To give a brief ansewer - This duo was not meant to be the most serious or meta to begin with. "It's just a game, have some fun", etc.
To give a longer answer:
a) Riven and Sona have matching Arcade Skins (*the sound of the author completely ignoring Miss Fortune and Blitzcrank* - Cause screw them), and there's a hidden stat that gives 10% satisfaction upon scoring a coordinated kill when your comsmetics already coordinate.
b) This lane has a disgusting lvl 6 power spike - so much so that pre-6 you're getting harassed and bullied away from farm, FML, and etc. But none* of that matters post-6, beucase one just need all-in and burst the poor not-yet-scaled ADC on the enemy team.
c)There is a certain satisfaction in enemies and allies alike spouting "wtf is this nonsense", "GG ez lane" & "GG Troll bot lane". Only for them to eat their words. ;)
d) Snowballing post-6 (especially into easy mathcups) becomes very easy - A job made easier by the tilt you've put on the enemy team just by winning lane/going even. Because I mean, how The F*cK DO YOU LOSE TO MELEE BO... etc. And, should you fail to close out the game, Full AP CDR mana Sona just needs to mash their keyboard late game to carry teamfights.

Hello I go by TaNuKi FrUiT in-game! Although Sona was my first main (to a petty 50K - But it's Sona, soooooo), I only ever really play her nowadays in the Arcade Duo. I also main Thresh now, and duo thresh Kalista with this joker below me too :) I also have no ****ing idea how to code, so that's why there is a small novel for some sections.


Sup'
This is Châtelet, though I used to play on the account DeadNSide (fitting for a riven main right?) I have about 250k in riven combined, and play her mostly in the bot lane currently. Otherwise I play . Other then Sona, my favorite support for Riven ADC, Thresh, Naut, and Leona are all very good.



A (somewhat) knitpicketed match history will be the last item in the guide. Somewhat, cause a large streak of the matches were from the same streak (look at dates)
Well, when Tanuki comes back from Japan in August, we'll get the match history/verification out of the way

Play Video

-your largest spike is at 6, rush it, abuse it, use it
-pre-6, going in/trading is detirmined mainly by the enemy blowing cool-downs (death sentence, light binding, CC etc) - if carry is out of position, do not hesitate to go in, as Riven can squish AD carries with impunity early - all she needs is to get on top of them
-if you take an early turret, roam, invade the enemy jungle, or do something to spread your lead through the map. Even if you don't and you just get ahead, make sure you are doing something
-use Sona's Q at 2 stacks and follow up immediately w/ a power chord for cheap harass
-as support, generally auto if the enemy's comes in range and you're not in danger' this kind of harass will add up, and make killing them that much easier.
-keep in mind that while your lane has really great chase, the your escape is not nearly as good. If fed, it becomes easy to turn around a 3v2 jungle gank (depending on jungler). I feel not, don't get ganked
-Riven should actually have some idea of what they are doing - you are not force feeding your laner kills, you are making it far easier for them to do Riven things by buffing them, Poking,and doing support things. Which is great if they can combo like street fighter - not so if they face smash keyboard.

Hey this is Chatelet, the riven half of the duo, and adc riven in the late game plays differently than any other adcs as you are melee.

Anyway-- I'm going to be honest here, if you are not about to win on 3 items + boots, you will probably lose. You cannot match the ADC past a certain point. Your job as riven ADC and Sona support is to get to those 3 or 4 items Super Fast, and just push down bot and mid inhib really early on. You want to put their ADC soooooo far behind that your team can end before they have damage. Past 35 minutes Sona becomes the real sustain damage carry (with her q and lich bane) and your only job is to 1-shot the ADC or APC. You just need to be aware that you will not scale as well as the enemy caitlyn or twitch or whatever.

WHY NO HEALS/SHIELDS/SIGHTSTONE SUPPORT NOOOOBBBBB!!!
(*AP*) Sona.
The longer answer is that, even though you are building like and AP carry mid-lane, you still are a very effective heal/buff bot, (especially in the late game) because of the AOE nature of your spells, the AP scalings (albeit low) on all of your AOE team-buffing spells, and the passive on her rank 3 ult granting (passive) 40% CDR on basic abilities. Meaning you can stack 80(or 85)% CDR on basic abilities. With this in mind, by stacking flat AP and mana, one gains the ability to spam spells ad-infinitum (especially with morellos passive granting 20% max mana on kill or assist - and not getting assists on Sona takes a special kind of stupid ;).
Time for some math, just considering the shield on Sona's W
(Official stat)
SHIELD STRENGTH: 30 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 (+ 30% AP) with 400 range, on a 10 / 9 / 7.5 / 6 base cooldown
Now in a realistic scenario (2 other people in range + Yourself) you are already looking at a 390 (+90% AP) shield spread among those players. Among your entire team, that's 650 (+150% AP). That by itself is nothing to scoff at, but factor that into the ludicrous cooldown at max CDR (It's .9 secs at 85% CDR - I.E. Urf levels)
AP Sona can support after all - might not be meta-level, but certainly more then viable with items

Needless to say, this is late game at full build - how else will I Wow my audience
PASSIVE
POWER CHORD: After casting 3 basic abilities, Sona's next basic attack deals 15 - 235 (based on level) (+ 20% AP) bonus magic damage, with an additional effect depending on the last basic ability cast.
Q - Aura
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 20% AP)
STACCATO: Power Chord deals 「 40% bonus 」 damage.
Build + relevant stats:
Base Mana - 1106
Base AD - 101
Lich Band - 80 AP, 250 Mana, Spellblade: 75% base AD + (50% AP) bonus magic damage, 1.5 sec cooldown
Sereph's Embrace - 80 AP, 1000 Mana, 3% of mana converted into AP
MOorrelo's - 100 AP, 400 mana
Deathcap - 130 AP, +35% AP
Luden's - 100 AP, (100 + 10% AP off of Proc)
Void staff - 80 AP, +35% magic pen

570 base AP, +3% mana (2756... 82.7 ~ +88 AP) 657 x .35.... + 229.95... ~887 AP

Power chord (235 + 177)=412
Stacatcco 412 x 1.4 = 577.34 BONUS: (60+177)=237
On hit deals 814 Magic damage
Spell blade is an additional (101 x .75)+(887 x .5)=519
That's 1333 magic damage for little to nothing, plus the 100+(887x.1)=188 damage luden's proc
+ the MAGIC DAMAGE: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 50% AP) = 603.5 Dmg from casting her Q

1521 magic on attack, +603 damage on Q
2124.75 Flat burst (without MR runes or masteries) for no effort or real cooldown (it is on a cooldown,.. that's like under 10 secs without ludens)

alright you can tell its me speaking now, as I am much less eloquent, and have no math to back me up.

So- ADC riven. It probably wont work past gold tbh. Though to unexpecting Silver ADC mains, who have never played against riven in lane, it works like a charm.


Start Doran's Shield into hard lanes, Long Sword or Doran's Blade into easy ones.

As riven ADC I always rush Youmuu's Ghostblade for the leathality nukes, and Ninja Tabi, cuz ur riven against an adc.

Following that, I go Death's Dance (If snowballing) or Black Cleaver (if they have tanky supp or behind), Maw of Malmortius is good if there are multiple AP threats.

If you are really really snowballing, which happens alot-- I buy Statikk Shiv and Infinity Edge so that I can 1-shot the adc with E-AA-WQ

Ravenous Hydra and Bloodthirster are good too if ahead, note that if you plan on building hydra, know how to Cancel stuff with it & Hydra-Ki Burst cancel.

You need a ******** Guardian Angel.

What combos do you need?

Key: F=Flash, AA=Auto Attack, H=Hydra, R1=Blade of the Exil, R2=Wind Slash

Double cast (E-WQ)(E-AA-WQ) or (Q-MC-wq, though Riot said they will patch this...) Note that Double casting must end with q, not start with it (E-R1Q) (E-R2Q)

Triple casting isn't really 3 abilities at once. The R2 hits at the same time as WQ so it looks that way. (R1)-E-R2-WQ

Probably wont need these but they are here. You don't really need them to nuke the ADC then switch onto their other carry.

Burst combo / Shy combo
- E-R1-(F)-W-(AA)-(H)-R2-(H)-Q-(AA)
not gonna be necessary much, you can 1-shot without it. Dont use it on anyone who can duel you.

Generic full combo
- E-R1-(F)-(AA, if in range)-Q-AA-Q-AA-W-AA- Q-AA-R2/R2-Q-AA (faster but less if over 25% HP)