I've been playing Riven a bit now and trying out different builds on mobafire but recently they're just bulls**t. Like having masteries of 21/1/8? With teleport in Utility without using teleport spell? Oh cmon. And having 10x marks, seals & glyphs?.. This is my complication of best Riven items, strategies & builds.

1. Marks of Armor Penetration for ... well, Armor Penetration.

2. Seals of Dodge for a great amount of dodge.

3. Glyphs of Attack Speed. I chose Glyphs of Attack Speed because the build doesn't have too much attack speed in it, although it isn't as useful as it would be to champions like Master Yi, but still.

4. Quintessences of Movement Speed allow you a safe get away if they don't have much cc, and you can chase better. +4,5% movement speed doesn't seem that much but it gets really useful.

I go with 21/0/9 for maximized Attack damage & speed from masteries, although leaning a bit more on AD. This appears to be really out of logic and difficult to come by with for some of the guide writes here -.-'' .

I go with Boots of Lucidity & Youmuu's Ghostblade for maximized AD CDR (Cooldown Reduction), seeing that playing her requires a lot of cooldown control.

Frozen Mallet for slowdown, health & some AD which is maybe the best item for Riven for survivability and chasing.

Tiamat is really epic for Riven. Even her E spell which dashes a short range forward does splash damage with this item. Also it increases Attack Damage, and some regeneration.

Blood Thirster increases your lifesteal and attack damage a lot if you farm it to the max.

Infinity Edge is the core item for AD champions mostly. It increases your AD a whole lot, gives you increased critical strike chance & crit damage! EPIC!

I maximize the Q combo first. I think it's the best skill on Riven. It does a high damage combo, which also knocks people back with the 3rd use.

Depending on the situation, I either max W before E or E before W. If you're leading the lane, doing the most damage to the enemies while not taking too much, you should max your W spell which does pretty much damage and stuns enemies around you for a short duration first, but if you're taking a lot of damage and need to get out, you should go with your E spell dash, which gives you a shield.

Of course you get your Ultimate (R) on levels 6, 11 & 16 as they come.

Flash is good for many champions, and I like it on Riven also.

I get Exhaust for safe get away against 1 person, or chasing someone down.

There are three kinds of combos for Riven to play.

1. You (R)-E-Q-Q-Q-W ->
2. you (R)-W-Q-Q-Q-E-W ->
3. you (R)-E-W-Q-Q-Q ->

I've come to the conclusion that Riven is a bit like Talon but not an Assasin. You serve the role of a AD melee fighter / caster, meaning that you go, deal damage, do kills. Simple.

Pros:
- Can deal a large amount of damage with a good combo
- If not targeted in team fights, will be tormenting
- You can finish off enemies running away on low health with your ultimate
- Can disable channeling ultimates with the short stun (W)
- A lot of fun to play
- Doesn't use Mana, Energy or Rage.

Cons
- If targeted in team fights, you need to rely on your team to take advantage of the situation and save you or do maximum damage while they're not focused
- Weak against silences, cc + poison combos and taunts.
- Weak early game
- If you don't get any farm or kills, you will probably end up feeding
- Not a good team fight initiator

Farming is made really easy if you don't have long range or face roll champions against you on your lane. Tiamat gives you the splash damage which allows you to farm even greater later in the game.

Riven is a great new champion, and in my opinion needs a lot of skill to play (considering you need to hover your mouse on top of your target to apply Q combo, which can easily roll over to a minion some times).

I believe this is currently the most filled guide for Riven there is, and it has been working really well.

16.9.2011 changed masteries to 21/9/0 for more dodge and armor
changed seal runes to dodge runes for more dodge
changed item Tiamat to Black Cleaver