A guide to riven for those who just want some basic ideas on her play style. There is a Summary at the bottom for those of you in que or cba to read.

This build focuses on Riven as a melee dpser with decent HP from mid game on wards. This build focuses on maximizing use of her passive.

(Shift + 3 = Yoga) This is very important, you should do this before the game starts to get Riven into the zone.

Pros

Mini stuns = very nice in team fights.
Hard to gank.
Very mobile over short distances.
Nice initial burst leading into decent sustained damage.
Good harras early game.
Good 1v1 ganker.
Good farmer from level 4 and up.

Cons

Easy to forget about passive.
Broken wings takes some getting used to.
Squishy if built wrong.
Quite team dependent.
Needs kills to be good late game.

Early Game

Early game, ideally you want to be with a tank, someone like Alistar Leona or Blitzcrank are very good. You can harras well from level 1 so make sure you do, but time it well or you will get to low on hp. Doran's Blade will keep you in lane without needing to B out for a long time if you play well. You don't need to worry about going back for boots as your skills can get you away.

Mid Game

Mid game, hopefully you have a couple of kills by now. Look around the map see if your team needs help, Riven is a good ganker if you don't have a jungler or your mid needs a bit of help. Grab a red buff/kill some stuff in the jungle if you don't have a jungler who needs it.

Late Game

Late game, if all has gone well you should have a good HP pool and decent damage. Riven is good for going and ganking that one champ who decides he wants to push top while the rest of his team is mid, but be careful its not a trap. Other than that stick with your team and work with them, your HP is quite high at this point and you have decent enough defense, so don't be scared to get stuck in. Take some hits while your carries deal some damage and keep those mini stuns going, and don't forget to maximize usage of your Runic Blade!! Mini stuns are what is very nice especially at this stage when people tend to bunch up, stop ults and CC with them.

There are arguments whether to take APen or not, really its down to your play style. I find that with a balance of greater mark of desolation and Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage you get a nice boost early from the Quints and the APen helps you out later in game.

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction because glyph of greater focus, these tie in with the CDR in masteries and items which works well mid/late game as i will explain in a bit.

Greater Seal of Armor because you will be getting stuck in and it helps alot early game.

Offense tree needs to stay how it is,though if you want to take Ignite instead of Exhaust you could move the exhaust talent....somewhere.

Magic resist from Resistance is quite important as she isn't really getting it anywhere else and Hardiness helps with survivability a bit, which is good as a mele character.

3 in Perseverence helps early game i find but you could move that into Evasion if you like.

You could always take everything out the defense tree and grab Awareness if you have to go solo top or just like that extra xp.

First things first, Doran's Bladefor that little extra Hp early game. You could just go straight for the Long Sword and a Health Potion if you wanted, and if you are struggling you could always get a second Doran's Blade

Bloodthirster Is a great item to get for riven, all her moves including her shield scales off of AD.

Frozen Mallet is a great item for Riven. Once you have this you can gank pretty much anyone as no one can escape you. It also gives a nice bit of HP.

The Brutalizer for a more CDR which goes with Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction as well as Sorcery

Atma's Impaler for the armor and damage it gives, the crit isn't the selling point but as we have Youmuu's Ghostblade for the CDR it doesn't hurt.

As magic resist is a bit low Banshee's Veil is a good last choice, the hp from it goes along nicely with Atma's Impaler. If you want more damage or if the enemy team doesn't have much AP Last Whisper is a good item or even another Bloodthirster

--- Bind smart cast to your Normal hot keys --- Look in key-bindings and find smartcast ---

Usually open with a Valor or Blade of the Exile follow by Valor to get in fast and ignore some initial damage, followed by an auto hit then a quick Ki Burst (or maybe Broken Wings x 1 then auto hit to Ki Burst if you are not in mele range), get an auto hit or 2 off and then alternate Broken Wings and melee auto attacks to utilize your passive Runic Blade. Then use abilities as they come off cool down.

Late game with the aid of runes and items this rotation will mean you have your passive on almost every auto hit.

---

I start with Broken Wings as it is good for chasing and escaping early game, it has okay damage at level 1 and the mini stun on the third hit is nice.

After this max out Ki Burst as often you will use Broken Wings to chase an enemy so alot of its damage gets wasted. Once Ki Burst is level 2 or 3 its does nice damage, and you can harras quite well early game. Riven's skills are very flexible and can be used to get in and out of fights as well as chasing down opponents and escaping.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT just spam your skills, your Runic Blade passive stacks only 3 times, if you spam your skills you will not be utilizing your passive, try to get a hit off in between each use of abilities.

Tips

- Valor is good for dodging enemy skills shots.

-When using Valor and Broken Wings spam click to make sure you go in the right direction.

- Valor moves towards your cursor and Broken Wings moves the direction you are facing (unless you have your cursor over an enemy and it will move towards them)

-Your mini stuns are good for helping team mates escape and stopping enemy ultimates.

-The CD on Broken Wings is from the first time you use it(the first of the 3 uses), so use it at least once when it is up before other abilities. A good combo is Broken Wingsx1 >>> Ki Burst >>> auto hit >>> Broken Wingsx1 or x2 depending on how many stacks of Runic Blade you have.

-Utilize Broken Wings and Valor to keep yourself mobile. Both in fights and across the map. Be careful not to get caught out with you skills on CD though, keep one eye on the map at all times.

Exhaust is more for the enemy damage reduction then the slow as your melee hits will slow once you get some items. But the slow is good early game and you do a little extra damage with the mastery in it.
You could take Igniteinstead of Exhaust, but i find Exhaust helps more later on in team fights and is also a great anti gank tool when combined with Flash and you skills.

Flash is a good spell for most champs as it can be used offensively and defensively. I take Flash over Ghost because with riven you want to close the gap fast and keep the enemy trapped with mini stuns. For escaping, once you have a bit of distance your abilities usually take you the rest of the way.

Teleport is always a good spell as you can help your team mates across the map or save a tower from a few waves of built up creeps.

TLDR

This is for people who cant be bothered to read a whole guide or if you are in the que saying to yourself
OH S**T ALT TAB FIND GUIDE FAST:


- Don't spam your abilities - utilize your passive.

- Harras with Valor and Ki Burst and then use Broken Wings to get out or more harassment.

- Dodge stuff with Valor

- Valor = towards cursor

- Broken Wings = towards direction riven is facing

- Farm farm farm/last hit

- You can use your mini stuns( Valor and 3rd Broken Wings) to help your team escape and stopping enemy ultimates.

- And most important use Shift+3 before minions spawn to get Riven warmed up and in the zone.



Thanks for reading and please rate and leave any comments you have below, perhaps something i have missed etc :)