Riven Build Guide by Chili Dog

Guide Details x Intro x Closing x Changelog Champion x Pros / Cons x Abilities x Tips & Tricks

Pre-Game x Masteries x Runes x Sub Runes In-Game x Items x Gameplay

Riven, the Exile Riven is a top lane fighter/bruiser. She is known for her flashy combos, high skill ceiling and complex mechanics. Most known is the infamous "shy combo". Anyway, she is a super fun champion to play correctly but takes dedication to learn her. Hello, my name is Chili Dog, a 500k+ Riven Main. This is my first time trying to make a guide so any criticism is appreciated! I hope you enjoy and learn something new. Cya.

+ High Mobility With her kit consisting of four different dashes, I would say Riven is a pretty mobile champ. This makes it easy to dodge skill shots and make a clean get away. Since she doesn't use mana you can use your spells to get back to lane quicker and not waste anything.

+ Can never be completely mastered Riven does not have a skill ceiling. What I mean by this is that you can keep learning new combos, builds, and more everyday. There is no limit to learning Riven. Especially when it comes to runes, she can almost take every rune in the game. But take what you like, depending on your playstyle.

- CC is her weakness Name any CC and it's dangerous for Riven. Some prime examples are Renekton W Ruthless Predator, be careful of the ground of Poppy W Steadfast Presence, and don't forget Kennen passive Mark of the Storm. These abilities are the reason those champs are counters to Riven; high burst + CC leaves Riven completely useless.

- Lots of counters Since every champ and their mom has either a dash or hard CC, there are a lot of hard to win matchups with Riven. This means you have to waste more abilities getting to them and less abilities damaging them. Her cooldowns are EXTREMLY important to how you play each lane. Riven is definitely not a first pick champ.

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Runic Blade (Passive) RANGE: N/A COST: N/A COOLDOWN: N/A

Riven's abilties charge her blade, and her basic attacks expend charges to deal additional damage. Now, what does that mean? Basically, whenever Riven uses an ability, she gains a stack on her passive. This can stack up to three times with each stack doing more damage than the last. However, it is used by auto attacks. So after you use an ability and auto then your passive will be reset. Keep in mind though that this is Riven's main source of damage.

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Broken Wings (Q) RANGE: 275 COST: N/A COOLDOWN: 13

Riven strikes out in front of her in a short line. This ability may be recast 2 additional times. 1st and second use: slashes forward dealing 15/35/55/75/95 (+40/45/50/55/60% attack damage) physical damage to all units she comes into contact with. 3rd use: Leaps forward and slams the ground dealing 15/35/55/75/95 (+40/45/50/55/60% attack damage) physical damage and knocking nearby enemies up. This leap can cross unpathable terrain. Riven will target the unit your cursor is hovering over, or if no targets are present, Riven will simply strike the direction she is currently facing. Ok, lot of text. Let me dumb it down. She has three charges on her Q Broken Wings. The first two charges are small AOE dashes and the third one is a dash and a knockup that can jump over walls. As for the cursor part, if you are hoving over a champion the charges wont go past the champ, but if it is past the champion then you will go through them.

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Ki Burst (W) RANGE: 260 COST: N/A COOLDOWN: 11/10/9/8/7

Riven's sword emits a burst of runic energy that shocks nearby enemies, dealing 55/85/115/145/175 (+100% bonus attack damage) physical damage and stunning them for 0.75 seconds. Riven's W Ki Burst is a very interesting ability. You can do a bunch of animation cancels and make a bunch of escapes. You can also max it second for more burst.

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Valor (E) RANGE: 250 COST: N/A COOLDOWN: 12/11/10/9/8

Riven does a quick dash in the direction of your cursor and becomes shielded, blocking up to 95/125/155/185/215 (+100% bonus attack damage) incoming damage for 1.5 seconds. Riven's E Valor is a great tool for dodging or taking skill shots since she gets shielded. You can also use this ability to help jump bigger walls. It also opens up combos with animation cancels.

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Blade of the Exile (R) RANGE: 200 COST: N/A COOLDOWN: 120/90/60

Riven's weapon surges with spiritual energy for 15 seconds, granting her 10% extra attack damage (15), increased range on her damaging spells and attacks, and the ability to use Wind Slash once. Wind Slash: Riven fires a shockwave that deals from 108 to 324 physical damage to all enemies hit, increasing based on how much health they are missing. Minimum shockwave damage: 100/150/200 Maximum shockwave damage: 300/450/600 Riven's R is a great dueling tool, it allows you to make plays that you usually wouldn't have the range to do. Your Q Broken Wings has farther AOE, your W Ki Burst also has extra range, and you have access to a ranged cone AOE what does damage based on missing health. Also, all those abilities plus your autos do extra damage. Great for finishing off enemies.

Ok, so I don't want to make this section a college Master's 800 page essay about all the tips and tricks that Riven can do. I will simply put videos that do a way better job of explaining them then I can. Enjoy!

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Conqueror Conqueror: This is the best Keystone on Riven right now. It provides the damage and healing that she thrives off of. She can stack it quickly with her fast Q Broken Wings combo and it synergizes with her items as well. Fleet Footwork Fleet Footwork: This rune is taken into lanes where you can be poked out or you are looking for small trades in the early game. It provides good sustain and movement speed. Paired with Second Wind and Doran's Shield your laning phase should last a lot longer. Electrocute Electrocute: Good 'ol Electrocute. This is taken into lanes where there is a squishy opponent that you know you can one-shot at level 3 or 6. It is a complete domination of the lane rune and can be good for poking down opponents to set up that all-in. Phase Rush Phase Rush: Very situational keystone. I only take this into Tryndamere or Nasus. The reason for this is that they have tools to slow you down and catch you after you short trade or you fail the all in. If you do win the lane however, it is a great rune for chasing. Grasp of the Undying Grasp of the Undying: Ah yes, the ultimate short trade rune. I usually take this rune into hard matchups like Poppy. It helps you out with hard burst champs since you get extra health. Aftershock Aftershock: About the same reason as Grasp of the Undying but I take this rune into hard matchups that get on top of me and I can't run away like Renekton or Volibear. Unsealed Spellbook Unsealed Spellbook: This is a personal preference rune that I like to take. I acquired a taste for it back in season 8. I love the utility that it gives with all the different summoner spells such as Ignite, Teleport, and Exhaust. It's not the best choice but it does have it's up's and down's.

Triumph

Triumph is the only rune you should take in this section. Riven cannot use Overheal or Presence of Mind reliably. Therefore, Triumph is the only option. It is not a bad rune, it provides outplay potential and can help you dive the enemy laner.

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Alacrity

Tenacity

Bloodline

You can take any of the three runes in this row since Riven can use them all to their fullest potential. In my opinion, you take Legend: Alacrity when going up against easy matchups, Legend: Tenacity when the enemy team has a hard CC Top/Jungler, and Legend: Bloodline in hard/poke matchups. Alacrity and Bloodline can be switched based on personal preference, play what you feel fits best.

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Coup de Grace

Cut Down

Last Stand

Again, Riven can take any of the three runes in this row. They all can be proc'd with relative ease. Take Coup de Grace if you're confident, take Cut Down if there are 2+ tanks on the enemy team, and finally take Last Stand in hard/poke matchups where you know you will be low enough to proc it.

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Cheap Shot

Taste of Blood

Sudden Impact

Riven doesn't take Domination secondary often but when she does, she has a large selection of runes to choose from. This row in particular I recommend taking either Taste of Blood or Sudden Impact. Although Cheap Shot procs off your W Ki Burst, it doesn't give as much burst as Sudden Impact nor does it give sustain like Taste of Blood.

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Zombie Ward

Ghost Poro

Eyeball Collection

She can take any of the three runes in this row. However, the most useful in my opinion are Eyeball Collection and Ghost Poro. Since you are taking Domination I expect you are trying to snowball and roam so you won't be proccing Zombie Ward very often.

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Ravenous

Relentless

Ultimate

Finally in the Domination tree, we can take three out of the four hunter runes. This comes down to personal preference and matchup. My thinking is: Do I need sustain? Ravenous Hunter. Will I roam a lot? Relentless Hunter. Do I need my ult up to beat my opponent? Ultimate Hunter.

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Null Orb

Nimbus Cloak

On to the Sorcery tree. In this row we can take either Nullifying Orb or Nimbus Cloak. This is a case of a matchup dependent rune. For example, Fiora. Adrian Riven takes Nullifying Orb in this matchup. Why? Because, skilled Fiora players tend to W Riposte at the end of fights which does magic damage. With Nullifying Orbhe can negate that little bit of damage. Now, I like to think of Nimbus Cloak as an aggressive rune but it can be used defensively to run away with the extra movement speed.

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Transcendence

Because of the Season 11 change to Transcendence, this should be the only rune you take in the row. The ability haste it gives is too good to pass up, especially on Riven.

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Scorch

Gathering Storm

Finally we get to the last row, where we get a choice between Scorch and Gathering Storm. Take Scorch for lane dominance in the early game and take Gathering Storm if you plan to play passive and draw out the game.

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Shield Bash

The Resolve tree is good against hard opponents. Especially Shield Bash, this rune gives Riven extra damage every time she E's Valor. This is the only viable rune in this row.

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Second Wind

Bone Plating

Pretty self explanatory. Take Second Windin poke/short trade matchups and take Bone Plating into everything else.

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Overgrowth

Unflinching

Both these runes are great for surviving the laning phase. If you know that you will be zoned off farm then Overgrowth is a good rune since you get extra health just from being by minions. Then we have Unflinching. This rune is great for matchups with hard CC. 10/10 would reccomend.

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Magical Footwear

Perfect Timing

The Inspiration tree was Riven's main secondary tree for 90% of season 10 and is still good now. You want to take Magical Footwear if you want to get your items earlier and know you will win lane. Instead of spending 300g on boots you can just reduce the time you get them with kills. I wouldn't recommend taking Perfect Timing however. Why? because the cooldown is too long for what you need it for. The reason I have it on here is because if you do manage to get it then it opens up a new door for outplaying or diving your opponent.

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Future's Market

Biscuit Delivery

This part of the tree is good in case you lose lane. You can still keep up the tempo with your items/components with Future's Market or if you need extra sustain throughout the laning phase then Biscuit Delivery can provide that for you. In my personal opinion, I don't like this row of the Inspiration tree since it doesn't provide as much as the other rows.

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Cosmic Insight

This is the only rune should take in this row. CDR/Ability Haste is Riven's bread and butter stat. Getting extra Ability Haste early could determine the lane. It's such a good rune for Riven.

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Damage or Ability Haste are your only two options. I believe it comes down to personal preference but they are both good stats to have.

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Unless you are in a really difficult matchup like Renekton then take damage. Armor should only be an option in hard matchups or a full AD team.

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Finally, Armor or Magic Resist depending on the matchup.

Goredrinker This should be your first option to build unless the other two situations come up. It gives everything Riven needs. Ability Haste, Health, Damage. Not to mention it replaces Tiamat for the animation cancels.

Divine Sunderer I am still testing whether Goredrinker or Divine Sunderer are better for Riven against tanks but so far, I like the feel of this item against tanks. I especially like the heal on it as well.

Eclipse You want to one-shot your opponent? Build Eclipse! No, seriously though, I really like building this item. It provides armor pen against squishy targets that don't build armor other than Plated Steelcaps.

Prowler's Claw You hate ranged champs? You wish there was just some way you could get to them without wasting your abilities? Well wonder no more because this the item for you my friend. The dash it gives it too good to be true. Highly recommended.

Goredrinker

Ravenous Hydra

Black Cleaver

This is the #1 build path on Riven right now. It provides tankiness, tank shred, life steal, and plenty of damage. I would recommend building this in 90% of your games.

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Divine Sunderer

Black Cleaver

Death's Dance

This is what I've been building against tanks and it seems to be pretty effective. But as I've stated before, I am still doing testing between Goredrinker and Divine Sunderer. But as long as I can kill tanks, I'm fine with it.

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Eclipse

Youmuu's ghostblade

Ravenous Hydra

Teemo never stood a chance. But this is definitely my favorite build path currently. If the enemy team doesn't have a lot of CC or are squishy, I recommend this. I haven't gotten around to testing Prowler's Claw but will see which one I like more in the coming weeks.

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Prowler's Claw

Ravenous Hydra

Black Cleaver

I really like the dash Prowler's Claw gives. Great for running down ranged opponents. Helps in situations like Quinn's E Vault where she slows you after what is basically a stun.

Ionian boots of lucidity These are the boots you want to take if you are ahead in lane and don't have to worry about heavy CC junglers. With Ability Haste replacing CDR it is important you get as much ability haste as possible early as CDR is one of Riven's most important stats.

Mercury's Treads These are the boots you want to take in 90% in your games. Riven's biggest weakness is CC and Merc Treads provides a little tenacity to help deal with that. Also good to rush against AP top laners like Malphite, Teemo, etc...

Plated Steelcaps As for the other 10% of the games you will be running Tabis (I am still calling them Tabis because that is what they are) Unless the team looks like 4 AD and 1 AP I wouldn't take tabis. However there are exceptions to this rule in certain lanes and you can change to Merc's later.

If you want Challenger level explanations about matchups, micro and macro I would suggest you check out Viper, Adrian Riven, and Daveyx3's streams. They are all very informative and their stream links will be provided below.

Viper:

Adrian Riven:

Daveyx3:

Hello,
I hope you have enjoyed my guide, I will try to update it as frequently as possible. I am still testing items so there will most likely be more changes in the coming weeks. Anyway, I hope you learned something new and can flash your M5 masteries proudly!

1. Q Broken Wings Bug fix: Casting it from the Fog of War while hovering her cursor over an enemy champion or minion, she and the small area around her will no longer be revealed by the enemy team

2. E Valor Bug fix: Casting it from Fog of War while hovering her cursor over an enemy champion or minion, she and the small area around her will no longer by revealed by the enemy team.