Hey all, this build is an attempt to maximize burst damage with Riven. I do not feel Riven excels as a tank or an AS champion. She seems to be more prone to the Talon mindset, meaning stacking AD and crit and maximizing burst output with abilities falling between auto-attacks, so this is how I have built her.

Update 9-16-11

I have changed the items in this build to gain early AD and lifesteal. I have also removed Triforce from the build in favor of more flat AD and armor pen based on feedback and testing.

I will continue to work this guide and make appropriate changes as further play testing occurs.

Pros:

Crazy burst
Closes gaps well
Escapes well
Causes Chaos in team fights
Early kills/first blood

Cons:

Surprisingly squishy for a Melee/Fighter
Horrible in lane, can't solo or farm
Damage seems to fall off a bit late game
Technically difficult play--similar to Lee Sin with 'basic attack staggering'

For runes I prefer to maximize my early game by going all flat armor, flat magic resist, then flat armor pen marks and quints.

I feel runes are really more preference than anything else, so feel free to do what you will here.

I prefer 21/0/9. 21 in offense for all the obvious reasons, then 9 in utility to maximize experience and gold. Riven is a **** farmer so you need all the help here you can get. You could probably go down into defense if you really want armor, MR and dodge, but I personally prefer the extra experience and gold.

Your main goal is to get in, blow all your CDs strategically, and get out with most or all of your health in tact, and either a kill or a severely crippled opponent on the other end.

To do this, your main skill will be Broken Wings.

I will farm casually until the opponent gets into BW range. I will then do the following sequence if applicable:

Ult - BW - basic attack - BW2 - basic attack - BW3 - basic attack - Ki Burst - basic attack - Valor(chase or escape) - basic attack - Wind Slash(execute or deter chase)

I believe the Ki Burst is best used after the third BW3 attack as it maximizes the time the opponent is stuck in a single location and at your mercy.

After this, I will either Valor out, or Valor in their escape direction and try to pick up the kill with Wind Slash, but this is the bread and butter combo.

Depending on the opponents response to this sequence of events, you can skip basic attacks between Broken Wings hits to close faster, use Ki Burst to strategically prevent escape, or otherwise manipulate this combo to suit the specific situation.

I personally max broken wings first because of the early flat damage on the ability, but due to the CDR on Ki Burst, it is a viable alternative to max first.

This is where it all comes together. Riven has no ability cost, so her largest bottleneck on damage output are her cooldowns. Ki Burst and Valor both have CDR built into their ranks, but when it comes to maximizing damage, the cooldown you really want to get down is her Broken Wings. For this reason, I try to focus on CDR right off the bat.

Ionian Boots: Big CDR here, and you will notice a big difference on all your abilities right away. If you are laning against heavy AP or their team is heavy AP, you can definitely switch these out for Merc Treads if you would like.

Blood Thirster - You do, in fact, need lifesteal on Riven. I personally am not a fan of taking Wriggle's Lantern on a non-jungler, so instead I build Blood Thirster right alongside my boots. The sequence is basically boots of speed - Vampiric Scepter - Ionian Boots - B.F. Sword - Bloodthirster

Frozen Mallet: Riven is squishy, but we don't want to dive right into tanking items as they are a waste. So I pick up Frozen Mallet for three reasons: Health, AD and chasing opponents.

Youmuu's Ghostblade: More CDR, AD and armor pen here. The best time to use the active IMO is with the BW3 pop up/Ki Burst CC combo to maximize attacks on a stationary target, and to chase their sure to follow desperate escape.

Black Cleaver - This is more attack damage and some AS to compliment your Ki Burst stuns, as well as some armor pen for this stage of the game.

For the last item you can either go Infinity Edge or Last Whisper, or even another BT.

I find Ghost/Exhaust to be the best combo on Riven, and the benefits from 21/0/9 just help the cause for these abilities. Her chase and escape is very good, and ghost seems to work better overall than flash. I usually will throw exhaust if they are really chasing me (Yi) or if I want to extend my BW pop up/Ki Burst combo with another CC.

That's pretty much everything I wanted to hit on. The guide isn't all that fancy, but I just wanted to put up my thoughts on how Riven should be used/built. Nothing is set in stone and I am open to further suggestions, so please leave a comment below if you feel something is amiss.