As the title suggests, when i'm beat by a Renekton/Darius/Gangplank i know it was because of my poor positioning. This applies to almost every top laner to me, but how do I play against Riven? Once again, not QQ, I genuinely want to know if there is a strategy because she's the only top laner that consistently thrashes me.
In general, it feels like a game of cat and mouse, trying to bait Rivens CD's early then trying to trade while they're down. Personally, I tend to have better luck with the tank class in general against her, since tanks tend to have respectable trading potential, coupled with some CC and healing early. Easiest way to lose lane is to not respect Rivens damage, or try to match her all-in.
A lot goes down to playstyle, but typically playing defensively works better in my opinion. At worst, try to get some jungle pressure. In general thou, Riven players are forced to play aggressively, just try to abuse the mistakes they make.
As the title suggests, when i'm beat by a Renekton/Darius/Gangplank i know it was because of my poor positioning. This applies to almost every top laner to me, but how do I play against Riven? Once again, not QQ, I genuinely want to know if there is a strategy because she's the only top laner that consistently thrashes me.
You play Riven matchup like Renekton's. You can trade when her cooldowns are down (she has fairly high cooldowns early on). What makes this matchup easier is the fact that Riven has no sustain whatsoever until she gets vampiric scepter or hydra. Also, Riven naturally pushes her lane when she goes for the trade since all of her abilities deal AoE damage. Take advantage from that and freeze ur lane if you can and call jungler if you really need any help. Don't forget that Riven is actually squishy and minion damage really hurts her early on if she goes aggressive on the wrong time.
EDIT: also Riven's level 6 is one of the strongest things in the game, so calm your tits and back off if she is about to hit level 6, go back and buy some armor and teleport back if needed.
Honestly, if I see the enemy lock in riven and I'm top and haven't chosen my champion, I lock in quinn. If riven goes to engage on me, as previous poster said, she has to waste a few Q's to get to me. After her second Q, I vault. She then cant hit me iwth any Q's and got some damage taken. Just poke her through minions, vault away and then valor for demacia!
You really want to win? Then play garen. All you have to do is use your q once she try's to do her 3 jump shit and you win. A very good riven player won't engage or even try trading with you if your q is up which leads to a farm lane which means you win.
Here's how it goes. Cloth armor and 4 pots. Start q and have ignite. DO NOT use q on minions. Anytime she try's coming in on you then q here. At level 3 you can destroy her or lose instantly. If your going in counter her 3 jump with q, w then e for the win. Back off, because you probably won't kill her the first engage, heal up with your passive and then zone her from the CS.
Sit behind your minions so when she goes for the throat (the kill) she needs to wade through them, when she deals damage to you she gets hurt by them and if you lock her down she is useless (combo oriented). Hope that helps, also jglers are likely looking to gank her a lot to snowball her so make sure you ward whenever it is up :3
It's very difficult. She has the ability to instantly jump on you and unload her kit every 10 or so seconds, and the CC makes it very difficult to fight back.
The most reliable way to beat riven is to start 
and build an armor item before you start building damage, you really can't fight her early game.
Riven has low base health, so often one of the most important things is just to stand in your own creeps so that when Riven hits you she takes damage from them, after that its just about hitting her while her shield is down, it only lasts a second or 2 so its okay to wait to use your abilites until after she uses it.
Step by step for you mate =)
Champion select: 
(yes annie can play any lane)
If played safe, these will come out on top. Also, if its Riven top build full AD garen- it pays off far more.
Gameplay: Let riven push, overextending will result in heavy and possibly fatal damage. The trick is to freeze lane in front of your tower (not under it) so that your jungler can consistently gank AND your minions are sitting under tower range making it so that she has to take damage to get cs. This takes practice, and with new reworked Fiora I too am having some difficulty properly freezing lane. If you can't freeze lane, let Riven engage you in your wave and then cc her within it so that she takes hefty damage from minions and you. The only one who does not care worth a @#$@ about pushing is Kayle. She autopushes and will inflict damage on Riven, meanwhile Irelia will full counter her so Irelia can just freeze in lane and outrade consistently (mild sidetrack). Now that laning is over (one or another tower is taken, contesting dragon) get with your team. If you managed to freeze your minion wave well, you should have a high cs lead on Riven and if she didn't manage to roam successfully she should have pretty minimal damage. Use your cc (or mega damage vlad/yorick can just push all day) to lockdown the most fed player on the enemy team-if Riven did get fed somehow, your job now is to make sure that if she comes looking to engage that you will beat the stuffing out of her before she can hit your team.** Basically you want to send a message- you are riven's opponent, you are the threat, she needs to focus on you.**
Itemwise: Thornmail (before you hate) hurts her for using her passive and is also the most gold efficient armor item. If you are still having trouble grab Frozen Heart- Omen will do absolutely nothing against Riven because she uses her spells not move speed. Never build full tank, always build at least one damage item. Item's vary from champ to champ of course, but for the majority of the ones I listed these work.
Personal Suggestion: Take Annie, Garen, or Cho'gath top. Annie can farm safely and punish the @#$@ out of Riven for overextending, she'd my go to if I were you. Second place is Garen because he has a silence, and a silenced riven is a dead one- also building full ad Garen means you will HEAVILY outrade her every time you manage to silence and then sit in the minion wave. Cho'gath is equally powerful as annie, but its on the note of his sustain- killing minions heals him, and he has an aoe silence/knockup which will make Riven question the idea of coming into your domain.
Hope I helped =) Any questions feel free to ask, I tried to generalize this a bit.
these are the kind of Riven threads i like to see
First, jungle pressure beats everyone, esp. someone like Riven who has to use her damage spells to escape. If she make it so that she has to hold on to her spells in case she gets ganked, you've won the lane. Second, Irelia is cancer for Riven. Trynd is pretty cancer for Riven. Darius, Renekton and Garen all shit on Riven pretty well. If all else fails, you can always just play Zed....Riven just can't win. If she goes aggressive, you can back out with shadow and poke as she retreats. If she just farms, you can just keeping throwing your Qs at her. After 6, dodge her third Q or W, or even better, her Wind Slash, with your ult, and throw your spells out as you kite her around.
It varies with champs.
If you've a strong early game 
then focus on trading or poking when her shield is down. If she tries to engage, lengthen the engage until her shield fades, most bruisers have more innate sustain than Riven and can out trade her in the long trades.
If you've a less powerful early game 
then freeze just outside of your tower range and see if your jungler can set up camp. If the two of you can pull off an early kill, you may be able to get the Riven to go on tilt, at that point, you can easily snowball off her.
I usually just ask my team to ban her, or ban her myself. That's the only real way to beat an average to good Riven.
Play safe, build armor, play champs that can farm well undertower I.E Irelia, Jax, garen, renekton ETC. If a Riven Q's at you in lane chances are she will hit minions which will force the wave to push toward you. If you can freeze the lane near your turret there is not much she can do in terms of killing you. Wait for the jungle to gank and then destroy her. First buy Armor unless you are confident that you can straight out mechanically beat her. If all goes well she might pick up 1 kill but thats whatever. As long as she doesnt leave lane with 3 kills you should be fine.
