Why Riven Q?

Vincius·12/9/2014, 7:38:04 PM·2 votes·1,764 views

I just started playing Riven, she is pretty strong and pretty fun to play tho not without her share of risks. The only problem is, why does she Q in the direction she is facing? This has to be the most counter-intuitive thing ever, you have your cursor somewhere you press Q and u go in a complete direction, of course not always, like if your are already facing in the right direction or have cursor over enemy you'll hit at the right place, I'm aware of but still... I mean 99% of skills work the other way around, I wish someone had a good reason to explain this mechanic so I could say like ''HAAAAAAAAA! That's why!''. Any thought on that? Should they change it you think?

11 Comments

xLegendary Troll12/9/2014, 8:14:26 PM2 votes

If you highlight something with your curser and press Q, Riven will attempt to Q that target if they're within range of its hit box. Us riven mains prefer the direction she's facing. Nidalee feels horrible after they "fixed" it on her. Go to a custom game and practice.

Drunk Rummate12/9/2014, 7:42:42 PM1 votes

IIRC she was designed that way before they figured out how to program champs to jump towards cursor. You can look at the pre-rework Nidalee vs the reworked Nidalee for an example here.

There is an advantage to it in my eyes - you can move in a direction with Broken Wings without your mouse cursor being in that direction, which allows you to quickly click to move in a different direction or cast Valor to dash there.

I think for the most part Riven mains (myself included) prefer that she Q in the direction she faces. Part of the skill for playing her comes down to your ability to aim her dashes properly.

JustMyBassCannon12/9/2014, 7:55:15 PM1 votes

Well, you can also have her travel in the direction of the mouse if you mouse over an enemy target, but that's kind of specific use.

BRBGTGBOWFLEX12/9/2014, 8:44:57 PM1 votes

Alright, if you want a good reason for it.

Let's say you're running away from someone and being chased, you're both extremely low health, if they catch you, you die, shield/w/flash on cd, but ignite is up and they are gaining on you. You can mouse over them, and use ignite, while Q-ing to keep building distance, thus kiting them and letting them die.
Let's say you want to juke someone with flash. You Q towards the dragon pit, but rather than hopping into it, you want to flash in a bush near it. If you moved towards your cursor, your enemy would be able to read where you want to flash to, thus, you couldn't do fake-outs with flash.

So, the best answer I can give is that it allows you to aim summoner spells and actives on items, while moving in a different direction, thus allowing more plays to be made.