Dear Balance Team: Riven

ekimekimekim··3 votes·911 views

Dear Balance team, please address the Riven. No champ should be immortal and able to 1v5 a team, especially not a resourceless one. Yes she requires great mechanics, but if you have them the champion has very little counter play, can carry a game by herself, and is essentially immortal (I'm sure the top 10% of players might disagree here, but are you making a game for them or from the other 90% of us?).

Perhaps make her an energy or mana champ? Maybe up her cool downs or reduce her damage or ad scaling if you don't add a resource? Maybe Nerf her shield so she has a little more risk? The options are endless. But something does need to be done as she has very little weakness to exploit compared to other champs, and is my mind is not fun to play or play with (games where one player can carry them alone aren't interesting for the other 4 on the team) or even play against.

My 2 cents.

(A month later of ranked at end of season, and I'm editing this and adding the following as support. There are a very few champs that the smurfs and elo boosters continually pick to carry games - of that list, Riven seems to be the top choice. If the champion is so balanced, why is she so preferred by the smurfs and elo boosters? Answer because with a few items and cool down she has no effective counter play in most games. Riven can effectively carry a game, even a loosing game alone.)

7 Comments

Sakura Mirage4 votes

Nothing needs to be done at all she is pretty balanced compared to some champs.

Mr Hydde2 votes

I've always wondered about the thought process of these posts. You see the way I come at most any game or challenge in life comes down to efficiency and logic.

So here we have someone that you clearly think is very strong. what should we do?

  1. complain that its to good and needs nerf
  2. identify that its strong and play it yourself
  3. analyze what makes them strong so you can figure out how to over come.

Clearly option 1 wins out way to often.

ekimekimekim1 votes

{quoted}

I've always wondered about the thought process of these posts. You see the way I come at most any game or challenge in life comes down to efficiency and logic.

So here we have someone that you clearly think is very strong. what should we do?

  1. complain that its to good and needs nerf
  2. identify that its strong and play it yourself
  3. analyze what makes them strong so you can figure out how to over come.

Clearly option 1 wins out way to often.

The thought process is pretty simple. Riven is a resourceless champion. This already makes her strong in comparison to champions which require resources (the majority of champs in the game). Riven's kit gives her movement which can not only be used to engage or disengage but allows her to vault terrain - this movement also comes with AOE and boosts her auto attack damage. Next her kit gives her AOE CC - and that boost her auto attack , and then we add another dash and a shield that scales off AD so that the more damage she builds the safer she is - and in the process also boost her auto attack. Finally we give her a ranged execute that also boost her damage.

That's a hell of a kit with a lot of power in it, and it all scales off of AD. I believe if champs are going to build all damage, they should not also be tanky (which her shield makes her) or at the very least they should be reasonable to kite (and here we've given her 2 gap closers and cc). And all this comes in a resourceless package. That doesn't seem balanced to me.

To the point about Garren et al, pointing to another unbalanced champion as being the balance for Riven is just silly. If taken to it's logical conclusion you end up with is a very limited pool of champions essentially appear in every game. That isn't the champion diversity that 100 plus champions this game has should be bringing, it's narrowing the pool to less than 5%. Rather the answer is to strive to balance the champions so that they have both strengths AND weaknesses and are balanced in the context of their fellows.

Lastly, to your points #2 and #3 - "identify what makes them strong and play them yourself." No thanks, rather have them balanced so that I have a large choice of champions. For #3 I think I've laid out above what makes Riven overly strong in comparison to the other 100 champs, and I'm using that to suggest ways to balance the champion. So it not so much complaining as constructive criticism, and option #4 which you omitted.

As a side note I've always wondered what causes someone to post such a post as yours, I'm guess it is because you are a Riven fan? She seems to drawl your type.

warpenguin5551 votes

lol riven is not immortal. Try new champions like Garen Renekton Darius. problem solved

ScreamPaste1 votes

Or, try to improve at the game rather than blaming your losses on balance?

fk off my screen1 votes

riven is balanced. you play Shyvana, a resourceless champ and you're talking shit? lawl.

ekimekimekim1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Grandiose Life,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=HEhNhUry,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2015-09-15T20:36:19.558+0000)

riven is balanced. you play Shyvana, a resourceless champ and you're talking shit? lawl.

The difference is their kits. Shyvanna doesn't have AOE stun, a shield, ability to jump walls every few seconds, a ranged execute and so on. She's got clear weaknesses such as being easily kited, and Shyvanna isn't a champion the surfs and elo booster take all the time to carry games....

(But I'm guessing you know all that already) and are trolling...

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