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How to deal with Riven

warpenguin555··18 votes·2,812 views

NOTE: These are all based off of personal experience, im not a godmode riven, hell im not godmode with any champion. Just things i have seen that work. Results may vary and the skill of the Riven and you at the champion also play a factor.

Ya so people want to know how to beat riven, and i kinda wanna help. Also no QQ comment pls

Garen: I started with the obvious one because if you dont know how Garen beats riven you should turn back now. If you try to argue this i am going to troll you and make fun of you in my friends circle.

Shen DONT LAUGH. Not even trolling you. He can out-dual her (around levels 7-9 is where it starts if i remember correctly ) plus you get the satisfaction of the Rivens bitching and can make salt from her tears of how she thought it would be an easy lane. The tear salt isnt even a joke you can actually do that.

Jax: Jax does things to riven that would get me banned if i described them in detail. Back when i 1st got Riven like my 3-4 game as her was vs a Jax, and it was hell. Every time I Riven vs Jax, its hell. She Qs, you stun and smash.

Jayce : Not enough expirence to give a full rundown on this one but kite/poke with cannon until she gets close to try to do damage to you, then hammer combo her off of you.

im not sure about how much this helped but meh, im still doing more then most people to try and help

65 Comments

Facy11 votes

U forgot the only real counter to Riven....

Take 1 ban and use it for her. Works 100% of the time, thank me later

warpenguin55514 votes

{quoted}

U forgot the only real counter to Riven....

Take 1 ban and use it for her. Works 100% of the time, thank me later

Dammit forgot about that. Ban OP

Denims Wrath6662 votes

She's takes off sunglasses broken.

3tyson6 votes

Talks about countering riven forgets the dark lord of countering rivensTeemo

Reynard the ƒox21 votes

If you lose to Teemo as Riven, you're probably literally retarded.

3tyson2 votes

{quoted}

If you lose to Teemo as Riven, you're probably literally retarded.

Come play riven against my teemo pls see how il get rabadons while your at 13cs

Reynard the ƒox13 votes

you're*

Axests7 votes

teemo actually counters riven, he has the speed to stay away and his blind takes off the chunk from her autos. Not to mention his range means he can stay back and he trades well with her.

Durzaka1 votes

Rivens E is up for every single one of Teemo's blind. You should never be hit by one. (ok, there is a 2 second window, but that is on the Riven to manage).

And you act like Teemo's speed is enough for him to stay away. It isnt.

All Riven needs to do is survive until 3 with enough hp (not hard to do) and she can just instantly wreck Teemo. Once Riven gets in Teemo's face, he is straight up dead.

He has the advantage pre-6, but that is literally it.

lDontLiftIcarry4 votes

the entire time your E is down teemo is autoing you and zoning you. Thats why he's satan. He has no windows to engage him when played correctly and when you do engage he has mushrooms on corners to kite with/behind minion waves to prevent being shoved to turret so you'll always be at your turret even when you need to recall so you miss more cs. A good teemo literally stomps most matchups in top lane without much effort.

The only ones that deal with him at matchups that ignore a lot of cs to make even trades then call their jungler for a kill/force him out so you can recall with a shoved lane.

You should probably not talk about the champion you probably never even play against.

Teemo does beat riven. Ranged vs melee is a match up most ranged champions always win.

Durzaka1 votes

You say that auto zoning like it is actually a problem unique to teemo. Literally every fucking ranged champion does that to melee in this game. it is something you learn to deal with and fight around.

lDontLiftIcarry1 votes

exactly. And if you're good at lane control then you know how to freeze waves and gain a level advantage then call your jungler and dive their top lane thats 1-2 levels behind you completely destroying their early game lane phase and any chance of a comeback in a 1v1 situation.

Rivens pre level 4 is terrible vs champions that have lower cd's than her.

Its why darius and olaf win so hard. Neither one of them need to worry about CD's because their main damage spells have low cd or have a way to negate part of the cooldown to always have damage potentional.

Rivens pasive is what does most of her damage pre six. if she cant apply it safely e-Q-auto-Q-W auto-Q- retreat then she loses badly.

Narasimha1 votes

Most of her damage comes from her abilities, not her autos. It would be like blinding Panth to take the chunk from his autos. Also, her quad gap closers means that Teemo's range isn't worth anything unless he wants to burn E every time she goes in.

Aych Pii2 votes

Someone here hasn't played Riven. Her autos are 100% essential to her burst combo and the difference between a Riven that stomps all over everyone and a Riven that's free gold for her lane opponent is the ability to use her autos right.

Narasimha1 votes

I assure you, I've probably played Riven for longer than you've had an account. Still not that good with her, but eh.

Riven uses her autos to accentuate her damage. That's what her passive is for. But you NEVER see a Riven just stand there and auto someone when they can help it. Riven thrives on burst trades, on getting in and out. For her to waste time autoing, especially in lane, puts her at a greater disadvtandge. Hence why her largest counters are champions that can force extended trades or remove her disengage. Darius, Garen, Cho, Trundle, etc.

agbudar1 votes

i make a lot of riven mains look retarded then.. the trick is not dying and getting item 3009 as soon as possible

Drunk Rummate6 votes

Garen doesn't beat a good Riven. You can deny her CS a bit early but if she builds a hexdrinker then she wins post-6 if she doesnt fall super far behind beforehand.

Shen has a rough early lane against her but if he can survive until 6 then he outroams her and he gets tanky enough to survive her. Good pick if you're a good shen player, but I wouldn't pick up this champion just so you can beat Riven.

Jax is silly good against Riven. Can confirm. You don't really need to be good at Jax, you just need to press buttons. All but the best Rivens will die to you, and the best Rivens will go even in lane and probably get more kills in roams than you, but that's probably because they're better than you not because of the champion.

Jayce loses if Riven can get on top of him without taking a pre-emptive EQ to the face. Lane phase is super scary and it snowballs really hard in either direction. Post 6 she destroys you if you facecheck her. Really dangerous pick if you aren't really experienced with Jayce already.

If you want to play a champion specifically to beat Riven, I'd suggest Jax out of those. Rumble is also a great pick if you're weak against her in lane phase, but remember that unless she feeds miserably she will still outduel you in the midgame. Rumble's strength is in teamfighting so you need to force objectives and accelerate the game if you choose him. Jax just beats Riven at pretty much all stages of the game.

Biffolo3 votes

{quoted}

Garen doesn't beat a good Riven. You can deny her CS a bit early but if she builds a hexdrinker then she wins post-6 if she doesnt fall super far behind beforehand.

Shen has a rough early lane against her but if he can survive until 6 then he outroams her and he gets tanky enough to survive her. Good pick if you're a good shen player, but I wouldn't pick up this champion just so you can beat Riven.

Jax is silly good against Riven. Can confirm. You don't really need to be good at Jax, you just need to press buttons. All but the best Rivens will die to you, and the best Rivens will go even in lane and probably get more kills in roams than you, but that's probably because they're better than you not because of the champion.

Jayce loses if Riven can get on top of him without taking a pre-emptive EQ to the face. Lane phase is super scary and it snowballs really hard in either direction. Post 6 she destroys you if you facecheck her. Really dangerous pick if you aren't really experienced with Jayce already.

If you want to play a champion specifically to beat Riven, I'd suggest Jax out of those. Rumble is also a great pick if you're weak against her in lane phase, but remember that unless she feeds miserably she will still outduel you in the midgame. Rumble's strength is in teamfighting so you need to force objectives and accelerate the game if you choose him. Jax just beats Riven at pretty much all stages of the game.

What about darius? I see no one ever mention that one, but I find it to be the most crushing godamned lane when I play it into riven. source: Stomping a few d2ish riven mains in ranked.

City of Toronto3 votes

{quoted}

Garen doesn't beat a good Riven. You can deny her CS a bit early but if she builds a hexdrinker then she wins post-6 if she doesnt fall super far behind beforehand.

What the fuck did I just read. For anybody reading this, do NOT rush hexdrinker vs Garen. No, No. NO.

Tis a nice day2 votes

I wish I could say this to everyone who says to rush item 3140 vs Zed

Erijian1 votes

{quoted}

What the fuck did I just read. For anybody reading this, do NOT rush hexdrinker vs Garen. No, No. NO.

Don't tell them that, it's funny watching players rush it.

Drunk Rummate1 votes

The hexdrinker completely denies his ult from killing you (the shield is larger than the damage from his ult) and it gives you time to fight back once his silence ends. It's pretty much one of the best items you can build against him, actually.

City of Toronto1 votes

There's a plethora of reasons you're wrong, but I'll just go through some of them quickly.

  1. Garen has one spell that does magic damage, but has a low base damage and does more damage the lower HP you are. The higher HP you are, the less damage his ult does. How does Garen get you to such low hp? Physical Damage. Ergo, You mitigate his magic damage by mitigating his physical damage. The majority of Garen's damage is physical.

  2. Garen at level 6 has level 3 E, level 1 R. This is 210 + 270% AD on his E, vs 175 + 28.57% of missing HP on his R. You can tell right away which one will do more damage, E is physical and deals more damage. This difference in damage is even higher for levels 8-10, as Garen's E and Q will scale even higher as Garen sits on level 1 ulti.

  3. Riven can't out tank Garen, nor can she win wet-noodle fights. The instant Riven rushes Hexdrinker, Garen gets an armor item instead. Good luck doing any significant damage to Garen, he's going to out-trade you and destroy you completely. Doesn't even matter if you have hexdrinker or not, it will do nothing to help you for the entirety of laning phase except for maybe ONCE every two minutes or so.

  4. Riven scales off AD. Hard. Given that, compounded with the fact that she can't out-tank Garen, your best option is to kill Garen before he kills you. That's achieved by higher damage. Higher lifesteal for trading, or straight penetration to kill him.

  5. Saying building hexdrinker JUST for Garen's ult is like saying rushing armor vs. pre-rework Nidalee JUST for the execute on Q. Or rushing hexdrinker vs Gangplank because of his ult.

I'm all for theorycrafting, but please refrain from saying things without thinking it through. Inexperienced players will take what you say for granted, and it's going to lower the level of play in League as a whole anytime someone makes bold and incorrect claims.

Drunk Rummate1 votes

The thing you're missing here is that Garen is an AD caster just like Riven. The thing that makes him strong against her is that he gets to do his combo first, because he (unlike Riven) has a long lasting silence. Riven's only solution to avoiding sure death from a QER combo at level 6 from Garen is to mitigate a large portion of his damage, and then kill him while he's on cooldown.

Armor can help you achieve this, but hexdrinker is a much safer buy due to the nature of Garen's kit. He has a hard time following up damage and forcing engagements, especially versus Riven. The majority of his kill pressure comes as a burst of damage from his full combo chained into his ult. You also have to take into consideration that there is no armor item that gives AD like hexdrinker does, and furthermore there is no armor item with a shield passive like Hexdrinker.

Hexdrinker is an extremely efficient item against Garen because his ultimate scales with %missing HP. Adding flat HP to your stats is a poor way to survive as a result, but Hexdrinker adds HP artificially with the shield, which means that the damage mitigated is more efficient in addition to reducing the damage of the ultimate since it is magic.

The main advantage of Hexdrinker is that it completely removes Garen's kill pressure on you. His ability to straight murder you in a single combo is removed completely. You're allowed to engage on him with lower hitpoints, which also increases your kill pressure since you too have an execute. No amount of armor will allow you to engage Garen at half HP, but if you have a hexdrinker then you actually can stay in lane and continue to fight.

City of Toronto1 votes

No, I'm not missing anything. Rush hexdrinker and you might be able to SURVIVE, but be prepared to spend the rest of lane cowering under your turret. You will not win a single trade, you will not kill him, you won't even be allowed to CS.

thePandev6 votes

Quinn Surprised no one mentioned her. As soon as Riven tries to get onto you just vault off of her and blind when she tries to AA.

But, I truly think that a good Renekton can beat a good Riven.

If you max W in lane, you can easily destroy her. The trick to dueling her is to always have enemy minions and allied minion clumped up.

When she get's close with E or Q, just E away through her minions, getting the extra E again, then after she falls back E into her and use WQ to do serious damage. Start cloth 5 and you can easily win lane.

Pæan1 votes

Was going to mention quinn, she is awesome vs riven. Her early damage with passive-AA vault passive-AA will chunk a riven, and thats just level 1. You can also cancel the 3rd riven Q with a well-timed vault.

Wînter Fox5 votes

Seriously. Fuck Garen.

Even if you do somehow outplay him and his pont-and-click Q silence and end up a tiny bit ahead in trades, he'll just run into a bush and heal up. Must be nice having 270% Riven's base health regen at level 1 _ on top of _ that ridiculous healing passive. Then he just stacks armor and health - something Riven can't afford to do - while still doing stupid amounts of damage and its just GG from there.

I'd rather fight Renekton who's equally as overbearing against Riven, but at least for the 30 minutes I'm hugging my turret for dear life I know he'll eventually fall off. Garen doesn't. Ever.

Xengre1 votes

{quoted}

Seriously. Fuck Garen.

Even if you do somehow outplay him and his pont-and-click Q silence and end up a tiny bit ahead in trades, he'll just run into a bush and heal up. Must be nice having 270% Riven's base health regen at level 1 _ on top of _ that ridiculous healing passive. Then he just stacks armor and health - something Riven can't afford to do - while still doing stupid amounts of damage and its just GG from there.

I'd rather fight Renekton who's equally as overbaring against Riven, but at least for the 30 minutes I'm hugging my turret for dear life I know he'll eventually fall off. Garen doesn't. Ever.

In a very rough match up I have seen Riven go an early Thornmail against auto-attackers, or other armor vs champs like Garen. I wouldn't recommend it normally, but if they are rolling you hard early and the enemy team has substantial physical dmg and little magic then it can work simply because she gets a massive AD steroid from her ult and it buffs her shield via resistances. In team fights where she just wont die in this situation she can easily rack up the kills/assist necessary to catch up in her offensive itemization.

Garen gets hard countered by Hexdrinker if it is a reasonable build route for your champion which is on Riven. It pretty much nullifies his ult and still gives AD. It is also fairly cheap. The rest of Garen's abilities can be avoided if you can out maneuver, something Riven has little issue with. I will say, pre-6 Garen definitely has the advantage.

90015 votes

I applaud you for the Shen pick!

I have been picking Shen into Riven whenever I see someone lock her in and I just laugh my way to victory every time xD.

-Start cloth 5 -Max Q and poke her constantly for free -Build TONS OF ARMOR! -Ult to assist team and win fight, then TP back to tower so you lose nothing for it -RINSE AND REPEAT

LilxPaprika3 votes

its not about winning/surviving top against her. Any riven worth her salt can at least survive top and get good cs. Its what she brings to team fights that make her such a huge threat. the amount of aoe dmg and her ability to go in and out so quickly.

Ruudi3 votes

Listen.

item 1054 Dodge her combo.

That's IT.

thePandev15 votes

{quoted}

Listen.

item 1054 Dodge her combo.

That's IT.

Dodging a combo with 4 gap closers and a stun isn't too realistic.

Durzaka3 votes

Darius

FantasySniper3 votes

I rarely see Garens win against Riven.

But then again I rarely see Garens win, so.

terkmc2 votes

Nautilus Im not even fucking kidding Naut top dumpster Riven so much. Riven relies on her mobility to deal damage, shield and get out before they can retaliate, since if she actually get hit shes one of the squishiest top in the game. Enter Nautilus wait until after she does her q thing and smack her with your passive aa reset w e. The passive means she cant back out and since she cant move she cant shield herself or finnish her q knock up, eating Naut damage which base value is surprisingly high. He have so much cc that he can comfortably deal with her mobility in and out of teamfight. E spam can deal with her nicely since it clear waves well and harras with high base damage, if she use her shield to block it she can not trade with you since you are so tanky and your passive punish her for trying to go into melee harrass.

terkmc2 votes

Maokai You want to spam spell? free health pot. Wanna trade? Eat my huge base damage. Wanna run like a bitch? Eat my point and click snare

Gati2 votes

According to box box Riven can easily lose lane if you camp her early where her mobility and utility is low

MetalGearTeemu3 votes

{quoted}

According to box box Riven can easily lose lane if you camp her early where her mobility and utility is low

What a scholar.

Find me a hero that doesn't lose lane when camped, and then send that information to Dyrus so he can become a productive member of society.

Ketchup251 votes

You should never be required to get ganked to be able to beat a champion. If you have to you either picked into bad matchup or the champion clearly lacks a weakness.

The Soulforged2 votes

Garen vs Riven is a skill matchup until Garen builds armor.

KazeNekochan2 votes

flash her ult or after the nerfs step out of it

for real tho renekton and nid if you are actually a nid player

Toothierosprey31 votes

Riven get countered hard by armor. If you're a bruiser, just rush warden's mail and you're good.

whensmarvel1 votes

It can be hard to beat a decent Riven, what I do (also vs nasus) is pick a champ like Cho' Gath who can help their team win team fights. Test the riven at first to see how good they are, if they are decent turtle throughout the laning phase and keep tabs on them roaming.

Imo bot lane and mid lane secure most wins for a team and only a few champs can carry from top.

hazerddex1 votes

Riven a sword is like its wielder

you forgot Chogath Volibear Poppy

Fadedpf1 votes

you missed these Darius Rengar Volibear

P00Pl0ser691 votes

{quoted}

make fun of you in my friends circle.

Are you implying Riven players have a friends circle O_O

EDIT: oooh, the round object your one friend has, ah got it.

ChaoticPinecone1 votes

Ill leave this here. Note - the riven in the vid is Boxbox.

Shroom Junkie1 votes

Shen has got to be the most underrated champ in the game. 'Cept maybe by Soraka... even then.

LordKentravyon1 votes

Chogath Mordekaiser

There's nothing funnier then watching a cocky Riven player jump on you like any other match up, loose the trade, assume it was a fluke and try again 3-4 times before they finally realize there's a match up where she cab't win by mashing the keyboard. You get to laugh as she sits there with no clue what to do. as long as teamates don't feed on roam attempts

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