Riven is a very mobile champion, she can jump over walls and scales ridiculously well with AD. She's also very cute and a fun champion to play! While she has a high skill cap to be a god tier Riven, she also has a low skill gap to play at a proficient level (New player friendly, but has high mechanic combos for higher level plays).

(Mandatory) Your other choice would be Armor Pen and it doesn't scale as well as AD does on Riven.

(VS AD) Get armor against AD mid laners.

(VS AP) Get HP/LvL against AP mid laners.

(Recommended) Now this isn't the only glyph you can use, the other option would be Flat MR glyphs but I prefer CDR as it provides survivability with your E anyway.

(Mandatory) The best option for quints. You don't need lifesteal.

For starting items, you more or less have these options only as they are the best options for Riven.

(Recommended) + x2 Long Sword + 3 pots is probably the best option nowadays. You can rush your Vampiric Scepter and having 3 pots helps you sustain in lane.

(Manly) + Doran's Blade is a bit more manly in the fact that if you do a bad trade, it's very hard to sustain as you need to auto attack to push your wave and if you're low on HP they can kill you if you try to do that.

I don't consider Elixir of Fortitude (red pot) a viable start anymore. It puts you at such a liability in the fact that if you used it and don't gain anything off it, you wasted 350 gold. It's hard to solo people with it as everyone is used to the red pot by now and Doran's Blade / Doran's Shield scale much better than red pot.

(Recommended) Ravenous Hydra So normally speaking, you want to rush Ravenous Hydra. This adds to your combo damage and allows you to wave clear faster/sustain better. It's basically everything you could want in an item.

(VS Armor) Last Whisper Last Whisper as you'll need this to kill tanks.

OR (Recommended) Youmuu's Ghostblade or The Black Cleaver Youmuu's Ghostblade or The Black Cleaver to increase CDR, damage and survivability.

(Recommended) Ionian Boots of Lucidity Lucidity Boots for CDR to increase damage/survivability.

(Defensive) Guardian Angel Guardian Angel so you can die once in a fight and revive.

(VS AP) Maw of Malmortius Maw of Malmortius is generally a good item to buy as most teams will have a good amount of magic damage and the shield is a life saver.

(VS AD) Randuin's Omen Randuins Omen is also good in case their have a triple AD comp or something similar.

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Your q is your bread and butter skill. It's a very interesting skill in the fact that you can use it after an AA to cancel the animation then move to cancel the Q animation.

The third Q allows you to jump over walls while the first two do not, there's a lot of walls you can jump over similar to the range of Nidalee's W. You can practice jumping over walls in Custom games if you need help on it.

Your E is a quick Dash that provides you a shield, once again you can use it to extend the third Q range or your W for fast combos, you can also E R at the same time to cancel the animation of casting the ultimate or using the execute part of it.

There are countless combos you can do with Riven, so I suggest you play a lot of her and try to learn what she can and can’t do. But for a few examples here are some listed :

E Q- Using E followed by Q basically extends the range of your Q and super fast since E cancels the slow animation of Q (This can apply to W and R, E cancelling the animation of spells is very important).

Tiamat/Hydra Q/W/E- Using Tiamat right before a skill adds damage as you cancel the rest of the animation using said skill, can also use right after an Auto to add extra damage.

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You can do a super fast combo of Auto- Q- Move, repeat 3 times to do your triple Q with autos weaved in within a second. This is hard to do and the best Riven players do this.

Sometimes it's better to use your Wind Slash during your W stun if you know they have flash up, that way you won’t miss and get the guaranteed damage on them. Sometimes this is the difference between winning a fight and losing it.

Riven can do so many more combos than this, each situation calls for a different thing to be done, but the main thing you should worry about is knowing how to cancel the rest of the animation after the damage has been already applied. Or making cast animations go faster. So she's a champion that will take a while to get used to!

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Use your Wind Slash during your Q knock up so they can't dodge.

Bush camping is important! Riven is an assassin on top of being a bruiser, so remember that!

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(Dangerous) Gragas is kind of a tricky match up, if it snowballs in his favor you're pretty much screwed as once he gets blue buff he'd beat you in duels in the case you don't have it. You can always use your E to dodge his skill shots but it's very hard to as good Gragas players will tend to Body Slam you first to stun you, then hit you after. If the match up snowballs in your favor then it should be a relatively easy lane. Ganks with Gragas are brutal as well, since you need to play aggressive to win the lane it'll make you overextend.

(Moderate) Generally speaking you shouldn't be able to kill her, but she shouldn't be able to kill you. When you go up to auto a minion and you see her send out her Q, dodge it with your E and get the last hit or go on her. Be careful jumping on her with a ton of creeps around however, once you hit 6 you gain killing potential on her as she has to be wary of your all in. Before 6 try and farm up safely without getting harassed unless an opportunity to harass her greatly or kill her arises. Either by a gank, or her running out of mana or being in melee range of you.

(Dangerous) I personally think Syndra is a pretty hard match up for Riven for a few reasons. 1. If you try to gap close to Syndra, she just E you away and nukes you. 2. She has a slow and her poke hits realllly hard. 3. She's very versatile in item builds in the fact she can build anything and it won't be too bad. So I recommend playing safe and asking for ganks as she needs to be able to harass you under turret to win the lane or she won't be able to push her advantage. You'll probably have to be able to dodge most of her skill shots with your E and Q to survive. In the end, with any Riven match up if you're able to snowball you'll do fine vs her and demolish her in lane. But if you fall behind, oh you'll feel the pain...

(Dangerous) So this matchup is a little tricky. You should avoid all Qs he sends to you either by dodging it or using E to tank it. However you don't want to push too hard on him as Zed can farm under a turret easily. In the case you guys break out into a fight, your abilities are easier to land than his, so try and juke his Q with your E and you should win the fight. Just don't get poked down by his W-E or W-Q combos and you should win the lane. Once you hit 6, save your stun for after he ultis to you, and don't let his shadows juke your ultimate. I If you stun him the moment he ultimates to you, you should win the fight. It's up to you to throw the fight against Zed, as it is easier for you to outplay him than vice versa.

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