Taking my previous Riven guide and the feedback on it, I decided to remake it to a higher standard. Since I've decided to completely everything about the guide, I did not want there to be confusion with comments or any previous renditions of the guide and made a new version altogether.

+High late game damage
+Low CDs on spells
+No resource system
+Cute model
+All five of her skills scale off AD (including passive)




-Lack of sustain
-Weak solo lane
-Weaker than most bruisers in laning
-Weak early game
-Difficulty chasing early on

+Highest damage early/late game

-Puts her at 500 hp level one
-Provides less bonus stats



+Gives slight bonus AD for early game
+Retains bonus HP and stats

-Less damage late game



+Gives tankiest stats early game

-Less damage early/late game

After trying all three, I have grown partial to a 21/9/0 to increase Riven's damage early and allows me to reach the point where I can deal insane damage faster.

I feel that the utility tree has too many points wasted, especially into the Meditation/Utility Mastery tier. Despite movement speed and CDR being really good, it is just too far into that tree to make it viable.

15 Armor Penetration

This is a for sure and there is no going around this. Early, mid or late game, armor penetration is amazing to have.



6.8% Dodge or 13 Armor

Dodge, combined with the Swiftness mastery gives Riven a much needed bonus movement speed whenever the dodge procs. This make her slightly weaker to harass early game, especially to strong bruisers such as Garen or Irelia.

Armor is always amazing, but does not scale as well for mid and late game. Armor runes are solely for helping Riven's frail early game.


13 Magic Resistance, 24 Magic Resistance at level 18 or 5.9% Cooldown Reduction.

Early magic resistance will help for laning against champions with strong magic pokes. This is especially relevant if you know who you will be laning against.

Scaling magic resistance is stronger for mid and late game and is extremely useful for actual teamfights where damage will likely come from both magic and physical.

Cooldown reduction is for extra damage, but I feel that by the time CDR starts to scale well, damage will not be problem. This doesn't help with Riven's frailty at all, but is an alternative.



4.5% Movement Speed or 10 Armor Penetration

Both movement speed and armor penetration are extremely good on Riven. I feel that any mixture of both is ideal.

Without the ability to burst and the reliance on sustained damage, Flash isn't useful offensively on Riven. However, defensively, Flash is as strong as ever.

I prefer Ghost on Riven due to her subpar gap closers. Melee classes that rely on auto attacking use Ghost extremely well.




Ignite really helps for extra damage and 1v1 scenarios, but I feel that the utility from Exhaust provides a much stronger advantage for the majority of the game.

All information here has been edited from the default and is 100% accurate, as of the guide's release.


Riven's abilities charge her blade, causing her basic attacks to deal 5/7/9/11/13/15 [goes up every three levels] (+50% of BONUS attack damage) extra physical damage. Riven's blade may be charged up to 3 times and expends one charge per attack.

Riven's passive is amazing. While early game, the passive doesn't seem to do much, but when combined with her ultimate and bonus AD, the passive allows Riven to do a LOT of damage. The goal is to have one autoattack in between each spell cast as to maximize the passive's effect. The passive lasts for five seconds and the timer will reset after an autoattack.

Also, the passive gives bonus damage, which increases the amount you heal from any lifesteal, but is not modified by criticals.





Riven strikes out in front of her in a short line. This ability may be reactivated 2 additional times.

1st Use: Slashes forward, dealing 30/50/70/90/110 (+60% of BONUS attack damage) physical damage to all units she comes in contact with.
2nd Use: Slashes forward, dealing 30/50/70/90/110 (+60% of BONUS attack damage) physical damage to all units she comes in contact with.
3rd Use: Leaps into the air and slams the ground dealing 30/50/70/90/110 (+60% of BONUS attack damage) physical damage and knocking nearby enemies away from the point of impact.

Cooldown 13 seconds


Broken Wings has three parts. The first two parts are a small dash forward that deals damage in a tiny AoE, but the last hit is a small dash with a knock-up. Broken Wings, like all dashes, is unaffected by movement speed modifiers, making slows not affect it. Also, Broken Wings dashes faster than most champions even with boots, making it also double as a tiny gap closer.

There is a 4(?) second time interval in which you are required to cast the next use or it will be wasted.








Riven's sword emits a burst of runic energy that shocks nearby enemies, dealing 50/90/130/170/210 (+100% of BONUS attack damage) physical damage and stunning them for 0.5 seconds.

Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7 seconds


Ki Burst is a very tiny AoE stun that stuns for only .5 seconds. At first glance, this is a very mediocre skill, but when combined with Valor for the dash and Broken Wings' knock-up, it isn't too bad. But its merits mainly comes from it being a low CD with a high scaling.







Riven does a quick dash in the direction of your cursor and becomes shielded, blocking up to 40/70/100/130/160 (+100% of BONUS attack damage) incoming damage for 2.5 seconds.

Cooldown 11/10/9/8/7 seconds


Valor is a very short dash that gives Riven a small shield. Feel free to use Valor to escape or as a gap closer for reaching a target.

The shield becomes fairly spammable with CDR and shields for a decent amount with enough bonus AD.







Riven's weapon surges with spiritual energy for 15 seconds, granting her 20% bonus attack damage, 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 80/120/160 (+60% of BONUS attack damage) to 240/360/480 (+180% of BONUS attack damage) physical damage to all enemies hit, increasing based on how much health they are missing.

Cooldown 75/60/45 seconds



Blade of the Exile increases the AoE on Ki Burst and Broken Wings while also giving you 20% more AD and 75 bonus range on Riven's autoattack.

Wind Slash can be used once at any time during the 15 second duration of Blade of the Exile. Using it when the enemy is lower on HP does more damage. There is a short animation for Blade of the Exile, making it important to activate the spell before engaging. Wind Slash has a long animation and wind down animation, making it much like Garen's Demacian Justice in that it is very hard to follow up on a running target.

Early on, Broken Wings does less damage than an autoattack. Leveling Broken Wings first gives more damage, but you will be giving up lower cooldowns on Ki Burst. Broken Wings itself doesn't attract minion aggro, but a Broken Wings + autoattack combo will gain minion aggro and will mean that you can not trade hits early on. In short, if you aren't getting a kill, it will not be worth it as you will take more damage from the combined minion + champion damage.

+More potential damage

-To achieve such damage, you will attract minion aggro



When against high poke champions, getting a few early levels into Valor will make laning easier. Despite sacrificing damage, getting extra farm and not getting harassed out of the lane as early will be worth it in the long run.

against a weak laner, like Nasus or Veigar, otherwise take or

Rush

Pick up or , depending on the enemy team composition.

If doing well,

If Bloodthirster is unaffordable, + or

Complete a

Depending on what you need, , or




- You NEED this item for the lane sustain and is a balance between damage and survivability. Getting this asap is ideal versus any comp.

- The amount of AD Bloodthirster gives is extremely strong due to how well Riven scales with AD. AD + lifesteal is simply amazing for Riven.

- Youmuu's gives an amazing chasing ability and an attack speed steroid on a fairly short cooldown. Armor penetration and cooldown reduction are excellent on any melee champion and Riven is no exception.

- Last Whisper's armor penetration applies to all her spells (minus Valor), making it an amazing item, with an added bonus of a decent amount of AD.

- The movement speed helps Riven's low natural mobility, the health regen gives her a sustain outside of lifesteal and the magic resistance will help her last against magic casters.

- The spell shield is amazing on any champion, but with any melee champion, the spell shield is easily taken out by random AoEs. However, against certain champions, Banshee's may be better than Force of Nature.

- Hexdrinker is an often overlooked item. On Riven, I would likely take a Hexdrinker over a Banshee's Veil due to the extra AD and the much cheaper cost.

- Against suppression champions, Galio, Veigar and Mordekaiser, I would definitely pick up a QSS to render those ultimates/stuns useless against me.

- I prefer Guardian Angel as it allows you be more aggressive knowing that you have a second life waiting for you if you happen to die. Randuin's Omen is another strong alternative and provides stronger stats with an active ability, but costs 400g more. Thornmail is the cheapest of the three, but provides no effective HP and I feel that it is a better item on a true tank.

- I initially picked up a Frozen Mallet as a core item. But, the slow is unused in a teamfight, Riven simply can't afford to chase targets from a teamfight. Some players may like it, but between Youmuu's active and Ghost, I feel it is unnecessary and costs too much.

- There is an ongoing debate about whether or not Trinity Force is good on Riven. Though most of the stats from Trinity Force are used, AP and MP are completely wasted and for melee champions, Riven has a relatively low base AD (though not really by much). Purchasing flat AD is much stronger for Riven, but the option is there.

Also, 4095 gold for Trinity Force can be put onto a Bloodthirster (3000 gold) and the two Long Swords for Brutilizer (830 gold), this gives 80 - 120 AD and 15 - 25% lifesteal. On paper, this will give less damage if Trinity Force is proc'd on every single hit, but in a teamfight, an effort to maximize skill usage will make that impossible.

By not leveling Broken Wings early for damage, you can use it as a gap closer and a small stun.

1) Use the first hit from Broken Wings as early as possible (this maximizes the CD and allows the skill to be up again as soon as possible)
1.5) Activate Blade of the Exile if it will lead to a kill, otherwise ambush to harass/waste summoners
2) Use the second hit from Broken Wings to close the gap as soon the opponent reacts to seeing you moving forward (Broken Wings is faster than any champion's base movespeed with boots)
2.5) Use Valor as a second gap closer, if needed
3) Use the final hit from Broken Wings to stun
4) Follow up using Ki Burst
5) Walk out unless you plan to go for the kill as all your damage skills are on cooldown


In such a combo, you waste only one, if any, stack on Runic Blade, but are able to close the gap. Also, until you autoattack, you will not attract minion aggro (unless you are the only target in range, of course). This combo works just as well when the opponent is going for last hits as an effort to harass.

Being a relative weak laner, Riven will lose to many champions. However, having no limit on the usage of spells can help you outlast an opponent in lane. Using the technique outlined in the previous section and backing out immediately, it is possible to harass the enemy while taking only a tiny amount of damage. This helps weaken the enemy for a jungle gank. Once you get a , it will be much easier.

Always be careful of taking too much damage as dying early will put you very far behind.

The Broken Wings - autoattack - Broken Wings - autoattack combo is invalidated in a teamfight. You want to spam out all three hits as soon as possible in a teamfight, as you want to have the knock-up come out quickly. There will be moments when all your spells are on cooldown and during these moments, your stacked up passive will be utilized.

With Ghost, it is possible to pull out of a teamfight, wait for cooldowns and run back in again. As with any champion, you can't do DPS while dead.

As of this guide's release, the hotfix for Riven has not been applied, which is outlined here:

Base Stats
Attack Speed per level increased to 3.5 from 2.9
Base Armor increased to 15 from 12
Broken Wings bonus attack damage ratio increased to 0.7 from 0.6.
Ki Shout cast time decreased to 0.25 from 0.5
Valor
Shield increased to 60/90/120/150/180 from 40/70/100/130/160.
Cooldown decreased to 10/9/8/7/6 from 11/10/9/8/7.
Wind Slash
Cast time decreased to 0.25 from 0.5
Missile speed increased by 10% to 2200 from 2000.


All these are excellent usability buffs and gets rid of some of the clunky feeling on her spells. I think this is a great buff for her and I will definitely try her out some more after the hotfix.

As always, I welcome any and all feedback, positive or negative.