How to play riven against armor?

LunarStrike·Jun 19, 2017·1 votes·982 views

I'm fairly new to riven so I'd love some advice.

I just played against a malphite as riven. his first rush was and by then had 197 armor. My trades felt like aa pokes. Should I have rushed Yoummas instead of cleaver? btw I was ahead by a kill or so at the time.

Also, what do you do as riven in team fights? I always tend to die in teamfights easily

4 Comments

rework trundleJun 19, 20171 votes

I have no idea how to play Riven, but you made the right choice by buying BC. Youmuus gives 20 armor pen (lethality, but let's keep it simple for the math) so he's at 177 armor. Cleaver reduces armor by 4% every stack, stacks 6 times. 4% of 197 is ~8. You'd need to do 3 spells to pen more than Youmuu's. At full stacks, he's at 149 armor (that's also reducing his armor for every source of physical damage he takes, not only from you). Plus, Cleaver gives you 20% cdr which is really important for Riven, compared to the 10% Youmuu's provide. I think the best 1st item is Death's Dance, but I'm no expert.

KnightOfEloHellJun 19, 20171 votes

Alright. I'm a Morde main, but I've played Riven enough times to know how she works.

She can get away with building all AD, but cleaver IS good on her, for CDR, hp cuz shes melee, and armor shred that eventually outscales ghostblade. tho I'd have personally rushed Ghostblade for armor pen and the MS active so you are super mobile even after you used your 3 Q's.

Ghostblade>Dusk blade for MS, super high AD, and armor pen (what good is 40 ad and increasing armor shred vs 60 or 70 AD with flat armor pen and constant mobility bonus?) THAN you go Cleaver as a midgame item or second item. Also, if your enemy has lots of HP, get BotRK for Attack Speed, %hp damage, and Life steal from your high AD high pen build.

On Riven, definitely get Lifesteal, at least some. An Armor Pen, lifestealing, higher mobility Riven sounds terrifying.

I can only play melee champs myself, which is why I'm a Morde one trick, but hopefully this helped you some.

Sustain+high damage+high pen= tanks have no meaning and suddenly are very squishy

Arcus DiabolusJun 19, 20171 votes

You will want to get BC like you did. After that, go for Last whisper and finish into whichever one makes more sense in that game.

Your finished build should look like item 3071 item 3074 item 3036 item 3142 item 3812 and then either item 3072 or item 3147 based on how your fights have been going and your general needs throughout the game against other champions besides the armor stacking top laner.

Calling in your AP mid also helps a ton.

Riven used to be really good at handling armor stacking, but now attack speed champs have it a lot better than her. Right now, Riven is better off understanding that she can't win against everyone. If they start stacking armor, build BC, LW and Lethality, but be aware that your kit is more based around assassination than tank shred and play accordingly.