How do I play Riven?

DigitalWind·Jan 24, 2019·3 votes·4,501 views

Guild got me into LoL and I like Riven's Battle Bunny outfit so I want to play her - no better reason than that right?

Well, GM told me it's kinda impossible to be any good with Riven and I 100% believe him. But that pushes me even more, it's a curse.

So, in super dumb, barney-style, I could use some help. I'm looking for stats to stack, lanes, roles to play, play style, and ability rotation (I can handle Riven's rotation and stacks) and any other pertinent information you think I should know. Thanks in advance, you're awesome!

11 Comments

Jinzo best cardJan 24, 20193 votes

Drool on keyboard

delete shacoJan 24, 20193 votes

smack the left side of your keyboard until you see no more enemies

InfernapeJan 24, 20192 votes

Learn how to animation cancel and her ability combos. If you don't know what it is, the gist of it is that Riven can deliberately shorten or stack her animations to put out damage faster in a hell of a lot of ways.

Check out Exil on YouTube. He's a Riven main and pretty much how I learned to play her. The RivenMains subreddit is also pretty helpful.

######not going to lie though, her Legendary skin makes animation cancelling a lot easier.

Eons3Jan 24, 20191 votes

Rivens animationcancels can be learned in about 2mins, you can mash your face on your keyboard to do half of them tbh. Its just knowing WHEN to do them taht is the problem. most of the time animation canceling wont win you the fight. Typically maxing w like boxbox, q3 on the enemy w the enemy while they are stunned by q3 walk away. repeat until they are low enough to erwq3rignite

EvenJan 24, 20192 votes

Only mandatory combo is basic fast combo (aaQaaQaaQaa,etc), but learning more advanced mechanics can be helpful too.

ModAyukiJan 24, 20192 votes

Riven is one of those champions that I used to play a lot of purely because the challenge was fun to me and nothing else. I suppose it depends what your intent with the game is, and if you seek to reach high ranks via the ladder or if you just plan to casually play Normals. In my case, I used to play her primarily in Normals, and such never affected me except for the occasional teammate that may have gotten a little too upset at my performance [sg-lulu]

If you seek to play her at a genuinely competitive level, I do advise you to watch a lot of videos on her; There are tons out there, and they can definitely help to expose you to some combos that you might not have known existed beforehand. Since a lot of players like to main her (I presume you know the stereotype about Riven Mains..) there is plenty of content out there to help you learn about many things her kit involves, and thus you can hop into a practice tool or Normals match to try them out.

I'm in no way trying to discourage you, but personally I find sticking to a champion for a really long time is difficult to do as I often get sick of the abilities in due time no matter how much I liked them in the first place. Riven, for me, is one of these champions where after some time I just got bored with her kit. I do hope this doesn't happen to you, but be weary that not all mains last forever, and so increasing your champion pool (If you're trying to play competitively) is going to make your experience last longer, in my opinion.

Best of luck ! [sg-kiko]

Kai GuyJan 24, 20191 votes

take a look at some guides on youtube. There is animation canceling you need to learn. Its faster to see it then explain it via text.

Rathar DashingJan 24, 20191 votes

Like others have said, animation cancelling is a must to learn her and use her to her full potential. I recently learned some of her combos and it made a HUGE difference in my burst overall damage.

For a quick rundown, here's the one main thing you need to know: you can use her other abilities while using her E, without having to wait for the animation to finish. More importantly, you can use as many of them as you want while you're still dashing with E. You can even weave in a Tiamat/Ravenous usage in this combo for even more damage. This means you can do E-Tiamat-W-Q in the span of a second without having to wait for your W cast time. You can even throw in your R (either version). This would look like E-R1-Tiamat-W (start fighting) or E-R2 to get the most distance possible out of the wind slash.

Look up some guides online, there are plenty out there and I'm sure they'll all be more helpful than me.

Rathar DashingJan 24, 20191 votes

If you're looking for what kinds of items to build on her you should usually rush a Tiamat to help you wave clear, and to add to your burst. Her other two core items are Black Cleaver and Death's Dance, who you should build together before building your Tiamat into Ravenous Hydra. From there, things get situational so build to what you're facing. If you need it, get Guardian Angel or Maw, those will help you survive in AD/AP burst situations where you otherwise would have died. For boots, you can go Lucidity boots if you want more CDR on your spells, but most times you want Mercury Treads to survive stuns and roots and to make yourself generally more tanky against AP.

For runes, usually Conqueror is what most people take, but Dark Harvest and Electrocute are both viable. Conqueror is better for longer sustained fights, or against tankier opponents, while Electrocute and DH are better for bursting down squishies. Secondary I like to go Shield Bash and Revitalize from the resolve tree. It gives you a big chunk of damage on your E, and makes it better at being used to block big hits. Revitalize boosts all your healing from death's dance, ravenous hunter or triumph, and lifesteal if you're below 40% max health, as well as makes your shield on E much better. It also helps out items like Maw, GA or Sterak's. Over the course of a game the amount of healing you get really adds up.

TheRunicBladeJan 24, 20191 votes

HI! Riven main here! if you want some tips and tricks feel free to add me on league. i can teach. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Eons3Jan 24, 20191 votes

Riven is a rediculously mobile and hard cc filled champion thaaaaaaaaaat is also safe and has high damage . Her problem is she has NO tank busting powers and is weak to consistant ranged abuse. She pretty much loses vs every tank in league if played the typical riven way. Conquerer is one of her best runes along with either klepto(for some people weird as that is farm tanks dont beat htem i guess) and after shock. That being said, riven is great with ganks, she makes any gank a kill on pretty much anyone. However, her main problem in solo que, is that riven gets ganked(top laner with a reputation) and almost never gets ganks for her(jgs seem to think strong early game champs dont need ganks). So you what typically happens is

enemy locks in kennen top, right clicks you all laning phase, stands under your tower poking you, gets a jg gank to kill you then you get flamed.
Enemy locks in a tank, builds bramble vest and ninja tabi into sunfire, gets a jg gank, riven dies, riven gets behind, your team flames you.
Enemy locks in another duelist, getsa jg gank, gets a lead, your team flames you.
You get a lead 1v1, you get jg ganked repeatedly your team flames you.
You get a jg gank FOR YOU, you carry your team via cc/burst enemy team blames you playing riven as why you won, your team flames you.