Why has Riven been buffed?

YumaS2Astral·Nov 24, 2015·11 votes·620 views

She is the last champion I can think that deserves a buff. If I remember correctly, Riot said that they nerfed her HP regen so that she will have to take more risks. For example, she actually has to use her shield correctly, otherwise any poke done to her will stick.

Here are some things that I suppose will happen once those buffs come to live. It's only on PBE as of now, so I can't say that this will actually happen:

Increased HP regen means that her early game will actually be better now. Poking her will be less effective, especially if she actually uses her shield correctly. She already has the option to start Doran's Blade then rush so that she can outlast any poke done to her.

8 Comments

Slamurai JackNov 24, 20156 votes

Because she's complete garbage right now. When a champs winrate goes down 8% in one patch, they need some attention.

3TWarriorNov 24, 20152 votes

and it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that because everyone has to deal with SuperGraves and yasuo(I don't personally mind yasuo unless i'm playing a countered mid)

but how about her win rate went down because people are picking her counter champs now, effectively invalidating her strengths

the health regen is only a minor change, but she didn't really deserve anything just because people picked champs few would touch for multiple seasons: Swain DrMundo Rammus (brand is even only picked now because his high base damages and wave clear/grouping denial combined with the new masteries outweigh most other champs theoretical advantages)(edit: brand is not a counter champ but the fact that unplayed champions are seeing viability and actually winning seems healthier than things have been)

FacerollKatarinaNov 24, 20155 votes

Riven got her ass beat this patch, her win rate tanked, this buff isn't even anything major (and I stopped playing riven awhile ago so im not being biased) See for yourself : http://champion.gg/champion/Riven/Top

IcyPepperNov 24, 20154 votes

That was then, this is now.

Even if we didn't like her before, it's not fair to her to be dumpstered. Too many changes, she was fine before but she isn't fine now.

TikailNov 24, 20151 votes

With the removal of Brutalizer, the increase in price of top tier items and the brutal rise of AA meta, all AD casters took a huge hit and most mages became unviable. Riven was always completely item dependent so the lack of cost efficient armor pen (and the LW shift to bonus armor) hit her hard enough to drop her 39 spots in the win rates to ~44%

The minor buff to her HP regen is to give her some comfort early game because of how quickly the top lane picks not only level up but also snowball. Her early game has always been her weakness and with the relatively high cooldowns on her low level abilities and how easily she can be horribly zoned now prevents her from hoping to catch up let alone pray to break even.

Vicarious117Nov 24, 20151 votes

It's the item changes really. I hate Riven too, she is the definition of bullshit champion, and it seriously irks me when someone tries to ocnvince me she takes any skill at all. Yes, I've tried her, animation cancelling and just remembering to get off her empowered autos in between abilities isn't fucking difficult!

That however is just her kit being overloaded, so without the items to back that kit up she can't really do much. Brutalizer being removed and Ghostblade actually being expensive, on top of the change to Tiamat really hurts her early game, as well as cheap total-armor pen not being available anymore and the rest of her items also being more expensive.

Next to that is the meta shift to a more ADC focused one, so more peel and more backline. It's much harder for Riven, or any champion like her really, to get into a teams backline to kill the carries now, since there's typically more ways to peel her off and cc her on top of the ADCs being far more powerful in general.

So yeah, I loath Riven and would not be upset about her being nerfed to the point that I never have to see that skilless fuck in any game ever again, but I don't expect anything like that to ever happen so I think the buffs are actually needed for her to be viable outside of bronze. Honestly she'll either need more of a buff then what she's getting, or some item changes/additions will need to be made in order to give her and other champs like her the power to be viable again.

ProfDrDeathNov 24, 20151 votes

Brutalizer was a huge crutch for Riven and other champions like her ( Khazix Zed Talon ). The same goes for the old Last Whisper, which used to be the most useful item for general damage increase after Brutalizer + core item on these champions.

As a result, Riven and her peers find themselves in a power trough. That being said, I am not certain how much of this through results from people sticking to old builds that are no longer working and how much comes from build-independent loss of power. http://champion.gg/champion/Riven/Top Both her most common and her most successful builds do not explore much of the changed itemization landscape of the preseason. For example, I expect item 3812 to become a rather useful item for Riven eventually.

With the buff to her regen, Riot aims at restoring a part of her early strength that was taken away by the removal of Brutalizer. Keep in mind, though, that her health regen is only marginally improved with those numbers - it goes from 3.34/11.8 at 1/18 to 5.34/13.8, which still leaves her at the bottom 10 of the health regen values.

Crowe StalkerNov 24, 20151 votes

While I will admit I absolutely despise Riven, I think that before her health regen was somewhere along the lines of like, three per second or something ridiculous and I don't think this buff on the PBE will restore it to it's old Broken status.