I'm talking about when the enemy team has a Riven main, and you just think, 'I can't be bothered to try to outplay this person.'
Thanks for the suggestions and on how to play said champions, very helpful.
is my go to pick whenever I have to face a Riven. You outscale her, and counter strike is enough to shut down her combo if she tries to go aggressive on you. You can still lose if the Riven is far better at her champ than you are at Jax, but it's still a very favorable matchup imo.
It'd be impossible to know the skill level of the enemy Riven in champ select, but champions who can easily handle Riven are
She has very little room to outplay most of these, though it is possible.
Pantheon lol. You literally just kill her if she tries to go near you. But he does that to everyone.
I literally play Hecarim only. I decided to main Hecarim precisely because when I first started league, it was Riven free week and every game was a Riven player in the Top lane facerolling QWER and wrecking me 100-0 when I used my previous main Yasuo. I wanted a champ that could shit all over Riven and I settled on Hecarim.
I hate Riven so much that I honestly dedicated huge amounts of my time to specifically learn the Hecarim vs Riven matchup. Watching vids of top Riven players (like BoxBox) vs Hecarim.
I'm only Silver 3 atm having just finished my placements but thats cuz I literally can only play Hecarim and as he is FoTM atm he is banned too -ften, and I'm bronze V with all other champs except maybe Yasuo and Irelia, so that I just stopped playing ranked after my placements. But I definitely think I know the Hecarim vs Riven matchup very well and have laned vs Plat and Diamond Rivens and wrecked them before.
Why is Hecarim good vs Riven?
Primarily because he is one of the few champions who not only outtrade Riven in a drawn out fight, but more importantly, he can fatally punish Riven's mistakes. Riven is used to being able escape easily after engaging and as a result she will often just go HAM, but she cannot escape easily from hecarim if she makes a mistake.
Hecarim also doesn't allow her to play defensively as the range on his Q allows him to deal damage to her for free unless she uses her abilties, so you can force her to play aggressively (not that you need to force a Riven to play aggressively anyway...)
It does take a bit of practise to beat a Riven main, especially one who knows the matchup well since Riven is so damn broken she can still 100-0 Hecarim if he misplays. She can kill you if you screw up, especially levels 1-3 when you are both roughly equal in strength unless she runs ignite, in which case you want to play more careful, but as soon as you reach level 4 you will beat her in a straight up full HP fight if she doesn't have ignite. The longer the match goes without her killing you, the more difficult it becomes for her and by level 5 as long as you didn't die to her she the scales tip heavily in your favour. When she gets her ulti she can be dangerous and you want to GTFO the instant she tries to use it or you are low enough to get one shot by it.
I found a replay of me vs a Season 4 platinum Riven main, (he is Gold V this season) . I'm just a mere Silver III and only being playing league for about 3 months but you can see I able to hold my own vs a higher ranked and much more experienced player quite easily. I've laned vs Diamond players as Hecarim and can easily hold my own against them.
TL;DR for those not interested in watching my scrubby low ELO replay:
1) Start Cloth5 or flask3. I used to go Cloth5 vs Riven and I often do if she runs ignite as she is going to look to all in you early and the extra armor helps, but now I pretty much go flask3 always.
2) Lvls 1-3. Try to bait her Q out by pretending you are going to run up and rampage her in her face then backing away at the last second. If she doesn't fall for the bait then just rampage her in her face until she gets pissed off and starts to retaliate with Q then you run away. You can beat her at lvls 1-3 if she doesn't have ignite, but its not worth the risk. Why risk dying in a 50-50 match up when you can just wait 2 more minutes and just totally wreck her. Just stand in the middle of your minion wave and if she tries to come at you, just hold your ground, hit W and then spam Q. The damage she takes from minions not only lowers her hp but heals you as well, guaranteeing that you win the trades. But it is best to just avoid Riven for now.
3) Level 4. This is where you start to wreck Riven. Once you have 2 ranks in your Q, 1 in your W and E, not only can you outtrade and outsustain Riven but you can also chase her and kill her. It is important to try and conserve mana and play a bit cautious, and make sure you don't immediately give up the advantage you know have. Stay out of range of her dash unless you have your Q stacks up or you are standing in a large minion wave. This is the point where you can tell if the enemy Riven doesn't know how to play vs Hecarim. If they continue to play recklessly aggressive (like all Riven players do) then it shows that they do not realise Hecarim is now stronger and can 1v1 her. The don't know the might of the HECARIM LVL 4 POWERSPIKE (tm)! You can go for the kill here, but I often prefer to patiently wittle her HP down and pretending I'm still scared of her until...
4) ...Level 5. This is when you get the 3'rd rank in your Q. This is point in the matchup where Hecarim is far stronger than Riven and there is virtually no way for you to lose a fight 1v1 against her unless you completely screw up and even then you can still escape. This is when you ideally want to go for the kill. If the Riven player is still playing overly aggressive, once you get used to Hecarim you will pretty much kill her 100% of the time here. I usually drop a ward as soon as I reach lvl 5 so that I know the jungler isn't nearby so that I know I can safely duel her without interruption as I want to fight her now.
**5) Level 6+. **Rush Ninja-Homies ASAP. Always upgrade your Trinket ASAP. You still are a huge threat to her here, even if you died pre-6, Riven cannot get complacent vs Hecarim, but neither can you vs her. Always stay on as full HP as possible so she cannot 100-0 you before you can respond or escape. If she goes for a trade and you suspect she is trying to all in you, don't blow your ultimate on her, it is still possible for her to 100-0 you before you can 100-0 her as long as she has her ulti up. You want to E away once you get below 50% hp and heal back up either using flasks and pots or recall and homie-guard run back to lane. Now that she is on low hp and you are on almost full hp with your ulti you can burst her down and kill her before she can 100-0 you. If she starts the engage by coming at you with her ulti on, then just run away until its over, don't get cocky and fight her. Always remember, Riven is a broken champion and her damage output is insane even if behind.
I'm not the best Hecarim player obviously, but I do believe this can be very helpful if you intend to play Hecarim to counter Riven as it shows what it is like to play vs Riven mains at the Bronze-Plat ELO.
As always I'm sure everyone will say omg everyone in the game is bad including me. But hell I know that, I mess up badly early game and waste my summoners but still was able to win the lane easily. My Hec vs Riven matchup is much better since that replay, but at any rate I do know how to crush Riven players who are higher ELO than me and thats what this thread is about :)
The Riven player in the replay clearly knew the matchup vs Hecarim quite well because he was extremely aggressive from levels 1-3, but made sure to not get to get involved in long sustained trades which is where Riven loses hard. Also once I reach level 4 you can see he immediately becomes extremely passive, which I don't believe is a coincidence, he clearly knew about the HECARIM LVL 4 POWERSPIKE (TM).
Anyway I hope this helps. Here is the replay as promised, no need to watch the whole thing, its your typical low ELO game, just watch the laning phase vs Riven.
As for Runes I just run MS Quints, Armor Pen, Marks can be scaling HP or scaling Armor and glyphs I usually get a mix of magic resist and CDR per level. I'm too poor to afford Tier 3 MS quints so I just use Tier 2 MS quints lol.
I run 21-6-3 because I love move speed a lot but 21-9 is probably best. Here is the replay, I think you can open it in the program "Lol Summoner Information" (LSI) Thats what I used to save my replays. I really do think the replay shows how to beat low ELO Riven mains as hecarim really well. If anyone knows how to get Lol Replays onto youtube I might add it there too as that is more convenient probably.
One of these days I will write a Hecarim guide once I get my skill up to an acceptable level.
One key tip, have a button for "Target Champions only" Nothing is more annoying than charging at an enemy with E in a minion wave and hiting a minion with the charge. I bind Space Bar for that.
Hecarim vs Riven Main Link Every time a Riven main gets destroyed in lane, it makes me happy. This turned out to be extremely long but such is my dedication to seeing Riven players get wrecked after being tormented by them when I first started playing, the scars have still not healed!
Happy Riven Hunting! I eagerly await the next Riven free week...
I typically pick against Riven. You can harass her from a distance, your shield helps mitigate her damage and you can stun her and back away if she engages at a time that's inconvenient for you.
and both destroy Riven in lane if you can stay at a distance, which they both can do fairly well.
Another option is a tanky champion with sustain
- Riven can't do anything without her abilities
- See #1
- Riven likes short duels, getting in and getting out. Darius likes it when people come to him, and he makes it VERY hard to get out. - Requires some experience. With some planning, you can easily trap her in Nevermove while she's trying to Q, and then you can unload from there. Also, she basically can't kill you when you hit 6.
- His only counter is himself. You're not going to be doing much late game, but with a little practice with Yorick, you're almost never going to lose the laning phase either.
Fiora.
Take exhaust/ignite, only all-in her when the enemy jungler is visible elsewhere.
You will win building the same items she does, but you will need an interim plan to deal with tanks after getting Hydra.
Riven depends on weaving autoattacks on you in between her skills, Riposte shuts that down hard. Missing just one of those autoattacks in the first all-in puts the fight squarely in your favor, you just have to bring enough burst to seal the kill and save your second Q for after your ult.
Maxing W first gives you a free pickaxe in the skill at level 5, a free longsword at level 1, and enough damage to negate her E early on assuming you don't just engage her after she's got the shield on CD.
Alistar could work. Any time she tries to go all in, you just headbutt her away. Or if she tries to dive you, knock her up and send her flying towards your tower.
I play Shen into Riven all the time. He can start Cloth 5, and rush Thormail, that is a core item anyway. Just farm until thornmail then you can force fights with E. Just don't die pre thornmail or it will be a lot harder. After I buy Sunfire and just laugh at her face and force her to fight me and kill herself.
I use Darius and hit and run tactics. Build armor, mana and grab a few potions (or just a crystalline flask). Level up Q first, and get close enough to nick Riven with the outer ring (obviously because it deals more damage). Try and goad her into tower diving, then keep her under the spotlight with his E.
You would be better off learning how to play against her as one of the few champions you play well. Just picking up a counter doesn't work very well. At least, it doesn't at my rank...
I found Garen to be fun to play against riven.
Quinn
Vayne, Darius, Renekton, Irelia... You'll need to be good with any of said champions to win though, since the Riven is a Riven main.
Renekton will make her life a living hell for the first 20 minutes. Renekton is an easy champion to play into riven.
riven is 100% reliant on abilities and garen will pretty much Q her and she'll have to basically afk for 2 seconds while you tear in to her with E.
if you break even on malphite and rush sunfire or frozen heart you can like, literally just stand still and autoattack while she combos on you and you'll still out trade her.
Proxy
. Ignore everything and troll to victory.
