Runic Blade (Passive): This passive was buffed many patches ago. The damage stacked with her Broken Wings early game is really good at bullying your opponent, and it now scales very well into late game, where each charge is equal to 50% of your total ad, not just a percentage of your additional ad.

Runic Blade may stack up to 3 charges at once, and are expended one at a time.
Runic Blade stacks will expire if no charge are expended/added.
The bonus damage from Runic Blade does not apply to Riven's critical strikes.
The bonus damage from Runic Blade benefits from life steal.

Broken Wings is Riven's signature move, allowing her to dash three times towards your cursor or enemy champion if one is selected as her auto-attack target. It, in combination with Valor gives Riven great mobility in-game, allowing her to keep up with her targets, or escaping from improbable situations. The final strike also has a knock up, which is great for ganking or knocking opponents out of channeled abilities. Since a recent patch, it now allows for jumping over smaller walls with the third cast. It is recommended to practice this in less serious or custom games before going to ranked, as it takes a little getting used to.

Broken Wings does not proc on-hit effects.
Broken Wings procs spell vamp and Rylai's slow similarly with all area of effect
spells and abilities with diminished effect.
Broken Wings pops spell shield.
Broken Wings will not damage Black Shield but the knock-back from the third
hit is negated.
Broken Wings dash speed is roughly equivalent to 475 movement speed.
At 550 movement speed, however, simply moving is faster than using Broken Wings as a
method of faster travel.
Broken Wings resets the attack timer after the animation has played.
Broken Wings does allow Riven to travel through terrain or walls on the third cast.
Broken Wings moves in the direction Riven is facing not in the direction of your mouse cursor, much like Nidalee's Pounce.
Broken Wings has a 0.5 second cooldown between each activation.
Unlike most abilities that consist of multiple casted components, Broken Wings
cooldown will start upon the first activation instead of after the last activation.

Ki Burst - Ki Burst is Riven's free interruption spell. While the stun is minimal in comparison to some champions, it cannot be neglected as it still impedes movement and gets you into range in time for one or two auto-attacks.

Ki Burst does not proc on-hit effects.
Ki Burst procs spell vamp and Rylai's slow similarly with all area of effect spells and abilities with diminished effect.
Ki Burst pops spell shield.
Ki Burst will not damage Black Shield but the stun is negated.

Top Summoner Spells:

Ignite is a very good spell to have in order to add even more damage to your early game, along with reducing healing for targets who have potent regeneration.

Even with all the nerfs to Flash, it still is incredibly strong as a sudden placement tool, either to initiate or run away. I would recommend this to be used in most games.

This spell is completely necessary for when you are jungling in order to secure your buffs and the other objectives around the map. If you see a team that has a jungler without smite ( Nunu & Willump withstanding), you should be able to counter their jungle harshly and keep baron and dragon for your own team.

Other Summoners:

Does the other team have a lot of high cc champions ( Leona, Nautilus, Amumu)? Cleanse may be a viable option for a summoner spell to get you out of harsh ganks, or to allow you to catch up on their carries. It also can cleanse Exhaust or Ignite, but in exchange you may be lacking those skills.

If you are up against a high damage opponent and are not sure you can survive their full attack in-lane, Exhaust may be the right choice for you. Ignite is a better early game spell, but Exhaust is incredibly powerful late game because of its ability to stop their adc in the middle of a teamfight. Riven is supposed to snowball early game if possible, so assess your lane matchup and decide if you want Exhaust for the lategame power in case you are shut down in lane.

Looking to gank a lot or expecting to be pushed out of lane a lot sooner than your opponent? Teleport may be the skill for you, as it also offers a lot of map control if your team decides to go for Dragon while you still are pushing top.

As far as Ghost is concerned in competition with Flash, the distance it covers in a straight line is much greater than the short distance covered by Flash, but it is not quite as instantaneous and cannot go across walls. If the opposing team does not have many instant gap-closing style champions, this spell may be better than Flash, also due to it's lower cooldown.

You are not mana based, please do not take this unless you are planning on trolling.

This spell may be useful in certain situations, but is just outclassed by all the other spells available outside of an ARAM-style game. I have heard that it can be good at countering Karthus's ult along with other long-range ultimates and skills.

While Clairvoyance may be a good tool at keeping map awareness, it also takes up a summoner spell slot, and wards can easily take the job of Clairvoyance at a higher degree than the original spell.

Revive is a completely troll spell to use because of what it implies. Revive is a spell meant to be utilized when you are dead, in a game where the objective is to not feed/die to the enemy team. It can be used in situations where you may need to suicide into their turrets, though.

Please remember that these spells are all situational depending on what your laning matchup is. If you are not sure for your lane, Ignite and Flash are the default spells for Riven, as is similar with most champions.

Trinity Force is a great item for Riven at end-game. Yes, attack speed and mana/ap are not a strong stat on her, but I'm sure this math may help.
Take into account that this math was done BEFORE the changes to trinity, when the bonus damage was 150% instead of 200%, and it had a slow instead of speed up.

"As for the math behind the trinity force:
At level 18 Riven has a base AD of 103, and her current passive at level 18 uses 50% of her ad on her next hit after she casts one skill. With trinity alone, and no extra ad at all after she uses one ability, her auto attacks will hit for (155)+(103)+(51)= 309. This is assuming they have no armor of course, so it will be slightly less than this in reality. With the build I gave on carry Riven, at end game you would have 398 AD without trinity, and the damage on one of your auto-attacks would hit for (398)+(199)= 597. You do, however have armor pen with this build, so it will do closer to that base damage.

Let's take that same build and substitute the Last Whisper for a Trinity Force, as your last item. Late game you lose 10 ad and sit at 388, but your auto attacks hit now for (155)+(388)+(194)= 737. That's an increase of 140 damage taking one item over another."


I included it on Tank Riven and my Twisted Treeline builds because in those roles you have to become more of an initiator, and you have to survive their team while it still gives you a good source of damage output on your own. Even as of late I have begun to use Trinity Force on Summoner's Rift as well, because of it's new buff.

Important timers:
Red/Blue spawn: 1:55
Red/Blue respawn: 5:00
Dragon spawn: 2:30
Dragon respawn: 6:00
Baron spawn: 15:00
Baron respawn: 7:00

Items:

Cooldown Reduction is incredibly strong on Riven, and I personally prefer these boots on her for that reason. They can be substituted for Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi, but only if the passive would really be worth it (High cc teams, or high auto-attack teams).

Even after the Black Cleaver nerfs, it is a core item on Riven. Her Broken Wings procs the passive of Black cleaver on every enemy hit, and in a teamfight this can potentially reduce the armor of the entire opposing team by 25%.

Riven also benefits greatly off stacking attack damage, giving her great offensive abilities while still being tanky with the use of Valor. While stacking two bloodthirsters may be a high risk/high reward strategy, it gives her a damage capability that is almost unmatched in sustained fights.

Guardian Angel will always be a strong item choice for Riven, no matter the nerfs. It gives a decent amount of Armor/Magic Resist, and it's passive is to die for. (ha ha). It allows you to go in without fear of being bursted down and dying for nothing, and the enemy team has to focus a lot of their skills onto you just to pop the passive, while your team then can come into the fight. Even if your team is not there, it gives your cooldowns time to come off, and can allow for clutch escapes or fights.

Last Whisper can sometimes be seen as a more situational item depending on the amount of armor your opponents may be stacking. And while it may seem redundant to buy this and the Black Cleaver, you will gain the effects of both. Last whisper first reduces your opponent's armor by 35% for your attacks, and when compounded with the Black Cleaver, the total reduction will be around 49%, not including masteries and flat reduction.

This item is considered situational for a top laner, because of who you may be versus in a matchup, or if your opponent is mainly ap based. Early game you can grab a Hexdrinker which then effectively gives you 250 more health versus magic-based champions.

Do your opponents have a lot of cc that you did not take Cleanse for when starting off the game? Mercurial Scimitar may be the item for you, since it upgrades from Quick Silver Sash. It also gives a nice movement speed bonus with it's passive.

Blade of the Ruined King may be a worthy pick against teams who are stacking hp, otherwise other items may be better in place of it. Just be sure to look at the enemies team comp and item builds before purchasing this item.

League of Warmogs. Enough said.

Riven's early game is really strong, and can be a very good bully in-lane. Every chance you get, where you won't miss a major amount of cs, harass your opponent by using Broken Wings to get close, utilize your passive, then back off with Valor to avoid counter attacks. Your main job early game is to farm up as much as you can while harassing your opponent out of lane. You do have to be aware of your 'zones' top, though, if you have no wards available.


The zones are reversed when you are on the Purple team, but the same idea stands.

Safe Zone:
This is one of the better 'zones' to be in top lane if you have no wards. If the enemy jungler comes in for a gank, it is easy to sidestep them here (unless they are very skilled, or you are extremely low and sticking around in-lane). If you are playing top and have the lane near this zone, you can harass your opponent almost for free.

Danger Zone:
If you are in or near this zone when laning without wards, you are asking to be ganked. Unless you are pushing the lane for a reason, either to force them to cs under tower (some people/champions cannot), or are looking to go back to base, it is best to avoid this zone.


Mid Game is all about the roaming/objectives. Unless there is a need to farm - you got shut down early - you should be helping out your team pushing turrets, counter jungling, or taking objective buffs like dragon or baron. Make sure to buy a lot of wards to help vision, Support should not be the only role that wards, contrary to popular belief!
You have an advantage when you are top lane and going to go counter their jungler. For blue side, you can time their red buff and ward it, for red side you can counter their blue.

Late Game is all about teamfights/pushing. In teamfights, you want to decide if you are able to go for their carries or peel for your own, and it is best to decide this in the beginning. If you are going in for their carries, going a more damage-based Riven is advised, if peeling for your own champions, it is better to go slightly tankier. If initiating in teamfights, it is best to go tank riven as well, to survive the opponents damage.

Important timers:
Minor Jungle Creeps spawn: 1:55
Wraiths respawn timer: :50
Double Golems respawn timer: 1:00
Wolves respawn timer: 1:00
Red Buff spawn: 1:55
Blue Buff spawn: 1:55
Red Buff respawn timer: 5:00
Blue Buff respawn timer: 5:00
Dragon spawns: 2:30
Dragon respawn timer: 6:00
Baron spawns: 15:00
Baron respawn timer: 7:00

Items:

This item is necessary to start with on jungle Riven since the Season 3 updates. It's passive adds onto her current passive, and adds even more damage to the jungle creeps through her abilities, it is a must-have when jungling.

Other than doing /Tons of Damage/, this item works very well with her passive. Since her skills have lower cooldowns she can proc the Spellblade Passive with almost every auto-attack if the skills are utilized correctly, along with having a nice speed boost after each attack.

Frozen Mallet is a good alternative to Trinity Force if you need to be tankier for initiations on your team. Your kit is already very strong for chasing down opponents, along with a good amount of cc if you include Red Buff, so this item is situational depending on the teams you are fighting.

sight ward

As a jungler, vision is your best friend. It is necessary for you to keep wards on you at all times to avoid your opponents from countering you, along with increasing the opportunity you have to counter your opponents. If you see that one of your laners is having trouble with being ganked and are not warding so well, don't rage at them; it will only make things worse. Instead, buy a ward and once you are done ganking place it for them; a small gesture can go a long way.

Riven is a very potent jungler with her fast clear time and intense ganks early-game. I will be going over a few of her early-game routes. If you are new to jungling, it may be best to stick to your own jungle for the time being, and focus on getting used to the route and camps. Once you start to understand the jungle better and learn the camp timers, you can start to counter-jungle your opponent as well.

Jungle Routes:
As a quick note before giving my jungling routes, I usually do not go to double golems when jungling as a personal habit. They hit harder than the gold they are worth, and it leaves them available for bot/top. It is only advised to go take them if your other camps are still respawning.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

These jungle routes are based on the respawn timers BEFORE the patch that made smaller jungle camps spawn at the same time as red and blue buff. Visuals will be updated soon with the new jungle route, with the only main noteable difference being that you start at red or blue buff respectfully, then take the smaller camps.
If you get a smiteless at blue/red and cannot gank just yet, you can go to the other buff and get level three very timely.

Red Start

This is the most common start when jungling as Riven. It allows her to get her red buff very early in the game and gives her a level 2 gank to any of the lanes depending on which side of the map she started out on.
1. Take Wraiths with the help of your mid-laner.
2. Take Red buff with a leash from top/mid/bot, depending on which half of the map you are on. Remember to use your hp pots early.

Look for ganking opportunities. It is easiest to gank top or mid early on, so assess your enemies and make your presence known.

3. Take Wolves and Wraiths, if respawned in time, then go back to buy your items.
4. Go to Blue buff and either take it for the experience or give it to your mid laner.

After that you need to keep your eyes open for more ganking opportunities, ward around the map, and farm which camps are currently spawned.


Blue Start

Sometimes the opposing team may have champions that are hard for you to gank early game (For example, Katarina, Fizz). Instead of trying to camp a lane without much success, it may be better for you to have your whole skillset when ganking, so start off at Blue buff instead of Red buff so when you have your complete kit your Red buff won't run out and will be available during your fights.

1. Start at Wolves, kill them with the help of your mid laner.
2. Take Blue buff with a leash from Top/Mid/Bot depending on which side of the map you are on.
3. Take the Wraith camp.
4. Take wolves again when they spawn.
5. You can choose to take Red buff before going back and buying, or after so you have more health. After taking red, look for opportunities to gank.


No Leash Start:

Sometimes your team will not leash red or blue for you and are off doing their own thing in-game. While you may be able to take the buffs on your own, it definitely makes your jungling that much more difficult. Instead, follow this route when starting up. This works on all champions, not just Riven, but I am still going to include this in the guide.
It is also recommended that you take Cloth Armor and 5 health pots when starting this route, but will not be necessary at the start since it cannot always be accounted for.

1. Start at Wraiths. Smite the big wraith and kill the camp.
2. Go to Wolves and kill that camp. You should get level 2 off the creeps, giving you another skill. Go back to Wraiths if smite is not up, if it is go to step 3.
3. Take blue buff. With level 2, you should be fine at taking it without losing much hp.
4. Go back to wraiths and take the camp. After this you can continue jungling if you have enough hp, if not go back and buy.
5. Take Red buff, then you can continue jungling as normal, looking for ganks and going for objectives.

Important timers:
Minions spawn: 1:15
Minions meet: 1:37
Jungle monsters spawn: 1:40
Jungle monsters respawn: :50
Altars unlock: 3:00
Vilemaw spawns: 10:00
Vilemaw respawns: 5:00
Ghost Relic spawns: 1:55
Ghost Relic respawns: 1:30
Surrender time: 15:00

Items:

This item is a must when jungling Riven, as it is the Twisted Treeline varient of Wriggle's Lantern and the passive is great for clearing camps along with being one of the few items that grant vision on this map, which is even more important due to the lack of wards. This item also reviels stealthed champions, such as Akali in her Twilight Shroud.

This item is worth upgrading on Riven when jungling, although you have to use your own disgresion when you decide to upgrade it. Other team has a Teemo? You can get it early game to make his shrooms meaningless. The other team has no stealthed champions? You can buy it late game as one of your last items.

Overlord's Bloodmail is the Warmog's Armor equivelent on the Twisted Treeline and is a valuable buy late-game when most teams become very beefy. The passive heals you after every assist/kill, and keeps you going for the whole fight.

Bruisers win games on the Twisted treeline, and Riven is exceptionally strong on this map because of this fact. This map is also smaller in size compared to Summoner's Rift or the Crystal Scar, so her mobility is a huge factor. The map had also been changed when it first re-released to allow less opportunities for your opponent to flash through walls, so her chasing potential is very strong as well.

Laning:
If you are laning Riven in the Twisted Treeline, it is advised to either take Solo Top, or lane bot lane with another champion who has a form of cc of their own. In the early game your job is to keep control of your team's altar, along with farming and harassing your opponent to create an advantage for yourself. Map awareness is key in this map due to the lack of wards, though, so avoid overextending unless you have knowledge of where your opponents may be. Unless you have vocal communication with your team, you have to keep an eye out on your own for their whereabouts.
Mid game your job is to help your team get ahead, along with pushing for objectives; towers and altars. Gank the other lane, push your lane out and take their turret, or put their team at a disadvantage.
The teamfights on this map are very clustered together, and as an AOE AD caster, this means you can get into the fight and dish out a lot of damage to all of them while surviving with an off-tank build. Go for their carries first! If they have no carry as is common on this map, set a target before the fight begins and have your team focus them, as soon as their main source of damage is gone you can pick off the rest of their team.

Jungling:
When jungling, your item build tends to be more tankier early-game as you are the initiator for your team. Make sure to take Smite when jungling, and your team can take vilemaw early on in the game.
When starting off on your jungle route you'll first want to keep an eye on your opponents, hiding in the brush near the Ghost Relic.

Your jungle route will go as such:
Wraiths-->Wolves-->Double Golems-->Gank-->Take Altar

Your early game will consist of taking the jungle monsters when they have spawned, along with ganking your opponents. After your early game, mid and late are the same as if you were laning.



Shadow Isle's Hidden Messages
Play Video

Important Timers:
Storm Shield spawn: 3:00
Storm Shield respawn: 3:00

Score:
40 Points:
Neutralizing points
Capturing points
Martyr (dying at turret)
20 Points:
Assisting in capture/neutralize (being close by without channeling)
5 Points:
Channel interrupt
Defending a turret (in every 10 sec)
3 Points:
Taking the Storm Shield
2 Points:
Minion kill
Taking a Health pack
1 Point:
Assisting an ally (speed buff, heal, etc)

Items:

This item should be used as a replacement for the Bloodthirster because it is not available on this map. Otherwise, her item build is rather standard.

Dominion is extremely fast-paced, but many people take the gameplay wrong. Your objectives are the different capture points around the map, not racking up a lot of kills. It helps in aiding your objectives, but chasing an enemy across the map instead of capturing a point has more than once been the cause of a lost game.
As far as riven is concerned, her early game is somewhat weakened on this map because of her need for itemization in multiple target fights. Unless in a 1v1, play more cautiously, as she is somewhat weak until she has obtained her ultimate.
Grabbing the Storm Shield earlier helps combat this weakness early game, so try grabbing it every chance you can. The extra damage and shield it generates may just be what you need to walk away from a fight.
In dominion, keep an eye on the quest points. They generate every 5 minutes, and grant a 10% damage bonus to your team, which helps push you forward to victory.
Also keep an eye on points that need defending, dominion is extremely team based, so don't leave your team alone to defend if the help is required.


Play Video

This section is just for a simple way to counter-play these champions. If one is not listed and you want to have some information on them, feel free to request them.

More detailed counter picks may be found below!

Please recognize that the difficulties listed with these champions are from my experiences alone. They may differ for your games, as skill level always should be taken into account when considering matchups.

Top Lane:
This ward is pretty self-explanatory for top laners, as it gives vision to you of most incoming ganks from mid lane and the jungle (blue side). This ward applies to only a certain amount of junglers, so take caution to whom is on your opponents team. A Nocturne, for example, can gank from almost anywhere as long as his ult is in range. If you are on the purple side, it is recommended that you ward your tri-brush and around baron to prevent the enemy jungler from looping around mid or coming in from his blue buff.
If you are going in for an invade or want to keep tabs on which part of the jungle the enemy jungler may be at, this is a very good spot to keep a ward. Unless they want to go way out of their way, it ives vision when they go to take the wraith camp, and gives you a heads up if counter jungling. For the purple team simply mirror this ward on the bottom jungle for the blue side.
Do your opponents have a blue dependent jungler? (ie. Amumu, Maokai, or Fiddlesticks, etc) If so, it may be beneficial to ward in the brush at their blue to allow for smite stealing or stealing from your mid laner. Simply mirror this ward on the blue side if you are playing on the purple side.
The same goes for the ward placed on Red buff. If your opponent has a high-ganking jungler that requires red buff to be effective ( Shyvana, Master Yi), it may be beneficial to keep tabs on this buff and to contest it when it is active. Simply mirror this ward on the blue side if you are playing on the purple side.

Dragon is a very powerful objective early game, as everyone at this point should know. Do not ward in the dragon pit if you can help it, as it lowers the amount of vision you would gain around it.


Here is another ward spot no team should neglect, and if the opposing team has a way of removing this ward other wards should be put into place to keep vision (around the baron wall/ in the brush nearby/ etc).


Please do realize that these are only a few warding spots available, and that there are many more to be taken advantage of. Use your imagination!
And remember: wards save lives!

I'd like to give thanks to a few people for helping me on this guide!

Main credit goes to DarkusCharizard for helping me begin this guide in the first place.

I'd also like to give credit to DarkAkumaLord as well, for helping me update some of the summoner spells along with one or two other changes to the guide.

Thanks to Darkshadows6 for giving me the dominion cinematic trailer to use in place of the spotlight!

Thanks to DKitten for helping me find a few mistakes in the item builds for each map.

Thanks to Kiroya17 for pointing out a few missing points over Riven's Mechanics!
Thank you all!