Hey guys, this is my first guide and I devoted it to my favorite champion, Riven. She is one of the more damaging champs and she has a weird play-style compared to other champs. In this guide I will be going over how to play her properly and efficiently for new players, and some more advanced tips for veterans.

This style of playing Riven is focused around her Ki Burst and Valor, while only having Broken Wings as a gap closer with some perks.

Riven is focused around cooldown reduction, damage, and armor/hp/mr. This makes her a force to be reckoned with when played right. I have seen a lot of people playing [Riven] lately, but not doing a very good job because she has such a unique playstyle which can be hard to get used to.

PROS Very high damage output Can be extremely tanky No Mana!! Destroys Squishies Good Ganks Can 1v2 easily

CONS Requires lots of gold early game Susceptible to spellcasters Hard playstyle Gets focused a lot Needs decent lane partner to excel

Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction x3
This Quint allows you to get a few more abilities in during a fight and can be the difference on many occasions, may it be getting one more activation of [Broken Wings] in, or just allowing you to use valor more often and take less damage.

Greater Mark of Critical Damage x9
This will allow you to crit high, and trust me, when you do crit, your opponent WILL know about it when they see a 1/8th of their health drop.

Greater Glyph of Attack Damage x9
To give you even more of an edge in the early phase of the game. Riven is infamous because of her early game damage, and with this, you can be quite certain you will score a kill in the pre-game fight.

Greater Seal of Vigor x4
This is to counter the recent nerf to Riven.

Greater Seal of Attack Speed x5
Its just good to be able to get Rivens passive, [Runic blade], in a lot quicker. Also to be able to get your auto attacks in between [Broken Wings] quicker. (I will go into that further on in the guide)

Most people seem to max a particular skill on Riven and then spam the **** out of it hoping it will kill someone. I see this happen more often with Broken Wings than any other because it seems to do more damage than the others because of how many uses you get. Ki Burst is the most dangerous ability early game and late game however, because when you get high enough AD, you will end up doing 300 damage WITH a stun every 7 seconds. Valor is an amazing skill, it's a gap closer, with a shield!! Late game it allows you to survive 2 blasts from a turret making towerdiving even easier.

However Broken Wings is the skill you want to put your first point into. Early game it gives you high maneuverability, extra damage, a short stun, and makes you hard to target with skillshots. Coupled with Exhaust, you will usually get a kill. This is the ideal pre-game skill for Riven, but once you level, put a point in Ki Burst. Ki Burst will be your main gold generator, while still being a very good harass skill when you jump in with Broken Wings.

Put your third point into Valor. By now you will be beginning to harass the enemy with Broken Wings and Ki Burst, Valor serves as a quick escape method while giving you a shield that absorbs the minion fire you are sure to get while running away.

Riven is a champ who LOVES cooldown reduction items and AD HP hybrid items (e.g The Brutaliser, Frozen Mallet)

Early Game

For starting items you want a Doran's Blade. This adds lifesteal which gives you good sustain in lane, and makes you look weaker than you really are until your opponent realizes that you're drinkin his blood. It is an awesome item for Riven with it giving HP and AD as well. On your first recall you should be able to buy a The Brutalizer or Phage. Choose which one is more suited to what champs you are fighting in your lane. Make sure that you buy both items, one after the other.

Squishy champs = Phage, to tank their generally high burst and harass.

Tanky champs = The Brutalizer, for armor penetration and cooldown reduction to get more damage in with your abilities.

Mid Game

You should be building up to a [Frozen Mallet] and a Black Cleaver. The item choice here is entirely up to you, depending on whether you need some extra maneuverability ( Ionian Boots of Lucidity), or some extra punch ( Black Cleaver). The cooldown reduction and movement speed on the boots will let you catch up to enemies or run away easier while getting more abilities in. The Black Cleaver will deal more damage in a shorter time period and is more effective against slower teams.

Late Game

By now you should have a Doran's Blade, The Brutalizer, Frozen Mallet, and a Black Cleaver or Ionian Boots of Lucidity. After buying these items you should be upgrading your Brutalizer to a Youmuu's Ghostblade, and purchasing an Atma's Impaler for the extra damage and crit chance. After you have these items, sell your Doran's Blade, and buy a Sunfire Aegis.

Summary of Items

In the end you should have an extremely durable champion who can initiate a fight and keep going at it for a long time while still putting out a heap of damage. You should be critting in the 500 area and be able to take on two squishies at once. Your enemies will be fearing your extremely high damage and survivability while they limp back to their base.

If you are facing champions such as Tryndamere, Shaco, AD Teemo, Twitch, those annoying AS/AD Sions, or even Ashe and Renekton, you could choose to switch out your Atma's Impaler or Sunfire Aegis for Thornmail. You will be surprised to find out how much damage you are reflecting back to your enemies and decreasing the damage coming towards you.

When the enemy team is predominantly magic, get a Guardian Angel, its effect also allows you to come back to life after dieing every 5 minutes, so when another champ just manages to beat you, Ki Burst them, then follow up with Valor and Broken Wings. If they run away before you come back to life, use Ghost to catch up to them.

The Masteries that have been selected are designed to give you high early game damage, while still being able to take a fair amount of a bashing. Deadliness and Lethality , will give you that extra damage you need on your crits, while Brute Force and Sunder increase your flat damage and give you just that little bit extra of an edge on enemy tanks.

Hardiness , Veterans Scars, and Durability give you that little bit more tankiness early game to push through those annoying squishies.

Ghost

Because in this guide, we haven't included boots into the item choices, you will need a more reliable and quicker gap closer that is also effective as an escape method, so Ghost is the perfect choice.

Usually when you come to gank a lane, you would target the enemy with exhaust, but if its on cooldown, ghost can be just as effective because of Riven's Ki Burst and Broken Wings, you can run in there, and ignore unit collision so that you can get more hits on your enemy.

When escaping from a fight with Ghost, because you ignore unit collision, run through as many waves of minions as you can, as they will get stuck on the minions and fall behind. When running away and you come near a bush, run into it but only at to the edge. When your enemy comes into the bush run right through them and escape.

Exhaust

This is an extremely useful spell and can get you out of trouble the same way ghost can but also be extremely useful against high damage enemies and slowing down enemies who are running away.

When facing up against opponents like Tryndamere, who has very high damage auto attacks, this spell can stop him in his tracks. Because Exhaust decreases attack damage by 70%, and ability/item damage by 35%, Tryndamere has just been completely shutdown, and unable to do anything for 4 seconds. this gives you plenty of time to unleash your abilities onto him and kill him.

While escaping with Exhaust, because it decreases movement speed by 40% can save from just about any thing except Ahri's Spirit Rush, Zilean's Time Bomb, Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage, and Lux's finales funkeln.

An effective means of escaping with this spell is to Valor into a bush, but just before you do, tag your enemy with Exhaust then run out the opposite end of the bush. This way they won't be able to target you until they run into the bush.

Riven is also capable of saving your allies butt. If you are escaping from another enemy with an ally who is on dangerously low health, but the enemy is much faster than you, Valor towards the enemy, Ki Burst them, which will stun the enemy for 2 seconds giving you enough time to Broken Wings away.

Because Riven is so effective at her ganks, she can also be used to gank defensively. When you see one of your allies struggling in a lane, use Ghost to get to the lane quickly and then Valor into the fight, hit the enemy with Ki Burst giving your ally time to escape, then use Broken Wings to stun the enemy for another chance at your ally escaping. Usually the enemy will be so kill hungry that he won't realise his health is dropping rapidly. When he starts to flee, tag him with exhaust then finish him off.

Riven is an extremely versatile champion and that means there are many, many combinations of moves and the like that can be used.

Getting a Kill in Lane (lvl 1-12)

Riven is extremely position reliant. Attacking head on with Riven will not be unlocking her full potential. When going in to attack with Riven, try to make your way behind your opponent. This way, you can keep them from running to their tower for longer by staying between them and their tower. Keep them at bay by using Ki Burst to stun them while giving them a lot of damage, and then keep pushing them back with Broken Wings. If they are still alive and are making a run for it, tag them with Exhaust and then use Valor to take a hit from the turret if you have to. If they are STILL alive and you are level 6, use the second part to her ultimate, Wind Slash to finish the job.

NOTE: If their health is high enough that you can see that without Blade of the Exile you won't kill them, just use it. It has a small cooldown and will probably secure the kill with second part of it.

Harass Strategy (lvl 3-15)

Use Broken Wings to push your way to the enemy and stun them. Use Ki Burst. Then use Valor to get away and shield yourself from minion fire.

Last Hitting (lvl 1-10)

Try and keep all enemy minions around the same hp (except siege minions). When they are all low enough in hp, use Ki Burst to mop them up. If you didn't get them all, use Broken Wings to finish them.

Playing Defensively (all lvl's)

Stay relatively close to your turret. You don't have to completely hug it otherwise it will gradually take damage. Use Broken Wings to inflict damage to minions, not auto-attacks. If the enemy champion rushes at you, use Ki Burst to stun them, then Valor away to your turret. This way you are still inflicting damage to your opponent, but minimizing damage to yourself.

Team Fights (lvl 6-18)

As soon as a proper team fight starts (3v3 or higher), activate Blade of the Exile and Valor into the fight, then activate Ki Burst. This stuns all the enemies it hits to give your allies free damage on the enemies. If you are winning the fight, use Wind Slash to pick off stragglers. Remember that Wind Slash can go through walls and towers.

If you are losing the fight activate Ghost, and Valor out of there. Remember that Broken Wings is an escape mechanism as well.

YET TO PUT MORE STRATEGIES AND TRICKS IN. I WILL KEEP UPDATING THIS PART FREQUENTLY.

I hope everyone enjoyed my guide to a tanky AD Riven, and may all your games be good ones :D

This guide was made by BlaZe xRAPTORx.

This guide is still only partly done and will be much better in the near future.

If this guide helped you in any way please vote+1, it would be much appreciated.

If anyone has had any good scores following this guide please send them to me
@ rhino.29@hotmail.com

If any other Riven lovers would like to add any good tricks or strategies please post them in a comment below :) I will be sure to add them to the list and give you credit for them.

Credits:

JhoiJhoi for teaching me how to code :D

BlaZe GoBBiES for getting me into LoL