Hello readers!

This will be my first guide, and in it I will explain why Riven is the champion YOU should play! Here's some reasons right now: She's a girl. She can deal an extreme amount of damage. There's no need to worry about mana or fury!

I hope you'll enjoy the read. Feel free to come with tips and suggestions. Don't forget to vote and leave a comment below!

Pros:

+Awesome flexibilty and utility
+Can damage multiple enemies at the same time
+Short stun and also a knockback skill!
+Spammable skills
+Incredible damage
+Great farmer
+Has her own shield skill
+Very nice in both solo lane and with teammates
+Very CC durable
+Ranged ulti

Cons:

-Squishy
-Melee and short range skills
-Can be kited if done correctly
-A champion that easily gets focused
-Won't be doing amazing damage mid-game
-Her stun only lasts for 0.5 seconds

This is Rivens passive, Runic Blade. If you master her you'll be able to deal tons and tons of damage with this beauty. This is perfect for last hitting minions and tearing down your enemies HP early game.

Rivens bread and butter skill. Broken Wings. You can use this to slice towards your target, dealing AOE damage with every hit. If you hit an enemy with all the 3 combos you're going to deal an amazing amount of damage. This skill can also be used as a miniscule escape mechanism since Riven is actually moving a bit using it.

This skill is exellent for dealing damage around you. Ki Burst can be used for killing minions that would have gone to waste otherwise. You can also unleash this in the middle of a teamfight for a devastating effect. It may only have a 0.5 second duration on the stun effect, but it deals tons of damage and the 0.5 seconds will also restrain your enemies from using any skills at that point.


Ah, Valor! An amazing escape mechanism. Not only do you dash towards your cursor, but you also gain a shield that blocks incoming damage. This will help you in teamfights, in the jungle, 1vs1 and in many other situations. You can escape with this skill as well as hunt using it. I should also mention it's a very nice skill for turret diving.


The source of your damage! When Blade of the Exile is toggled your attack damage will increase by 20%! This will increase the damage you do with skills and normal hits alike. And that's not even the best part! You can activate it again and use it as a ranged spell that pierces through all enemies and minions in your way. The less HP the enemy has, the more damage you do!

Greater Mark of Desolation I get Mark of Desolation because it provides a lot of armor penetration. The reason why I'm getting these instead of attack marks is simply because these has a higher value than the attack marks. Armor penetration will also be needed since people will buy armor to counter you.

I usually go with Greater Seal of Armor with every character that I play. It helps you become less squishy and makes you more sustainable in your lane. These will also help you go for first blood, should you play Twisted Treeline.

I get Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for the same reason as I get Greater Seal of Armor. Getting magic defense will help you against those pesky spell tossers that think they can poke you from a distance.

I get Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage because I already have enough armor penetration from my marks. I like the nice bonus damage I get with my skills and my normal attacks with these runes. Armor penetration is good, but you want pure damage as well. These will boost it up that tiny bit you'll need.

- Lets face it, Exhaust is THE most powerful skill when it comes to taking down an enemy, chasing an enemy and even save your butt from a deadly nuke character. With this skill, there will be no escape for your victims. And if you're having trouble with a certain enemy, simply exhaust them. Use Ki Burst to stun and disable any ability usages, and use Valor to get away.


This thing, together with Exhaust, Ki Burst and Valor makes you nearly impossible to both escape from and to catch up to. It's perfect for last hitting enemy champions that think that they just got away. Flash, Valor, Ki Burst and Broken Wing combo if needed. Remember your exhaust as well :)

Optional:

- I'm not a big fan of Ignite, but I will admit that it has its uses. It's actually very good. Especially early-game! If you're more into Ignite than Exhaust or Flash; then feel free to make the swap!

Other Summoner spells than these are off-limit for Riven.

Starting item:
- A very powerful starting-item. It gives you a small amount of attack damage, which helps you get that early boost you'll need. It also gives 100+ HP, which is a lot for starters. The 3% lifesteal might just help you survive in that lane of yours as well!

Boots:
- These boots is an all-around bootgasm. It will lower the duration of those annoying stuns, snares, slows and taunts. Trust me, the enemy team will try to put these on you in order to prevent you from unleashing havoc upon the enemy team during teamfights. These boots also gives a small boost to magic resist. Sweet!

Thirdly:
- By now you'll want some damage I bet. Since Riven isn't using any mana or HP you'll also want to get a slight amount of cooldown reduction. This is the perfect item to get next!
(Alternative) If you want to increase your HP in order to make you less squishy without sacrificing too much attack damage, then this is the way to go. Depending on your opponents of cource.

Continues:
- More damage? Yes please! Although that isn't the reason why you want this item. This item is highly underestimated. It will give you a boost to your damage, magic resist and it can save you from situations where you would have died without it. This includes abilities such as: Requiem and Hemoplague along with every other magic ability.

Moving on:
- Now it's time to turn your The Brutalizer into a ghostblade. More damage, more cooldown reduction, more armor penetration and even critical chance! It's important that you don't forget the ACTIVE bonus of this though. Since it increases your attack speed and also boosts your run speed. Exellent for hunting as well as escaping.
(Alternative) To finish off your Phage, you want to turn it into a Frozen Mallet. Now your attacks will slow down your opponents and you'll have a lot more HP on top of that. You'll lose out on your cooldown reduction though. But if you want to make the swap, feel free to do so!

Burst damage:
- This is the best item in the game as far goes for pure attack damage. It also gives you a really nice survivability in teamfights and in lane with the lifesteal. Make sure to keep it stacked. If you do, your attacks will cut your enemies in half, and you'll gain HP doing so!

Survivability:
- An all-around amazing defensive item. It gives you both armor and magic resist. If you're having trouble with being focused then this item is just what you need. This works great when you know that you can turret dive an enemy while still risking losing your life. Together with teammates, you shouldn't be afraid of tanking the turret for them using this. Unless you have a tank of course!

Finishing off:
- With this item, you're going to be doing ALOT of damage. Depending on the game, you probably won't even get this item before the game ends! How ever, if you do end up getting this, you'll be next to impossible to take down. Your enemies will know true fear after you've pulled your ulti with this in your hand!

Farming with Riven is fairly easy if you're doing it right. Start of with using normal attacks until you know you can kill the minion using Broken Wing (Your Q skill). When the minion is dead, you're free to use the 2nd and the 3rd strike of Broken Wing as well. Any minions close to the first one should now be either dead or they should have low HP left. Simply use Ki Strike to kill them all, and even stun an enemy champion, should he/she be unfortunate enough to have been standing right next to you. You can use Valor to enable your shield if you want to get away from the minions or if the enemy champion is hitting you.

Upon using your skills, you will now have 3 buff stacks from your passive ability. Using these you can easily pick of minions with under half HP. Repeat the process but always keep an eye on your opponent. It's not always good to use your skills on minions. It might leave you vulnerable.

Q. Since Riven is a skill character, why are you building an Infinity Edge?
A. The reason why I'm building an Infinity Edge is because it gives both attack damage, critical chance and that wonderful 50% increased critical strike damage. While you're right hat Riven is a skill character, her normal attacks shouldn't be put to the side though. You must not forget that her passive is increasing the damage she deals with normal attacks.

During late-game teamfights you want to be of use to your allies, even after you've used all your 3 moves on Q and your stun with W. Gaining more attack damage from that will make your normal hits do more damage. With an infinity edge and that bonus, you'll hit as hard as a fed Tryndamere.

Q. I don't concider Valor being an escape skill.
A. Okay. That is not a question. Sure enough, you can also use Valor to engage enemies. I also strongly suggest that you should use Valor when ever you can within teamfights to gain the shield. It will highly increase your chances of survivability. How ever, Valor works perfectly for dodgeing aimed spells though. The skill works both ways, really.

Q. I still don't think I'm doing enough damage. Can I improve this somehow?
A. Yes, you can. How ever, it can come to a cost of your survivability. My strongest suggestion would be to replace the Hexdrinker with yet another Bloodthirster. This will give you much more attack damage and it will also give you a higher boost of lifesteal. You'll lose out on a bit of magic resist, and you will unfortunately lose the amazing passive from Hexdrinker

Q. I don't think I'm getting enough HP. But I don't want to sacrifice my attack damage to get more. Is there any way around this?
A. Yes, there is. I took the time to add a 2nd team build for Riven. Simply replace The Brutalizer with a Phage and then move on to a Frozen Mallet. You'll lose a bit of cooldown reduction, and about 10 attack damage. But you'll gain 700 more HP and your attacks will now slow opponents.

I hope you enjoyed my guide. I think that Riven is a really fun character to play and hopefully you'll think so too! Definitely one of the few new champions worth the actual price of 6300 IP.

It takes time getting used to her, but once you do you'll be happy you took the time.

I'll update the guide should I get any valuable suggestions and interesting opinions. There's always more to improve!

I love both League of Legends and the community. Peace, everyone here on MOBRAFIRE =)