How can Riven mains make her look like a no skill champion, but when I play her I feed?

Taelann·10/25/2015, 1:10:03 AM·9 votes·1,471 views

I've always thought that Riven was a complete faceroll champion. She has insane damage, mobility that makes her almost impossible to gank, and a shield that scales with AD and is also a dash. So I bought her and played 7 team builder games with her. I fed in almost every game. Either I'm a complete moron who should have been aborted, I just got screwed by having Teemo or Garen as my lane opponent in 4 of those games, or she's not as easy as I thought she was. At this point I honestly don't know which is the right answer.

28 Comments

Baseball3b10/25/2015, 5:25:28 AM9 votes

Despite what a lot of people say, she has a decent skill floor and one of the highest skill caps in the game. The thing I love about Riven is that she teaches you how to trade effectively in lane -- you can't get away with generally unnoticeable mistakes like you can with other champions. (i.e. engaging in the middle of an enemy minion wave, playing around CC cds, knowing your matchup, etc) A lot of this just comes from experience with her.

Granted, Garen's a pretty tough lane for her. If you're just starting to learn her, I'd just max E first, absorb his silences and farm up for teamfights and roam if possible. Once you get the hang of it, you can start trying to bait his abilities, and trip him up with the 4 second Q trick.

You should crap all over teemos in most cases. Just remember to grab a red trinket and don't engage on him if you know there's a shroom there. Once you close the gap, it's game over for him.

Also, learning how to quick combo with her (i.e. pull off the Q-AA-Q-AA-Q-AA roughly 30% faster than normal) gives a big leg up. It can take anywhere from an hour or so to a month or two of practice to get it down. Best thing is just to queue up and practice on the gromp until you get it, then practice it on bots. (using it on moving targets is so much harder)

Akali is SO HOT10/25/2015, 5:50:48 AM7 votes

maybe just MAYBE Riven GASP takes skill despite the retarded G&B circlejerk.

Rikari10/25/2015, 2:08:55 AM5 votes

Riven mains don't say shes easy,Riven's enemies and "counters" make her seem so. Anyone whos tried to duel an experienced Riven player goes Na(Cl) Raging on boards.

Enosetc10/25/2015, 5:29:30 AM4 votes

don't listen to what the majority of the people here say about champions taking "no skill". those are the lamenting of people who refuse to take responsibility for their own improvement and would rather blame kits and champions.

Shadow Gilgamesh10/25/2015, 1:22:52 AM3 votes

Because she does take skill. And it's one that's not all that transferable from other champs as a lot of things.

And it's the "wonderful" ability known as animation canceling, which lets you cut your combo time by multiple seconds, which is why Riven mains have god like trades with her, and can also delete you during an all in.

(The reason she has a reputation as a low skill/no skill champ is that once you learn how to properly animation cancel, it becomes very easy to stomp in lane, then because you stomped lane, you get to be good to great post laning, which there's a lot of validity to)

PrinceOfStorms10/25/2015, 1:13:17 AM2 votes

She has a high skill floor, but a low skill ceiling.

There's an amount of effort that you have to put in to be able to not feed with her, but the difference between a good Riven and a great Riven is minimal, as it depends more on your lane opponent.

BakedLotion10/25/2015, 1:25:42 AM2 votes

How do you feed with a champion that has like 50 dashes and a huge ass shield?

Onimarus10/25/2015, 1:40:08 AM2 votes

Garen is probably her strongest "counter" in that it turns into a skill match-up unless he, for some reason, doesn't take cloth + 5 pots. Teemo is annoying too. However, you only really lose to him if you don't properly utilize the shield/stun whenever you get blinded.

Riven is actually very squishy for a melee AD. Going all-in when you don't have your shield/stun up could potentially kill you.

Hayaishi210/25/2015, 1:53:44 AM2 votes

Don't be fooled, she does takes skill, what dislike is how broken she is. No amount of skill justifies a broken champion.

TyroneWatermelon10/25/2015, 5:56:36 AM2 votes

She is easy,my bronze 1 friend picks her up and win 90% of lane matchups with Her,and my silver 1 friend is the same,except he feels guilty for playing her. I don't play her a lot but the time I did,I can confirm she is a faceroll. The only lane I ever lost is vs panth,because that's literally impossible to lose lane with him. It's just you and your play style

Dunkrius2g10/25/2015, 7:19:06 AM2 votes

You gotta smash ur keyboard until you win. 2nd, dont be too hard on yourself.

The Bíg Ticket10/25/2015, 10:50:46 AM2 votes

She is actually not easy to play, the problem is that the players who master get rewarded way too much and can easily win any lane matchups with her...even vs super strong laning champs like Olaf, Renekton or Pantheon.

Cindikle10/25/2015, 1:25:28 AM1 votes

To do her more "outplay" mechanics, you need a lot of practice with her. But her kit at it's base is very simple and not all too punishing for messing up.

Garen somewhat counts Riven as well. He can E throught his whole combo while reducing his damage taken with W. Q prevents her abilities. And will at some point get to tanky for her to handle alone. He has a lot of tools to handle her. But she overall is a champion that at the highest level, can only outplay herself. So I'm sure she can beat Garen if you know what to do.

Teemo is a bane of top lane. Get a gank early and put him behind. His poison wont break your shield. If he tries to get too close, close the gap, put some damage and walk away till you feel you can get a kill or he stays scared. Freeze the lane with this. Once he starts playing shroom land start making plays in other places of the map. Wave control is also important. If the wave is always moving between towers, it means he can't put shrooms down as safely. They'll be more spread out. Try to get his first or second tower down. Push the lane to his base and leave. If he shows up to push back, you can setup a gank. Or just wait and push back. By then you'll have a shield and some lifesteal to sustain through any accidental shrooms. Another trick is to proxy the wave. Helps avoid traps.

Or you can just join the Riven hate bandwagon. We have french toast.

Matezoide10/25/2015, 9:35:40 PM1 votes

You probably keep diving enemies recklessly when not ahead.

Just have some common sense.

Mael bro10/25/2015, 6:49:15 AM1 votes

Believe it or not, she's actually a hard champ to play. But her basic burst, takes so minimal skill to perform so it may seem that you just got totally outfacerolled.

Reaper Soraka10/25/2015, 6:57:23 AM1 votes

Riven became a little easier for me when I realized I was supposed to try to interrupt my auto attacks animation with q, rather than interrupting my q animation with an auto attack.

I still feed with her though. She's too all-inny for me; I like to play as passive as a Nasus on vacation in the Bahamas.

L Rayquaza10/25/2015, 7:01:38 AM1 votes

I can do the same thing as Gnar , practice buddy, and at some point you can do shit like q mid ult

Lugg10/25/2015, 4:48:51 PM1 votes

Riven is like Yasuo, hard to learn at first, but once you do they are broken as hell.

TurquoiseYoshi10/25/2015, 4:59:23 AM1 votes

It's because she's a little difficult to understand because she's so different to everyone else in the game. There is nobody anywhere near like her, so she's weird to play for the first few times.

facemelter71010/25/2015, 4:00:27 AM1 votes

Your attitude toward a champion and the skill it takes to play them will affect your experience learning that champion in a big way. Good thing you did the right thing and learned in team builder and not ranked. If you think a champion is easy you won't try as hard and won't focus on learning fundamentals and farming because you think it might be an easy win either way.

LaserDeathBlade10/25/2015, 5:46:58 AM1 votes

She takes a different mindset from most champs but I don't think it really makes her hard. Unlike a normal top-laner Riven doesn't really have to 'trade' with other champs, mostly she just hits them and they take it up the butt.

Riven only sucks when the other guy is too tanky to gib but does enough damage to bully her, which is almost nobody