October 4th, 2011 --- Guide Published

October 5th, 2011 --- Added a few more items to the list, and an alternate build inspired by Alfik.

Hello, and Welcome to my first guide. We shall be going over the basics of Riven, Pros and Cons, what items to buy and when, using her skills appropriately, and even a few basic game fundamentals that everyone should know.

I want to keep this guide relatively short, sweet, and to the point.

(Please note: This is NOT going to guarantee you'll win a game, this is NOT the only way to build Riven, and this play-style is just to help you along if you're not sure. You do not have to follow it. )

Now that we've taken care of that.

My Playstyle

Riven's play style and move set remind me a lot of . Why?
Is a bit similar to in the way that it works. They both have chasing power, and deal a good amount of damage.




is much like , except it's more for chasing purposes, and less for defensive.




is quite similar to . Both can take a large chunk of of the enemies health, which gets bigger the less health they have. Making them great finishing moves.

Therefore, I build Riven sort of Garen like. Tanky, but offensive as well.

I hope that has given you a basic idea of why the build is like this. Moving on.

Pros

Great Chaser
Consistent Damage
Difficult To Kill All Game
Great Escapes

Cons

Build Can Be a Bit Expensive
Not An Actual Tank
Difficulty With Tanks

Abilities

- Great little passive, but can be a little difficult to understand just from reading it. Basically, each time you use any of your abilities, you gain 1 stack of this up to a maximum 3. When you melee attack a target, you consume one of these stacks and deal bonus damage.

- This is your primary chasing and damaging ability. Each time you activate it, you swing your blade and move forward just a bit. This can be activated 3 times, and the third knocks your enemy back slightly.

- a damaging AoE Stun? I think that says it all my friends.

- a light shield, which helps you close in on your target as well. Using it and Broken Wings will almost guarantee you catching up with your target.

- This.. THIS. Not only does Riven's awesome sword reform, but 20% bonus attack damage, in addition to her bonus gained by her passive! Extended range on her abilities means better chasing! But that's not the best part! It lets you activate..

Wind Slash - A cone attack which hits everyone hard.. and even harder the less health they have? It's like a soft AoE Demacian Justice ;D

(There is no official icon, so I used the one from the wiki. To see stats on, see )

Masteries

I use the standard 21/9/0 for tanky melee champs. However if you wanted to go even more defensive, 9/21/0 is acceptable as well.

Both of these choices give you a good amount of sustain, and synergize well with the rest of your build.

Summoner Spells

--Good--

- Self Exclamatory

- Helps you get back on top of your opponents to make the chase easier.

- Helps with chasing, and escaping.

- Can get you out of a bind, and let you escape of chase. A real life saver.

- Due to Riven's tanky build and consistent damage, teleport is nice to quickly jump upon an unsuspecting enemy and take them out before they can get back up.

--Decent--

- Gives Riven a nice damage boost. This will give her damage a bit more of an edge, letting you finish someone off if they somehow manage to get away from you.

- Helps with her sustain, and makes her even more tanky! (What a Surprise!)

- Should really be used on more of a support character. But if no one else on the team has it, you could get it if you want.

- Also shouldn't be a primary choice on Riven. But it can be used if no one else has it.

--DO..NOT..Get--

- You don't have mana.

- I suppose if you really want it you can get it. I've never really been a fan of this spell. I haven't even seen many people use it, but maybe that's just me.

] - This is not a jungle build.

- Uninstall the game. Now.

This section will go over what runes you can use, and why I use the ones I do.

Greater Mark of Desolation - Riven is an AD champ, so this is pretty self exclamatory.

Greater Seal of Evasion - To increase her tankiness, and synergize with [Nimbleness]

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - To increase her tankiness.

Greater Quintessence of Health - Tankiness, early game sustain, and to synergize with Atma's Impaler
Yes, I know that it's not much of an increase. If you do the math, if you follow this build, and have Warmog's maxed. Riven has 4727 hp. This makes the bonus from Atma's 94.54
Without these quints, her HP would be 4649. Making the 2% Atma's bonus 92.98.
However, even a little bit helps. If you're opposed to these quints (Which it seems a lot of people are) These are some of the other alternatives.

Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed

Other Alternative Rune Choices

Seals
Greater Seal of Armor
Greater Seal of Cooldown Reduction

Glyphs
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction
Greater Glyph of Health

(Please Note that these items are not in any particular order. There are also other viable items listed. If you want the recommended order that I use, look at the top of the page :D)

Personally, I like to start with . It gives you a nice health boost, and helps with your early game damage and sustain. Other viable choices would be , or

- This item is quite handy. It adds to your damage, and gives you nice armor pen. The cooldown reduction however, is the most handy part for Riven IMO. Reducing the cooldown on Broken Wings from nearly 13 seconds, to around 9. This great increases your damage and chasing power.

- Great item for Riven. The slow helps her chase, it gives a slight damage boost on it's own, but increases it further when you have Atma's Impaler

- Huge health boost and regen, which increase as you farm minions. This is great because Riven can take out most minion waves with a full Broken Wings followed by a Ki Burst

- This is the big item to get if you're following this build. As I said in the rune section of the guide. With this build completed, and Warmog's maxed. You gain 94.42
bonus damage.

- This item is quite nice for Riven. Due to her consistent damage, you gain a steady amount of health. The damage bonus is nice too.

Mercury Treads - Should be standard on Riven if you follow this build. However, if you choose to forsake Youmuu's Ghostblade, you should get Ionian Boots of Lucidity

- These should be the only real alternative boot choice for Riven, as stated above. I would only suggest getting this if you switch out Youmuu's Ghostblade for Black Cleaver

- Get this when there is a lot of AP damage on the other team. The bonus health will also synergize with Atma's Impaler.

- More hp regen, more Magic Resist, and speed to help with chasing and escapes.

- On the off chance that you die.. This will give you a second chance to either kill the weakened enemy you were facing, or use your escape skills to run. The magic resistance and Armor is nice too.

- Helps with sustain and great against a lot of AD enemies.

- A somehwat viable choice for Riven when you're going more on the offensive. The move speed is nice for chasing, nice additional crit and the attack speed helps to get the stacks of her passive off faster. (Alfik bring up the point that Attack Speed does nothing on Riven Since she auto attacks between abilities. However I must disagree. This is because, if she has 3 stacks of Runic Blade, she can get all 3 enhanced attacks faster and cause more damage.)

- This is a great item in my opinion. Damage, attack speed, and Armor Shredding. This is very useful for Riven, considering that with the bonus attack speed, you can clear off the stacks of Runic Blade.

WATCH THIS

Play Video
It's my experience that ranged characters are better at zoning than melee. However Riven can close distance quite easily. Due to her damage, most will run away in fear. When zoning someone so much that they're being denied XP, odds are they'll try to get in closer to scrape up what they can. When they do this, you can use [Valor] to close in, and unload with [Broken Wings]. From this point on you can use [Ki Burst] to stun them to finish them off, or get back to a safe distance.


You are not an assassin, you need to play smart, and not rush into battle early. Harass your enemy, Stun them to let your laning partner get some skill shots in. Don't leave the entire battle up to you.
Basic Combo

Blade of the Exile ---> Broken Wingsx1 ---> Broken Wingsx2 ---> Melee Attack ---> Ki Burst ---> Broken Wingsx3 ---> Wind Slash ---> Melee Attack

This combo is not only your basic for fighting small fights, but also in team fights. You can't go wrong with this combo. Just make sure to get those melee swings in, since this will be the majority of your damage, aside from your ult.

To Chase

Broken Wingsx1 ---> []Broken Wings]]x2 ---> Broken Wingsx3 ---> Valor

This allows Broken Wings to cool down a little bit, so when you come back into range of your enemy, it's up again.

Escape

Valor ---> Broken Wingsx1 ---> Broken Wingsx2 ---> Broken Wingsx3

The purpose for this, is to give you a bit more chance of survival from the shield Valor provides, just in case you get hit before making your escape.

If you follow this guide, you should be quite a force to be reckoned with. You have been left with many choices for items, which will all help Riven become a Tanky Damage Dealer. You know how to effectively chase down and destroy everything in your path.

Hopefully you've been given enough information to be able to play Riven effectively.

This is my first guide, and I tried to make it as good as possible.

I hope you've enjoyed it <3 Thank you.