First off, this guide is for new players who like to play riven as a more of a burst damage in your face kind of hero. I like to make it clear that this may not be the best of all guides but intended to give a rough idea how this hero works in battle. This is my first guide and I intend to give my best in ensuring good detailed information to help you own some nubcakes in battle ;D

Riven is a Melee fighter sort of hero with her ability to get into to do some nasty slicing and dicing action with (Broken Wings) and (Ki Burst) and suddenly GTFO with (Valor) from counter attacks by minions and the enemy hero. Not to mention her Big *** sword she can rack up nice kills with her Bankai: (Blade of The Exile)and finishing them off with .
Here is the part where you start screaming at your opponents GETSUGA...TENSHOOOUUU!!!!!

Now lets move on to her pros and cons.

Pros:

-Insane Farming if played right
-Awsome Damage Late game
-3 abilities that make it tough to chase you down
-No cost spammable abilities
-Low CD
-High Health regen hero without items.
-Can alternate between off-tank to pure dmg depending on team comp and situation
-A Cloud/Lightning/Ichigo hybrid looks badass with her massive sword

Cons:

-Not Noob Friendly
-Terrible Terrible Early game
-Terrible Terrible tower damage pushing
-Very hard to farm early game against zoners/rangers especially if you have double melee vs double range
-Squishy hero
-Very Item Dependant
-Team Dependant
-One or Two CC and you're useless
-Teamates feed you're useless
-You feed you're useless
- Will not shine until roughly mid to late game.

For runes I'm a straight up damage player and I love damage. So if you are like me who like to like to hurt like a train but play professionally without feeding, I go straight up Armour pen runes with Crit damage for the late game ownage.

Damage:

9xGreater Mark of Desolation Mark of Desolation
9x Seal of Furor
9x Glyph of Furor
3xGreater Quintessence of Desolation Quintessence of Desolation

But because I factored in Riven's perfect starting regen along with the starting item Regrowth Pendant, You can safely take the damage route for some slicing and dicing action ;)

Now If you're the type of player who wants to enjoy a comforatble early game or having a scary team of bullies then by all means take the survival route:

Defensive:

9xGreater Mark of Desolation Mark of Desolation
9x Seal of Resilience
9x Glyph of Warding
3xGreater Quintessence of Desolation Quintessence of Desolation

Extreme Mobility:

9xGreater Mark of Desolation Mark of Desolation
9x Seal of Resilience
9x Glyph of Warding
3x Quintessence of Swiftness

With Sunfire Cape you will have no trouble farming and no trouble being forced back to fountain.

Here I go 22/6/2
The 6 points that goes into defence help with early game and the same goes for 2 points in hp regen on utility.

However this may not be to your liking and It is up to you to improvise and set up a suitable mastery to your liking. I play Riven as a killer/off-tank and not a full tanker.
The Offensive Tree provides better last hitting with atk speed and some cd reduction when spamming your skills.

Because Riven is a FULL AD hero, You'd have to either choose between Exhaust , Ignite or Smite without having to waste a point at the begining of your offense mastery tree. Now personally I'd choose exhaust as you can 1v1 without problems and chase/escape. In contrast, If you pick Ignite it will help a great ammount early game and that no one will want to fk with you. However it will not last u long for late game and will not protect you from beasty tanks such as nasus and garen slaming u down with hard hitting attacks. That Is my reason for taking exhaust as it reduces damage and increases better survival. Next I take Flash as it is greatly need when you're in a tough pinch. EXAMPLE:
5v5 battle ensures at baron bushes, GAREN and NASUS and JAX JUMP RIGHT on top of you as well as your Ally Fiddles GALIO RaMMUS and KAT JUMP IN. They're about to kill you but u manage to flash out and then throw in your windslash boom! [PENtaKILL]

ALTERNATIVES:

Ghost is not bad if you want to have the highest mobility added along with Flash its good at escaping and poking. Just depends on your playstyle.
Cleanse Is ok if your going a little tanky but I'd rather not.
Leave it to better junglers such as lee,ww etc.
You got insane pushing power but ****py atk speed to kill towers you're not as good as Yi.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Riven is a very Item dependant hero with a lot of trade offs when playing this hero. When I first got my hands on this babe I had trouble how to effectively become useful to the team whilist not sacrificing my damage or hp. I first tried tank Riven but she was too squishy and lack so much damage.I then tried Pure damage but she would die before she could even land off a hit! Then I looked around for inbetweens and found the best all- round early to late game transitions.

EARLY-GAME

Firstly Regrowth Pendant is a must for early survival so that you can farm forever without sacrificing some little harrasment here and there. Later on you can finish it into warmongs .
Make sure that you can farm as long as hard as you can before you make your first trip back home. If you are less than 1.5k-1.7k short than your farming isnt that good but if you managed well then good job.

I found out that mercs was a good item but after trying boots of swiftness she was insanely good at escaping! After a few tries with my old build, I found that it was quite hard to farm up items at the begining so Sunfire Cape was the best item to help your boost in farming power with more survivability so sunfire is now the first item you must obtain in order to ensure better gameplay as well as more kills. From here on out.

MID-GAME

Phantom Dancer is no longer required as It doesnt really add much damage potential. From here you build Your BloodThirster for more damage and poking action. You should start to engage with your team tank in team battles now and try and land some ki burst kills and stuns. As late game progresses you will start to become invincible as you have a choice to complete your IE or your Warmongs.

PICK

LATE-GAME

After you finish your warmongs and IE, your last item is up to you but in my opinion, if you get to this point within 40 minutes, the game is probably ending soon. Now the last item I just chose Black Cleaver because I love damage but theres so many more items you can consider so its up to the player!

LAST ITEM ALTERNATIVES

Now you can decide what suits you in late game. If its more damage and you're dominating go BT. If you're doing not bad, go Black Cleaver. If you finding hard hitting fast escaping enemies, go Frozen mallet. If you're really rich go Trinity. Last Whisper is only needed if you got high stacking armored enemies. Madreds for high hp's like . Banshees and Fon for tankage to mages. Thorns for enemies like and . Atma's isnt my kind of item but if you're just pubbing go for it!

Max out Ki Burst and Broken Wings First because it provides enough damage to farm and to be useful in team battles.

Harass:
Broken Wings + Auto Attack + Broken Wings + Ki Burst + Broken Wings + Auto Attack + Valour out .

Attacking:
BAN....KAI! Blade of the Exile
Valour In + Ki Burst + Auto Attack + Broken Wings + Broken Wings + Auto Attack Broken Wings + Valour Out + Ki Burst + Finisher Wind Slash (GETSUGA TENSHOU!!)

Escaping:
Valour Out + Broken Wings + Broken Wings + Broken Wings in opposite direction of enemy.

Well This Wraps up my first Guide on Riven. The momment I first laid my eyes on this babe I knew she was destined for me.

When playing Riven make sure you pick your targets when entering a team battle. Make sure you wait for your initiator to engage before running in. Riven should not be played like a tanker or a Xin Zhao in my oppinion as they'll just punish you.

Riven should also not play like a Katrinna,Katrinna Shaco or a Akali as you will be the last man standing in battle.

When engaing in a team battle you should pop into a battle and play like a Leblanc pop in attack pop out and throw a windslash. I hope you Enjoyed this Guide and hope it is very useful in providing detail help in you gameplay with Riven. In the near future I'll be adding in some nice replays

20/09/2011
Skill Tree Revised:
-Lacked killing so ki burst and broken wings is now maxed first for better killing and farming potential
Build Order Revised:
-Bloodthirster although gave damage was not enough to help increase farming power or survival so Sunfire Cape was added.
-Phantom Dancer Was no longer required as it lacked survival and damage.