Dance
This item used to be God-Tier. Now its nerfed and its only good against team comps with no DPS / Onhit damage. Mainly against team with only burst.

Doran's Blade
This item helps a lot during laning, maybe not as your starter item but buying it before your first item can be good sometimes. You want to buy this when you need some extra HP. Really good early game item.

Doran's Shield
If you are facing an annoying ranged champion in the toplane, this item as starter is your best friend. Against annoying melee lanes I think Longsword + 3 Pots start is better nowdays.

Eclipse
Extremely cheap and useful for Riven, perfect stats for her. A lot of AD, ability haste and a passive that makes up for the lack of sustain. Useful in most games.

Edge of Night
This item is really situational. If you are starting with League or you are in low elo dont bother with this item. I buy this item 1/200 games so dont worry.

Elixir of Iron
This elixir grants you tenacity and HP. Depending on the team it can be good or even better.

Elixir of Wrath
Best elixir on Riven when you dont need more tenacity.

Essence Reaver
Dont do this bro, its bad for you

Evenshroud
Don't think its good, dont buy it.

Executioner's Calling
Against Soraka / Heavy healers (Sylas / Senna) this item is good. Sit on this component, only upgrade as your last item.

Force of Nature
I dont think this item is good unless you are facing a full AP team.

Frozen Heart
Could be good 1/100 games, don't worry about it.

Gargoyle Stoneplate
Some Riven players like this item to secure surviving a fight. I think you should only consider this item if you go Bruiser build because this item scales with HP.

Guardian Angel
Best Offensive-Defensive Riven option by far. This item is your best friend as it secures you performing on teamfights. Only time when this item is bad is against .

Hexdrinker
This item helps a lot, its main Rivens item against AP threats. I recommend building it after your 3rd item. But sometimes it might be better to get it sooner, every game is different.

Hubris
Good lethality item, only build it when going for full lethality. This item requires snowball to be good

Hullbreaker
I dont think this item is good

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
Best boots for Riven without any doubt. Cheap, they allow you to have flash and ignote more often and give you Ability Haste. I recommend buying this after your first item.

Jak'Sho, The Protean
Bad item for Riven, you dont want full defensive items on Riven mostly. Offensive - Defensive item types work better on her.

Last Whisper
When buying Serylda always focus on purchasing this first.

Liandry's Anguish
If you get unlucky team, sell all items at the end and buy this.

Lord Dominik's Regards
I dont think this item is good unless you are addicted to the Dopamine of critting. Serylda is superior on Riven

Maw of Malmortius
This item is without doubt your Go-To against AP threats. If an enemy AP carry is feed, Maw is usually worth. If enemy team has multiple AP champions, this item has a lot of value too.

Mercury's Treads
The enemy team has a lot of annoying CC you cant dodge? Buy this

Pickaxe
Really gold efficient item for Riven. Buying this feels really good, specially if you can get it in your first/second/third recall.

Plated Steelcaps
Against a lot of auto attack based champions. This item is really broken. Something I recommend if the enemy team allows you, rush this against

Opportunity
Gives a lot of lethality but 0 Haste, only good on lethality builds when you already have enough ability haste.

Profane Hydra
Good on lethality builds, scales worse than with AD. (Hover your mouse over the icons and you can see numbers). Good option when you go for lethality oriented builds.

Quicksilver Sash
Mordekaiser / Malhazar counter.

Radiant Virtue
Need some testing, but this item is broken. Maybe for a tank Riven build. I dont recommend it for now.

Randuin's Omen
Not a fan of this on Riven, if you build it at least make sure you have enough damage already.

Ravenous Hydra
Doesn't feel as good as old season. I believe it could have a place in the build however I think there are better items right now. Will update depending on how the meta evolves.

Rectrix
Don't think its good unless you have enough ability haste.

Refillable Potion
Helps a lot with laning, never start this but buying this on your early recalls can help you.

Serpent's Fang
Against a lot of shield this item helps a lot. I recommend this as your 4th or 5th item. Getting it early usually messes with your Ability haste.

Serrated Dirk
Buying this gives you A LOT of damage. You can rush this if you are smurfing or if enemy team is full squishy and you can go lethality build.

Serylda's Grudge
Cleaver is superior to this item in my opinion unless you stack lethality. However on lethality builds this item shines more than ever. I'm glad items become more specific.

Spear of Shojin
Probably the best item on Riven this season combined with I would build it every game. You can stack this item on minions, so make sure you stack it before all-ins. Keep this in mind, 12% damage can do a lot depending on the game stage.

Spirit Visage
Only worth when you have healers in your team and you need magic resist. But even then I think Maw is better. I dont recommend this unless Soraka is by your side and enemy team is full AP-ish

Sterak's Gage
With the amount of HP Bruiser Riven has this season, I think this item could be very good as a 4th item when you need tenacity and survive true damage. For now let's say its very situational until further testing

Sundered Sky
I truly believe Riven is the best user for this item. Don't sleep on it. Build it everytime you can have a good teamfight. OP Item in my opinion (will get nerfed for sure)

The Brutalizer
This item used to be way better. Main component of Riven core items, right now it's worse and offers a faster powerspike. Stills decent but not as good as it used to be.

Titanic Hydra
Could be good but you are playing Riven, why do you want this?

Trinity Force
Bad item on Riven.

Umbral Glaive
The item itself is good, but doesnt fit Riven needs. Dont build this.

Vampiric Scepter
On other champions this works better, on Riven its bad. Buying AD is better than this, almost no sustain from this item.

Warden's Mail
This item is OP, but not for Riven. Dont do it, it will delay your main build too much.

Voltaic Cyclosword
Probably one of the best lethality items for Riven.

Only buy it when you are going full lethality with

Youmuu's Ghostblade
This item used to be very good on Riven. Right now it has 0 haste which makes it a rare choice.

Only pick it when you have enough haste and you need the active.

Zhonya's Hourglass
This could be useful in a 50 minute game, you might agree or not.

Only for experienced Riven players and I dont recommend this unless you have a BIG PLAN

This are most jumps can do in the game (including really hard ones).
Will update it as I post videos on my socials

Doing a matchup guide is probably one of the most complicated things for Riven.

Riven laning is the most important part and so are matchups.

Most of the matchups in this website will help you to start approaching them.

Some of them are outdated, but its really useful.

https://riven.saltyy.at

Credit: Rueven for the matchups & Salty Riven for the website mirror.

Its really important to not panic your shield in the early game. The difference from a good to a bad one can be told by how she manages her shield to block damage.

Another really important tip is to learn how to manage cooldowns. You need to be constantly aware of when your cooldowns are up and what can yo do in the mean time. Its probably the hardest thing to master for Riven laning but you can get so many solo kills by doing it, its worth the effort it takes.

Its really important that in lanes you cant kill or snowball you make sure to collect all the resources you can. By this i mean farming and stealing jungle or collecting jungle camps that arent in the pathing your jungler is doing. Even if you dont win lane by killing someone 2 times if you build a CS advantage and keep it across the game it will help a lot as Riven.

Be really patient with abilities as . For to work she needs to be an aggresive laner but at the same time you need to respect enemy jungler. Always keep track of the jungler as it will tell you how to play your lane.

Early game (Laning phase):

Our objective is to never lose lane, Riven can perform into most lanes. If you cant abuse your matchup make sure to abuse her waveclear to create rooms so you can impact the map by slowpushing waves/doing a quick proxy to generate a roaming window. Once you make habit having 8/9/10 cs per minute as Riven isnt something that crazy.

Minute 0 - 1:30 | Invade timer

In this stage of the game is really important to not get cheesed by an early invade or a specific strategy. Knowing if something is going to happen can be easy sometimesm, champions like: , , often invade. There are strats with or top with or with

During this timer you should also look to know where the enemy jungler is starting. It will dictate how you have to play the lane, every lane needs to be played differently depending on the teams.

Minute 1:30 - 5:00 | Set up the game plan

You might be wondering why the minute 5 is important and not 5:50 or minute 6 (When you unlock your ultimate). The answer is that at minute 5 in Toplane/Midlane tower plating falls, taking plates after minute 5 will be a lot easier. Before minute 5 is more important playing for tempo than playing for a tower plate. (By playing for tempo i mean playing for a good recall rather than greeding for hitting the tower)

In this frame of time our objective will depend of the matchups, but building a CS advantage is always the safest as . Shes really strong at level 6, its really hard to survive a all-in from when she has , her ultimate and

Minute 5:00 - 14:00 | Laning phase

Depending on the matchup this could be one of the best moments for , if in this game stage you already managed to build an advantage its really good, otherwise if you stay even thats not bad at all as Riven builds CDR and she can get more than 45% of her cooldowns reduced. Laning is the most important stage of the game as Riven, you cant fall behind!

As soon as we hit level 6 we can consistently think of how to all-in/outplay our enemy laner or putting him in a bad position depending on our junglers pathing.

is strong at this stage of the game becouse of her level 6 but becouse of the easy time she has with to waveclear, a single cooldowns rotation is more than enough to make a wave dissapear.

With this being said, our objective will be to collect as much gold as possible and negate as much as we are allowed. Might sound like a general tip so let me give you some examples:

- If you cant kill the enemy laner, can take advantage of the lane by doing a quick proxy to the incoming wave, taking a quick plate and backing (She is one of the champions that have the fastest lane returns by jumping terrain)

- Farming camps like , o can end up meaning a great advantage into the enemy laner. Try to always look for windows or generate them yourself to collect more resorces. Farming gives us gold, vision and a small mobility boost when in the area. You are not a jungler but your champion has a good time taking it, so when you can go for the crab.

Midgame (Laning phase is almost over):

Will depend mostly on our team, but as is a hyper mobility champion she excels at quickly pushing a sidelane and hunting around for a catch or flanking a fight.(Red trinket will help a lot).

If our team is losing and you need to group with them to stop the enemies, consider the situation and go for it. But keep in mind you need to collect resources. Decision making is really important at this game stage.

Lategame:

Since every game and team comp is different is hard to explain what you should be doing here. All i can say is that your main objective should be to hunt people with your team, pushing sidelanes, giving/clearing vision or protecting your team mates. (Yes is really good at protecting people with her stuns, damage and shield)

is one of the most versatile champions in teamfights, you can:

- Flank and force the enemy carrys to run/be in a bad position.
- Kill the enemy carry.
- Peel for your carrys with your CC and damage.
- Chase enemies and chain CC them until your team can catch.
- Gain time by running/jumping walls until your team can help you.

How can you know what you should be doing? Depends on your team, for example:

You are going against a team with a lot of disengage, you already tried to go for the enemy ADC and they managed to stop you, next fight you notice you have a in your team, so you try to peel for her in fights so she can kill the tanks.

Its all about adapting and learning.

Another example:

Enemy team has a , and , you have a . You pinged him and you know hes ready to use his ultimate, so when you see the enemies are grouped you can setup a engage (E R flash 3Q) with the and vanish the enemy carrys with him.

Most common play as in teamfights is to flank so you can clean up fights.

By this I mean being patient and waiting for enemies to burn CC or things that can annoy in fights and forcing a flash or killing someone on the spot. Best scenario would be if they are low and you can score a kill before they react.

RED SIDE WARDS

BLUE SIDE WARDS

BEST RIVEN SKINS (MY OPINION)

I have some Riven custom skins that I do on my own. If you want them make sure you join my discord server. I do giveaways from time to time.

Discord!

Renekton (My permaban)
Early game lane bully, you can deal with him if you are experienced. Its hard. If its combined with Elise / Nidalee / Rek'Sai I truly recommend you to dodge that game. Its not going to be fun.

Kennen
Annoying champion to face, has an easy time getting away from you. You can scale and be useful but laning against Kennen is boring.

Malphite
Malphite currently is too broken. I understand if you ban him, the champion doesnt need a brain work.

Jayce
Jayce can be really hard depending on the player, if you are fine with the rest you can ban him. But I would not ban Jayce personally.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Riven mid?

Its viable, has a lot of good matchups. If you want a section dedicated to Riven in the midlane let me know in the commnets. That it is viable doesnt mean its good and you can go Riven mid all games, she has a lot of bad matchups too!

Crit Riven?

Its fun for a normal/Ranked Flex game when ahead. But if you truly want to get Riven MAX potential... Just dont go crit.

Note: If you have any question you can ask me on my stream or in any related video on Tiktok/Youtube.

And thats it for now, this was my guide and i truly hope it helped you. If theres any question you have dont be shy to comment.

See you in the comments/my socials!