Why do all the Riven guides say to max E before W?

AquariusGine·May 18, 2017·1 votes·1,568 views

I've started maxing W before E and it feels so much better. It's easier to waveclear, splitpush and it increases the burst potential. Even BoxBox maxes W before E.

And honestly, in my experience the extra mobility/ shield had no meaningful impact whatsoever. Maxing W before E is like getting an extra auto -attack off which is HUGE..

So why do all the Riven guides go with E before W? Can somebody with a lot of experience explain? I'm just a curious gold player.

5 Comments

Power Of SyndraMay 18, 20171 votes

Maxing E is just "saver" I guess. If you are rly rly good with Riven, sure go for maxing W second and then E. :)

I prefer maxing E second after Q, because I am a horrible Riven player.

Darth WestMay 18, 20171 votes

It's a safe start but once you become really good at Riven you have no need to follow the Guide and you can pick what you want to max first personally.

It all depends on the play style you're going for.

Eternal TormentMay 18, 20171 votes

Possibly because the midgame area is where riven struggles the strongest. She is this champions who snowballs early, and hard dives late. but in midgame she is the most passive out of all her areas, and because of that she gets dicked on because more than half of leagues champions are rather strong in midgame due to scalings. She probably Needs the E max as a second Skill so she can have hopes of surviving midgame and transcend into late without losing any Advantages gained from the early. a riven that doesnt make it into lategame with hypercarry stats is very often the cause of a lost teamfight, that is my personal experience, i can be wrong in it, god i could be talking nonsense if we would ask a riven main's perspective, but i strongly assume that to be the case.

Sir FuzziMay 18, 20171 votes

Safety.

Your way, W first, would do you very little good if you were facing some mounting lane pressure or an opponent who could put you on the ropes. The greater shield, however, can sop up more burst and leave Riven more time to faceroll or whatever it is Riven does when she starts shrieking like a banshee and flailing all over the place. It might depend on your opponent more, too, you might not need shield as much as stun against sustained damage.

TEA Nietzsche May 18, 20171 votes

And honestly, in my experience the extra mobility/ shield had no meaningful impact whatsoever. Maxing W before E is like getting an extra auto -attack off which is HUGE..

Well, in my experience that extra mobility/shield is HUGE. Honestly, if I had to choose between trading without W up or trading without E up I'd practically always go for E. The only real upside to W is burst and seeing how Riven nowadays rushes DD you don't really want burst (although it was viable back when she built full lethality). Her E works super well with DD and longer extended fights so I'd always go for that.

No idea what BoxBox does and whether it is because he thinks it's optimal or because he flashes into the enemy team for the pentakill all the time, but I'd say that he is more of an exception. Aside from very specific matchups most Riven players go for R>Q>E>W max, including Adrian and Viper.