Riven Build Guide by Apothema

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to my Riven guide.

She's only released this day, so please bear in mind that this guide can change later on.

I've seen people build her like a carry class, which she's not. I do agree that some carry items work on her, but this not bring out her full potential.

Please try out this guide before downvoting.

Pros / Cons

Pros

- The first not-so-OP-champ-at-release, imho.
- Great poking abilites.
- Great escape abilities.
- Great in teamfights.

Cons

- Takes practice to use her at full potential.
- Gets focused easily.

Runes

Mark of Desolation = Armor pen is always good.
Seal of Attack Damage = That little extra AD works well
Glyph of Attack Speed = Great in combination with her passive
Quintessence of Desolation = Again armor pen for that great poking capabilities

Viable Alternatives:
Mark of Attack Damage = If you want extra AD
Seal of Armor = If you need extra AD defenses
Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist = If you need extra AP defenses
Glyph of Magic Resist = If you need your AP defenses early game (I prefer /lvl)
Quintessence of Attack Damage = Great alternative for Desolation runes

Masteries

I go for 9/0/21 masteries.

I chose this mastery build solely for her CDR. If you use this in combo with the item build I provided, you'll get 39% CDR which is really needed imo.

It's needed to use her to her full potential. Most of her skills have a CDR of around 6 sec, having 39% CDR will give those abilities a CDR of 3.66 seconds.

Items

Starting items

Doran's Blade, Doran's Shield, Brawler's Gloves Health Potion or Boots of Speed Health Potion

Buy the blade in normal team compositions or for the nice poke. Shield when you're up against an AD lane.

The Brawlers are intresting for that fast Avarice into Youmuu's.

Use Boots when you're solo laning so you can't get ganked easily.

Core items

Berserker's Greaves, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Shurelya's Reverie

The Greaves are used for that extra AS, while the Ghostbalde and Reverie are used for the CDR.

You might ask: "Why the hell the Reverie, and not Omen???"
Simple, Reverie gives better HP regen and CDR. The active is also more intresting imho.

Against heavy AD:

Thornmail, Randuin's Omen and Atma's Impaler

Thornmail for obvious reasons. The Omen gives you extra regen, CDR and an acitve you can use in combo with Reverie.

The Impaler will be your offensive item

Against heavy AP:

Hexdrinker, Wit's End and The Bloodthirster

Hexdrinker and Wit's end increase your dmg output as well as giving you a nice magic resist bonus. The Bloodthirster is your offensive item

If everything is going good:

Phantom Dancer, The Bloodthirster and Frozen Mallet

This gives a nice dmg output when your team is doing very well.

Frozen mallet will be your defensive item.

Other viable items that can be used:

Banshee's Veil
Infinity Edge
Guardian Angel
The Black Cleaver

Summoner Spells

I use Exhaust and Flash

Exhaust is used for securing your kill, while flash can be used as an offensive or defensive spell.

Other viable options:

Ghost
Ignite

Skill Sequence

I max out her Broken Wings out first, then Ki Burst and then Valor. Ofcourse you level up her Blade of the Exile whenever possible.

If you think you're getting focused way to hard, then level up Valor first. This will give you some survivability throughout the game.

The combo I use is: Blade of the Exile -> Broken Wings to initiate -> Basic Attack -> Broken Wings -> Basic Attack -> Broken Wings -> Ki Burst -> Basic attack -> Basic Attack.

When you get hit hard, use Valor whenever possible

Summary

I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read through this guide. I hope you like it and if you have any suggestions, please let me know. :-)